Guy ran a test to see which network performed better with the iPhone on a circuit of the Yamanote line. Softbank lost heavily to au in this experiment (Japanese)

[floatl] http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f290308175bc.jpg [/floatl] Mainichi: Writer talks of 'underground reality' of Japan's foreigners in new book The myth that Japan is a homogenous society lost its veracity long ago. With the growth of globalization, the sight of foreign...

[YT]0pVBi4WKNUM[/YT] News report of the Kyoto incident and discovery of the abandoned taxi. Police have apprehended a foreigner suspected of hijacking a taxi in Kyoto. The man is alleged to have attacked a taxi driver outside Kyoto Station, asking for money. He then ran and hijacked a second taxi, e...

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Little known outside his homeland, Billy T James was a top comedian in New Zealand and the subject of a recent documentary.

Yomiuri: Students - English useful, but not for me Seventy percent of middle school students think English ability would be useful for obtaining a job in the future, but only 11 percent want to get a job that requires English, according to an education ministry institute survey...Eighty-five percen...

Keiko Kishi in Paris, wearing a Mondrian-inspired kimono.

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f24b86d19833.jpg OC: Popular YouTube Chef Seriously Injured ​If Cooking With Dog isn't the most popular cooking channel on YouTube, it is certainly the most beloved. The series of cooking shorts that details the step-by-step of creating ...

The Labour Ministry has announced that businesses employed 686,246 foreign worker numbers as of October 2011, a rise of 5.6% from the same period last year. A total of 116,561 busineses reported employment of foreign workers, which is 7.2% up from last year. By nationality, Chinese were by far the l...

Students of Kwansei Gakuin University in Nishinomiya, Hyogo prefecture, have been causing problems for a local McDonalds. They tend to occupy tables for hours at end, often doing revision ahead of exams. Some even appear to being food and drink in from outside. The manager contacted the university t...

...Translated: It means that all investigation, testimony and findings of the foreign court (where the divorce/offense actually occurred) don't mean shit in Japan. We'll decide it the unique Japanese way........ :cool: What..what...you mean the Yomiuri isn't being serious when they say this: It wil...

I like Charlie Brooker but my heart sank when he went into the toilet schtick.

Guardian: Green Kit Kats, toilets that lift the seat themselves, helpful strangers – Japan feels like another planet I'm currently on another planet, namely Japan, which for the average westerner is an experience tantamount to recovering from a serious head injury, in that while the world aro...

ClDDH4JP3h0 Japanese blogger Zarutoro has [url=zarutoro.livedoor.biz/archives/51736567.html]a short piece[/url] on the killing of the Nepalese man in Osaka. Some people are surprised that video footage showed he appeared to make no attempt to defend himself. News reports are pointing out that an in...

Ahead of this year's caregivers exam, the Nikkei has a piece (Japanese) suggesting the government rethinks the policy of sending home those who can't pass it. While nursing candidates get a chance to take their exam every year for three years, caregivers effectively get only one chance because they ...

Yomiuri: Don't rush to put out flames during quake If you live in an apartment on a high floor, it's safer to first take cover during a strong earthquake than to immediately extinguish a gas stove or kerosene heater, according to a survey by the Tokyo Fire Department. The survey found that furnitur...

Here's a link to the 2012 prize winners (Japanese)

The overall prize went to a set of plates in the shape of fans. It's the first picture in that link.

That didn't last long. A year on, she's announced she's getting divorced. She married in America and has filed papers there. She says that, since the earthquake, she no longer wants to live away from Japan.

If you don't care for Spike Japan's aggressive tone, here's a more measured response to Fingleton.

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f141a872590c.jpg Prime Minster Noda is sporting an eyepatch. Questioned by the press pack, he says he bumped into something at his official residence while walking around in the dark. He had been at a drinks party with finance leaders that eve...

Kayo acted as MC at the first LGBT coming-of-age ceremony held yesterday.

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is one of the foundations of quantum mechanics. In simple terms, it says that we can't simultaneously know the value of two different properties of a particle because measuring one distorts the reading for the other. The wikipedia link above will shed more light o...

There have been a few counters to Fingleton but the best so far is on Spike Japan.

It looks into the random data points which Fingleton tries to use as growth proxies and find them to be either inaccurate or unrelated to growth.

Here are more recollections of Japan from a musician of a different genre: Steve Adler, former drummer with Guns N' Roses: "...I go the impression they just worshipped blonds over there [He's blond] ...When I returned to my room...I discovered all my clothes had been folded so neatly, so perfectly, ...

The Sankei has a piece on how Japanese graduates are continuing to face strong competition from overseas graduates (meaning foreigners who have studied in Japan) in the domestic job market. Panasonic, Dainippon Screen and Sanrio are specifically mentioned as companies who want to employ larger numbe...

New Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa has announced he is prepared to recommence executions. Previous ministers have refused to sign orders since July 2010 which had led to speculation that Japan might be moving towards abolition. Ogawa says he does not oppose capital punishment and, though he does not ...

Police in Osaka are searching for a man who assaulted a woman and stole her boots. The 27 year old woman was walking home at 11:30pm on Friday night, when a man dressed in black wrestled her to the ground, grabbed her legs, and stripped her of her boots. She also had a handbag but the man made no at...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794f116df405c29.jpg Shogi software programs may be getting stronger. Shogi has a higher number of potential moves than chess, and the feature where pieces can be returned to the board adds another level of strategic complexity for a program to ha...

I have said this many times before that Japan, despite 20 years of poor economic growth, is still much better (economically) than many western country, including mine. If Fingleton just limited himself to saying that Japan is faring much better than people overseas might imagine, given the way the ...

I'm very happy to counter excessive claims about Japan's demise but Fingleton has been unconvincing for some time now. I must admit, I hadn't heard before his claim that Japan isn't worried about low population growth because it is really a rational response to concerns over food security. That's so...