AFP: 'Streetwise' South Korea drops Japanese legacy After decades of confusion, South Korea has ditched its traditional address system and adopted one based on named streets and consecutively-numbered buildings. But many residents are less than happy, saying a cultural legacy has been abandoned in ...

I wrote elsewhere on FG last year "I don't recognize any description of Britain which would characterize the country as a woolly-liberal, tolerant society" and was accused of taking the piss. There's always been an undercurrent of violence in Britain which flares up from time to time. I don't think ...

The web of DC is geared toward nolife wapanese collecting dutch wifes, pedo-pornographic action figures and mail ordering pocky to keepitreal... Providing house buying advice in tokyo to this kind of readership is... Maybe even more desperately useless than providing child care or marital advice......

There really weren't any riots in Silvertown. The closest would have been a small affair on the other side of the river in Woolwich or the larger trouble in Lewisham. North of the river, the biggest rucks were much further north in Bethnal Green and Hackney. It sounds like an opportunistic mugging. ...

The Japanese Embassy in London has reported that a Japanese woman in her 30s was assaulted on Monday night in the Silvertown area of East London. A group of youths apparently surrounded the woman and then struck her while also robbing her. She sustained a head injury. Silvertown hasn't been reported...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e43129fd0e8c.png US video streaming company Hulu has announced on its blog plans to launch in Japan later this year. The bad news is that the service will charge a monthly subscription. The statement cites "unfulfilled market need with respect...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e42e65f3b17d.jpg This is 18 year old Ayake Ide. Her father is Japanese and he married an American who came to Japan as a "roller skate dancer". Ayaka was born in a sparsely populated peninsula of Kushima, Miyazaki. Her junior high sc...

Telegraph: Japan's Ryohei Yamanaka banned for two years over drug use despite moustache claims Yamanaka, who has won just one cap at fly-half, tested positive in a random doping check in April during a training camp ahead of the Asian Five Nations tournament, and a follow-up test showed the same re...

Yomiuri: Man 'misused baby hatch to grab inheritance' A 49-year-old man has been charged with pocketing about 60 million yen in insurance money paid to his orphaned nephew, for whom he had been named a legal guardian prior to leaving the infant at a "baby hatch" facility in Kumamoto in 2007. The ma...

2triky wrote:I have a friend who lives near Pimlico Station in London and his washing machine is also in the kitchen.

Most British households have washing machines in the kitchen and it's fairly common in some other European countries.

So far no-one has really persuaded me that Tokyo has that much to offer. I don't think anyone can convince another a place is interesting if they've decided it's boring, any more than you can tell someone food is delicious if they hate it. Nevertheless, you still haven't really given a good indicat...

Japan Times: NPB, clubs want more cash from WBC NPB and nine Japanese baseball clubs on Tuesday demanded in a meeting with Major League Baseball a bigger slice of the revenue as a condition for participation in the next World Baseball Classic in 2013. The NPB has apparently requested that it be all...

The Ministry has announced it will prioritize the installation of platform barriers at station used by over 100,000 travellers a day. Between 2002 and 2009, there were 1,253 incidents of people falling onto the tracks or colliding with trains and 80% took place at 100,000-a-day stations. Shinjuku, S...

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MLA Japan retail sector research (English PDF)

The report concludes that home dining is on the increase and that consumers are more likely to favour imported produce over local offerings compared with before the disaster.

Greji wrote:Mulby, was there something in the news a while back about a bunch of chinpera's jumping on some angels in/or around Roppongi? It got played down pretty quick as I remember....

Didn't hear about that but I'll have a looksie.

So Tower and Disk Union are the only two chains remaining? Lawson took over HMV and Tsutaya still has a large share of the retail market, such as it still exists. Shinseido also has a nationwide presence. I mentioned in other threads that the retail price maintenance system has extended the life of...

Yomiuri: More funds for female athletes - Govt likely to double subsidies after Nadeshiko soccer victory The government is likely to double the funding for programs to nurture top women athletes in the wake of Japan's victory in the Women's World Cup soccer tournament...Financial support for women ...

Frog in a Well is frustrated by the interview.

The Japan Civil Liberties Union presented a formal letter (Japanese PDF) to Fukui City pointing out that their language restrictions constitute a breach of human rights.

Korea was hugely into J drama before they started pumping out their own. The formula is exactly the same. Not really. After the war, South Korea banned all Japanese "cultural imports" - including films, TV & music - until partially lifting it in 1998. CDs and DVDs have only been fully legally avail...

A major reason for Korean shows is because they are cheap. The stations can buy them in for less than it costs to commission a show themselves. With falling viewer numbers, that's a handy option to have when you want to keep a tighter control of budgets.

It's Guardian Angels Week in Shibuya