All getting quite heated in Britain. Steve Coogan losing his rag with the tabloids during BBC's "Newsnight".

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I don't know whether the yakuza really has any leverage with someone like BNF. He has no public reputation to protect and yet he is sufficiently high profile that any attempt to strongarm him would be taken seriously by the authorities. He has no debts to exploit and his two properties are in Akihab...

The government has provided financial assistance of around 125,000 yen to overseas students affected by the earthquake and tsunami as part of the overall compensation package. However, one Taiwanese undergraduate student at Sakushin Gakuin University complained on Facebook that she was alone at her ...

He's done it again.

This time, he's put down 17 billion yen, in full cash payment, for Akiba Culture Zone, which is the old Laox building across the street from the station.



Source (Japanese)

[floatl] http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/97947f397b027f1c.gif [/floatl]Second-hand giant Book Off has announced same store sales in June fell 6.9% compared with a year earlier. A bit less than May's 7.1% fall but that's now the 9th consecutive month of declines. Book sales are ho...

The Okinawa Times reports (Japanese) that the families of two boys involved in robbing a 57 year old taxi driver have reached an out-of-court settlement and paid compensation. Interestingly, there were actually three boys involved in the incident but the third left for the US and his family were no...

Armani says his new Paris collection is "an homage to Japan"

NYT: Armani's Homage

He's suggesting the Japan Times starts a Dead Gaijins page.

If it doesn't sound too macabre or sinister, I'd be quiet happy to see some more obituaries in the JT. It's often one of the most interesting features of British newspapers where some of the writers have turned it into a minor art form.

I think that if he had been arrested right off the bat and been apologetic he would've spent less than 5 years behind bars. However, I'm not sure how the Japanese courts will treat him since he was on the lam for so long. Anyone know how that tends to affect a criminal case in Japan? Difficult to s...

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It's still the 4th July in the States.

kT8g4Dmmxmo BBC: Japan finds rare earths in Pacific seabed Japanese researchers say they have discovered vast deposits of rare earth minerals, used in many hi-tech appliances, in the seabed. The geologists estimate that there are about a 100bn tons of the rare elements in the mud of the Pacific Oce...

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A shinkansen was brought to a halt today when a snake was found on a seat by a conductor. I thought there might be a "Snakes on a Train" screenplay in this until Coligny pointed out that film has already been made . James Hadfield on Twitter then brought up the samurai vs ninja scene in "The Hunted"...

chokonen888 wrote:SDH, he kicked the guy in the balls from behind...

Where did you see that reported?

[floatr] http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e10d2e36c406.jpg [/floatr] Yomiuri: Did animals give quake warning? People in areas affected by the March 11 earthquake have reported witnessing unusual behavior by wild animals shortly before the magnitude-9 temblor hit, stories that ...

I was just reading Eric Clapton's autobiography and he describes meeting his current wife, Melia McEnery in 1998. She's half-Korean and Clapton says she used to go to parties with a best friend called Satsuki. It did make me wonder whether that might have been Satsuki Mitchell. McEnery was 22 in 199...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e10938439c66.jpg The family have arrived in Japan for Ichihashi's first court appearance. The father, William, said they have come to see justice and thought it would be best not to say anything further ahead of the trial. Under the system all...

The Health Ministry has accepted an offer of help from the Philippines. Three doctors have arrived in the tsunami-hit areas to provide counselling and health checks for Filipino victims of the disaster. There are some 1,900 Filipino residents of Miyagi and Iwate, including a number of women who have...

The Ministry of Education is proposing to employ 600 foreigners as full-time teachers within 5 years, as a means to improve language teaching in schools nationwide. Currently, foreign teachers generally serve as assistants and the Nikkei says only about a dozen foreigners have regular teaching staff...

Sanrio came up with a special design for her.

Level3 wrote:The J prosecutor...

It was a civil suit, not a criminal prosecution. There was no prosecutor.

Tomomi Itano of AKB48 appeared at a PR event alongside several top models. The resulting pictures are being described on the web as akin to a public execution.

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e09bc0770c57.jpg In 2004, a pupil at an elementary school in Ehime prefecture lined up a free kick and sent the ball sailing over the school gates. The ball carried over into the adjoining road and knocked an 80 year old man off his motorbike....

The new report is out. Entry for Japan on page 205. No change in the country's Tier 2 rating.

The entry adds concerns about Japan's trainee system but not enough to warrant being put on the Watch List.

I'm disgusted the Health Ministry has yet to pronounce on whether this urine is safe to drink.

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/979491ea80fd6e78.jpg Daily Mail: 007 The spy who wed me? Rings fuel speculation Bond star Daniel Craig and his girlfriend are secretly married They didn't secretly marry. They split up last year and now it seems Daniel Craig won't be qualifying fo...

Mainichi: 18 tax offices in 4 central Japan prefectures kept files on foreigners Eighteen tax offices in four central Japan prefectures kept files on foreign residents, including their nationalities and alien registration numbers, the Mainichi learned on June 24. The Nagoya Regional Taxation Bureau...