Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Sony Pictures Entertainment revealed its tie-in film posters its upcoming action comedy film Pixels. The film will feature the video game franchises Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Galaga, Frogger, Q*bert, and Space Invaders. Several video game companies and license-holders — including Atari, Konami, Bandai Namco Games, Nintendo, Columbia Pictures Industries, Taito, and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment — are collaborating with Sony Pictures on the film.
Just the other day, we brought you news of HACOSTADIUM, a photography studio equipped with over 40 backdrops to create all of your dream cosplay scenarios. But let’s take one step back now–just where are you supposed to design those fabulous costumes in the first place?
Introducing CosBox (コスバコ), a rentable room outfitted with all of your costume-making needs. It just opened this month in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, and its managers are offering some serious opening month deals. Whether you’re a diehard cosplay fanatic or are just breaking into the hobby, CosBox may be the perfect place to prepare for your next big convention!
With just two weeks to go until the end of the year, people across Japan are scrambling to finish up writing their New Year’s Cards, or nengajo, as they’re called in Japanese. While traditions have softened and it’s becoming a bit more acceptable to send tidings by email, many still choose to send physical cards, since receiving personal mail is something of a rare treat these days.
That means most people need to make a trip to the post office to pick up some stamps, and Japan Post is happy to oblige with special New Year’s varieties. And though the ones for the upcoming Chinese zodiac animal are undeniably cute, the designs that really caught our attention were the sushi and tempura stamps.
Mouth agape, eyes rolled back, head bobbing – when home is an hour or more away and work continues late into the night, the only place for many Japanese office workers to lay their weary head is against a train car window. This phenomenon is not unique to Japan, but the combination of overwork and limited affordable housing in big cities like Tokyo give rise to crowds of sleepy commuters just trying to get to their futon. If you have never witness the varied sleeping positions of Japan’s overworked commuters, take a look at the following video created by real estate website HOME’S.
According to the Global Entrepreneur Development Index (GEDI) that measures favorable conditions for women entrepreneurs, the US and Australia are ranked first and second respectively, while Japan places fifteenth, just behind Peru. Yet Japan fulfills many of the requirements to create a successful female entrepreneurial environment such as education, skills and access to capital.
In addition, women in Japan can overcome obstacles such as low salaries, long work hours and scant child-rearing options by owning their own businesses and calling the shots. So, what’s holding Japanese women back? It turns out that a large part of it may be Japanese women themselves.
As we recently reported, McDonald’s has made the crushing decision to end the sale of its medium and large size fries. The controversial decision was made due to fears of a potato shortage, meaning that the days of gleefully ordering obnoxiously large amounts of fries with reckless abandon are now well and truly over. The potato cull prompted several Twitter users to head to McDonald’s for one last order of M and L size greasy, salty fries, in order to document their “last meal” for posterity.
In an effort to make facilities foreigner-friendly or simply to enhance the style of an advertisement Asian governments and businesses will often add English translations. However, many don’t feel it’s worth the effort to do a proper translation and simply rely on automatic ones. The results are often sure to put a smile on the face of English speakers in the rest of the world.
Now, Xi’an North Station has put another feather in the cap of gloriously wrong translations…and this time they called it macaroni.
Recently, Japanese media has coined a new term: “pro girlfriend.” While it might sound like a freshly-minted euphemism for women working for Japan’s highly specialized titillation/borderline prostitution providers, it’s actually pretty benign, as pro girlfriends are women who date or marry men from the professional entertainment or sports worlds, without being part of those industries themselves.
One reason they’ve captured the imaginations of celebrity-watchers is because of their ability to turn the heads of high-profile eligible bachelors, such as actors Hidetoshi Niishijima, Tetsuji Tamayama, Ryuta Sato, all of whom recently married their pro girlfriends. Just as compelling a question, though, is how pro girlfriends manage to meet their famous beaus?
There’s a whole side of anime fandom dedicated to pairing their favorite characters together in romantic relationships, be it a male harem lead with one of his five adoring female friends, or two volleyball players who can’t stand each other (I’m talking about you, Haikyu!!). The pairing of two male characters is considered the realm of fujoshi, and series creators aren’t ignorant of their female fan’s hobbies, sometimes playing up subtext to increase a series’ popularity. The poll did have a higher turn out of female voters (66% overall).
Charapedia asked 10,000 fans what their favorite same-sex pairings are and got a lot of interesting results. While these couples aren’t always canon, they’ve accumulated their fair share of admirers.
As cool as the collection of magical items used by Sailor Moon are, you have to admit that most of them wouldn’t exactly be the most practical things in your daily life. For example, a tiara that transforms into a disc of monster-killing energy when you throw it? That’s handy if you’re an anime heroine, but what if you’re just an ordinary fan who’s not running into evil creatures at a pace of literally once a week?
So while your first reaction to the news that merchandiser Bandai’s new Rainbow Moon Chalice replica does not, in fact, transform you into a more powerful version of your preexisting alter ego, in the long run, you’ll probably appreciate the fact that it instead fills your room with a pleasing smell.
If Frozen struck a deep chord with you, it’s been a good year. Even now, months after the film’s home video release, it’s still got a hold on the imagination of animation and musical fans, and this week Japanese convenience store Family Mart started selling steamed buns filled with chocolate and shaped like Olaf, the Disney hit’s comic relief living snowman.
Family Mart did a fine job recreating Olaf’s look, and we’re sure moviegoers who were tickled by his antics are thrilled to have the character seemingly leap off the screen and into the palm of their hands. Plus, in a rare case of simultaneously being able to please a movie’s fans and detractors, the Olaf bun’s uncanny resemblance to its inspiration means it’s the perfect effigy for Frozen haters to unleash their resentment of the film’s success on.
Much has been said on the subject of the ubiquitous vending machines in Japan. Yes, vending machines seem to be lurking around every street corner here in Japan. And while hot beverages may not be among the most unusual products available from a vending machine, they can certainly offer you great comfort when you’re facing the bitter cold during the winter months.
And it turns out there’s quite a variety of hot drinks out there that you can buy from a machine, as a recent post on Japanese trend and information compilation site Naver Matome shows us. Let’s take a look at their selection of beverage options that may come in extremely handy when you’re caught outside in freezing weather.
On December 13, the third edition of the mega-popular Yo-Kai Watch 2 Nintendo 3DS game, subtitled Shin’uchi [真打], was finally released in Japan. The franchise has gained so much popularity that people have even taken to calling it “Pokémon for the newest generation.”
As you can probably imagine if you’ve been keeping up with our site, a frenzy of people rushed to buy the new game both in stores and online. But even we couldn’t prepare ourselves for the actual numbers–just wait till you read how many units of the game have sold so far!
Take a quick look at the character-packed image above. That’s a whole lot of faces, right? And in the 20 years since Sony’s first video games console was released, they’ve all appeared on some PlayStation platform or other. Even if you’re more of an Xbox kid or a PC gamer, you have to admit that’s an impressive lineup, and for older PlayStation fans especially it’s bound conjure up a lot of happy gaming memories.
But in creating this image in honour of 20 years of PlayStation, it would seem that someone over at Sony Europe struggled to source one or two character images that really fit in with their vision. You’d think that being on the inside, an artist working for Sony would have access to a whole host of officially licensed images, but it looks like they decided to turn to the internet for help, using an image of Mega Man as he appears only in Nintendo’s latest edition of Super Smash Bros, and even borrowing a piece of fan art created by a Japanese Pixiv user, who later spotted their work on Sony’s official site. Awkward.
As a huge fan of Sailor Moon, one artist decided to reimagine the characters in a fresh new way that resonated with them. In the resulting fanart the Sailor Senshi have undergone a magical transformation into black African women – check out these amazing illustrations below.
Whether you sing Let it Go as a daily ritual, or just the thought of hearing that song one more time gives you brainfreeze, you can’t deny the pervasive popularity of Disney’s 2013 hit movie Frozen. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Japan, where Frozen can be found on everything from water bottles and chips to reasons for divorce.
For some people though, that’s not enough: they need to recreate Frozen with their own hands.
Back in August, we brought you the news that Japanese online foodies were going crazy over a new and unusual flavor combination. Apparently, eating mozzarella cheese along with sliced peaches and a touch of pepper makes for a delicious taste sensation. At the time, we thought this was just one of those weird internet foodie fads that you might try once just to see what the fuss is all about, before discarding in favor of more tried-and-tested snack options. So imagine our surprise to find that food company Nabisco has decided to roll with the mozzarella/peach hybrid taste and make it the new flavor for their Ritz Bits Sandwich range of munchy snacks!
Anybody can cosplay, but achieving beautiful cosplay photos raises the difficulty level by quite a fair bit. You can tailor the perfect costume, create the most realistic props, complete the look with impeccable makeup, and practice to get every pose spot on, but a suitable backdrop isn’t always easily available.
Finding an appropriate backdrop to compliment your cosplay would be much easier if you were in Japan though. HACOSTADIUM is a mega photography studio that has over 40 different backdrops ranging from Japanese rooms to gothic chambers, and even prison cells! More details and photos of the actual studios after the jump!
As you may have already heard, winter is cold in Japan. Maybe not as cold as some other more northern countries, but it’s still very chilly even indoors because many people still choose to only heat one room in the house at a time, or live in buildings made out of lightweight materials in an effort to make them as earthquake-safe as possible. This proves to be a bit of an issue for pet owners. Many pets are built to resist some amount of cold (because duh, fur!) but others aren’t equipped to deal with the cold daytime weather.
Perhaps this is why Japan sells some pretty ridiculous pet clothes! UNIHABITAT has a couple of new pet outfits that are going to turn some heads, but will also keep your pets warm and cozy this winter season.
Bells are jingling, gift lists are daunting, and snow is…not falling in Tokyo. That can mean only one thing: Christmas, Japan’s favorite romantic holiday, is almost here! While your crazy uncle might tell you that Christmas is apparently under siege in some parts of the world, the only holiday worry you’ll find in Japan is getting the right present for your girlfriend.
But don’t be fooled by all the lovers roaming the streets and tormenting lonely single folks, it’s not all romance. There’s more to the season that kissing atop Tokyo Tower–there are also parties and cosplay! Join us after the jump to check out some of the typical outfit offerings on sale in Japan this Christmas.
Train station platform ramen store closes its doors on half a century of history in Tokyo
Are Japanese convenience store sandwiches scamming us with their fillings?
Virtual idol Hatsune Miku redesigned with look that adds new elements and brings back old ones
Japan’s budget chain restaurant Saizeriya might just be the perfect first date location
The next time you’re feeling stressed out, you could relax on a Pokémon Psyduck chair from Japan
Japanese man drives truck that’s on fire directly to fire station, drops flaming potatoes[Videos]
Major Tokyo subway line shut down by in-train mobile battery fire
Studio Ghibli adds new Mother’s Day gift sets to its anime collection in Japan
7-Eleven Japan’s giant fried chicken skewer would be too big to eat, so it’s really for cuddling
We asked our Japanese team of writers how they deal with seasonal allergies in Japan
Studio Ghibli releases Catbus pullback keychain that runs like the anime character
Nine great places to see spring flowers in Japan, as chosen by travelers (with almost no sakura)Train station platform ramen store closes its doors on half a century of history in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan opens new cafe and art gallery in top Tokyo tourist neighbourhoodVirtual idol Hatsune Miku redesigned with look that adds new elements and brings back old ones
Komachi Shokudo: Japanese mum’s-style cooking for breakfast, lunch and dinner in Tokyo
Pizza Hut Japan teams up with creator of one of the country’s best kinds of ramen for ramen pizzaStudio Ghibli adds new Mother’s Day gift sets to its anime collection in Japan
The top 10 graduation songs in Japan as chosen by current Japanese high school students
Is Japan’s Crab-shaped Cup Ramen Timer worth the hype?
Starbucks Japan unveils new sakura cherry blossom collection for hanami season 2026
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026Studio Ghibli releases Catbus pullback keychain that runs like the anime character
The 10 most annoying things foreign tourists do on Japanese trains, according to localsNine great places to see spring flowers in Japan, as chosen by travelers (with almost no sakura)
Naruto and Converse team up for new line of shinobi sneakers[Photos]Train station platform ramen store closes its doors on half a century of history in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases first-ever Hinamatsuri Girls’ Day Frappuccino
Starbucks Japan unveils new sakura Frappuccino for cherry blossom season 2026
Now is the time to visit one of Tokyo’s best off-the-beaten-path plum blossom gardens
Survey asks foreign tourists what bothered them in Japan, more than half gave same answer
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of Japan
Studio Ghibli releases Kodama forest spirits from Princess Mononoke to light up your home
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan’s National Police Agency says
Japanese man drives truck that’s on fire directly to fire station, drops flaming potatoes[Videos]
Major Tokyo subway line shut down by in-train mobile battery fire
Studio Ghibli adds new Mother’s Day gift sets to its anime collection in Japan
7-Eleven Japan’s giant fried chicken skewer would be too big to eat, so it’s really for cuddling
We asked our Japanese team of writers how they deal with seasonal allergies in Japan
Is Daiso’s microwave Japanese rolled omelet maker worth your time and money? [Taste test]
Starbucks Japan opens new Kyoto store in Place of Scenic Beauty
Does this video about an abandoned dog leave you wiping your eyes or shaking your fist?
Nine questions we have from Netflix’s Rilakkuma trailer, which reminds us he is NOT a bear【Video】
7-Eleven Japan’s “Paper Tiger” sandwich sparks online controversy over deceptive packaging
Majority of Japanese women in survey regret marrying their husband, but that’s only half the story
Pizza Hut Japan teams up with creator of one of the country’s best kinds of ramen for ramen pizza