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Japanese Debate Program Wants Your Opinion on Major Issues, Participate Now on Facebook

NHK has been running a series of panel debate shows called WISDOM which covers globally relevant issues by holding a discussion among experts from around the world.  Since 2010, they have covered a range of topics from economic crises, to Arab Spring, to bullying.

However, as of this year, they are planning on making an ambitious new addition to the program: YOU, if you’re willing.

Starting from their next episode titled “What Next for the Global Economy?” they are inviting everyone in the world to submit their opinions and suggestions for a truly global perspective on matters that affect all of us.

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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it is 2013!

No matter where you are in the world, the clock has struck 12, the ball has dropped, rockets have launched and people have kissed and made promises to better themselves in some way or other. Read More

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10 +1 Japanese-Style Fonts For Typing English That Will Confuse Your Friends

Can you read the sentence written above? You should be able to; it’s written in English.

When I first started learning Japanese, the Chinese characters and syllabic scripts that were scrawled across my textbooks looked like some kind of crazy code that only aliens could understand. After years of studying, many of the previously cryptic symbols have become familiar, readable letters. However, now even English can be turned into a jumble of alien ciphers thanks to these 10 +1 fonts inspired by Japanese characters.

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Display Your Own Animations on Your Bicycle Wheel with ANIPOV, Goes on Sale January 2013

Back in my day, kids used to put little plastic beads on their bicycle wheel spokes to make them “flashy.”  Now it looks as if these kids grew up and got training in optics.

Plastic beads have been replaced with synchronized LED lights which generate colorful animations as an ordinary bike wheel spins away.  Not only that, you will be able to create your own animation to be displayed on your computer and upload it to your bike with ANIPOV when it goes on sale at the end of January 2013.

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With Tibetans continuing to set themselves ablaze in protest of oppressive rule by Chinese authorities, state media for Qinghai province reported that the government of the province’s Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture announced it would begin offering rewards of 200,000 yuan (about US$32,000) by December 27 to anyone at the scene who can prevent such suicides from occurring.
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Serial Tree Killer on the Loose in Western Japan, 14 “Sacred Trees” Poisoned So Far

Scattered across the landscape of Japan are Shinto shrines of various shapes and sizes.  In many of the larger shrines you’ll find one or more especially old trees known as Goshinboku which means “sacred tree.”

Sacred trees are usually massive in size and centuries old with some reportedly over 1,000 years old.  You can usually tell them from the shimenawa wrapped around their trunks. A shimenawa is an extremely thick rope which encloses something holy and wards off evil from outside.

These age-old trees are beautiful specimens of nature’s strength and longevity and add an extra level of serenity to their shrines.  However, in the past month someone or some group has been killing off these sacred trees of shrines in 5 separate prefectures in Japan’s mid-west.

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SECOM Unveils World’s First Flying Crime-prevention Robot


With shades of Minority Report, Japanese security services company SECOM unveiled an autonomous flying crime-prevention robot to the press on December 26. Basically a flying surveillance camera, the robot is the first of its kind in the world to be offered for private security use. Shuji Maeda, SECOM’s president, said he hoped to make the device available in 2014.
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Sony Warns Not to Put Your Gaming Console in the Microwave, Leaves Online Community Dumbfounded

Sony’s recent publicly-announced warning not to put your gaming console in the microwave, has left most of the online community completely lost for words. If you happen to be the owner of a Sony gaming console, placing it in the microwave only to fry the hell of it is surely the last thing on your agenda. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that such reports have recently been doing the rounds on the net. Frying your treasured gaming console obviously defies all forms of common sense and I’m sure most of you will be racking your brains as to whom and under what circumstances would do such a thing.

So just why would Sony issue such a bizarre warning? In short, Sony appears only to be going by the facts, or should we say the evidence that remains resident on the game console after being submitted for repair:

“Of the defective products received by Sony, we have detected on some rate occasions evident changes in the shape of the unit and even burn marks that can only be assumed to have been brought about by the use of an electrical appliance such as a hairdryer or microwave”.

Sony adds, “Heating up your game console leads not only to a defective unit but also creates the risk of a fire or even serious injury”.

Whilst there is much speculation and even theories out there as to why game users would resort to such an act, hard evidence is much lacking.

So just what are some of these theories?

Forget about sending your broken game console to Sony: if you have a hairdryer at hand, repair it yourself the D.I.Y way! – Or so the ‘hairdryer method’ would have you believe!

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Can ‘Make Me Asian’ App Make Japanese People Look Asian Too? We Investigate

Recently a lot of Asian Americans are getting their pantsu in a bunch about an Android app called “Make Me Asian” that allows users to slant their eyes, yellow their skin and add other stereotypical Asian features to their photos.

Critics say the app uses dated and racist stereotypes that marginalize and humiliate Asian Americans. There is even an online petition asking Google to remove the app, which has nearly 3,000 signatures as of December 28.

Alright, so the Asian American community is clearly offended, but what do Asian Asians think of this app?

Well, they think it’s pretty fun, actually.

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Startling Nature Footage Reveals Penguins Are Kind of Jerks

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFAK8Vj62WM?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360%5D

Penguins, otherwise known as the tuxedo wearing clown princes of the Antarctic, have amused us for centuries.  Their cute little waddles and fluffy babies can warm even the coldest of hearts.

However, new footage taken by researchers has shed light on a previously unknown facet of penguin life – they’re kind of dicks.

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We Eat Subway Japan’s Largest Sandwich “Giant Sub”

The wildly popular sandwich restaurant chain Subway is a little bit different than in other countries. There’s more of an emphasis on vegetable subs, which may be disappoint to those like me who enjoy the meatball sub, with sauce so piled on that seems to dissolve the bread as you’re eating it… ohhhh.

Still, Subway Japan’s menu is probably better for society as a whole. But here at RocketNews24, we are more interested in the least healthy, most artery stopping fast food concoctions around.  That’s why we’re pleased to see that Subway Japan is making party subs available through some willing vendors.  We went in search of the elusive Japanese Giant Sub.

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Santa Biker Gang Spotted in Tokyo

Our reporter was walking through downtown Tokyo on Christmas Eve (alone, of course) when suddenly from behind a large posse of Santas on motorcycles came riding up from behind, filling the streets with the sound of roaring engines and holiday cheer.

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When it comes to mixed bathing in public, it is an experience that perhaps most of us are unfamiliar with. In many respects the aspect of unfamiliarity is only just the beginning; acting naturally around not only strangers, but those of the opposite-sex — whilst baring all, no less — is undeniably something that requires great courage! It is with such bravery that our female reporter, Tomoe, entered into a Japanese “konyoku” to experience what all the fuss was about first hand!

“Admittedly, the male bathers’ glances were something that played on my mind a little, however this in itself had its own element of fascination,” admits Tomoe.

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Hamsters Are Watching You

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DalaAYW6Sw?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360%5D

“Hamsters are watching you.”

Before, when I said this to people on the streets they would run away and get the police involved.

Well who’s laughing now? Thanks to this video documentation uploaded on YouTube, my paranoid delusions have been proven to be real. In it, the brave camera person captured a hamster stakeout in progress.

My delirium was further validated by Yahoo! who chose this shocking footage as the “10th best animal video of 2012.”

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Japanese Men Share Their Worst Christmas Experiences Ever: Pikachu, Platoon and Painkillers

So this is Christmas. The time where we all sip eggnog by the open fire enjoying the gentle blanket of wet snow covering a meadow as a deer scampers by, right?

Of course not, it’s raining here now and my glasses are broken. Still, I’d consider this an average holiday season for myself. For many out there, Santa has little more than a big bag of suck to stuff in your stocking.

Don’t sweat it though. Every year can’t be a winner. For those having a blue Christmas, the website MyNavi has compiled a list of Japanese men’s worst Chirstmas experiences.

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The Japanese love their insurance. According to the weekly tabloid Shukan Post, the average household in Japan pays 454,300 yen (approx. US$5,393) a year in life insurance premiums in an effort to feel safe and protect loved ones. Comprising just 2% of the global population, Japan pays 18% of the world’s total insurance premiums, this which works out to average insurance spending of US$3,500 per capita, the highest level in the world.
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Breathtaking Meteor Shower Video Taken against Starry Winter’s Night in Nagano

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHsuf0MDIOQ?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360%5D

If you were to ask me to go out at midnight in the middle of December and look for meteors, I would say “No way, I’m watching a Very Brady Christmas. Get out of here.”

However, in the evening around December 14, while many of us were warmly tucked away in our cat capes, an annual celestial event took place above.

One brave photographer spent a chilly night in a Nagano park to capture these meteors for us all to see.

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The Smell of a Tanuki Monster Captured in a Perfume, Approved by the Triforce

Yuru-kyara, those lovable mascots of urban and rural districts all over Japan, have finished their annual yuru-kyara Gran Prix with Bari-San the chicken clinching a long awaited first place.

But that doesn’t mean these men and women in giant animal costumes have time to rest.  No sir. Just as the last Gran Prix closed yuru-kyara it’s now time for the hundreds of mascots to begin campaigning for next year’s vote.

This brings us to Takibou, the Tanuki Monster of Shaolin Temple (not the kung-fu one) in Hachioji, Tokyo. Takibou had finished 58th place (top 6%) in 2012 and is hoping to improve on that performance. So, for the first time – probably in the world – a mascot is releasing their scent for the public to buy.

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