Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Japanese publisher Kodansha reported its financial results for the 2013 fiscal year (December 2012 to November 2013) on Thursday. The company garnered 120.272 billion yen (about US$1.173-billion) in revenue, a 2.0% increase from the previous fiscal year. The publisher’s profits increased by 107.3% to 3.214 billion yen (US$31.346 million). This is Kodansha’s first revenue increase in 18 years and its first increase in both revenue and profit in 19 years.
Back when I was applying for my first Japanese work visa, there was a thick stack of paperwork I had to submit. Most of the items made sense, but one that struck me as weird, though, was my college diploma. I knew that Japanese law required a college education for the visa I was applying for, but wouldn’t sealed, authenticated transcripts make more sense than a personal diploma, which could be easily forged for 20 bucks at any print shop, or even with a high quality home-use printer?
Nope, I was informed, it had to be the diploma. That’s the paperwork they give you when you graduate, right? After all, from the standpoint of honest and by-the-book Japanese society, who would be so dishonest as to provide false educational credentials?
How about a man in Osaka, who taught junior high school for 15 years without ever obtaining his teaching credential.
Ah, the joys of international travel. You shell out the majority of your paycheck for a ticket and spend sleepless nights counting down the days to your adventure of a lifetime. Then the day of departure finally comes and you board the plane, arriving hours later at your destination and trembling with anticipation. Camera in hand, you journey to the first famous place on your list that you’ve been dreaming about for weeks on end. Finally there, you take a quick look around, eyes widening in surprise, and blurt out, “…that’s it?!”
While Tokyo’s recent blizzard showed us the lighter side of natural disasters with amusing snow sculptures and insane images of overly panicked urbanites, these kind of storms have the potential to be very deadly and serious if you are caught outside. Last March, a violent storm hit the northeast part of Hokkaido and took the lives of nine people.
One of the most tragic stories to come out of this storm was a young girl who lost her father after he used his own body to protect her from the freezing temperatures and strong winds. On the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, the girl asked one of Japan’s biggest newspapers, the Yomiuri Shimbun, to publish a heart-breaking letter thanking the country for the huge outpouring of support over the past year.
As fans the world over continue to wait for the upcoming newest installment of the Sailor Moon franchise, merchandising giant Bandai has been releasing a steady stream of goodies from the hit anime. Recently, we’ve seen compact mirrors and even lingerie inspired by the twin-tailed magical girl and her cohorts, and now comes a line of Sailor Moon pens.
The cutesy home-made lunches that lucky Japanese children take to school are famous worldwide. For the time-pushed or culinarily challenged among us, though, store-bought bento (boxed lunches) can offer great value for money. Convenience store bento, which are hugely popular all over Japan, contain all kinds of delicious goodies like fish, meat, stewed vegetables and pickles, along with rice. When one bento-loving Japanese university student threw caution to the wind and sunk her entire lunch into her miso soup, she discovered that the resulting soupy concoction was even more tasty than she could have imagined! Thus, convenience store bento soup was born!
Here at RocketNews24 we love to try out rice-augmenting recipes and other wacky food combinations, so when a writer from our Japanese sister site heard about this amazing invention, made by heating the entire contents of a convenience store lunchbox in a pot of miso soup, she just had to give it a try! Let’s see how she got on.
Tales have oft been told of the mythical items to be found when journeying through the maze of shopping aisles in Japan’s online realm. From unusual manga characters to riot shields, it seems anything might be possible once you’ve entered through the magical portal known as Amazon Japan. Now it seems that visitors who stop by to make purchases are just as interesting as some of the items on offer, as self-proclaimed heroes and brave warriors from across the nation are buying swords from the marketplace and providing feedback on the efficacy of their items. Latest reviews are aimed at an innocent-looking plastic sword, which is said to be under-performing when it comes to vitality levels and magic ability.
With just over 1,000 stores covering practically every prefecture, Starbucks is a coffee powerhouse in Japan. Since opening its first store in Tokyo in 1996, the company has managed to adapt its business model to suit Japanese tastes with seasonal flavors, expanded (alcoholic) menu options and utilizing Japan’s unique architecture. Last week, Starbucks went one step further in its Japanese expansion plan by announcing that it would promote 800 temp workers to full-time positions, which netizens applauded as a move to create pressure on the Japanese market to provide better benefits to workers.
While the silly news last year about a Chinese zoo trying to pass a dog for a lion made headlines around the world, the story this time is a lot more disturbing. A zoo in Xiamen (also known as Amoy) on the southeast coast of China reported earlier this week that one of its male fallow deer had suddenly died. As if its death wasn’t already tragic enough, upon conducting an autopsy, workers were surprised to discover the unexpected cause of death, something that could easily have been prevented. Keep reading to learn the unfortunate details.
Japan has a reputation for overworking its employees, though it’s hardly the only country! But when it comes to education, you’d expect Japanese teachers, whose students often score among the top in the world on standardized tests, to be solely focused on their classroom materials. But you might be wrong!
One public middle school teacher has recently gotten a ton of attention online for a blog post about her impossible-to-manage duties as a “club leader” and her desire to actually change occupations due to the intense schedule. Read about her experience and the intense reactions below.
With the live-action version of Kiki’s Delivery Service set to hit cinemas in Japan on March 1, it’s time for the celebrations and tie-in promotions to commence! Japanese bakery chain, Little Mermaid, is one of the first to step up to the plate, paying homage to the movie with this collection of delightfully cute offerings. Available only for a limited time, the three new baked varieties are named in honour of Kiki, her black cat Jiji, and Ms Osono, Kiki’s mother-figure and resident baker. Can you guess which design is which?
For many 22 February was Cat Day in Japan, but for video game fans it meant something much greater. This was finally the day Japanese gamers could get their hands on Sony’s next-gen console, the PlayStation 4.
Prior to this, at the Sony Building in Ginza a celebration was to be held where 100 people who purchased their consoles in advance would get a chance to be the first person to own a Japanese-sold PS4.
The tickets were handed out at 11:00 in the morning of 21 February for the event which took place that evening. Our own first Docomo iPhone5 buyer in Japan, Mr. Sato was hoping to make lightning strike twice and got in line for tickets two days in advance.
Of all the new technologies currently emerging, 3-D printing seems to be the one with the most potential. Though you still can’t download and print a car, the applications for a well-designed and properly calibrated three dimensional printer are seemingly endless!
We’ve previously told you about a Japanese company that will turn your child’s doodles into 3-D works of art, but there’s a new product on the market that lets you skip the initial doodling and go straight to literally drawing in the air. Cleverly named the 3Doodler, the “3D Printing Pen,” as described by its Kickstarter page, completed funding in March of last year and is coming soon to the shores of Japan!
In this busy world, it’s hard to find time to take a nap. Sure, Spain has their siestas, but what about the rest of the world? If you’re in need of some shut eye, just take a cue from these 18 people who know how to get some much needed (or an entirely excessive amount of) sleep.
If you like motorcycles, or motorsports, or even just going really fast, then you’ve probably heard of the Suzuki Hayabusa–the world’s fastest production motorcycle. With a reported top speed of around 190 miles per hour for production models, the Japanese-made bike is sure to help put miles between you and any problems you might have–like figuring out how to pay back the US$14,500 price tag.
But it turns out that you don’t need the entire motorcycle to have a good time. For an ambitious gearhead, all you need is the machine’s massive engine and a light car!
On February 16, horrified onlookers watched as a Chinese man jumped into a bengal tiger enclosure at Chengdu Zoo in Sichuan province, south-west China. The man taunted the two tigers for twenty minutes, offering his flesh to them and asking to be eaten.
There’s a long-lived stereotype that cats love to eat fish–particularly the fish we like to keep in bowls in our homes. For a house kitty, a fish bowl is like having an ice cream truck in your living room–but never having the change to get a cone.
Of course, no one wants their pets–furry or scaly–to get eaten! But keeping a house full of cats entertained is a tall order…and whipping a laser pointer around the living room might turn it into a disaster zone. Fortunately, one cat gentleman has found a way to keep a room of cats both docile and engaged: Letting a mechanical toy fish swim circles in the bathtub!
But just how well do you think that’s going to work out for all the munchkin kitties gathered to watch?
The South Korean Olympic Committee has filed an official protest of the result of the women’s figure skating event at the Olympics over ‘biased judging,’ according to the Associated Press.
By the time Street Fighter II hit the arcades the concept of getting a high score was almost completely obsolete. Still, millions of the game’s fans around the world couldn’t get enough of honing their martial arts skills on that hapless sedan for tons of meaningless points.
Someone at Turkish insurance company Anadolu Sigorta certainly felt that way too. So they took a moment to remind prospective clients that their cars are always in jeopardy – even from world warriors.
The very first time she came over to the swinging bachelor pad/pitiful bunker I used to live in back when we were dating, my wife immediately noticed that the one and only interior decoration I had was a California license plate mounted on the wall. To me, the blue on white design is immediately nostalgic and reassuring.
In Japan, though, ordinarily the only thing that differentiates plates issued in different parts of the country are the kanji characters written across their tops, so they don’t provide quite the same immediate visual shorthand of local pride. Unless you happen to live in the city of Hakone, where motorists can show their love of their hometown and giant robot anime all at once with new Evangelion license plates.
Foreign tourists in Japan eat far more rice than previously thought, according to new data
Kyoto receives more foreign tourists than ever before, but fewer visitors say they’ll return
JR releases prediction of peak Shinkansen crowdedness for Japan’s Obon travel season
Starbucks Japan unveils exclusive new Frappuccinos limited to three regional areas
Life-size Legendary Pokémon Mega Rayquaza digitally greeting travelers at Tokyo train station [Vid]
Maximum entry fee for sento public baths in Tokyo increases slightly for adults next month
Starbucks Japan releases new “Afterword” collection that gives coffee waste a second life
Japan has a maid hotel you can stay in, and it’s now taking reservation applications
McDonald’s Japan goes viral for Samurai Mac burger hack
Tokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cardsTokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cards
New Shinkansen luggage drop-off system begins in Japan, making train travel even easier
Japanese Shinkansen becomes an overnight hotel for three nights this summer
99-year-old woman rescued while attempting to climb Mt. Fuji
Which country’s foreign tourists spend the most money per-person in Japan? Hint: Not the U..S. or China
Starbucks Japan releases a miniature display rack so you can create your very own store at home
Giant Evangelion Spear of Longinus to be installed at Japanese train station with Eva art trains
Face lettuce appears in Japan, with the face of Death Note’s Light Yagami, but why?
Kodama Shinkansen trains on popular Japan route get a whole new look this winter
Starbucks Japan adds a new summer Frappuccino to the menu, but is it as refreshing as it looks?
Studio Ghibli has a new anime out, and there’s only one place in the world where you can see itTokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cards
Salomon releases Japan-exclusive Mt. Fuji hiking gear that doubles as an amazing souvenir
Japan now has human refrigerators inspired by Japanese vending machines
Hatsune Miku collaborates with Hokusai’s art in new Vocaloid ukiyo-e illustration series [Pics]New Shinkansen luggage drop-off system begins in Japan, making train travel even easier
Japan triples departure tax, foreign tourists and locals now must pay more to leave country
Studio Ghibli releases anime T-shirts that pay homage to one of Hayao Miyazaki’s most personal films
Family Mart opens new “Famima” flagship store in Tokyo that’s like a tourist attraction
Sanrio Character Poll announces winners, Hello Kitty absent from top 10 in many countries
Japan announces sudden 400-percent increase in visa fees for foreigners entering the country
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in TokyoStudio Ghibli has a new anime out, and there’s only one place in the world where you can see it
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]Tokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cards
Japanese ninja certification exam attracts 131 candidates from Japan and abroadSalomon releases Japan-exclusive Mt. Fuji hiking gear that doubles as an amazing souvenir
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
Maximum entry fee for sento public baths in Tokyo increases slightly for adults next month
Starbucks Japan releases new “Afterword” collection that gives coffee waste a second life
Japan has a maid hotel you can stay in, and it’s now taking reservation applications
McDonald’s Japan goes viral for Samurai Mac burger hack
Tokyo subway installing new ticket gates that don’t accept payment through Suica or other IC cards
Pokémon Card Stores requiring facial recognition scans for entry in Japan in latest anti-scalper move
Japan’s expensive “phantom” melon is so exquisite it sells out in just 12 hours
Tokyo Pokémon Center announces reopening after months-long closure following stabbing death
Official Final Fantasy beers are going on sale in Tokyo this month, giant Aetheryte appearing too
Studio Ghibli Laputa figure looks like it’s really flying thanks to cool visual trick
Hatsune Miku collaborates with Hokusai’s art in new Vocaloid ukiyo-e illustration series [Pics]
Pikachu and Ditto Pokémon desserts at Baskin-Robbins Japan look AND feel like their inspirations
Family Mart’s new Famima flagship in Tokyo has a hidden gem that most visitors miss
Pokémon’s cozy city builder game inspires Cozy (Corner) cakes in Japan! [Photos]