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April in Japan is a month of changes. As well as the beginning of the new tax year, the new school year begins, staff are rotated between departments, and new employees enter companies wearing plain black suits and fixed smiles that are betrayed only by the thin layer of sweat on their foreheads and nervous, darting eyes. It’s also the time of year that millions of university students experience life away from home for the first time, installing themselves in halls of residence or nearby apartments with no one to check up on them.

In an effort to help their students settle in and start their studies off on the right foot, a university in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, is operating a free breakfast initiative, inviting all new students to stop by the cafeteria from eight o’clock each morning to eat a nutritious, home-cooked meal, thus ensuring that they consume at least one meal during the day that hasn’t come out of a plastic cup or a convenience store microwave.

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Django Unchained in China, Authorities Throw Chains Back on One Minute Later

After spending decades in the film business, Quentin Tarantino had yet to get a film into China, now the second largest movie market in the world. His previous attempts have failed to meet with the stringent and sometimes erratic demands of the country’s censors.

However, on 11 April, Tarantino’s recent Academy Award-nominated film Django Unchained was set to premiere – and it did – for about one minute.

The authorities, whom I like to imagine have some kind of Commissioner Gordon batphone to movie theatres, called in and put the kibosh on Django.

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Five Reasons Why We Love Mr. Sato

Mr. Sato, you are quite literally the man! As our most trusted source of all things bizarre in Japan, you never disappoint. From the time you went in for a trim at a pet salon (on all fours mind you) to the time you tried to train your eyelids, the laughs (almost always at your expense) kept coming.

The following is a list of five reasons why we love our crazy reporter, Mr. Sato. We’re sure you won’t be disappointed.

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Commuter trains in Japan are known for being among the most punctual in the world. The entire rail system is a well-oil machine. When a train is scheduled to depart its station at 09:42 and arrive at its destination at 10:33, it almost always leaves the station at 9:42 and arrives at 10:33; a mind-boggling concept perhaps in some other parts of the world.

Close to 40 million passengers use the rail system daily in Tokyo alone, so when trouble does occur, it needs to be sorted out quickly. Still, it would shock anyone who has been living in risk-averse, safety-first Japan for any length of time to see their local commuter train run down the tracks with a passenger carriage door wide open.
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Mister Donut Japan to Change Product Ingredients for First Time in 42 Years

On April 9, Duskin Co., Ltd., operators of the Mister Donut franchise in Japan, announced they would be making changes to the batter and oil they used for their product in order to better bring out the original taste of the donuts themselves. This is the first time for Mister Donut Japan to undergo a major change in ingredients since opening 41 years ago in 1971.
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The Top 5 Ghibli Heroines as Chosen by Men Aged 20-40

It’s not an easy question to answer, but of all the strong and mysterious ladies from Studio Ghibli’s beautiful animated feature films, who is your favourite?

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As Stocks Rise, so do the Hem Lines: Japan’s New Incentive for Economic Growth

In the face of our global economy’s seemingly never-ending nosedive, Japan has come up with a hip, new way to stimulate growth in its local communities: by starting up a band!

Machikado Keiki☆JAPAN, a group name that roughly translates to “Street Corner Conditions JAPAN,” is the latest and greatest four-girl idol group to hit the media. I know it sounds a bit like a band full of hookers, but just wait until you hear their pitch! Basically, the better the nation’s stocks are doing, the shorter their skirts get! Clearly, the idea of having enough money for food and rent is not enough of an incentive to get some economic stimulus going; what the country really needs is more half-naked women! Read More

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) announced that while transferring contaminated water containing radioactive material from leaking underground storage tank No. 3 to tank No. 6 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on April 11 this year, water was discovered leaking from a joint connecting the piping being used for the transfer.

About 22 liters of water containing 6.4 billion becquerels of radioactive material leaked from the joint before the problem was chanced upon. TEPCO said the water leaked on top of the berm covering the storage tank and that there was no possibility of it seeping into the soil surrounding it.
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Highly Suggestive Cow Milking Game Appears on Japanese Google Play Store

Love cows? Young girls in plaid skirts and chest-hugging blouses rhythmically massaging teats? If the answer’s yes then this worrying new game for Android OS might be for you.

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Maturing into adulthood while sharing a roof with our parents can be tough. We start to become sexually aware, have boyfriends or girlfriends, and secretly store racy photos, magazines or DVDs where we think/hope/pray that no one will ever find them. And then there’s the Internet…

When our parents openly discuss things that we’d much rather they didn’t even know existed, however, words cannot even begin to describe the feelings of shame and embarrassment.

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Forget 3D, Nagoya Movie Theater Goes 4D With Moving Seats, Wind, Smells

Japanese cinema chain Korona World has announced that it will be opening the country’s first full-body, immersive “4D” movie theater in Nagoya on the 26th of this month.

According to the company, the theater will be equipped with 4DX technology, a system developed in South Korea that adds motion, humidity, aromas, strobes, bubbles and other effects to the standard audio and video experience. Read More

Cute Animals Enjoy Hot Water Massage Therapy in Japan 【Video】

Have you ever seen a capybara? Originally from South America, and immensely popular in Japan, capybaras are actually the world’s largest rodents. They can weigh as much as a person, can run as fast as a young horse, and they can bark and purr. But that’s not all. These cute little animals love to bathe in Japanese-style hot springs. And when they do, they do it with such blissful expressions that you can’t help but smile.

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Six Years After Launch, Nintendo Survey Hints at Charging Accessory for Wii Remotes

It’s been a long time coming, but Nintendo may have finally cottoned on to the idea that gamers do not enjoy relying on AA batteries to use their wireless controllers. According to reports circulating the Internet this morning, the Kyoto-based company has carried out an online survey asking users whether they’d be interested in purchasing officially branded rechargeable battery packs for their Wii controllers.

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Release Your Inner Vampire by Feasting on Blood in the Philippines

What comes to mind at the mention of stew? Maybe a hearty beef stew or some creamy chicken soup? Well, it seems that many fast food restaurants in the Philippines will sell you stew that’s made from the blood of domesticated animals! Holy cow! Or maybe it’s horse. Sheep? Exactly what kind of blood are we talking here?! To find out more, we flew our top investigative reporter to the Philippines to fill us in on the heart of the matter. Read More

Extreme Drifting in Modified Kei Car, Even Better English Subtitles 【Video】

Kei Cars are a Japanese category of vehicles that are too weak to be considered actual cars, but too powerful to be considered go-carts. They are distinguished by their cool yellow license plates (as opposed to a white one for cars with regular-sized engines and larger dimensions) and are loved by those looking for a cheap mode of transportation. Thanks to some clever modifications by extreme driving enthusiasts in Japan, what used to be a measly 660cc engine putt-putt car has been transformed into a lean, mean, drifting machine.

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Zombie-Themed Bar Sponsors Zombie Walks in Tokyo, Gives Patrons a Taste of Brains, Delicious Brains

Hello, my name is Michelle and I have an unhealthy fear of zombies.

It’s not just the scary, fast moving urban zombies like from Dawn of the Dead that get to me. Even the comedy parody zombies from Shaun of the Dead had me covering my eyes, trying to go to my happy place. I don’t know if it’s because of their disfigured bodies or their relentless quest for brains, delicious brains; all I know is zombies scare the bejesus out of me.

But despite my own anxiety when it comes to the undead, the rest of the world loves zombies. From San Francisco, to London, all the way over to Sydney, Australia, people willingly dress in zombie drag and gather together to lurch through the streets as an undead mob. Even Tokyo’s Roppongi is not immune to zombie fever, hosting the most recent zombie walk in Japan and a monthly zombie bar.

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We Take Mr. Sato for a Shampoo and Trim at the Pet Salon 【Thrifty Style】

Having already spent the vast majority of RocketNews24‘s budget on trips to Turkey and Portugal or stuffing our faces with vats of curry, we felt it was time to cut back on the spending a little. We know that our star reporter Mr. Sato loves to look good and is constantly changing his hairstyle to keep up with trends, though, so we were concerned that tightening the purse strings would crush his spirit entirely. It was quite the conundrum.

Then it struck us: what if it were possible to take our style-conscious investigator somewhere a little cheaper to get him tidied up every so often? What if one of Tokyo’s own dog grooming salons would consent to giving him a quick shampoo and trim? One slightly confused but ultimately successful phone call later we had Mr. Sato on a leash and were heading out the door.

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Hair Stroking Headphones Escalate Japanese University Robotic Girlfriend Simulation Race

The Japanese engineering and academia circles were rocked this week by the emergence of the Riaju Coat (Fulfillment Coat), a robotic coat which provides a slightly less virtual girlfriend experience from that of dating sim games.

Now it appears this development has sparked a girlfriend simulation tech race with rival universities.

Nadeju Headphones (Stroking Fulfillment Headphones) were developed by an ambitious team at Maizuru National College of Technology (MNCT) to simulate the feeling a girl stroking your head.

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Through the Predictability of Television Watch a Girl Seamlessly Age Four Years in 30 Seconds!

Cooking Idol Ai! Mai! Main! was a beloved weekday children’s program that combined anime and live action to entertain and educate children about cooking and nutrition. Its star, Haruka Fukuhara, played the lead role of Main-chan and for the show’s four-year run stood as a paragon of kawaii (cute) on Japanese TV.

However, as of 29 March Cooking Idol Ai! Mai! Main! was taken off the air much to the dismay of thousands of fans. One fan responded to this by uploading a pseudo time-lapse 30-second video to YouTube showing Ms. Fukuhara age from 10 years old in 2009 to the 14-year-old she is now.

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Russian Scientist Predicts “Massive Earthquake” to Hit Japan by End of 2014

During the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Convention in Vienna on 9 April, a Russian scientist declared that Japan would face a giant earthquake of magnitude 9.0 within the next year and a half.

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