Category: Society

  • Tokyo Chinatown Ikebukuro

    Could Ikebukuro be getting its very own Chinatown? A plan by some Chinese store and restaurant owners to create a community named “Tokyo Chinatown Ikebukuro” to promote interaction with their local Japanese neighbors is getting a negative reaction. What’s the problem? There has been trouble between Japanese and Chinese businesspeople over problems such as garbage…

  • Just Looking

    No, that’s not an idol video, or at least it’s not sold that way. The video is from a DVD series by record label Avex called Miteru Dake (Just Looking). As you can see, it features girls — pumped-up breasts and all — just, well, looking. The idea is that it’s for shy men, to…

  • iPhone for Foreigners

    Japan Probe has posted some disturbing news regarding the newly launched iPhone 3G in Japan. According to the terms on the Softbank website: “If you have less than 15 months left on your visa, you wont be able to make a contract, but they’ll sell the phone to you without a plan for ¥80.000.” What???…

  • Tokyo’s Guerilla Gardening

    Tokyo guerilla gardening in action. Via Boing Boing.

  • 94.3%

    Marxy over at Clast examines how a ridiculous survey report conned the media into believing that 94.3% of Japanese women in their twenties own a piece of Louis Vuitton.

  • The Manufacturing of Booms

    Over at Clast, Marxy examines booms as a marketing strategy, and the end of an era. I’m just sorry I missed out on 1957, the year of the Calypso Style.

  • Neojaponisme: Flower Train

    Neojaponisme hosts a video documentary by Ian Lynam on sexual assaults on Tokyo subways.

  • From Shibuya-kei to Akiba-kei

    Over at the Clast blog, Marxy examines the relationship between Shibuya-kei and the newly-coined Akiba-kei.