Average Joes become champions on 'Sasuke'

Average Joes become champions on 'Sasuke' "Pole dancer! Pole dancer!! Pole dancer!!!" From the bellowing announcement thumping through the speakers, you might think we're in a glitzy night club. We're not. But, without doubt, the location is just as fabled as many nocturnal haunts, and the atmosphere is just as electric. Welcome to what has become known in more than 150 countries around the world as "sacred" Mount Midoriyama, an outdoor set in Yokohama operated by Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS), where one of the biggest franchises in Japanese TV history is filmed up to twice a year. Welcome to "Sasuke" or, as it is known on U.S.-based cable and terrestrial channels: "Ninja Warrior."
1 Oct The language is unmistakably Japanese, the lyrics delivered in familiar high-pitched tones over a backdrop of electronica. But the wave of pop music sweeping Japan is not the sugar-coated homegrown variety that has long clogged the airwaves. Japanese teens and twentysomethings who once had ears only for J-pop are now transfixed by K-pop, a phenomenon from South Korea that is taking the world's second-biggest music market by storm. Korean pop culture's first foray into Japan was led almost a decade ago by Bae Yong-joon, a TV and film actor whose legions of mainly middle-aged, female devotees nicknamed him Yon-sama, or the Honourable Yon. (guardian.co.uk)
1 Oct With schoolchildren playing in front of her house every day, a tsunami survivor who identifies herself only as "Mrs. Sugawara," says she often thinks about suicide. Her daughter and two sons survived the March 11 disaster, but her husband and three grandchildren did not. "They were my future, and now they are gone and not coming back," says Mrs. Sugawara, 69. "The tsunami took my sense of hope away with them." Her lonely struggle mirrors that of thousands of tsunami survivors, especially seniors now isolated in temporary houses after spending months in crowded but more sociable gymnasiums. Since her children have gone to work elsewhere, Mrs. Sugawara lives alone, in a prefab unit in the parking lot of a junior high school overlooking the obliterated northeastern city of Rikuzen-Takata. (Washington Times)
1 Oct Local ordinances prohibiting companies from trading with organized crime syndicates will be put into force Saturday in Tokyo and Okinawa with the expectation of stopping their cash flow funds and eventually putting the mob out of business. Some legal experts welcome the moves by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Okinawa Prefectural Government, but they also urge local police to properly disclose to the general public detailed information about gangs so they can avoid trading with them and provide concrete examples of cases being banned by the new ordinances. (Japan Times)
30 Sep Tokyo Metropolitan Police earlier this week arrested the principals involved in the sale and copying of large quantities of uncensored adult video DVDs in Ikebukuro, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Sept. 30). Yoshitaka Iwaki, 45, verbally touted the sale of uncensored discs copied electromagnetically from a store he operated in Ikebukuro, located in Tokyo's Toshima Ward. A signboard with photos allowed customers to select discs they wished to purchase. Eiji Imai, 40, presided over an apartment, also in Toshima Ward, where the discs were stored. During a search of the premises on Wednesday, officers seized approximately 50,000 discs and copying equipment. (Tokyo Reporter)
30 Sep Investigators continue to search for a man who held up a suburban Tokyo bookstore by threatening the manager with a lit firework, the Metropolitan Police Department said Sept. 29. The man described as being about 160 centimeters tall and wearing a gray hoodie and white surgical mask made off with 5,000 yen (around $65) in cash after threatening the bookstore manager in Nishitokyo on Thursday night. (majirox news)

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Japan's finmin Noda wins vote to become next PM

Japan's finmin Noda wins vote to become next PM Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, a fiscal hawk, will become Japan's sixth prime minister in five years after winning a ruling party vote on Monday, an outcome likely to please investors worried about a bulging public debt. Noda, 54, who defeated Trade Minister Banri Kaieda in a run-off vote, must cope with a resurgent yen that threatens exports, forge a new energy policy while ending the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, and find funds to rebuild from the March 11 tsunami at a time when huge public debt has already triggered a credit downgrade. Financial markets, political commentators and the Japanese public are skeptical whether the new leader will have the vision, determination and time to tackle those challenges.
29 Aug A member of a gang group was arrested last week after inflicting damage at the offices of a Tokyo talent agency in while in search of money lent to the father of actor Taiyo Sugiura, reports Nikkan Gendai (August 27). On August 25, a 57-year-old gangster from the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest criminal organization, burst into the Akasaka offices of Sky Corporation, where Sugiura, 30, is registered, and broke a glass door with a chair. "I lent money to Sugiura's father, and I want to know where it is," the suspect is quoted as saying. (Tokyo Reporter)
29 Aug Japanese comedy gets a bad rap. Foreigners either knock it for being too silly and too focused on slapstick or too pun-based and difficult to understand. The Japanese sense of humor is most definitely different from its Anglophone counterparts. Some things, however, are so funny that they transcend national borders and linguistic barriers. Learn the next few phrases, and you'll soon be laughing it up in Japanese. It's funny to catch people who aren't paying attention. If, for example, a group of friends are having a conversation, and Stan, an affable guy with a paunch and a tendency to daydream, ends up staring off into the distance, the rest of the group can laugh at him when he finally comes back to reality. In English we use NASA-style lingo to try and "contact" people like this who have "spaced out" - "Earth to Stan. This is Earth. Do you copy? Come in Stan!" (Japan Times)
28 Aug The Japanese, once one of the most TV-addicted people on the planet, are drifting away from the tube -- forcing networks to scramble for other sources of revenue, from pic production, satellite services, Internet streaming sites and other new technologies. Daily TV viewing time, which averaged more than five hours in the 1970s, shrank to 3 hours and 28 minutes by 2010, according to figures compiled by the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute. Males aged 10 to 20 are watching less than two hours a day. Meanwhile, program ratings have been trending downward for terrestrial networks, pubcaster NHK and commercial rivals TV Asahi, NTV, TBS, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo, despite spikes for major sport events and other special programming. (Variety)
28 Aug A local train in Iwate Prefecture collided with a bear Saturday morning and, after restarting, ploughed into a serow goat, East Japan Railway Co.'s Morioka office said. No passengers were injured, but the accidents proved fatal for the two animals, the JR East office said. The disruption to services caused two rapid trains on the line to be canceled, affecting about 220 passengers, it said. (Japan Times)
27 Aug ON a chilly night last November on the tiny island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea of southern Japan, I found myself alone in a dark concrete gallery, a sweater pulled over my pajamas. I was staying at the Benesse House Museum, a 10-room hotel set inside a contemporary art museum, on the island's craggy southern coast, and still battling jet lag. So instead of tossing in bed, I visited the deserted galleries of the museum - guests of the hotel are permitted to wander beyond closing time. Before long, I was transfixed by Bruce Nauman's art installation, "100 Live and Die," a neon billboard of flashing phrases. (New York Times)

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