A Kyodo news report yesterday proclaimed that 1 in 7 Japanese people were living in poverty, according to a Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare release. This was the first time that the ministry has released such figures, which were calculated in accordance with the calculation methods used [...]
October 2009
Written By: guyjin on October 21, 2009
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Japanese Box Office: Oct 3 to Oct 9
(Rank, Movie Name, Weekend Box Office (US$), Cume (US$) (Note: US$1=89.77 yen))
1. Kaiji: Jinsei Gyakuten Game, $4,043,522, $4,043,522
2. Fast & Furious 4, $2,347,788, $3,052,440
3. My Sister’s Keeper, $1,243,467, $1,558,346
4. Samayou yaiba, $1,067,066, $1,067,066
5. Villon’s Wife, $604,458, $604,458
6. 20th Century Boys 3: Redemption, [...]
Written By: guyjin on October 19, 2009
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Two polls, taken by Nikkei with TV Tokyo, as well as by Mainichi, showed the Hatoyama government still enjoys high support almost 50 days after their election victory. The Nikkei/TV Tokyo poll showed an approval rating of 73%, while Mainichi also had a rating of 72%.
In contrast, both [...]
Written By: guyjin on October 19, 2009
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The latest issue of the annual UN Human Development Index (HDI) from the UN Development Program shows Japan in 10th place in the world. This places it 3 places above the US, but 8 spots below my home country of Australia (see the top 15 ranked countries below). The [...]
Written By: guyjin on October 17, 2009
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Here are the top 10 non-news programs for the week of October 5- October 11:
Week of Oct 5 to Oct 11
(Program, Channel, Time & Date, Rating)
1. Variety: The Gyoten News SP, NTV, 19:56-23:54, Oct 7, 22.0
2. Drama: Welkame, NHK, 8:15-8:30, Oct 8, 20.6
3. Variety: Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodansho SP, NTV, 21:00-22:54, Oct 11, 19.8
4. Sport: [...]
Written By: guyjin on October 14, 2009
8 Comments
Over the next month or two, I intend to write about once a week with some of the things that have helped me as I’ve learned Japanese. I was going to call this series ‘How I Learned Japanese’, but I decided to go with ‘How I’ve Learned Japanese’, which suggests that it is not something [...]
Written By: guyjin on October 13, 2009
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Prime Minister Hatoyama has traveled half way around the world and back a couple of times already in his first 50 days as Prime Minister. He has spent a great deal of time talking about ‘yuai’ (loosely translated as ‘fraternity), and about his plans for East Asian cooperation, nuclear disarmament, and some of the world’s [...]
Written By: guyjin on October 12, 2009
One Comment
Staff writer for the Japan Times, Mariko Kato, posted an interview piece with new Education Minister Kawabata Tatsuo. The headline for the piece was ‘Education Chief Takes Liberal Path’, but I think Kato is a little confused about some of the differences between liberalism and conservatism. Few of the policies mentioned by [...]
Written By: guyjin on October 12, 2009
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Japanese Box Office: Oct 3 to Oct 9
(Rank, Movie Name, Weekend Box Office (US$), Cume (US$) (Note: US$1=89.61 yen))
1. 20th Century Boys 3: Redemption, $925,785, $45,424,914
2. Ballad, $851,401, $17,328,169
3. Kamui Gaiden, $818,896, $9,022,048
4. Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike, $486,457, 486,457
5. Coco Before Chanel, $483,634, $5,978,708
6. Katen no Shiro, $442,211, $8,009,198
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, $427,965, [...]
Written By: guyjin on October 12, 2009
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On Sunday, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki announced that they will be teaming up to develop a proposal to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. This comes just over a week after Tokyo were rejected as hosts of the 2016 games.
Given the recent climate of international bodies offering awards for issues they [...]
