A GfK Roper Nation Brand Ranking released a few days ago showed that Japan was the 5th most admired country in the world in 2009. This according to a poll of 20,000 people in rich and developing nations around the world. This is the same position that Japan [...]

Here are the top 10 non-news programs for the week of September 28- October 4:

Week of Sept 28 to Oct 4

(Program, Channel, Time & Date, Rating)

1. Variety: Oshare-ism SP, NTV, 22:00-23:00, Oct 4, 21.7

2. Informative: Shinso Hodo Bankisha!, NTV, 18:00-18:55, Oct 4, 20.1

3. Variety: Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q SP, NTV, 19:00-21:54, Oct 4, [...]

The Japanese government already has a system for compensating people that become ill as a result of side effects from mandatory vaccination programs, but according to an AP story today they are expected to extend this program for the new influenza vaccinations that are to begin this month.

Under the current [...]

I was rudely awakened at about 4AM by strong winds and rain, as the effects of  the Typhoon known in Japan as 18-go, or otherwise known as Typhoon Melor, hit Honshu. I took a look at the 4AM radar picture (on the left), and it seems that most of Honshu is covered with rain and [...]

A while ago, during some web surfing, I found the site JapanSoc, and found it a great place to find news and blog articles without having to go all over the place to look for them. I didn’t begin using the site myself until the last month or so, when I started this [...]

When workers get their year-end bonuses this year, they are likely to find them a liittle lighter than usual. For the first time in 7 years, companies listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange will cut bonus payments by 13.1%, the steepest such cut since records began in 1970.

Year end bonuses will [...]

Interesting article last week from Mark Schreiber in the Japan Times. In ‘Learn the coded language all Japanese know‘, Schreiber begins by discussing a form of ‘Japanese Pig Latin’ which he learned from some Japanese children, but the latter half of his article is the ‘meat and [...]

I saw this post from Lee at Tokyo Times last night, and I just had to post a link to it here. The video below is from a Fuji News broadcast, so it is in Japanese with no subtitles, but it is very powerful nonetheless. It shows how unwanted [...]

I’ve been meaning to do a post about Financial and Postal Affairs Minister Kamei Shizuka ever since the election, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it until now. Kamei, and the leader of the DPJ’s other coalition partner, Fukushima Mizuho, pose something of a problem for the Hatoyama administration. He needed to find [...]

If you catch the morning, afternoon, or evening ‘news’ programs on commercial television in Japan, you may find out that a semi-talented ‘singer’ is having a baby with their manager. Or you may learn what kind of skirts to wear this season. Or you may even find out a great new place to take the [...]