The YouTube Japan official blog recently announced the creation of a Tokyo Metropolitan Government channel. It is all in Japanese but has some surprisingly interesting videos (unlike a lot of the other YouTube channels of Japanese government agencies… I’m looking at you MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology) because I had high…
I’m going to embed the video right here so you can watch and try to figure out what’s going on here… Looks like something out of a science fiction movie. The person in the video seems to be a worker at the plant, based on his official clothing, but I’m not sure why he is…
Aya Ueto is a huge star and idol in Japan, but she is being praised for showing up and actually doing some work in the area affected by last month’s earthquakes and tsunami. She especially received praise for showing up ready to work without her face and nails done, and for earnestly giving out food…
Tokyo Electric is looking for a few good part-timers willing to do some work in the nuclear power plants in Fukushima. They are offering workers 10,000 yen per hour to take the risk and do some work for them. Although over $100 US sounds like a good hourly rate, they only want people to work…
Tokyo Shimbun reports on a 27 year old plant worker who received a call to come to the Fukushima Daiichi plant and work, but turned it down for the sake of his 26 year old wife and 3 year old son. The man said that many workers over the age of 50 were returning to…
Miyazaki Governor Hideo Higashikokubaru, also known as comedian, writer, and TV personality Sonomanma Higashi, has his eyes set on following his stint in Kyushu with becoming the next governor of Tokyo. He announced his official candidacy this week. Incumbent Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who loves a good (or bad) soundbite, continues to be criticized for…
A few other blogs have been doing a great job of taking to task the sensationalist mainstream English language media, but also being straight about the information available. I just wanted to provide links to some other blogs definitely worth taking a look at for information. Japan Probe’s latest post: “New York Times Quietly Edits…
I usually don’t read a lot of Japanese news in English, but an article in Gendai’s online magazine led me to hunt down an article on Time’s site. Funny that Gendai refers to Time for a hard-hitting story on how the government and bureaucracy in place in Japan has made it hard for other countries…
Chiaki, a comedian, singer, businesswoman, and mother recently reported the injury on her blog. She said she suffered a cut on her finger that reached down to the bone and needed an operation. The injury is expected to take 5 weeks to heal. After describing her injury she quickly added… but I’m in Tokyo and…
Two new policies have been introduced by TEPCO in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku region this month. Residents to be affected by the billing changes are understandably livid after enduring both planned and unplanned blackouts, in addition to cooperating with TEPCO and government requests to conserve as much energy…
Sometimes tweets from the government here in Japan send up red flags for me. Below is one of those tweets. A very suspicious way of looking at the statement below is that government officials are already rubbing their hands together thinking of things that they can do to make a “more stable” Japan… more stable…
This is another interesting story about the sensationalism of the media and the lack of fact checking done by most major media outlets. I have seen the same story repeated on the websites of both national and local newspapers in the United States, Canada, China, and Australia with only a simple search for them. The…