The Konami dating video game LovePlus has now found itself on a Visa credit card in Japan. The video game received global attention when a man in Japan decided to marry one of the characters in his game live on Niko Niko Douga. Now Sumitomo Mitsui Bank (SMBC) is offering a Visa credit card with…
Employees of the Kobe love hotel “Swing” were arrested in a recent police sting for lending Wii and PlayStation 3 to customers. Yes, they let guests of the hotel use their Wiis for entertainment without permission of copyright holders of games such as Mario Cart and BioHazard 5. With all that may or may not…
This is a commercial for an energy bar called Ippon Manzoku. “Even though it’s chocolate it’s healthy.” Ippon Manzoku is supposed to fill you up with just one. The commercial stars Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, one of the members of the singing group SMAP, who seems to have fully recovered from a little scandal a year or…
Coca cola has released press releases about a new commercial set to be released on February 2nd, 2011. The commercial is set to be part of the Coca-cola Zero “Wild Health” ad campaign. The “Wild Health” campaign also uses other actors and famous people including Amuro Namie. The commercials are made with high production values…
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has released a list of eight cliches they say people interviewing for jobs with Japanese companies should avoid saying. These are the kind of things that teachers in Japan, many of whom have never had jobs other than teaching, advise their students to say. I hope the…
Watching this Japanese McDonald’s commercial for the new Sponge Bob Happy Meals, one has to think there are adults just off screen standing around with still-dripping syringes. Maybe they were shown one of the old school “Pokemon” psychedelic episodes. Although frightened by the commercial, I’m intrigued enough to break out my “ransel (randoseru)” elementary school…
On January 18th, Suntory Holdings’ announced that blue roses will be available at Suntory Flowers shops starting on the 29th. Some prefectures may experience delays due to the possibility of frost, specifically Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, and Akita. The flowers were also sold in limited quantities in 2009 and 2010, with 2010 seeing over 50,000 sold….
In my previous post on the Japan University Entrance Exams, I mentioned that we would be seeing some feel-good news about people making efforts to make sure the high school seniors can make it to their tests on time. Here’s the first one I spotted… probably more to come. Akita JR workers spent hours shoveling…
As a sort of counterpart to my previous post about what sports impress Japanese women, Gendai Business recently came out with a list of the Japanese athletes who are highest paid for commercials. This list mixes pro and amateur athletes. 1. Ryo Ishikawa – (golf) – 120 million yen 2. Ichiro Suzuki (baseball, Seattle Mariners)…
Although rumors of this had been floating around, it seems that G.education, the company currently behind the famous Nova name, is finalizing plans to create Nova University somewhere in the Tokai region. They are also currently exploring other names for the new privately run university. A formal announcement about the future of the endeavor is…
Currently Japan’s most popular female figure skater, Mao Asada, has announced that she will be introducing a new clothing line called “MaoMao”. She has a very positive image as a classic Japanese woman now, and at this time the clothing line will be mostly made up of “Wafuku” or Japanese style clothing. I think this…
If you did not happen to be in Japan in 2005 when the horrific train crash occurred in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, it is worth looking some of the background stories. Many people remember Toyota’s troubles with the Prius and other cars, and some of the denials and lack of action that happened. On this blog…