A recent study by the Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has shown marriages in which the couple is already expecting are currently 26.8% and seem to be on the rise. Some wedding planning companies are saying that number may be as high as 40%. There is a movement to rename the shotgun weddings…
In a nutshell, a 67 year old Japanese man is suing his country because the weekend and holiday reduced tolls are only applicable to cars that pay by ETC (the Japanese equivalent to EZPass or other automatic toll paying systems). He claims it’s unfair that he has to pay full price on weekends just because…
Another pop execution in Japan where the usual modus operandi is to execute first and notify the media later. The next of kin for the executed is also notified AFTER the execution and asked to come and take care of the remains and any funeral rites involved. Japan executed 15 in 2008, and has come…
‘Tis the season when the youngsters are running around eating Kit-Kats (キットカット,きっと勝つ, kitto katsu), and looking for pentagons (五画, 合格, gokaku) in the architecture while trying to endear themselves to various deities in order to find favor in the hopes of scoring a few more points on their junior high entrance exams. Many private schools…
Nonprofit organization Sanyuka has been giving food to the homeless in Tokyo on a weekly basis for over ten years has been told to cease charity activities along the riverbed of the Sumida River. They have been giving out free meals to hundreds of homeless people, but have recently been asked to stop because of…
Note the poll on your right asking when you think Aso is going to announce that he’s stepping down and having elections. You can read a good insider story right here, “Prime Minister Aso on the Brink in Japan” at the Big in Japan blog for some background information on some of Aso’s recent gaffs….
A man (packing knives) parked his car near a police station and, when approached by a security guard confessed to the killings. Details have not yet been released, although the alternative news media sources (sometimes unreliablle, but often more reliable than some major news sources) are reporting that the man claimed his pet cat was…
So I bought myself about 33 liters of gas today for about 122 yen per liter. That’s a pretty good price for today, and an amazing price for tomorrow. The newspaper’s warning us that prices might go up to 160 in some places. Prime Minister Fukuda even came on air to apologize and thank the…
I have to admit. It’s always seemed a bit funny and surprising to me when I heard friends assert that it wouldn’t rain, even when I could smell it in the air and see the clouds a-coming. I’ve been told on a Sunday that it would snow on Wednesday, and right up until Thursday my…
If I have any readers from England or any other country with a prime minister, I have to ask!!! Would this fly? Wouldn’t there be a call for elections way before the approval had sunk this low. The government has already missed its own deadline for resolving the missing pensions debacle, is giving a one…
Watching the news on tv these past few days, I was surprised to see several stories that showed the temporary reduction in gas prices (which is something closer to tax relief than an actual reduction) as something NEGATIVE! One story was about a bicycle shop owner who claimed that business was finally looking up because…
A Mainichi Shimbun poll came up with a 51 percent disapproval rating. 1043 people over age 20 were polled in a random phone survey this weekend. It’s easy for someone to say that they may not actually be over 51 percent given the standard of deviation for the survey, but really… is that how you…