This is breaking news out of Fukuoka. A 69 year old American English conversation teacher has been arrested on charges of child molestation. There are reportedly as many as 40 possible victims in the case. The abuse happened over a period of over a decade. He is also accused of having taken photographs and videos…
This comes to us from the same NHK Kids show “Mitsuketa” or “I Found It”. This is the same show that gives us the NHK Kids Show Cactus Character, and also the awesome rock sounds of Tortoise Matsumoto of Ulfuls singing the NHK kids rock song Tamago. Yes, this is a weird old guy in…
This story is an interesting one because it is a modern view of what’s going on in Japan. If you are already confused about fashion in Japan, school rules about hair coloring, and what people think of all the bleached blonde boys and girls running around the streets here, this story is not going to…
Many years ago in Japan (old-timer ex-pats will remember it well) when Mr. Bean was very popular in Japan, and wanna-be tough guys in Japan would mutter “Mr. Bean” under their breath when they passed a non-Japanese person and felt a wave of insecurity. Students would call ALT’s (AET’s? I don’t remember what they call…
A science teacher at Hiraoka Elementary School in Sakai City, Osaka showed about ten minutes of a home video of his wife giving birth to fifth graders in July. In the video students were able to see the umbilical cord and parts of the actual intance of birth. Students complained saying things such as, “It…
It seems that a Japanese husband and wife, supposedly for the sake of being non-sexist and fair, have decided on prices for various things the wife does around the house. The man is a 48 year old company employee married to a 42 year old woman. They claim that since the husband has started paying…
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…
This video is shown as part of the chair themed NHK children’s show I mentioned in the NHK Cactus Kids Show post. This is an awesome song for kids. It has enough rock n roll to it for parents to enjoy. It’s written and sung by the lead singer of Ulfuls, named Tortoise Matsumoto. He’s…
A new Kids show called “Mitsuketa” or “I found it” has started up on NHK. For some reason, the show’s main theme is… CHAIRS! There are skits of interactions between a real live girl, a giant talking cactus, and a chair. The cactus plays kind of a fatherly role, settling little arguments between the little…
In a previous post I wrote about six Kyoto University of Education students who raped a girl at a party in February. The university never reported the incident to police until June. There were some pretty outrageous moral violations by the school, such things as refusing to report the incident to authorities, and the fact…
By now, I assume that the big gang rape incident at prestigious Kyoto University (link goes to news story in Japanese) is international news, and I would not like to go into the details of the incident. However, of interest to students of the media and society in Japan are the reasons that Kyoto University…
It seems that people are really interested in Billy Blanks and his move to Japan so I thought I’d follow up on my previous story about Billy and Tomoko Blanks. Billy Blanks and Tomoko Blanks had a baby daughter born at Iwasa Ladies Clinic in November of 2008. A photo of the baby, named Angelica,…