Stories from and

Tokyo to Host 2020 Olympics

  7 September 2013

Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Summer Olympics after the members of International Olympic Committee have voted on September 7th to select the host city. Tokyo 2020 reacts to the news #olympics2020 #BA2013 #olympics pic.twitter.com/lKws4Qcw4E — Olympics (@Olympics) September 7, 2013

100 Million Signature Campaign for Resolution of Japan's ‘Sex Slaves’ Issues

  6 September 2013

The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan has launched a new campaign to gather 100 million signatures. Their online petition, in eight different languages, calls on Japanese government to offer an official apology and legal reparations to the victims and asks the international community to join their cause....

Asteroid Named in Honor of Peru

  1 September 2013

The Committee of Small Objects Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union gave astronomers authorization to name the asteroid identified with the number 1995 SG5 as Qoyllurwasi in honor of Perú. Qoyllurwasi means house of the stars in Quechua language, where qoyllur means star and wasi is house. The asteroid was...

South Koreans Call for Medical Checkups for Rescue Workers Dispatched to Fukushima

  29 August 2013

As it turns out radioactive water leaks at Japan's Fukushima plant are ‘much worse than‘ the authorities are willing to admit, South Koreans call on government to provide regular and thorough medical checkups for 108 Korean rescue workers dispatched to Fukushima immediately after the crisis. An online petition [ko] urging medical care for the...

Japanese Users Break Tweets Per Second Record

  4 August 2013

Japan's netizens broke the world record for tweets per second on August 2, 2013, flooding Twitter with the magic word “balse” [バルス] from the 1986 anime film Castle In the Sky as the movie was broadcast on television in Japan on August 2, 2013. Users set a new record of 143,199 tweets...

An Undeniably Racist Song, ‘Asian Girlz’ Sparks Controversy

  31 July 2013

Packed with Asian stereotypes and fetishes, song ‘Asian Girlz’ by ‘Day Above Ground’ has invited controversy and angry comments. Blogger Angry Asian Man typed down the entire lyrics to comment [if they have not] ‘run out of stereotypical Oriental stuff to list off, the song would have gone on for another ten minutes”. The...

Fukushima: No Place Like Home

  22 July 2013

‘No Time for Anger [de]’, a visualization journal by a team of Swiss media reporter and designers, illustrates Fukushima two years after the triple catastrophe of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami followed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011. Fearing radiation, some residents sought evacuation to other areas...

Data Visualization: Electric Japan

  15 July 2013

Electrical Japan [ja], a website by researcher Asanobu Kitamoto [ja] lets you explore electric power plants and energy consumption in Japan through data-visualization. The color of the dots represents the type of power plant, for example fossil-fuel plants are red and hydroelectric plants are blue. The size of the dot represents the amount of power generated....

Web Popularity of Japan's Candidates Ranked

  15 July 2013

In the midst of Japan's first election campaign where politicians are officially allowed to use social media, freelance engineer Masahide Mori [ja] has compiled a ranking [ja] based on the number of likes and the number of subscribers on the Facebook pages of candidates. Users can view increase and decrease of Facebook...

Former Fukushima Plant Manager Passes Away

  9 July 2013

Masao Yoshida, the manager at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant at the time of the accident in Japan, died on July 9, 2013. He had esophageal cancer. Many people expressed condolences on social media, and EX-SKF blog translated more details on Yoshida's unfulfilled dream to speak for workers and stabilize the...

Japan: Winny Developer Dies at 42

  8 July 2013

Isamu Kaneko, the Japanese developer of file-sharing software Winny, died due to an undisclosed illness on July 8, 2013 at the age of 42. He was charged in 2006 with “assisting” Winny users to violate copyright, but the case against him was later overturned and his acquittal upheld by the country's Supreme...

Japan's Most Evil Corporations

  30 June 2013

A committee of labor activists and journalists have announced the nominees for Japan's most evil corporation in 2013 [ja]. Eight corporations and organizations that lost their employees to overwork and suicide have been nominated for the disgraceful award. Web users can vote for Japan's evilest corporation here [ja], where realtime results and comments...

‘Code For Japan’ in the Works

  30 June 2013

Among others, Haruyuki Seki, a software developer at Georepublic Japan[ja] and social media consultant Hiroyasu Ichikawa are currently working toward the launch of Code For Japan [ja], an organization that aims to improve the society through technology. Members got together on June 20, 2013 and discussed prospects [ja] of collaboration among civil...

Japan's WordPress Communities Celebrate 10 Years

  18 June 2013

WordPress communities in Japan celebrated the 10th anniversary of the open source blogging platform. Events were held in Sapporo, Kagawa, Tokyo, Chiba and Osaka. There are 40 local WordBench [ja] groups, Japan's WordPress local community directory is powered by BuddyPress. Naoko Takano blogs more about the events in Japan.

Activists Protest Monsanto Offices in Tokyo

  26 May 2013

Activists in Tokyo demonstrated against agricultural giant Monsanto in front of their local offices, joining 279,723 protesters in 57 other countries around the world for March Against Monsanto day on May 25, 2013. Project 99% [ja], an anti-nuclear power and anti-Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement [so called TPP] coalition of activists and groups in Japan...

Media's Too Simple View of Japan LGBT

  15 May 2013

Blogger and activist Masaki C. has something to say about English media coverage of LGBT politics in Japan, arguing that they simplify the issue down to marriage equality: They are, in constructing LGBT politics in Japan as such, erasing local history and ignoring dialogues taking place among queers in Japan.

Japan's Pregnancy Handbook Plan Forgets Men

  13 May 2013

To counter the dropping birth rate, the Japanese government is proposing compiling a handbook with information on pregnancy and family planning to educate teenage girls on the subject. This plan to distribute the so-called “women's handbook” has been met with criticism by women's groups, which argue that the issues of...

Tokyo Joins NASA's App Challenge

  24 April 2013

Japan participated in NASA's International Space Apps Challenge 2013 with a hackathon in Tokyo on April 21 and 22, 2013. Eighteen project teams developed apps with the aim of improving life on Earth and in space, including an app to create dishes in a shape of celestial bodies [ja] such as...

Earthquake Hits Awaji Island in Japan

  13 April 2013

A strong earthquake hit Awaji island of Japan on Saturday morning April 13, 2013. Twitter user JUN took this photo [ja] of the devastation. Seven people were severely injured, according to a report [ja].