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Latest stories about Japan

15 October 2011

Global Handwashing Day: Changing Behaviors through Song and Dance

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Education, Health

Do you know how to properly wash your hands? Through songs and dances, people from different parts of the world teach others the right way to wash their hands to promote health. October 15 is Global Handwashing Day.

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4 October 2011

China: The Cost of Space Ambition

Written by John Kennedy · Development, Technology

China's launch of an unmanned space station last week, says the editor of a Tokyo-based newspaper for Chinese expats, has given Japan reason to step up its contribution to the universal endeavor of space exploration - if it can afford it.

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24 September 2011

Video: Water Bottle Lights and Other Eco-Friendly Inventions

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Ideas, Arts & Culture

Solar lights and hot water heaters from plastic water bottles, houses made from trash and a way to do without plastic bags are some of the projects making reducing, reusing and recycling not only fun and affordable but also vital in improving the quality of life of people all around the world.

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23 September 2011

Colombia: President Santos' Tour of Asia

Written by Robert Valencia · Translated by Marianna Breytman · International Relations, Economics & Business

Last week, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos toured Japan and South Korea for seven days with the goal of strengthening commercial ties. In Japan, he signed an agreement to protect reciprocal investments, while the Koreans promised to accelerate the process for a free trade treaty. Bloggers and Twitter users commented on the trip.

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11 September 2011

Japan: The Case of an Exposed Online Pseudonym

Written by Izumi Mihashi · Freedom of Speech, Human Rights

The sudden shutdown of "Diary of an ex-NEET who works overseas", a popular anonymous blog that criticized Japanese working ethics, has spurred discussion about anonymous activity on the Internet.

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7 September 2011

China: Sex, Censorship and the Rise of ‘People's Porn'

Written by Ronald Yick · Freedom of Speech, Arts & Culture

Katrien Jacobs, author of new book 'People's Pornography: Sex and Surveillance on the Chinese Internet', discusses the emergence of an online erotic culture in China that openly describes individuals' personal sexual activities - in other words, amateur Internet pornography.

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16 August 2011

South Korea: Blood Type Personality Theory, How It Works

Written by Lee Yoo Eun · Ideas, Arts & Culture

The blood type personality theory claims that people's blood type is predictive of their personality and compatibility with others. Nowhere is this belief more popular than in South Korea and Japan. Yoo Eun Lee delves deeper into the theory's history.

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15 August 2011

Japan: How to Unplug Your Life and Save Electricity

Written by Scilla Alecci · Ideas, Environment

People in Japan have been unplugging their lives as electricity-saving measures have been implemented to cope with power shortages. The effectiveness of the measures is yet to be proven but many have taken this opportunity to change their power consuming life style.

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13 August 2011

Comedic Fun with Japanese Hashtag Memes

Written by Tomomi Sasaki · Arts & Culture, Humor

Since Twitter introduced Japanese language capability for hashtags, the Japanese Twitterverse has turned into an oasis for wordplay.

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11 August 2011

Japan: Chaos at Chitose Airport on March 11

Written by Takashi Ota · Disaster, Travel

On March 11, 2011, a Delta airplane pilot approaching Tokyo airport described his experience of an emergency landing in an email so vividly, that it spread rapidly across the blogosphere. Aviation fan blogger BUTA_NEKO responded to the meme in Japanese, to tell the other side of the story.

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Updates about Japan

5 November 2011

English

Chris Berthelsen's visual collection of “hook based solutions” for storage and barriers around suburban Tokyo has reached the 10th mark.

• Tomomi Sasaki

24 October 2011

Updates

The Tofugu blog looks at school and work uniforms in Japan to explain why they're important, in Japan, Steve Jobs, and the Infamous Black Turtleneck.

• Tomomi Sasaki

16 October 2011

English

Jake Adelstein comments on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's 2010 documentary, “Yakuza”. The video is now available for viewing on YouTube.

• Tomomi Sasaki

English

In response to the ministry of tourism's plan to invite 10,000 foreigners to Japan, Danny Choo asks what your travel plans would be. The campaign's aim is to create buzz by leveraging social media to attract tourists to Japan.

• Tomomi Sasaki

27 September 2011

English

The Black Tokyo blog writes about the rich history of Asia studies by African-American scholars. “I want to follow the path of Blacks that have made it possible for other Blacks to provide information on Asia, in my case Japan, from an Afro perspective.“

• Tomomi Sasaki

26 September 2011

English

Since news broke that Japan's 2nd largest carrier KDDI has struck a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone5, tech savvy netizens are keeping a close watch on the company's actions. The company has not made an official statement at this point.

• Tomomi Sasaki

13 September 2011

English

Marcelo de Alcantara from the Japanese Law Blog has translated a news article with 2011 statistics about the revised bar examinations.

• Tomomi Sasaki

12 September 2011

Japanese

Buddhika Weerasinghe has posted photos of the anti-nuclear power demonstration held in central Tokyo on September 11th. Several thousand people joined the demo, as can be seen in this video footage [ja] and 12 people were arrested. See also the official site [ja] for the demonstration.

• Tomomi Sasaki

English

Hashi at Tofugu blogs about the World Values Survey results that show that Japan is “one of the most rational, least ‘traditional' countries out there” and tops the list of countries as having the strongest secular-rational values.

• Tomomi Sasaki

2 September 2011

Japanese

Musicians from the earthquake-hit areas united and gave life to a project called Sing Out From Japan [en,ja]. They have released two songs so far: Let's go home/lawblow and One love/I shall walk looking up, which are both cover versions of popular songs. The videos were shot in the regions devastated by the magnitude 9.0 tremor and tsunami.

• Scilla Alecci