Stories about Japanese from December, 2010
Japan: Top popular Japanese phrases of 2010
Pinktentacle reported and translated into English the “Top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2010″, published on the website of Jiyu Kokuminsha.
Japan: A year of blogs
As the character 暑 (sho) meaning ‘hot or heat' was chosen to represent the year 2010 at the annual ceremony in Kyoto, let's see a selection of “hot topics” that Global Voices covered this year.
Japan: Woman sued Google Street View for pics of underwear
Again troubles for Google Street Views [en] in Japan. Reports said [en] that a young woman sued Google for showing pictures of her underwear drying on the balcony and claimed about 7,000 USD for damages. A blogger at Gundam Nikki commented saying that such an action is exaggerated and due...
Japan: Fruity Samurai
The animated series Fruity Samurai [ja] (フルーティー侍), which received a special award for the section ‘World Wide Laugh’ at the last Okinawa International Movie Festival [ja], makes fun of the traditional swashbuckling movies. The first three episodes can be viewed at Fruity Samurai Official Channel [mute] on Youtube.
Japan: Blogging from the PM's residence
With the aim to connect citizens to politics and show how's life at the prime minister's official residence, in November the residence staff launched a blog called Kan-Full Blog [ja] (Naoto Kan being the name of Japan's PM). The blog obviously has posts on the content of PM's press conferences...
Digital historical archive Japan Air Raids
Cary Karacas and Bret Fisk [ja] run the digital historical archive Japan Air Raids. The site, available in English and Japanese, is “an ongoing project to build a digital archive dedicated to the international dissemination of information about the World War II air raids against Japan”.
Japan: Opposing Proposed Bill to Restrict “Harmful” Anime and Manga
The anime and manga industry's protest again Tokyo's proposed bill for tighter restrictions on content sold to youths escalated on Friday when ten publishers announced that they would not participate in Tokyo International Anime Fair. The Japanese twittersphere is abuzz with this topic, as reflected in Togetter [ja], where it...
Japan: Asahi's English Daily to become Electronic Only
Andy Sharp at the Diplomat's Tokyo Notes reports that the print version of Asahi Shimbun’s printed English-language daily will be discontinued next February and become electronic only. This leaves two printed English-language dailies in Japan, and Sharp notes “given their precarious positions, it would not come as a shock if,...
Japan: Web Service Togetter now in English
Togetter is a popular Japanese web service that allows users to bundle tweets under any given topic. They launched an English version of the service as Chripstory last week. Many Twitter users have voiced their encouragement and support, as bundled in this Togetter thread [ja].
Japan: A Quiet Revolution by the NEET [Not in Education, Employment, or Training]
In a post titled "Revolution of the NEET (lol)", Sayuri Tamaki explores a new breed of NEET and how they are changing the country.
Japan: Confusion and speculations on the North Korean incident
The latest attack by North Korea on South Korea has put Japan on the alert. Is it the beginning of a war? Will it be Japan's turn next time? Or is it just a ‘beat-up' created by both conservative and alarmist media alike? People in Japan are alarmed but don't know what to think.
Japan: Watching Wikileaks
Wikileaks Watch Japan sums up and translates in Japanese Wikileaks’ major findings. The blog was started this month and is updated daily by user fryingpan.
