Japan Subculture Research Center

Tora-san, Japan's most popular movie figure, doesn't have a home. He's a tramp, and a tekiya (的屋)--a street-merchant yakuza--who earns his living by traveling in remote Japanese towns and selling…

Mild Seven cigarettes are no more to be found in the smoker's paradise. Japan Tobacco Inc. changed the name of its flagship cigarette brand from "Mild Seven" to "Mevius" in…

The National Police Agency announced recently that there were total of 44 human trafficking cases confirmed by police across Japan in 2012, and a dramatic uptick in the number of domestic…

In the United States, serving whale meat can cost you decades of jail-time as one sushi chef in Los Angeles recently learned; in Japan it costs you about $10, for…

Yesterday, February 5th, the International Fund for Animal Welfare released a report: The Economics Of Japanese Whaling: A Collapsing Industry Burdens Taxpayers, and held a press conference at the Foreign…

The Green-Tea/Levitra Martini was highly effective on pancreatic, stomach and prostate tumors. This is a good thing because if you’re going to be taking Levitra, you definitely want a healthy…

For thousands of years, China and Japan have been neighboring countries. Former Japanese ambassador to China, Uichiro Niwa, at a press conference held today, explained it is not possible for…

Blood-Stained Mai Love by Mamoru Oshii is a black comedy about a high school student with a fetish for donating blood and his strange friendship with Mai, a wandering Transylvanian…

The message of "Strong In The Rain" in its tale of foreign and Japanese heroes and villains--and there are both, remains with the reader long after the book is done.…

Creap, the awkwardly named powdered milk product, was first launched in Showa 35 (1960) around the time that instant coffee became widely sold in Japan. Creap, which actually includes milk,…