- Mon. Jan 13th, 2025
Review: People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman
Jake has done an honest and intriguing review of journalist Richard Lloyd Parry’s People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman over at Literary Review. Partial transcript below. When…
The jury is in: Japan’s new jury system is a farce.
This news story slipped under my large nose in the last few days of earth-shaking quake related news. On March 30th (2011) the Tokyo High Court overturned the not-guilty verdict…
TEPCO executives under investigation for charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury. UPDATE（業務上過失致死傷容疑)
The Japanese police continue their investigation into TEPCO, the managing entity of the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor for charges of professional negligence resulting in death or injury. TEPCO announced on April…
Japanese Government Outlaws (Yakuza) Organized Crime Groups; Bans Possession of Child Pornography With Passage Of Criminal Conspiracy Laws
April 1st 2011 (Tokyo, Japan) The National Police Agency announced today an immediate ban on designated organized crime groups and their activities in conjunction with the establishment of Japan’s version…
Nuclear Ginza: Japan's secret at-risk labor force and the Fukushima disaster
Back in 1995, the UK’s Channel 4 produced a 30-minute documentary on Japan’s nuclear industry and how they use disadvantaged people, including burakumin and other day laborers, to do manual…
The manga that predicted nuclear meltdown
There’s been a number of postponements and cancellations in the Japanese entertainment world since the March 11 Tohoku Earthquake. Many are out of a sense of respect, some are due…
Years of Disaster Drills Prevents Tsunami Deaths At Iwate Prefecture Junior High and Elementary Schools
Despite the fact that Unosumai Elementary School in Iwate-ken was engulfed by a tsunami (津波・tidal-wave), every one of the 350 students who were in the building at the time managed…
Yakuza 4: Fact or Fiction? My review and discussion with IGN
The popular 龍が如く (Yakuza) video game series by Sega was released this March (2011). My kohai (後輩) and friend from my days at Sophia, Peer Schneider at IGN asked me…
Get ready to roll….and stop hoarding toilet paper, gas, etc. Let's all share!
Graphic designer Takamasa Matsumoto created a very colorful poster to discourage Tokyoites and people across Japan from hoarding toilet paper, gas, rice and the other essentials of daily life, urging…
Japan's Darker Days: The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Rumors ruined lives and they're starting again.
The people of Japan have impressed the world with their generally orderly and peaceful response to the earthquake, the tidal waves, and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture. While there…