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Inside Yamazaki Distillery: Peaceful Shrines, Rogue Schoolchildren, and Whisky (Lots of It.)
To celebrate Suntory Whisky’s 100th anniversary, the company is releasing Hakushu highballs in canned form, sold at conbinis near you for 600 yen a pop. It’s as good…
Corporate Turmoil: The Ups and Downs of the Elevator Business
Fujitec, a major Japanese company that has been in business for the last 75 years, has come into the spotlight over the last couple of months. Fujitec is…
The 99% has a Very Different Meaning in Japan
By Henry Rogers Japan has an astonishing 99% conviction rate for suspects going to trial. This has caught the attention of the Human Rights Watch, and the organization…
Beyblades Go To Battle!
Beyblades: A toy, or much more? By Henry Rogers Two children sit in a dark basement with stern looks on their faces. Between them sits an arena, a…
What happened this last weekend at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima?
by Henry Rogers and Jake Adelstein The 2023 Hiroshima G7 summit ended yesterday against the backdrop of the first-ever city to be destroyed by an atomic bomb. The…
Masks are off at Tokyo’s best fetish party, Department H (unless you’re into that)
Following that was a lively wrestling match between two people in lizard masks which supposedly turned into a softcore sex show. Unfortunately I just barely missed the plot…
An Honest Portrait of a Japanese B*tch
Japanese women are angry. If you didn't already know this you probably shouldn't be reading a review of The Ripple because you won't be interested in a film…
A different kind of Tokyo film festival
A 2-day international film festival is taking place this weekend in Tokyo, featuring short films from Japan, Norway, Kyrgyzstan, and more. Damah International Film Festival moved to Tokyo…
The Unbearable Pathos Of Poop (Okiku’s World film review)
oop is the main thing that remains in the mind after watching Okiku's World. Lots and lots of poop. Ninety-nine percent of the film was shot in black and…
Lessons Learned From Encounters With Clickbait Journalist.
In the yakuza world they say, “As soon as you get to the top, someone will try to kick you down.” The world of journalism is, sadly, surprisingly…
Comment gagner un combat perdu d’avance contre les auteurs de pièges à clics?
S’il y a une maxime de connue chez les yakuza, c’est bien « Dès que tu arriveras au sommet, quelqu'un essaiera de t'en faire tomber. » L'univers du…
Taste Testing Blue Muffins for the World’s Largest Nutrition Study
A merciless curiosity to taste mysterious blue muffins led me to volunteer for the world’s largest nutrition study, Predict 2.
What I’ve Learned In The 30 Years Since I Became A Reporter: The 12 Rules Of Being A Good Journalist In Japan
Share your data. The internet is a vast and endless storage hub. If you’ve written something the world should know--put up supporting data and documents on the web,…
Johnny Be Bad: A rare interview with Japan’s boy Idol-maker and pederast
Having decided that “Are you or have you ever been a pederast?” might be somewhat too direct a question to put to the dear old chap, I lobbed…
The mysterious beauty of Reylia Slaby’s World
Reylia Slaby, born in Japan and well-known for the mysterious and otherworldly vistas that dominate her photography, is having her first solo exhibition from March 25th. A perfect…
Japan Goes Up in Smoke
I hail from a family of smokers. My parents, their siblings, my cousins, my grandparents. New Years' family get-togethers were marked by cramped living rooms dense with smoke,…
Egoism and Love: Not mutually exclusive
Egoist. The title seemingly belies this love story. From the vantage point of today's incessantly narcissistic and increasingly toxic dating/relationship culture, Egoist is the exact opposite of what it claims…
For the hundredth time, it’s Suntory time
There’s no greater testament to the power of Japanese whiskey than just sitting in Suntory Hall. The February 1st press conference celebrating the 100th year anniversary took place…
Samurai play soccer and other fairy tales: Japan and the world cup
In the early naughts an older co-worker sidled up to me one afternoon in the company corridor and told me with a mix of swagger and sincerity that…
Recent threats against FOreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) and the history of media intimidation
by Robert Whiting (reprinted with permission) TOKYO — Over a recent early weekend, there were a series of threatening calls made in English and Japanese to the Foreign…
The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし）Gone with the Gods –On Air now
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
“A Man” Takes Imposter Syndrome To New Dimensions
Life seems to be going incredibly well for them until Daisuke is killed in an accident. At the one-year memorial, his estranged older brother turns up from Gunma…
Washoku
Once they get married, Japanese women will do pretty much everything they want, because age - looming on the horizon like Godzilla lurching closer with each passing year…
Baked goods
Once they get married, Japanese women will do pretty much everything they want, because age - looming on the horizon like Godzilla lurching closer with each passing year…
outstanding tokyo English Standup comedy This Friday!
ince then, the show has grown to offer an inclusive venue to comedians of all kinds, but especially to those who know what it's like to be treated…
神隠し(かみかくし）Gone with the Gods (an original Podcast) coming IN 2022
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
Tokyo Comedy Bar Opens In Shibuya
After the past couple of years, we could all do with more laughs. Yet when Ben “BJ” Fox proposed opening a comedy venue in the middle of a…
Japan: The Shape Of Things To Come? Find out this Sunday (May 15)
Join some of the greatest experts on Japan to discuss the future of this island nation. This coming Sunday (May 15, starting 10am), sees a unique event at the Yokohama…
Response to The Hollywood Reporter Article
Any competent journalist here knows that the civil servant laws here (公務員法) and the State Secrets Law make it a crime for government officials to divulge confidential information…
May the Force Be With You (May 4th) Zen Wisdom From Star Wars! The Dao of Jedi
May 4th has become an iconic day for Star Wars fans across the universe. "May The 4th Be With You" becomes "May The Force Be With You" quite…
The 11 Rules Of Being A Good Journalist In Japan
Share your data. The internet is a vast and endless storage hub. If you’ve written something the world should know--put up supporting data and documents on the web,…
Protecting Sources & Risking Lives: The Ethical Dilemmas of Japanese Journalism
"1. Write the truth by any means possible. 2. Protect your sources. 3. If you can't write the story, without protecting your sources, find new or different sources…
Win a chance to see the premiere of Tokyo Vice!
A public service announcement.WOWOW will invite 100 people the special showing of the first episode of #TokyoVice on April 5The series is based on the book Tokyo Vice:…
Tokyo Private Eye (東京探偵) the sequel to Tokyo Vice coming in Spring of 2023, with Marchialy (France)
Clients say they want to know, but they don't They want you to tell them what they want to hear But that's not the job My job is…
A Farewell To Japan’s King of Toxic Masculinity: Shintaro Ishihara
Ishihara hated outspoken women and liberal men; he had no kind feelings for the US and refused to be enthralled or intimidated by western culture. Ishihara reserved his…
Driving In Winter With Haruki Murakami… and Why We Still Need Him
Murakami's story is part of a compilation titled Men Without Women, a fate which, in the Murakami scheme of things is akin to death by torture. Men cannot…
To End Global Warming: We Need Oil…To Be Left In The Ground
by Eddie Adelstein (special guest contributor) The earth's core is a like a sun hidden within the earth.Credit: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Scientists have abundantly proven that global warming is…
Back To The Matrix: The 4th Time Is The Charm. ★★★★
BTW, there is only a smattering of the “bullet-time” that made the first film so ground-breaking, but for good reasons. It’s two and a half hours of B+…
Live from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Closing Ceremony
By Chihiro Kai As I sit here in the Tokyo Olympic Stadium press section, the seats are vibrating from the music and bass blasting out of the speakers.…
My Brushes With the Yakuza – Reflections of Life in Akasaka, Tokyo
My first encounter with the 'yakuza' or the crooks and gangsters of Japan's underworld, happened when I was 14 years old, on my way home from cram school.…
Lambda Is On The Lam In Japan
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are over but they may leave a lasting legacy in Japan: the deadly COVID19 Lambda variant; it first arrived on July 20th, when a…
Tokyo 2020 Olympics Haunted By The Holocaust
Ah, I didn't know about this skit. This is no good. It's like if you did a sketch where the joke was the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or…
The Music of Cruelty
“I’d strip (one kid) naked and roll him up in cords and make (him) masturbate. I made him eat shit and then performed a belly- to-back-drop wrestling move…
What This Means (a short-story about love and marriage in Japan during the pandemic)
And then she would pretend to pout which was another cue for me to massage the back of her feet, and then we'd head off to the bedroom…
The People of Tokyo Hate The Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Why do they protest?
Yesterday, June 23rd, marked one month before the opening of the “cursed” Tokyo 2020 Olympics and hundreds of residents marked the occasion by holding a protest in front…
"Where Is The Romance?"–a hard-boiled meditation on mating rituals in Tokyo (for V-day)
In a departure from our usual somber posting, I've written an original prose-poem, which is for a friend's upcoming "Where is the Romance" theme party in Tokyo--a pre-valentines's…
Pandemic highlights Japan’s historical lack of leadership and management
By Chihiro Kai "My evaluation of the Japanese COVID measures is that they are purely optimism based with no evidence, no grounds, as well as with very much…
Japan’s Monster Mermaid Amabie is Here To Save You From COVID19! (Maybe)
Though the typical Japanese yokai is often grotesque and loves to play pranks on humans, the Amabie is a beach chick that emerges from the sea to foretell…
Japan Solves Coronavirus Crisis With Magical Math
By Chihiro Kai. Edited by Jake Adelstein Suddenly, Japan which was facing a severe fourth wave of coronavirus infections, serious illnesses and death seems to be out of…
THE BADGER AND THE STARS (a poem)
This girl will be named Shoko, spirit in flight, and years later when I moved from place to place, hobby to hobby, man to man, she'd lament naming…