Check out Audio Atrocities, which is a great site devoted entirely to, “the study and enjoyment of truly terrible voice acting in video games from the very first CD system, the Turbografx until the present day.”
When you get back…would you have an ice cream with me?
In a recent review of the book NORTH KOREA: The Struggle Against American Power, by Tim Beal, Glyn Ford, who is bio’d as a “Labor member of the European Parliament for Southwest England and member of the delegation for relations with Japan” (which must not be much of a job, seeing as how Ford finds enough time to write regularly for The Japan Times), we are treated to the following jewels of logic about the NORK nuclear weapons program. . .
Got that? Kind of like the old “You can’t prove anything! You made me do it!”
But point three is the real kicker. . .
So that’s the problem with the NORK economy.
NORTH KOREA: The Struggle Against American Power is published by Pluto Press. Pluto, I believe, is a dog owned by Goofy.
Since I was a kid, I always found it interesting how someone could be so famous in Japan, but not in the US. Now we have “Pan Asian” stars, meaning they are famous across Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc, and not just in their home country. So when, I wonder, will someone break through to the US? Certainly many have tried, and just about as many have failed.
The New York Times (registration required) is reporting today on the Korean singer Rain, who is a “Pan Asian” performer and who is getting ready to put on two concerts at Madison Square Garden. To put Rain’s music in context, the articles states:
At 23, Rain, who has been labeled the Korean Justin Timberlake and the Korean Usher, is a serious and driven performer (with washboard abs, winsome looks and a Gene Kelly-like ability to leap through puddles while performing his hit song, “It’s Raining”). He wants nothing less than to break down barriers, build cultural bridges and become the first Asian pop star to succeed in America.
What I thought was also interesting about the article was this prescient point, which probably applies to many of Japundit’s devoted readers;
Because of the “multidirectional flow of cultural goods around the world,” there is a “new pop cosmopolitanism,” according to Henry Jenkins, professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In an essay in “Globalization” (University of California Press, 2004), Professor Jenkins writes that “younger Americans are distinguishing themselves from their parents’ culture through their consumption of Japanese anime and manga, Bollywood films and bhangra, and Hong Kong action movies.”
So, there you go “younger Americans.” Your ambassador may have arrived.
Check out this page (in Japanese) for some great images of bento that are nothing short of works of art.
Via The Raw Feed
Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Aso has suggested that Japan’s Emperor should visit Yasukuni Shrine.
Both China and Korea go absolutely off the wall whenever any Japanese official mentions Yasukuni, because they say that worshiping there glorifies the Japanese military and Class A war criminals who are enshrined there, criticism that was rejected by Aso.
Aso, who recently angered Beijing by calling China a threat, said the communist government’s opposition to Koizumi’s shrine visits only increased one’s desire to go.
“It’s just like when you’re told, ‘Don’t smoke cigarettes,” Kyodo quoted Aso as saying. “It actually makes you want to smoke. It’s best (for China) to keep quiet.”
He also said he hoped Emperor Akihito would visit the shrine.
“The war dead shouted ‘Banzai!’ for the Emperor, not the prime minister,” Kyodo quoted Aso as saying. “A visit by the Emperor would be best.”
The last time the reigning Japanese Emperor appeared at Yasukuni was in 1975, with a visit by the late Emperor Hirohito.
Aso is the son of Takakichi Aso, chairman of the Aso Cement Company. The Aso Family also owned Aso Mining in Kyushu, which most probably used Korean slave labor during World War II.
For those interested in the origins of the regional interaction between China, Korea, and Japan, the Japan Times covers all the bases with this review of history. This is well worth reading for people interested in the subject. Here’s the first sentence:
The Chinese had a name for the people of Japan long before the proto-Japanese had one for themselves. It was “Wa” or “Wo,” written with a character that means “dwarf.”
An excellent idea for a followup would be an account of the influence Japan has had on the rest of Asian culture in modern times, including in language, culture, and business. This influence has been extensive and has taken a route that is almost the reverse of the historical one: from Japan to Korea to China, though Taiwan and Hong Kong are now included.
A report in The New York Times is suggesting that Little Kim and the other members of the NORK government may be considering a little of the hated capitalism to rescue their floundering economy.
The following feedback about Marie’s recent UNIQLO post was received yesterday by e-mail
I’ve read your blog entries on UNIQLO’s temporary store in SoHo. I work with the company here in the U.S. and I wanted to make sure you knew that UNIQLO has extended its lease on the store through June. Things have been going so well in NYC that UNIQLO wanted to make sure New Yorkers would get to see the spring and summer lines too!
Regards,
Jason
Jason Schlossberg
President and Partner
Kwittken & Company
380 Lexington Ave., Suite 1700
New York, NY 10168jschlossberg@kwitco.com (e)
Here’s some surprising news—the Kyushu District Transport Bureau released figures showing that the number of passengers traveling by ship between Kyushu and South Korea in 2005 reached a record high. Despite all the negativity in the news, the Japanese and Koreans are still happy to come calling on each other.
Five companies offer service between the Japanese ports in Fukuoka City and Shimonoseki, and Busan and other Korean destinations. One firm is affiliated with the Japanese railroad company JR Kyushu, and another is Mirejet of South Korea (The Korean company name is based on the word for “future”.) The photo shows their jetfoil, called the Kobee, which is almost identical to the Beetle, the JR ship. I’ve made the trip between Fukuoka and Busan twice on the Beetle, and it takes slightly less than three hours. In other words, miso soup for breakfast and kimchi with your lunch.
The aggregate passenger figures rose 5.9% from the year before to roughly 912,000 people. A fascinating contrast emerges when the numbers are broken down by nationality, however. For example, the number of Japanese traveling to South Korea by ship last year plummeted by 16.5%, while the number of South Koreans hopping over to Kyushu skyrocketed by 27.9%.
Government sources suggest the Japanese decline was due to the Takeshima/Dokto dispute and a reaction to the so-called Korean wave. (The Japanese are notorious for losing interest in something just as quickly as they became enthralled by it, so this was inevitable.)
In contrast, it seems more Koreans are coming to Japan for golf and hot spring holidays, and more schools are choosing Kyushu as the destination for their class trips. And perhaps with last year’s crackdown on prostitution in South Korea, the men of that country have something else on their minds, as described in this Japundit article .
More evidence, if any were needed, that the folks who chopped off their fingers and shot flaming arrows at the Japanese embassy last year over Takeshima/Dokto are not typical of the Korean population.
Sorry for the lack of links. The article appeared in Japanese only in the Nishinippon Shimbun, and any link will be gone in a week. I couldn’t find any good English sites for the jetfoil companies, either.
Episode 4 of the Japundit Podcast is now available on the Japundit Podcast website and at FeedBurner.
This episode of the Japundit Podcast is brought to you by J-LIST and J-BOX, and by Tsuchida & Associates.
Music: From the Podsafe Music Network
News by Japundit
Japundit Contributors: Danny Bloom in Taiwan, David Weber in Tokyo, Mari Mockett in New York, Sylvain Bouchard in Sendai, Tubbypaws in the U.K., Ampontan in Kyushu, JP in Tokyo
Special Thanks: Hunter Brumfield
Often when some scandal occurs in Japan, we hear reports about how the perpetrator and/or his superior resigns or is fired from the post they currently hold. Though such an outcome might give Taro Q. Public a warm, fuzzy feeling of justice done, it often amounts to no more than window dressing, as those who lose their jobs often get a generous retirement payment and slip into another position, often within the same industry or even the same organization.
This is what seems to be happening in the case of Professor Kazuhide Uekusa. Remember him?
As we reported last April, Professor Uekusa was arrested for using a mirror to look up the skirts of young schoolgirls on a stairway, for which he was fined 500,000 yen and forced to forfeit his mirror. Once a noted economist and frequent guest on TV shows dealing with economic matters, Uekusa has maintained that he was carrying the mirror for emergency grooming sessions should he suddenly be called upon to appear on TV.
Following his conviction, Uekusa said he would not appeal but instead would prove his innocence outside of the court system.
Today we get word that Uekusa has been hired to teach at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business as a visiting professor.
“It’s a waste of talent if Mr. Uekusa’s skills go unused,” said an official of the graduate school of the Nagoya University of Commerce and Business.
We wonder precisely to which of Professor Uekusa’s talents the official is referring, and whether his compensation package includes a new looking glass.
The custom of clicking flint stones together to make a spark when geisha go out to greet a customer, to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck to the geisha and her establishment, as seen in the recent Memories of a Geisha movie, is called kiribi in Japanese.
This custom is also seen in old gangster movies, and even rakugo performers today practice this ritual before a show, as do some show business entertainers, and even construction workers when starting a new building.
This website in Japanese displays some photos of a variety of flintstone sets.
I wrote a little while back about Uniqlo’s foray into the US. I mentioned that one of the main selling points for the temporary Soho store in NYC was the concept of “Premium Japanese Denim.”
I found this very interesting post on the superb blog Millionaire Socialite regarding the future of denim in the US (yes, there are some of us who actually worry about these things). After an intense analysis on the nature of advertising and the creation of a fashion “trend,” Millionaire Socialite says:
Which brings us back to denim. The removal of overt branding allows peer-to-peer marketing to take center stage, since brands in this sector have to match increasing customer sophistication with better products (savvy customers need more subtle means of signaling) . . .
Projecting even further into the future, Millionaire Socialite makes the following point:
With the success of American Apparel and the emergence of similar labels like Base Station, other fashionable apparel is going in the same direction. I believe that this is a sign that, finally, the fashion industry is becoming driven by customer demand rather than in grand trends that the fashion mafia pushes onto the market.
Now the whole “Premium Japanese Denim” and “No logo” marketing push from the Uniqlo management makes a lot more sense to me. Time will tell if Uniqlo is able to get aboard the trend, while still differentiating themselves. Certainly the hunger is there for cool things from Japan. Now, if Uniqlo could just be a little bit cooler.
The word out of China is that sales of adult diapers are into their annual spike with the advent of the Lunar New Year season, which starts on January 29th this year.
Around 120 million migrant workers are expected to make their way home from the cities for the holidays, in trains that are packed so tightly with people that it becomes virtually impossible to make it to the toilet during journeys that can take as long as 24 hours. Because of this, many people have taken to wearing adult diapers so they can relieve themselves on the spot.
Supermarkets in some areas report a 50 percent increase in adult diaper sales during the period leading up to the holiday season.
These are a pair of shorts in the young girl’s section of a department store.
Tabloid Tokyo was the top selling “nonfiction on Japan” book at Tower Records in Tokyo recently. The book, edited by a crack team of Tokyo translators and editors, features translations of some of Japan’s wildest tabloid and weekly magazine articles.
Each week, the team combed the Japanese-language weeklies — lurid, quirky and irreverent — and this new book covers the past four years.
What’s inside? Stories about sex, criminal shenanigans and scandals. Japanese families — dysfunctional and otherwise — and the economy. Pets, fashion, trends and much, much more. As a picture of contemporary Japanese society, Japundit readers will find this collection often informative, sometimes shocking, but always entertaining.
Thanks to Angry Asian Man, we found found the following series of photographs over at this this website (in Chinese) that show a three-year-old Chinese boy who looks as if he is already quite adept at getting his regular nictone fix.
