Some exciting news for people who are fond of thinking in terms of hair thickness and ear wax texture.

The Japanese can be genetically classified into two categories–people native to the Ryukyu Islands in Okinawa Prefecture and people native to other parts of Japan–researchers from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Science (Riken), who analyzed the genes and genetic structure of about 7,000 people, have discovered.

Riken’s findings, which were meant to shed more light on the origins of Japanese, were published in the online edition of a U.S. science magazine on Friday.

The biggest genetic difference in these two groups were found to be hair thickness and ear wax texture. People who originated from areas outside of the Ryukyu Islands tend to have much harder hair and drier ear wax and were discovered to be genetically closer to Chinese people.

What does this do to the “homogeneous Japanese race” theory?!?

27-year-old Japanese ex-porn (AV) actress Nao Oikawa (she retired from boinking in front of cameras in 2004) seems to have completed the move from blue movies to mainstream pop idol via a girl group named G3 Princess, which also includes Yumi Sugimoto and Rina Aizawa. Ms. Oikawa is the one on the right in the following video.

For a peek at a censored but very not-safe-for-work XXX video that spotlights some of Ms. Oikawa’s more salacious talents, click here.

The Peanuts, a female pair of Japanese twins (Emi and Yumi Ito), who were a major presence in the Japanese music world back in the ’60s, are planning to release a new album to mark the 50th anniversary of their debut back on 1959.

Here are a few of their better known songs in Japan.

If you are old enough, you might remember them as the duo who sang the original Mothra theme.

They even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Just in case you missed it over at Japan News Junkie, you might want to check out Natasha’s Story, which is the saga of a U.S. photographer’s efforts to get young girl of mixed Korean and American blood to American in line with here dead grandmother’s wishes.

Each year the organization that publishes the Standardized Kanji Test announces the “kanji of the year,” the character that best sums up the events of the past twelve months.

Previous characters have included inochi (life) in 2005 to mark the terrible young lives lost in suicides that year, tora (tiger) due to the historic Hanshin Tigers’ victory in the Japan pennant, and ikusa (war) in 2001, when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

The kanji of the year for 2007 was nise, meaning “fake” or “fraud,” due to the large number of food-related scandals that became news, including a famous restaurant caught labeling normal meat as high-grade Kobe beef and serving leftovers to customers, a confectionery company that sprayed water on stale slices of cake so they’d look fresh enough to sell, and Hokkaido-based “Meat Hope,” which despite its awesome name got in trouble for intentionally mis-labeling its products.

So far, 2008 has been more of the same as food scandals continue. The most egregious one so far has been a company called Mikasa Foods, which bought inedible rice that had been contaminated with pesticides and seawater (it said) for use in glue production. In reality, it relabeled the rice and sold it to more than 370 companies, which used it to manufacture everything from food to sake to beer and more — bleah.

The Japanese government is banking on the overwhelming power exerted by nicotine over spineless smokers in its search for new tax revenues.

A report by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says that the government can expect to earn an additional 9 trillion yen in tax revenue over the next 10 years by raising the price of cigarettes to 1,000 yen a pack.

“Many people won’t be able to give up, even if they want to, so raising the price will lead to an increase in tax income,” said a representative of the ministry’s research team.

The ministry carried out a survey of over 20,000 smokers on the Internet, with results showing that if prices were increased from 300 to 1,000 yen a pack, 96 percent would try and give up smoking. However, a previous survey by the Central Social Insurance and Medical Council revealed that even with the best medical treatment, the success rate of giving up smoking for a year is only 33 percent. So even accounting for those who can cut down, and demand dropping to 36 percent of the previous year, the research team still predicts a net tax revenue increase of 560 billion yen in the first year. In the next year, when many ex-smokers take up the habit again, demand would bounce back by 40-49 percent, with an extra 1.27 trillion yen a year going into government coffers.

The currently-planned price increase to 500 yen is predicted to make an extra 4 trillion yen in tax over the next 10 years.

Great news for all you lovers of wacky Japanese products out there with the announcement that Thanko has added an English portal to their Rare Mono Shop.

Via Akiba Today

The Apple iPhone seems to be experiencing a cooler reception in Japan than it did in other countries around the world.

According to market-research firm MM Research Institute, Apple sold about 200,000 phones in Japan in the first two months. Since then, however, demand has been falling steadily, and analysts now widely believe sales are unlikely to reach a total of 500,000 units. That is half the one million units that they previously thought Apple could sell. One big challenge is that Japanese users already have access to some of the most advanced mobile-phone technologies in the world. Models currently sold by Japanese cellphone makers typically contain a high-end color display, digital TV-viewing capability, satellite navigation service, music player and digital camera. Many models also include chips that let owners use their phones as debit cards or train passes. Noriko Tanaka, a 34-year-old Softbank customer in Tokyo, said she likes the iPhone’s touch screen, but would prefer a phone with digital television capability. “The touch screen looks fun, but I’m not sure I could get used to it,” said Ms. Tanaka.

Hey, JAPUNDITs, here’s a change to get your big break in modeling. Graphic designer Yukie Kaneko is looking for gaijin men to model her new fundoshi collection. Fundoshi are traditional Japanese undergarments that are similar to a loin cloth.

The shoots will be in Tokyo, both indoors and out. No compensation, but heck, how often is it that you can get your picture taken in the near buff.

Send e-mail here for more info: web@ichizen-jp.com

Via Jean Snow

It seems as if golfer Michelle Wie is finally growing up.

To try to earn her 2009 LPGA Tour card, Wie has entered the first stage of tour qualifying next week at Mission Hills Country Club.

Score this as a first step in the direction Wie should have been following all along.

Time will tell whether this is a genuine epiphany or just another one of those phony self-discovery stunts that are so popular these days.

In any event, let’s just hope we don’t get any more of this:

After turning pro the week of her 16th birthday, Wie has stuck to a game plan that she said was always her design, even though her parents appeared to be behind the wheel far more often than she was. And along the way, Wie drove very far off track.

In her first full year as a pro, she held at least a share of the lead in three majors in 2006. Then after she injured her wrists, Wie’s fortunes changed, her game faltered, her missteps increased and her image started taking hits.

And the fact remains that Wie hasn’t won any kind of tournament since the U.S. Women’s Public Links Championship, when she was all of 13.

Almost from that moment, her peers and others have suggested that Wie learn how to win against female players, instead of constantly loading up her playing schedule against the male pros, experiences that gained her almost nothing except more notoriety. Most of that negative, by the way.

Good luck, Michelle.

Via The Marmot’s Hole

Koichi Toyama, wild and wacky candidate for past Tokyo governor elections of years gone by, has found a new goal in live. . . Becoming President of the United States!

You know, some of the things he says make more sense than some of the “real” candidates. . .

As reported over on Japan News Junkie the video below has been causing quite an uproar on the Japanese Internet.

It features two female Nagasaki University students who perform a dance (and flash a little upskirt) to a tune from the erotic game TimeLeap in front of the Atomic Dome in Hiroshima

Some are saying it it is insulting to the souls of the people who died in the A-bombing of the city. Others are saying it is no big deal.

What say you Japundits?

Via Kotaku

The Mainichi Daily News recently reported that Kirin will soon start selling a beer with 7% alcohol called, appropriately enough, Strong Seven.

This is both good news and bad news for Japan’s beer drinkers. Good because it’s strong, bad because, well, it’s going to suck. Granted, I haven’t actually tried Strong Seven yet (it hits stores October 22) but I can bet you it’ll taste like crap. Why? Because every Japanese beer priced below the top tier varieties (Asahi Super Dry, Yebisu, etc.—essentially the stuff you can get overseas) is undrinkable.

Strong Seven is classified as a third-category beer. According to Wikipedia, Japanese beer has three categories, largely based on the amount of malt used. The first, which is called simply “beer,” is the good stuff. What you would probably drink if you weren’t homeless or had no taste buds. Drinks in the second category, called happoshu, contain less than 67% malt. The remaining ingredients are made up of things like corn, rice, sorghum, and potato. Really. Lastly, there’s the third category, which is where our Strong Seven falls. Wikipedia says,

Since 2004, Japanese breweries have produced even lower taxed, non-malt brews made from soybeans and other ingredients which do not fit the classifications for beer or happoshu.

Soybeans? Mmm, yummy. The price of 141 yen per 350ml can and 197 yen for a 500ml can reflects this. (To compare, a 350ml can of Asahi Super Dry is more like 200 yen.)

Mainichi says that Kirin is bypassing the younger people that have been buying diet and light drinks lately and going straight for male beer drinkers aged 30-50. Get the job done without a lot of money drinkers. First beer at 7am on the morning train drinkers. Passed out in the park at noon drinkers. Alcoholics.

I’ll stick with Yebisu, thanks.

The U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) has announced a new policy that will require its golfers to learn and speak English for face suspension of their membership.

“Why now? Athletes now have more responsibilities and we want to help their professional development,” deputy commissioner Libba Galloway told The Associated Press. “There are more fans, more media and more sponsors. We want to help our athletes as best we can succeed off the golf course as well as on it.”

Players were told by LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens that by the end of 2009, all players who have been on the tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills or face a membership suspension. A written explanation of the policy was not given to players, according to the report.

Though the new rule applies to all players regardless of national origin, Korean players on the LPGA feel as if the new rule is aimed squarely at them.

“The LPGA could come out and say they only want 10 Koreans, but they’re not,” [said Angela Park, a Korean-American who was born in Brazil], according to Golfweek. “A lot of Korean players think they are being targeted, but it’s just because there are so many of them.”

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is putting the palatial governor’s official residence on the block, but before you run over an submit a bid you should be forewarned that the minimum price is 4.8 billion yen.

And they ain’t selling to just anyone. The city stipulating that the property may be used only as the embassy of a foreign government.

Despite all of the restrictions, the Tokyo government says it already has received several inquiries, and interested parties have come to inspect the property.

The current official residence of the governor was completed in July 1997. It has two floors above ground, and one basement floor, with a total floor space of 1,885 square meters. The total area of the property is 2,220 square meters. In addition to a four-bedroom residence, it has a conference room and disaster-prevention liaison office.

Check out this photo of a vehicle that belongs to a budget rental outfit in Cairns, Australia, named Wicked Campervans, a company that seems to get a real kick out of thumbing its nose at just about everyone.

Outraged cairns.com.au reader Mark sent a photograph of the van to us after his Japanese wife spotted it parked in their Bayview Heights street while driving their eight-year-old daughter to school.

“It’s terrible. If you walked around in a T-shirt with that written on it in English, you would be arrested,” he said.

His said he and his wife had tried to stop their daughter, who can read Japanese, from seeing the van, which was parked in the street for several days before leaving overnight.

Via cairns.com.au

If you have ever wondered what the notorious American-turned-Japanese (but still very much ugly gaijin) Debito Arudo actually looks like and sounds like, wonder no more for here he is, doing what he does best. . . bitching about Japan.

Via Matt at Occidentalism.

Here’s a trilogy of videos on Japanese beer - one on beer vending machines in Kyoto, another one on a draft beer vending machine in Tokyo, and a final one on historical beers - beers with labels of famous people in Japanese history with short bios.

This first video is from BusanKevin in Kyoto talking about the wonders of outdoor beer vending machines in Kyoto on a hot day:

In response, I did a video on a draft beer vending machine I discovered in a pool hall in Tokyo a few nights ago.

Taste was not too bad but it gave me a huge head of foam which is quite common anyway even with live servers:

Background music by Super Girl Juice.

Later that same night I came across some “Historalicious” Japanese beer which were beer bottles with labels depicting famous people from Japanese history. Get your drink on while learning some Japanese history with Historalicious Japanese Beer - if you can read the bloody small cursive writing on the label:

Crack open a cold one and enjoy the Japanese Beer Trilogy!

We reported on this story the other day over at Japan News Junkie, but here is a follow up by the good folks over at ROK Drop who actually went out to check on the report on their own.

It seems that Dunkin Donuts in Korea is running a publicity campaign in which they are offereing Dokdo t-shirts to customers.

The publicity campaign was right in front of the store and could not be missed. If the store is trying to reach a western audience with these Dokdo shirts they are going to fail miserably in my opinion because these shirts are just plain dumb.

I think Koreans agree with this assessment because I sat in the shop for about 30 minutes and did not see one person pick up one of these shirts. I have yet to see anyone in Korea even wearing one of the shirts. Has anyone else seen anyone wearing these shirts?

To me it seems like a pretty dumb move for an international chain like Dunkin Donut to take a position on such a sensitive issue.

It’s funny how how tenuous the meanings of seemingly basic words can be. In English, the word “friend” is pretty straightforward, meaning someone you are somewhat well acquainted or friendly with.

Most of my English-speaking “friends” are close in age to me, but I certainly could have a friend who was 25, or 45, or 75 if I wanted to. It’s not uncommon for someone who is only a passing acquaintance to be labeled “friend,” too, for the sake of convenience or to avoid being rude.

In Japanese, however, the word tomodachi (which literally means “those who you go with”) and it has a more “close” feel to it than the English word friend. Tomodachi in school years are almost always the same age; otherwise you’d use the term senpai (for upperclassman) or kouhai (for underclassman), which are quite different concepts in Japan’s vertically-oriented society.

Once, my son was playing dodgeball with a boy he’d known since preschool — they’ve played together for years. I talked about the boy with my wife, using the word tomodachi to refer to my son’s friend. My wife corrected me, saying the boys weren’t friends in that sense, but were instead osana-najimi, translatable as “childhood friend,” a concept that comes up in anime and bishoujo games quite a lot, referring to someone you’ve been very close to since childhood, and it seems to be both more and less than the English word friend. “An osana-najimi is different from tomodachi,” my wife explained to me. “They’re always there, and you don’t even notice them after a while. You get so used to being with each other, it’s like air.”