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A new Kinnikuman anime is going out to mark the 40th anniversary of the original TV series. Some elements of the 1980s original are not going to be included if they want an international audience in 2023. *Warning: racist content in this video* https://t.co/b6agZRJip2
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Former actress Otsu Ayaka, who was recently appointed head of the "Female Politicians 48 Party" (NHK Party) was asked about her position on tax cuts. Her response: "That's a hard question. Can I pass? hehe"
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The BBC has aired a documentary about Johnny Kitagawa, showing "how denial and media silence allowed Japan's most powerful pop music mogul to exploit teenage boys for decades." bbc.com/news/world-asi…
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Here is a video of a Tyrannosaurus race that took place on a beach in Okinawa yesterday. Over 100 T-Rexes participated. #ティラノサウルスレース
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Japan's Self-Defense Forces and Police held a joint anti-terrorism drill today. The scenario involved 3 annoying YouTubers filming themselves as they tried to force their way into a military base with a backpack full of explosives.
56
Here is an NHK news clip about Yoneda Ayu, a 28 year-old doctor who was recently selected by JAXA for astronaut training. As a child she read a manga about Japan's first female astronaut, Mukai Chiyaki, and decided she wanted to go to space too: twitter.com/nhk_nw9/status…
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From ANN: a Japanese language school in Gunma prefecture offered about 40 Ukrainian students the opportunity to study in Japan. The students were led to believe it was free. However, after arriving, the school demanded that they pay tuition fees: youtube.com/watch?v=GHDNg2…
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From NTV's Bankisha program: a report about a 49 year-old Japanese man with no military experience who volunteered for the Ukrainian military. Recruiters almost rejected him, but his past experience as a yakuza convinced them of his willingness to fight. youtube.com/watch?v=meyEu8…
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Tokyo Governor Koike was asked to clarify her position on the 1923 massacre of Koreans that took place in Tokyo following the Great Kanto Earthquake. She said that it's up to historians to figure out what happened.(They already have - massacres happened) news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/3c057…
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The Hitachi City Kamine Zoo held a drill today simulating the escape of one of its Asian black bears. As this NHK news video shows, it was quite realistic:
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This historical footage shows how it used to be extremely common for Tokyoites to just dump trash in the streets/canals. The Japanese government tried very hard prior to the 1964 Olympics to make citizens change their behavior and keep the streets clean.
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Scientists were given permission to analyze a mummified "mermaid" allegedly caught by Japanese fishermen in the 18th century, and now displayed at a temple in Okayama. CT scans revealed it was several different fish stitched together.
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The Japanese government actually produced a short Isekai anime movie in 2022 to promote their territorial claim to the Southern Kuril Islands. A girl gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1945, experiencing the Soviet invasion of the islands (24 minutes): youtube.com/watch?v=dJdjY_…
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Shared by Hokkaido's official Twitter account: a cartoon from the perspective of an Ainu family that lived in the southern Kuril islands and was expelled from their homeland by the Soviet military when the islands were seized at the end of World War II.
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Many Japanese Twitter users are talking about popular artists and non-bot friends whose accounts were purged today in what appears to be a mass suspension aimed at spam/bot accounts. Until today, Japanese Twitter has largely not cared about Elon Musk's takeover of the company... twitter.com/mrjeffu/status…
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"Marshmallow" is trending in Japan after the suspension of the official Twitter account of Marshmallow QA - a service that let followers ask Twitter users questions anonymously. Many users are claiming that there has been a mass suspension of accounts that used Marshmallow.
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CDPJ lawmaker Yoshida Harumi suggested that the government's policies to encourage more children should include allowing married couples the choice to choose separate surnames. As this video shows, LDP politicians jeered & heckled her:
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Sushi restaurant chain Sushiro is considering legal action against young people shown doing rude/disgusting stuff to their conveyer belt sushi in viral TikTok videos. You can see some examples of this under the hashtag #寿司テロ ("sushi terrorism"). news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/87be0…
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Twitter is having problems today. Japanese Twitter users have taken note, and several of the top trending terms in Japan are related to tweets failing to send.
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This morning two ponies escaped from their enclosure and ran around the city of Maebashi in Gunma prefecture. Several Twitter users uploaded videos of their encounters with the pony duo:
71
Nakayama Kiku, one of the last surviving members of a unit of high school girls who were conscripted into service as military nurses during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, passed away this week. She was very active in educating people about the horrors of war.
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A new article about the LDP and the Unification Church from the Guardian: "How Shinzo Abe’s murder and his ties to Moonies blindsided Japanese politics" (featuring quotes from myself and @knakano1970): theguardian.com/world/2023/jan…
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A video of Tokugawa Iehiro, the 19th generation head of the Tokugawa clan. He is the keeper of the Tokugawa clan seal, used by the Shogunate to sign the 1858 US-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce. twitter.com/nhk_nw9/status…
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Kyoto's Shimogamo shrine hosted its annual display of Kemari, a traditional Japanese game that became popular among nobility in the 11th century. It's a bit like hacky sack, using a deerskin ball that that is more than twice the weight of a soccer ball.
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A video showing how to get workers to embrace Marxist ideology (from the 2009 Japanese comedy tokusatsu series "The Ancient Dogoo Girl"[古代少女ドグちゃん]):
PhD. Special Lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies. Japan's Politics/Nationalist Activism/History Disputes/Pop Culture. RT/Likes ≠ endorsements