On Friday, the Japanese press reported that a Japanese woman had been found dead in an apartment she shared with her British boyfriend. He has since been arrested for strangling her, and his face and name are being shown all over the news:

A British national was arrested Saturday on suspicion of killing [...]

A long term resident in Japan describes his his experience with working in Japan and problems getting employers to comply to labor and human rights laws. He describes the ins and outs of taking a Japanese employer to court, appealing the decision, and fighting it all the way to the Japan Supreme court.
Jon’s experience through [...]

It’s taken months, but the mainstream western media has finally picked up on the Billy Blanks mania that is overtaking Japan:
Asked to explain his runaway popularity in Japan, Blanks said: “The Japanese people see there is no phoniness to my workout. They see my spirit. Yeah, I am giving them orders, but they see I [...]

There’s a new Prime Minister in Tokyo, which can only mean one thing: new snacks for tourists to buy! Shinzo Abe’s manju were a huge sale success over the last year (about 530,000 boxes sold!), so shops in Tokyo’s major tourist areas have rolled out a similar line of Yasuo Fukuda manju. [...]

Do you find that real girls have a disturbing lack of giant, unblinking eyes? Or that they could really do without fingernails? Do you ever wish anime girls had a little more 3D-ness to them?
The we have the solution for you! Take a gander at this collection of photos. You [...]

Previously on Japan Photo of the week was Nebuta Matsuri and Tachi Neputa. Today’s photo is from the last of the 3 night lantern festivals in Aomori Prefecture, Neputa Matsuri.

Neputa Matsuri has large fan shapped lanterns that most of which are pulled by children of all ages, including really young ones…but oddly [...]

The Japanese media have reported that Chinese bloggers are talking about the striking resemblance between newly elected Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and a character from the anime Doraemon:

Apparently Fukuda’s name sounds exactly like that of Doraemon’s buddy Nobita when it is read in Chinese, so it didn’t take very long for people to draw [...]

Yesterday afternoon, I came across a news program that was doing a story on Mr. Sato, the man who makes very cool signs out of adhesive tape in Tokyo’s major stations. Here is a clip of Mr. Sato creating a sign:

When he finishes the sign it looks pretty good. However, the reporter shows [...]

This is an update to the continuing saga that surrounds NOVA English Conversation School. The update comes via a blog entry on Let’s Japan.org:

Nova pay up – finally!
Submitted by backtobed (not verified) on Fri, 09/28/2007 – 18:22.
I was up until recently a NOVA trainer and today we got paid…after being given the 14th,19th,21st,25th and [...]

Hello Kitty 2008 Olympic Edition [unlicensed]
Four months have passed since the Japanese media brought world attention upon China’s blatant copy of Disneyland, so a Japanese variety show decided to visit China’s amusement parks for an update. What did they find? While the infamous Shinjingshan Amusement Park removed some of its most blatant violations, [...]

Well, you finally made it to Japan. Ready to take on that new job, full of enthusiasm and hope in a new and certainly different country. The pay is not bad either, got those student loans to pay back, maybe even save enough for a down payment on a residence back in the home country, [...]

Bad news out of Burma, where the military government is carrying out a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters:

The killing of Kenji Nagai was photographed by a colleague yesterday in Rangoon, Burma. The photojournalist was one of nine killed and 11 injured when the military junta ordered troops to fire into a crowd of pro-democracy demonstrators.
Tens [...]