Ok, so maybe “two” doesn’t make for much of a roundup, but this pair of recent Japan-side releases (both available August 28) compensate for lack of quantity with their sheer quality.
First up is キャプテン★レインボー (Captain Rainbow), an adventure/action game for the Wii featuring a cattlecall of b-list (perhaps rather, c-list) Nintendo celebs. Early on [...]

Mainichi reports that Japanese police have issued a drug-related arrest warrant for an Australian who plays for a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rugby club:
Police obtained the arrest warrant for 31-year-old player Simon Kasprowicz, who belongs to the Sagamihara Dynaboars. However, details of the case have yet to be made clear, and officials have put off announcing [...]

The latest in a series of actions by police that show they’re taking online death threats seriously:
Police say they have arrested a 31-year-old man for allegedly posting an Internet threat to kill Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito.
Takeshi Yamamoto, an unemployed man in Gifu Prefecture has been charged with posting the threat, which caused a police alert [...]

English teachers living in the countryside of Japan don’t have a whole lot of entertainment available, so they have to be creative. Here’s some YouTube videos of ALT’s in Kochi Prefecture who use an abandoned hotel for BB gun shootouts:

This is:

cool!

stupid!

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The United States has issued its final report on the case of an American submarine leaking radiation in Japan:
The United States assured Japan on Friday that the trace levels of radioactivity which leaked from the U.S. Navy submarine Houston during its visits to three Japanese ports were, even when combined, no more harmful [...]

Fuji TV takes a look at the newly-completed Shanghai World Financial Center (”Shanghai Hills”), which was developed by Japan’s Mori Building company:

The building was meant to be the world’s tallest skyscraper when it was planned, but years of delays have meant that it is now the world’s third tallest building. However, it still boasts [...]

Two of the biggest names in the English language Japan blogosphere, Brian Ashcraft of Kotaku and Jean Snow of JeanSnow.net, have teamed up to create a book about Japanese Arcades and gaming culture:

As you can see from the image, the book is called Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan’s Game Centers. It covers [...]

Asahi TV reports that video stores across Japan will be allowing free rentals of Megumi, a government-produced anime film based on the true story of a woman abducted by North Korean agents:

Story: In 1977, Ms. Megumi Yokota, a 13-year-old girl, disappeared on her way home from school. It was revealed later on that she was [...]

Some footage of a group of about 90 baby sea turtles being released after an aquarium in Chiba Prefecture protected and cared for some wild sea turtle eggs:

In the United States, Denny’s is known as a cheap family restaurant with especially large breakfast dishes. In Japan, Denny’s exists as a part of the 7-11 group empire and the only thing it seems to have in common with the American original is its name and logo. Foreigners used to eating at [...]

This week has seen an abnormally high amount of downpours, and the rain seems to have hit Aichi Prefecture particularly hard:

A 76-year-old woman was found dead in her flooded home in Okazaki, 230 kilometres (143 miles) west of Tokyo. Authorities told 140,000 households in Okazaki and around 360,000 households in nearby Nagoya to leave their [...]

It doesn’t get any scarier than this:

[via Zaeega]