There’s less than a week to go until the U.S. presidential election, but Americans living in Japan can still cast their votes! Check out Trans-Pacific Radio for more details on absentee ballots.
If you’re living in Japan and want to watch live election night coverage on Wednesday morning/afternoon, the AP and several networks will be [...]

Asahi reports that 86-year-old American Japanologist Donald Keene has become one of only a handful of foreigners to be awarded Japan’s Order of Culture:

Keene became interested in Japanese culture after reading the Arthur Waley translation of “The Tale of Genji” when he was 18.
During his long career, Keene has covered a wide range of genres, [...]

Want to participate in the Japanese custom of sending New Year’s greeting postcards to a friend, but can’t remember his/her address? If you and your friend are members of the Japanese social networking site Mixi, you might be able to send that postcard anyway!
Nikkei TrendyNet reports that Mixi is going to launch a special [...]

Fuji TV reports that Tama, the stationmaster cat that has become a national sensation, has been “knighted” by the Wakayama Prefectural government:

Wakayama bestowed the honorary title upon Tama in recognition of his service to the Wakayama Electric Railroad and the 1.1 billion yen he has brought to the local economy (and because his station, [...]

If you live or work in Tokyo, be prepared for a toilet shortage if a big earthquake hits the city:
An expert panel of the government’s Central Disaster Prevention Council came to the conclusion this week while studying the potential impact of a 7.3-magnitude earthquake in the tremor-prone metropolis.
According to the study, some 817,000 people would [...]

The Japan Times has interviewed Paul and Neeta Daswani, an Indian couple that founded a clothing store in Okinawa City back in 1978, achieving success selling stylish tailor-made suits. Here’s an excerpt that explains the headline of this post:
Japanese don’t know how lucky they are to live in such a great country. In elementary [...]

A video clip of a waiter in in Sendai City who likes to carry 20 full beer mugs at once (without the aid of a tray):

The man in the video says he started doing it after being impressed with the coolness of a co-worker that could carry many beers at once. He eventually perfected [...]

A Japanese quiz show recently traveled to a foreign country and asked people on the street to name famous Japanese people. The top ten results were shown and quiz show participants were asked to guess what country it was.

The top ten list was as follows:

1. Yoko Ono
2. Ken Watanabe
3. Akira Kurosawa
4. Beat Takeshi
5. Junichiro [...]

A follow-up on our earlier post about the release of Korean Jpop/Kpop star BoA’s debut single “Eat You Up” in the United States:

The South Korea-based Chosun Ilbo has report that her release has seen an “immediate positive response” from American listeners.
The song was introduced on music sites MyTunes, Amazon, AOL, eMusic and MySpace at 3:00 [...]

Mainichi reports that murderers who evade Japanese police long enough to be placed on wanted lists have a pretty good chance of staying free for years:
As of Oct. 16 last year, 1,933 people were on wanted lists, the NPA said. Police departments across the country are placing priority on their investigations into 579 individuals, and [...]

Props to Fuji TV for tracking down Kim Jong-Il’s son in Paris for news about the North Korean leader’s health:
“He is believed to have met with a French brain surgeon, who later departed from Paris for Pyongyang under North Korean escort,” the network said.
Kim spent two hours in the hospital last week where he is [...]

Fifty people gathered at Hachiko yesterday to hold a protest march directed at Prime Minister Taro Aso’s very expensive home in Shibuya-ku. The protesters, who organized the event on the internet, had not applied for a permit, so police blocked them when they attempted to start their march. Three people were arrested – [...]