JAL successfully tested a biofuel-powered jet engine yesterday:

One of the jumbo jet’s four Pratt & Whitney engines was run on a half-and-half mixture of biofuel and conventional jet fuel.
Boeing Co. developed the biofuel to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in flights. It derives mainly from camelina, a plant in the mustard family.
Camelina is inedible, making it [...]

Yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor features an article by Rena Singer with the headline “Japanese dare to ask: Do we really need an emperor?”
While still revered, the imperial family – whose head was considered divine until 1945 – is increasingly pitied as its members struggle with their tightly constrained lives. And with Emperor Akihito’s reign in [...]

It’s in Japan:

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On the latest episode of Utaban, African American enka singer Jero was given his first taste of fugu:

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A scene from an NTV Real Time News segment about a police box in Kyushu:

In the clip, officers have to deal with a man who wanders into the police box and demands that they allow him to take cash out of his bank account. The man says something about wanting to go home, [...]

Brad Pitt was in Japan this week to promote the theatrical release of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Here’s a short clip of him asking questions to reporters:

He wants to know four things:

something for the kids
something for the adults
something for Mom & Dad
the best restaurant

How would you answer, Probe readers?
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“Japanese sumo wrestlers too!” declares the Sponichi headline. Today at around 2:00PM, juryou rank sumo wrestler Wakakirin and a musician friend were busted with marijuana during a police search of a business in Roppongi.
If the charges prove to be true, I expect the Japan Sumo Association to ban him for [...]

Mainichi reports that factories making Beams clothing illegally made Chinese trainees work overtime for low wages:
“We had to use sewing machines until dawn while only eating instant noodles and bread,” recalled Ren Xin-Yan, 26, who worked at the plant after she came to Japan from China’s Tsingtao in October 2005. She had to work overtime [...]

Restaurants in Yokosuka have used a special recipe they received from the US Navy to add ‘Navy Burgers’ to their menus:
The burger is initially available at four restaurants chosen by the city government, which wants to promote it as a local delicacy. Six other restaurants will begin to serve the burger by mid-February.
The burger, [...]

An incident that took place a few days ago in Tokyo highlights the dangers of elevator maintenance work:

As on maintenance worker worked at the bottom of the shaft, another worker did some maintenance on the elevator while testing its movement between other floors. The worker at the bottom told his colleague not to [...]

If you thought Kazuo Umezu’s house looked cool, you might enjoy this designer apartment he produced for a company in Osaka:

The Japanese/Romanian couple living in the apartment seem to enjoy its wacky interior、and don’t have a problem paying 250,000 yen a month in rent for the place.
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First they abduct Japanese citizens, now they plan to abduct the moon:

[via the Marmot's Hole]
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