A few updates on topics covered by previous posts:
—
Prime Minister Hatoyama is still not sure if his party’s plan to help subsidize high school tuition should be applied to people who send their children to private Pro-Pyonyang High Schools that teach students loyalty to North Korea and hatred of Japan:
“I suppose it will take a [...]

Prepare to see Ric O’Barry and other animal rights activists harass and annoy the residents of Taiji, Japan in their own TV series:
A new television series about the controversial dolphin trade in Japan, tentatively titled “Dolphin Warriors,” has been greenlit by Animal Planet.

The series picks up where the movie leaves off and, like the film, [...]

American snowboarder Shaun White, who won a gold medal for his halfpipe performance at the Vancouver Olympics is visiting Japan right now. He was interviewed by Fuji TV and TBS:

Shaun has been to this country some 30 times and DVD’s of his snowboarding sell relatively well here. He likes Japanese toys, games, and [...]

This book about the Australian soldiers who participated in the occupation of Japan sounds quite interesting [emphasis added to lol-worthy part of the quote]:
Even though soldiers diagnosed with venereal disease risked having their beer ration suspended for 15 days, we learn that many still took their chances with the local “moose,” the Aussie rendering of [...]

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage talks to a Japanese TV program about the U.S.-Japan alliance and the issues surrounding the relocation of the US Marine air station at Futenma:

Armitage is introduced as an important member of the Reagan and Bush administrations, and as one of the people who pushed very hard for Japan’s [...]

Jude Law dines with Japanese comedians on “Tunnels no Minna-san no Okage deshita”:

I believe the appearance was to promote the Japanese release of Sherlock Holmes. (It will be hitting theaters on March 13th, about 3 months after the rest of the world.)
—

Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

After vacationing in Hawaii and New York, former Yokozuna Asashoryu has returned to Japan:

As you can see form the video clip, he is still keeping quiet about his future plans. His consistent avoidance of answering reporters’ questions does not seem to have discouraged the media from chasing him around wherever he goes.
—

Akihabara News – [...]

Since 2002, the Japan Sumo Association has had a rule in effect that limits “the number of foreign wrestlers [外国人枠] who can be recruited to one per stable.” However, a “loophole” has emerged, since foreign wrestlers who naturalize and become Japanese are no longer subject to the restriction.
The JSA decided yesterday that it would [...]

Hiroshi Nakai （Chairman of the National Commission on Public Safety/Minister of State for Disaster Management/Minister of State for the Abduction Issue） is trying to make it so the Hatoyama administration’s plan to subsidize high school tuition will not include private schools affiliated with the North Korean government:

At present, there are 73 “chosen gakko” schools [...]

“Mezamashi TV” entertainment reporter Shinichi Karube goes to a Backstreet Boys Concert at the Saitama Super Arena to find out more about Japanese BSB fans:

Since they first visited Japan 10 years ago, the Backstreet Boys have enjoyed a large number of fans in this country. Although their popularity has pretty much died out in [...]

Asahi TV’s team of foreign reporters visits a miso shop in the Shitamachi area of Tokyo:

The owner is 93-years-old and started the shop 53 years ago, not long after returning home from several years as a POW in Siberia. Life was not easy in the Soviet labor camps, and the man and his buddies [...]

Chiaki Kuriyama is joined by a trio of wacky foreigners in this commercial promoting DMM.com/DMM.tv’s content downloading service:

—

Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)