In an earlier post, I mentioned that a Korean TV drama partially filmed in Japan was drawing lots of South Korean tourists to Akita. Now it seems that Japanese TV network TBS will be airing that drama in its normal prime time schedule, something that rarely happens with foreign programs:
“IRIS,” a spy drama featuring [...]

Congratulations, impatient guy waiting in line! Your “bloody long” line sound bite made it onto the Japanese news coverage of the Vancouver Olympics:

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NHK’s kids news program explains the earthquake in Haiti, Japan’s somewhat slow response to it, and the legal barriers to sending an SDF peacekeeping force overseas:

Somebody went through a lot of effort making little dolls and cartoon cut-outs to make everything easier to display, and I must say it is visually impressive.
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Akihabara News [...]

Asahi TV’s “Nanikore” folks discover a street in Saitama prefecture where one can see the remains of a pair of glasses that were smashed into the pavement due to a road construction mishap:

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The grand prize winner from last night’s Kasou Taishou special:

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A bleeding drunk guy goes into a hospital to get treated for cuts, turns violent, and is unfortunate enough to have a news camera around when the cops show up to arrest him:

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Attention readers: tonight from 7:00 to 9:00 PM Japan Time, NTV will be airing its 83rd Kasou Taisho special (aka “Kinchan and Katori Shingo’s All Japan Costume Grand Prix”).
Here’s an example of the cool kind of stuff that went down on one of last year’s specials:

Those of you outside of Japan may be able to [...]

Two muscle-bound brothers take a break from circus performances in Europe to put on an equilibristic show on Japanese TV (in the second round, they are joined by Japanese comedian Yoshio Kojima!):

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A Russian whose block-smashing routine is apparently so impressive that he was featured on the news in Japan:

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TV Tokyo’s “Ariehen Sekai” introduces a plastic surgeon in South Korea who uses a laser to alter the palm lines of patients who think their hands are unlucky:

The same plastic surgeon is quoted in a 2007 Joong Ang Ilbo article:
Kim Sung-min, a plastic surgeon at Imi Plastic Surgery, said he had been swamped from January [...]

Jimmy, a weird American, appears on a TokyoMX TV program to appeal to all the lady viewers out there who want a “supaa gaijin” boyfriend with “sexy power” [skip 3 minutes and 50 seconds into the clip if you only want to hear his girlfriend recruitment speech]:

Update: Jimmy has left some comments on this [...]

The recent case of fugitive Ichihashi Tatsuya disguising his appearance through cosmetic surgery made the folks at Fuji TV wonder why men get such procedure. To investigate, they traveled to South Korea, a country that is apparently far ahead of Japan when it comes to the idea of men getting surgery to make [...]