Philip Brasor - The Japan Times

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Jul 2, 2016

A rise in vacancies won't mean drops in rent

According to the June 11 issue of Nikkan Gendai, the vacancy rate for rental properties in the 23 wards of Tokyo is currently 33.7 percent, while in surrounding prefectures, it's even higher: 35.5 percent in Kanagawa and 34.1 percent in Chiba.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jul 1, 2016

'Doctor X'; 'The Man With the Divine Tongue" Kagome

Ryoko Yonekura returns as the genius freelance surgeon Dr. Michiko Daimon in a special two-hour installment of "Doctor X" (TV Asahi, Sun., 9 p.m.).

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 25, 2016

Can foreign media pressure force changes in Japan?

Former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's first-person "biography" of late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, "Tensai" ("Genius"), remains atop best-seller lists. It is interesting to note that when Tanaka was alive Ishihara berated him as a crude opportunist. The years have obviously tempered his view, or perhaps...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jun 24, 2016

'Tunnels' I Am the King of Sports'; 'Normal Is the Best'; Asahi Beer

You may wonder what former New York Yankee slugger Hideki Matsui has been up to since he retired several years ago. Well, one thing he's been doing is appearing on the sports variety show "Tunnels no Sports O wa Ore da" ("Tunnels' I Am the King of Sports"; TV Asahi, Sun., 8:58 p.m.), hosted by the comedy...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 18, 2016

Japan sleeps while cybercriminals get smarter

During a recent trip to the United States, I was in a car with a friend when she received a phone call from her bank, which asked if she had used her debit card that day to make purchases at a certain store. She said she hadn't, indicating someone had hacked into her account. By the time we reached our...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jun 17, 2016

'Medekin'; 'Pleased to Meet You, I'm an Office Worker, but also a Cabaret Hostess'; Glico

Some people think entrepreneurship is dead in Japan. They may change their tune if they watched the variety show "Medekin" (Fuji TV, Sun., 4:05 p.m.). The title is a play on the Japanese word "demekin," which refers to a bug-eyed goldfish, but the operative morpheme is "kin," meaning "money." The show...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 11, 2016

No guarantees: the struggle of being old and alone in Japan

Foreign media have been diligently covering Japan's rocky economic road to an uncertain future, but they seem to have missed the recent bankruptcy of Nihon Life Kyokai, a company that provides guarantor services. Though it's only one failure, the Japanese press has paid particularly close attention,...

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Jun 11, 2016

Fuel-efficiency scandal could end up hitting car buyers in the pocket

The entire auto industry has had its image damaged in the mileage scandal, which means the transport ministry will likely require all carmakers to carry out stricter testing that will cost much more money.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jun 10, 2016

'Aiba Learns'; 'Good Fortune! Appraisal Team for Anything High Quality Treasure Salon'; Lotte — So

In addition to singing and dancing, the popular male idols managed by Johnny & Associates do a lot of educational TV, including "Aiba Manabu" ("Aiba Learns"; TV Asahi, Sun., 6 p.m.), in which Masaki Aiba, a member of boy band Arashi, learns about some common process. In the past, Aiba and his guests...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 4, 2016

Japan baffled by the intricacies of LGBT issues

A middle-aged woman I know never wears makeup or skirts and keeps her hair short. Sometimes she receives concerned glances when she enters the women's locker room at the gym she patronizes and, while no one has ever questioned her gender (for the record, she is straight and married), she often feels...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Jun 4, 2016

There's no hiding in Japan's toilets

When it comes to toilets, Japan presents several paradoxes. On the one hand, public toilets are ubiquitous, easy to access and, for the most part, quite clean. On the other hand, they can also be primitive, or at least to a Western sensibility.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jun 3, 2016

'Legal Advice Office With a Line Outside the Door';

Before he became a firebrand politician, Toru Hashimoto was a lawyer and TV personality, and one of the variety shows he often appeared on was Nippon TV's "Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodanjo" ("Legal Advice Office With a Line Outside the Door"; Sun., 9 p.m.). This week, another retired political firebrand...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 28, 2016

The vagina on trial: more absurd than obscene

Though the obscenity trial of the artist known as Rokudenashiko — real name Megumi Igarashi — ended earlier this month with a conviction on one of her charges, we haven't heard the last of her. She plans to appeal the verdict, which is good news for the press and the public, since few court...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

May 27, 2016

'Historical Unknowns: Historia'; 'Morning Comes'; DHC

Kumamoto Castle, which was seriously damaged in last month's earthquake, is one of Japan's most beloved and iconic landmarks. Originally built in the 15th century, the structure is one of the largest fortifications in Japan and covers a big piece of land. It is famous for its stone foundation — the...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 21, 2016

Wrath awaits Japanese women who shun their childbearing 'destiny'

Back in the 1990s, actor Tomoko Yamaguchi often appeared in trendy dramas — TV shows that portrayed the lives of middle-class people who, whether married or not, only worried about what to buy and who to love. Once she turned 35, Yamaguchi was no longer considered suitable for such roles, but trendy...

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

May 21, 2016

Whither the taxi in a withering Japan?

Taxi revenues have been dropping steadily in recent years mainly due to demographic changes, but their main problem is handling moment-to-moment supply and demand.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming

May 20, 2016

'Evening Smoke Bus Tour'; 'Gold Woman'; Suntory

It seems any kind of professional can be a detective in Japan. The latest vocation is tour bus guide, as exemplified by Sayaka Sakuraniwa (Hisako Manda) in the two-hour mystery "Yukemuri Bus Tour" ("Evening Smoke Bus Tour"; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.).

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 14, 2016

Cracks appear in media's view of disasters

The Great East Japan Earthquake was Japan's first major natural disaster since the rise of social media, and emergency planning outfits have been studying the data from March 11, 2011, in order better use SNS to save lives and help survivors. Online activities related to the current seismic activity...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

May 13, 2016

'Angel or Devil,' 'Cambrian Palace," Y!mobile

Recently, an artificial intelligence program developed by Google defeated several champions of the Asian board game go. The program's achievement made headlines all over the world since go is considered a very complex game. The programmers, in fact, thought it would take much longer for their creation...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 7, 2016

Japan's resident Koreans endure a climate of hate

Later this month, the Diet's Upper House will pass a bill submitted by the ruling coalition addressing the problem of hate speech, specifically directed at non-Japanese. As sociologist Takehiro Akedo explains in his article for the Web magazine Synodos, the Liberal Democratic Party isn't enthusiastic...

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