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Are short high school uniform skirts in bad taste? Posters urging high school girls to wear longer uniform skirts are causing controversy in Niigata Prefecture.
The Bimbo Gami shrine is home to a wooden statue believed to be the poverty deity, a thin and filthy man who brings misfortune and impoverishment to the house it haunts. Visitors who travel to the shrine in mountains about four hour's drive from Tokyo can beat, kick and throw dried beans at the god to vent their anger.At most shrines, worshippers pay their respect to the god. But at Bimbo Gami, visitors must hit the statue three times with a bat, kick it another three times, and then throw beans at a target to drive away negative spirits and bad luck.
Fifty-seven per cent of men and 64 per cent of women in the Asia-Pacific region responding to a survey reported dissatisfaction with their sex lives, news reports said. People in only three of the 13 countries where the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc conducted its survey reported satisfaction rates of more than 50 per cent. India ranked the highest with 73 per cent of respondents to the Asia-Pacific Sexual Health and Overall Wellness survey saying they were satisfied. It was followed by the Philippines at 52 per cent, Taiwan at 51 per cent and New Zealand at 40 per cent. Japan ranked the lowest at 10 per cent.
Mobile phones are taking centre stage in the lives of Japanese teenagers, who often send or receive dozens of emails a day while eating, attending school or even taking a bath, according to a survey. Around 46 percent of middle school students aged 13 to 14 and 96 percent of high school students aged 16 to 17 carry a mobile telephone, the research shows. One in four school children aged 11 to 12 also has one.
A Chinese romantic comedy movie that hit domestic screens during the New Year holidays is turning the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido into a new tourism spot for Chinese travelers. Chinese tour operators are already taking advantage of the latest Feng Xiaogang work
Activists have tracked a package to a mail depot in northern Japan after tipsters told them it contained whale meat bound for the country's black market, smuggled by crew members of a ship commissioned to kill the mammals for scientific research, not profit. But when they held a cameras-flashing news conference last spring to turn the meat over to police, the officers instead arrested the activists for trespass and theft.
With only 15 speakers left, the Ainu language is "critically endangered" while seven other languages in Japan are also at risk of disappearing, according to a UNESCO report. These eight languages in Japan are among about 2,500 around the world that have become or could become extinct, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's report said.
Residents living near wind turbines are increasingly complaining of headaches, dizziness, insomnia and other ailments, sparking fears that the new energy source could pose a risk to public health. Although the cause of the problem remains unclear, the Environment Ministry is investigating the possibility that low frequency sounds produced by the turbines are to blame. Tsuyoshi Okawa's family fell ill in January 2007 soon after wind turbines began operating at Gumihara wind farm. He says they began to lose feeling in parts of their bodies, suffered bouts of dizziness, and were unable to sleep properly.
In Japan, more and more elderly man die while haveing sex in a love hotel, pushing themselves beyond their own limits. Only about 10% of the women involved in such incidents remain on the scene, as they are concerned about confrontations with partner’s wives or the police.
It happens in Japanese cities every winter and spring — the mask attack.These white strips of cloth obscuring your fellow commuters' faces have long been a common way to ward off influenza and hay fever, but their popularity is soaring higher than ever this winter because of frequent reports about an outbreak of a new type of flu.
A 69-year-old man injured in a traffic accident in Hyogo Prefecture died last month after being refused admission by 14 hospitals. The man collided with a motorcycle ...
In fact, over 700 people rejected by 3 or more hospitals in Tokyo
A gene linked to longevity in Japanese people has also been uncovered in Europeans, suggesting people with the right genes the world over can reach a ripe old age, a study published Tuesday showed.
Now it seems there are “love hotel nanmin.” Actually for some time already, runaway girls in their teens could be seen loitering on the streets around love hotels in search of a man to provide them with accommodations for the night. But more recently, a new phenomenon has developed in which the runaway teens have been joined by women from their mid-20s to mid-30s.
The Japanese woman’s time-honored role of giving chocolate goodies to her true love and other not-so-trues each February 14th is shifting
An unlikely master brewer is hoping to revive the centuries-old drink's flagging popularity -- an auburn haired Briton, Philip Harper, who fell in love with the drink and the culture that produced it.
In Japan, "What's your type?" is much more than small talk; it can be a paramount question in everything from matchmaking to getting a job. By type, the Japanese mean blood type, and no amount of scientific debunking can kill a widely held notion that blood tells all.
Japan has led the way in the field of robotics and in keeping with this tradition has become the first country to begin mass-producing a robot that will help human beings become more mobile. Meet Robot Suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) and shake his hand; that is, if he will let you.
