Top Stories - Japan

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) is not pleased with language Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) used that compared House Democrats' efforts to pass health insurance coverage reform legislation to a Japanese kamikaze mission.

Graham said, "Nancy Pelosi, I think, has got them all liquored up on sake and you know, they're making a suicide run here."

Rice and wheat consumption in Japan is flat and may decline as the country’s demographics change, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency.

It's similar to reindeer or moose. Whale tastes much more like its hairy cousins on land than its gilled neighbors in the sea. In places where gamey meats are common—like Norway, Iceland, and among the indigenous people of Alaska—whale is served straight up with little or no seasoning.

A four-year-old memo from Japanese factory workers warning that safety was being put at risk by aggressive cost-cutting has aggravated the woes of the Japanese carmaker Toyota, which is battling to reassure customers after yet more suspected cases of faulty accelerator pedals causing runaway vehicles.

A nurse who has admitted breaking the bones of six patients because she felt "irritated" has been arrested.

"I was irritated over my work relationships," the nurse was quoted as telling investigators.

Part 4 of my series explaining the common use of various Japanese words. In many ways, these two terms are used in a similar way, and they can sometimes be confusing.

In a note to investors, Daiwa Securities analysts point out the reality of what happens when governments suddenly make generous cash payments, especially if the subsidy money is paid into the father’s bank account. Because the money is not disbursed in the form of vouchers, Daiwa says, the child allowance represents a “hidden” bonus for the gambling industry.

Former Mongolian-born grand champion Asashoryu refuted reports of an alleged drunken rampage that preceded his retirement from sumo.

"I didn't commit any violent act," Asashoryu said at a press conference in Ulan Bator, referring to Japanese magazine reports in January that said he became extremely drunk before striking and seriously injuring a man outside a nightclub in Tokyo.

Residents of Taiji gathered in whale eateries with names like Tail and rolled their eyes when told of Oscar laurels for the film, which they see as yet another biased foreign take on their culture.

Aiko missed school because of anxiety. Mom, Masako, suffers from anxiety disorder.

The head of the Toyota National Dealer Council today blasted the federal government for using 'taxpayer dollars' to fund incentive campaigns to lure customers away from Toyota, and accused GM of using ‘fear’ in an attempt to lure away its customers.

Ran across the following over at Brian In Jeollanam-do in a post about the Sea of Japan/East Sea issue that has been kept on intense life support by Korean nationalists over the years.

A Fukuoka pet shop owner indicted for stealing a penguin from a Nagasaki zoo faces more charges for stealing other animals.

In addition to the penguin, the man is being accused of stealing a female capybara and five squirrel monkeys.

In all of the theft case, zoo officials thought that the missing animals had fallen prey to predators.

The ideas of Yukihisa Fujita, chief of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's international department and head of the Research Committee on Foreign Affairs in the upper house of Japan's parliament, about the attack on the World Trade Center are too bizarre, half-baked and intellectually bogus to merit serious discussion.

You might think twice when you find out how much they make. According to a recent non-scientific survey on 2ch, it comes out to anywhere from around 100,000 to 180,000 yen a month. And that is for gulag level working hours.

One woman said, "My boyfriend's case is between ¥130,000 and ¥140,000 a month, with no bonus, a 230 hour work-month, a balding head and a hazy future."