The Tokyo Reporter
All the Tokyo news fit to print



?The Dark Knight? dives in Japan TOKYO - Not even the Joker can manage a grin: Japanese audiences have been underwhelmed by Warner Bros.' worldwide smash "The Dark Knight," the latest installment in the "Batman" series. Now in its third week of release in Japan, the Christopher Nolan film, which sees the caped crime-fighter battling underworld ...


NHK to launch 24-hour English programming TOKYO - Public broadcaster NHK today announced the launch of Japan International Broadcasting Inc. (JIBtv), a company that will transmit 24-hour programming in English via the Internet and satellite. The service, which will be a first for Japan and begin in February of next year, expects to reach 110 million ...


?Cosoa? soap latest fad for keeping it clean The term asoko is a euphemism commonly used by Japanese females when referring to their you-know-whats. Written backwards in katakana, it becomes "cosoa," which is also the name of a new brand of feminine hygiene soap that's been selling like hotcakes this summer, reports Nikkan Gendai. It seems that in ...


Site of notorious gangster playpen in Roppongi now vacant TOKYO - Given Tokyo?s well-earned reputation as a metropolis of concrete, vacant lots typically do not stay empty for long. But the 3,800-square-meter site in Roppongi, halfway between Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown, might remain fenced off and covered with dirt for some time. The infamous TSK.CCC Terminal building formerly ...


High brow trumps ?High Touch? in Roppongi TOKYO - The date is March 6, 1989. The Yomiuri Giants are gearing up for what will be a championship season, the Nikkei index is holding steady at 32,000, the introduction of the nation?s first consumption tax of three percent is less than one month away, and Roppongi is now ...


A new Bible for under-dignity First it was "Kokka no Hinkaku" (Dignity of a Nation), the 2006 bestseller by Ochanomizu University mathematician Masahiro Fujiwara. Soon thereafter came "Josei no Hinkaku" (Dignity of a Woman) by Mariko Bando. These days, books with hinkaku in the title are really popular in Japan. And now there's a new ...


?Anti-Emperor? group to protest at Yasukuni Shrine TOKYO - The left-wing group Anti-Emperor Activities Network said this week that it will once again hold a protest march near the controversial Yasukuni Shrine on August 15th, the anniversary of the conclusion of World War II. The group, which takes a firm anti-war stance, will provide an opposing view to ...


Will Japan become a society of half-breeds? A rapid increase in the number of women in their 20s and 30s choosing foreign husbands may turn Japan into a land of half-breeds, or so says vernacular web news site J-cast. The site refers to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare survey data that indicated that one baby out of ...


Shinjuku gals going all-out for the gold "The 'box-type' sex shops such as image clubs and seikan (sensuous) health emporiums have declined sharply, and outcall sex services have become the mainstream," the editor of a specialty magazine tells Shukan Shincho (Aug. 14-21). "But shops pushing new ideas seem to have popped up just for the duration." In ...


Ominous rumblings on the love hotel front On July 8-9, Pacifico Yokohama hosted "Leisure Hotel Fair 2008," an annual trade show at which vendors exhibited plumbing, fixtures, amenities and other accouterments of the nation's love hotels. But, reports columnist Kureichi Matsuzawa in Jitsuwa Knuckles (September), the number of participants at this year's show was considerably fewer than ...