“In a notice seeking a vote at the annual Seibu Holdings meeting, ten shareholders representing male commuters are petitioning for carriages reserved for men, noting that there have been many cases of groping, as well as false charges of groping, on the Seibu Railway, Reuters reported.” Link
'Japan' Pictures + News

Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa To Step Down After “Drunk” Incident
Japanese Finance Minister: I Wasn’t Drunk! Continue reading ‘Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa To Step Down After “Drunk” Incident’

Japanese Economy In Meltdown
Economy shrunk 17.4%, lowest since ‘74… In worse shape than U.S., Europe…

Street Fighter 4 picture
“Reports are circulating that Street Fighter 4 has sold 86,000 copies in its first day of release in Japan, with Capcom themselves saying the game has completely sold out. According to PS3Center (via Joystiq), the first-day sales break down to 58,000 copies sold for the PlayStation 3, and 28,000 sold for the Xbox 360.” [Link]

Hayato Sakurai picture
“Just days away from the big Dynamite card on New Year’s Eve in Saitama, Japan one of it’s participants in Hayato ‘Mach’ Sakurai could be mired in some controversy as there is a picture of him getting down and dirty with some young chicks. According to a Tanteifile.com in Japan saying that the woman in the video or picture is not Sakurai’s wife, and that there are three other women in the video as well.” [Link]

Ai Iijima picture
“Former TV celebrity Ai Iijima had been dead about a week before her body was found Wednesday at her apartment in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, police sources said Thursday. An autopsy conducted Thursday, however, has failed to reveal the cause of death, the sources said, and no suicide note has been found.” [Link]

“Output at the nation’s manufacturers tumbled 8.1 percent from October, the largest drop since Tokyo began measuring such data in 1953, as Japan’s automakers and others slashed production to cope with slowing global demand. A government survey predicted further declines of 8 percent in December and 2.1 percent in January.” [Link]
“Panasonic has begun a 800 billion yen ($9 billion) takeover of Japanese rival Sanyo, hoping that transforming into one of the world’s biggest electronics companies will help it weather the toughest business conditions in a century.” [Link]

Eri Yoshida picture
“Eri Yoshida, a knuckleball pitcher, will play for the Kobe 9 Cruise in a new independent league starting in April 2009. The team selected her last month along with 31 male players in the league draft. ‘I still don’t feel like I’ve really become a pro baseball player, but I want to do my best,’ Yoshida said at a news conference after signing her contract. ‘My specialty is the knuckleball, so I really want to be able to get batters out using it effectively.’” [Link]

Anime Woman picture
“Taichi Takashita launched an online petition aiming for one million signatures to present to the government to establish a law on marriages with cartoon characters. Within a week he has gathered more than 1000 signatures through. ‘I am no longer interested in three dimensions. I would even like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world,’ he wrote. ‘However, that seems impossible with present-day technology. Therefore, at the very least, would it be possible to legally authorise marriage with a two-dimensional character?’” [Link]

“Tokyo’s Nikkei index briefly tumbled more than five percent, dropping below the key 10,000 points level for the first time in more than four years on fears that government efforts to end the crisis may be too little, too late. Across the region dealers’ screens were awash with red as markets suffered heavy losses in the wake of steep falls in the United States and Europe.” [Link]

