
Newscaster 川田亜子/Ako Kawada (29), has committed suicide for reasons which still remain unclear, but whatever her thinking the lamentable act is causing something of a stir. She opted for the classic method of burning charcoal briquettes in her car, and apparently also left a will. A variety of potentially salacious details threaten to emerge.
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7% of Japanese admit to eating dog food, according to a recent survey, we are told, though anyone doubting their culinary sensibilities will be relieved to hear it is a brand of dog food by Royal Appointment.
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NHK, one of Japan’s larger TV networks, seem determined to stop unauthorised online distribution of their broadcasting, and to this end have announced digital fingerprinting technology intended to thoroughly curb the practice, though it seems it will be limited to their upcoming download service.
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The Mainichi “2.5% of children erogamers” story turns out to be fake scaremongering after all, and my scepticism seems correct; the lying hacks completely twisted the figures, in fact “adult games” was referring to the likes of GTA, and there was a separate category for “H games”, which they completely ignored, and the results? 0.7% admitted to playing them, though 12.4% (the highest non-response) declined to respond? Interesting.
This does however still leave 0.7% bold enough to admit it, and a lot of the sample unwilling to respond, so the true figure is anyone’s guess. I can’t help suspecting that the proportion actually sexually active is probably higher than these figures for eroge, so it does bring the whole thing into focus as mere media scaremongering anyway. The table in question is below, source here.
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Mrs Wide Open, or 沢本あすか / Asuka Sawamoto as she likes to call herself, Akiba’s “eternally 22” exposure idol and career criminal (30), has revealed in a shocking admission to gossip rag Spa that she was put up to her antics by a TV producer offering cash to guarantee a “performance”. Mrs Wide Open says she was propositioned by one of the numerous TV pressmen covering her exhibitionistic antics – “I’d like to pin it [a flash of your posterior] down” she alleges she was asked.
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These provocative images of an apparent newscaster proved the bane of Livedoor, as rather than showing “Taiwan’s ultra sexy announcer is all the rage in China” (mirrored by Internews, as the original has been pulled), as their published story claimed, the photos were actually shopped images of 赤江珠緒 / Akae Tamao, an Asahi TV newscaster, published on Maniaxz. Livedoor’s story was soon exposed by the terrifying analytical powers of 2ch, noting the obvious identity of the lady as well as the unnatural pallor of her oversized endowment.
Livedoor somehow managed to spin this shopped image into an entire article, claiming she was a hit Taiwanese celeb in China, something which rather casts doubt on their journalistic rigour, and being exposed as fools, they promptly withdrew the article with nary a word. Clearly, writing articles about photoshopped images is something only blogs can get away with.

Two rather similar stories come to my attention via Itainews, one alleging that Japanese youth are suffering from a decline in literacy and historical knowledge, and another asserting the Japan’s sex trade is facing dire straits because young men no longer have the sex drive they once had (presumably they are pursuing alternatives rather than abstinence, although the article doesn’t address this for reasons which will become obvious).
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There was something of a furore when Metal Gear Solid 4 creator 小島秀夫 / Hideo Kojima gave an interview to Edge and was quoted as saying “The original vision was to go ten steps further, the reality was just one step”, amongst other negative statements about the PS3 platform. Now on his own blog, he denies all, and claims it was in fact a mistranslation; his humble and self abasing Japanese was distorted through translation and cultural misinterpretation, as well as shameless media exaggeration in pursuit of page views, and so he was grievously misquoted.
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