Kuchikomi
Roaches thriving amid coronavirus
The Twittersphere was abuzz: “G’s!” “In winter?” “Yes!” Everyone seemed to know, as though by instinct, what “G’s” were. Gokiburi. Cockroaches. Spreading. Proliferating. Regardless of the season. The pheromones spoke loud and clear: “Our time has come.” Roaches are, in a sense, the comic side of the coronavirus tragedy. They’re ugly,… Read
Wily crooks harness pandemic to spawn new scams
In Japanese criminal slang, an easy mark is described as kamo-negi, an abbreviation for a phrase that means a duck with an onion in its mouth. As reported by Asahi Geino (April 15), con artists have been exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to pluck these birds at every opportunity. "They call… Read
Field of (bad) dreams now subject of research
"Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of patients coming for consultations related to stress-related insomnia has clearly increased," Dr Kazuo Sakai, an authority of stress who operates the Hibiya Clinic, tells Weekly Playboy (April 19). Indeed, the stresses and strains of the prolonged coronavirus pandemic have clearly… Read
Leisure teleworkers - supposedly working but in fact gaming, day-trading, or scanning for new job opportunities
Telework. A year ago it was “on the horizon,” along with artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, the Internet of Things and so much else – the technology here, the vanguard growing, but still, spoken of more in the future than in the present tense. Everybody knows what’s happened since. The coronavirus… Read
Manga artist in limelight for her frightening prophecies
Last June, the death of author Ben Goto did not escape notice in the media. Goto was best remembered for "Great Prophesies of Nostradamus," published in 1973, and several spinoffs. Goto's works concerned the prognostications of 16th century French astrologer and physician Michel de Nostredame, who in 1555 published a… Read
More people abandoning aging parents due to financial and emotional strain
“Maybe it’s unfeeling of me, but I have my own life to live.” The sentiment is widespread and, as society ages, spreading wider and wider. How much care and devotion does a grown child owe a needy parent? If we ask what a parent owes a dependent child, the answer… Read
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Korean kids nurtured to remember history with anti-Japanese toys and games
The animated movie "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train," which set records in Japan last year, has already been seen by over 1 million viewers in South Korea. But Shukan Post (April 2) reports that a Korean citizens' group objected to an ornament that the movie's young… Read
Manga-reading bus driver stirs tweetstorm
Japanese do love their manga. We know this because on public transport, it's common to see commuters of all ages and both genders poring over the adventures of their favorite comic heroes. Why, even bus drivers read them. Whoa! Did we say bus drivers?? J-Cast News (March 16) reports of… Read
Gov't testing method for coronavirus leaves public confused
The numbers are down. Relief is in the air. Is the worst over? Coronavirus at its peak was infecting 2,500 a day in Greater Tokyo alone in January. Now the daily figure hovers between 200-300. Hope surges. Normal life beckons – maybe not treacherously. Josei Seven (March 18) has no quarrel… Read
Tougher laws in the works for juvenile offenders
Japan's authorities are moving to toughen provisions of the law dealing with juvenile offenders. Writing in Yukan Fuji (March 2), Sankei Shimbun editorial board member Masafumi Miyamoto gives his views on the Diet's proposed modifications to the Juvenile Act, which was initially passed by the Diet in 1948. The statute … Read
