SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

RocketNews24 Japanese

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

culture (Page 43)

Ancient Japanese literary works are now yours to download at the click of a button

Krista Rogers
Jan 7, 2016
Tweet

Who doesn’t love getting a free book? Especially when that book is over 300 years old!

Internet, Japan
(books • culture • database • download • history • literature • The Tale of Genji)

Forget geisha and samurai, experience Japan by dressing up as an Osaka Obachan

Master Blaster
Dec 31, 2015

Coming to Japan and dressing up like a geisha is a bit like going to the USA and dressing up as a confederate soldier. Sure it’s fun, but it doesn’t really reflect modern society. What you need to feel the Japan of today is leopard print…and lots of it!

Japan
(culture • fashion • leopard • obachan • Osaka • Shinsekai)

Sushi chef kicks woman out of restaurant for asking him to hold the rice, manga author approves

Casey Baseel
Dec 26, 2015

The legendary creator of Lone Wolf and Cub has no patience for such affronts to fine dining.

Japan
(culture • food • Kazuo Koike • Lone Wolf and Cub • manga • sashimi • sushi)

International students at Ohio university call cafeteria’s foreign fare culturally insensitive

Meg Murphy
Dec 25, 2015

Food fight! Are these foods cultural adaptations, or abominations? Students take up issue with their university’s menu.

USA
(controversy • culture • food • university)

Three common complaints foreigners have about Christmas in Japan, and how to make peace with them

Casey Baseel
Dec 18, 2015

‘Tis the season for grumbling about cultural differences, but does it have to be?

Japan
(Christmas • cultural differences • culture • expats • internaitonalism • life in japan • society)

We visit the awesome new Samurai Museum in Shinjuku【Photos】

Oona McGee
Dec 18, 2015

Experience the samurai spirit first-hand with original swords and armour at the recently opened Samurai Museum.

Japan
(cool • culture • Edo • feudal Japan • history • museums • samurai • shinjuku)

50 things that surprised our writer when visiting China 【RocketExperience】

KK Miller
Dec 7, 2015

After a week in China, one of our Japanese writers brought home a list of thoughts to share with us.

China
(culture • list • Shanghai • society • surprise • travel)

Does this math problem prove that Japan’s 20-somethings are getting dumber?

Mike
Dec 5, 2015

Studies show that only 60 percent of Japanese 20-somethings are able to correctly solve this math problem, compared to a whopping 90 percent 30 years ago.

Japan
(age • culture • Google • math • millenials)

The four new classes of modern otaku

Casey Baseel
Dec 4, 2015

Which otaku quadrant do you fall into?

Japan
(anime • culture • Japanese language • otaku • society)

Five ways college life is different in Japan and the United States

Casey Baseel
Dec 4, 2015

From fashion to extracurricular activities, the lives of an American colleges students are an ocean apart from their counterparts in Japan.

Japan, USA
(colleges • culture • education • fashion • internationalism • universities)

Big, drunk and furry—Everything you need to know about tanuki (plus a song about their balls!)

Amy Chavez
Nov 30, 2015

See this tanuki? Aren’t his balls cute? Welcome to Japan, where raccoon-dog genitals are universally admired.

Japan
(culture • funny • racoon dog • racoon dogs • Tanuki • yokai)

Life imitating anime: Japanese people tell us about their most “anime” moments

Mike
Nov 30, 2015

14 Japanese volunteers tell us about moments in their lives that seemed to come straight out of an anime.

Japan
(anime • culture • high school • romance • Surveys)

History’s worst job? Japanese noblewomen used to hire servants to take the blame for their farts

Casey Baseel
Nov 24, 2015

What would be the ultimate luxury in personal service for a highborn aristocrat? Someone to draw your bath? Peel your grapes? Fan you with palm fronds? How about a servant whose job it is to take the blame for your farts.

Japan
(culture • Edo period • fart • funny • history • weird)

Hello Kitty now keeping roadside construction sites safe in Japan 【Photos】

Casey Baseel
Nov 24, 2015

Hello Kitty goes blue collar for her latest job in downtown Tokyo.

Japan
(Construction • culture • cute • Hello Kitty • roadwork • Tokyo)

Video shows that in Japan, even the train evacuations are orderly 【Video】

Casey Baseel
Nov 21, 2015

After these passengers got stranded, they walked the rest of the way in such a precise line they practically became a train themselves.

Japan
(culture • evacuation • Japan Railways • JR • trains • video)

9 ways Tokyo could become more foreigner-friendly in time for the 2020 Olympics

Evie Nyan
Nov 20, 2015

Despite Japan’s relative safety, abundance of delicious food, fascinating culture, and friendly people, the country still lags behind as a tourist destination for foreign travellers. So the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are the perfect opportunity for Japan to show off its famed omotenashi hospitality to the droves of foreign visitors who’ll be pouring into Tokyo to spectate.

As foreigners who’ve been living in Japan for a while, we think we might have some pretty good ideas about certain things Japan could do in order to make things a little easier on this influx of foreign guests…

Global, Japan
(2020 • culture • Olympics • Tokyo Olympics • tourism • visit Japan)

37 amazing photographs of the people of old Japan living their daily lives 【Photos】

Casey Baseel
Nov 20, 2015

Earlier this month, we looked at a collection of photos taken by the late Kusakabe Kimbei that showed the cityscapes of Japan as they looked in the late 1800s, right before the country’s rapid modernization. But Kimbei didn’t just photograph Japan, he also photographed the Japanese, so today we’re taking another trip back in time, but with a more personal touch, with dozens of photographs that show what daily life was like for the people of Japan generations ago.

Japan
(awseom • beautiful • cool • culture • history • photos)

Eat all of your rice! Culture connections with Japan’s favorite food

Audrey Akcasu
Nov 15, 2015

In the past few months the Japanese word mottainai, which conveys a sense of regret over waste, has begun to spread into the Western world, and the concept of mottainai can be seen most clearly in every bowl of rice.

Japan
(culture • mottainai • rice • waste)

Test the depths of your knowledge of Japan with this snack pack

Master Blaster
Nov 15, 2015

Transplanting yourself into another country can help you learn the language, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll absorb every bit of the culture. This image is a perfect example of that: Your understanding will depend entirely on how familiar you are with Japanese culture and history. So, we’ve broken this package down into five degrees of cultural awareness! And don’t feel bad if you don’t “get it,” because quite a few Japanese people were lost as well.