Television has just become more evil.:

Sanrio, creator of Hello Kitty, has announced that The Cute One will soon be appearing in her own TV show with a number of her furry friends in more than 15 countries of Asia, Europe, and North America..

The name of the program is Hello Kitty, Stamp Village, a 26-part series about the adventures of Kitty and her companions in a forest.

Technorati Tags: east asia, japan, northeast asia, hello kitty

Keen!:

Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo held a training exercise this week, the aim being to practice capturing animals that may escape during a major earthquake; an Elephant near the Emperor’s Palace or a Giraffe in Ginza probably being the last thing that rescue teams would want to deal with.

Presumably being disorientated and afraid, any roaming beasts would be both dangerous and unpredictable, so this year’s exercise was made as authentic as possible – the latest advancements in make-up and synthetic material allowing officials to effortlessly achieve this. A tactic that proved hugely successful, as despite knowing that underneath the ultra-realistic gorilla suit was Suzuki-san from sales, the fear amongst the staff is practically palpable.

It can be assumed that the man in the monkey suit was paid for his trouble. With that, AsiaPundit notes that he would love to dress up as a gorilla and attack tourists and zoo staff. The next time the Ueno Zoo does this, it has a volunteer.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia

Two of AsiaPundit’s daily reads are having a blogwar* over whether or not Japan is set to ban the sale of used electronic equipment.
Cory of Boing Boing notes:

As of April 2006, it will be illegal to sell used electronics that are 5 years old or older in Japan. Akihabara News says that this is part of a pattern of restriction of the sale of used goods that prevails in Japan, where manufacturers have been able to convince the government to sweeten their profit-lines by banning re-sale of goods.

Mutantfrog retorts:

So foreign sales will not be restricted at all. This is no surprise, considering how common sales of used Japanese vehicles are overseas. For example, in the Philippines all of the buses seem to be bought used from Japan. The very first bus I rode as I stepped out of the airport had a plate mounted above the windshield saying that it had been a Kyoto city bus that was refurbished by the Keihan Bus Company in around 1980. Second, companies can use what seems to amount to fake leases to get around the sales restrictions.

But there is more to it. Domestic non-lease sales are not being flat-out banned anyway, they are simply requiring an inspection.

Corey deflects:

Lots of you have written in to point out this site, which purports to debunk this article. However, if you read it, you’ll see that in the guise of "protecting consumers," this Japanese law will limit the resale of used goods to giant retailers that presently make all their money from new goods, while shutting out user-to-user sales of electronics, pawn shops, market stalls, charity shops, etc. In other words: the sale of used goods will be at the discretion of the companies that stand to lose the most from the sale of used goods.

(*n.b. blogwar is an acceptable term for anything from a vicious flamewar to a polite debate.)

Technorati Tags: asia, blogwar, east asia, japan, northeast asia

AsiaPundit has has a long day and is too tired to write. In lieu of words, AP is pleased to present images.

Via ‘We Make Money Not Art,’ links to Almond Chu’s Wet Wet Kid Cosplay Generation:

Almond Chu photo exhibition at the Shanghai Street Artspace.

And Keitai Girl:

In Keitai Girl (2003), Yamaguchi Noriko wears a body suit crafted from cell phone keypads, large headphones and is draped from head to toe with wires. Certain guests are given the phone number of her body suit and can dial her up from their own cell phones and talk with her during her performances. This suit—a full-body prosthetic that turns her into a walking and talking cellular device—to investigate the future development of the human body and its interaction with technology.

Via 3Yen, a nude Chinese ice skater on Japanese television (usual disclaimer: this is not porn, this is an international incident):

The Torino Olympics have been a total failure for the Japanese teams for far …so the Japanese have broadcast a naked Chinese iceskater to cheer things up.

Right now Japanese broadcasters have given up on promoting the Olympics. Low TV ratings have given the Japanese broadcasters a nasty hangover because the public is angry and bored with the worst Japanese showing in 30 years—Japan has yet to win any Winter Olympic medals.

Watch the video here on furl.com.

Via Indcoup, Dayak Tattoos:

… tattoos and death are inextricably bound in Dayak beliefs. When the soul (beruwa) leaves its human host, it journeys through the murky depths of the afterlife in search of heaven - the land of ancestors. Dayak souls encounter many obstacles on their supernatural flight: The River of Death the most formidable.

According to tradition, only the souls of tattooed women who provided generously for their families and headhunters who possessed hand tattoos - a token of their success - were able to cross the log bridge that spanned these dangerous waters.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, indonesia, japan, northeast asia, southeast asia

Puny humans, bow before your robot masters.

Via BoingBoing:

Here’s video of a beautiful tabletop "Transformer" robot that reconfigures itself from a car into a walking humanoid. The robot, called WR-07, was built by Nakamura-san at Himeji Soft Works in Japan. Link to Robots Dream page with video, to YouTube page with video.

Digital World Tokyo:

Mitsubishi’s Wakamaru is one of the robots most commonly seen in the press here (that attention-hog Asimo aside, of course), so it was no surprise to see this story about him standing guard outside an elementary school in Tokyo.

The experiment uses IC cards to allow Wakamaru to i.d. anyone wishing to enter the school, although the ‘bot has little enforcement jurisdiction beyond alerting staff. Interesting though.

OctopusDropKick:

NTT Communications and Tmsuk have begun testing the RFID-guided shopping assistant robots at a shoping mall in Fukuoka. The robots read RFID tags embedded in the floor to get information about their location . They also carry your shopping bags and provide related sales information when they arrive at their destination.

Images of the shopping-bots here.

Technorati Tags: asia, robots, east asia, northeast asia, japan

In Japan, Reuters reports that the evil mouthless one from Sanrio is set to put receptionists out of a job.:

Need temporary help on your company’s reception desk? One Japanese employment agency is suggesting you try recruiting a robot.I

For just under 50,000 yen ($430) a month, a fraction of the cost of a human temp, the PeopleStaff agency will dispatch Hello Kitty Robo, a robotic receptionist capable of sensing a visitor’s presence, greeting him or her and holding simple conversations.

The Nagoya-based agency is also offering the services of Ifbot, an elderly-care robot that chats and poses riddles and arithmetical problems to train the brain and help avoid dementia. Spaceman-like Ifbot, which also quizzes people about their health, is aimed at hospitals and old peoples’ homes.

A spokeswoman for PeopleStaff said it would cost more than 300,000 yen a month to employ a person for this type of work, but warned that the robots were not capable of doing everything human employees can do.

(via Mad Minerva)

Technorati Tags: asia, japan, northeast asia, hello kitty, robots

Via Mutant Frog, Kuomintang Chairman Ma Ying Jiu has denied that the party is contributing to anti-Japanese nationalism, saying that he loves sashimi.:

Reports that the KMT walks lockstep with the mainland (China) in their anti-Japan campaign do not reflect my real feelings. I even love sashimi!” On the 10th Ma Ying Jiu (mayor of Taipei), chairman of the KMT[Chinese Nationalist Party], Taiwan’s largest opposition party, assembled Japanese reporters resident in Taipei and issued a denial of the viewpoint that he was himself a believer in anti-Japan ideology.

There are indications that the KMT has been intensifying their anti-Japan tendencies, such as stressing their own role in the Sino/Japanese war. “We criticize even the white terror (of KMT despotic rule) and (China’s) Tainanmen incident from the same basis of human rights and constutituional government. There’s no reason to make an issue out of only Japan,” Chairman Ma Ying Jiu said.

However, “I do not approve of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s Yasukuni Shrine visits,” he said, not forgetting that stab in the neck. Ma Ying Jiu is currently considered the favorite to win in Taiwan’s next presidential election.

As someone who lives in China and has has lived in Korea, AsiaPundit will note that it is entirely possible to like sashimi and harbor ill will toward the Japanese. It’s also possible to wear Levi’s jeans and Nike sneakers and be anti-American.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, japan, korea, northeast asia, taiwan

AsiaPundit has an itch that he, once again, needs to scratch: Please, please, please stop calling China the world’s second largest internet market!

The above link is to a CBS report, but AsiaPundit could have picked from thousands of blog entries and news items.

Below are the domestic revenue numbers and estimates for the top search engines in each of four markets - the US, Japan, South Korea and China. These numbers are just pulled from quick searches and are not deep analysis. Though they should demonstrate something about the so-called second largest internet market.

USA: Google

, Google reported total revenues of $6.139 billion, an increase of 92.5% over revenues of $3.189 billion in 2004. Revenue growth was attributable to both Google sites and Google network sites…

International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States contributed 39% to total revenues for the year compared to 34% in 2004.

Revenues from US were $3.75 billion

JAPAN: Yahoo Japan Corp

For the full-year to March, the company expects to post net profit of 46.40-47.95 bln yen on revenue of 175.24-178.44 bln yen.

(fiscal year ends 31 March)

About $1.48 billion at low end of guidance.

SOUTH KOREA: Naver

Sure, NHN is still a midget compared with Google. Its revenues leapt 53% last year, to $351 million, while earnings should come in at $86 million, Daewoo Securities estimates (for 2005).

Estimated revenues $351 million

CHINA: Baidu.com

Total Q1 revenue $5.2 million.

Q2 at Rmb65.2 million (Rmb8.3/$1) $7.8 million

Q3 2005 was Rmb83.2 million (Rmb8.1/$1) $10.3 million

Baidu.com, Inc. announced that it expects to generate total revenues in an amount ranging from RMB102 million ($12.6 million) to RMB106 million ($13.1 million) for the fourth quarter of 2005.

That would be a ballpark total of $35.9 million (not adjusting Q1 for revaluation and going with low end of guidance)

There are many differences that could be noted about the above companies - Google is very big in advertising while Yahoo Japan is big at auctions - but these are not the biggest reason for the discrepancies. These are the top brands in their respective markets and the revenues they generate should be a more important indicator about the size of the market than the raw number of users.  Baidu is expecting revenues of about one-tenth of Naver, and a just fraction of those of Yahoo Japan or Google.

AsiaPundit is not downplaying the fact that there is significant growth opportunities for Chinese internet businesses, the quarter-on-quarter rise in Baidu revenues clearly indicate that there are.

However, the amount of cash that can be gained through direct investment here is still small. Picking a few local Chinese stocks - or playing the venture capital angle - is a far more reasonable way to make money through internet investment in China.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, economy, , japan, korea, northeast asia, yahoo

A while back the Polish tourism bureau launched an advertisement featuring a sexy nurse to lure Japanese tourists.

(via 3Yen)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia

China has shown a sharp downward trend in press freedoms last year, while the Philippines remains dangerous and North Korea abysmal.:

While some countries in Asia have remained stable with regard to media freedom, there have been sharp downward trends in several Asian countries, particularly China, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Freedom House, a non-governmental organization that monitors press freedoms around the world, assessed the levels of press freedom in countries based on the prevailing legal environment, political and economic situation and the overall attitudes of authorities towards the media.

The surveys were generally concordant in their results, with China, Nepal, North Korea and the Philippines remaining the biggest causes of concern for journalists in Asia.

"Compared to last year, there really aren’t many positives in Asia," said Karin Karlekar, Managing Editor of the Freedom House survey. "While some countries have remained steady [Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong], we can see downward trends in many countries in the region."

North Korea was found to be the worst country in all surveys, showing no signs of improvement over the past couple of years. All media in North Korea continue to remain tools of Kim Jong-il’s state, while all foreign media are repeatedly portrayed by the regime as "liars" seeking to destabilize the government, according to the Freedom House report. However, the report also suggests that an increase in international trade has resulted in greater contact with foreigners, which might allow for greater access to international news reports in the near future.

China has also shown a sharp downward trend in 2005, said Karlekar, which can be attributed to increased censorship of newspapers and radio stations, and greater Internet surveillance.

According to RSF, the so-called "broadcasting Great Wall" in China has been growing over the past year: The Voice of Tibet, the BBC and Radio Free Asia are among the radio stations jammed by the government in 2005. 

• Reporters Withouth Borders - Wordlwide Press Freedom Index 2005 
• International Federation of Journalists - Targeting and Tragedy 
• Freedom House - Freedom of the Press 2005

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, north korea, northeast asia, south asia, thailand, burma

East meets west. Mutantfrog reviews the top-10 blogs in Japan and the United States.:

..what do other East Asian blogs look like? What about, just for example, the highest ranked Japanese blogs on Technorati?

(Note about Technorati from their About section: “Technorati displays what’s important in the blogosphere — which bloggers are commanding attention, what ideas are rising in prominence, and the speed at which these conversations are taking place.” Hence, these rankings are a measure of what people with blogs are linking to, not the number of page views, influence, revenue, or any other factor (as far as I can tell))

For starters, let’s see what’s out there. Here’s a quick rundown of the top ten blogs in Japan and the US/English-speaking world (for comparison)….

(Japan Number 5) Kaori Manabe is a popular (not to mention beautiful) model/actress/all-around talent, perhaps best known outside Japan for her role in the 2001 film Waterboys. Her blog has gained fame for its frequent updates, endless blathering on trivial topics, and plentiful photos of Manabe-chan.

Latest post: A Friendly Fire Festival

Inanity abounds:

There’s a very strange person called Mr. A that I see all the time on location. 

Is he an airhead? Well, he’s more of a socially inept ‘go my own way’ type of guy. H

His special feature is to make statements that surprise people without meaning to at all.

His hobbies are playing the horses and movies (mostly thrillers).

His private life is shrouded in mystery (but he absolutely does not have a girlfriend).

[snip]

After that, we started talking about taking baths that only come up to one’s lower chest, something that he has been into recently, and he once again started in on his particulars regarding half-body-bathingI am also quite particular about my bathing habits, and have bath powders, candles, germanium, a bathroom television, plenty of bath goods, but Mr. A said “First I buy bath powders at a convenience store…”

“they sell them, you know? Something water, some such thing…”I see…… （￣～￣)

Mr. A: “And then, I fill the bathtub all the way with hot water…”Ooohhhhhh… (ー∇ー;)

Mr. A: “Then I put in the bath powder that I bought, and mix it in with my hands….”

Yes, yes? （＿´ω｀）

Mr. A: “And then….”

And then?!?？？？？？？(’▽‘;;） (heart pounding)

Mr. A: “Then I get in”

………？？？？？？？？？？？
….

I was stupid for listening with anticipation…

No more!

Looks like Mr. A might be an airhead after all…

And people read this! Reminds me a lot of Xia Xue

At Worth 1000, real people photoshopped into manga-style characters:

(Via Boing Boing)

Indo-Japanese joint venture Hero-Honda has launched a new ‘women-only’ scooter named The Pleasure. Like Neelakantan at Interim Thoughts, AsiaPundit also wonders, does this bike have any features that would appeal to women - the name indicates some possibilities.:

Hero Honda is not really known for innovation as much as sitting on its laurels. With the base of its bread and butter models the stage was set for the company to do something spectacular. Both Bajaj and TVS have done so on their own right, but HH to me, is a fuddy duddy. The launch of Pleasure does nothing to change this perception. Note that I write this without riding Pleasure. Whats the big idea in marketing a scooter to women? Especially when there is nothing "different" about it? The variomatic segment has a solid performer in Activa, stylish Dio, good looking Nova, youthful Scooty and now a women only Pleasure?

I think Pleasure has got its strategy wrong. By saying women (and only women), they are losing a good part of the market. Now, no young college lad will ever buy it (they do buy variomatics, it is not only women who drive variomatics). I am not saying marketing to women is wrong, but I would go the Scooty way with a Preity Zinta, subtle yet leaving the positioning as "youth". Scooty does have some smart features too. Why will a girl buy Pleasure? Whats the compelling feature in it? There are many things that can be designed to appeal to women in a bike like this, but this is just hollow marketing.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, india, south asia

AsiaPundit was never a big fan of Masked Rider, although he is pleased that Bandai has started to consider men in their 30s as a target market.:

Toy manufacturer Bandai Co. will start selling from March replica belts identical to the one ’70s superhero Masked Rider used to transform into a powerful defender of justice.

Not the kind of gadget i usually blog but what amazed me is its targets are men in their 30s to 40s, as attested by the waist size, which extends from 85 centimeters to 110 centimeters. The men would have been children during hero’s heyday on TV.

The belt has a windmill built into the front which, upon pushing a button, whirls around and flashes red, blue and white lights.

Wearers can also mimic the superhero transformation by triggering a switch that sets off weird sound effects identical to those used in the TV show when the motorcycle-riding crime fighter changed from his alter-ego.

US manufacturers should take note — Mrs AsiaPundit has been searching for a man-sized pair of Spider-Man underoos for years.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia

Keen.:

Japanese beer maker Asahi plans to give away 5000 personal bartending bots, each of which can store up to six cans of beer in a refrigerated compartment within its belly. At the push of a button the simple robots will open a can and pour the chilled contents into a glass for a thirsty owner.

To win one of the beer-bots, in a promotion for the company’s new low malt beer, contestants must collect 36 tokens found on the specially marked beers. But the competition, starting in February, is only open to those in Japan.

Some robotics experts see the promotion as a fun way to promote a wider interest in robotics. Others, however, say it is a gimmick that distracts from genuine robot research.

(Via Boing Boing)

Technorati Tags: asia, japan, northeast asia, beer, robots

AsiaPundit makes his usual disclaimer, this is not porn… This is Art.:

From the land of Japan, comes the interlocking sex figurines. The best thing about these figurines is that they can be rearranged into a variety of positions. Click , and for the figurines in action.

Technorati Tags: asia, northeast asia, japan, east asia

Create your own subtitles for Japanese commercials.:

(Via Magnoy’s Samsara)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, media, northeast asia

Via 3Yen, a Japanese website dedicated to girls with guns:

And via Mingi, North Korean women with bigger guns:

And from ESWN, a less attractive male model from Beijing poses with a truly freaky grappling gun.:

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, korea, north korea, northeast asia

This is cute.:

AsiaPundit would still prefer OS X bento.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia

Well, not necessarily a vegetarian, but Japanese ratsnake Aochan clearly :

Hamster named Gohan, right, and snake Aochan live together in a cardboard box at Mutsugoro Okoku zoo, outskirts of Tokyo, in this January 14, 2006 photo. Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows: one’s a 9 centimeter dwarf hamster; the other is a 120 centimeter-long (yard-long) ratsnake. Zookeepers at Tokyo’s Mutsugoro Okoku zoo presented the hamster _ whose name means ‘meal’ in Japanese _ to Aochan as a tasty morsel in October, after the snake refused to eat frozen mice. But instead of indulging, Aochan decided to make friends with the furry rodent, according to keeper Kazuya Yamamoto. The pair have shared a cage since. (AP Photo/Mutsugoro Okoku Zoo, Kyota Nomura)

Damn, this is the cutest animal story since the tortoise and the baby hippo.

AsiaPundit is a fan of the friendly neighborhood Spider-man and admits to preferring traditional renditions of the wallcrawler. Still, AP has no serious objection to the introduction of giant transforming robots to this 1978 Japanese live-action version of Spider-man.:

Everything is better with giant robots. Giant transforming robots should be in all movies relating to Japan regardless of the source material. Pearl Harbor, the Last Samurai and Geisha could all have been much improved with the addition of giant robots. Bill Murray would have won that Oscar had the robot scene not been shortened in Lost in Translation (and if the robots had been taller).

(via Flea)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia

Blogger interviews to note: Japundit was ‘intraviewed’ by Kokuryu. As well, Tian of Hanzi Smatter was interviewed by NPR.

AsiaPundit has not yet been interviewed. Although AP has been this week picked up by a Dutch newspaper and a very good - and authorized - Times of London blog by Richard Lloyd Parry: Asia Exile.
(AP has also appared in CNet and BusinessWeek blogs, plus a BBC magazine. No bribes were exchanged.)

Technorati Tags: asia, blogs, china, east asia, japan, northeast asia

Sorry, that title should have been the diminishing returns of Japan’s horror.:

What if Takashi Shimizu (JU-ON, THE GRUDGE) released a movie and nobody came? That’s exactly what happened with last week’s release of his new movie REINCARNATION (RINNE). A relatively well-reviewed flick, even Variety said that "Local and international success look certain…" but then…psyche! The movie came out and made 98 million yen, 45% of what ONE MISSED CALL grossed.

But that’s just part of the pattern of declining J-horror revenues in Japan. RING 2 and the American remake of THE RING both grossed big, and ONE MISSED CALL did pretty well but every other J-horror flick, including the Hollywood remakes, have made less and less money. Nick Rucka gives a nice recap of the history of Japanese horror movies and looks at the creative deadend this particular trend has reached over on Midnight Eye, and Hoga Central provides a handy graph that charts the declining fortunes of the J-horror wave.

J-horror has been yesterday’s news for a while but now it might just be dead enough that producers stop wringing its corpse for a few more cents.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia

Because we need one:

You’ve probably seen , but have you also seen , and ?

I don’t know what it is that makes these shows more entertaining than the similar crap on TV here. Maybe it’s just that I can’t understand them. But somehow I think that "Fear Factor" with the sound down would still just be fratboys eating bugs.

Don’t hit stop on before the boys show up. Also here’s a , and for some American horror, please and a furry stripper.

Comment below with links to more videos of absurd Japanese game shows. My scarred inner child thanks you in advance.

(Via Boing Boing)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia