Election broadcasts are a bit of a circus in Japan. Legally, the public broadcaster NHK is obliged to show them and this is why so many fringe and wacky candidates ultimately pay to stand for election, because it means they’re guaranteed several minutes of fame. This year is particularly strange with the July election for…

This story has been bubbling away for a few days and it’s finally time to write it up here. The former figure skater Miki Ando has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with her 16-year-old male protégé after a tabloid snapped them out together on a date. The 36-year-old Ando, a two-time former world…

It sounds like the plot of a modern-day Edogawa Rampo story. Police have arrested a 39-year-old elementary school teacher for trespassing. Masashi Mizuno teaches at a school in Edogawa, Tokyo, and snuck into the home of a high school student who used to be in his class at another school. According to police, Mizuno secretly…

In what seems to like the plot of a dodgy AV uploaded to FC2, an Osaka court has ordered a man to pay compensation to a woman he had unprotected sex with. The sex was fully consensual but she wanted him to wear a condom. He refused and the woman sued him for ¥1.73 million….

According to a viral post by the prolific Gareso Takizawa on Twitter/X (with 8.4 million views and counting), a Japanese pro esports player has apologized for cheating because he was hoping to get his end away. The unnamed male competitor played with a friend using a cheat program. He did this because two female acquaintances…

We reported earlier this summer on the silly circus that was the Tokyo gubernatorial election, with a female candidate stripping off during her TV broadcast and another using pornographic posters that police ordered to be taken down. One of the slightly more serious candidates, at least in terms of mainstream fame, was Toshio Tamogami, who…

As the Paris Olympics wind down, it’s time to reflect on the days we spent glued to our TVs and phones watching the sporting achievements. Or, let’s be honest, admiring the shapely female bodies on display in high definition. As always, the swimming, beach volleyball, and track and field did not disappoint when it came…

The freelance newscaster Yuri Kawaguchi has lost her contract with her management agency. The agency, Voice, announced on August 11 that Kawaguchi had been let go due to a post she made on social media complaining about male body odor. The 29-year-old posted a now-notorious tweet on August 8. “I’m sorry if you can’t help…

In a sign of just how much affective labor is valued in Japan, the popular hostess Miyako Sakurai has moved to another high-end Roppongi club in a deal worth reportedly ¥100 million. The move was announced on August 7. Sakurai was a hostess at Jungle Tokyo in Roppongi, where she apparently earned the club around…

You’re safe during that postcoital sleep, right? Perhaps not. A Japanese woman was enjoying her post-sex slumber at a love hotel in Shibuya, Tokyo, when she was sexually assaulted by a 49-year-old man who works at the hotel. The man, Kenji Honda, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, police announced August 8. The incident…