It’s that time of year again. With the AKB48 “elections” taking place to see who gets to sing in the next song, Twitter is awash with pictures of boxes of CDs and tickets purchased by passionate otaku fans. One fan has shared images of towers of boxes, boasting that they spent 1,917,800 yen on them…

Here’s something we always suspected! A Japanese tabloid has published rumors that the founders of AKB48 may not simply be sickening old men with a liking for teenaged girls — but have close connections with the yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Given that the Japanese government is using public funds for its risible “Cool Japan” schemes,…

The culture of chikan and up-skirt photography is catching, it seems! Police in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, have arrested a petty officer third class stationed at the nearby US naval base. The 22-year-old took a bus in the town but decided to take in the view not just from the window. At around 8:20 in the morning…

It’s election time for the AKB48 idols. But lurking under the surface right now are several unsavory rumors. For a start, the alleged connections between AKB48 executives and the yakuza. These have emerged again even after AKB48 big wig Yasushi Kubota sued the Shukan Bunshun last year for such remarks. Now there are also suggestions…

Saitama police have re-arrested a company employee, Kunio Kobayashi (25) for stealing women’s underwear while the items were drying outside. The same city of Hanyu has seen ten incidents of women’s skirts or dresses being pulled up to reveal what is underneath, perpetrated by a horny villain who wears women’s panties over his head while…

A teacher in Shiga has been caught installing a miniature camera in the girls’ toilets at the elementary school where he works. A student found the secret video camera one morning and told the school honchos. Before the school could even launch a full investigation the teacher responsible confessed. Apparently the fortysomething educator had been…

Some people to go to ANY lengths to catch a glimpse of the holy grail, it seems. Hyogo police have arrested a twenty-six-year-old company employee from Kobe for hiding in a 30-by-45-inch grate in the side of the road in order to spy on girls’ panties as they went by. Yasuomi Hirai has admitted his…

A three-party group has put forward a bill proposing to extend the ban on so-called child porn to anyone even just possessing it. The ruling LDP and its allies Komeito and Japan Restoration Party (led by Shintaro Ishihara and Toru Hashimoto) proffered the new bill to the Diet at the end of May. The manga…

We recently came across a bilingual interview with a hostess on Jagr Magazine. It seems genuine, though the hostess is apparently not Japanese (shame!). Here are some highlights. Interviewer: How does a hostess club work? Hostess: I came to Tokyo years ago, and I never knew what a hostessing job was, but my dad’s friend…

The new “child porn” proposal put forward by the ruling LDP, the Komeito and Japan Restoration Party immediately stoked controversy in the manga and anime worlds, with insiders suggesting it would destroy the industries. Now there is a suggestion that under the rules of the new law, even scenes from the famed and beloved kids’…