Japan
China's anti-Japan protests: "We refuse to continue being humiliated"
Escalating tensions between Japan and China reached a high point on Sunday after Beijing broke off diplomatic ties with Japan and anti-Japanese protests were held in several Chinese cities. Read more...
Pimp my rice (paddy)
Every year, more than 1.5 million hectares of rice fields are cultivated in Japan. But in Inadakate, the paddy fields are extra special. Find out more...
American soldier in Okinawa: “Only a minority think we’re monsters”
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced on Tuesday that he will not be closing the Futenma American airbase on the island of Okinawa, despite promising to so in his election manifesto. The decision has enraged local residents, who say the base and its residents are a constant nuisance. An American soldier based in Okinawa gives his perspective on this contentious issue. Read on...
Commitment in clothes
How can you tell the difference between a serious couple and "just good friends" in Korea, China or Japan? Easy. A pair of really committed lovers will be wearing the same outfit. Read more and see the photos...
Japan's black belt robots
Homemade fighter robots can be found in boxing rings around the world, especially in the UK and US. The most famous robot combat tournament, the weekly TV show Robot Wars, ran on BBC Two from 1998 until 2002. After that it was Japan's turn to take on the robot battle baton. And they took it one step further. Read more and see the videos...
Why they worship the penis in Japan
In the village of Komaki, 45 minutes from the central city of Nagoya, there is a shrine devoted to the phallus. Each spring, the old and young alike come here to see an enormous wooden penis carried through the streets, to eat penis shaped sweets, and to make a penis-spirited wish to god. This year, one of our Observers was there. Read more and see his photos....
No Halloween for “stupid foreigners”
For some years now expats and travellers in Tokyo have been piling into metro carriages on October 31 to celebrate Halloween. This year however, the masked partygoers were stopped in their tracks by groups of exasperated locals. Read more...
Pet dogs in Japan – love them and leave them… in a gas chamber
Japan's pets are the most spoilt in the world. They wear clothes, eat in restaurants, bathe in spas. But what happens to the two percent that find themselves homeless? Re-homing is unheard of in Japan, where only the latest creation (often inbred) will do. The answer, revealed in this video, is to gas them, en masse. Read more and watch the clip...
The People’s Republic (nearly) perfect 60th anniversary ceremony
As expected, the parade organised to celebrate the People’s Republic of China’s 60th anniversary went extremely smoothly — thanks in part to the massive security lock-down weeks ahead of the show. There was one small hitch, however, as Chinese Web users were quick to see. Read more...
A glaring case of plagiarism on Chinese TV
