Author: Mina

If you ever wish to find out who's hot in the Japanese show biz today, simply pay close attention to TV commercials. SoftBank, for example, is famous for featuring the latest trends in its ...

Whether you like them or not, Golden Bomber seems to have found their own gold in the entertainment scene. Their latest album titled The Past Masters Vol. 1 which was released on April 24th, topped ...

I usually don’t watch TV dramas, but there is always one or two a year that almost forcibly catch my attention. Legal High was definitely one of them. The drama was first aired last year as a ...

As Japan’s population continues to decline, we see more and more non-human characters pop out and come to life on a daily basis. The yuru-kyara boom which started less than a decade ago is now ...

In Japan, April is the month of new starts. The new school year. New company employees join their firms. And we see an increasing number of TV commercials promoting the message of “It’s now or ...

Raising kids is indeed one of the toughest jobs out there. While parenting entails balancing when to treat and when to reprimand your child (of which I’m sure the latter is much harder), Media ...

It's a common perception among foreigners that the Japanese are polite and respectful. They say that the Japanese show, if not innately have, good manners in public and seem to act orderly even under ...

April is the time of a new start. It’s the beginning of a new school year. It’s when new recruits start their first full-time jobs. Cherry blossoms are in full bloom. It’s a perfect time of a ...

An actor is someone who acts. A dancer is someone who dances. A singer is someone who sings. They all get paid to do what their job title claims, but when it comes to singing, we tend to become more ...

The ever-growing popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest has made the act of sharing quicker and easier than ever before. In fact, it goes without saying that ...

We all love cherry blossoms. It’s around this time of the year when “Did you go to hanami? (cherry blossom viewing)” becomes another way of asking people how they are doing recently. Hanami ...

As we see more and more young celebrities using informal speech (or tameguchi) on TV, some might question, “Is it acceptable not to use honorific language at all in our everyday life?” Perhaps ...

For the great majority of Japanese people, same-sex marriage is still a fantasy that, well, should only happen in a fantasy world. On March 1st, Tokyo Disneyland held its first same-sex wedding ...