Category Archives: World

English Undergrad Programmes in Japan

Toudai’s Akamon, circa 2008 Once in a while, people tell me that they want to study in Japan. Most of the time, they speak no Japanese. Fortunately for these people, the Japanese government has been actively pushing a programme that … Continue reading

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Tohoku Pacific Earthquake

Sendai, Miyagi prefecture (Kyodo News/Associated Press) I don’t normally like to write about breaking news because generally I find that I have neither the first-hand expertise nor the retrospective hindsight to comment on most real-time events non-trivial. The story would … Continue reading

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WikiLeaks

(Sauce) “I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes” WikiLeaks may turn out to be the real-life Laughing Man. Whether as a hero or villain, it has already secured a spot in history with … Continue reading

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Tokyo Vice

The author holding his book in front of a fuuzoku annaijo Like any modern metropolis, Tokyo’s glittering skylines carefully conceal a more sinister side from the casual observations of an outsider. And like most other things Japan, organized crime in … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, World | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Dreams are not for Asia

There’s a pretty good essay on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong‘s call for young Singaporeans to “dare to dream” over at The Online Citizen. The gist of it is that this statement is highly ironic when interpreted against the realities … Continue reading

Posted in Rant, World | Tagged , , , , , | 59 Comments

Jury Trial in Japan

Those of you who played the 4th Ace Attorney (逆転裁判) game would be aware of the new jury system being implemented in Japan, first proposed in cabinet review committee in 2001 and subsequently passed into law in 2004. After five … Continue reading

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Israeli Conscription

Image shameless stolen from Rachel Papo’s gallery Sometimes diving around in the polluted ocean of Digg nets you a rare surviving coral or two. The frequency of this rare occurrence is inversely proportional to Digg’s user base. And so the … Continue reading

Posted in World | Tagged , , , , | 28 Comments

Oversensitive Religion

Blasphemlicious JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure, an anime series based on a manga by the same name, is currently under fire from the Middle East for having a villain in the show read the Holy Koran while plotting the death of the … Continue reading

Posted in Rant, World | Tagged , , | 139 Comments

Hope for a better world

I have some things that I want to talk about and I have no other platform to say it. Therefore I shall be spending this blog post on a topic that holds next to zero relevance to what you are … Continue reading

Posted in World | Tagged , , | 72 Comments

Japan Fingerprinting Commences

Japan’s new amended immigration laws (改正入管法) kicked in today, making it the second country in the world after USA to implement a compulsory fingerprinting system for foreign visitors. Image shamelessly stolen from Stippy.com This is a particularly unpleasant development in … Continue reading

Posted in Rant, World | Tagged , , , , | 54 Comments

Why save dolphins?

I love dolphins as much as the next guy, but I really don’t see why they deserve the special attention that the feel-good self-proclaimed activists like to give them. Red Alert 2 nostalgia I am sure you have all heard … Continue reading

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Independence Day

US Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. It’s time for another rant that is completely unrelated to the theme of this blog because I just felt like it. Fourth of July just ended a few hours ago for the … Continue reading

Posted in Rant, World | Tagged , , | 53 Comments