Since antiquity the sparrow has always been seen as a bird of love in the west. It was associated in classical mythology with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and Catullus, the Roman poet, famously used the sparrow as a symbol of true love and spiritual connection to his lover. In Japan the sparrow does not carry the same connotations except in the phrase wakai tsubame which literally means a young sparrow but refers to a younger lover of an older woman, or, 女にとって年下の愛人。 Continue reading J-WOTD: 若い燕→
Yet another “Only in Japan” story, but we just had to delve deeper into this one! According to many of the foreign press outlets this week, hundreds, possibly thousands of Japanese women have been conned into buying baby lambs, which they thought were in fact poodles. Coming from a background where an annual highlight is Christmas lamb, this story tested my limits. Continue reading Actress Maiko Kawakami Roasted Over Sheep-Dog Incident→
Although Japan is clearly far behind the west in Women’s lib, the emergence of Doi Takako in the 90s and several female politicians in Koizumi’s cabinet has helped push along the plight of the average Japanese woman. But sometimes there is more to these posts than meets the eye.
I have always been a supporter of leaving key services up to the central government to run. Services like the police, prison, schools, universities and up until now I thought the post office of Japan was no exception. In my mind the postal system here in Japan has always provided efficient service, despite being blatantly over-staffed. That was until last week.
I could delve into the standard arguments for privatization. How the post office here has three branches: postage, banking and insurance and how the insurance is over-priced for minimal cover and how the savings accounts of nice little hunched over Japanese ladies earn a meager 0.1% and are used as a private slush fund for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party – but that is old news and fairly standard knowledge here. Continue reading Why I Support Privatization of the Post Office→
For some reason, the Japanese language has many words to describe good looking men. かっこいい, ハンサム, イケメン, 美少年, and Kansai-ben’s 男前 are quite a selection, proving that Japanese can be more expressive that English when it comes to certain things. Continue reading J-WOTD: 二枚目 （にまいめ）→
This article is a rare (for stippy) direct quote from another article on Yahoo but we thought that is is interesting for our readers also, as we have writtenquiteextensively on the Yakuza and their recent dramas in Japan, and given a locals insight surrounding some of ongoings of the Yamaguchi-gumi and Sumiyoshikai in Tokyo.
Well, the Yakuza is back in the news in a way that nobody expected. A senior member of the Yamaguchi-gumi has shot dead the mayor of Nagasaki, for not compensating him when his car was damaged at a public works construction site! This is the forth murder of a politician since WW2, and virtually unheard of in Japan. Continue reading Mayor of Nagasaki Shot Dead by Yakuza→
Remember the Grim Reaper AIDS campaigns of the ’80s?
Late last year Pink shared with us the eye-opening story of his friend who found out that he had been dating a girl infected with HIV, and the story of his soul search while he waited for his own test results. After reading the number of responses in the comment section to the article, I decided to do a little more work into the state of AIDS and other STDs in Japan.
While most newspaper articles generally do their best to exaggerate the statistics with statements like “AIDS cases in Japan double in the last decade”, the reality is that official AIDS (and HIV) statistics don’t appear that high although part of the reason might be due to the lack of drug use (and syringe sharing) in Japan. I guess it depends Continue reading What Should I Do? More on AIDS in Japan→
It seems a number of the people tuning in to Stippy are married and have kids. I, also a parent living in Tokyo, just checked out an old site that I used to look at for News on Japan. Aptly it is called newsonjapan.com. Looking at the society section I wanted to check if a certain story that I have a personal connection to, was in the English news yet. It isn’t but what I saw was quite scary.
On the Society page for the news on Japan, there were three articles about little kids suffering and dying thanks to their parent’s lack of ability to cope and act maturely when making basic parental decisions. What is happening to parents in Japan these days? Is there a distinct change in the way that Japanese parents treat (through action and inaction) their kids, leading to this scary spate of twisted horrible crimes that we witness daily? Continue reading Darwin and Japan’s Lost Generation→
In recent weeks, Stippy has been receiving much attention and many comments and questions based around our Tokyo Yakuza Wars and Prison in Japan articles. One of the questions we received was what is the difference between the Yakuza and the Right-Wing Nationalist groups? Are they different parts of the same organization, or are they in fact completely different?
For the average foreigner living in Japan, both the Yakuza and the Right-Wing Nationalists have very stereotypical images, and are easy to pick out from a crowd. The Yakuza are big, bulldog types Continue reading The Yakuza vs the Right-Wing Nationalists→
Shintaro Ishihara (石原慎太郎) after winning the Tokyo Governor’s Election on Sunday
After eight years in the limelight as the governor of Tokyo it seems that 74 year old Shintaro Ishihara (石原慎太郎) has once again been successful in winning the hearts of the Tokyo tomin (都民, citizens). Despite the fact that 73% of Tokyo’s registered voting population (*) did not vote for him, Ishihara is beginning his third (and apparent final) period in Nishi-Shinjuku. Besides more overseas trips for his wife and job offers for his sons, what does that mean for us, the gaijin population of Tokyo? I happened to be walking through the streets of Shinbashi (新橋) on the weekend and stumbled across Ishihara’s campaign office so I decided to invite myself in for a fact finding mission. Although I didn’t buy one of the 200 yen pro-Ishihara arm bands, I did ask a few questions on behalf of stippy.com. Continue reading A Vote in Favour of a Tighter Immigration Policy?→
Yet another “Only in Japan” story, but we just had to delve deeper into this one! According to many of the foreign press outlets this week, hundreds, possibly thousands of Japanese women have been conned into buying baby lambs, which they thought were in fact poodles. Coming from a background where an annual highlight is Christmas lamb, this story tested my limits. 
I have always been a supporter of leaving key services up to the central government to run. Services like the police, prison, schools, universities and up until now I thought the post office of Japan was no exception. In my mind the postal system here in Japan has always provided efficient service, despite being blatantly over-staffed. That was until last week.
This article is a rare (for stippy) direct quote from another article 
It seems a number of the people tuning in to Stippy are married and have kids. I, also a parent living in Tokyo, just checked out an old site that I used to look at for News on Japan. Aptly it is called 
In recent weeks, Stippy has been receiving much attention and many comments and questions based around our Tokyo Yakuza Wars and Prison in Japan articles. One of the questions we received was what is the difference between the Yakuza and the Right-Wing Nationalist groups? Are they different parts of the same organization, or are they in fact completely different?