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NHK on changing the Japanese constitution: Last week, I mentioned that the Japanese prime minister and the political party in power in Japan have thought about amending the constitution. This week, What Japan Thinks rounded up public opinion on amending the constitution and the sentiment of the people is a resounding “meh.” Opinion is split more or less evenly three ways on changing the document, which probably means that nothing’s likely to get done and people won’t care about it, anyway. Win-win!

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Daniel Radcliffe To Star In Crime Saga ‘Tokyo Vice’: Jake Adelstein’s yakuza memoir Tokyo Vice is being adapted movie, which is pretty exciting on its own, but the big names being attached to the project is pretty astounding. Big-time music video director Anthony Mandler is set to direct, and Harry Potter wonderboy Daniel Radcliffe is tagged to star in the movie. Yer a yakuza, ‘arry!

Cool Biz season kicks off across Japan: Summer’s right around the corner in Japan, which means it’s time for “Cool Biz,” the Japanese program to get working people to dress more casually to cut down on the energy used to power air conditioners. Unfortunately, Cool Biz is kicking off during an unseasonably cool time in Japan, with temperatures hovering around 60 °F. Guess we can’t bust out the Hawaiian shirts quite yet! [via News On Japan]

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Weaker Yen Ups Cost of Life’s Simple Pleasures: We’ve talked a bit about what it means that Japan’s currency, the yen, is getting weaker and weaker, but there are consequences to the weak yen that are more terrible than anybody could have possibly imagined. A 10%-15% price increase on toilet paper? The horror . . . the horror.

LDP plans expansion of JET program:Exciting news for people who want to work in Japan! Japan’s JET program, which hires foreigners to teach English in Japan, is planned to double in size in the next couple of years, bringing a JET language assistant to every single elementary, middle, and high school in the entire country. The bad news? Incidents of kancho per capita are expected to skyrocket.

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Putin mentions even split of disputed territory in talks with Abe: source: For the first time in nearly a decade, the heads of state of Japan and Russia met this week to discuss the biggest issues affecting the two countries; among them, coming up with a peace agreement to end WWII (seriously), and divvying up some of the islands that the two countries have been fighting over for over 100 years. Exciting times! [via News On Japan]

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Cat from Putin to Akita gov. quarantined at Narita: President of Russia Vladmir Putin, when he’s not practicing sketchy politics, has been exchanging gifts with various Japanese political figures. This year, he exchanged judo uniforms with the prime minister of Japan and received an akita from the governor of the eponymous region. Now, Putin is returning the favor to the governor with a cat which, unfortunately has to be quarantined until it’s deemed to be safe. There’s a Pussy Riot joke in here somewhere, I just know it! [via News On Japan][/threecol_two] [threecol_one_last]Japanese man shows off world’s tallest Mohawk hairstyle: Even though I’m not really a fan of Guinness’s dark, almost syrupy beer, I have a soft spot for its Book of World Records. Carnival sideshows are largely a thing of the past, but Guinness still provides a glimpse into some of the wackiest things imaginable, like this Japanese guy with a mohawk that’s almost four feet tall. Sure, he can’t walk around indoors, but that’s a price worth paying. [via News On Japan]

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[threecol_one]In China, anti-Japan protests over disputed islands get some zing: People in China have been holding anti-Japan protests for weeks now over disputed territory in the Sea of Japan, but the same ol’ methods of protesting, like burning flags and flipping cars, just aren’t doing it anymore. Now protestors are getting more creative with their protests by illegally downloading Japanese porn in an effort to deprive smut peddlers of profits. Evidently, I’ve been protesting Japan for while and haven’t even known it. Go figure.

Tsunami “Miracle Pine” Destroyed to be Preserved: When the 3/11 tsunami wiped away a forest of 70,000 trees, people were astonished to see that one “Miracle Pine” still standing. Now, the pine is ironically being destroyed so it can be better preserved; the tree will be cut down in segments, then treated and reassembled so that it might stand stronger than ever. [via Japan Realtime, News On Japan][/threecol_two_last]

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