Hello lovers, any of you listen to Japanese music? No? Well too bad, I’m going to post this anyway.

Jrock Revolution and JaME are forming an alliance. JaME is a popular source worldwide for Japanese music news. Their network has several sites in which they post news in different languages.  This gives them a very large reach.

Jrock Revolution promotes Japanese rock in the U.S and beyond. They work (indirectly?) under Yoshiki - who is a big name Jrocker.

And now JRR and JaME are going to combine their resources to further help support the Japanese music scene.

I think this is great because they are both great websites. With them working together I think it will be a lot easier for them to share information worldwide with fans from various languages. I really hope this helps give Japanese music a boost.

All you long term gaijins in Japan might have to dig out that old Japanese lesson book and put it to use.

According to Mainichi Daily News the government is going to “consider Japanese language ability as requirement for long-stay foreigners.”

The aim of the measures is to make it easier for the increasing number of non-Japanese in Japan to blend into the community, and provide an increased incentive for foreigners coming to Japan to learn Japanese.

I’m sort of 50/50 on this. One one hand, it sucks to have to be pushed to learn a language if you want to stay there. I mean, hey, if you want to run around like a headless chicken then go for it.

But on the other hand, it makes sense. If you’re going to stay in Japan(or any country) for long term, you should learn the language. If you’re going to have a job, buy things, and interact with the people there then you should have to learn to understand them. They shouldn’t have to speak English/Korean/whatever to understand you. It’s their country.

It’s a lot easier if everyone speaks the same language.

But being forced to learn a language might be kind of annoying, so I don’t know.

Think it will pass? Thoughts?

You think that cute little cat is just for little girls? Think again!

It seems there are now going to be Hello Kitty products targeted to boys. Personally, I’m not sure why, but maybe the company is just trying to milk out more money.

Mainichi Daily News has a picture of some of the products (as does Yahoo! news). I guess I can kinda see how they’re trying to make it more boyish - however, they still look pretty girly-ish to me. (maybe it’s the bow?)

My first thought is that it will flop and won’t get very popular. However, Japan is a crazy place so anything is possible. But for the products in the U.S I don’t think they’ll be huge.

I think it’s hard to take an icon that’s been popular among females and try to target it to males. I’m sure most people will still associate Hello Kitty with girls.

(Maybe TMI, but the first thing that jumped into my mind was “It’s like trying to sell tampons to boys”)

I myself see nothing wrong with boys liking Hello Kitty, however it seems that other people - especially males - have rules about what is and isn’t socially acceptable for males. And in the U.S I’m not sure Hello Kitty would pass.

I know that there will be some people out there who wouldn’t mind having a couple things here and there, but I don’t see it becoming as huge as it is/was with girls.

(as in, I can’t imagine all the guys out there walking around with Hello Kitty shirts, pants, bags, cell phones, shoes, underwear, everything else)

However, that’s just my opinion, what do you think? Will it be a success?

For you guys out there, would you ever buy Hello Kitty products for yourself (and wear them in public)?

Once again the Japanese make life a little easier with the creation of the self-cleaning toilet.

The A-La-Uno is a self-clearning toilet that was devloped by Takeyuki Sakai. This lovely toilet is made out of thick, reinforced organic glass (such as the glass used in aquariums) that is less prone to getting dirty than porcelain.

I, like everyone else, hate scrubbing toilets so this is like a godsend. I sincerely hope we get these in America within the next couple of years. It will make cleaning the bathroom a little less of a hassle.

Now I just have to wait for someone to invent the self-cleaning house.

(Also, Happy 4th of July to all you Americans!)

I’ve always heard stories about cell phones being bad for you, but it may actually be true.

According to the Mainichi Daily News there are a growing number of Japanese that are suffering from electromagnetic wave hypersensitivity.

Now, I don’t know how much exposure you need to get this illness, but if you’re going to get it anywhere, Japan would be the place to do it.

I’m not familiar with other parts of the country, but Tokyo is covered in technology and electricity. And I suppose that being in that environment long enough - and being exposed to all the electromagnetic waves - might cause one to develop an illness.

The article says that electromagnetic wave hypersensitivity is not recognized as a disease, but with all the technology today I wonder how long it will take until more and more people develop illnesses.

And as a technology lover myself, I do hope I don’t suffer from anything like this in the future.

Everyone knows the Japanese are polite - but sometimes it goes too far.

According to Japan Today - A man in Osaka was arrested on suspicion of beating his girlfriend’s 1 year old son.

The reason for the beating? The boy didn’t say “itadakimasu” before starting his meal.

Now, I understand that stressing proper manners is important, but not to the point of harming the child. This guy clearly has some issues.

He sounds like another one of those over disciplinary  and hypocritical fathers. I say hypocritical because beating a child isn’t exactly proper etiquette either.

I hope he gets charged and put away in prison for a few years.

And I know I’m being a postwhore today, sorry, I just can’t help myself.