V.I.Ps rejoice and ‘Breathe’! ’cause your boy G-Dragon is finally freed from the gnarling press that has been putting him down since December 2009! Big Bang’s G-Dragon finally sees some good news out of 2010 so far. More »

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As many Kpop fans know, SM Entertainment (arguably the biggest music agency in Korea) has recently experienced many difficult trials as three members in TVXQ and Super Junior’s Hankyung underwent legal battles for problematic contract terms such as its 13 year length and unfair distribution of album sale profits. More »

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Kim Do Hoon, the songwriter of C.N BLUE’s hit song “I’m a Loner” and many other famous hits, rejected the rumors of him plagiarizing for the second time…but netizens are now boycotting to kick him out as a composer for good! More »

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Japan’s population has come to a virtual standstill. Its not growing. In fact everyone is slightly freaked out because the population is really really old and about ready to retire. Well now the government has a plan! More »

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Japan has the reputation of liking to kill and eat whale. A bad reputation that it kind of deserves and kind of doesn’t deserve. Most people in Japan don’t really have strong feelings on the issue (in fact most people agree whale doesn’t taste that good). What they can all agree on is that a dead whale is not much fun. More »

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That’s right you crazy internet goons. I’m talking about a book here. One with pages you turn. Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan is probably one of the most insane looks into the back alleys and dark recesses of Japan you’ll ever read. It’s also surprisingly funny. More »

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Japan goes through a lot of cell phones. Seeing how everyone over the age of 8 has at least one cell phone, I can make a complete off the top of my head statistic that there are over 100 million cell phones being used in Japan right now. Most of them will be thrown away and replaced every two years. That’s a lot of trash. More »

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From Rekuru:

Above: Yukio Hatoyama, banzai!

It’s been an exciting year for the Land of the Rising Sun: we’ve seen a significant political power shift, Japanese technology continues to both fascinate and frighten us; but their expatriates are still embarrassing them. So without further ado (drumroll puh-leaze) her are Japan’s Top Five News Stories of ‘09: More »

The “Legend of Koizumi” or “Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku” is a manga about the 89th Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi. The first chapter is about his mahjong battle against George Bush Jr. Things get crazier from there. Later on he battles against the more competent George Bush Sr. and then the dirty fighting Kim Jong Il. He also tag team battles with Aso Taro. I haven’t gotten any further than that but things seem like they just get more ridiculous. More »

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Last weekend US President Obama visited Japan for some greeting, sushi, and talks about relocating military bases in Okinawa. The usual stuff a visiting president does when in Japan. Normally this would be a big non-issue for any other president, but as usual, because it’s Obama it has caused a storm of dumb controversy. More »

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For awhile now foreigners in several Japanese cities have gathered on local trains to ‘celebrate’ Halloween. This has led to a lot of bad press over the years and now it seems that its attracted right wing protesters. More »

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I would like to introduce my new hero. His name is John Liu and he just became the new comptroller of New York City. He also just made history being the FIRST Asian American to be elected to citywide office. A democrat who was formerly a Queens councilman, Mr. Liu defeated Republican Joe Mendola by a wide margin (76 percent to 19 percent). More »

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In case you haven’t heard, the two Asian American journalists who were detained by the North Korean government earlier this year, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were finally released yesterday. They were accused of illegally entering the country and were sentenced to 12 years in a labor prison by Kim Jong Il and his posse. More »

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Riots took place throughout Urumqi, China on Sunday, July 5 with devastating results.

On Friday, July 10 Chinese authorities announced the official death count as 184 and stated that more than 1,000 people were injured from the violence that shook the city on Sunday. Of the 184 who died, 137 were Han Chinese, 46 were Uighur, and one was part of the Hui Muslim minority group. More »

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Racism is alive and well in New Zealand. New frickin Zealand! Ryotaro Wright was nearly killed when some high schooler took bullying a bit too far. He had to get emergency brain surgery just to be alive now. According to the article, he’s been going through this for four months but no one stopped it before it came to this. Makes me sad…

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If you think Girls Generation has had enough buzz already, we’ve only just begun. There’s so much going on, one can hardly keep up. Netizens In Korea with their keen eye were quick to notice the cover had Japanese-like war planes along with Nazi crosses. I say “like” due to the fact there is a strong likeness, but the artist tried to alter them. Apparently the alterations were not enough, and was not thought through, according to the majority opinion of fans. More »

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David posted an entry about Duanwu/Dragon Boat Festival earlier. I’d like to follow up with an entry about the history of the festival.

Duanwu Festival is believed to have originated in China. The holiday is observed by Chinese worldwide as well as Koreans (who, unlike the Chinese, treat it more like Valentine’s Day). While there are many folklore tales and stories that explain its observance, the most common one relates to the suicide of a Chinese poet and statesman of the Chu Kingdom in 278BC. His name was Qu Yuan. More »

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The House of Blues was a sold out event. A sea of Asians lined up outside the venue for what was expected to be one rocking good time on Saturday night. And surely it was. It was my first time doing the whole press access sha-bang, so I didn’t know what to expect, what I’ll do is I’ll give you a concert experience from a fresh, new, perspective. On the get go, I didn’t have to wait in any lines and I was free to roam around anywhere before the show started. Checking in with my ID was really the only gripe , and required further authentication from the Admin here, but I suppose due to the name of the venue its fair. More »

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Three months ago, South Korean officials arrested “Minerva” — a South Korean blogger– on the basis of bearing malicious intent against the South Korean government, yadada, by spreading false rumours across the Internet. Well, booyah to the paranoid folks! The court decided that Park Dae Sung aka Minerva is NOT guilty. This calls for a celebration in my opinions. More »

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For all the talk about how Asians are the model minority in this country and how much disposable income we have, there’s not much talk about how 10.2% of Asians in this country live below the poverty line. That number is higher of course in urban areas. More »

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