At the World Cheese Awards, Yozawa Yagi was the top rated Japanese cheese, finishing in 13th place. Three British cheeses finished higher, which may be information I'll be flaunting this weekend. gff.co.uk/world-cheese...

Yomiuri photo on the business slump in Akita caused by fear of bear attacks. Caption says "With the autumn leaves out, foreigners are conspicuous, while locals are staying away on account of the bears". www.yomiuri.co.jp/pluralphoto/...

Farewell, Shibuya Tobu Hotel. Opened in 1975, the facility is set to close in 2027. I can't recall meeting anyone who ever stayed there. www.shibukei.com/headline/195...

The Shinagawa Prince Hotel will undergo a major remodelling. To accomodate inbound tourism, they'll reduce the total of rooms and have a larger number of bigger rooms. Average rates will rise by 50%. www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/2025...

Weekly Playboy says Niseko is flooded with cannabis and ecstasy, with foreigners willing to buy at multiples of prices elsewehere. Local police are largely ineffective. wpb.shueisha.co.jp/news/society...

PM Takaichi has a plan to set up a 政府効率化局, which can translate as Department of Government Efficiency. That's the same name as Elon Musk's DOGE. www.jiji.com/jc/article?k...

Police have made 4 arrests in a case of parasite smuggling, where drugs, or other contraband, are concealed on the hull of a ship, and collected at destination by divers. The ship's crew are usually unaware of the hidden load. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

Yomiuri writes of 発酵ツーリズム ("fermentation tourism"), where overseas vistors go to miso and soy producing facilities. Is that really a helpful label? www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

"A design flaw" mainichi.jp/english/arti...

The retirement of the Suica penguin has generated a lot of internet sorrow. Oddly, this is a mascot which never really connected. Perhaps Pingu and Feathers McGraw took up too much penguin character space. www.asahi.com/articles/AST...

Taito is offering a prize of 100,000 yen for information on the whereabouts of a Crown 602 crane game machine. The model was released 60 years ago, and Taito will give the prize to anyone who can lead them to an existing machine. www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/2025...

There's a floor plaque in Shinagawa Station, marking the spot Godzilla is first supposed to have hit land in Japan. You can now buy plaque merchandise. shopping.jreast.co.jp/feature/S008...

Weather forecast this morning , versus screenshot now. The laundry put out to dry, did not have a happy mid-day.

Terminology watch: headline here has 迷惑系外国人 ("nuisance-type foreigners"), rather than 迷惑外国人 ("nuisance foreigners"). It's more usual to see that 系 usage in アジア系外国人 (asian foreigners) or 南米系外国人 (South American foreigners) president.jp/articles/-/1...

Yomiuri headline writes of an unprecedented ramen boom (空前のラーメンブーム) driven by overseas visitors, who prefer the dish to sushi. The market for ramen is up 60% from ten years ago. www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/2025...

"Authentic Artisan Zen Geisha Experience"

There's concern about the plethora of AI-generated bear videos on social media. They show bears in areas where no sightings have been reported, and people reacting to bears in dangerous ways. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

Benesse's annual ranking of popular baby names is out. 碧 (Ao) is top again for boys, while 翠 (Sui), which was 3rd last year, is top for girls. Follow the link to see the full top 100. st.benesse.ne.jp/ninshin/name/

@mulboyne.bsky.social 😮‍💨

The thirty candidates for neologism of the year have been announced. I've just learned チャッピー (no.13 on the list) is ChatGPT. news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/ae4...

In reporting Zohran Mamdani's election victory, the Mainichi, Nikkei and Yomiuri all have headlines with the label 急進左派 (radical left/left-wing radical). Here's the Mainichi. mainichi.jp/articles/202...

A bear cub got confused by the automatic doors at a village office in Aomori earlier this morning. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgaP...

Creative Assembly has an old Sengoku Jidai video game. In a recent PR video, one of the team says Kaiyoto for Kyoto. You used to hear that all the time but it felt like Kyoto had become one of those global place names which native English speakers know. Seems not.

If you want a chance at the Starbucks fukubukuro, then you'll need to enter the online lottery. The application period starts on Tuesday, the 4th of November, and runs until Friday, the 14th. www.starbucks.co.jp/youkou/lucky...

TBS show "Akko ni Omakase", hosted by Akiko Wada, will end next March, after a run of over 40 years. This is the latest TV variety staple to bite the dust in recent years. www.yomiuri.co.jp/culture/tv/2...

A Tokyo Station room called 松の間 (Matsu-no-ma) was for the Emperor if a train was delayed. Trains for the Emperor are never late, so it wasn't used in the Showa and Heisei eras. In March last year, it was used for the first time when the Emperor met the King of Norway, before they went to Kamakura.

RT if your people are being persecuted

The firts cabinet meeting on foreigner issues will address managing residency status, tightening naturalisation requirements, countermeasures against overtourism, public safety measures, and a review of rules on real estate purchases by foreign nationals. www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/202...

Kyodo reports Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will hold the first cabinet meeting on foreigner policy (外国人政策に関する関係閣僚会議) on the 4th of November. www.47news.jp/13384692.html

The Mainichi has an English article on the incident yesterday morning, when a bear broke into a high school gym in Yamagata, had a bit of a frolic, then left. mainichi.jp/english/arti...

When an eight year old boy tried to cross the tracks, he suddenly noticed a train bearing down. He lay down flat between the rails, in a gap 1.4m wide and no taller than 23cm. The train passed over him, and he walked away with only minor scrapes and bruises. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

Meeting some visitors in Shimokitazawa, and foreigners seem to make up over half of the customer base at a lot of cafes. I should have expected it but it's still a bit surprising to see first hand.

Umeda Daimaru has a post-Expo merchandise sale, with this welcoming display. travel.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20...

Cycling to the shops, a Japanese bloke on a bike in front was singing "Smoke in the Water" loudly. It seemed like pedestrians looking in our direction assumed it was me. I was tempted to speak with them all individually to put them right.

Sexual assault victim Shiori Ito dismayed many supporters when she used uncleared video in her award-winning film "Black Box Diaries". Ito apologized, and has now has reached a settlement with a taxi driver who featured in some of the footage. www.kanaloco.jp/news/social/...

The Yamanote Line first became a full loop in 1925, and November 1st next week will mark the 100th anniversary of its complete encirclement of the city centre. www.47news.jp/13346469.html

BS Asahi is dropping Soichiro Tahara's political debate show, after he seemed to say Sanae Takaichi should drop dead (「あんなやつは死んでしまえと言えばいい). His office denied it was directed at Takaichi but the network says his words were inappropriate. www.47news.jp/13343251.html

Producers of a horror movie about people being attacked by a bear have postponed the premiere, after a series of incidents around the country where people have been attacked by bears. natalie.mu/eiga/news/64...

In Takadanobaba, you can meditate in a coffin for half an hour for 2,000 yen. takadanobaba.keizai.biz/headline/1547/

Here's another take on the change in the area open.substack.com/pub/samholde...

Photo in an article discussing positive and negative attitudes towards foreign nationals working at convenience stores. (※画像はイメージです) lasisa.net/post/119333

Kimi Onoda has confirmed the outfit she wore for the Cabinet inauguration is largely the same as the one Satsuki Katayama wore for Abe's 4th administration in 2018. lasisa.net/post/119546

An interview with academic Toshio Mizuuchi looks at the foreign population in Osaka's Nishinari Ward, as this poor area of the city, and home to day labourers, undergoes gentrification. jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/9...

The Tokyo Immigration Bureau has admitted it wrongly detained a foreigner for overstaying illegally. The foreigner had applied for a change of status, so was in a 2 month grace period. This had not been correctly recorded on the bureau's internal system. www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/202...

The drums were up first.

The press is understandably translating Kimi Onoda's foreigner policy portfolio title in different ways. On the Cabinet website, 外国人との秩序ある共生社会推進担当 is translated as "Minister in charge of a Society of Well-Ordered and Harmonious Coexistence with Foreign Nationals". japan.kantei.go.jp/104/meibo/da...

This is the disappointing evidence display, after three women tried to smuggle gold powder into Japan. They concealed it in their underwear, so we really should have a mannequin there, showing exactly where they hid it. mainichi.jp/english/arti...

Sanae Takaichi's husband, Taku Yamamoto, is getting labelled as Japan's first ファーストジェントルマン (First Gentleman). He actually took Takaichi's name when the couple remarried in 2021, so is Taku Takaichi in the family register. He had a stroke earlier this year.

And so it begins. Sanae Takaichi acknowledges applause from her colleagues in the Diet, the first woman to become Prime Minister in Japan.

Sankei has a map of municipalities where foreign residents make up over 10% of the population.The highest is Shimukappu in Hokkaido, with 36.6%. www.sankei.com/article/2025...