It's election time and we don't mean for a new prime minister. It's AKB48 "General Election" time.
But with the biggest stars (no more Mariko Shinoda, Yuko Oshima or Atsuko Maeda) already out of the world's most populous music group, AKB48's star is beginning to wane and recent album sales have been lower.
In the annual general election, fans can buy votes -- yes, vote-rigging is legal in the music industry in Japan -- that come with CDs. This encourages the crazies to go, well, crazy.
One fan of minor member Juri Takahashi has allegedly gone so far as to purchase ¥31,502,400's ...
How do you appeal to a man's heart? By moe, of course!
In a bid to raise recruits for Japan's all-but-in-name military forces, the Ibaraki prefectural branch of the mighty Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) has turned to the power of cute to get fresh Japanese men willing to lay down their lives for their country in the face of an assault from North Korea, China or Taiwan...
Following the Japanese Communist Party, countless regional governments, corporations and many more, the JSDF has gone kawaii with the help of a mangaka and ero doujinshika called Pochi.
There are three ...
A researcher from University of Tsukuba has spent many valuable hours developing a way to make otaku dreams come true.
This system has been developed officially for "hospital patients" and it basically allows you to "sleep next to" a virtual character.
Scientists being the geeks they are, the explanatory images for the system naturally use Hatsune Miku as an example, as images doing the rounds on Japanese Twitter show.
This actually the same as the Hatsune Miku app/eye-pad device we wrote about at the end of last year.
Using the Oculus Rift headset for the head-mounted ...
We first heard about this cosplay dream at the end of last year. Bandai had worked with Peach John -- who know a thing or two about lingerie -- to create these fantastic Sailor Moon-themed underwear sets.
And then they sold out in days.
They promised a return and more stock. They re-launched last week and we spoke to our friends at KanojoToys.com about selling them globally.
Then the Sailor Moon cosplay lingerie sold out again. In one day. In all colors.
We think the high attention might have something to do with the fact that they got sexy model Rei Yasui to model the ...
The pizza delivery man is a staple motif of porn. But what about cute Japanese pizza delivery girls?
Or even pizza delivered by two-dimensional idols?
Love Live!, a collaboration between Dengeki G's Magazine and a record label, is an anime, manga, video game and series of music releases, set at the fictional Otonokizaka Academy, where a group of girls start up an idol band called μ's (pronounced "muse").
Since Valentine's Day until March 30th, the Pizza Hut Kanda branch has been operating as "Pizza Hut Otonokizaka" complete with Love Live! girls on the shutter, windows and even the ...
If you are a fan of girls with knee high socks -- and we know there are plenty of them out there! -- as well as "the absolute zone" (zettai ryouiki), that Japanese love of the slender upper thigh, then this Zettai Kutsushita app is something you must get on your device ASAP.
The so-called Zettai Ryoiki is derived possibly from the Evangelion series and refers to the tantalizing area of the upper thigh, a point of pure flesh framed between sock and skirt. The popularity of the "zone" was such that there was even a minor trend for girls walking around with ads on their thighs (zettai ...
If you're a AKB48 fan, you are probably a vulnerable individual with money to burn and an appetite for over-priced merchandise.
And if you know someone like that or come into contact with them -- be warned. They may just steal your money.
As we know, otaku fans idol groups are famously willing to put themselves into serious debt in order to purchase thousands of CDs.
But this is taking things to almost mafia levels.
Kyoto police are now set to prosecute six men, all aged 20, who stole information from other people's credit cards so that they could buy nearly 500 CDs by the group ...
An otaku has made a shocking confession that he bought 3,000 CDs due to his obsession with Rina Ikoma, the 18-year-old idol and member of girl group Nogizaka46.
Naturally he is also a regular attendant at Nogizaka46 handshaking events.
These meet-and-greet sessions are where they can have a few seconds of bliss stroking the hand of the idols they adore.
He told Rina what he had done at a recent handshaking event.
Unfortunately he was less than impressed with her muted response to his confession, crushing his dreams of happiness with the teenaged idol.
He now claims to ...
This month sees the start of the university entrance exams all over Japan.
It's a tough time to be young. Hours of cramming followed by hours of tests in strange colleges, sometimes in strange cities.
How do you keep your spirits up during this stressful time?
Well, this youngster was snapped about to take the notorious Center Test. The poor thing, he was taking comfort with a blankie around his shoulders.
This being Japan and the examinee being a boy, the blankie was of course an anime character. Moe for exam success!
Apparently the unfortunate guy, clearly surfing on his ...
Remember how we blogged about Soineya in Akihabara in 2012? It's the "bed-sharing" facility where you can get to snuggle up with a cute girl for some shut-eye... charged by the hour.
About this time last year Soineya opened its second store in Shinjuku's Kabukicho and caused a stir with its new service: Oshiri-makura, ass pillow.
As you know, we like Japanese girls' asses.
It's still there in Shinjuku, though the "menu" of girls hasn't been updated in over a year. We couldn't resist blogging again about this truly awesome service. This is what you will look like...
Be ...
