Episodes
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg ponders the way Japanese people use keyboards and Kenzo paints the town red. After a brief discussion of the worrying rise in COVID-19 cases across Japan and NTT Docomo’s move to shake up the mobile industry with a new plan, we jump into our main topics. Kenzo takes a look at the car of the future as Toyota looks to bring hydrogen fuel cell cars to the masses, while Ferg dives into yet another story of power harassment. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with any topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg takes his car in for an inspection while Kenzo continues his hunt for the perfect home. The Suga administration is looking to allow married couples to retain their surnames, and the political hand-wringing continues over lavish dinner parties sponsored by the former Abe government. Covid numbers are also spiking once again. Kenzo looks at the exotic animal trade among zoos in Japan, and Ferg uncovers a true story fit for the silver screen featuring politicians, mistresses, and the yakuza. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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Episodes manquant?
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg’s preparing for winter, while Kenzo eats a pizza. In our quick round-up of this week’s major news items, we give you a follow-up on the Capcom ransomware story, the latest on Suga’s push to de-hanko Japan, a tale of a dodgy bridge out west in Yamaguchi, and the latest coronavirus info. For our in-depth topics, we look at another cancelled Japanese celebrity - this time for a bit of extra-marital fun, and the marriage scandal engulfing the royal family. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg goes on a brief trip to Tokyo and Kenzo gets a bright yellow loaner car. Quick roundup of topics including: recent developments in the royal family, Capcom gets hit with ransomware, and PS5 hits the (virtual) shelves. For our in-depth segments, Kenzo discusses the difficulty of actually getting a coronavirus test, while Ferg brings us an interesting corporate tale of a father-daughter feud spilling into public. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg gets lectured on safe driving while revisits one of his old haunts in the “yoru-no-machi” (night town) of Tokyo. It’s been a slow news week here in Japan, with attention focused on the US presidential election, but we give listeners an update on the results of a recent referendum to turn Osaka into a metropolis and the latest coronavirus information. In our main stories, we discuss a wild scheme to take advantage of bonuses for signing up to mobile payments, using 10,000+ SIM cards, followed by a profile of David Atkinson - a Brit in Japan who is either contributing to the Japanese tourism industry or an MI6 spy - you decide! 😉 Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg brings out the kotatsu ahead of the approaching winter while Kenzo goes to a public gathering for the first time in months. News roundup stories include a man getting arrested for selling iodine gargle, a group of thieves arrested for butchering pigs in their apartment, a government-backed proposal to extend the New Year holiday, and a celebrity being involved in a hit-and-run accident. For our in-depth segments, Kenzo finds an article about a few kids sniffing gas canisters to get high and then igniting the entire apartment with an ill-timed cigarette and Ferg takes a deep dive into a recently published report on Japanese demographics and some (dire) projections for the future. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg spots some monkeys and Kenzo gets a new GAMEGEAR MICRO! Our quick news round-up features some naughty pear thieves, Suga putting pressure on mobile carriers to let people keep their email addresses, and Suga getting blasted for re-releasing his book with some choice material removed. In our main stories, we discuss JR East’s move to bring forward the last train - cutting short the drinking hours of millions of salarymen, no doubt, and more murky political dealings connected to casinos - it’s Japan so what did you expect?! Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg makes the most of living in the mountains by going on a hike and checking out some shrooms while Kenzo checks out some more potential living accommodations. The quick news roundup features the beginning of a criminal trial for an (allegedly) grossly negligent driver, our take on casinos and gambling in Japan, and more coronavirus news. For our in-depth discussions, Kenzo offers a solution to territorial disputes: Blow the islands up! Ferg uncovers a shady magazine publisher that featured contests with prizes, but didn’t send out any prizes. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg checks out an old news story about a font supposedly unreadable by Japanese people, while Kenzo goes house-hunting. Next, in our quick round-up of major news items in the past week, we discuss the TSE halting all trading for a day owing to software failures - yes, we noticed, unlike the rest of the world! We also discuss Suga’s pledge to get rid of hanko stamps (the stand-in for signatures in Japan), the latest coronavirus numbers in Japan, and related confusion in the Go To Eat campaign (a hastily put together initiative that isn’t working as expected? Never!) Then we go in-depth on the 30% pay cuts forced on all ANA employees, and the reefer madne- oops, we mean serious cannabis situation Japan is facing! Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Kenzo vents about obnoxious drivers on the expressway and Ferg treats himself to a spicy meal before we discuss the apparent suicide of a well-known Japanese actress, the impending relaxation of international travel restrictions to a handful of countries, and a cashless payment system that became the target for fraud in the tens of millions of yen. Kenzo share an article about the unfortunate case of a school teacher working two jobs to make ends meet before being discovered and fired due to traditional Japanese thinking that working more than one job is a cardinal sin. Ferg goes on a deep dive on a story featuring a television executive who (allegedly) used company funds to operate a questionable solar power business and lead a lavish lifestyle, complete with fast cars and yachts. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Kenzo has a run-in with an Uber Eats rider, leading to discussion about the status of Uber in Japan. Next, we give a quick overview of Abe’s trip to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, the arrest of the Chairman of Japan Life on charges of fraud (…but the magnetic vests and rocks can’t have been fake… right?), the state of coronavirus in Japan, and, most importantly, the name change of one of Japan’s biggest girl groups (Yurina Hirate - we thank you for your service!) Then, we jump into an in-depth discussion of plea bargains in Japan, or the lack thereof - who needs plea bargains when the conviction rate is 99% anyway? 😎 Finally, we look at the case of a businessman who decided to leave negative Amazon reviews on a rival’s products - sadly for him, he didn’t realize he was messing with the wrong company! Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg gets busted by the feds for (allegedly) sliding through a stop sign and Kenzo ponders on the effects that lockdowns are having on local vs corporate-owned restaurants. We then move on to a discussion on how much (or how little) politics should be part of sport following Naomi Osaka’s U.S. Open win, and end with a sad news story of a woman locking her children in a burning hot car that ultimately led to their death. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! We’re changing things up this week. With the decreasing number of stories about the coronavirus, we’re wrapping up the coronavirus roundup into a quick overview of the major news items in the past week. So after discussing Ferg’s stay in a ryokan and Kenzo’s trip to the historic town of Kawagoe, we give you the lowdown on an actor arrested for drugs (naughty boy!), the typhoon that hit Kyushu, and the latest coronavirus developments. Next we go in-depth on Japanese consumers’ rapidly declining use of plastic bags, and a gang of livestock thieves hitting up farms in the North Kanto area and taking no less than SEVEN HUNDRED little piglets! Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg provides a book review on Rising Sun by Michael Crichton, and we meme on an anti-glasses-fog mask that doesn’t seem to live up to the hype. Kenzo discovers a public restroom with glass walls that fog up only when somebody is doing the duty, and we get into some hot political discussion over Abe’s legacy on the eve of his departure and speculate on possible successors. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg’s feeling cool in his jinbei and Kenzo’s been sipping pineapple juice 30,000 feet over Tokyo 😎 Next we look at the latest coronavirus figures - it’s still early days but we just might be heading in the right direction! There’s plenty of room for improvement though as Kenzo points out with issues surrounding testing and the coronavirus tracing app. In the second half, things get hairy as we look at one company’s controversial new ad campaign. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan, bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg finds a wasp nest in the yard and takes it down with a vengeance while Kenzo is plagued by more car trouble and some hot weather in the city. Is it plagiarism if the prime minister copies and pastes his own speech? We dig deep into our noggins to find out. And last, Ferg bring us a tale of dirt dealers who are making a killing by dumping soil on peoples’ property and disappearing into the night. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan, bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! Ferg’s been shut inside, terrified of the bears marauding his village, while Kenzo gives a big thumbs down to disaster warning systems. Next we jump into our obligatory roundup of recent coronavirus news in Japan (take us… just leave the dogs alone!), before moving onto our main stories. Kenzo tells us about a certain politician making dubious claims about a potential treatment for coronavirus (yes, this happens in Japan too! 😉), before Ferg goes over the recent suspected euthanasia case that’s reignited debate on this controversial topic - partly because of the odd docs involved. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan, bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! We look back on our personal lives and the dreary days of the rainy season, followed by reporting on an ever-worsening coronavirus situation. Kenzo finds a rare case of NHK, the state broadcaster, losing a court battle in an effort to collect viewership fees, while Ferg has a real treat of scammers getting the best of a businessman via promises to deliver secret postwar stashes of gold. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan, bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! After a quick discussion of our past weeks, we jump into an obligatory coronavirus roundup - cases are spiking in Tokyo, but the municipal government’s army of fax machines is doing a fine job of giving us (almost) up to date information on the number of cases… next we look at the decline in support for the Olympics. Will the government push through and hold the Olympics despite the opposition? Finally we look at the Go To Travel campaign fiasco - a prime example of pork-barrel politics gone wrong, but this is Japan so what did you expect?! Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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The Real Japan, bringing you the hottest Japanese news topics! The number of deaths from flooding in Kumamoto is approaching triple digits, and the second wave of coronavirus in Japan may be upon us. Kenzo rejoices as the mario kart tours are now gone for good, and Ferg brings us a piece detailing the dark side of reality television. Find us at thereal.jp and email [email protected] with topics you want to see us covering!
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