Japan Pulse

Recent Posts

• Nintendo levels up smartphones with wallpapers and cases

  As gamers anxiously await Nintendo’s new Miitomo app, smartphone users can level up their devices now with new wallpapers and cases from the Big N.

• Get a taste of spring with cherry blossom-inspired goods

  Here’s a taste of some of the cherry-blossom themed drinks, snacks, shoes and toilet paper on shelves now.

• Pokémon catches nostalgia fever for its 20th anniversary

  Nintendo is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Pokémon with a year full of new products, re-releases and huge doses of nostalgia around the world.

• Sugar rush of sweet sushi, chocolate fossils and more as Valentine’s in Japan approaches

  Japan has a variety of whacky treats for this Valentine’s Day, including monstrous cookies and “poisoned” apples.

• Don’t eat and drive with sake-flavored Kit Kats

  Containing 0.8 percent alcohol, the new sake-flavored Kit Kat is a perfect way to spike your mid-day snack.

• 100 years of Japanese beauty in one minute

  Cut is setting its lens on Japan as it shows the dramatic changes Japanese women have gone through in the past century.

• Studio Ghibli on a roll with licenses for new toys

  Nibariki has new wind-up toys inspired by Studio Ghibli’s “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.”

• ‘Japan Sumo Cup’ is possibly the most Japanese thing ever

  In this rhythm game, players choose a real sumo player, ride an actual race horse and compete against characters from “Street Fighter.”

• YouTubers in Japan with 100,000 fans and counting

  YouTube threw a big celebration for more than 20 YouTubers living in Japan who have over 100,000 subscribers.

• Finding laughs in translations that have lost the plot

  The Orikaeshi Honyaku Dictionary site, which boasts the catchphrase “from Japanese to Japanese,” roughly translates as “Chinese whispers.”