"Leftover Women" as Seen from Japan

Japan was a very different place when I came here back in 1991. Back then, foreigners were happy if we could received FEN, the U.S. military's A.M. radio station, to hear some news or sports coverage in English. Fast forward to 2013, and I'm able to stream the BBC's news radio channels on my iPhone while at the gym, something that would have seemed like science fiction two decades before. Last night I tuned in to hear a program discussing "leftover women," a term being used in China to put pressure on women who aren't married by the age of 27, no doubt doing unpatriotic things like receiving educations and building rewarding careers. I had to smile at this silliness. Japanese society used to place a lot of pressure on women to marry early, and the term "Christmas cake" was actually used to describe women who hadn't gotten marriage by the age of 25 (since no one would want to buy a Christmas cake after December 25th). Things have really changed, however, and it's far more acceptable for both men and women to get married later in life without a stigma.

There's far less pressure for women to get married in Japan.

Burial Mounds in Japan

Near J-List there's a park I used to frequent with my kids which had two small hills in the center. They weren't actually hills, but kofun (burial mounds), miniature pyramids containing the remains of feudal lords which were built from 250 ~ 590 A.D., before the mainstream arrival of Buddhism and kanji writing from Korea and China. There is a staggering number of these burial mounds around Japan -- more than 161,000 -- but since Japan had no writing system in those days, next to nothing is known about the civilization of the mound builders apart from baked clay statues of soldiers and horses they included in the tombs. Since these burial mounds are protected areas, it makes sense to locate parks for public use around them, both as a logical way to make use of available land and also to bring people into contact with their ancient past. Whenever it snowed I'd take a day off from work and take my kids to the park so they could slide down the graves of their long-dead ancestors on a sled. It was great fun.

There are many burial mounds in Japan.

The Most Popular Products ON J-List Right Now

J-List has thousands of fun and random products from Japan, so many that it might just be a challenge to find stuff you want. One way of browsing the site I like is by viewing products by "wishlisted" order, which tracks overall product popularity based on how many customers are adding it to their wishlists. Click to see all J-List products ranked by popularity now!

Foreign Loan Words in Japanese

One convenient thing about the Japanese language is the high number of foreign loan words that are in use, which reduces the vocabulary words English speakers need to learn to be functional with the language. From virtual to biotechnology to universal barrier-free design and even epoch-making, there's a huge number of English-derived katakana words available for use as-is -- it's essentially our revenge on Chinese students of Japanese, who get to read all the kanji for "free." Still, a funny thing happens when you become more and more fluent in Japanese: you usually end up learning the Japanese versions of these foreign-derived words anyway. For example, the Japanese have used the English word kiss ever since modernizing in the Meiji Era, but you still encounter the original Edo Period word 接吻 seppun, which can have a more archaic but poetic feel to it. The Japanese use the word pink for the color, which is very easy for foreigners to pick up on, but sometimes will use the original Japanese term 桃色 momo-iro (lit. "peach colored") if they're feeling random.

Japanese use many foreign words, like kiss and pink.

Japanese Matchmaking TV

While Japanese television is well-stocked with variety shows, live music shows and contemporary and historical dramas, some of the programs might be hard for us to categorize. Like ダーツの旅 Darts no Tabi, a show that throws a dart at a map of Japan then sends a camera crew to that location to see what interesting people they can find there, or a similar show that will pick a certain train line in Tokyo and get off at every stop, looking for interesting businesses to showcase on TV. There's another popular show called Mote Mote 99 that actually aims to help people find love. As Japan's population falls, it gets harder for men living in rural parts of the country to find women to marry, so this program organizes a hundred or so women who are open to the idea of marrying someone from a rural region of Japan and sets up formal "speed dating" type activities so the bachelors in the town can get to know the women. In addition to being a good excuse for the small towns featured on the program to promote the benefits of rural living on national TV, they show has brought quite a few couples together.

Wanted: women who will marry random men and move to Tohoku.

Juken (Test) Season in Japan

For the average Japanese person, the most difficult thing they'll do in their lives is juken, taking an entrance exam for university and/or high school, which generally requires a full year of intense studying until midnight every night at a special "cram school." (High school is not compulsory in Japan, and functions as a miniature version of the university system, with lots of competition to get into the best high schools.) When my son did his high school juken studies, my whole family rearranged our lives to support him, foregoing all leisure activities and not even going to see the newest Harry Potter movie when it was released. Naturally it'd be crazy to balance a love relationship while studying for the hardest test of one's life, and it's common practice to freeze any relationships you might be involved in before starting your year of study, or break up with your girlfriend/boyfriend to clear away any distractions. Many anime series, including Love Hina, Kimagure Orange Road, KimiNozo, Amagami SS+ and Kiss x Sis, make use of the pressure of studying for an entrance exam to heighten the drama of a love story, showing the sweet pain of two people trying to resolve their feelings for each other despite knowing that not focusing on their all-important entrance exam could impact their lives forever. February is "juken season," and right now tens of thousands of Japanese students are taking their entrance exams, no doubt with Japanese Kit Kats in their pockets, which are thought to bring good luck.

Taking a university exam is very important to Japanese people.

Ramen in Japan

There are certain benefits to being in Japan, including the ability to go almost anywhere by train and toilets that wash your butt for you. Another thing I love about living in Japan is having access to "real" ramen. Though ramen is ostensibly considered a Chinese dish (it's usually written ラーメン, using the katakana writing system reserved for foreign words), modern ramen supposedly dates back to 1910, when a shop owner in Tokyo's Asakusa created a dish based on noodles popular in cities with Chinese populations like Yokohama, though ramen noodles are cut as with soba and udon, not pulled like Chinese noodles. As with things like "green tea" -- a label that could be applied to a half-dozen different kinds of tea, all quite different from each other -- the world of ramen proved a lot deeper than it first appeared. The most important part of ramen is the soup, with shoyu (soy sauce), miso (soybean paste) aid shio ("salt," though we'd call it chicken base) being the main three varieties; other ingredients include a slice of pork called chashu and the swirly thing that's called a naruto, in case you didn't know. Different regions of Japan love to brand themselves as being famous for different kinds of ramen, including Sapporo (miso), Fukushima (basic soy sauce), Yokohama (thick noodles and lots of pork pieces), and Hakata, Kyushu (a pork-based white soup ramen).

Ramen in Japan is pretty darned delicious.

We Love Hatsune Miku

J-List loves the virtual idol Hatsune Miku, and carries all the Vocaloid products we can find. Whether you're looking for the popular dancing games for PSP, PS Vita and now PS3, would like Miku-chan's shimapan for cosplay or other uses, or just want to find some cute Hatsune Miku figures to collect, we've got lots of random items for you. See all Hatsune Miku products ranked by popularity!

Japan Imports from the UK: Pantsu

One thing I had to get used to as an American living in Japan was how British things could be here. There's a long list of concepts the Japanese borrowed from the Great Britain, including driving on the left, the way trains are called nobori (up) or kudari (down) depending on whether they're headed towards or away from Tokyo, plus major institutions like the postal service and NHK, which were heavily inspired by their British counterparts. The Japanese use many British words (bonnet/dustbin/water closet), have imported the tradition of eating Christmas Cake on December 24, and even have 3 o'clock tea, at least for people with a lot of time on their hands. England has influenced fashions in Japan over the years, too. The famous Japanese "sailor suit" school uniform was imported from England, and the Japanese word for a Western-style business suit (背広 sebiro) is thought to be a contraction of Savile Row, London's famous men's tailoring district. The Japanese have borrowed another word from the British, "pants" (pantsu) which always refers to underwear rather than outer trousers (as it generally does in North America), leading to some potential confusion when Americans first arrive here.

Speaking of pantsu, you may have seen posts on various websites over the weekend about the "latest trend in Japan," girls wearing panties on their faces. "Wearing Women's Panties On Your Face Is All The Rage In Japan," reports Buzzfeed with a straight face, while MSN tells us that "Japanese women have taken to putting panties on their heads, obscuring their faces." While we're big fans of pantsu and sell many interesting types from Japan, the fact is that this Japanese "trend" is just a clever marketing ploy by the publishers of the admittedly awesome Kaopan photobook to promote an upcoming tongue-in-cheek superhero film, and no one is actually doing this, unless it's professional models being photographed. This is not unlike the time a street art performer created a costume that looked like a Coca-Cola vending machine and walked around crowded areas of Tokyo. A New York Times reporter misunderstand and concluded that "fearing crime," Tokyo-ites had taken to disguising themselves as vending machines in order to feel safe in public.

Japan imports many ideas from the UK, including pantsu.

Just A Few Photobooks From Japan...

In addition to the fun Kaopan photobook written about above, J-List has been on a troll posting outstanding glossy photobooks from Japan. Whether you want to see the private rooms of otaku girls, learn to draw "moe" military girls, explore the world of girls with "twin tail" hair or check out some really cute Japanese cats, we've got some great books to check out. Click to see all our glossy photobooks from Japan, sorted by popularity!

Sadness in Guam

I write a lot about how Japan is one of the safest and most peaceful countries in the world. Murders do happen here, but they're rare enough that, whenever one does occur, it's talked about afterwards for months. Japanese become so used to the peace and safety of their country that they develop what's known as heiwa-boke (literally "becoming dull-witted from too much peace") and assume the rest of the world is the same. A group of Japanese tourists learned the truth of this to their cost when they were attacked while visiting the tropical island of Guam by a deranged knife-wielding local, who killed three before he was subdued. Guam, a U.S. possession, is a fabulous place, like a miniature version of Hawaii but without the jet lag (when coming from Japan). It's also an island that counts its local economy by the number of jumbo jets ferrying tourists from Japan, South Korea and China, and everyone there is in shock that something so terrible could have happened.

Sadness in the tropical paradise of Guam.