Nihon on the Net – 9/14/08
A recent scandal rocked the Sumo world in Japan when three foreign born wrestlers were banned for life from the sport for smoking marijuana. The chairman of of Japan’s Sumo Federation has resigned and The Mainichi Daily News reports on this and other recent scandals and provides some insight into the closed nature of the Sumo Association in Japan.
Japanese drink maker Yakult will begin selling Probiotic drinks in at Fry’s stores in Arizona following successful launches in central and southern California and the San Francisco Bay area.
Food scandals are making the news in Japan – Firms are being caught selling food that is not fit for human consumption to foods that are past their expiry date.
The dating market in Japan is heating up along with the popularity of middle-aged men.
Lastly, Vice-presidential hopeful, Sarah Palin, is helping out one Japanese eyeglass manufacturer in Fukui, Japan. Masunaga Optical Manufacturing Co. Ltd makes her signature titanium MP-704 glasses and has seen sales increase along with Palin’s profile. The article talks about the glasses and features a freakish action figure of Palin created by herobuilders.com that has to be seen to be believed. The guys over at Sirened would love it!
Image Credit: Flickr, Yakult
2 Comments
My favorite place to buy glasses is Zoff.
Funny – we have had yakult for what seems like forever in Australia and I thought it was Scandinavian. It certainly sounds Scandinavian and the ads that I recall from when it was introduced a loooong time ago were tall, blonde, tanned outdoorsy Scandinavian types!
With the total lack of real yoghurt here in a Japan I couldn’t live without Yakult!