Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 Profile picture
PhD. Lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies. Specialty: Japan's Politics/Nationalism/Pop Culture. Views my own. RT/Likes ≠ endorsements
Jun 20 31 tweets 18 min read
Thread: Political posters in Tokyo's crazy gubernatorial election.
(1) Let's start with one of the posters for Kawai Yusuke, a perennial candidate known for cosplaying as the Joker. Here he's cosplaying as the Mask and advocating polygamy to solve Japan's declining birthrate. Image (2) Some of Kawai's other posters feature nearly-nude photos of gyaru model/musician Sakurai Miu. Here is a video of her putting one up. The poster asks which is crazy: her, or this messed-up society? Kawai's face covers up her private parts.
Jan 20 9 tweets 5 min read
Thread: The US Navy record of the Alkonis trial differs considerably from the story presented by his supporters:
•the mountain sickness defense did not make sense given the altitude
•his testimony in court about significantly contradicted what he initially told investigators

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•Alkonis' wife told the court that the accident would have been avoided if he had pulled over the car and not continued driving.
•Alkonis testified that he thought he could keep on driving because their destination was close.
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Jan 6 13 tweets 5 min read
[Thread] Post-earthquake crime in Japan: 1) several men used tools to rip open a vending machine at a high school being used as an evacuation shelter in Anamizu, stealing the drinks and money inside.
yomiuri.co.jp/national/20240… 2) A 21-year-old university student was arrested after stealing 6 expensive mikan worth 3,000 yen ($20) from an earthquake-damaged house in Wajima. He claimed to have come from Aichi as an aid volunteer. news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/6d5a6…
Jan 2 11 tweets 4 min read
Video: a JAL plane caught fire while landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport this evening. Fire crews are on scene trying to extinguish the blaze. Here is another video of the landing. Media reports say they could see one of the engines touching the ground. Netizens who monitor flights are saying it could be JAL flight 516 from Sapporo to Haneda.
Dec 5, 2023 6 tweets 3 min read
Update: Kadokawa has decided to cancel the publication of its Japanese translation of Abigail Shrier's "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Crazy Seducing Our Daughters" ahead of a planned protest outside of company offices. They also deleted a Twitter thread promoting the book.

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Transgender rights advocates were planning a protest in front of Kadokawa's corporate HQ in Tokyo tomorrow at 6pm (it has now been cancelled). There was also a very big online backlash against their Twitter thread promoting the book. Image
Jun 10, 2023 6 tweets 4 min read
Hashimoto Magomi is a former yakuza who unsuccessful ran for political office several times in recent years (see the Vice link to read about his 2021 campaign). Today he helped American livestreamer Johnny Somali film an apology video. vice.com/en/article/7kb… ImageImageImageImage Johnny has faced intense online hate due to viral videos on Twitter of his extreme rudeness. Millions have watched the videos in the last two weeks. Hashimoto seems to have been asked to help defuse the situation. ImageImage
Jun 10, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
LDP lawmaker Hagiuda Koichi is in trouble:
1) He was heavily implicated in the Unification Church scandal
2) The right-wing is angry about his support for the watered-down LGBT rights bill
3) He won't get an endorsement from Komeito if he runs for re-election in Tokyo The quoted tweet from Post Seven shows him at the top of a list of lawmakers representing districts with a large number of Komeito voters. If Komeito goes through with its plan to not endorse any LDP candidates in Tokyo, Hagiuda will be in serious danger of losing.
Jun 9, 2023 9 tweets 4 min read
A day after telling a group of Japanese livestreamers and YouTubers that he would stop livestreaming on trains, American streamer Johnny Somali was at it again today. However, he was being followed by Guts, a Japanese YouTuber known for catching voyeur photographers and chikan. ImageImage The police were eventually called and are questioning both of them. The police are telling him that the both of them are going to be taken to the police station.
Jun 8, 2023 13 tweets 4 min read
One of Japan's worst livestreamers is allegedly about to confront with one of America's worst livestreamers. Rengoku Koroaki claims he and his boys are heading to the location of racist American livestreamer "Johnny Somali." In the last week videos of Johnny Somali verballing abusing Japanese people on trains and in other places have gone viral. He has been assaulted at least once for being a racist. Japanese netizens have been trying to figure out where he is staying.
Jun 8, 2023 4 tweets 3 min read
Right-wing Twitter users rage at US Ambassador Rahm Emanuel's praise of Japanese judges' rulings against the ban on same-sex marriage: Some are telling him to "leave Japan alone," while others are using the wording of the American-written Constitution of Japan to justify the ban ImageImageImage Numerous polls have found a large majority of Japanese are in favor of dropping the ban on same-sex marriage. For example, this May 2023 JNN poll found that 63% favored legalizing same-sex marriage: newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/-/463…
Jun 8, 2023 5 tweets 3 min read
ANN reports a Tokyo real estate firm allegedly employing thugs to coerce tenants into ending their leases early. They constantly monitor residents, dump trash on the land, and create disturbances throughout the night. ImageImage The real estate company has put up bright lights Christmas lights in parts of the plot that are already vacant, and holds loud parties at night, allegedly to prevent tenants from sleeping. One tenant committed suicide, and her son says it was because of the harassment.
May 30, 2023 8 tweets 3 min read
An international preschool in Japan's upscale Nishi-Azabu area suddenly closed its doors in March. It required advance tuition payments of 5 million yen ($35k), but the the school is apparently refusing to return the money. School founder Rina Rose says she's done nothing wrong. Image ANN reports that a dispute with the landlord over rent payments led to an agreement in 2017 that the school would leave the building. They didn't leave, and the landlord got a court order in 2023. Parents claim the school didn't tell them about the issue. Image
May 30, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
Japan's sex industry often operates under the protection of yakuza gangs because their businesses aren't exactly legal. Friday reports that Chinese massage parlors have started protecting themselves with a "vigilante group" consisting of men with martial arts training. Image The article states that about 1 in 5 massage parlors have had to deal with robberies in recent years. Police and the yakuza will not help them. The vigilante groups operate in busy nightlife areas where they can show up at a massage parlor within minutes. friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/312433…
May 14, 2023 5 tweets 3 min read
Remember the guy who married Hatsune Miku in 2018? TBS checked up on him and he's still happy living with his life-size Miku doll. Their report looked into fictosexuals, people who are mostly sexually attracted to fictional characters. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image Not all fictosexuals are men. A 2017 survey found that 17.1% of female university students have had romantic feelings towards a fictional character, vs. 14.4% of male students. Image
May 14, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
Japanese TV news has a reputation for occasionally relying on printed out graphics instead of computer animations, but this 4 minute clip looks like it required hours of work to get all this information neatly laid out on colored construction paper. Image I'm not sure how it is these days, but about 5 years ago I met some undergrad art students who were paid slightly higher than minimum wage to spend hours with scissors, markers, and glue making displays like this for a Japanese TV channel.
May 12, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
Reiwa Party lawmaker Ōishi Akiko interrupted a Lower House session today by unveiling a protest banner declaring that Japan needs opposition parties that actually fight to stop Kishida and the LDP's "treasonous" bills from passing. The Reiwa Party's website explains that they are frustrated that opposition parties such as the CDP and JCP only make a show of opposing bills and call for votes that only cause minor delays before the LDP and quasi-opposition parties vote to pass bills. reiwa-shinsengumi.com/comment/17195/ Image
May 12, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
Various ambassadors appear in this video showing support for increased rights for sexual minorities in Japan. Several polls have shown that only about 20% of Japanese oppose the LGBT rights bill that is currently being considered by the Diet. An article published by President Online says a majority of the public support the LGBT rights bill, but a small group within the LDP is holding it up to the point where it might not pass during this Diet session. news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/9d9c6…
May 11, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
An FNN report notes that the conservative Abe faction of the LDP has 100 members, more than twice that of Kishida's 46 member faction. As you can see, their graphic shows a sweating Prime Minister Kishida finding it hard to ignore their views on issues such as LGBT rights... Image Several of the Diet's most outspoken opponents of LGBT rights are in the Abe faction. The faction also contains hawkish lawmakers who favor increased defense spending but want to avoid tax increases.
May 11, 2023 7 tweets 3 min read
Upper House lawmaker Nishida Shōji (LDP), one Japan's leading voices against LGBT rights, was asked to clarify his statements about "forces that seek to divide" Japanese society. He said It's the Marxists. His ideas about Marxism are fleshed out on his YouTube channel... Image A few months ago Nishida endorsed the 1979 book, "I'd like to apologize to the Japanese: A Jewish elder's confession" (日本人に謝りたい あるユダヤ人の懺悔), which introduces anti-Jewish conspiracy theories via a fake Jewish author named "Mordecai Mose."
May 10, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
Meteors or space debris? Lots of videos taken in Okinawa tonight are showing something like this in the sky above. Another video:
May 10, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
A TBS report on the decriminalization of marijuana in Thailand highlights a Japanese restaurant that serves marijuana-infused dishes. The chef says he's happy because he smoked some earlier that day. Image The report then segways into scaring people about the harm marijuana supposedly inflicts on society. They interview someone from a "rest home" where people receiving "Marijuana addiction treatment" has increased 2X to 4X since the decriminalization. Image