Random Japan

Nintendo celebrates its roots with traditional art of their most famous characters

   Cara Clegg

With global phenomenon like the Mario and Pokemon franchises under their belts, it’s easy to forget about Nintendo’s humble beginnings as a producer of traditional Japanese playing cards. This year the company goes back to their roots in their 2014 company brochure with beautiful artwork that celebrates both the old and the new.

How fancy is Nintendo’s latest company brochure?! Below is the hardcover book that Nintendo is distributing to students looking to work for their company. The contents are updated every year, and they’re always coming up with new ideas for it. This year it features vibrant full-page spreads of Nintendo’s iconic products from across the years, all strikingly worked in a bold and traditional art style. Judging by the Twitter comments it seems that there are people who apply every year just to get their hands on these annual brochures, and we can understand why: this one is so beautiful it looks like a collector’s item.

STATS

   75

Percent of Japanese people who say the rise in the consumption tax rate has created an “added burden” in their lives, according to a newspaper survey

62

Percent of people who say they’ve been spending the same amount of money or more since the tax hike went into effect last month, according to the poll

1

Career saves for New York Mets pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, who threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning to preserve a 4-1 victory over the St Louis Cardinals at Citi Field on April 25

YOU’VE GOT TO BE SH***ING ME

Members of a Kanagawa-based civic group have “nominated” the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution for a Nobel Peace Prize.

It was reported that an increasing number of young Japanese women are visiting kofun (ancient burial mounds) because they think the shapes are “kawaii.”

Staff at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research say 37.2 percent of all Japanese households will be made up of single adults by the year 2035.

In the wake of the controversy surrounding stem-cell research at the Riken institute, administrators at Waseda University’s graduate school of engineering are conducting a review of all the 280 PhD theses that they’ve ever awarded.

 Want Sex?

 No War

 Fool Thinks Police

 Won’t Notice Bitcoin Drug Purchase

  Hey That

Fits Like A Glove

Temple offers Buddhist enlightenment through manga exhibition

May 10, 2014

 By LOUIS TEMPLADO/ AJW Staff Writer

Religion has been called the opiate of the people, but in Japan perhaps manga should carry that title. With that in mind, the popular art form is being used to visualize aspects of Buddhism at Zojoji temple, located in Shiba-koen park in Tokyo’s Minato Ward.

“Hotoke no sekai” (Exhibition of Buddha Illustration by Manga Artists), which runs until May 13, features works by nearly 50 manga artists, past and present, including Osamu Tezuka, Fujio Akatsuka and Takao Saito.