Mooneyes Hot Rod Custom Show 2023

If you do enjoy a slight change of pace from the usual array of JDMs I present here on the channel, you'll love my yearly pilgrimage to Mooneyes' Hot Rod Custom Show. I've been covering the set up day of this event every year since 2009 for Speedhunters, a big favorite of mine as I get to see these rare customs and one off creations move around as they get positioned in their displays. Hearing them really adds a whole different vibe to the show and it's visually one of the coolest events in Japan. 

 

 

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A ruling in Japan advances transgender rights

 

Japan’s Supreme Court hearing the gender change case in Tokyo last month.Jiji Press, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A ruling in Japan advances transgender rights

Japan’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization in order to legally change their gender identity was unconstitutional. Activists welcomed the ruling as a step forward for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in a nation that has been slow to recognize them.

Still, the court did not rule on a separate requirement that transgender people must undergo transition surgery in order to legally register as the gender with which they identify. In practice, that means many transgender people will still be unable to make the legal change. The top court said it would send the case back to the High Court for further discussion of the transition surgery clause.

What's Life Like Inside A Japanese Prison?

 

 

We gained unprecedented filming access to two Japanese prisons to find out if accusations that the system is inhumane are true. What we witnessed was staggering. Inmates must march to their worksites attached by a cord; they are not allowed to look the guards in the eye; outside of scheduled leisure hours, they must maintain absolute silence, unless they have obtained prior permission to speak. The treatment of suspects in custody pushes many to confess to crimes which they did not commit, as was the case with one man who spent 46 years on death row. He was finally exonerated six years ago, but was left broken. We try to explain why a country which operates on strict principles of balance and order might choose such a repressive system, and see if this may explain Japan having one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

Japan seeks to dissolve the Unification Church

Japan seeks to dissolve the Unification Church

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said yesterday that the government would seek to dissolve the Japan branch of the Unification Church, more than a year after the fringe group’s ties to conservative Japanese politicians were revealed in the wake of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination in July 2022.

After the killing, lawmakers scurried to contain the political fallout and began to scrutinize the church, which was found to have manipulated its members into handing over large sums of money over several decades.

What’s next: If the Tokyo district court orders the Unification Church to dissolve in Japan, the church will lose its property tax exemption and have to dispose of its assets. The church could appeal to the Supreme Court, or take its activities underground.

The headquarters of the Unification Church in Tokyo in May. Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times

Painting Japan’s Lost Decade

 

Tetsuya Ishida’s “Refuel Meal” (1996).© Tetsuya Ishida Estate. Courtesy of the artist, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, and Gagosian

Painting Japan’s Lost Decade

Observers of the world economy call the 1990s Japan’s Lost Decade, when the bubble of the 1980s burst and unemployment and bankruptcies rose. As is often the case, adolescents and young adults were especially affected. It was during this time that the artist Tetsuya Ishida began channeling his era’s isolation and anxiety into nightmarish visions.

Working intermittent jobs, he received little recognition during his lifetime — he died at age 31 after being struck by a train — and his works have not been easily seen by Western audiences. The Gagosian Gallery in New York City yesterday opened the most comprehensive U.S. showing to date of Ishida’s paintings.

With their recurring themes of loneliness and isolation, rabid consumerism and addiction to technology and automation, his “self-portraits of other people” have aged remarkably well. It’s hard not to see Ishida’s work as a warning from 20 years in the past, a prophecy from an artist who saw where the world was headed with startling clarity.

Crossroads of the Nations Japanese Ministry

Crossroads of the Nations Japanese Ministry 

Pastor Stephen Young teaching 3 days after losing his wife to illness.

Many of you know Sarah Young through her writings, 

Lord have mercy.

Japanese culture outside of the archipelago

 

Japan Drugstore Guide: Pain Medication