Random Japan

Feast your eyes on yet more adorable 8-bit GIFs depicting daily life in Japan
evie lund
A while back, we shared a series of super-cute 8-bit GIFs created by talented Tumblr user 1041uuu which depict everyday scenes of life in Japan in a whimsically awesome, old-school way. Now we’re happy to report that the artist has been busy creating even more GIFs in the same great style!

Get ready for some super sweet moving pixel art!

STATS
38: Percent of respondents to a Cabinet Office poll who say they “don’t want a boyfriend or girlfriend”
11,279: Number of scholars who signed a statement against the government-sponsored security bills after the legislation cleared the Lower House of the Diet
9,139,900: Number of foreigners who visited Japan during the first six months of 2015—the most on record

WRAPPING UP
It was announced that Pope Francis will likely beatify Takayama Ukon (1552-1615), a feudal lord who gave up his title and was forced into exile because of his faith.

Officials at the meteorological agency have begun receiving data from the Himawari-8, the first geostationary weather satellite that can shoot color photos of the Earth.

At long last, Japan’s major mobile carriers are mulling a plan to eliminate their standard two-year contracts, which are universally reviled by consumers.

Bottom Story of the Week: “Gunma Town Signs Dinosaur Research Partnership with Mongolia” (via Mainichi Japan)

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4 workplace occurrences that could land you in hot water in Japan

By Krista Rogers,
A Japanese website recently published a list of four commonly occurring behaviors at work which are actually considered to be crimes by Japanese law. The scariest thing is that regardless of where you are in the world, you might have been doing them all along!

Perhaps take a moment to check whether you have explicit permission before doing any of the following four things at your place of employment, or else you could find yourself in a legal mess in the worst case scenario.