Random Japan

Never work with animals: Outtakes from Japanese delivery company’s adorable black cat ad

Meg Murphy

Cat can’t quite get his box together, but he still gets an A for effort in theouttakes for Kuroneko Yamato’s commercial.

A few months back, we shared with you a cleverly cute video for Japanese delivery company Yamato Un’yu, in which a talented black cat puts together a shipping box. If you know cats, you’ll know that they just love boxes, even if they don’t have the dexterity to put one together. And they certainly don’t have the patience to take orders from someone who walks on two legs!

So it’s probably no surprise that the box seen in Yamato’s ad didn’t get put together in just one take. This week, the company has brought us a compilation of the many box fails that occurred in the making of the commercial, which are just as adorable as the successes.

STATS

• 500: GSDF troops to be deployed on Okinawa’s Ishigaki Island to “strengthen the defense” of remote areas in southwestern Japan
• 20 million: Number of signatures citizens groups are hoping to collect as a show of protest against recently-enacted security legislation
• ¥81,000: Cost of a pair of men’s trousers at Takashimaya in Shinjuku made from the hides of Yezo deer culled in Hokkaido

WELL, GLAD THAT’S SETTLED

• A nutritional technology firm in Kyoto claims that its “banana-based food material” may be effective in preventing the flu.
• Authorities at the foreign affairs ministry announced that Japan will no longer respond to whaling-related lawsuits filed with the International Court of Justice.
• A survey on the reading habits of schoolkids has found that children who enjoy manga are also more likely to read traditional books. That goes against the long-held view that comics turn youngsters away from other forms of literature.
• Shusse Daimyo Ieyasu-kun, the “mascot character” for the city of Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, won the 2015 Yuru-Kyara Grand Prix.

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Radwimps offer alternative to Japan's sugary music scene

In a Japanese music scene flooded with helium-voiced teen bands chirping about candy, fluffy bunnies and all things “kawaii” or cute, indie rockers Radwimps offer a potent vaccine for sugar-poisoning.

The platinum-selling Yokohama foursome have released seven albums to date since forming at school in 2001 after vocalist Yojiro Noda first picked up a guitar and began strumming along to songs by Britpop giants Oasis.

“I learned to play guitar listening to Oasis when I was 13 or 14, just remembering the chords,” Noda told AFP after the band’s return from their first European tour.