Author: Japan Reacts Editorial

  • Why Yuki Yanagita Never Went to the Majors — 5ch: ‘He Was Totally Ready to Go’

    A thread on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” board asking why Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks star Yuki Yanagita never took a shot at Major League Baseball drew a lot of traction.

    Opinions flew back and forth — some said the team simply never approved a posting and that Yanagita himself was fully willing to move, others argued he missed his window and gave up on the idea himself — and the discussion expanded into comparisons of his ability with other teams’ star hitters like Seiya Suzuki and Teruaki Sato.

    1AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:09
    He'd have done just fine over there.
    4AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:10
    He's gonna go down as the guy who ran from MLB his whole life.
    7AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:12
    Padding his stats in low-level Japanese baseball and getting off on it won't earn him any respect anyway.
    8AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:12
    Didn't he torch the Hanshin fanboys' ("chin-kasu," a 5ch slur for Tigers fans) brains in last year's Japan Series, lol
    12AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:13
    The team just never allowed a posting.
    He himself was totally ready to go.
    Then his prime passed and he gave up on it himself.
    42AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:22
    Re: #12
    He clearly had no intention of going once he signed that 7-year contract.
    18AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:15
    You guys should understand choosing peace and quiet over climbing the ladder.
    20AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:15
    Re: #18
    So he had no ambition, huh?
    21AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:16
    Maybe he was scared of ending up like Senga? (Kodai Senga, who went to the Mets)
    23AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:16
    He got boxed in by SoftBank and had to give it up.
    He looked pretty bitter about it.
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:17
    Re: #23
    It's a contract — there's no such thing as being "boxed in."
    What, did they take his family hostage or something?
    24AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:17
    By the time he was old enough to go to MLB he probably couldn't hit a 1.000 OPS anymore.
    The year he'd have qualified for international free agency, he got hurt, was out long-term, and gave that tearful press conference.
    That's when he gave up on the majors.
    26AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:17
    Would've liked to see Gīta (Yanagita's nickname) become a novelty/gimmick player like Munenori Kawasaki was.
    28AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:17
    If he weren't with SoftBank he probably would've gone.
    SoftBank's the kind of team that steals people's dreams.
    31AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:19
    Re: #28
    But if it weren't for "the Toilet" (a 5ch nickname for SoftBank), he probably wouldn't have grown into a player who could put up numbers like that.
    29AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:18
    That kind of skill set wouldn't have cut it over there.
    Also he's surprisingly a low-launch-angle guy, so once pitchers exploited that, he'd have ended up serving up homers instead of hitting them.
    30AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:18
    He'd have easily surpassed guys like Seiya Suzuki or Munetaka Murakami.
    36AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:20
    Re: #30
    Yeah, I think he was easily better than that tier.
    35AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:20
    Being a college draftee is the sticking point there.
    He definitely would've done well though.
    54AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:24
    Re: #35
    On top of being a college guy, he didn't even lock down a starting job smoothly either.
    47AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:23
    Re: #42
    That contract was just forced on him by the team.
    He himself wanted to go.
    65AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:30
    Re: #47
    What do you mean, "forced into" signing a contract?
    61AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:28
    Yanagita was already past his peak by then.
    Kondo, on the other hand, flat-out ran away.
    81AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:36
    Re: #61
    As for Kondo, he's become the best hitter around since moving to SoftBank.
    Back in his Nippon-Ham days he lacked power — he barely ever even cleared a qualified .900 OPS — so he never had a real shot at going overseas anyway.
    75AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:32
    He was definitely better than Suzuki anyway.
    And the Central League's a low level to begin with.
    76AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:34
    Re: #75
    He's not that different from Yoshida, so no way.
    77AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:34
    No doubt he easily put up better numbers than Suzuki.
    84AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:37
    Re: #77
    Compare them at the same age and Suzuki's clearly better.
    86AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:37
    Re: #84
    The Central League's low-level though.
    87AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:38
    Re: #86
    Can you still say that after watching Yoshida?
    89AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:38
    The Carp getting thrown out on steals over and over by Takuya Kai in the Japan Series was hilarious lol
    90AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:39
    Re: #89
    The Central League's level was so low it was funny.
    91AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:39
    Teruaki Sato wouldn't even be home run king in the Pacific League.
    93AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:40
    Re: #91
    Yeah, the Central League's level is way too low.
    95AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:41
    Re: #87
    Yoshida and Yanagita aren't in the same category lol
    98AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:42
    Re: #95
    We're talking about the Pacific League here?

    Background and Key Points

    Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks operate under Nippon Professional Baseball’s posting system, which lets a team-controlled player negotiate with MLB clubs only once his team consents — nine years of NPB service otherwise grants unrestricted international free agency. Yanagita, a 2011 college draftee who debuted in 2012, would have hit that nine-year mark around 2020-2021, precisely when he suffered the long-term knee injury that produced his tearful press conference. SoftBank, unlike Orix with Yoshinobu Yamamoto or the Fighters with Shohei Ohtani, has a reputation on 5ch as an organization that rarely posts its stars, and Yanagita signed a lucrative long-term deal with the club rather than pushing for a transfer.

    The thread’s actual fault line isn’t whether Yanagita was good enough — most posters agree he was, several ranking him above Seiya Suzuki — but whether his MLB dream died by team veto or by his own choice. One camp insists SoftBank blocked a posting he wanted; another counters that a “forced” seven-year contract isn’t forced at all, since he could have simply not signed it, and that his real turning point was the injury-hit free-agent year, not front-office obstruction.

    What the thread glosses over is the mechanics of NPB free agency itself: international FA eligibility (nine years) is separate from domestic FA (typically eight), and a player can be a de facto MLB candidate without ever needing team “permission” once he reaches it — posting is only relevant before that threshold. Readers unfamiliar with NPB may also not realize the Central-versus-Pacific League rivalry embedded in the later replies, where “the Central League is low-level” is a long-running Pacific League fan trope, not a neutral scouting assessment, coloring the Suzuki/Yoshida/Sato comparisons far more than any real stat.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Why did SoftBank Hawks’ Yanagita run away from the majors?”.

  • Hanshin’s #1 Draft Pick Ihara Demoted Indefinitely After Assault Report — 5ch: “So Basically, No Punishment At All”

    Hanshin Tigers first-round draft pick Ihara has been taken off the active roster after reports surfaced of an assault against a woman, with the team announcing no set date for his return from the minors. Thread comments questioned whether this really counts as “punishment,” with many drawing comparisons to past incidents involving Sho Nakata and Hotaka Yamakawa.

    While Ihara said he doesn’t remember everything that happened that night since he’d been drinking, the team stated that his account “generally matches the reports, and this can’t be overlooked,” and announced it was removing him from the active roster that day with no fixed timeline for his return.

    According to a weekly magazine report, at a drinking gathering this past January, an intoxicated Ihara allegedly hurled abuse at a woman in her twenties and grabbed her by the hair, among other actions.

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    3AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:01
    Typical Osaka
    Hanshin (mockingly nicknamed "Chin-san" on 5ch) is always pulling this stuff
    4AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:01
    Hanshin players are just way too cocky across the board, aren't they
    86AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:30
    Re: #4
    The manager's cocky too
    7AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:02
    Handy, isn't it, this "indefinite" thing
    If something comes up they could lift it as early as next week
    25AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:07
    Re: #7
    Technically under the rules it's just a demotion to the minors, so it's not even a punishment
    67AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:21
    Re: #7
    Re: #25
    Fair point, this isn't a punishment at all
    Typical Hanshin — they didn't even punish Fujinami and the others for that COVID lockdown party, and that same year, while the state of emergency had everyone told to stay home, Nishi didn't even get sent down for his cross-prefecture affair scandal
    12AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:03
    What is it with finesse pitchers getting mixed up in assault cases?
    13AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:03
    Guess we've entered an era where even a starting regular can't get away with this
    14AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:03
    Isn't a kyabakura (hostess club) a different kind of place for that?
    Giants' Sakamoto bit someone and injured them too
    17AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:04
    Re: #14
    Turns out the guy claiming to be the woman's lawyer in that case wasn't actually licensed, so the whole thing is pretty sketchy to begin with
    29AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:07
    Re: #14
    Do you know what happened to actor Teruyuki Kagawa?
    91AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:32
    Re: #14
    Lol, sounds like someone who's never even set foot in a kyabakura
    Where's this hostess club where assaulting women is fine?
    15AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:03
    Eh, whatever, the team's strong and winning, so who cares
    16AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:03
    You guys ripped into Sho Nakata over and over for this kind of thing, so naturally Hanshin fans are demanding Ihara get traded too, right?
    Especially since assaulting a woman is way worse
    24AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:05
    Re: #16
    Well, the Fighters at least suspended Nakata
    Hanshin not even suspending Ihara is the worse part
    37AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:11
    Re: #16
    Nakata was a nationally known star, so it caused a huge stir even outside baseball circles
    A player like Ihara on a more "local" team, nobody outside the fanbase even knows him, so it's barely trending — they're probably just hoping it dies down
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:07
    Some of their past first-round picks are sketchy too, might as well send them all down indefinitely while they're at it
    28AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:07
    He's the first first-round pick manager Fujikawa ever drafted, so they can't just toss him aside
    32AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:08
    What he did is worse than what Nakata did
    33AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:08
    Isn't Ihara the guy with that mole under his nose that looks like a booger?
    59AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:17
    Re: #33
    Yeah
    Chikamoto's got a mole in the same spot too though
    35AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:10
    So basically, no punishment
    They're just waiting for the heat to die down
    42AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:12
    Re: #35
    I could get behind it if you said the punishment was too light, but how do you read this as "no punishment" lol
    In terms of yes-or-no, he clearly WAS punished
    43AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:12
    Re: #35
    Baseball fans never really let the heat die down
    Even after he retires, people will keep bringing it up forever
    36AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:10
    Thought about swapping out the kanji in Ihara's name [for a joke] but that'd probably cross a line, so I'll pass
    41AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:12
    Is he the kind of player they wouldn't even miss if he were gone the rest of the season?
    45AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:13
    Re: #42
    "Punishment" usually means a suspension though
    70AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:22
    Re: #45
    Does anyone actually understand what this sentence means?
    It's so short but I have no clue what you're trying to say
    53AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:14
    The Hiroshima Toyo Carp will gladly take Ihara off your hands
    60AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:18
    Re: #53
    How about a trade for Kozono?
    I'll throw in Dorin too
    74AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:23
    No idea how long the "indefinite" lasts, but he does seem like the type Fujikawa wouldn't care for
    85AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:30
    Reading the details, it's a fairly serious screw-up, but no police report was filed, huh
    89AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:32
    Re: #85
    Probably reached a settlement
    94AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:34
    Same thing happened with Yamakawa
    That one turned out to be a false accusation in the end, and by the offseason Yamakawa signed with SoftBank without a hitch
    96AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:37
    Re: #94
    👤 Ihara: rejected, sorry… (riffing on a meme "judge stamp" image, playing off Yamakawa's move to SoftBank)

    Background and Key Points

    For readers unfamiliar with Japanese pro baseball: NPB’s “ikusei/nigun kōkaku” (minor-league demotion) is a routine roster transaction, not a disciplinary suspension. A club simply removes a player from its 28-man top-team roster; there’s no fixed term, no forfeited salary, and no report to the commissioner’s office the way a formal “shutsujō teishi” (suspension) requires. Hanshin is one of NPB’s most storied and popular franchises, and a first-round draft pick carries outsized expectations — manager Yuki Fujikawa, a former star closer, took over this year and Ihara was his first-ever top pick, which is why posters suspect the club is reluctant to cut him loose entirely.

    The thread’s real disagreement isn’t over whether Ihara did something serious — most posters accept the magazine’s account — but over whether “indefinite minor-league demotion” constitutes punishment at all. Some argue that technically being benched is still a consequence; others insist it’s cosmetic since Hanshin could reactivate him the moment media attention fades, unlike an actual suspension.

    What outside readers likely miss is the legal backdrop the posters gloss over: no police report was filed, which in Japan usually signals a private monetary settlement (jidan) between the parties — common practice that avoids prosecution but leaves no public record of guilt, unlike a criminal charge. That’s also why the Nakata and Yamakawa comparisons matter: Nakata’s team issued an actual suspension after repeated incidents, while Yamakawa’s case was dropped for lack of evidence and he later signed freely elsewhere — two very different legal outcomes that Japanese teams nonetheless handle almost identically at the PR level, since NPB has no league-wide domestic-violence or conduct policy comparable to North American leagues.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyou G) thread “[Sad News] Hanshin’s #1 pick Ihara, accused of assaulting a woman, turns out to face an indefinite minor-league demotion lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol.”

  • Persona 6 Physical Edition Exclusive to PS5 — Xbox and PC Get Digital Only

    Sega has announced that the physical edition of Persona 6 will be released exclusively for PS5, with Xbox Series X/S and PC getting digital-only versions. On 5ch’s hardware/industry board, discussion ranged widely — from worries about whether development will make the release date, to concerns over backward compatibility if Sony eventually drops disc drives altogether.

    Sega has officially confirmed a physical release for Persona 6 — but with an important caveat. Based on what’s been announced so far, a disc version will only be available for the PS5 edition.

    The game is set to launch on Xbox Series X/S, PC, and PS5, but only PS5 players will be able to buy a physical copy in stores. Xbox and PC players will get digital-only releases, at least for now.

    Source: games.gg / Read the original article here

    3AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:00
    Guess they've gotta make the most of this narrow last chance while they can, squeezing it in like this…
    4AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:02
    Nobody wants two Persona games in one year.
    Next year could be a quality-control nightmare.
    6AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:06
    It'll probably get a later port anyway, right?
    7AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:07
    Sony's moving toward dropping discs entirely — isn't this a bit out of step with that?
    8AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:08
    If the PS5 version can ship in 2027, a physical edition will probably happen — but if development drags on into 2028, there won't be a physical version at all.
    9AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:08
    5R, 4G, and 3R all came out, so why do people keep assuming 6 will never happen?
    Some folks never learn.
    10AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:08
    So there's a hard deadline for the release, huh…
    Think they'll actually make it in time?
    14AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:14
    Re: #10
    It's Atlus — the 'incomplete-then-complete-edition' double-dip business model is standard for them. They'll just ship it unfinished as usual, so there's no way they miss the deadline.
    22AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:26
    Honestly makes no sense that an anime-style game like this isn't coming to Switch 2.
    It's not like a game like this needs that high a resolution anyway.

    Well, whatever — I bought Persona 5 but never finished it. Persona games really are an acquired taste.
    Never got into the calendar/date system.
    25AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:29
    Re: #22
    Even under the influence of 'Mr. Obligation' (a nickname implying loyalty to certain business partners), the disloyalty since Shin Megami Tensei V has been awful.
    What really dealt a fatal blow to the 'complete edition' business model wasn't Persona, which had been milking it for ages — it was Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:31
    "It's on Game Pass Day One so I won't feel special buying it, so I won't buy it"

    — that's the usual excuse pattern, isn't it.
    35AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:37
    Re: #27
    "It's not launching alongside Switch 2, so I won't feel special about buying it"

    — that's the current excuse, isn't it.
    Bottom line, they were never going to buy it no matter what.
    31AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:33
    There's no way this runs on Switch 2.
    32AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:34
    PS6 will be 100% discless, so you won't be able to play it there.

    Maybe they'll sell some rip-off disc-drive add-on for PS6 too,
    but would anyone actually buy that just to play old PS5 games? That's the question.
    34AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:35
    Re: #32
    Honestly, it's more likely PS6 won't even support backward compatibility with physical discs in the first place.
    33AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:35
    Re: #31
    Back when FF7 Remake was a PS exclusive: "There's no way this runs on Switch 2."

    Back during Wilds: "There's no way this runs on Switch 2."

    Keep patting yourselves on the back if you want, but here's the reality: the titles you tagged '[Switching Hub]' (a sarcastic meme tag used on the board for console-war flame threads) ended up flopping hard,
    while the titles you swore "there's no way this runs on Switch 2" about ended up ditching their PlayStation exclusivity.





    What is this, are you guys some kind of jinx? lol
    58AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:16
    Re: #33
    Nothing wrong with what he said — as-is, there's no way it runs on Switch 2.
    Downporting takes years, after all.
    74AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:40
    Re: #58
    By that logic, releasing on Steam first would make launch happen even earlier.
    It takes time to tune it for consoles, lol.
    It'd go Steam → PS5 etc. → Switch 2, right? If it's getting delayed anyway, there'd be no problem launching consoles simultaneously — so is this just a sacrifice to you guys' superiority complex about not buying day one?
    42AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:50
    If the deadline is 'within the window discs can still be produced' and it can't be pushed back further,
    that means it'll ship unfinished as usual, with a complete edition to follow.
    45AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:59
    Re: #42
    If they pull the same stunt with Persona 6 that they did with SMT V, it'll bomb overseas, won't it.
    Then again, games that are multiplatform across only PS5/Xbox/PC tend to flop anyway, so maybe it won't change much.

    I can't think of a single game multiplatform on just those three that didn't undersell its predecessor.
    43AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:54
    So this is basically the last Persona disc ever, huh.
    44AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:58
    Re: #43
    Won't it still get a disc release on Xbox?
    Isn't this really more like the last disc for the PS version specifically?
    48AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:02
    Re: #44
    The article says there's no physical release for Xbox at all.
    That's not an unusual call for a Japanese game, and the Xbox physical market has been shrinking, so it wouldn't be strange for them to stop doing physical releases this time even if they used to.
    50AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:03
    Re: #48
    Ah, so that's why it can be Day One on Game Pass.

    PS5 owners must be crying about it, lol.
    69AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:33
    Re: #48
    The linked article says an Xbox disc version might still happen overseas though.
    49AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:02
    It's already confirmed PS6 won't have a disc drive,
    so I doubt buying the physical disc version will even get you proper backward compatibility.

    On the flip side, when Famitsu's sales numbers for the PS version of P6 come out, it'll basically be a clear headcount of how many clueless guys are still out there.
    54AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:10
    P4R is coming next February, so if this lands in late 2027 discs should just barely still be viable.
    Though a complete edition probably won't happen.
    57AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:14
    Re: #54
    If it's already shaky whether FF7 Remake Part 3, slated for spring 2027, can even get a disc version,
    then late 2027 looks pretty dicey too.

    There's also the chance that the better a game sells, the less likely it is to get a disc version at all.
    83AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:53
    Re: #74
    It's just that the badly outdated original Switch is trash, lol.
    89AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:56
    Are you glued to this thread or something? Responding like a bot and spouting made-up jargon is creepy 😰 lol
    91AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:58
    Re: #89
    Yeah, right — since there's nothing behind it, that's the only thing left to say, huh?
    96AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:21
    Wait, could it be they decided to sell a PS5 physical edition without even being told discs were getting discontinued?
    98AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:28
    Re: #96
    Didn't some overseas third-party publisher say this caught them completely off guard?
    I'd like to believe Sega at least knew, though.
    99AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:29
    It's not like Sony itself is halting disc production until '28 — PS5 still has a disc drive, so third parties will probably keep releasing physical copies.
    101AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:35
    Re: #99
    Production's ending, so that goes for third parties too.

    Background and Key Points

    Persona is Atlus’s flagship RPG series, and Atlus itself is a subsidiary of Sega, which is why “Sega” is named as the publisher making this announcement rather than Atlus. The commenters’ references to “5R,” “4G,” and “3R” are shorthand for Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 3 Reload — expanded “complete edition” re-releases that Atlus has sold for every mainline Persona game to date, each adding new content a year or more after the original launch. That pattern is central to why several posters assume Persona 6 will ship “unfinished” with a paid complete edition to follow. The PS5’s disc drive is a detachable add-on peripheral, not a built-in requirement, which is the backdrop for posters’ worry about future backward compatibility once Sony phases out disc support.

    The thread doesn’t split on whether Persona 6 is coming — nobody seriously disputes that — it splits on what a PS5-only disc means. One camp reads it as Atlus racing a closing window before physical media disappears industry-wide; another reads it as confirmation the game will launch incomplete, per the established Persona/Atlus playbook; a third fixates on Xbox losing physical support and ties it to the game being a Day One Xbox Game Pass title, implying Microsoft’s subscription deal shaped the format decision.

    What the thread never states outright is that no release date for Persona 6 has actually been confirmed — every “2027 vs 2028” deadline discussion here is pure speculation about disc production cutoffs, not information from Sega. Readers unfamiliar with the Japanese gaming market may also not realize physical Xbox releases from Japanese publishers have been rare for years, independent of this specific decision.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry [Geha]) thread “[Switching Hub] Persona 6 Physical Edition Confirmed PS5-Exclusive.”

  • Juice=Juice’s ‘Ebamifu’ Appear on NHK’s Utacon — Fans Say It’s ‘Proof the Group Made It’

    Juice=Juice’s ‘Ebamifu’ duo appearing on NHK’s music program “Utacon” became a hot topic on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. The dominant view in the thread was that, unlike the individual-based popularity seen with Sakamichi groups (Nogizaka46 and similar), this appearance was only possible because the group itself has become widely known. At the same time, posters also brought up the age skew of the fanbase and differences in audience demographics compared to other groups.

    1AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:31
    That's the same pattern as when Sakamichi members get individual TV appearances
    2AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:32
    What's 'Ebamifu'?
    4AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:39
    The modern-day W (the Hello! Project duo 'double-u')
    5AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:39
    At the end of the day, it all comes down to having a hit song or not.
    Kamiko, Wanfour, and late-period ℃-ute (other Hello! Project acts/units) all lacked that too.
    That's why nobody remembers them.
    7AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:39
    Guess the name Juice=Juice has really gotten some recognition
    43AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:04
    But it's not like the two of them actually released a song together, so it's probably a Pink Lady cover or something
    For the grandpa-grandma crowd it'd be The Peanuts
    45AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:08
    Re: #43
    Next week's the '80s special
    Showa era doesn't just mean the '80s, you know
    46AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:09
    Re: #43
    It's a Wink cover
    44AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:07
    Re: #1
    Except Sakamichi members lip-sync, so they can't appear solo on music shows
    47AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:09
    Are they gonna sing 'Futari no Ai-Land' or something?
    48AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:09
    Ebamifu singing 'Koi no Vacance' on the last Utacon must've gotten high marks from the staff
    49AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:10
    Wink's getting milked too hard at this point
    50AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:11
    Then it's gotta be WINK
    51AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:11
    Mifu-chan's got a bit of that Showa-era idol vibe going on
    Depending on the song I feel like it'd suit her perfectly
    52AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:12
    Showa kayō is the thing Rika-sama wanted to do
    53AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:16
    That's some cognitive distortion lol
    54AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:18
    This thread really made it clear how many old guys are in the Juice fanbase
    55AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:19
    Re: #54
    Exactly
    Morning Musume and ANGERME's venues are packed with young women only
    The contrast with Juice, which is full of old guys, is obvious
    56AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:24
    Are Goto's fans really this salty even in a thread like this?
    58AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:28
    That's too much exposure
    More bandwagon fans showing up
    The worst part is not being able to get birthday-event tickets anymore
    59AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:31
    If I get to see Ebamifu do a Wink number, I can die happy
    60AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:31
    Juice=Juice, where everyone except Irie is off doing selection-unit or solo work
    61AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:36
    They just want to pretend they've made it…
    65AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:37
    More like they haven't really 'made it' — the buzz has cooled off, so they're desperately trying to sell them now
    84AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:40
    Right now they're coasting on the trust they built up in the industry back when they were putting up numbers and breaking out
    97AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:49
    It's probably gonna be one of these songs
    102AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:00
    In that sense, ANGERME, who've never really broken out, are pretty impressive
    103AnonymousAug 26, 2026 12:01
    The tracks are being laid for a Kohaku appearance (NHK's New Year's Eve music special)

    Background and Key Points

    Juice=Juice (“Ebamifu” pairs Kanon Fukuda and Miyu Takeuchi, whose duo name blends their surnames) is one of several idol groups under Hello! Project, the management umbrella behind Morning Musume and dozens of sister units going back to the late 1990s. Sakamichi groups like Nogizaka46 operate on an “individual popularity” model — members regularly land solo TV or drama work, and because their live performances are lip-synced, a member can appear on a music show alone without the rest of the group. Hello! Project acts, by contrast, sing live, so members generally can’t be booked separately from their group or sub-unit; a duo like Ebamifu getting NHK’s “Utacon” (a mainstream, general-audience music program, not a niche idol showcase) signals that Juice=Juice as a whole has broken into wider public awareness, not that the two members became individually famous. Posters also treated this as a possible lead-in to a Kohaku Uta Gassen appearance — NHK’s prestigious New Year’s Eve broadcast that is treated as a marker of having “made it” in Japanese entertainment.

    The thread’s real disagreement wasn’t about the TV slot itself but about what it means: some read it as proof the group has genuinely broken out, while others (citing burnout of past H!P units like Kamiko, Wanfour, and ℃-ute, none of whom had a defining hit) argued Juice=Juice is coasting on old industry goodwill rather than current momentum, with the “haven’t really made it” camp pointing to a supposed cooling of buzz.

    What outside readers likely miss is the fanbase-composition angle raised mid-thread: posters noted Juice=Juice’s audience skews older and male compared to Morning Musume or ANGERME, whose venues reportedly draw mostly young women — a demographic split that shapes how “success” gets judged inside H!P fandom but goes unexplained for anyone unfamiliar with the group’s reputation.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Ebamifu appearing on NHK’s Utacon isn’t like Kamiko being individually popular — it’s only possible because the group itself made it.”

  • TBS Announcer Masatoshi Nanba Announces Marriage — 5ch Asks: “Do Announcers Even Need to Announce Their Weddings?”

    TBS announcer Masatoshi Nanba (38) announced his marriage via his own X account on the 26th. Regarding his partner, he said only, “She works in a completely different industry, but like me, she’s a company employee and someone very important to me.” The thread saw well-wishes alongside reactions rehashing a previously reported scandal involving a massage parlor, plus clashing opinions over whether announcers really need to publicly announce their marriages at all.

    TBS Announcer Masatoshi Nanba Announces Marriage — Partner Is “Someone Very Important Who Works as a Company Employee, in a Completely Different Industry”

    TBS announcer Masatoshi Nanba (38) updated his X (formerly Twitter) account on the 26th, announcing his marriage.

    He wrote, “This is a personal matter, but I have gotten married.” Regarding his partner, he explained, “She works in a completely different industry, but like me, she’s a company employee and someone very important to me.”

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    5AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:42
    Good thing he grabbed the No. 1 spot in the announcer rankings thanks to the Lavit! effect (Lavit! is a popular TBS morning variety show).
    8AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:45
    Guess he reluctantly went public since there was a scandal.
    10AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:46
    Isn't this the guy whose friend blabbed about something he did at a sex-industry place?
    17AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:48
    Is that really something you need to announce?
    18AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:48
    Actual paid sex at a "men's esthe" massage parlor — that could've turned into a criminal case, it's wild.
    19AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:48
    He screwed up somehow and just vanished from TV for a while, didn't he.
    86AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:52
    Re: #19
    He's on N Sta, the evening news show.
    21AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:49
    Isn't he the guy who wrecked his voice trying to imitate B'z?
    22AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:49
    Oh, he's the same age as me — I thought he was younger.
    24AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:50
    Shouldn't that be "Lavit!" there? (a joke riffing on the show's name)
    25AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:50
    At least he didn't call her "just a regular person."
    26AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:51
    Whoa, even after a scandal like that?
    His partner's got a heart of gold (lol)
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:51
    Forcing actual sex acts at a massage parlor is such a cheap, embarrassing thing to have done.
    28AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:51
    We'll be alright, good luck, my friends.
    I'll never forget the words of my beloved friend





    B'z / Mienai Chikara ~INVISIBLE ONE~
    @bz7117 11K likes 3,481,068 views 13 years ago Show more
    Bz
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C56Xd7pNpGM&pp=ygUZ44Of44Ko44OK44Kk44OB44Kr44OpIGIneg%3D%3D
    35AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:55
    Isn't he the guy who bragged in a group LINE chat about doing something sexual with a massage parlor girl, then got sold out to a tabloid?
    48AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:11
    Why is an announcer who isn't even a celebrity acting like one and announcing his marriage?
    90AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:57
    Re: #48
    The line's pretty blurry these days.
    There's announcer Hironaka, who says things like "please look forward to my return from maternity leave."
    And announcer Mito, who jumps at any chance to talk casually with guests.
    50AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:13
    They're too broke to even broadcast the World Cup, but they sure know how to announce stuff like this properly.
    54AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:24
    Checked the Yahoo comments and there were a lot of congratulations.
    But if a female announcer got married, it'd be flooded with criticism like "don't announce it on TV, do announcers even need to announce their marriages?"
    56AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:26
    Re: #54
    The industry's a small world, so announcing it yourself is faster than letting rumors spread.
    58AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:27
    Re: #54
    When announcer Shintaro Saito got married, there was a thread saying the announcement wasn't necessary too.
    55AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:25
    Laughed when he said half of the announcers who joined with him have already quit.
    59AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:28
    Earlier
    Nanba was singing "Mienai Chikara" by B'z lol

    He got through that scandal with "Mienai Chikara" (´・ω・`)
    64AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:34
    Ehh, shocking!!!
    73AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:44
    Re: #64
    Shouldn't that be "ULTRA shocking!" there? (referencing a catchphrase)
    66AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:36
    He confessed to having actual sex at a massage parlor, and now he's getting married — wonder what his partner's thinking.
    91AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:59
    Re: #90
    I don't even get being angry that "he's not a celebrity so he shouldn't show off."
    93AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:03
    Re: #91
    Announcers aren't just reading the news all the time —
    there are feature segments on shows where topics like family and marriage come up,
    so if they're married, it's easier to talk about it once it's already public.
    People saying "you're just a regular company employee, stop announcing it" just look jealous to me.

    Background and Key Points

    TBS is one of Japan’s five major commercial “key” broadcasters, and its in-house announcers occupy a status that has no real Western equivalent. They are not freelance celebrities but salaried company employees hired through notoriously competitive entrance exams, yet they are simultaneously treated as public figures — ranked in popularity polls, given fan followings, and expected to narrate milestones like marriage or parental leave on their own social media as if they were idols. Nanba, who anchors segments on the evening news program N Sta and appears on the variety show Lavit!, fits squarely into that hybrid role, which is why a “personal matter” announcement made his own X account newsworthy at all.

    The thread’s actual disagreement wasn’t really about Nanba individually — most posters wished him well — but about the gendered double standard in how these announcements land. Several posts (54, 56, 90, 93) noted that when a male announcer announces marriage, it’s shrugged off or celebrated, but female announcers making the identical kind of announcement reportedly draw comments telling them not to “show off” on air. That contrast, not the marriage news itself, is where the real debate sat.

    What outside readers may misread is the “scandal” references sprinkled through the thread. Posters allude to a previously reported incident involving a “men’s esthe” (a massage-parlor service that can shade into unlicensed sexual services) and a friend who leaked details in a group chat — but nothing in the thread or article indicates charges were ever filed. Treating that as a confirmed crime, rather than an unresolved tabloid allegation, would be a misreading.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “TBS Announcer Masatoshi Nanba Announces Marriage! Partner Is ‘Someone Very Important Who Works as a Company Employee, in a Completely Different Industry’”.

  • France’s Heatwave Death Toll Hits 7,300 — Over 300 Also Drowned

    Reports that France’s record-breaking heatwave has claimed an estimated 7,300 lives sparked shock on 5ch. Follow-up news that swimming-related drownings topped 300 fueled a lively thread mixing criticism of the French government’s response, jabs at the nation’s “aesthetics over safety” reputation, and comparisons with Japan’s own heat countermeasures.

    This summer, France was hit by a record-breaking heatwave, and the number of deaths believed to be linked to the high temperatures has now reached roughly 7,300.

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    2AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:46
    On top of that, apparently 300 people have died at sea too

    Also, France's education minister revealed on the 23rd that more than 300 people have drowned since mid-June. She noted that "people are heading to the water to cool off and taking dangerous risks." (ANN News)
    82AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:03
    Re: #2
    Swimming lessons really do matter, huh
    12AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:50
    Sounds about right for a country that supposedly cares so much about human rights but prioritizes scenery over human lives
    16AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:52
    Re: #12
    When you think about it, valuing scenery over lives is a pretty serious case of disregarding human rights
    60AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:34
    Re: #16
    That's very France of them
    118AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:36
    Re: #16
    "Scenery over lives — there's no way we'd flood in heavy rain." Sounds just like Chiba Prefecture (a nod to Chiba's infrastructure woes during past storms)
    14AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:51
    How's Mr. Hiroyuki doing over in fancy France? (Hiroyuki Nishimura, the 2channel/5ch founder who lives in France)
    20AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:56
    Re: #14
    Not sure if it ruins the scenery, but they got kicked out anyway
    23AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:01
    If it turns out the politicians and executives are sipping hot café au lait in ice-cold air-conditioned rooms through all this, there's gonna be a riot
    31AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:05
    Re: #23
    That actually happened at EU headquarters, didn't it
    26AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:02
    Can't they just use a cold bath or a cold shower?
    43AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:13
    Re: #26
    There are water-use bans too if you use too much
    Those guys neglect flood control too — they've got maybe a fifth as many dams as Japan
    62AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:38
    Paris temperatures in August

    AI Overview

    The average August temperature in Paris, France is about 20°C (68°F), with highs around 25°C (77°F) and lows around 14°C (57°F).
    67AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:41
    Re: #62
    If temperatures like that suddenly jump to almost double, of course some people's bodies aren't going to be able to handle it
    70AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:42
    Re: #62
    What a wreck
    74AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:45
    Meanwhile in Japan

    Elderly person found with actual antibodies to heatstroke LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
    https://imgur.com/SEBGAUC.jpg
    https://imgur.com/l4sYNrs.jpg
    https://imgur.com/3Wn1LYR.jpg
    81AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:52
    Re: #74
    Japan still calibrates its standards to people like this in some ways, doesn't it
    76AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:47
    Showa era = AC was a luxury

    Reiwa era = AC is life support

    77AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:48
    China saw this as a chance and shipped tons of air conditioners over, but Japan never moves at times like this, huh
    79AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:52
    Re: #77
    European affairs are complicated and murky
    They're not the type to feel indebted just because you sent them a few gifts
    87AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:10
    This is great for summer


    It's a light combined with a fan — turn it on and the fan spins to keep you cool





    You can adjust the brightness and fan strength with the remote
    Just switch it off and it starts with the same settings next time
    88AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:13
    Re: #87
    Fine for winter maybe, but for summer isn't a regular fan better?
    Won't it just blow hot air down on you?
    89AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:14
    Midsummer asphalt goes above 60°C (140°F)
    https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1944579925991940096/vid/avc1/720×1280/uUksTaOkyW_DKydp.mp4
    94AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:21
    Re: #89
    If it were me, I'd say something to the owner and let them know
    96AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:21
    Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture, which hit a record 40.8°C (105.4°F)
    https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2080896271242649602/vid/avc1/1258×720/o5xPmtaS-s2p_OCt.mp4




    101AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:28
    Re: #96
    Why's everyone wearing masks?
    102AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:29
    Re: #96
    The composition in the first screenshot is nice
    109AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:31
    [Sad News] Kenyan 🍉 watermelon rind is way too thin lol

    110AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:33
    Re: #109
    Forget the thinness, do something about the flies
    112AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:33
    Re: #109
    Thought those were seeds — turns out they're flies
    113AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:34
    Re: #109
    Thought they were seeds but they're bugs lol
    This picture's probably bait for reactions

    Background and Key Points

    France’s 7,300 figure comes from Santé Publique France’s excess-mortality modeling, the same method used to estimate the country’s catastrophic 2003 heatwave, which killed roughly 15,000 people and forced France to overhaul its “plan canicule” heat-alert system afterward. That system still leaves the country with far lower home air-conditioning penetration than Japan — often cited around 25-30% versus over 90% in Japan — partly because French summers were historically milder, and partly because dense, protected Haussmannian architecture in cities like Paris makes retrofitting external AC units difficult or restricted. The 300+ drowning deaths cited by the education minister are a separate, unofficial tally of accidental water deaths since mid-June, not part of the heatwave mortality estimate.

    The thread’s real fault line is less about facts and more about frame: several posters treat France’s low AC adoption and drowning toll as evidence of a culture that values aesthetics over lives, while others redirect to Japan’s own vulnerabilities — the joking swipe at Chiba’s flood-control failures, and the “heatstroke antibodies” jab at elderly Japanese who refuse AC out of habit — suggesting the “France is uniquely negligent” framing cuts both ways.

    What the thread misses is that comparing dam counts to heatwave drownings is a non sequitur — dams address flood control and water supply, not swimming safety, and most French drowning deaths occurred in rivers, lakes, and the sea, not reservoirs. It also never engages with why AC adoption lags: building preservation rules and a historically temperate climate, not indifference to safety, are the more direct causes than any “scenery over lives” mentality.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] France Loses to the Heatwave, 7,300 Perish“.

  • Grocery Tax Cut Sparks Fears for Restaurant Industry — 5ch: “If You’re Worried About Tax, Don’t Eat Out”

    The planned cut to the consumption tax on groceries has sparked debate over its impact on the restaurant industry. In a public opinion poll, over 20% said they would “eat out less,” and a majority called for support for restaurant operators. On the forum, opinions split over whether the tax cut would actually translate into lower prices, the tax-rate gap with takeout, and whether eating out even counts as a necessity in the first place.

    Concrete design work on the grocery consumption tax cut is now in full swing. The Liberal Democratic Party held a meeting of senior members of its Tax System Research Commission, kicking off discussions toward compiling its tax reform outline.

    However, business operators on the ground have voiced concerns about the burden of relabeling price tags, among other issues, highlighting the many challenges involved in implementation.

    On the news program “Watashi to News,” the food and beverage consumption tax cut and support for the restaurant industry were discussed together with Madoka Nakano, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo’s IncluDE center.

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here

    3AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:24
    If you're worried about the consumption tax, just don't eat out in the first place.
    134AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:42
    Re: #3
    The problem is exactly that people worried about the tax don't eat out — that's the whole issue.
    189AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:47
    Re: #3
    That's proof right there that eating-out opportunities are decreasing.
    6AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:25
    Not really sure, but… does everyone eat out because it's cheaper than cooking at home? Isn't it because they want to eat something tasty?
    51AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:32
    Re: #6
    People who can't cook for themselves rely on deli food, bento boxes, frozen meals, or eating out.
    56AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:33
    Re: #6
    Right. Eating out is something you pay a "value-added tax" for — saving effort and getting tasty food. Japan really needs to learn that trying to bail everyone out on everything will bankrupt the country.
    10AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:26
    Funny how the people complaining that inflation is crushing their lives always take a proper weekend off. If you were really struggling, you'd work at least on Saturdays.
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:29
    Re: #10
    To begin with, for people genuinely struggling with high prices, a flat tax cut is only a tiny benefit — if anything, the rich benefit more.

    A flat cut is dumb to begin with; a direct cash payout would still be better, since the amount doesn't change even for rich people.
    12AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:26
    There are way too many unneeded restaurants. Just conscript them into nursing care or agriculture.
    152AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:44
    Re: #12
    Exactly — there's no way they can hand out more subsidies anyway, after all the subsidies dumped out during the phony COVID panic.
    17AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:27
    A consumption tax cut during inflation is dumb to begin with, but…

    Restaurants are supposed to stop having consumption tax applied to their purchase costs.

    That's the theory, but in reality, primary and secondary industries probably won't lower prices by the amount of the tax cut.

    In the end, the wholesalers supplying supermarkets won't change either.
    275AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:57
    Re: #17
    Not passing the tax cut on as lower prices = effectively a price hike, right?
    Do that and it looks like profiteering on the surface, but unlike with the childbirth subsidy, retail and restaurants have visible price tags.
    So instead of a big "¥1,999" with a small "¥2,158 tax included" underneath, it'd just say "¥2,158" outright.
    Even to an amateur, that seems like it'd take some nerve.
    Some discount store is bound to show up selling it at ¥1,999 regardless.
    18AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:27
    There are just too many restaurants. Might as well cut back on them now and shift the workforce into nursing care, transport, agriculture, etc. That would also let Japan cut back on accepting foreign workers, which would help ordinary citizens.
    305AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:00
    Re: #18
    Once you can't even feed yourself, can't fight off a cold, and start choking on your food, that's just your natural lifespan.
    Elderly healthcare and welfare is the one place where money disappears into a bottomless pit — no other Western country prioritizes it the way Japan does.
    A Confucian cult of a country that cracked down on young people over a common cold (COVID), let births fall below 700,000, and still won't reflect on it.
    30AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:29
    Did charging otoshi (the mandatory starter dish/cover charge at Japanese izakayas) and service fees actually drive customers away?
    35AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:30
    Re: #30
    Yes, drastically.
    69AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:35
    If someone stops eating out because cooking at home is cheaper, they'd have quit regardless of the consumption tax.
    79AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:36
    Re: #69
    This. People eat out because cooking for themselves is a hassle.
    85AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:37
    Re: #69
    Isn't the point that takeout drops to 1% tax, so people will shift toward that instead?
    108AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:39
    Re: #69
    Some people started cooking for themselves because of COVID, so surely some will start cooking for themselves because of this too.
    104AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:39
    Japan's probably the only country in the world where cutting taxes gets you this much media bashing and complaining lol
    137AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:42
    Re: #104
    Guess the food's just that good.
    147AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:44
    The people who said a weaker yen wouldn't affect ordinary citizens' lives should commit seppuku.
    154AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:44
    Re: #147
    What actually happened, though? Even someone like you seems to be getting by just fine.
    170AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:46
    Re: #1
    Looking at the graph, the "it'll decrease" camp actually looks pretty small.
    Isn't that a negligible level?

    https://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/hst/poll/202608/
    193AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:48
    Subsidies, subsidies, always subsidies lol. Just scrap the tax cut already.
    203AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:49
    Re: #193 That's exactly the reaction the reporting is designed to provoke. You fell right for it, lol.
    216AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:51
    Re: #203
    If anything, half of people are against the tax cut. There's no alternative funding source, so it's obvious we'll end up footing the bill ourselves in the end.
    315AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:01
    Re: #203
    So we're agreed then — no support for them?
    265AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:56
    Eat-in: 10% consumption tax
    Takeout: 1% consumption tax

    Would people still choose to eat in with a gap like that?
    276AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:57
    Re: #265
    Rich people wouldn't care either way.
    298AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:59
    Re: #265
    Takeout depends on the food, though. Burgers are fine, but fried or stir-fried dishes lose their flavor if you don't eat them right away. Why should anyone have to put up with that just to save 9%?
    321AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:02
    Re: #265
    For a ¥1,000 item: ¥1,100 vs ¥1,010. For 90 yen, you skip the trash and the cleanup.
    312AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:01
    Restaurants' purchase costs should drop 7% too, so their prices should come down. Do that and customers will come. What's the restaurant industry whining about?
    336AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:03
    Re: #312
    Thought the same thing. With lower supply costs, some restaurants might actually see their gross margin go up. High-end restaurants especially might end up more profitable.

    Background and Key Points

    Japan’s consumption tax sits at 10%, but a “reduced tax rate” carved out in October 2019 — when the levy rose from 8% to 10% — keeps food and non-alcoholic drinks at 8%, with takeout and delivery treated as groceries while eating inside a restaurant is taxed at the full 10%. That “for here or to go” distinction has confused customers (and cashiers) since 2019. The current proposal, now moving from campaign talk into actual LDP Tax System Research Commission discussions, would cut the tax on groceries further, likely toward 0%, while dine-in service stays at 10%. That widens rather than closes the eat-in/takeout gap the thread keeps citing as 265’s “10% vs 1%” comparison. The poll cited (TV Asahi’s Watashi to News survey) found over 20% expecting to eat out less and a majority wanting support for restaurants, which is what triggered the piece.

    The thread’s real fault line isn’t over whether the tax should be cut, but whether restaurants’ own suppliers — farmers, wholesalers, distributors — will actually pass their tax savings down into cheaper ingredient costs, or just pocket the difference the way commenters in 17 and 312 argue about. A second, quieter split is over whether eating out counts as a “necessity” deserving tax relief at all, versus a paid convenience people choose over cooking.

    What’s left unsaid is that this isn’t a new policy mechanism — the eat-in/takeout tax gap has existed for six years — and no post mentions that relabeling millions of price tags and adjusting invoice-system paperwork, the “burden” the article notes operators worry about, was also a headache during the original 2019 rollout.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5channel (Breaking News+) thread “[Consumption Tax Cut] Poll: Over 20% Say “Eating Out Will Decrease,” Majority Say “Support Needed”… What Happens to the Restaurant Industry’s Concerns.”

  • Juice=Juice Lands 7 Straight Months of Music Show Appearances — 5ch: “They’ve Officially Made It”

    Hello! Project group Juice=Juice has been racking up appearances on major Japanese music programs — from the year-end countdown special straight through to Music Station and CDTV Live! Live! — sparking discussion on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. Commenters praised the streak with remarks like “They’ve officially made it” and “Impressive that it’s all major shows,” while others speculated about the group’s internal pecking order and possible PR strategies behind the bookings.

    1AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:23
    Jan 1 (Thu) — TBS "CDTV Live! Live! New Year's Eve Countdown Fes. 2025→2026" (full group)
    Mar 1 (Sun) — BS-TBS "All That Music ~A Love Song For You~" (Danbara)
    Mar 14 (Sat) — Yomiuri TV "Ontogaku√ 1-Hour Special" (full group)
    3AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:25
    Give Angerme some music show appearances too
    5AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:26
    They're a fixture now, huh
    6AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:26
    Still, Angerme ranks higher in the pecking order
    58AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:02
    Re: #6
    That's just seniority-based ranking though
    7AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:27
    What's impressive is it's all legit major shows
    8AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:28
    Feels like CDTV will have them back again around October
    My guess is they'll air a one-song digest from the 9/11 live show
    9AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:31
    They've completely made it
    10AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:32
    I think they'll land Best Hit Kayousai in November, but October's the tricky one
    11AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:35
    You should probably check out tomorrow's STAR too
    The preview, I mean
    12AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:35
    Even the old-timer haters have noticed TV people don't really care about listener numbers, huh
    Too pathetic lol
    13AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:36
    When they do appear it's seriously all at once in a flood, huh
    Probably they're just busy with live shows and not actually being passed over — still getting invited constantly
    15AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:37
    Bunching appearances into a short stretch leaves a bigger impression than scattering one-off spots anyway
    16AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:38
    Pointless when they can't even say anything that funny
    Someone should at least whip out a nose-recorder trick or something (a classic dumb comedy bit — playing a recorder through the nose)
    17AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:39
    Re: #16
    A joke the old-timer worked hard to come up with
    24AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:41
    Copypasta incooooming!!! (a stock reaction when a recognizable copy-pasted post shows up)
    35AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:42
    1. Uta Con
    4. Buzz Rhythm 02
    5. Music Station
    6. CDTV Live! Live!
    7. TV Tokyo Music Festival
    8. FNS Music Festival
    51AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:55
    Blowing past both Morning Musume and Angerme — overwhelmingly the No. 1 in the pecking order now
    52AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:56
    With Juice=Juice, once they broke through with good numbers, their next jobs stopped being decided by numbers and started being decided by the trust they'd earned
    62AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:06
    Re: #52
    For a group as high-level as Juice=Juice, the numbers only need to serve as a foothold to break into the mainstream — after that it's all trust
    53AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:57
    I'd already gotten used to it
    But let's be real, this situation isn't normal
    57AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:00
    Who cares about Hello! Project's pecking order anyway
    65AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:06
    Re: #57
    Then why are you even in this thread
    59AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:02
    Seen from Equal Love or Kawara Lab's perspective, Hello! Project's internal ranking is the pot calling the kettle black (a trivial squabble not worth arguing over)
    61AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:05
    Music Station


    CDTV
    63AnonymousAug 26, 2026 11:06
    If "flagship" or "No. 2 in the ranking" is all they've got to cling to, just let them have it

    Background and Key Points

    Juice=Juice is one of the current subgroups under Hello! Project (H!P), the Up-Front Group idol umbrella whose flagship act is Morning Musume; Juice=Juice debuted in 2013 and sits alongside groups like Angerme and Morning Musume in H!P’s internal roster. The shows named in the thread are not interchangeable: Music Station (TV Asahi) and CDTV Live! Live! (TBS) are the two biggest weekly music broadcasts in Japan, alongside year-end events like FNS Music Festival and Best Hit Kayousai — slots overwhelmingly reserved for major-label pop and rock acts, not niche idol groups. That’s distinct from the smaller BS-TBS or regional programs also listed, which carry far less prestige. Landing seven straight months on the big broadcasts is unusual for any H!P unit.

    The thread’s actual disagreement isn’t over whether the streak happened, but over what it means. Some posters read it as proof Juice=Juice has overtaken Morning Musume and Angerme in H!P’s informal pecking order; others push back that the ranking is seniority-based (tied to debut order), not a merit ranking that TV bookings could ever move, and a few dismiss the whole “pecking order” framing as pointless squabbling.

    What the thread leaves unstated is how these bookings actually get decided: as one poster notes, producers often don’t scrutinize streaming or chart numbers closely — repeat bookings tend to reflect accumulated trust with a network built over prior appearances, not a live popularity contest, and clustering slots in one stretch (rather than spacing them out) simply reads as more impressive than it mechanically is.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “[Shocking] Juice=Juice has been appearing on music shows for 7 straight months since March 2026 lolololololololololololololololol.”

  • “To Those Buying Elden Ring Now”: 5ch Thread Sparks Debate Over Switch Port

    A thread titled “To those buying Elden Ring now” popped up on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board.

    The discussion spiraled into arguments over a possible Switch port and portable performance, though some posters who’d actually played the game also chimed in with screenshots of their progress.

    1AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:56
    Why now? Guess having a PC is just a given, huh?
    5AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:00
    People keep saying "look how many are buying it now," but why doesn't anyone realize some of that includes publishers buying back their own stock to pad the sales figures?
    9AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:04
    Re: #5
    Give us a source and everyone will believe you instantly.
    8AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:03
    You really think the crowd that's always going on about Pokémon is gonna enjoy this?

    They'll probably start crying before they even beat the first boss.
    90AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:42
    Re: #8
    Found the guy who's never actually played it (classic "armchair player" call-out).
    You don't even need to beat the first boss.
    12AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:06
    If it gets ported to Switch, that alone adds the extra value of a handheld mode.
    18AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:13
    Re: #12
    You don't need a Switch 2 for handheld play — a PC can do that too.
    23AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:17
    Re: #1
    Honestly, more Elden Ring fans isn't a bad thing, is it? Not if you're actually a fan yourself.
    42AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:42
    Re: #23
    He's not a fan, he's a console-war troll. Guys like that are only happy when they get to bash Nintendo.
    39AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:36
    Is that kind of attitude why there's no such thing as a steady, reliably-selling game around here?
    40AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:38
    Re: #39
    Even without steady sellers, PC is already way more successful than the Switch 2, with a much bigger market.
    62AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:11
    Coming back to Elden Ring after playing Dasubura, Dasubura actually feels more fun as a game, but Elden Ring has higher risk, so it's more of a heart-pounding thrill.
    Playing for the first time in two years, I'd forgotten the controls and this guy wrecked me right off the bat.
    Got my revenge after that.

    Forgot the name of the guy in the bottom right, but I genuinely thought I was going to lose my save data lol
    63AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:13
    Once I gradually got the controls back, I started going all-out even against random trash mobs lol


    And once I got even more used to it, I went on a killing spree in a nostalgic old spot


    Anyway, it's a good game.
    Everyone should buy it too!
    68AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:17
    Forgot to attach this one
    70AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:22
    The Frost-Tread Ring and the era when Mimic Tear (a summonable spirit-ash clone of your character) was busted overpowered were the most fun.
    101AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:55
    Re: #70
    Exactly this.
    Not sure if it's because they're prioritizing PvP balance, but it's disappointing when weapons get hit with huge nerfs in balance patches.
    71AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:25
    If it doesn't get ported to Nintendo: they talk down from on high and troll.

    If it comes out later there: they call it "leftovers" and troll.

    If it launches day-and-date: they troll about the graphics.

    If it's a Nintendo exclusive: they act like they never cared anyway.

    Either way, it's a total "moral victory" for Sony fans, so no problem for them.
    75AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:44
    Re: #71
    Though apparently once actual sales numbers come out after release, they go dead silent.
    77AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:59
    Re: #71
    Honestly, "Wall-kun's" (5ch slang for a certain breed of anonymous console-war poster) whole life is basically a living tribute to "The True Story of Ah Q" (the Lu Xun novella that's the actual origin of the term "moral victory").

    Background and Key Points

    Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s 2022 action RPG, published in Japan by Bandai Namco and released on PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series, and PC; it has never had a Switch version, unlike earlier FromSoftware titles such as Dark Souls Remastered, which did get a 2018 Switch port. The board this thread comes from, 5ch’s “Geha” (game hardware/industry) board, is one of the site’s most reliably hostile venues for console-war sniping between Sony, Nintendo, and PC partisans, and the “Wall-kun” jab in the final posts is board-native slang for a poster who retreats into the same console-war script regardless of what actually happens — the reference to Lu Xun’s “The True Story of Ah Q” points to that novella’s coinage of “moral victory,” the trick of reframing any outcome as a win.

    What the thread actually splits on isn’t the game itself but the hypothetical Switch port: whether a portable release would add real value, versus the counter that handheld play is already possible on PC hardware, making the whole debate moot. A second, smaller fault line is whether wanting more people to buy Elden Ring reflects genuine fandom or is just console-war cover.

    Readers should treat the claim in post 5 — that publishers are buying back their own stock to inflate sales figures — as an unverified accusation nobody in the thread ever sources or defends, not an established fact. The thread also never explains why the Mimic Tear nerf stung so much: it was a summonable ash clone of the player’s own build, powerful enough in both PvE and PvP that repeated balance patches specifically targeted it, which is the backstory behind post 101’s complaint.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, “Geha”) board thread “To those buying Elden Ring now, after the rest of us already sank dozens of hours into it and got bored.”

  • Furusato Nozei ‘Losses’ in 19 Prefectures: Tokyo’s Deficit Hits ¥225.5 Billion in FY2025

    According to an Asahi Shimbun estimate, total donations under the furusato nozei (hometown tax) program hit a record ¥1.3314 trillion in fiscal 2025, while 19 prefectures — including Tokyo — saw more tax revenue flow out than they took in, putting them in the red. Tokyo alone posted a deficit of ¥225.5 billion.

    On the thread, voices arguing “it’s just self-inflicted — they lost the gift-competition” clashed with critics saying “the residence-tax system itself is fundamentally warped,” and the discussion spread to cover the circumstances of other deficit-running prefectures like Saitama and Kanagawa.

    Asahi Shimbun independently calculated, by prefecture, the balance for fiscal 2025 furusato nozei — donations received, minus the cost of return gifts and the revenue lost to residence-tax deductions — and found that in 19 prefectures the outflow exceeded the inflow, putting them in the red. Tokyo’s deficit alone comes to ¥225.5 billion. The drain on tax revenue has swelled especially in urban areas, once again exposing the distortions built into the system.

    Favoring the wealthy? A wave of highly cash-convertible “pure gold” furusato nozei return gifts keeps popping up

    According to data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications at the end of last month, total furusato nozei donations for fiscal 2025 reached a record approximately ¥1.3314 trillion. Based on the published figures, Asahi Shimbun combined fiscal 2025 donation totals with the cost of return gifts and shipping, along with the amounts to be deducted from residence tax under fiscal 2026 taxation, to estimate each municipality’s balance.

    Source: asahi.com / Original article here

    2AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:03
    Maybe they should just quit already
    42AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:23
    Kawasaki City should pass an ordinance banning furusato nozei as an act of discrimination 😠
    181AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:22
    Re: #42
    They're running these angry ads on the Nanbu train line — basically guilt-tripping riders with 'because of furusato nozei outflows, we've lost funding for children's facilities.'
    If that's really the issue, just prioritize children's facilities in the current budget. Anyway, I don't want to pay Kawasaki a cent, so I'm maxing out my donations elsewhere.
    3AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:04
    That's just the payoff for their hard work, no?
    111AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:50
    Re: #3
    Exactly this.
    Places like Tokyo simply weren't competitive enough.
    The deficit prefectures are only losing out because their return gifts aren't appealing, right?
    They should realize just how much they've been coasting.
    8AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:08
    Isn't Saitama's situation actually worse than Tokyo's?
    16AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:13
    Re: #8
    No coastline, no real local specialties or famous products, and it's awkwardly semi-urban.
    11AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:11
    Just scrap this system already.
    It's twisted — you get municipal services without your residence tax actually going to your home municipality.
    161AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:12
    Re: #11
    Reminder: even after doing furusato nozei, people still pay far more residence tax to their home municipality than you do.
    13AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:12
    That tax shortfall just comes back around as a de facto residence-tax hike.
    202AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:41
    Re: #13
    And so furusato nozei just keeps growing even more — quite the self-sustaining cycle.
    22AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:15
    Every return gift they hand out
    shrinks Japan's total tax revenue as a whole.
    29AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:17
    Re: #22
    The only ones making a killing are the middleman brokers.
    They've even got enough spare cash to blast out a ton of TV commercials.
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:17
    Abolishing it amounts to the same thing as a tax hike, so the Ministry of Finance loves it whenever the 'abolish it' argument picks up steam.
    33AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:19
    Re: #27
    If there's a shortfall, the only option left is raising residence taxes.
    43AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:23
    Just end this already — I want my taxes to go to my actual hometown.
    51AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:25
    Re: #43
    If you don't file for furusato nozei, your taxes just go to your home municipality as normal, don't they?
    46AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:24
    If you want to keep the system going, scrap the return gifts and the deductions.
    49AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:25
    75% of the tax revenue lost to furusato nozei outflows actually comes back as a top-up to local allocation tax grants — municipalities that don't receive those grants are wealthy enough that it's no big deal for them.
    55AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:27
    Re: #49
    That's still tax money though, isn't it?
    70AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:32
    If they scrapped furusato nozei,
    the logistics labor shortage would ease, fewer trucks would mean fewer accidents and less traffic, and even the gasoline shortage would improve.
    77AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:33
    Re: #70
    Guess we'd have to ban online shopping too and force everyone to buy locally, huh.
    80AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:34
    A site that shows furusato nozei tax revenue by prefecture — the results really make you think: 'Hokkaido's haul is insane' – Togetter
    Published December 26, 2023
    https://togetter.com/li/2282534

    They're raking in so much cash in places with barely any people that you have to wonder what they're even going to do with it.
    It's nuts.
    86AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:37
    Re: #80
    The money's just flowing to places that actually have the production capacity for goods in demand.
    Piling money into places that only consume goods and services wouldn't generate any reproduction of value anyway.
    105AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:47
    Saitama's pears should be a strong contender, but I guess it comes down to name recognition.
    106AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:48
    Re: #105
    Yamanashi and Yamagata seem to grow tons of fruit somehow. And mikan (mandarin oranges) make me think of Wakayama and Ehime.
    110AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:50
    It'd be hilarious if some municipality announced, 'Due to furusato nozei outflows, we can no longer collect your garbage.'
    160AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:11
    Re: #110
    Big cities have so much slack they can prop up a whole army of amakudari orgs (cushy sinecures for retired bureaucrats) — they'll be fine, lol.
    129AnonymousAug 26, 2026 09:57
    >>Besides Tokyo, Kanagawa (¥84.6 billion), Osaka (¥48.9 billion), Saitama (¥48.1 billion), and Aichi (¥46.9 billion) also posted big deficits — all concentrated in the three major metro areas.

    That's basically the top of the tax-revenue ranking though.
    Sounds like a huge success.
    172AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:16
    Re: #129
    Even if every single resident maxed out their furusato nozei donations, it would only cut residence tax revenue by around 20% at most.
    152AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:07
    Re: #146
    Potatoes come from Hokkaido.
    Rice is domestic rice.

    Don't you dare eat any, got it?
    162AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:12
    Re: #152
    I'll just live on Calorie Mate (a Japanese meal-replacement snack bar).
    If I need potatoes and rice, I can just target those two specifically.
    163AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:12
    Whoever's running the fee/commission business is surely raking in the most money from all this.
    164AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:13
    Re: #163
    Kind of like how, in the gold rush, the only ones who really profited were the tool sellers and Levi's.
    167AnonymousAug 26, 2026 10:14
    Re: #163
    Wait, so you're saying don't use Amazon, Rakuten, or Yodobashi either?

    Background and Key Points

    Furusato nozei (“hometown tax”) is not a donation in the ordinary sense: any resident can send money to a municipality of their choosing and have nearly all of it (minus a fixed ¥2,000 co-pay) credited against the residence tax and income tax they otherwise owe to the municipality where they actually live and use services, up to a cap tied to income. Municipalities compete for these donations by offering return gifts worth up to 30% of the donation’s value — Wagyu beef, seafood, rice, even gold bars — which is why rural, production-heavy prefectures pull in revenue while people keep living, working, and consuming public services in the cities they’re diverting tax money away from. Created in 2008 to help depopulating regions, the scheme has ballooned into a ¥1.33 trillion-a-year program, and the resulting shortfall is now concentrated almost entirely in the three big metro areas — Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka, Saitama, Aichi.

    The thread’s real fault line wasn’t over whether losses are happening, but over who’s to blame: posters who treat this as urban prefectures simply failing to compete on branding and gifts, versus posters who see the entire deduction-plus-gift structure as a structural transfer that shrinks aggregate tax revenue nationwide, benefiting brokers and gift vendors more than any locality.

    What outsiders often miss is the local allocation tax offset raised in passing (post 49): about 75% of a municipality’s furusato-nozei shortfall is automatically backfilled by national grants, but only for municipalities that receive such grants in the first place. Tokyo does not, which is precisely why its ¥225.5 billion hole is real money lost, not a wash — a distinction the “self-inflicted” framing glosses over entirely.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “[Furusato Nozei] ‘Losses’ in 19 Prefectures: Tokyo’s Deficit Hits ¥225.5 Billion in FY2025.”