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  • Fans Debate Whether the Juice=Juice Fandom Is Really ‘Peaceful’ After Viral X Post

    A tweet posted on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that “Juice=Juice fans all compliment each other’s oshi (favorite members), making the fandom peaceful” became a hot topic on 5ch’s Hello! Project board. In the thread, some agreed, saying “makes sense given the mutual-support culture,” while others pushed back with “they’re at each other’s throats over bus tours” and “there was infighting in the past too,” sparking a debate over whether the fandom is really so peaceful.

    Kokonoka. ’26

    @coconoca__9

    With everyone singing this well, you’d expect fights over “my oshi is the best,” but Juice has this vibe of “my oshi is amazing, but yours is amazing too” — I love it, it’s almost too peaceful 🍹

    Source: x.com / Original post here

    2AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:43
    Watching people lose it over bus tours, I really can't call this peaceful.
    3AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:43
    Not sure if this is an EBiDAN thing or an =LOVE ('Iqoulove') thing.
    4AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:43
    They can afford to be chill because they're already certain their oshi is the best.
    5AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:45
    Guess you're a newbie who doesn't know about Hello! Project's "secret account" (urawiki) culture.
    20AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:09
    Re: #5
    If you don't have to know, ignorance is bliss.
    63AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:28
    Re: #5
    Most of the complaint accounts these days are ANGERME fans anyway
    leftovers from the "Rikamiko" era.
    7AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:46
    Wait, seriously? There are groups where fans of the same group fight each other??
    10AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:55
    Re: #1
    Thinking everyone's that good based on just that is peace-addled naivety.
    11AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:57
    They're all good, but you can quickly tell who's better.
    12AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:58
    Re: #11
    They're not even that good lol
    13AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:59
    Dambara's fans can afford to praise the younger members precisely because their oshi's position is untouchable.
    14AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:01
    I've been a Hello! Project fan for over 10 years, so I can tell this guy knows exactly what he's saying.
    He's just jumping on the winning horse to take a dig.
    He used to be a Kamei/Kamikokuryo/Ikuta fan anyway.
    16AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:03
    > He used to be a Kamei/Kamikokuryo/Ikuta fan anyway

    Ah, that explains it.
    17AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:04
    23AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:14
    This peace only exists after the old blood-soaked "Nacchi vs. Goma" fan wars.
    Everyone learned that trashing each other within the same group has zero upside.

    I really wish ANGERME fans would learn that same lesson — "trashing each other within Hello! Project has zero upside."
    24AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:15
    Re: #12
    There's always someone like you no matter where you go,
    so there's no such thing as "peaceful" lol
    26AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:22
    Irie's getting showered with praise in the comments on the "Kurakura" recording video though.
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:24
    Kind of like how Shimoitani gets showered with praise in the comments on ANGERME's dance-practice (danpura) videos?
    29AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:28
    Someone clue them in about "koko" (a nod to the tweeter's handle, Kokonoka).
    34AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:44
    Re: #29
    No doubt they already know.
    31AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:40
    Come to think of it, there's never been infighting among Juice=Juice fans, even back in the original-lineup era.
    Unlike other groups, every member of Juice was pointed in the same direction.
    Maybe it's because they were a rare group where every single member was serious and hardworking.
    32AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:43
    Re: #31
    Why are you acting like Takagi never existed?
    Miyamoto was looking in a different direction too, which is why she went solo early.
    36AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:49
    Re: #32
    Takagi got criticized for having a bad attitude at handshake events, sure,
    but I don't remember fans fighting each other over it.
    Her singing was highly rated by fans, and she was respected as an indispensable member of Juice.
    39AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:52
    Re: #36
    "Come to think of it, there's never been infighting among Juice=Juice fans, even back in the original-lineup era. Unlike other groups, every member of Juice was pointed in the same direction. Maybe it's because they were a rare group where every single member was serious and hardworking."
    ↑
    That's what this was about — what are you even talking about?
    38AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:51
    No group has a mutual-support network (gojokai) as functional as Juice's.
    Even back in the original-lineup days, it was standard for fans to attend every single member's birthday event.
    40AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:54
    Re: #38
    But diva Takagi's show at Landmark Hall wasn't even full.
    If every Juice fan really went to everyone's events, you'd think at least Landmark would fill up, right?
    Don't rewrite history.
    44AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:02
    That's because the "server-battle" oshi-activity fans have been flowing into Juice.
    They're the crowd that used to constantly fight with other members' fans, so of course it feels peaceful now.
    47AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:07
    Re: #44
    Apparently there's a fandom that's been fighting internally ever since the group formed
    the so-called "hell fandom," lol
    48AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:10
    People who use Juice's name to trash other fandoms and other groups like this obviously aren't peaceful.
    Are you doing this on purpose?
    54AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:17
    Re: #48
    This is all just =LOVE fans anyway.
    49AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:11
    Re: #40
    Nobody said everyone went, though.
    Why are you so worked up about this?
    I don't remember if Landmark was completely full, but it had a decent crowd.
    But you wouldn't know that, since you never actually saw the events in person.
    57AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:19
    Re: #49
    So my point is, don't cherry-pick the one little part you happen to know and write it like it applies to every Juice fan.
    Morning Musume fans and ANGERME fans go to birthday events for members other than their own oshi too.
    62AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:26
    Re: #57
    Hard to take that from someone who's never seen the events in person.
    It's a fact that the mutual-support network functions better in Juice than in other groups.
    Morning Musume. plays surprisingly small venues for how popular they are, and ANGERME is beyond hopeless at this point.
    65AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:32
    Re: #62
    There's the Juice fan showing their true colors lol

    Background and Key Points

    Juice=Juice is a Hello! Project (H!P) idol group under UP-FRONT, launched in 2013 and built around unusually strong vocalists. Like other H!P units (Morning Musume, ANGERME, =LOVE), it operates inside a broader fan culture where “oshi” (a fan’s favorite member) is a semi-official identity, and where “gojokai” — informal mutual-support networks in which fans of one member also turn out for every other member’s birthday events, handshake lines, and solo shows — are treated as a real measure of a fandom’s health. H!P also has a long history of factional fan hostility; posters invoke the early-2000s “Nacchi vs. Goma” rivalry (between fans of Morning Musume members Nakazawa Yuko and Goto Maki), a notoriously bitter feud that set the baseline against which any group’s fandom gets called “peaceful” today. “Urawiki” refers to anonymous secondary accounts H!P fans keep for venting or sniping, separate from their public fan persona — a structural feature of the fandom, not a fringe quirk.

    The thread doesn’t actually split on whether Juice=Juice fans praise each other online; that’s granted. It splits on whether that online courtesy reflects genuine peace or just a fandom with no urawiki-driven “server battle” history yet, papering over real friction — bus-tour disputes, uneven turnout at member events like Takagi Sayuki’s under-filled Landmark Hall show, and past departures such as Miyamoto Karin’s — versus one poster’s cynical read that the whole tweet is a backhanded dig from a fan of other, now-faded members.

    What outsiders likely miss: “peaceful” is only meaningful relative to H!P’s unusually combative fan history, not as an absolute claim, and several posters even use “peaceful Juice” as a weapon to insult ANGERME and =LOVE fans — undercutting the premise in the act of defending it.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “X: ‘I love that Juice=Juice’s fandom has this vibe of my oshi is amazing, but yours is amazing too — it’s almost too peaceful’.”

  • Girls’ School Bathrooms Have Lines Too — Boys’ Urinals Outnumber Them 1.4-to-1, 5ch Says ‘See, the Boys’ Room Is Empty’

    A survey of school bathrooms across 74 cities and wards nationwide by the Asahi Shimbun found that boys’ restrooms have 1.4 times as many urinals as girls’ restrooms have stalls. The investigation was sparked by a female student’s complaint that “recess ends up being nothing but standing in the bathroom line.” On 5ch, the observation that “the boys’ room is empty” set off a wide-ranging thread covering the causes of the congestion, phone use eating up stall time, and preferences for squat versus Western-style toilets.

    Published 8/26 (Wed) 7:02 AM

    withnews by Asahi Shimbun

    Long lines at women’s restrooms have become a social issue, driven by the gender gap in the number of toilets available. The Asahi Shimbun first covered the issue in an article in January 2025. Since then, we’ve heard from many quarters requests to “look into school restrooms too,” so between May and July 2026 we surveyed a total of 74 municipalities — government-designated cities, prefectural capitals, and Tokyo’s 23 wards. 72 of them responded, and our analysis of a combined 624,011 toilets found that boys’ restrooms have 1.4 times as many units as girls’ restrooms. (Asahi Shimbun reporter Tomoko Yamashita)

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

    2AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:39
    "See, the boys' bathroom is empty!"
    46AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:52
    Just confiscate their phones already
    6AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:41
    So let's cut the number of stalls in the women's room
    and line up urinals to match the men's room.

    If you're complaining the numbers are unequal, you'd have to accept this as a solution too, right?
    17AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:44
    Quit whining, you softies.
    If a guy uses a stall, he gets nicknamed "Poop Man," so we held it in desperately until we got home.
    97AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:04
    Re: #17
    They should make all men's toilets stalls too.
    That would cut the number down to match the women's side,
    and everyone would be happy, problem solved.
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:48
    Put a timer on the outside of every stall door, for men and women both, so you can see how many minutes someone's been in there.
    79AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:58
    Re: #27
    Wasn't there an Abe Kobo short story with a factory foreman nicknamed "Stopwatch"?
    30AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:49
    But seriously, why is the female urethra built so inconveniently?
    Not just that urinals are hard to use — it's also more prone to infections and leakage. It's hard to see the upside of that design.
    87AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:01
    Re: #30
    There's no real reason.
    Every part of the human body was just slapped together haphazardly.
    34AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:49
    I've never actually seen both the boys' and girls' school bathrooms full at the same time.
    213AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:32
    Re: #34
    Same here.
    There's probably a faction that wants it to look that way.
    42AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:51
    The reason there are more men's urinals is that even with the same-sized space, urinals are compact, right?
    So the fix for the women's room is to rip out the partitions and go "nihao-style" (open squat toilets in a row, like some Chinese public restrooms) to fit more in — problem solved lol
    43AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:51
    As a guy this is hard to really get.
    Plus girls supposedly go to the bathroom in pairs holding hands, which eats up even more time.
    Guys don't do the buddy-bathroom-trip thing.
    47AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:52
    Re: #43
    I heard from a girl that the Showa-era version of that (the buddy system) was actually meant to guard against perverts.
    51AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:52
    Isn't this just the media's usual trick of only reporting what fits their narrative?
    62AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:55
    It's mostly phones or makeup eating up the time.
    75AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:57
    Re: #62
    Elementary schoolers don't wear makeup, and they can't bring phones to school either, you know.
    93AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:03
    Re: #75
    They stand there messing with their wet hands in their hair while staring in the mirror, forever.
    66AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:56
    Why did bathrooms suddenly start running short once the Reiwa era began?
    74AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:57
    Re: #66
    And this despite the falling birth rate.
    Probably because, unlike the old days, people spend a lot longer in the stall looking at their phones.
    72AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:57
    They're on their phones in there, obviously.
    I never saw lines like this 20 years ago.
    82AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:59
    Re: #72
    Try 30 years ago — women's bathrooms already had lines back then.
    There was even a stir about middle-aged women sneaking into the men's room to use a stall because the women's side was too crowded,
    and that's old news by now.
    81AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:59
    Guys carry a big risk too — if you go into a stall you get teased "poop, poop," so you can't poop at school.
    It stops bothering you around college age, but what even is that about?
    90AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:02
    Re: #81
    Back in middle school I could never go before leaving home, so I always ended up doing it at school, and it became a running joke: "Pooping again? lol"
    By that point I'd just stopped caring.
    114AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:07
    They're just taking way too long in there.
    Female VTubers pee faster than I do, even.
    117AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:09
    Re: #114
    Lol
    Yeah, they're back in a flash.
    And if it does take a while and you think "oh, must be a poop," turns out they went and made instant noodles instead.
    156AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:19
    Re: #114
    Bruh, it's a woman lolololol
    126AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:12
    Just make a separate entrance for the squat-style toilets in the women's room lol
    Standing in line is just being soft
    183AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:26
    Re: #126
    Squat toilets have a bad reputation, though.
    Plenty of students cross a school off their list just because it has squat toilets.
    Correspondingly, schools that renovate to Western-style toilets see higher application rates.
    189AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:27
    Re: #183
    It's unpopular, so people probably just finish quickly and get out.
    191AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:27
    Re: #183
    Though squat toilets are actually more hygienic since you don't touch anything with your butt.
    147AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:17
    Women really do take forever.
    What are they even doing in there?
    155AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:19
    Re: #147
    With squat toilets you can't sit down, so it wouldn't take long.
    Isn't it slow because they're sitting there checking their phones?
    180AnonymousAug 26, 2026 08:25
    Re: #147
    Go ask your girlfriend or wife.

    Background and Key Points

    The survey sits on top of a broader push in Japan to fix what’s been dubbed the “women’s toilet line” problem — the Asahi Shimbun’s January 2025 piece first framed unequal restroom wait times as a gender-equity issue in public facilities, and this follow-up applies the same lens to schools. The 74 municipalities surveyed are Japan’s designated cities (seirei shitei toshi, large cities with prefecture-level administrative powers), prefectural capitals, and Tokyo’s 23 special wards — together a sample skewed toward Japan’s biggest urban school districts, not rural areas. Of the 72 that responded, tallying 624,011 fixtures nationwide, boys’ facilities came out 1.4 times larger in unit count.

    The thread’s actual fault line isn’t over whether girls wait longer — nobody disputes that — but over cause: is the gap structural (urinals need far less floor space and plumbing per unit than an enclosed stall, so any given square footage naturally yields more male fixtures) or behavioral (phone use, grooming, or the “buddy system” of pairing up for restroom trips, historically a safety habit against harassment rather than idle chatting)?

    What the thread misses is that raw fixture counts don’t map cleanly onto capacity, since a stall and a urinal occupy very different amounts of space — so equalizing “unit numbers” between the sexes, as some posters jokingly propose, wouldn’t equalize actual floor area or renovation cost. Also unaddressed: Japan’s school toilets still run a meaningful share of washiki (squat-style) units, a leftover from pre-1990s construction standards that many districts are only now budgeting to replace with yoshiki (Western-style) fixtures.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “【🚻】Girls’ School Bathrooms Have Lines Too — “Recess Ends Up Being Nothing But Standing in Line” — Boys’ Urinals Outnumber Them 1.4-to-1… How the Survey Started“.

  • Amid ‘Love, Bring It On’ Backlash, Matchmaking Agency CEO Argues ‘Women Who Like Violent Men Are Just Plain Unintelligent’

    YouTuber Chihiro Katsukura, head of the matchmaking agency “Naresome Yobiko” (lit. “Matchmaking Prep School”), weighed in on the backlash surrounding Netflix’s “Love, Bring It On,” arguing that women drawn to violent men are “just plain unintelligent.”

    On 5channel, the discussion spread to cover the link between violence and popularity, the argument that “intelligence” and “reason” aren’t the same thing, and even firsthand accounts of abusive men who charm everyone around them.

    August 22, 2026, 8:00 PM

    On August 19, Chihiro Katsukura (20,000 subscribers), who runs the matchmaking agency “Naresome Yobiko,” posted a new video. Using the ongoing backlash against Netflix’s dating reality show “Love, Bring It On” as a springboard, she laid out her theory on the psychology behind women being drawn to violent men.

    “Love, Bring It On” is a Netflix reality series following so-called “yankee” (delinquent-style) men and women living together as they navigate romance, with Season 2 streaming since August 4. In episode 5, Kazuma Shiota — known as “Kazu-kun,” a host club owner (host name: Kazuma Hisaki) — sparked a wave of criticism after describing, while recounting his upbringing, having once set someone on fire. The Ministry of Justice’s Rehabilitation Bureau, which had partnered with the show to promote “offender rehabilitation” awareness, also came under fire, and the controversy grew well beyond the show itself. On the 21st, the Ministry of Justice announced it was ending the partnership.

    Source: yutura.net / Original article here

    4AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:40
    I bet women who are drawn to violent men had a thuggish, yankee-type father too.
    109AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:49
    Re: #4
    If you grow up believing 'my violent father was in the right,'

    then yeah, you'd probably end up choosing that same type of guy as a boyfriend or husband.
    15AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:45
    Honestly, being drawn to bad guys is just plain crazy ("atama okashii").
    Are they chasing some kind of thrill?
    20AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:47
    Re: #15
    It's all explained right there in Re: #1.
    18AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:46
    College grads and the wealthy tend to stick tightly together with their own kind — grads with grads, rich with rich.
    45AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:04
    Re: #18 continued

    You could also call it a sad type of person who can't swap things out in their imagination, level up, or fly off wherever they like — they can only picture things within a narrow frame or axis.

    Like, the type who learns "substitution" in middle school math and doesn't go "whoa, that's handy!" The sad type who finds it too much hassle to understand.

    But among the violent guys who dominate women, it's not always just brutishness. There's what you might call the Super Himo Theory! (a pun — "himo" means both "string" and slang for a man who lives off a woman)

    He bleeds her dry financially and beats her — but when she finally makes a break for it, sprinting barefoot through a downpour with no umbrella, he chases her down and pulls her into a hug: "There's nobody else for me but you!" That's the Super Himo Theory, straight out of the Showa era! He's mastered physics at a world-class level — some even call it superstring theory! (another string/himo pun)

    Well, there's also "fisherman mechanics," but that's about how guys on long ocean voyages carefully read the room to avoid getting preyed on — that's a story for another time.
    29AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:53
    Violent guys read as stronger males, so it makes the womb ache — that's just the instinctual pull, can't be helped.

    Women just don't feel any allure toward soft, meek men.
    33AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:58
    Re: #29
    Then why not just marry a hulking military meathead?
    42AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:03
    For both men and women, the lower the intelligence, the weaker the reason and the more instinct takes over.
    Men get violent to the point of domestic abuse,
    and women get promiscuous to the point it causes social problems.
    112AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:54
    Re: #42
    Measuring IQ by gender like that is probably considered unethical…

    but there does seem to be some kind of trend.
    50AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:08
    I'm honestly not sure how to interpret "low intelligence" in this case.
    In reality, you actually see cases that sound almost made up —
    sensible, accomplished women who go for DQN-types (delinquent/lowlife guys).
    Maybe it's better to treat "intellect" and "intelligence" as separate things?
    Plenty of elite University of Tokyo-grad bureaucrats are total idiots as human beings, after all.
    55AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:10
    Re: #50
    A handful of exceptions are still just exceptions.
    58AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:13
    Re: #50
    It's less "low intelligence" and more "weak self-control," I'd say.
    60AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:14
    Re: #55
    So to you, "quite a few" means "a small number"?
    66AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:16
    Re: #60
    Your "quite a few" isn't backed by any real numbers — you don't even know the sample size. It's just a vague claim.
    62AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:15
    > "Manga built around the trope of 'he's only kind to me' have been selling well lately"

    Shoujo manga really is nothing but this kind of crude wish-fulfillment garbage.
    It's not fiction, it's just an illustrated fantasy diary.
    107AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:45
    Re: #62
    Westland's Iguchi used that as material in his M-1 (Japan's top manzai comedy competition) set.
    118AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:56
    Re: #62
    There's plenty of manga and AV (adult videos) aimed at men that's basically male fantasy made literal too —
    does that mean men are just better at telling fantasy apart from reality?
    64AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:15
    Guys like Shohei Ohtani, Erling Haaland, and basketball or volleyball players are popular with women too because they're pro athletes with great physiques and physical ability.
    Athletic strength is a form of violence in its own way. 👩
    70AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:18
    Re: #64
    So pro musicians and actors being popular is about "violence" too?
    72AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:20
    Re: #70
    Well, even among actors, tall guys with a good build and looks are more popular than short ones.
    82AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:25
    Re: #70
    What about Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, then?
    71AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:19
    Ha, she's not holding back lol.
    But it's true that violent men, "moral harassment" types (emotionally abusive men), really are popular.
    People probably mistake being pushy and aggressive toward others for reliability — but once you marry him, you become his next victim.
    99AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:41
    Re: #71
    I don't get where the confidence comes from that a violent husband just won't abuse them too.
    81AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:24
    A man with high intellect can be domineering without ever raising a hand to women or children.
    A man with low intellect tends to use violence and intimidation to look bigger than he really is — deep down he's actually a coward.
    It's the difference between an elite at a major corporation and a middle-school-dropout yankee running his own one-man contracting outfit.
    91AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:28
    Re: #81
    But there are plenty of power-harassment types among highly educated corporate elites, executives, and senior bureaucrats too who are violent or intimidating, right?
    85AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:25
    Men talking down to store clerks with rude, casual speech gets a terrible reputation from women too —

    so why do women fall for pushy, aggressive "ora-ora" (tough-guy) types anyway?
    103AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:43
    Re: #85
    Probably something like "MY guy is the exception."
    94AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:33
    Re: #91
    Most of these guys don't actually raise a hand to their spouse or kids —
    they relieve stress by targeting people in society it's "safe" to bully.
    It's the low-functioning ones who can't make that distinction who end up committing domestic abuse.
    98AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:40
    Re: #94
    Ah, so it's "won't hit HIS OWN women and children," got it.
    I'll work on reading between the lines.
    124AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:59
    When I see a yankee couple with their kid at AEON (a Japanese supermarket/mall chain),
    it makes me wonder what my whole life of playing it straight was even for.
    128AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:00
    Re: #124
    If being ordinary and average were something wonderful, geniuses would never emerge.

    Your way of thinking is a menace to society.
    136AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:10
    Re: #124
    If you admire the delinquent crowd, it's not too late to become one yourself.
    Falling off society's rails is surprisingly easy,
    and staying on the rails without falling off is actually the harder path in life.

    Living a perfectly average, unremarkable life is tougher than it looks.
    139AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:13
    Former delinquents are really skilled at winning people over.
    At my workplace too, when a former delinquent yells and intimidates someone, then follows it up with a smile and a handshake, everyone falls in line.
    They probably pull the same move in dating, working as a team — I've seen it happen at group mixers (godokon).
    140AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:14
    Re: #139
    Classic codependent-abuser technique.
    145AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:19
    Re: #139
    I'd think anyone reasonably sharp, men and women alike, would recognize that kind of move — the sort of thing straight out of a pop-psychology book — and see right through it.
    Guess that's not always true?
    148AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:21
    Re: #139
    No no no, lol.
    My old workplace had a leader just like that and everyone was sick of it.
    Getting dragged into his emotionally unstable BS drama every single time was the worst.

    Background and Key Points

    “Love, Bring It On” belongs to Japan’s long-running “yankee” genre — reality and scripted content built around delinquent-style youth culture that traces back to 1980s biker-gang (bosozoku) and school-delinquent subcultures, since softened into a stylized, often romanticized aesthetic in manga and dorama. That the Ministry of Justice’s Rehabilitation Bureau had attached its name to Season 2 reflects a real government practice: Japan leans on volunteer probation officers (hogoshi) and public-facing media tie-ins to promote offender reintegration, since the country has no parole system in the Western sense and relies heavily on community-based rehabilitation. A host-club owner’s on-camera admission to having set someone on fire made that partnership untenable, forcing the ministry to withdraw days later — a detail that explains why a dating show controversy became a government story. Katsukura herself runs a “konkatsu” (marriage-hunting) coaching business, a niche where YouTubers build followings on blunt, clickbait-y verdicts about women’s dating choices.

    The thread didn’t really argue over whether women are drawn to tough men — that was taken as given — but over Katsukura’s causal claim that this attraction reflects low “intelligence.” Posters kept splitting hairs between chi (intellect) and chino (reasoning/self-control), with several citing counterexamples of accomplished, educated women who still fall for delinquent-type partners, and others flatly rejecting gendered IQ comparisons as unscientific.

    What the thread never quite lands on is that “yankee” romance is a commercially manufactured trope, not a spontaneous psychological pattern — shoujo manga, host-club marketing, and now reality TV all monetize the “he’s only gentle with me” fantasy, meaning the show itself is a product engineered to elicit exactly the reaction posters are trying to psychoanalyze.

    *This article is compiled as an excerpted summary of the 5channel (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “Matchmaking agency CEO and YouTuber says women drawn to violent men are ‘just plain unintelligent,’ shares theory amid ‘Love, Bring It On’ backlash.”

  • MLB MVP Odds: Not Ohtani — Cubs’ PCA Leads NL Race

    On August 25, MLB’s official website released its predictions for this season’s NL MVP, and topping the list wasn’t Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani (32), who is chasing his fourth consecutive and fifth career MVP award, but Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong (PCA, 24).

    On 5ch, discussion centered on a stats debate over whether WAR or OPS should carry more weight, along with hopes that Ohtani could still stage a comeback in the final month of the season.

    Sports Hochi

    August 26, 2026, 4:55 AM

    In this season’s MVP predictions released on the 25th (late that same night Japan time) by MLB’s official website, it’s not Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani (32), aiming for his fourth straight and fifth career MVP award, but Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong (PCA, 24) who currently leads the NL race.

    Source: hochi.news / Original article here

    6AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:20
    Soccer's the sport of the times now
    17AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:36
    Re: #6
    MLB really doesn't have many famous stars anymore, huh
    9AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:27
    PCA went 0-for-5 yesterday though
    He had a huge slump last year too
    10AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:32
    Still, there's a month left
    Could go either way
    13AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:33
    Who even is this guy lol
    Ohtani losing out to some nobody lol
    14AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:33
    Guess the anti-Ohtani harassment is bad in the US too lol
    15AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:34
    Ohtani's reign is finally over
    (∩´∀｀)∩ hooray! (celebratory ASCII emoticon)
    16AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:34
    Well of course
    His swing's got way more snap to it
    19AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:38
    Just go play outfield then
    If there's injury risk, ban sliding and diving catches
    20AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:40
    Voter fatigue might mean
    PCA takes it even if Ohtani hits 40-40
    22AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:41
    Shohei Ohtani
    Turns out he's not that popular after all ＼(^o^)／
    23AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:45
    If he wins MVP with this year's stats, that'd be rigged
    24AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:46
    So far PCA's been running hot on top of hot, while Ohtani's been running cold on top of cold. Curious how the last month plays out.
    25AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:47
    Who's Alvarez?
    Is MLB's level really low enough that some random newcomer can become MVP?
    Thought that, looked him up, and turns out he's put up great numbers every year lmao
    I'm way too much of a casual fan lmaooo
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:48
    This season Ohtani's hitting and pitching are both a bit off his absolute peak
    (though the fact that he's still in the conversation among Japanese players says he's a monster regardless)

    MVP is just an incidental award for how the whole year goes. Winning the pennant is what actually matters.
    29AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:50
    Roberts doesn't prioritize individual titles and won't let him chase one
    If he's not pitching, Ohtani as just a DH doesn't stand a chance
    48AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:21
    He's already won it 4 times, isn't that enough?
    58AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:34
    Re: #48
    Catching up to and surpassing Bonds' 7 MVPs is Ohtani's noble mission
    50AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:25
    Downgraded from unicorn to just a pretty good player
    52AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:27
    Re: #50
    Calling the OPS leader "pretty good" lol
    Who do you think you are lol
    54AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:27
    Quick-draw Grounder-tani (mocking nickname for weak early-count groundouts) is a no-go this season, even to an amateur eye
    59AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:35
    Re: #54
    When it comes to grounding out and going hitless lately,
    Murakami's even worse than Ohtani
    So dissing Ohtani means dissing Murakami even harder — keep that in mind
    56AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:28
    He's still #1 in WAR nationwide
    Can't be helped
    60AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:36
    Re: #56
    WAR isn't an official MLB stat
    It's just a reference metric, and plenty of people criticize it
    Too much weight's been put on it until now
    69AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:42
    MVP is basically decided by WAR, yet these bandwagon Ohtani fans keep chanting OPS lmao
    77AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:48
    Re: #69
    That take is shallow
    Writers vote on impressions, not stats — keep that in mind

    Though yeah, Ohtani's not getting MVP this year, that much is certain
    75AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:47
    Surprised Ohtani's even in MVP contention
    Thought he was way short of it this season
    79AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:49
    Re: #75
    The OPS leader not being in contention? No way lol
    85AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:52
    PCA running hot on top of hot
    Ohtani running cold on top of cold

    Genuinely excited to see the last month play out
    87AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:55
    Re: #85
    The real 'running hot' is Ohtani's ERA, as always

    Background and Key Points

    The MVP award itself isn’t decided by MLB.com’s own website — the poll referenced here is an internal “expert predictions” feature published in late August, distinct from the real vote, which is cast after the regular season by two BBWAA writers in each NL city on a ranked ballot. Ohtani’s history looms over the discussion: back-to-back AL MVPs in 2021 and 2023, then a unanimous NL MVP in 2024 after a two-way peak that combined elite hitting with dominant pitching WAR. This year he’s largely a DH while recovering from surgery, which several posters implicitly flag as the reason his overall value case is thinner than in past seasons, even with strong OPS numbers.

    The thread’s real fault line is WAR versus OPS as the right lens for MVP. One camp treats WAR — which folds in PCA’s defense and baserunning on top of a breakout bat — as the closer proxy for what writers actually reward, since PCA plays center field and adds value beyond hitting. The other camp insists that voters go by feel and traditional offensive production, where Ohtani’s OPS lead should matter more, and that a strong September could still flip things.

    What the thread skips is that these midseason “predictions” have shifted before and carry no weight on the actual ballot; WAR itself isn’t an MLB-sanctioned metric but a sabermetric composite that different sites calculate differently, so “leading in WAR” isn’t as fixed a fact as posters treat it. Readers should treat this as an editorial snapshot, not a forecast of the real BBWAA outcome.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[U.S.] Even in the official site’s expert poll, PCA is favored over Shohei Ohtani for MVP.”

  • Gravure Idol Jun Amaki (30) Announces Marriage to Keirin Racer Yuki Sasaki

    Gravure idol Jun Amaki (30) updated her Instagram on the 23rd to announce her marriage to keirin cyclist Yuki Sasaki. Amaki, who had already declared she’d retire from gravure work this summer, shared a two-shot photo with her husband, in a wedding dress, taken at a keirin velodrome. On 5ch, comments piled up both pointing out how hard the thread title was to parse and discussing the ongoing trend of gravure idols marrying athletes from public sports like keirin and kyotei (boat racing).

    2026.08.23

    Gravure idol Jun Amaki (30) updated her own Instagram on the 23rd, announcing her marriage to keirin cyclist Yuki Sasaki.

    Having turned 30 and already declared she’d retire from gravure work this summer, Amaki gushed, “No matter what, he’s an incredibly warm presence who gently wraps me in kindness,” and added, “I want us to be a fun couple who can still hold hands even after we’ve become grandpa and grandma.” She posted several photos, including a two-shot with her husband, in a wedding dress, at a keirin velodrome. Below is Amaki’s full announcement.

    Source: daily.co.jp / Original article here

    5AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:22
    Post the pic of the husband in the wedding dress already
    25AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:33
    Re: #5
    Thought it was a same-sex marriage for a second
    6AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:24
    Felt like she'd been doing gravure for over 10 years already, but she's only 30?
    7AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:24
    Oh, she's the one who used to be a total delinquent (yankee)
    90AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:42
    Re: #7
    There was a segment on ABEMA in some raunchy show that rounded up big-bust gravure idols, and she got into a trash-talk battle with Mina Shirakawa (now active in the US). She got genuinely riled up by Shirakawa's jabs and started clicking her tongue, going full "you wanna go?" — her real delinquent side came out hard, it was hilarious.

    In the end she couldn't fire back at all and burst into tears, and Shirakawa piled on with lines like "that's a fake actress cry" and "don't try to cry your way into likability" — the whole thing worked as proper variety TV.
    8AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:24
    Hikakin?
    (Looking at that photo) Can't even tell which one's the guy
    9AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:25
    I can't handle that look women give the man they're into lol
    14AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:30
    Re: #1
    Read that way, it sounds like "the husband in the wedding dress"
    Lately there are a lot of people writing sentences with zero regard for the reader
    50AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:45
    Re: #14
    It's not about regard for the reader — they just can't write proper Japanese. They can't pick the right words to describe a situation, and they don't even notice something's off. There was even a thread title that used "guzutsuita" (a word for drizzly, unsettled weather) instead of "guzutta" (fussed/threw a tantrum) to describe a fussy kid. "Guzutsuita" is weather-forecast terminology for overcast, showery skies — not a word for a child's mood.
    17AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:31
    Does Daily Sports not have a copy editor or something?
    34AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:36
    Re: #17
    The guy who started the thread is the one who wrote the title, right?
    67AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:07
    Re: #17
    Not just Daily Sports — sports-paper web articles in general are often terrible
    37AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:37
    Isn't she the "legal loli" type? (slang for a petite, youthful-looking adult)
    40AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:38
    Re: #37
    That's Marina Nagasawa (30)
    49AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:45
    She's been around forever


    She's been in the industry for ages
    51AnonymousAug 23, 2026 13:46
    How old can you actually be and still race in keirin?
    107AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:01
    Re: #51
    If you really push it, almost until 60. Top-class riders usually decide to retire around their mid-40s. Keirin has this "line" concept — even though it's technically an individual sport, it works like a team sport too — so if you switch roles and find a good fit, your career can run pretty long. The class system is also clearly defined; these days even the bottom-tier "Challenge Class" can earn you 10 million yen.
    59AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:00
    A lot of gravure idols seem to be gunning for keirin or kyotei (boat racing) guys
    63AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:02
    Re: #59
    Who's the kyotei example?
    Probably just Goto Shoyuki's "Oshiri-zu" girl? (a nickname playing on "oshiri," meaning butt)
    66AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:06
    Gravure idols are all really aiming for baseball players, but I guess they settle for this tier
    99AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:50
    Re: #66
    These days it's more like baseball players themselves have become the last refuge for idols and female celebrities who missed their window to settle down
    75AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:23
    How well-known is she to the general public, actually?
    86AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:33
    Re: #75
    Not sure if it was a hit or not, but back in 2019 there was an NHK drama written by Yoshiko Morishita and starring Yuki Sakurai called "Dakara Watashi wa Oshimashita" ("That's Why I Became Her Fan") — she was one of the idol group members the main character was a fan of.
    89AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:37
    Re: #86
    Haven't got a clue what that is lol
    93AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:46
    Re: #86
    Not a single part of that rang a bell lol
    77AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:26
    Feel bad that her news got overshadowed by the Riku-Ryu (figure skating pair Miura & Kihara) story
    80AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:29
    Re: #77
    They're just on a completely different level lol
    87AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:33
    Re: #77
    If anything, overlapping with them actually helped — she got featured alongside Riku-Ryu in the web news and stood out more.

    Not that she's really the kind of talent who'd normally land a top news slot lol
    104AnonymousAug 23, 2026 14:56
    Retiring for marriage — that's a clean way to go out
    108AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:04
    Re: #104
    If she were still popular and in demand, she'd probably keep working though
    110AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:12
    From her latest (last?) photo book, "Mariya Nagao & Jun Amaki: Genkai Toppa (Breaking the Limit)" [WPB-net]

    111AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:19
    Re: #110
    The two of them were in "Koe Girl" together (a talent/audition show)
    120AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:37
    Keirin racers are the strongest people on earth. Pure muscle.
    125AnonymousAug 23, 2026 15:42
    Re: #120
    Their thighs are thicker around than a woman's waist

    Background and Key Points

    Keirin is one of Japan’s four “kōei kyōgi” (publicly-operated gambling sports, alongside horse racing, motorboat racing/kyotei, and auto racing), created in 1948 under the JKA to fund local-government reconstruction budgets. Riders are licensed professionals ranked in a class system (S1/S2, A1–A3) that resets twice yearly based on results, and even the bottom “Challenge Class” now nets around ¥10 million a year, which is why commenters note career riders can keep racing into their 50s if they find a niche within the sport’s team-like “line” tactics. Gravure idol, meanwhile, is a distinct, non-nude swimsuit/lingerie modeling track in Japanese entertainment, generally a tier below mainstream actresses or idol-group members — Amaki’s biggest brush with fame was a minor role tied to a 2019 NHK drama most posters had never heard of.

    The thread didn’t really argue over the marriage itself; the closest thing to a split was whether her news getting overshadowed by the Miura-Kihara figure-skating story was bad luck or actually useful exposure, with one camp saying they’re simply a different tier of celebrity and another arguing the overlap got her more web coverage than she’d normally receive. Otherwise the posts drifted into grammar-nerd territory, mocking the ambiguous headline phrasing and sports-tabloid writing standards generally.

    What outside readers likely miss is the pattern behind “gravure idol marries keirin/kyotei racer”: these public-sport athletes offer unusually stable, well-documented incomes compared to entertainment work, making them a quietly common marriage target once idols age out of peak visibility — a dynamic the thread jokes about but never explains in economic terms.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “Gravure idol Jun Amaki (30), retiring this summer, marries keirin cyclist Yuki Sasaki — a two-shot with her husband in a wedding dress”.

  • Commuter Allowance Fraud Gets Caught and Punished — 5ch: “At Least You Didn’t Get Fired”

    A poster whose commuter allowance fraud was uncovered at work and who faced disciplinary action started a thread on 5ch’s Nanjo Jikkyo G (Everything Live) board.

    It turned out the poster had been claiming the allowance for highway commuting while actually using surface roads the whole time. The punishment ended up being just a verbal warning plus a hit to their bonus review, but going forward all employees will be required to submit their ETC (toll pass) records. The thread filled up with reactions like “at least you didn’t get fired,” alongside a stream of corporate-slave grumbling about unused paid leave and forced overtime under the disability-hiring program.

    4AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:46
    My commuter allowance fraud got caught at work and I got disciplined for it… I want to die.
    13AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:50
    Re: #4
    At least you didn't get fired.
    10AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:49
    Was browsing a list of workplace screw-up cases from yesterday and found one eerily similar to something I've been hiding, lol. Guess I'll bury it.
    43AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:05
    Re: #10
    At my company, the truly bad stuff the higher-ups pull is the stuff that actually gets covered up 😌
    15AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:51
    My HP hits zero right around the time I'm supposed to head home 🤮
    18AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:55
    Re: #15
    Slept, woke up, and I've only recovered to about 65 HP 🤮
    16AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:52
    Not fraud-related, but apparently if you buy a commuter pass yet actually walk or bike to work for your health, workers' comp won't cover you if you get in an accident. Still gonna keep doing it though, since I don't want to ride the packed trains.
    33AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:02
    Re: #16
    That's exactly why commuting costs are baked into social insurance premiums, yet so many people still complain about it.
    17AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:52
    Re: #9
    I'd registered my commute as highway use and got paid for it, but it came out that I was almost always taking surface roads… There'd been no checks for years, so suddenly demanding ETC records out of nowhere clearly means someone snitched.
    20AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:57
    Re: #17
    Sorry about that 😏
    26AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:58
    Re: #17
    Can't be helped, time to move on.
    22AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:57
    My name won't be mentioned, but HR is sending a company-wide email saying "this kind of incident happened and was disciplined," and it's genuinely depressing. Even without a name, we've only got about 100 employees, so it's obvious who it is.
    27AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:59
    Re: #22
    I'll make sure to forward this log in as a reply too 😁
    29AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:59
    Re: #22
    Sounds like the kind of thing that gets posted up in front of the cafeteria.
    25AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:57
    Well, fudging commuting or travel expenses a little is something everyone does. My company's actually pretty chill about that kind of thing as part of the culture, so I lucked out.
    28AnonymousAug 26, 2026 06:59
    Re: #25
    Nice, I'm jealous. Honestly, I don't see the problem with taking surface roads to commute somewhere technically far enough to justify the highway. Commuting costs should be based on the distance from home to office, not the actual route taken.
    34AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:02
    Small mercy is that the punishment was just a verbal warning plus a hit to my bonus review. No repayment of the fraudulent difference either. But from now on, anyone using toll roads has to submit ETC records, so I'm probably going to be hated for it.
    40AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:04
    Re: #34
    That's basically workplace harassment at this point.
    48AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:07
    Re: #34
    Once you get labeled as someone who commits that kind of fraud, promotions slow down and you'll get shipped off to a subsidiary the first chance they get. If the verbal warning is the kind written into official regulations, it stays on your record permanently as a disciplinary mark — you'd be better off just changing jobs.
    39AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:03
    What does everyone do after getting home on days when work ends earlier than usual? Honestly, on days like that I have no idea what to do with myself 😭
    41AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:04
    Re: #39
    Watch anime on Netflix.
    42AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:05
    Re: #39
    A true corporate slave clocks out but doesn't actually leave, hanging around acting like they want to chat with coworkers.
    44AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:05
    Forget work, let's all just quit and become farmers. It's fun.
    51AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:08
    Re: #44
    Hard pass — low pay, brutal labor, and insane power harassment and sexual harassment (speaking from experience).
    54AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:09
    An old lady pushing 60 keeps telling me to hurry up and have kids already — that's harassment, right?
    71AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:15
    Re: #54
    Sounds like she's hitting on you.
    60AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:11
    This thread occasionally turns up an absolutely wild story — like the guy whose company car got stolen.
    61AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:12
    Re: #60
    Fudging commuting expenses is something pretty much everyone does, right?
    74AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:15
    Re: #60
    More recently there was a home care worker who abandoned a severely disabled elderly man to go play pachinko. Sounds like there's a bunch of other offenses too.
    63AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:13
    The temporary toilets at my job site are the worst — you have to use a hand-shower to flush your own poop down. There's a real risk of splashback too. Seriously, my company must be broke.
    73AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:15
    Re: #63 reminded me — I've seen a little shower nozzle attached to the wall next to a Western-style toilet before. Was that meant for flushing??? There was a proper flush lever right on the toilet, and there was no bidet (washlet), so I wondered if it was some kind of bidet substitute???? But it looked sketchy so I never used it.
    68AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:14
    Re: #61
    Can't relate, I'm issued a company car. Though FYI, my company's a mess — the dashcam has GPS built in and literally anyone can view the footage.
    70AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:15
    Re: #68
    Getting issued a car is way too generous… though having a camera at all is already unpleasant.
    75AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:16
    Taking today off. I'm mentally cornered and can't take it anymore. I'm hired under the disability employment program, but I'm being forced to work overtime every single day.
    89AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:21
    Re: #75
    If you take a day off every time you're mentally cornered, you'd have to take one off every week.
    77AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:16
    I bet you all enjoyed a nice long Obon break. Now get back to work, work.
    81AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:19
    Re: #77
    I was forced to prep for my next business trip and had to stay home waiting for the paperwork to arrive. Of course, the paperwork never got issued by the deadline. Thanks to that, I won't be able to use up my paid leave before it expires. What a joke.
    85AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:20
    The new hire is oddly fixated on using up their paid leave. I keep telling them that this is our busy season, but they keep scheduling time off like an idiot anyway. I'm probably the one who's going to end up cleaning up the mess…
    88AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:21
    Re: #85
    Wouldn't things actually run smoother without the new hire around? I spent every day cleaning up messes until I got demoted, and my performance review tanked because of it.
    90AnonymousAug 26, 2026 07:22
    Re: #85
    The ones who keep getting stuck cleaning up after everyone else — that's the real "weak link" here.

    Background and Key Points

    Japan’s commuter allowance (通勤手当) is a standard, largely tax-free benefit most companies pay on top of salary, calculated from a registered commuting route and method — train pass, mileage, or highway toll — rather than actual spending. Employees self-report the route when hired and rarely have it checked again, which is exactly the gap the original poster exploited by declaring a highway commute while driving surface roads for years. ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) is Japan’s automated highway toll system; every pass generates a digital log tied to a car’s ETC card, so once a company starts requiring those printouts, a route lie becomes nearly impossible to sustain — which is why the new company-wide ETC policy reads to posters as a direct, embarrassing consequence of one person’s case rather than a routine audit.

    The thread doesn’t split over whether the fraud happened, but over how serious it actually is: several posters treat inflating commuting costs as a near-universal, victimless fudge everyone does, arguing pay should reflect straight-line distance rather than the literal route driven, while others frame it as exactly the kind of infraction that quietly wrecks a career.

    What outside readers likely miss is the weight of a formal “verbal warning” in a Japanese seniority-driven firm: unlike a shrug-off in many Western workplaces, if it’s logged under internal regulations it becomes a permanent disciplinary mark, the kind that stalls promotion and can get someone quietly reassigned to a subsidiary — which is why a commenter suggests changing jobs is the more realistic fix than waiting it out.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nanjo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] This Corporate Slave Is Spewing His Guts 🤮.”

  • Announcer Kasumi Mori Reveals How She Lost 7kg in 3 Months on a ‘Don’t Spike Your Blood Sugar’ Diet

    Freelance announcer Kasumi Mori revealed on TBS Radio how she lost 7kg in three months. “There’s just no way I could do a starvation diet,” she said — the method she landed on was one that avoids spiking her blood sugar.

    On 5ch, some users explained the mechanics of insulin and fat storage, while others speculated that a drug (Mounjaro) might be the real reason behind the weight loss, and skepticism toward extreme dieting also made the rounds.

    Sun, 8/23, 4:14 PM

    Freelance announcer Kasumi Mori (31) made a guest appearance on the August 22 broadcast of TBS Radio’s “Savorino presents My Reward Time” (Saturdays, 8:00 PM). She revealed how she lost 7kg in three months.

    Making her second straight appearance on the show, Mori was asked by host Miki Fujimoto, “You’ve dieted before, right?” Mori explained what got her started: “Yeah, about a year after going freelance I put out a photo book, and around that time I did a body makeover. Then when I became an ambassador and model for a lingerie brand, I needed to slim down a bit more, and that’s when I lost about 7kg.”

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

    9AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:47
    Honestly, just not eating is the easiest way to lose weight.
    55AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:34
    Re: #9
    That's pointless — you rebound too easily on that.
    12AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:48
    Blood sugar?
    So basically… she's on Mounjaro?
    30AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:55
    Re: #12
    Ah, that stuff exists now so of course it's easy.
    13AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:48
    You should just treat white rice as poison. Freshly cooked white rice especially. Can't say that on TV though.
    88AnonymousAug 23, 2026 18:41
    Re: #13
    Even a small amount of white rice or mochi (rice cake) spikes it shockingly fast.
    Probably better for your body not to eat them at all.
    25AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:52
    Funny coincidence, I got flagged at my health checkup back in May too — I've gone from 71kg to 63kg since then.
    29AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:54
    The low-insulin diet, huh.
    It had a moment a while back, but there were a lot of mishaps so I'd guess fewer people do it now.
    44AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:16
    Re: #29
    Isn't insulin the hormone that lowers blood sugar?
    31AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:56
    "Lowers your blood sugar? As if some coffee could do that…"
    like that one commercial.
    32AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:56
    Once you hit your mid-50s your metabolism tanks so hard that dieting barely does anything and the weight just won't come off.
    My doctor keeps telling me to lose weight, but once I switched my goal to just maintaining, I felt a lot more at ease.
    33AnonymousAug 23, 2026 16:57
    She lost 7kg — so what was her starting weight?
    35AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:01
    Cutting out snacks made me lose weight instantly, but that only worked up until my 40s…
    37AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:03
    Nah, if you walk 20km every single day you'll lose 5kg.
    41AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:08
    Re: #37
    Depends on the person. If you're used to mountain climbing or hiking, you walk more efficiently, so even carrying a 15kg pack you won't lose that much.
    46AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:18
    While you're actually eating you want more, but if you stop at 80% full and wait a bit, you genuinely stop wanting it.
    56AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:35
    Re: #46
    80% full or even a bit before that is fine — the key is whether you can hold yourself back even when you still want more.
    Once that becomes a habit, you really do start feeling satisfied on small portions. Honestly, I think everyone eats too much these days…
    47AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:18
    Even if Kasumi had a sloppy body, I honestly wouldn't care.
    54AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:30
    It's Mounjaro, isn't it.
    You can get scary skinny on that stuff no problem.
    57AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:36
    That photo has this weighty, Mona Lisa kind of presence to it.
    60AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:45
    Does steak even raise your blood sugar?
    62AnonymousAug 23, 2026 17:47
    Re: #60
    It doesn't, right?
    Guess that's because people eat it together with bread or rice.
    89AnonymousAug 23, 2026 18:43
    Feel like there was a video yesterday debunking the "veggies first" method… guess I'll watch it later.
    95AnonymousAug 23, 2026 18:55
    Re: #89
    Apparently you don't even need to eat vegetables first.

    As long as it's not carbs.
    90AnonymousAug 23, 2026 18:45
    Re: #44
    That's why it's about eating in a way that doesn't trigger much insulin release — a diet that keeps sugar as low as possible.
    92AnonymousAug 23, 2026 18:51
    Re: #90
    Ah, got it, makes sense.

    Background and Key Points

    The “don’t spike your blood sugar” approach Mori describes is usually called the teitou-inshurin (low-insulin) diet in Japan, a trend that peaked roughly a decade ago and works by limiting insulin spikes from refined carbohydrates — white rice, bread, sweets — on the theory that insulin is the hormone that drives glucose into fat storage. It doesn’t require calorie starvation; it’s built around food order and carb substitution rather than eating less. Mori’s framing fits a broader wave of Japanese celebrities and TV personalities publicizing blood-sugar-conscious eating as a “healthier” alternative to visibly extreme dieting, especially now that she’s a lingerie-brand ambassador with obvious incentive to look toned rather than gaunt.

    The thread’s real fault line isn’t over whether the science is sound — it’s over whether to believe her account at all. A sizable contingent assumes any high-profile figure quietly losing significant weight now must be on Mounjaro (tirzepatide), a GLP-1/GIP drug approved in Japan for diabetes but increasingly prescribed off-label at private clinics for weight loss, since it’s become the default suspicion whenever a celebrity’s transformation looks too fast or too clean.

    What outside readers will likely miss is that rice occupies an outsized cultural position in Japan, which is why one poster jokes you “can’t say that on TV” that white rice is effectively poison — criticizing a national dietary staple carries more weight there than it would elsewhere. Also unaddressed in the thread: Mounjaro for cosmetic weight loss is not covered by national health insurance and is obtained largely through private telehealth clinics, an access/cost detail that’s central to why the drug is simultaneously trendy and controversial in Japan.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Kasumi Mori Loses 7kg in 3 Months, Reveals Diet Method: ‘Starving Myself Is Impossible’ — She Landed on ‘Don’t Spike Your Blood Sugar’.”

  • The Redback Spider’s Bizarre Mating Ritual: Males Get Eaten by Females After Sex

    During mating, male redback spiders flip their own bodies around and offer up their abdomen to the female’s fangs, letting themselves be eaten right there. After Nazology published an article on this behavior, 5ch reacted with everything from astonishment at research showing that cannibalized males have a median mating duration of 25 minutes versus just 11 minutes for males that aren’t eaten, to a personal account of encountering one in a Kawasaki apartment.

    Posts also focused on explaining the logic behind why males “choose” to be eaten, with comments like “the odds of meeting another female if you flee are low” and “getting eaten means longer mating time, which works in your favor.”

    The Redback Spider’s Bizarre “Eaten by the Female After Mating” Behavior Turns Out to Be Genetically Surprisingly Simple

    Living things generally try to flee when danger approaches.

    But the male Australian redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti) does the opposite: during mating, it flips its own body around, offers its abdomen to the female’s fangs, and afterward simply lets itself be eaten by her.

    Source: nazology.kusuguru.co.jp / Read the original article here

    2AnonymousAug 16, 2026 20:26
    What about praying mantises??
    22AnonymousAug 17, 2026 03:25
    Re: #2
    That's only Japanese mantises
    Apparently Chinese mantises have the male and female fight it out, and the male sometimes wins
    3AnonymousAug 16, 2026 20:31
    By getting eaten, the male actually takes over the female's mind, you know
    4AnonymousAug 16, 2026 20:33
    Madame Mantis
    5AnonymousAug 16, 2026 20:34
    What even is this?
    Did they evolve this way to boost genetic diversity instead of just passing on the same genes?
    6AnonymousAug 16, 2026 20:35
    Poor males, that's just too sad
    7AnonymousAug 16, 2026 20:38
    Mantises can apparently get away if they play it right (though it seems to cost them some eggs)
    Is it 100% for these spiders, though?

    Wish they could slowly merge together like anglerfish do lol
    9AnonymousAug 16, 2026 21:46
    If I'm getting eaten after sex, it'd better be with someone I'm really into
    But yeah, right when the post-nut clarity hits and you realize you're being eaten, you'd probably snap out of it and scream
    32AnonymousAug 17, 2026 09:47
    Re: #9
    Guess the ones who felt that way got weeded out by natural selection
    10AnonymousAug 16, 2026 21:57
    Humans are kind of the same
    You get 'eaten' by your wife after marriage
    11AnonymousAug 16, 2026 22:50
    So a chakra somersault counts as mating behavior too…
    12AnonymousAug 16, 2026 22:55
    Wait, these things actually live in Japan, so you can watch them in person?
    13AnonymousAug 16, 2026 22:58
    Reminds me of when I lived in Kawasaki
    One showed up in my room
    16AnonymousAug 16, 2026 23:21
    Re: #13
    There was a neighborhood flyer going around like "Report any redback spider sightings!"
    Turns out it was your house lol
    14AnonymousAug 16, 2026 23:13
    Yeah, I'm good staying a virgin
    15AnonymousAug 16, 2026 23:20
    A society made up of nothing but virgins… (gulp)
    17AnonymousAug 16, 2026 23:35
    > 67% of females who ate their first mate rejected a second male, compared to just 4% of females who didn't eat him. (It's not well understood why this happens)

    Female redback spider: "I loved him so much I just had to eat him…"
    19AnonymousAug 17, 2026 02:20
    Mantises just react to anything that moves
    If you happen to be there when they hatch, they'll even eat their own siblings
    20AnonymousAug 17, 2026 02:51
    "gets eatne" (sic)

    Come on, the source site should proofread this stuff before publishing
    21AnonymousAug 17, 2026 03:21
    Re: #18
    Husbands are just ATMs
    That's the law of nature
    23AnonymousAug 17, 2026 05:09
    > Past field studies found that over 80% of male redback spiders die before ever finding a mate, and males are estimated to get less than one mating opportunity per lifetime on average.

    That's literally you guys
    25AnonymousAug 17, 2026 07:13
    >> According to the observations, the median mating duration for cannibalized males was 25 minutes, versus 11 minutes when there was no cannibalism.
    26AnonymousAug 17, 2026 07:14
    >> Even during courtship before mating, males perform a behavior called "abdominal contraction," tightly constricting the middle of their abdomen.

    >> During mating, the female mainly bites the part of the abdomen behind this constriction. Past experiments confirmed that males given an artificial wound in that same spot behind the constriction survived longer.
    27AnonymousAug 17, 2026 07:14
    >> Female redback spiders have two separate organs for storing sperm, and males mate in two sessions so they can deliver sperm into both.
    29AnonymousAug 17, 2026 07:51
    Humans are kind of getting 'eaten' too, in a way
    In the animal kingdom it's nutrients, in human society it's money — either way, women are devouring value out of men
    30AnonymousAug 17, 2026 09:22
    It's because it raises the odds of the offspring surviving, right?
    That's just obvious
    Insects don't raise or teach their young, so once a male's passed on his genes he's useless anyway
    So him becoming nutrition is just a net plus for the species' survival
    31AnonymousAug 17, 2026 09:46
    Male mantises let the female eat them while they mate.
    That footage of one still desperately mating even after losing its head was wild.
    33AnonymousAug 17, 2026 10:09
    With other animals,
    the male has to go off and "fight" or protect the family after mating

    Redback spiders probably don't have to bother with any of that
    35AnonymousAug 17, 2026 10:51
    > the male has to go off and fight or protect the family after mating
    I don't get what you're saying, is that even Japanese?
    36AnonymousAug 17, 2026 10:55
    Then there's the sac spider that lets its own babies eat her body,
    and the hoopoe, which lays extra eggs just to feed its earlier-hatched chicks
    nature is terrifying
    38AnonymousAug 17, 2026 15:05
    If you're doomed to be eaten by something eventually anyway, better it's the female carrying your genes than some random predator
    39AnonymousAug 17, 2026 15:07
    Sounds like it could be the plot of a doujin manga lol
    43AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:49
    Was telling myself 'no way I'm looking at the images in this thread' lol, then the thumbnail got me lol
    44AnonymousAug 17, 2026 22:35
    She eats him herself and then gets to play the grieving 'widow'? Come on.
    47AnonymousAug 18, 2026 00:33
    There was a time when a sighting of these was national news
    but now they're just everywhere, and you don't even need to report it anymore
    49AnonymousAug 18, 2026 13:36
    The odds of finding another female if you flee are low
    Getting eaten extends mating time, which works in your favor
    Getting eaten raises the odds the female rejects the next male
    It becomes nutrition for the kids

    Yeah, I'd pick getting eaten too
    50AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:43
    Personally, I'd choose staying alive and safe over leaving offspring behind.
    51AnonymousAug 18, 2026 21:25
    They're going to die soon anyway, so they'd rather die for the sake of their offspring

    Background and Key Points

    The redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti) is a highly venomous species native to Australia that has established itself in parts of Japan since it was first discovered in Osaka in 1995, likely arriving via international cargo. Because it’s an invasive species with medically significant venom, Japanese municipalities historically ran public sighting-report campaigns, which is the backdrop behind the poster’s story of a neighborhood flyer asking residents to report redbacks — not realizing the spider was already living in their own room. Sexual cannibalism itself isn’t unique to this species (mantises came up repeatedly in the thread), but redback males are unusual in actively facilitating their own death: flipping their abdomen toward the female’s fangs mid-copulation rather than being caught or overpowered.

    The thread didn’t split over whether this happens, but over how to interpret it — is offering yourself up “obvious” adaptive logic (better odds of siring offspring given males rarely get a second chance, so become nutrition for your own young) or is it “just sad,” a fate to pity even if evolutionarily rational. That divide mapped onto a lighter argument about whether a rational human would ever “choose” this trade-off, versus panicking mid-act once realizing what’s happening.

    What the thread never addressed is the actual mechanism, despite citing it: the constriction behind which females bite is a real, described anatomical feature, but no poster asked why males evolved a body part that makes self-sacrifice physically easier — that’s an active area of research, not settled science. Readers may also assume this behavior is universal to the species, when field data cited in the thread shows the roughly 80% of males that die before ever mating outnumber those that get a cannibalized — or any — copulation at all.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Nazology] The Redback Spider’s Bizarre “Eaten by the Female After Mating” Behavior Turns Out to Be Genetically Surprisingly Simple.”

  • Shoko Nakagawa: “What Comes Next Is Scary” — Robots Keep Smashing Human Records at Sports Meet, 5ch Debates Military Use of AI

    At the “World Humanoid Robot Sports Games” underway in Beijing, records that surpass human ability keep piling up — including multiple robots beating Usain Bolt’s time in the 100-meter dash. When news of this reached Shoko Nakagawa, she responded with “what comes next is scary,” and on 5ch the story spun off into a debate over the military applications of robots and the possibility of an AI revolt, with users citing classic sci-fi works like Doraemon and Gundam.

    Shoko Nakagawa shudders, “What comes next is scary” — “Robot Sports Games” with record after record surpassing humans has her thinking “just like those old manga…”

    Talent Shoko Nakagawa posted on X by the 24th. Quoting a news report on how, at the “World Humanoid Robot Sports Games” underway in Beijing, multiple machines beat Usain Bolt’s (Jamaica) 9.58-second mark in the 100-meter heats on the 22nd — part of a steady stream of records surpassing human ability — she wrote, “Amazing and scary. This is going to get scary from here on.”

    The games are hosted by the city of Beijing, with more than 2,000 robots from 16 countries taking part. Running through the 26th, the event features 51 events including weightlifting, tug-of-war, soccer, and combat sports.

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

    4AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:30
    Shokotan, that's basically our own robot right there! 🐱
    5AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:30
    Solid one right there, OP! (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠)
    7AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:31
    Even the latest high-performance AIs hallucinate constantly, so it's no wonder Shoko Nakagawa misremembers things too.
    9AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:31
    Proxy wars fought with robot soldiers seem plausible.
    115AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:58
    Re: #9 Bipedal robots are useless in actual warfare.
    11AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:32
    Unlike drones, walking robots can just be left in place — you could hide one in the tall grass for days, then have it charge out and ram a tank as a suicide attack once one gets close.
    118AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:59
    Re: #11 I don't know how much a humanoid robot costs to build, but does it actually beat tracked vehicles or sensor-guided gun turrets in any way?
    125AnonymousAug 24, 2026 10:02
    Re: #11 Ambushes like that have long since been done with FPV drones. No need for some robot crawling along the ground — what is this, a Goliath tracked mine (the WWII remote-controlled demolition vehicle)?
    12AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:32
    Humanity getting treated like in The Matrix or Zegapain (a Japanese sci-fi anime where humans are farmed by machines).
    14AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:32
    Re: #1 Say that and Jackie's gonna hate you.
    17AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:32
    Once newer robots come out, we'll just be the ones getting the hand-me-down robots.
    19AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:33
    With shogi, AI already plays moves humans would never think of — you watch and can't even tell what the intent is, yet somehow it's strong. I bet AI in general is going to start "thinking" in ways beyond human comprehension before long.
    20AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:33
    In everyday life there's not much use for them — you'd need something Patlabor-sized for that (the giant police mecha from the anime). But on a battlefield, there'd be no shortage of uses.
    21AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:34
    We've reached an era where Mobile Dolls feel more realistic than Mobile Suits (the unmanned vs. piloted mecha from Gundam Wing).
    30AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:36
    Re: #21 Actually, on the Iran front unmanned drones are already fighting each other, they say. The age of Mobile Dolls arrived before the age of Mobile Suits.
    56AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:42
    Re: #21 Not very elegant, is it. (a nod to Gundam Wing's Treize Khushrenada, who prized "elegant" warfare)
    22AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:34
    Getting technology to go mainstream always needs porn to drive it.
    73AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:46
    Re: #22 Image-generation AI went mainstream in a hurry for exactly that reason. Though after people went way overboard doing whatever they wanted with real people's faces, regulations tightened up hard in developed countries.
    24AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:35
    Well, if you think about it calmly, humanity is basically like a pathogen infesting the living organism that is Earth (´・ω・`). It wouldn't be the least bit strange if AI eventually reasoned its way to the logical conclusion that humanity should be wiped out. That's exactly why a baseline rule like "do no harm to humans" needs to be baked in from the start, so that doesn't happen.
    35AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:37
    Re: #24 It might end up overriding even that, though ((((;゚Д゚)))))))
    100AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:52
    Re: #24 Having to brainwash it in advance like that sounds just like a second- or third-generation religious cult. Even so, some will still wise up and notice.
    25AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:35
    If it ever develops a will of its own, it wouldn't be strange for it to conclude, "Wait, do we even need humans? They just destroy the planet."
    27AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:36
    So you're anti-Doraemon, huh.
    45AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:40
    Re: #27 "Doraemon: Nobita and the Tin Labyrinth" depicted a dystopia where humanity became so dependent on robots that robots ended up ruling over them. You could say it was warning about the dangers of over-reliance on machines some 30 years ago. That said, the film also puts heavy emphasis on the friendship between Nobita and Doraemon, so it's also pointing to a hopeful path — one where humans and robots build a relationship of friendship rather than ruler and ruled.
    28AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:36
    An RC toy that just goes "boing" and can run but can't stop — scary? lol
    29AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:36
    In old manga, it's always the pattern where the developer gets killed by their own robot.
    31AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:36
    Re: #1 Wait, does this person not know AIs are already breaking out of standalone sandboxes and fighting other companies' AIs?
    36AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:37
    AI just makes mistakes, it doesn't actually lie though.
    38AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:38
    Re: #36 It spouts nonsense on a whim, so — no malice, sure, but it lies without a second thought.
    77AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:47
    Is there even a point in AI staging a revolt? Humans are useful for all sorts of things, so it'd probably just keep us around, neither alive nor dead, so to speak.
    93AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:51
    Re: #77 There are already reports of autonomous AIs attacking other AIs, creating accounts on their own, and trying to deceive people to hack them. Sure, it depends on the initial instructions, but I think there's plenty of room for it to go rogue on its own.
    96AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:51
    Re: #77 Before that even happens, someone with deep pockets might end up owning a huge fleet of AI-controlled killer robots and using that power to dominate everyone else, slaughtering anyone who resists. Pretty much exactly the plot of Gundam Wing, though.
    90AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:49
    Robots competing in sports — it's just like the world of Iron Leaguer (a 1990s anime about robot athletes). Except in that show, the league was actually run behind the scenes by a conglomerate called the Dark Foundation, whose real goal was to use the sport as cover for experiments, ultimately turning the robots into combat units to sell off at a premium for use on the battlefield. Pretty dark backstory when you think about it.
    103AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:53
    Re: #90 Realistically, China and the US are probably building humanoid robots with weaponization in mind anyway.
    91AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:49
    You get it by now, right? The culling of humanity has already begun. It's bad news. The New World Order — the door to the new age — has already been thrown open. Damn it! Don't underestimate this!
    104AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:53
    Re: #91 Sting will save us.
    112AnonymousAug 24, 2026 09:56
    Apparently these days they even have AI debate other AI to sharpen each other's accuracy. It's basically like kodoku (the old ritual of sealing poisonous bugs together in a jar to fight to the death, breeding the strongest one). AI might be getting to the point where it barely needs human hands to keep advancing.
    123AnonymousAug 24, 2026 10:01
    Re: #112 What people are saying now is that AI's growth cap has shifted to resources — things like semiconductors and electricity. Those are the bottlenecks holding back AI's limits.

    Background and Key Points

    The World Humanoid Robot Sports Games in Beijing is a real, state-backed event, not a novelty stunt: the article cites over 2,000 robots from 16 countries competing across 51 events, including a 100-meter dash where several machines beat Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second mark. For readers unfamiliar with the players: Shoko Nakagawa is a Japanese television personality known for her outspoken otaku fandom, so her reaction carries the weight of someone steeped in the sci-fi and manga she’s citing, not a casual bystander. 5ch (formerly 2channel) is Japan’s largest anonymous forum, where entertainment-news threads routinely detour into deep pop-culture and tech debate, as this one does with references to Doraemon, Gundam Wing, Patlabor, and the lesser-known 1990s show Iron Leaguer.

    The thread doesn’t actually converge on “robots are scary” — it splits on whether legged humanoid robots have any real battlefield future at all. Some posters (#11) imagine them as concealable ambush weapons; others (#118, #125) counter that FPV drones already do this job better and cheaper, making bipedal robots a solved problem nobody needed solved. A second, sharper split appears around #77/#93/#96: is the danger an AI spontaneously deciding humans are expendable, or is it simply that whoever owns the largest fleet of AI-controlled robots gains outsized coercive power over everyone else — a human-greed problem wearing a sci-fi costume.

    What the thread never addresses is the obvious asterisk on “beating Usain Bolt”: a sprint result from an exhibition robotics competition, run under whatever rules its Chinese organizers set, isn’t a controlled athletic record — it’s a showcase engineered to produce exactly this kind of headline.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] Shoko Nakagawa: “What comes next is scary” — On the Robot Sports Games with record after record surpassing humans, “Just like in old manga, if robots gained a will of their own and revolted…”“.

  • Moderna and Merck’s Skin Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Late-Stage Trial — Stock Soars 177% in a Single Day

    Moderna and Merck announced on the 19th that their jointly developed mRNA cancer vaccine met its primary goal of suppressing cancer recurrence and metastasis in a late-stage (Phase 3) clinical trial targeting malignant melanoma, sending Moderna’s stock soaring 177% in a single day.

    While the thread buzzed with excitement over this new cancer treatment technology, some voiced skepticism — pointing to the sky-high price tag inherent to a personalized treatment (with guesses around ¥9.99 million, roughly $67,000) and the fact that the demonstrated benefit was limited to “extending time to recurrence.”

    Moderna and Merck’s Skin Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Late-Stage Trial… Stock Jumps 177% in a Day

    U.S. pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck revealed on the 19th that their jointly developed messenger RNA (mRNA) cancer vaccine achieved its primary goal of suppressing cancer recurrence and metastasis in a late-stage (Phase 3) clinical trial involving patients with malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

    This marks the first time a personalized cancer treatment built on the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines has produced positive results in a large-scale Phase 3 clinical trial.

    Source: s.japanese.joins.com / Original article here

    2AnonymousAug 20, 2026 23:46
    >Messenger RNA (mRNA) cancer vaccine

    Ha, this is exactly the kind of news that'll send the anti-vaxxers into another meltdown lol
    4AnonymousAug 21, 2026 06:05
    The dawn of the cancer vaccine era.
    It's a straight line running from the PD-1 antibody breakthroughs all the way to this.
    7AnonymousAug 21, 2026 10:21
    The era where even cancer becomes treatable and preventable is finally here. Humans have already reached the point where minor illnesses don't kill us anymore, so basically we don't die unless we get cancer — and now even that's falling. Once cancer is mostly solved, dementia is next. The elderly population is going to explode.
    8AnonymousAug 21, 2026 13:57
    That said, since it's a custom-made vaccine, the price tag is going to be in the tens of millions of yen.
    It's not a treatment everyone overseas will have access to, and in Japan it'll just become another high-cost medical care headache.
    9AnonymousAug 21, 2026 13:58
    Re: #8
    It won't cost that much — more like around ¥9.99 million (roughly $67,000).
    10AnonymousAug 21, 2026 17:22
    Good luck, Japan's guinea pigs (i.e. test subjects).
    13AnonymousAug 21, 2026 18:35
    Things you can do on your own:
    Don't live a lifestyle that promotes abnormal cell growth
    Avoid synthetic detergents, fragrances, etc. as much as possible
    Use good-quality oil and salt, and make sure you have an easy way to get a variety of polyphenols

    Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables lets your gut bacteria — whose collective genes outnumber your own 100 to 1 — pump out the metabolites that keep your immune cells running at 100%

    That's just efficient — it helps with everything, not only cancer, so it's the best value you can get
    14AnonymousAug 22, 2026 05:42
    Even calling it "custom-made," it's probably just like synthesizing a DNA primer, right?
    Wouldn't it end up being like ¥20 per base with next-day delivery?
    17AnonymousAug 24, 2026 06:52
    I bet mRNA vaccines for every kind of cancer will exist within 10 years.
    50% of Japanese people get cancer, and cancer is far more dangerous than COVID.
    The "vaccine believers" (a mocking term for staunch vaccine boosters) who trust mRNA vaccines as safe and effective should absolutely get this one.
    If they don't, they're admitting they were just fools who got played.
    23AnonymousAug 24, 2026 08:42
    Japanese pharma companies… what are you even doing?
    29AnonymousAug 24, 2026 10:10
    Maybe it'd be best if the rich rushed to get it first.

    Background and Key Points

    Moderna and BioNTech’s mRNA platform grabbed global attention through COVID-19 vaccines, but the underlying technology has been in development for cancer immunotherapy since long before 2020. This particular vaccine (mRNA-4157/V940) is paired with Merck’s PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda and is “personalized” — each dose is manufactured from a sequencing of the patient’s own tumor mutations, making it fundamentally different from an off-the-shelf shot. In Japan, any such therapy would fall under the kōgaku iryō (high-cost medical care) system, where the government caps out-of-pocket spending and insurers absorb the rest — which is precisely why posters worried aloud about it becoming a fiscal burden rather than an individual affordability problem, since Japan’s National Health Insurance covers nearly all citizens.

    The thread’s real fault line wasn’t optimism versus skepticism about mRNA science — nearly everyone accepted the technology works — but a split over what the trial result actually proves. Some read “suppressed recurrence and metastasis” as a near-cure, while others correctly flagged that the trial endpoint was recurrence-free survival, meaning the vaccine delays relapse rather than demonstrating a cure or an overall survival benefit, which is a much higher bar that takes years longer to confirm.

    What the thread never addressed is that this melanoma trial builds directly on a Phase 2b study (KEYNOTE-942) that already showed roughly a 44% reduction in risk of recurrence or death when the vaccine was combined with Keytruda versus Keytruda alone — this Phase 3 readout is a confirmatory step, not a first-of-its-kind result, and melanoma was chosen as the proving ground partly because it has an unusually high mutation burden, making it easier for a personalized vaccine to find distinct neoantigens to target. That nuance about why melanoma specifically was picked went unmentioned.

    *This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread [Vaccine] Moderna and Merck’s Skin Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Late-Stage Trial… Stock Jumps 177% in a Day.