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  • Matsumoto Hitoshi Gets Second Helpings of Curry at Yoshimoto’s Staff Cafeteria — 5ch: ‘This Is the Guy Who Thinks Instant Noodles Are a Feast’

    During a livestream on the paid platform “DOWNTOWN+,” Matsumoto Hitoshi visited the staff cafeteria at Yoshimoto Kogyo’s Tokyo headquarters and went back for a second helping of the famous “Yoshimoto Curry,” raving about it. On 5ch, reactions to the food report itself mixed with judgments about Matsumoto’s past conduct and public image, stirring up a lively mix of praise and criticism.

    August 24, 2026, 18:36

    “Dow-Plunch!!,” a segment on “DOWNTOWN+,” the paid platform that streams Downtown’s content, broadcast live on the 24th from “Munch Lunch,” the staff cafeteria at Yoshimoto Kogyo’s Tokyo headquarters.

    This time they sampled the signature “Yoshimoto Curry,” which had already become a talking point on the show. Matsumoto, stopping by the cafeteria, ordered the “fried stuffed green pepper.” At the self-service counter he also picked up miso soup and pickles, plus — the real target of the visit — a separate plate of curry.

    Source: sponichi.co.jp / Read the original article here

    3AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:51
    He's the guy who thinks a cup of Donbei (instant udon noodles) counts as a feast, after all.
    76AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:08
    Re: #3
    That was fast lol
    Beat me to it lol
    110AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:20
    Re: #3
    Donbei and Green Tanuki are both delicious though. (both instant noodle brands)
    150AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:35
    Re: #3
    Guess he'll never live this down now.
    Well, he's always played up being poor anyway.
    7AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:52
    Captain Aki's out there grinding away in Shin-kigeki too~ (Yoshimoto's stage comedy troupe)
    Hurry back already
    226AnonymousAug 24, 2026 20:03
    Re: #7
    Not trying to troll here, but I genuinely
    don't get what's funny about that guy.
    He's kind of scary, like a yakuza or something.

    For the record though, I love Suchiko
    10AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:54
    He should just be allowed back on network TV already
    15AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:54
    This is a guy who sits in a hotel suite eating Donbei going 'mmm, so good.'
    22AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:56
    Re: #15
    Probably bad for his gut too.
    56AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:05
    A bunch of people who complain about literally everything
    58AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:06
    "What's so funny about watching something that lame?" — Matsumoto Hitoshi
    70AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:07
    Re: #58
    And now he's literally doing that exact thing himself, so it's not funny.
    Pathetic, Matsu-chan.
    63AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:06
    This upbeat, breezy vibe has a real touch of melancholy to it — that's what makes it interesting.
    Wish he'd be this active on network TV again, like back in his "Wide Na Show" heyday.
    65AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:06
    Anyway, monthly revenue's supposedly 500 million yen & Gabbana
    81AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:11
    Re: #65
    No way that's true lol, how long are you gonna
    keep buying that Nakanishi guy's delusional claims?
    75AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:08
    The talent to be stingy even with women and still never get sued for it
    80AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:10
    Re: #75
    He's already been branded a sexual predator and dragged through the mud more than enough as it is.
    92AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:15
    Has anything actually funny come out of this?
    Not a segment where people try to crack Matsumoto up —
    a segment where Matsumoto cracks US up.
    105AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:18
    Re: #92
    Matsumoto's comedy well ran dry 30 years ago lol
    106AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:19
    Tons of comedians post videos of the Yoshimoto cafeteria and the food genuinely looks pretty good.
    121AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:22
    Re: #106
    They pop it up at events sometimes — I saw a stall at a department store recently.
    122AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:22
    Re: #106
    But regular people can't actually eat there, right?
    Even shown off like this, all I can say is "huh, neat."
    151AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:36

    Just livestream yourself eating Donbei already, Matsumoto
    155AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:38
    It's titled "Downtown" but this is basically Yoshimoto throwing Matsumoto a lifeline since he can't get on TV anymore.
    177AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:43
    Re: #155
    It's basically a living funeral Yoshimoto Kogyo threw for its meritorious contributor Matsumoto Hitoshi.
    180AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:44
    Re: #155
    Matsumoto: "Who told you to take it seriously?!"
    164AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:40

    Even the paying die-hard fans ("Matsu-shin") who tune in are trashing him over this.
    192AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:47
    He got totally crushed in court, kept saying "I just want to get back to comedy already," and this is what he ends up doing — a food review?
    Thoroughly lame.
    Just go eat some Donbei and call it a day.
    224AnonymousAug 24, 2026 20:02
    Re: #192


    Matsumoto's basically an underground talent, a home-shopping talent, and a food-review talent now.

    Background and Key Points

    Yoshimoto Kogyo is Japan’s dominant talent agency, home to most of the country’s comedians, and its Tokyo staff cafeteria — nicknamed for its curry — has long been an insider perk talked up on comedians’ own social media, not a place the public can walk into. Matsumoto Hitoshi is one half of Downtown, the duo who reshaped Japanese TV comedy from the late 1980s onward and became one of the most powerful figures in the industry. In December 2023, a Bunshun exposé alleged sexual misconduct at parties he hosted; he denied it, went on indefinite hiatus from terrestrial broadcasting, and sued for defamation — a suit that has gone badly for him in court, a point posters raise directly. Since then his public presence has shifted to subscription platforms like “DOWNTOWN+,” where this cafeteria segment aired.

    The thread doesn’t really argue about the curry — it’s split on what this format means. One camp reads the cheerful, low-stakes livestream as evidence he’s found a workable post-scandal niche and hopes it’s a step back toward wider exposure; another reads the same footage as proof of how far he’s fallen, mocking him as reduced to home-shopping- and food-review-style content unbecoming of someone who once dominated primetime.

    What outside readers likely miss is the scale of the fall implied here: this isn’t a minor personality doing a cafeteria bit, but arguably the single most influential figure in modern Japanese comedy, now paywalled off mainstream TV entirely, with his legal effort to clear his name having failed rather than vindicated him.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[DOWNTOWN+] Matsumoto Hitoshi has lunch at Yoshimoto’s staff cafeteria, gets seconds on Yoshimoto Curry, raves “delicious,” “the spice level’s just right” during livestream [Ailuropoda melanoleuca★].”

  • SCANDAL to Disband on August 21 Next Year — 5ch Asks: “Why Break Up Now, After 20 Years?”

    The all-female rock band SCANDAL has announced that it will end its activities on August 21, 2027. The members, who were 15 to 18 years old when the band formed, are now 35 to 38. In 2023, they were certified by Guinness World Records for “Longest-running rock band (female) with an unchanged lineup.”

    On the thread, some said they’d never once seen the band on terrestrial TV, while others recalled their Fullmetal Alchemist tie-in song, and many simply expressed shock that the band had lasted 20 years without breaking up.

    SCANDAL Announces It Will End Activities on August 21 Next Year

    The all-female rock band SCANDAL announced on the 24th that it will end its activities on August 21, 2027.

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

    4AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:25
    Never saw them on regular TV even once.
    Is their talent agency weak or something?
    Such a waste of a good band.
    29AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:30
    Re: #4
    They were regulars on the FNS Music Festival for a while.
    A music producer at Fuji TV was a big fan of theirs.
    5AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:25
    A girl band lasting 20 years is pretty impressive, honestly.
    6AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:25
    They're ending activities without ever having an actual scandal? (SCANDAL is also the band's name — a pun)
    7AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:25
    Never ended up listening to a single song of theirs ><
    Probably the band's name put me off ><
    8AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:25
    I love "Shunkan Sentimental" (one of their songs).
    145AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:55
    Re: #8
    Wasn't that the Fullmetal Alchemist tie-in?
    12AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:26
    I still listen to their Fullmetal Alchemist song every once in a while.
    Surprised to hear they were even still active.
    15AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:27
    In 2023 they were certified by Guinness World Records as "Longest-running rock band (female) with an unchanged lineup."
    18AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:27
    Thought "Best House 123" (an old TV show) was giving me nostalgia, but turns out that was Pistol Valve.
    19AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:28
    The "Shoujo S" music video was great.
    Though, well, that's the school-uniform effect talking.
    20AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:28
    Oh wow.
    Still, I'm mainly just shocked they were even still active.
    22AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:28
    None of them ever got married.
    Cutting it pretty close.
    23AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:28
    Wish they'd gone up against an elementary-school girls' band on Kakuzuke Check (the celebrity ranking show) just once.
    26AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:28
    Why'd they pick a vocalist with such an anime-style voice?
    82AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:40
    Re: #26
    Probably because it was the era when bands like Shishamo and Silent Siren were big.
    45AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:33
    The only image I have of them is "the band with the pretty drummer."
    50AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:34
    Re: #45
    I recall the bassist with green hair being cute.
    49AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:33
    At formation: ages 15-18
    Now: ages 35-38
    61AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:36
    Re: #49
    They really stuck it out.
    67AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:37
    Re: #49
    They formed the band that young? They're still plenty young enough to keep going.
    55AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:34
    Good to see they got to wrap up cleanly without any actual scandal.
    66AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:37
    Isn't that right? (unclear/garbled post — meaning uncertain)
    ↓
    133AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:52
    Re: #66
    They changed someone's life — that's amazing. Though I had no clue about any of this until you brought it up, lol.
    101AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:45
    It's impressive for a female band to last 20 years.
    Fans tend to drift toward younger acts too — normally after about 5 years,
    the vocalist either goes solo, or the band quietly disappears after a member's "shotgun marriage" retirement.
    122AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:50
    Re: #101
    Hey now, don't talk trash about Whiteberry.
    125AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:51
    Last week's show at Osaka-jo Hall was their 20th-anniversary live.
    128AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:51
    There was also a band called Silent Siren, right?
    146AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:55
    Re: #128
    Hearing that name, for some reason I think of Tenkaippin (the ramen chain).
    129AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:51
    And here they were the last stronghold of female bands that never broke up…
    143AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:54
    Re: #129
    There's still Shonen Knife and Lolita No.18, you know.
    Though both have had lineup changes.
    158AnonymousAug 24, 2026 20:00
    Re: #129
    There's also BAND-MAID.
    160AnonymousAug 24, 2026 20:01
    That's the real mystery — why break up now, after 20 years?
    163AnonymousAug 24, 2026 20:02
    Re: #160
    Well, if they're not selling, I guess it's just time to call it.

    Background and Key Points

    SCANDAL debuted in 2006 as high schoolers on the Kansai indie circuit before Epic Records signed them, and they built their catalogue through anime tie-ins — “Shunkan Sentimental” for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and “Harukaze” for Bleach among them — plus regular slots on Fuji TV’s FNS Music Festival, which is why some posters recognized the songs without recognizing the band. Their 2023 Guinness certification for “longest-running rock band (female) with an unchanged lineup” is real and matters here: female bands in Japan rarely survive intact past five years, because a member’s marriage or the vocalist’s solo career typically ends things, as posters noted when comparing SCANDAL to Whiteberry. Reaching 20 years with all four original members, now aged 35 to 38, is the actual anomaly the thread is reacting to.

    Where the thread splits is over why the breakup is happening now rather than over whether it’s sad. One camp treats 20 years as a natural, dignified stopping point — “no scandal, clean ending” — while another reads the timing as a sign the band simply stopped selling, closing with the blunt “if they’re not selling, I guess it’s just time to call it.” Neither side offers evidence beyond speculation; SCANDAL’s own statement hasn’t been quoted in the thread.

    What outside readers will likely miss is the mismatch between underground and overground visibility that the thread itself displays: multiple posters insist they never saw SCANDAL on terrestrial TV while others recall Fuji TV festival appearances and a 20th-anniversary show at Osaka-jo Hall, a major arena — meaning the band was commercially significant within music/anime circles despite low mainstream idol-industry visibility, a split common to Japanese rock acts that skip the tarento/variety-show track entirely.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] All-female rock band SCANDAL announces it will end activities on August 21 next year.”

  • Japan to Require Phone-Use and Drowsy-Driving Detection Systems in New Cars from 2031, Transport Ministry Says

    Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has settled on a policy to make “driver monitoring systems” — which detect and warn against smartphone use and drowsy driving — mandatory on new vehicles starting in 2031. Existing models will also be required to comply by 2033.

    On the thread, users debated the price hikes this mandatory equipment will bring, how the rollout compares to Europe and the US, the likely appearance of workaround devices like limiter-bypass tools, and the impact on repair shops.

    Mon, Aug 24, 2:27 PM — Jiji Press

    The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has settled on a policy requiring both domestic and imported vehicles to carry a “driver monitoring system” (DMS) that detects and warns against inattentive driving from smartphone use and drowsy driving.

    This was learned from the ministry on the 24th. A ministerial ordinance will be revised in September, applying the requirement to new models starting in 2031, and by 2033 it will also be mandatory for existing models still in production.

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

    2AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:22
    Cars are gonna get even more expensive.
    17AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:25
    Re: #2
    And if it's broken at inspection time, that could run you ¥500,000 to fix.
    46AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:33
    Re: #2
    Thanks to idiots, the price hikes just won't stop.
    51AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:34
    Oh really?
    What about cars that use "cost cutting" as an excuse to cram in touch panels everywhere, forcing you to fumble with a screen for literally everything?
    Those cars are a hazard on wheels.
    4AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:22
    If all it does is go beep-beep-beep, what's even the point?
    11AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:24
    Re: #4
    Add a shiny new feature and it's the perfect excuse to sell a kei car for ¥3 million.
    105AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:48
    Re: #4
    Honestly wish it'd just zap you with an electric shock.
    128AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:55
    Re: #4
    Shouldn't ignoring it repeatedly get you reported straight to the police?
    8AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:23
    A future where this gets slammed as a non-tariff trade barrier.
    21AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:26
    Re: #8
    Europe's already made it mandatory, and the US is moving toward requiring it too, so Japan's just falling in line.
    60AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:38
    Re: #8
    METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) will obviously be careful to dodge that framing.
    And what does "adopted by the forum" mentioned in the article actually have to do with making it mandatory anyway?
    19AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:26
    (;゚Д゚) Starting in 2031? Talk about zero urgency.
    Start today.
    28AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:29
    Re: #19
    Hey Koro-neko (a well-known 5ch cat-persona poster), do you even drive normally?
    111AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:50
    Re: #19
    That's some foul language for a cat lol
    30AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:29
    Make sure it can contact the police too.
    And if you honk the horn, it should auto-report to the police.
    42AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:32
    Re: #30
    So if some idiot backs out of a convenience store without checking either way and you honk a warning, cops show up every single time?
    Think about the hassle for both sides, genius.
    179AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:06
    Re: #42
    But honking after the other guy's already noticed you is just spite, right?
    If it looks like they're about to pull out, just slow down or stop. What a pain.
    56AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:35
    Makes you wonder what people are even watching while driving.

    The lady who caused that rear-end crash that burst into flames was watching cooking videos, apparently.
    70AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:39
    Re: #56
    Probably some boring YouTube video.
    There are still idiots out there who mount their phone right on the steering wheel to watch stuff.
    80AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:42
    Re: #56
    You're doing the same thing right now browsing 5ch.
    These days humanity's phone IS the main unit — everything else is just an accessory.
    59AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:38
    They should add a license-scanning reader too.
    248AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:23
    Re: #59
    Scanner hardware breaks down easily.
    Fine if you're okay with suddenly being told "you can't drive" because of that.
    93AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:45
    I wonder if there's any incentive for this — like cheaper insurance or a subsidy. If there's nothing, used cars are gonna sell like crazy.
    101AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:47
    Re: #93
    That's exactly what happened in the US.
    If your gaze isn't steady, the engine cuts out on its own or an alarm blares — it's got a terrible reputation.
    117AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:51
    Re: #93
    Probably will happen.

    Though it's more likely your insurance goes UP if you don't have it.
    153AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:59
    Cars are already expensive enough and that's part of why the birthrate's falling — stop tacking on extra features.
    We'll lose in global competition too.
    156AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:00
    Re: #153
    It's being mandated in the EU and the US too, so how would that make us lose lol
    162AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:01
    Re: #156
    The world's biggest auto market is China.
    188AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:08
    Re: #156
    Ordinary people in Europe are also starting to be unable to bear rising car prices.
    Only people who can use company car programs can afford new Western European brand cars.
    For everyone else, new Western European cars are out of reach.
    What people scrape together to buy instead is an Eastern European car or a Chinese one.
    197AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:10
    Re: #188
    It'll be mandatory for Chinese self-driving cars too — it's an international standard adopted by the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP29), so it's being rolled out across EU countries, Eastern Europe included.
    206AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:13
    Re: #197
    China would probably pull it off cheaply with their own tech. A Chinese car might be an option for my next car.
    208AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:14
    Re: #197
    Well, it's clear your Japanese isn't very good.
    203AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:12
    Like these will actually sell.

    Give it a few days and a limiter-bypass device will show up.
    204AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:13
    Re: #203
    Stuff like that deserves harsh punishment.
    Honestly, attempted murder charges would be fine too.
    214AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:15
    Re: #203
    Yeah, it'll show up. Similar devices, like idling-stop cancelers, are already common.
    222AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:17
    So what happens when it detects you're dozing off?
    Does it just slam to a stop?
    229AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:18
    Re: #203
    Subaru, for instance, has had this for 5 years already, and no canceler device has shown up for it, right?
    It's also on the 90-series Noah/Voxy, and I don't think there's a canceler for that either.

    Re: #222
    Some systems sound the horn, flip on the hazards, and pull over to stop.
    Probably depends on the car.
    221AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:17
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQefaK8a0AAcqKM.jpg
    243AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:22
    Because it has to be removed and resynced every single time for maintenance, the job takes way longer than the automaker's estimated labor time. In the US, where this rolled out first, mechanics are quitting in droves and month-long repair waits have become the norm.
    252AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:24
    Re: #243
    Same thing happened with home appliances — used to be repaired, then it became whole-assembly swaps, and eventually it turned into just tossing it and buying new.
    258AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:25
    Re: #243
    You mean like headlight-aiming calibration?
    This is an in-cabin monitor though — is that kind of recalibration actually necessary for it?

    Background and Key Points

    The mandate stems from Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), the body that sets vehicle safety standards through ministerial ordinances tied to Japan’s periodic vehicle inspection (shaken) system — which is why posters worried about a broken sensor costing ¥500,000 at inspection time, not just at purchase. The “driver monitoring system” requirement traces to UN-level vehicle regulations harmonized through the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP29), the same UN body that produced the EU’s Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warning mandate, already in force for new EU type-approvals since July 2024. Seen against that timeline, Japan’s 2031/2033 phase-in is not Japan leading the world, as some posters implied, but Japan catching up roughly seven years after Europe.

    The thread’s real fault line wasn’t whether monitoring itself is a good idea — almost no one defended distracted driving — but whether mandating the hardware is the right lever, given it will raise new-car prices in a market posters already see as squeezed, versus stricter enforcement or penalties for offenders instead.

    What the thread never resolves is the maintenance question it raises: in-cabin monitoring units reportedly require removal and resyncing during unrelated repairs, a burden posters compared to US mechanics quitting over long DMS turnaround times, but nobody in the thread cites Japanese repair-industry data on whether that bottleneck would actually materialize here. Also worth noting: Subaru’s own driver-monitoring camera, cited by one poster as having run five years without a “canceler” device appearing, undercuts the thread’s repeated prediction that bypass tools are inevitable.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “Inattentive/drowsy driving detection to become mandatory — MLIT policy to apply to new vehicles from 2031.”

  • 7-Eleven to Cut Prices on Two Hand-Rolled Onigiri by ¥19 Starting September 8

    7-Eleven announced that starting September 8, it will cut prices on two of its signature hand-rolled onigiri, “Charcoal-Grilled Silver Salmon” and “Loaded Spicy Mentaiko,” from ¥232 to ¥213. On the thread, some suspected collusion after Lawson and FamilyMart cut prices around the same time, while others pointed out that the price cut seems small given how much wholesale rice prices have fallen, sparking a lively comparison with specialty chains like Omusubi Gonbei.

    Seven-Eleven Japan will cut prices on two of its flagship hand-rolled onigiri starting September 8. The “Hand-Rolled Onigiri: Charcoal-Grilled Silver Salmon” and another item are included, with prices dropping by ¥19. The company lowered prices by cutting procurement costs for ingredients and other raw materials as well as shipping costs.

    The prices of “Hand-Rolled Onigiri: Charcoal-Grilled Silver Salmon” and “Hand-Rolled Onigiri: Loaded Spicy Mentaiko” will drop from ¥232 to ¥213 (tax included). The cut comes without any change to the amount of filling or product specifications.

    (Continued at the link below)

    Source: nikkei.com / Original article here

    2AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:06
    LAWSON said they were cutting prices, so 7-Eleven scrambled to follow suit
    155AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:25
    Re: #2
    Yeah, because Lawson did it first
    193AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:29
    Re: #2
    7-Eleven can only ever follow Lawson's lead
    10AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:07
    Why does everyone just fall in line the moment one company moves?
    Japanese corporations are seriously so laaame (drawn out in a mocking sing-song tone, like "kiii-moooi~")!
    55AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:14
    Re: #10
    Yeah, Japan gets called out by other countries for collusion all the time.

    It's probably just baked into the national character at this point.
    A "collusion mentality."

    No wonder China's overtaking us.
    38AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:12
    46AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:12
    What kind of illusion are they gonna pull off this time?
    50AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:13
    Yeah, rice has actually gotten cheaper, so it's weird prices aren't dropping more than this
    57AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:14
    Re: #50
    Onigiri shot up from over ¥200 to over ¥300 in no time.
    They jacked the price up, but the cut back down is only token.
    51AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:13
    Onigiri could still sell for ¥100 even today, right?
    Charging ¥200 is just a rip-off.
    69AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:16
    By the way, that seaweed is actually printed on.

    89AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:17
    Re: #69
    For stuff that loses flavor when microwaved, I can sort of understand printing it on for the sake of color, if I'm being super generous.
    But this nori is just malicious.
    71AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:16
    They got greedy and hiked prices when rice got expensive,
    so now that rice prices have come back down and they're cutting prices again,
    the customers who left aren't coming back lol
    83AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:17
    Re: #71
    That's exactly the point, and yet there's something off about them acting all sincere over such a tiny price cut.
    96AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:18
    7-Eleven really puts in the corporate effort, huh.
    I'm impressed every time I look at their products.
    Not buying them though.
    115AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:21
    Re: #96
    Same here.
    There's a real sense of quality to it.

    Not buying it though lol
    114AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:20
    Well, even if rice gets cheaper, naphtha prices are up, so packaging costs have gone up too.
    Supermarket natto has gone up more than ¥10 on average and it's not coming back down either.
    123AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:22
    Re: #114
    I was shocked when ¥64 natto became ¥84.
    Of course, I know things are tough all around so I'm not complaining, and I'll still buy it, but still…
    124AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:22
    I'll just buy fresh new-crop rice myself, no offense
    143AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:24
    Re: #124
    Right? 5kg of rice is under ¥3,000 now, so there's no way I'm paying ¥200 for an onigiri.
    169AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:27
    Re: #143
    I've been eating oddly-flavored stockpiled rice, so I'm actually kind of looking forward to it (referring to government emergency reserve rice)
    125AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:22
    Is there some kind of cartel going on here or what?
    135AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:23
    Re: #125
    There's probably some consultant's template they're all following, that's why the moves are so sluggish.
    156AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:25
    The line at Omusubi Gonbei is insane — you can get onigiri thicker than convenience store ones starting at ¥130.
    215AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:31
    Re: #156
    Yeah, they're bigger with way more filling, and the price is basically the same as convenience store onigiri.
    175AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:27
    Onigiri price-cut roundup
    Supreme God: FamilyMart — ¥22 off
    God: 7-Eleven — ¥19 off
    Scrub: Lawson — ¥10 off
    Our enemy: 5kg rice — only ¥1,300 off
    180AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:28
    Re: #175
    You should've written: "Total scrub: 7-Eleven, only 2 items"
    200AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:30
    Re: #175
    W-wait, what about MiniStop? Isn't MiniStop cutting prices?
    250AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:34
    Japan Meat (supermarket chain)
    Fukui-grown Koshihikari rice, ¥1,999


    262AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:35
    Kansai region

    New-crop rice, 5kg for ¥1,980


    263AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:35
    Correction
    Convenience store onigiri price-cut roundup

    Supreme God: FamilyMart — ¥22 off, ¥320→¥298, 1 item
    God: 7-Eleven — ¥19 off, ¥232→¥213, 2 items
    Scrub: Lawson — ¥10 off, ¥181→¥171, 2 items

    Bonus
    Our enemy: 5kg rice — only ¥1,300 off
    273AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:36
    Re: #263
    All three of them are scrubs, aren't they
    284AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:37
    Re: #263
    Wait, the others are only 2 items or 1 item too?
    269AnonymousAug 24, 2026 19:36
    Don Quijote (discount store)

    New-crop Koshihikari rice, ¥2,299

    Background and Key Points

    Onigiri prices at Japan’s three big convenience-store chains — 7-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart — control a huge share of daily food retail in Japan, and their pricing moves in near lockstep because all three source rice through similar wholesale supply chains and watch each other’s shelf prices closely. Rice costs spiked sharply over the past couple of years, and 7-Eleven had pushed its hand-rolled onigiri from just over ¥200 to over ¥300 at points during that run-up before settling near ¥232. With wholesale rice prices now falling — 5kg bags are widely available for under ¥2,000-2,300, as posters’ screenshots showed — chains are under pressure to pass savings back to customers, and 7-Eleven’s ¥19 cut (to ¥213, on just two items) is being framed as a token gesture rather than a real correction.

    The thread’s real fault line wasn’t whether the cut was good news, but why all three chains moved at once and whether that reflects informal price coordination (“dango” / cartel-like behavior) versus simple market mimicry in a tight oligopoly. Some posters treated the near-simultaneous cuts as evidence of a “collusion mentality” they see as a broader flaw in Japanese corporate culture; others pushed back that it’s just competitors reacting to each other’s public price moves, which is legal and common anywhere retail margins are thin.

    What the thread glosses over is scale: convenience-store onigiri pricing bundles in far more than raw rice — packaging (petrochemical-based, so naphtha costs matter), logistics, printed-nori inserts, and retail markup on a single-serving impulse item, versus buying loose rice in bulk. That’s also why direct comparisons to bagged rice or to specialty rice-ball chains like Omusubi Gonbei, which have different cost structures and thicker margins per unit sold, aren’t quite apples-to-apples, even though several posters treated them as such.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “7-Eleven to Cut Onigiri Prices in September: ‘Lowering Prices by Reducing Raw Material Procurement and Shipping Costs’”.

  • Priconne Finally Adds ‘Individual Route’ After 8.5 Years — Fans Rejoice, 5ch Asks ‘Wait, People Are Picking the Cow and the Alpaca?’

    A casual chat thread on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyou G” (Live Anything G) board. The main topic was the “individual route” scene — finally letting players pick just one girl — added to the mobile game Priconne after eight and a half years; when a tweet introducing it got posted, the thread lit up with comments like “So glad I stuck with this game all this time.”

    Alongside that, trivia about Kagawa Prefecture, vtuber fan art, and anime chatter kept flowing in, true to the scattershot nature of a live chat thread.

    7AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:49
    Kanata-tan will be the judge






    Kukoha is…… a trap🙅
    10AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:50
    Glad I was born in Kagawa Prefecture👊😅👊
    12AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:52
    Re: #10
    Universally hated trash anime
    22AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:55
    Glad I was born in Kagawa Prefecture👊😅👊
    https://hisshobon.com/sys/wp-content/uploads/data_mmgate_machine_4767_yuyuyu7500_kitaido_16.jpg
    26AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:56
    Gonna eat the octopus, nyaa~?
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQc1q3makAE8glz.jpg
    28AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:56
    Re: #26
    Nnasshoi!🍄💦
    40AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:57
    Re: #26
    Nnapai!😍
    29AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:56
    Whaddaya call this thing?!
    31AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:56
    Re: #29
    Bun bun buuun!🐧
    36AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:57
    Re: #31
    Kon koko konkonko konkonkon✊
    37AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:57
    Re: #31
    Unchapuryapurya!
    55AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:59
    What's the song in the thread title?
    59AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:59
    Re: #55
    Today's ending theme from 'Kyou no Go-no-Ni' (Class 5-2)
    61AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:59
    Re: #55
    The ending theme from 'Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day'
    66AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:00
    Re: #55
    You don't know 'Kids War'? What kind of fake fan are you?
    57AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:59
    Nice vibes in here — dropping a Hololive summer Fubu-tan (Shirakami Fubuki) love-love art set












    76AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:01
    Make Kemono Friends 3 already!!!!😡

    79AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:02
    Re: #76
    Lol what's that
    90AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:04
    Re: #76
    What Friend is the one on the far right even supposed to be?
    113AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:07
    Re: #76
    Today I'm introducing a dirt-cheap guesthouse for broke Kiritan (Tohoku Kiritan mascot character)🫛
    100AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:05
    Hell yeah.

    109AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:06
    Re: #100
    They jack prices up like 30% without blinking, but a price cut is just 10 yen? Are they messing with us???
    151AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:13
    Squee😍

    [Cover] Sanbagarasu Kanjinbushi ~GRANBLUE FANTASY~ covered by Hanabatake Chaika & Maimoto Keisuke & Belmond Banderas【NIJISANJI】
    https://youtu.be/fNLijvU3ocM https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fNLijvU3ocM/maxresdefault.jpg
    161AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:14
    Re: #151
    Chaika's just funny, man
    156AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:14
    What's even in Kagawa?
    Udon doesn't count as an answer
    204AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:19
    Re: #156
    Honetsuki-dori (bone-in grilled chicken leg)
    https://cdn.snsimg.carview.co.jp/minkara/userstorage/000/041/665/819/f4962d8ca0.jpg
    225AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:21
    Re: #156
    Marugame Castle
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eaxb1LRUEAElVTj.png
    253AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:24
    Re: #156
    The Slowpoke Prefecture (Kagawa's tourism-collab nickname)
    https://www.city.kanonji.kagawa.jp/uploaded/life/41164_80782_img.jpg
    261AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:24

    267AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:25
    Re: #261
    Is this Shiranui Flare?
    307AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:29
    So who'd you all pick?

    Kemu @prin_kemkem (Aug 24, 2026, 12:37:41 PM)
    Priconne is a fully-voiced RPG with over 100 female characters, and in the final-boss showdown event that dropped yesterday, they finally added the "pick just one girl" individual route scene every player had given up hoping for over 8.5 years — timelines are flooded with people saying "I'm so glad I stuck with Priconne all this time."
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQdS0kbbYAA824U.jpg
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQdS1RxbUAA5m0L.jpg
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQdS1yAbcAAdpVk.jpg
    https://x.com/prin_kemkem/status/2091731644940235046
    317AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:30
    Re: #307
    I don't touch the battle events, so it's a real pain when the story gets locked behind them
    320AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:30
    Re: #307
    Wait, people are actually picking the cow or the alpaca?😅

    Background and Key Points

    Priconne — officially Princess Connect! Re:Dive — is Cygames’ mobile RPG that launched in February 2018, making the “8.5 years” in the thread’s title literal: this is a title with a long-running, loyal fanbase and a cast that has swelled past 100 fully-voiced female characters. Unlike gacha games built around dating-sim mechanics, Priconne has historically kept its story ensemble-driven, deliberately avoiding scenes that single out one heroine as the protagonist’s favorite — a structural choice that heads off “shipping wars” among a playerbase attached to very different characters. An “individual route,” a term borrowed from visual-novel conventions, means a branch where the story narrows to one chosen girl exclusively; that Priconne finally added one, gated behind a final-boss event, is why longtime players are reacting with relief and nostalgia rather than casual interest.

    The thread doesn’t actually argue about whether the feature was good — that’s assumed. The one flicker of disagreement is in the final exchange: one poster grumbles that skipping battle events (which many players do) locks them out of story content, while another reacts with surprise that some players used their one pick on the joke/animal-themed characters (referred to as “the cow” and “the alpaca”) rather than a marquee heroine.

    What’s easy to miss without Priconne context: this isn’t a new dating-sim mode, just a single scene type added to one event, and the “shock” isn’t about the mechanic itself but about which characters got chosen — the humor assumes readers already know that Priconne’s cast includes several non-human, animal-humanoid side characters competing for attention alongside its human leads.

    ※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyou G) thread “Still Believing in Double-Pan This August, 10 Years From Now~👊😅👊🏡” (a recurring in-joke thread title).

  • Children and Families Agency Requests Record ¥7.8 Trillion for Next Fiscal Year — 5ch: ‘Show Us the Breakdown’

    It was reported that Japan’s Children and Families Agency plans to request about ¥7.8 trillion in its budget request for fiscal 2027 — the largest amount since the agency’s founding — sparking a divided debate on a 5ch thread. Supporters argued that benefits and support for child-raising households are actually insufficient, while skeptics countered that it’s unreasonable to face criticism without disclosing a breakdown, insisting the agency show where the money would go first. The discussion also touched on individual budget items, including the gap between existing programs like child allowances and free childcare and the requested amount, as well as the scrapped AI development project and the use of funds from the so-called ‘singles tax.’

    The Children and Families Agency has begun coordinating to request about ¥7.8 trillion in its initial fiscal 2027 budget request — the largest amount since its establishment in 2023. This is roughly ¥320 billion more than the previous year’s request. It includes funding for countermeasures against the record-high number of child suicides and for improving the environment around children’s social media use.

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

    9AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:19
    I don't buy the criticism of the Children and Families Agency.
    Most of this budget goes toward managing benefit payments and actual support for households raising kids — if anything it's not enough, it's not something you can just cut.
    13AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:21
    Re: #9
    That's exactly why they should publish it with that stuff excluded.
    There's definitely a ton of unnecessary stuff in there too.
    62AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:42
    Re: #9
    Then show us the breakdown 😅
    You said it, so you can back it up, right?
    11AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:21
    After-school childcare programs these days even handle pickup/drop-off for the kids, so the burden on families is actually low — but it genuinely costs more than it used to.
    I get why single people complain, but it's wild seeing parents who are actually raising kids say to abolish the Children and Families Agency.
    21AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:28
    Re: #11
    Where is this after-school program with pickup service? Seriously, I can't even find it when I search.
    29AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:30
    Re: #21
    Well, not exactly pickup, but they do come get the kids from school once classes end.
    33AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:32
    Re: #29
    Re: #11 is saying the after-school program drops kids off at home.
    24AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:29
    Re: #19
    The topic here is the ¥7.8 trillion, though? Do you even know what we're talking about?
    44AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:36
    Re: #24
    The broad outline is similar to this, right?
    50AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:38
    Re: #44
    I'm saying it's increasing because things are changing.
    You can't just fill in the blanks yourself and then claim it can't be cut — that's the point I'm making.
    58AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:40
    Re: #50
    Then tell me exactly what and how much you think can be cut.
    61AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:41
    Re: #50
    It's only going up 4%, so nothing's really changing.
    53AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:39
    I can easily imagine that reviewing how the budget's spent would turn up waste.
    If anything, a review would probably show it's not enough.
    56AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:40
    Why is the budget going up when the number of children is going down?
    64AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:42
    Re: #56
    Because the number of adults is shrinking too.
    65AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:42
    Re: #56
    Everyone already knows that much.
    74AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:46
    Re: #64
    Is that even relevant?

    Re: #65
    Care to explain?
    76AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:48
    Re: #74
    Parents these days both work, so childcare gets outsourced from age zero.
    Can't believe you don't even know that.
    Scary.
    80AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:50
    Re: #76
    That cost should be borne by the couple outsourcing it — it's no reason for the Children and Families Agency to foot the bill.
    If you can't cover daycare operating costs, have one of you quit and raise the kid at home.
    Why are you married couples using us single people's tax money just so you can both keep working?
    137AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:11
    Number of children born in 2025:
    671,236

    If you split ¥7.8 trillion among newborns,
    that's about ¥11,620,637 per child.

    Just scrap the agency and wire ¥10 million to every family that has a kid.
    That leaves ¥1 trillion left over, so hand that out to preschool/kindergarten workers.

    Problem solved, birthrate crisis over.
    145AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:15
    Re: #137
    It's obvious some parents would blow the money on useless stuff, and rich households, poor households, and single-parent households are all in different situations, so it wouldn't solve anything.
    148AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:17
    Re: #137
    Once the subsidy amount is public knowledge, it just becomes a target to squeeze — you can tell from how maternity hospitals raised their fees to match the increased childbirth lump-sum payment. But with an amount that big, whoever's trying to price-gouge off the back of it would have a hard time deciding how much to jack prices up.
    161AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:26
    What's with the people going red-faced (spamming under one ID) making this bizarre argument that raising kids costs money?
    That has nothing to do with the Children and Families Agency.
    163AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:27
    Re: #161
    Well, the fact that raising kids costs money is one of the causes of the falling birthrate, isn't it?
    168AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:30
    Re: #161
    That's because most of the Children and Families Agency's budget is childcare-related spending.
    Even if you abolished the agency, some other ministry would just end up handling child support with that same money.
    177AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:35
    Re: #161
    The whole point is that raising kids costs money, which is why there are all these allowances and support programs — yet people come in with criticism from completely out of left field, like 'it's pointless, stop wasting tax money.'
    173AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:33
    Children and Families Agency policies:
    ・Collaboration with the J.League
    ・Priority lanes for children at national facilities
    ・Subsidies for open-plan kitchens
    ・Home visits for child-raising households
    ・Training personnel to advise children on sex education (5-year plan)
    ・Abuse-detection AI → spent ¥1 billion, then scrapped it
    ・Introduction of the 'singles tax'
    ・Handling adult advertising
    181AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:35
    Re: #173
    Honestly, I get why they'd want to develop abuse-detection AI.
    These days, if a couple with a young kid has a loud enough argument that the neighbors hear it, a child welfare center worker shows up the next day citing psychological abuse.
    193AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:38
    Re: #173
    They've positioned the past few years as the peak of countermeasures, with the period through 2027 marked as the intensive push — that's why it's like this.
    'It's only been around a short time' has nothing to do with it.
    174AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:34
    I'm not saying the Children and Families Agency is worthless across the board, but I don't get why it needs ¥7.8 trillion.

    It's crazy that the gap between this and the defense budget — which covers that many SDF personnel plus missiles, tanks, and fighter jets — is only ¥1-2 trillion.
    180AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:35
    Re: #174
    What's with people who complain without even checking something you could look up in two seconds?

    Child allowances, free childcare, better pay for daycare workers, higher-education support — basically everything the public said was needed for birthrate countermeasures is in there.
    197AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:40
    Re: #180
    Even so, isn't it too much?
    Add up all those allowances together and the total payout is ¥3 trillion.

    What's the other ¥4 trillion going toward?
    200AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:41
    Re: #197
    Which part don't you get?
    236AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:58
    Re: #234
    Specifically, what part of Re: #200 is wasteful?
    203AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:43
    With my totally amateur logic, I'd think just paying ¥5 million per kid born would boost the birthrate.
    Wouldn't that work? Even on average a person pays tens of millions of yen in taxes over a lifetime, so it seems like it'd easily pay for itself.
    206AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:45
    Re: #203
    It'd be a problem if the kid got killed right after birth for the money, so wouldn't long-term monthly payments be better?
    214AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:49
    Re: #203
    You'd risk people having kids carelessly just for the payout, or criminals exploiting it.

    If it's that easy to casually have a kid, the government needs to have facilities and systems ready to clean up the mess.
    225AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:53
    Made school lunches free using the singles tax 🤗
    https://imgur.com/sa1uBew.jpeg
    231AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:55
    Re: #225
    Add the leftover-heavy lunch budget on top of the existing lunch fees and you could feed the kids sushi or steak — this is way too much money considering how few kids there are.

    Background and Key Points

    The Children and Families Agency (Kodomo Katei-cho) is a young institution, created in April 2023 by pulling child-welfare, childcare, and youth-policy functions out of the health ministry and Cabinet Office into one body. What’s being reported here is a “gaisan yokyu” — an initial budget request submitted each August for the fiscal year starting the following April — not an approved budget; the Finance Ministry screens these down through the autumn, and the real figure is fixed only when the Diet passes the budget around March. ¥7.8 trillion would be roughly a fourteenth of Japan’s entire general-account budget, and the thread’s comparison to the defense budget (also around ¥8-9 trillion) is a legitimate benchmark, not hyperbole. The “singles tax” mentioned is real: a child-support levy folded into health-insurance premiums from 2026, which drew that nickname because childless and unmarried payers contribute without receiving direct benefits.

    The thread’s actual fault line isn’t pro- versus anti-child-support; it’s whether a number this size is legitimate to criticize without an itemized breakdown being public, against the view that known line items (allowances, free childcare, higher-education aid) already plausibly add up given how much Japan’s system has expanded since the agency’s launch.

    What’s easy to miss is that this figure is a negotiating opener, not a check about to be cut — Japanese agencies routinely request more than the Finance Ministry ultimately grants, and prior years’ requests were similarly trimmed. Readers should also know the agency was explicitly built around a self-declared 2023-2027 “concentrated implementation period” for birthrate measures, which is why spending has been front-loaded rather than flat.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread ‘Children and Families Agency: Give Us ¥7.8 Trillion’.

  • Prudential Life Insurance Accused of Another Money Scam Mid Sales-Suspension — 5ch Asks: “Does Being a Foreign Firm Mean Anything Goes?”

    A new allegation has surfaced that a Prudential Life Insurance sales employee in their 40s defrauded customers of money. The incident is believed to have occurred while the company was suspending new sales activity following the February revelation of improper investment solicitations, prompting a wave of “here we go again” reactions on 5ch. It was also reported that the employee in question has already died, sparking a flurry of unverified speculation on the thread.

    On the 24th, Prudential Life Insurance announced that a new suspected case of money fraud by a sales employee in their 40s had come to light. The incident may have occurred sometime after February, when the company suspended new sales following the discovery of improper investment solicitation and money fraud.

    Source: news.jp / Original article here

    27AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:48
    More like… it's not something new since the last discovery —
    this is probably just something the earlier investigation missed.

    Wouldn't be surprised if more of this keeps surfacing.
    174AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:14
    Re: #27
    After the previous incident came to light
    42AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:50
    Even with a fancy title like that, you just end up getting mocked
    46AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:52
    The lower-tier branches can't attract talent, so they should just shut them down
    51AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:52
    The employee involved is dead? That's way too creepy
    69AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:54
    This is basically the insurance industry's own Big Motor scandal at this point (Big Motor — the used-car dealer chain whose insurance-fraud scheme rocked Japan)
    75AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:55
    Re: #69
    Nah, this already tops Big Motor lol
    So a top-tier foreign firm can just get away with anything? lol
    This is insane
    82AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:57
    Seriously, they need to change their name already
    and then they'll just go and do the same thing again, forever
    98AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:59
    Re: #82
    Feels like it's one of two options: buy up some mid-size old-line life insurer and do a reverse merger to just swap out the shell,
    or sell the whole thing off to someone like Ping An in China
    95AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:58
    Insurance companies are basically a scam, right?
    That's why only old people sign up
    99AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:59
    Re: #95
    Just assume anyone pushing investments and trying to get you to buy financial products is scum, and you'll be fine
    181AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:15
    Re: #1
    The employee who pitched it is dead
    https://www.sankei.com/article/20260824-KKENRXRHZRNCFBELNA4GFZCR3Y/

    > According to Prudential, the employee was assigned to a branch in Tama City, Tokyo. The employee has already died, and the company is continuing its investigation.
    193AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:16
    Re: #181
    Did someone "silence" them?
    197AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:17
    Re: #181
    A job that gets you killed is worse than a yami-baito (a shady, often crime-linked gig-work scam job)! 😡
    230AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:22
    There are "Pru-gorilla" YouTubers (slang blending "Prudential" with pushy hard-selling) teaching sales techniques,
    but if you were on the receiving end of that stuff you'd want to snap.
    Things like "never give them an opening to refuse," "never give them time to think,"
    or "if you catch them in a slip of the tongue, hammer that one point relentlessly."
    234AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:22
    Re: #230
    That sounds more suited to a poop-flinging contest scrawled on a bathroom wall
    236AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:23
    Re: #230
    But the guys who fall for those studio-apartment investment scams are exactly the timid men that kind of pressure works on 😎
    242AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:24
    Re: #230
    Sounds just like a scammer's manual
    260AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:29
    This is exactly why Japan values its "athletic club" jocks over the highly educated smart guys lol
    274AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:30
    Re: #260
    Because if you're in an athletic club and a senior recommends something, it's hard to say no.
    With life insurance sales too, the standard playbook is to get you to sign up your own family and friends first
    280AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:33
    Re: #260
    You lose out to jocks and still call yourself highly educated? Smart?

    The real problem is that nobody ever kept the "only good at studying" idiots out of school in the first place
    270AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:30
    People have no idea how many organized-crime front companies and former-gang-run businesses
    are out there, quietly raking it in, way more than you'd think lol
    278AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:32
    Re: #270
    Mediating and settling disputes is their real specialty. Wherever there's a shady business, there's a shadow of organized crime
    283AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:34
    Re: #270
    Of course nobody knows
    This is a country where as long as you claim to be "working," anything goes
    308AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:39
    Basically, insurance companies are nothing but bookies running the house.
    Even more so when they're foreign-owned
    315AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:40
    Re: #308
    They make their living off people's anxiety after all
    Absolutely rotten

    Background and Key Points

    Prudential’s Japan unit has been a giant in the domestic foreign-insurer market for decades, built largely on face-to-face sales through career agents who cultivate lifelong client relationships — a model that trades on trust and personal obligation rather than product comparison. That trust-based structure is exactly what makes repeat scandals so damaging: this is not a rogue-employee story but the second disclosure in roughly six months, surfacing while the company was still under a self-imposed halt on new sales imposed after February’s revelation of improper investment solicitation and money fraud. In Japan, a “sales suspension” (販売停止) is a serious voluntary measure companies use to signal they’re getting their house in order before regulators or the Financial Services Agency step in; for a second case to emerge mid-suspension undercuts the credibility of that whole process.

    The thread’s actual disagreement isn’t about whether fraud occurred — everyone accepts that — but about what kind of problem it is. Some posters treat it as an isolated failure the first probe simply missed; others escalate it to a systemic indictment of the sales culture itself, comparing it to the Big Motor insurance-fraud scandal and even arguing it’s worse, framing Prudential’s scale and foreign-brand prestige as a shield that lets it “get away with anything.” Still others zoom out further, connecting the incident to broader gripes about aggressive insurance and financial-product sales tactics in Japan generally, and to “athletic club” (体育会系) hierarchical sales cultures where juniors are pressured to sign up family and friends.

    What the thread misses is procedural: Japanese regulators, notably the FSA, can compel corrective action or license restrictions on repeat offenders, so a second disclosure during an active suspension raises the real possibility of formal administrative punishment beyond reputational damage — something no poster raises, despite the speculation about the deceased employee and shadowy cover-ups.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “Prudential Life Insurance, Another Case of Money Extortion?”.

  • Switch 2’s Official Pro Controller D-Pad Draws Complaints Over Misinputs

    On 5ch’s Hardware & Industry board (Gaming Hardware), users have raised a string of complaints about the official Pro Controller for the Nintendo Switch 2 (Pro Controller 2), claiming that pressing the D-pad diagonally often registers the wrong direction. Some reported repeated move-input mistakes while playing “Dusk Blood,” and others recommended switching to third-party pads like 8BitDo. Meanwhile, other posters shared image guides on the “correct” way to hold the D-pad, sparking a broader discussion about workarounds.

    1AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:10
    This garbage controller registers 'up' even when I'm pressing sideways.
    2AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:11
    In Dusk Blood I've had this happen like 30 times: 'press left to switch special moves → it registers up instead and I use a healing item.' Absolute garbage.
    33AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:38
    Re: #2
    Same here (literally me).
    When I was testing Dusk Blood, I meant to press left but it registered down, so I threw a Molotov at my own feet and took damage.
    9AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:15
    Yeah, the official Pro Controller 2's D-pad really is mushy and hard to use.
    I bought an 8BitDo Ultimate 2 as a replacement and honestly prefer it — it's all I use now, on PC and Switch alike.
    24AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:30
    The Joy-Con already got separate D-pad buttons — couldn't they redesign the Pro Controller the same way?

    Re: #9
    Right?!
    Those clicky, separated D-pad buttons are easier to press and harder to misinput.
    I like the Xbox controller for the same reason — I wish more pads did it that way.
    11AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:16
    Re: #3
    So that means you've moved on to Switch 2 and aren't playing on the original Switch anymore.
    Quite different from the barrier of not buying a PS5 or a PS5 Pro.
    28AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:34
    Re: #11
    You're actually playing on a Switch 2?
    Show me the Pro Controller.
    36AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:40
    Re: #33
    If you're going to run a smear campaign, you should change your ID (5ch's daily poster tag) — you're bad-mouthing Nintendo in other threads too.
    77AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:11
    Re: #36
    I'm not Re: #3 posting under a different name or anything.
    All I'm saying is, if you're playing Dusk Blood, the Pro Controller is absolute garbage.
    It's obvious Nintendo never designed for intense games where you work the left stick and the D-pad at the same time.
    Even now that FromSoftware has joined the Nintendo family, the hardware foundation for core gamers just isn't there.
    39AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:42
    Yeah, PlayStation's D-pad is just the best.
    41AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:44
    Re: #39
    It's impressive that you don't feel anything off about that one.
    Are diagonals and fine adjustments really that easy and natural on it?
    43AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:45
    Re: #41
    For diagonals you'd just use the stick, no?
    45AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:46
    Re: #41
    You operate it with the pad of your thumb.
    48AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:47
    I really didn't expect them to still use potentiometer-type sticks even in the Pro Controller 2.
    Given the drift issues, they should've switched to a contactless stick design.
    59AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:54
    Re: #48
    I haven't really heard about drift issues with either the Joy-Con 2 or the Pro Controller 2, so I think it's safe to say they properly fixed that.
    49AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:49
    https://kakuge-guide.com/kakuge-padoyabyubiitai/

    This is the correct thumb placement for the D-pad.
    57AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:53
    Re: #45
    PlayStation's directional buttons are split in the middle, so if you operate them with the pad of your thumb, the corners dig in and it hurts.
    60AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:55
    Re: #57
    Re: #49
    Like this — you rest your thumb joint right on the center.
    55AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:51
    What matters on the Pro Controller 2 is gyro accuracy — the D-pad barely gets used, who cares about it?
    The only thing you'd even use it for is Tetris 99, right?
    56AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:52
    Re: #55
    I use it constantly in Dusk Blood.
    102AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:37
    Nobody even uses the D-pad these days anyway, right?
    106AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:39
    Re: #102
    Plenty of Soulslike games use it regularly.
    132AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:11
    Re: #102
    Call of Duty and Battlefield use it heavily too.
    In hectic PvP games, the 'Monster Hunter claw grip' (holding the pad with fingers wrapped to hit face buttons and D-pad at once) ends up being essential.

    So in the end the PS default layout is the way to go —
    competitive scene players don't bother with all those extra buttons on cheap Chinese multi-button pads.
    138AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:22
    Re: #136
    All of them, lol.
    140AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:24
    Re: #138
    Huh?
    The Joy-Con's separated D-pad buttons can't really misinput though.
    142AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:27
    Re: #140
    That's a 'directional button,' not technically a 'cross-shaped button' though.
    145AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:29
    Re: #142
    The Joy-Con's D-pad is officially called a 'cross-shaped button'
    Nintendo's own materials list it as '十字ボタン' (cross button).
    141AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:25
    Layout is just personal preference.
    It's not like you can only own one pad — use whichever fits the game.

    https://jpeg.men/1IvU6CDJMHf.jpg
    155AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:34
    ↓ Here's Dusk Blood's control scheme


    And this is for a super hectic PvP game?
    FromSoftware clearly never actually play-tested it, lol (or so I hear).
    157AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:37
    Re: #155
    Way too much load is put on the Y button.
    164AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:42
    Re: #155
    It's rough unless you can work the stick with the base of your finger while also pressing buttons.
    The left-hand side is a dealbreaker.
    161AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:40
    Calling it a 'D-pad' (十字キー) shows respect.
    https://www.nintendo.com/jp/hardware/switch/accessories/img/controller/img-spec-fc-01.webp

    And yet, for some reason, the Nintendo fanboys ('Nishi-kun') are denying that it's called a D-pad.
    165AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:42
    Re: #161
    Doesn't it literally say 'cross-shaped button' (十字ボタン)…?
    180AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:50
    Re: #161
    Re: #174
    Okay, this is actually hilarious.
    181AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:51
    Generations of handheld consoles


    Handhelds are always full of shape compromises.
    On the Vita, the buttons and stick don't interfere with each other.

    For handheld form factors, neither symmetrical nor asymmetrical layouts really work.
    Maybe putting both sticks up top like the Wii U GamePad would be better.
    And yeah, it's probably an impossible ask either way.

    Background and Key Points

    Nintendo’s Pro Controller for the Switch 2 carries over a design lineage that goes back to the GameCube and Wii Classic Controller: a single molded cross-shaped pad (十字ボタン, literally “cross button”) rather than four discrete buttons. The Joy-Con 2, by contrast, uses separate buttons for each direction simply because there isn’t room in the slim controller body for a rocking cross piece — not because Nintendo redesigned the concept for accuracy. This distinction matters because the thread conflates the two: posters point to the Joy-Con’s discrete buttons as proof Nintendo “could” fix the Pro Controller, without acknowledging the different engineering constraint behind each. “Dusk Blood” is a new FromSoftware action title for Switch 2, and its fast, D-pad-heavy control scheme (special-move switching, item use) is what’s exposing the diagonal-misinput problem that more casual, menu-only D-pad use (Tetris 99, digital movement) would never surface.

    The thread doesn’t split over whether misinputs happen — multiple posters confirm them — but over whether that’s a hardware flaw or a grip problem, with a “correct thumb placement” guide offered as a fix rather than an admission of a design fault, alongside a side-argument over PlayStation’s segmented cross pad being objectively better.

    What’s missing is context: this diagonal-misinput complaint about Nintendo’s one-piece D-pad is decades old, not a Switch 2-specific defect, so readers shouldn’t assume this is a new manufacturing problem. Also unaddressed: reports of Joy-Con 2 stick drift exist in the wider press, despite one poster’s claim that drift was “properly fixed” this generation.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware & Industry / Gaming Hardware) thread “Why isn’t anyone criticizing the Switch 2 Pro Controller’s D-pad even though it’s industrial waste?“

  • Smartphone-Addicted Teens, the “Dopamine Kids”: Heavy Social Media Use Linked to Falling Grades — Half of Japanese 9th Graders Spend 3+ Hours a Day Online

    5ch picked up on a Sankei Shimbun article about minors dubbed “dopamine kids” (ドパガキ) who can’t tear themselves away from the stimulation of social media. Reacting to data showing that half of ninth-graders spend more than three hours a day on SNS, the thread split between “TV brain and game brain were the same back in the day” and “smartphones are different because they combine phone, games, and manga all in one device.”

    At the same time, plenty of posters turned the joke on themselves, noting that “the old geezers on 5ch criticizing this are the real ‘dopamine geezers,’ glued to their screens for hours” — with many pointing out the discussion conveniently ignored adults’ own smartphone and SNS addiction.

    I can’t live without SNS. A growing number of minors, dubbed “dopamine kids,” are unable to stop scrolling their smartphone screens, hooked on the endless stream of stimulating content pouring out at them.

    Sankei Shimbun

    Source: sankei.com / Original article here

    4AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:19
    If we're going there, mobile games seem more likely to turn kids into "dopamine kids" than SNS does.
    164AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:58
    Re: #4
    Mobile games are still better since there's at least some room for thinking involved.
    Short-form video literally requires zero brainpower, that's exactly why this happens.
    5AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:20
    Re: #1
    What a joke.
    TV brain, game brain, MMO brain…
    and now "smartphone (lol) brain" too?
    SNS addiction? Give me a break.
    88AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:04
    Re: #5
    Says the middle-aged guy addicted to 5ch.
    10AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:22
    Boring schoolwork is only useful to a handful of people anyway — being good at using a smartphone is actually more useful.
    16AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:27
    Re: #10
    I get that the point-scoring "studying" taught at school isn't really useful, but…
    honing your skill at swiping a phone screen to play mini-games and scroll through junk posts isn't exactly useful either.
    138AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:34
    Re: #10
    Doing boring schoolwork and sticking with it — that's what academics is about.
    The ones who can't do that are the ones who fall behind.
    12AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:23
    "Dopamine kid" sounds like exactly the kind of term 5ch regulars (ネラー, "netora," board users) would love, but I haven't seen many people actually using it.
    Then again, maybe most of us were dopamine kids ourselves and just don't realize it.
    13AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:25
    Re: #12
    The ring of it is off.
    It's like "Dragoboo" — a clunky nickname nobody actually uses; 5ch regulars just won't say it.
    18AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:27
    The old geezers on 5ch are just internet addicts who can't handle smartphones or SNS properly.
    208AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:57
    Re: #18
    More to the point, Ice Age generation (氷河期, Japan's "employment ice age" cohort) parents used to mock PC-addicted singles, but now their own kids have become smartphone addicts — that's pretty dumb.

    And on top of that, smartphones build way fewer real skills than PCs do.
    25AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:31
    More than 3 hours a day? Don't underestimate us dopamine geezers on 5ch — we're pushing 20+ hours.
    115AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:17
    Re: #25
    5ch is basically a hellscape of dopamine geezers bashing dopamine kids.
    26AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:31
    This hasn't changed since forever.
    Games and manga eat up time too, so of course study time drops relatively and grades fall.
    Stop spinning it like smartphones are uniquely the villain.
    In every era, dumb kids are dumb kids.
    44AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:44
    Re: #26
    The problem with smartphones is that one device does games, manga, TV, and phone calls all at once.
    There's never been anything before where people stumble around staring at their device while walking and still can't put it down.
    27AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:32
    I can't put my phone down for 24 hours straight.
    I'm gripping it even while I sleep.
    32AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:36
    Re: #27
    I've got several devices on my bed too, but the radiation exposure worries me.
    The closer it is, the bigger the effect probably is, and sleeping for hours with it right next to your head can't be good for you.
    38AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:37
    The jealousy from useless Ice Age generation folks who think they're smart feels great.
    210AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:59
    Re: #38
    What about Gen Z, who aren't even smart to begin with (lol)?
    45AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:44
    Dopamine kid
    Serotonin kid
    Opioid kid
    Adrenaline kid
    Noradrenaline kid
    Anything else?
    53AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:47
    Re: #45
    Oxytocin kid — a kid who loves dogs and cats.
    54AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:48
    There's a song themed around "dopamine kids" by the band Yabai T-shirts Yasan (ヤバイTシャツ屋さん) called "Algorithm no Inu" ("Dog of the Algorithm").
    100AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:09
    Re: #54
    They sing it while absolutely trashing the subject — love it (lol).
    56AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:50
    Smartphone addiction isn't just a kid thing, adults are just as bad.
    Get on a train and it's packed with passengers staring down at their phones. Looks just like a horde of zombies.
    60AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:50
    Re: #56
    Anyone NOT looking at their phone looks like the suspicious one these days.
    120AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:21
    Re: #56
    True, but it's especially bad for kids to be steeped in smartphones during the years their brain and mind are still developing.
    Today's 40-somethings and up didn't even have smartphones when they were students.
    65AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:53
    There's clearly been a huge rise in bottom-tier parents who can't even discipline their kids.


    When I see a kid sitting properly and quietly on a train seat, next to a parent sitting up straight with their knees together, I'm genuinely impressed.
    It's become a truly rare sight.
    77AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:57
    Re: #65
    But kids naturally run higher on dopamine than adults do, so forcing them into adult values doesn't really work.
    It's normal for kids to shout at the top of their lungs and run around.
    What matters in the end is self-motivation — not doing something just because a parent says so, but wanting to do it because you look up to your parent.
    67AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:55
    Kids can't self-regulate their impulses, so they shouldn't be given smartphones in the first place.
    The reason people can't stop using their phones comes down to being unable to suppress their thirst for knowledge and curiosity.
    Back before even flip phones existed, let alone smartphones, kids would turn summer homework into a plaything — that's how much kids hate doing nothing.
    73AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:57
    Re: #67
    That just means summer homework is unnecessary now.
    You can ask AI on your phone and get taught anything, so memorizing quiz questions and answers dreamed up by some bureaucrat is a waste of time.
    71AnonymousAug 24, 2026 15:57
    Old men and old women alike are fighting on X every single day — everyone would be happier if SNS were regulated.
    89AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:04
    Re: #71
    Even the foreign countries pushing that opinion are getting divided on it now.
    Maybe people are just getting tired of dealing with the whole SNS issue.
    85AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:02
    You guys are dopamine uncles.

    Only those who can go without 5ch for even a single day have the right to criticize dopamine kids.
    101AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:10
    Re: #85
    One week off the internet.
    Honestly, I'm surprised I was able to make it this far myself!
    107AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:12
    5ch doesn't hurt your ability to think though. Lucky us.
    122AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:22
    Re: #107
    Times really do change.
    Who'd have thought 5ch would end up looking sane compared to endless short-form video…
    132AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:30
    Get on a train and look around.
    Middle-aged and older people are exactly the same.
    133AnonymousAug 24, 2026 16:32
    Re: #132
    There's like 5% of people who can't put their phone down even on a packed train.
    178AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:15
    Re: #132
    Weekly magazine and manga magazine sales started crashing hard around 2010, and the explanation at the time was "the baby boomer generation, who bought them to read on the train, retired en masse."
    But it seems more likely that the bigger factor was people switching over to smartphones.

    Background and Key Points

    The Sankei figures being discussed come from Japan’s own surveys of chugakusei (中学生, junior-high students), and “ninth grade” here means chusan (中3), the final year before the high-stakes high-school entrance exams (juken). That context matters: Japanese education culture already treats the years before those exams as sacrosanct study time, so any data showing half of chusan students logging 3+ hours a day on “SNS” reads as a crisis specifically because it collides with exam anxiety, not just general parenting worry. It’s also worth knowing that in Japanese usage “SNS” is an umbrella term covering LINE messaging, YouTube, and TikTok alongside Twitter/Instagram-style posting, so the “3 hours” figure likely includes passive video-watching and chat, not just active social posting — a distinction the thread never unpacks.

    The thread didn’t actually split over whether phone use is bad; nearly everyone agreed it is. The real fault line was whether smartphones are a new category of problem or just the latest name for a decades-old moral panic (terebi-noh/TV brain, geemu-noh/game brain, MMO addiction) — with the counterargument being that a phone uniquely bundles calls, games, manga, and video into one always-in-hand device, unlike any single prior medium.

    What goes unmentioned is the irony most posters raised about themselves: 5ch’s own userbase, including the Ice Age generation (shushoku hyogaki sedai, the cohort who entered a brutal job market in the 1990s–2000s and are now parents of today’s teens), spends comparable or greater hours online, meaning the generational criticism is largely self-indicting rather than diagnostic.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “Smartphone-Addicted Minors, the “Dopamine Kids👦”: Heavy SNS Use Tied to Falling Grades — Half of 9th Graders Spend Over 3 Hours a Day Online.”

  • Yuki Maomi Announces Divorce — Moved to Malaysia with Two Daughters for ‘Mother-Child Study Abroad’ While Husband Stayed in Japan

    TV personality Yuki Maomi announced her divorce on Instagram on August 24, saying she was “ending our relationship as a married couple and starting down a new path.” Her talent agency has also confirmed the divorce to reporters.

    Since last August she had been living in Malaysia with her two daughters on a “mother-child study abroad” arrangement, while her husband stayed behind in Japan — a setup that fueled thread discussion ranging from how to pick a place to relocate to, to comparisons with other celebrities who’ve moved overseas, like Nakata Atsuhiko and his wife.

    Mon, Aug 24, 5:03 PM

    Daily Sports

    TV personality Yuki Maomi, who relocated to Malaysia with her two daughters last August for a “mother-child study abroad” program, updated her Instagram on the 24th. “We’ve decided to end our relationship as a married couple and each start down a new path,” she wrote. Her agency also confirmed the divorce to Daily Sports.

    Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Original article here

    3AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:30
    Wait, what's her nationality again?
    This female talent?
    5AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:31
    The woman who saved Ikushima Kikaku-shitsu (her talent agency)
    55AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:40
    Reply to Re: #5:
    The president vanished after sweeping both the Central and Pacific Leagues (a rare baseball feat)
    10AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:31
    Well, of course they're getting divorced —
    if you were content with an ordinary life, you wouldn't want to go live somewhere like Malaysia in the first place
    12AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:31
    I wonder if "Maomi" is written with the kanji 真央美
    13AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:31
    Is the husband even Japanese?
    Feels like these two will end up moving back regardless
    17AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:32
    Her claim to fame is being a commentator on Miyaneya (a daytime talk show)
    20AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:33
    Why Malaysia, of all places?
    Does she have crypto holdings or something?
    60AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:40
    Reply to Re: #20:
    For overseas Chinese, Malaysia probably feels like their own backyard
    93AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:48
    Reply to Re: #20:
    Because it's a cheap destination for English-language education
    21AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:33
    Miyaneya's ending too, so I doubt there's any work waiting for her even if she comes home
    22AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:33
    The name rang a bell so I looked her up, but I had no idea who she actually was
    23AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:33
    Did they just stay in Malaysia and hash the divorce out online?
    This was probably decided a while ago, wasn't it?
    35AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:35
    Speaking of "30 points"…
    Yuki Maomi
    King Kong (the comedy duo)
    36AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:35
    I've actually been to her family's Chinese restaurant in Saga City
    42AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:37
    Reply to Re: #36:
    Did you order the "Maomi Set Meal," obviously?
    37AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:36
    Feels like the Nakata couple moved back to Japan too…

    Does every celebrity's overseas move end in failure?
    57AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:40
    Reply to Re: #37:
    Heard the Nakatas were prepping their kid for junior-high entrance exams
    Wasn't it just a few years' worth of tax savings from the start anyway?
    79AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:43
    Reply to Re: #37:
    With the yen this weak…
    If you're earning and saving in dollars you might hold out a bit longer, but these are Japanese celebrities lol

    Kikuchi Ami, who's apparently heading there next, might be getting played by someone too
    An, who lives in France, could show her real skill if she can actually land work paid in euros when she puts her mind to it
    97AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:49
    Reply to Re: #37:
    Enjoying life in a foreign country is its own kind of talent
    There must be plenty of unpleasant moments too
    People who leave because they've given up on Japan out of dislike were never going to make it work
    In the end you have to compromise somewhere
    38AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:36
    There's so much about Yuki Maomi I didn't know

    Born to a father who is half Japanese, half Chinese, and a mother who is half Russian, half Chinese [4].
    Her family runs a Chinese restaurant in Saga [5][6].
    Graduated from Saga Prefectural Chien-kan High School, then Tokyo Gakugei University's Faculty of Education, elementary school teacher training course, Japanese language major [3][5].

    On September 25, 1990, she obtained a Class 4 amateur radio license and went on air (callsign JM6CRT) [27].
    Her whole family holds amateur radio licenses (her father Class 2, her mother and herself Class 4).
    She also earned an elementary school teaching license during university [4].

    Comedian Arioshi Hiroyuki gave her the nickname "62 points" [28].
    Later, as a running joke, it sometimes got knocked down to "30 points."

    In 2002 she took Fuji TV's announcer hiring exam but was rejected at the final interview [29][30],
    and decided to go freelance from then on [10].
    She also once failed a Morning Musume audition [31].
    43AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:37
    Reply to Re: #38:
    Graduating from a top national university is a point in her favor
    Private universities admit a lot of people via recommendation, so that's not a reliable gauge of academic ability
    46AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:38
    Overreaching and moving to a developing country like that — no wonder it doesn't work out
    47AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:38
    I bet she got divorced because she couldn't even stand looking at his face anymore
    76AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:43
    Huh, so a recommendation slot for Gakugei University actually goes to the second-tier high school in Saga City
    82AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:44
    Reply to Re: #76:
    A lot of students from Saga get in there
    106AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:52
    See? Getting married doesn't make you happy, does it?
    111AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:54
    Reply to Re: #106:
    I don't think you're one to talk
    113AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:55
    Don't really care lol
    Do whatever you want

    Come to think of it, wasn't she the one on TV who
    stuck her chopsticks straight up in her bowl of rice
    while talking? lol
    119AnonymousAug 24, 2026 17:57
    Reply to Re: #113:
    What's that about
    A funeral??? (standing chopsticks upright in rice is a funeral taboo in Japan)
    130AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:00
    Quite a few celebrities actually live in Malaysia
    Kikuchi Ami, Nakata Atsuhiko, GACKT…
    Guess it's a solid spot to relocate to
    135AnonymousAug 24, 2026 18:01
    Reply to Re: #130:
    Aren't you mixing that up with Singapore?

    Background and Key Points

    The phenomenon Yuki Maomi’s move fits is called *bosaku ryūgaku* (母子留学), “mother-child study abroad”: a mother relocates with her children so they can attend English-medium schools, while the father remains in Japan to keep working and sending money — effectively a reversed *tanshin funin* (the standard Japanese arrangement where the transferred employee, not the family, lives apart). Malaysia in particular built an industry around this through its MM2H (Malaysia My Second Home) long-stay visa, which made it one of the most accessible destinations for Japanese families wanting cheaper international schooling without the cost of Singapore, London, or Vancouver. Miyaneya, the Yomiuri/NNN daytime show she commentated on, is also winding down after roughly two decades on air, which posters flagged as removing whatever domestic anchor she still had.

    The thread didn’t converge on the divorce itself so much as on why Malaysia was the destination — theories ranged from crypto-related tax motives to it simply being a well-trodden, low-cost English-education hub, with Nakata Atsuhiko’s family cited as a parallel case of a Japanese celebrity household trying overseas relocation and eventually drifting back.

    One point of confusion worth flagging: a late reply conflates Malaysia with Singapore, but the two aren’t interchangeable for Japanese expatriates — Singapore is chosen mainly for tax and finance reasons, Malaysia’s MM2H draws people primarily for cost-effective schooling and lifestyle, not tax arbitrage. The thread never engages with MM2H’s actual requirements or costs, so the “is this a tax dodge” speculation floats without anyone checking the program itself.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “Yuki Maomi announces divorce, “ending our relationship as a married couple” — agency confirms to press — moved to Malaysia last August with two daughters for mother-child study abroad, husband stayed in Japan.”