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  • Morning Musume’s ‘Homamei’ — When Will They Graduate? 5ch Users Can’t Agree

    On 5ch’s Hello! Project board, users have been debating when the duo nicknamed “Homamei” — which includes Morning Musume 15th-generation member Homare Okamura — will graduate. Specific guesses like “seven years from now” and “she won’t graduate until she’s 26” got thrown around, while others argued the pair should stick around a bit longer because the younger members’ singing just isn’t up to par yet. Opinions were sharply divided.

    1AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:38
    Morning Musume 15th Gen
    Joined Morning Musume on June 22, 2019
    Homare Okamura
    2AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:39
    Probably around seven years from now.
    6AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:42
    Re: #2
    Yeah, I'd guess about seven years too. We're going to keep seeing more Hello! Project members stick around until 28 or 29 from here on out.
    3AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:40
    Mei-chan's graduating next spring. My gut says Homare's going to leave over some kind of scandal.
    7AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:43
    Seriously, I wish Homamei would just hurry up and quit already.
    8AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:44
    She won't graduate until 26. The usual graduation age used to be 25, but thanks to all the senpai who overstayed their welcome, the unofficial retirement age has crept up to around 27.
    9AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:44
    Re: #1
    Ishida stuck around until right before turning 28, so that puts it about seven years out.
    10AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:45
    Homamei Heaven — Morning Musume is set to keep going like this for a few more years!
    11AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:45
    Homamei is probably the last generation I can still support at live shows.
    14AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:47
    Danbara and Inoue have contributed so much that nobody even brings up a retirement age for them, but the members with zero presence should still be made to graduate at 25 like everyone else.
    15AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:47
    If these two — the group's strongest singers — leave, current Musume is in real trouble. I think a dual-ace setup for a few more years makes sense, even though I oshi someone else.
    18AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:49
    The fact that Homamei gets treated as the dual ace shows how far Musume has fallen. They're losing to Ebamifu in pretty much every category, let alone Yumeriai.
    21AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:52
    Re: #18
    Can't be helped — Ishida stuck around and got pushed hard by management too.
    22AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:52
    Re: #18
    Angerme: Hanamocchi > Homamei
    Tsubaki Factory: Yuumarin > Homamei
    BEYOOOOONDS: Manoyuna > Homamei
    OCHA NORMA: Yonekubo > Homamei
    Rosy Chronicle: Hanayume > Homamei

    Way too weak.
    106AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:46
    Re: #18
    'Let alone' nothing — Ebamifu is an S-rank popularity duo.
    20AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:51
    She's 21 this year, so she's got at least four more years left in her. The 'COVID life-extension' era will finally wrap up by the time we get to the Homameiri generation.
    25AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:53
    I want these two at the center for at least five more years — pleeease.
    26AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:54
    Re: #25
    Five years seems doable. But it really depends on Yamazaki — she's been giving off signs she might quit.
    32AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:56
    I want them to go with a sound like 'Namida ga Tomaranai Houkago' or 'GO GIRL' (classic Momusu song styles). Once Oda and Nonaka graduate, I'm done chasing the Platinum era.
    33AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:57
    Nonaka will probably graduate in spring or fall at 27, so it wouldn't be strange for anyone else to leave anytime after 28.
    44AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:08
    Re: #33
    Yamazaki will quit either at the same time as Nonaka or right after her. If Okamura graduates, Yamazaki becomes the oldest member left (the dreaded 'BBA'), and her pride — she's nicknamed 'Era' — won't allow that.
    40AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:04
    Homamei can actually sing, so they're fine. You can never have too many members who can actually carry a tune.
    42AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:06
    Re: #40
    Right, even more so than Fukumura.
    45AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:08
    Gen 15 got treated coldly for so long that they've earned the right to step into the spotlight now.
    55AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:15
    Re: #45
    They weren't treated coldly at all. Don't forget this is the generation that caused trouble for the whole group — remember the bus tour incident? Even when they do get chances, they never really carry it that far anyway.
    63AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:27
    Re: #45
    They're the generation that's been pushed by management from day one, more than any other in the last ten years.
    59AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:22
    Gen 15 has a good image though — they're not the type to overstay their welcome.
    65AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:27
    Re: #59
    Eight years in, and pushing aside both the graduating members and the rookies to hog the center spot — that's basically a repeat of the Fukumura era.
    73AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:46
    The "Panda-ēdā" era (obscure fan slang; exact meaning unclear)
    75AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:47
    Re: #73
    Does Panda-san have the resolve to accept the 'old lady' position?
    79AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:57
    Re: #75
    A bumbling-but-charismatic type, like Sato.
    105AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:46
    I don't really want to say this, but Gen 16 and 17 aren't much of a vocal force, so we need Homamei to stick around a bit longer.
    107AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:49
    Re: #105
    As for how Oda rates them: Inoharu > Homamei. What did you make of the song arrangement that made that so blatantly obvious?

    Background and Key Points

    Morning Musume, the flagship idol group of Tsunku’s Hello! Project stable since 1997, has run through seventeen “generations” of recruits, and the group’s real controversy has never been talent — it’s timing. Members historically “graduated” (idol-speak for a formal, ceremonial departure) around 25, but recent years have seen that norm slip toward 27-28 as veterans like Haruna Ishida stayed on. “Homamei” refers to the duo of Homare Okamura and presumably Meimi (Mei-chan, noted as graduating next spring), both fifteenth-generation members who joined in 2019 and are now seen as the group’s strongest vocalists — a title that in a fandom this obsessed with rankings carries real weight, since it implicitly measures them against younger, weaker-singing generations and against rival H!P units like Angerme and BEYOOOOONDS.

    The thread didn’t split on whether Homamei should eventually leave — everyone assumes they will — but on how long “eventually” is. Guesses ranged from a firm four years (pegged to Okamura’s current age of 21) out to seven, with posters anchoring their math to different precedents: some to Ishida’s own late-twenties exit, others to how long it’ll take Gen 16 and 17 to develop comparable vocal ability, and others to a rumored planned exit by fellow senior member Yamazaki.

    What’s easy to miss reading this from outside Japan is that “graduation” isn’t a member choosing to quit a job — it’s a semi-scripted lifecycle event tied to age-appropriateness expectations for idols, which is why posters can debate it years in advance like a retirement calendar rather than a personnel guess. The thread also never explains the “bus tour incident” it references as reputational baggage for Gen 15, leaving newer readers without that context.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from excerpts of the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “When Is Homamei Going to Graduate?“

  • Cool Japan Fund to Be Dissolved… Losses Hit ¥54 Billion — What Went Wrong?

    Reports say Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has begun coordinating to dissolve the “Cool Japan Fund,” which has supported the overseas expansion of Japanese anime, food culture, and other content. The fund’s cumulative losses have reached ¥54 billion, sparking debate on 5ch’s News Express+ board over whether its investments were sound, the circumstances of its founding in 2010 under the Democratic Party of Japan government, and its reputation as a landing spot for retired bureaucrats (“amakudari”).

    The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has begun coordinating to dissolve the “Cool Japan Fund,” which has supported the overseas expansion of Japanese anime, food culture, and other content. Its ballooning losses have reached ¥54 billion.

    [See in photos] Cool Japan Fund to be dissolved… losses hit ¥54 billion — were the investments appropriate?

    ■ “Cool Japan Fund” to be dissolved, with losses at ¥54 billion

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

    6AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:34
    50 billion yen, fine, I can live with that.
    The Children and Families Agency's 7-trillion-yen money pit is way worse and hasn't shown any results at all.
    9AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:35
    Re: #6
    Yeah, honestly, this is the one we could really do without.
    144AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:08
    Re: #6
    [Budget Request] METI to invest ¥7.7 trillion in AI, semiconductors, and other growth sectors [Flea Market★]
    https://asahi.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/newsplus/1787265626/
    206AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:31
    Re: #6
    The Self-Defense Forces still haven't even taken back Takeshima, you know.
    48AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:42
    Nobody's going to take responsibility for this.
    If you want them to actually feel it, the only way is to vote them out.
    62AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:46
    Re: #48
    No chance — their support base is corporations and wealthy asset holders.
    52AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:43
    You see a lot of armchair critics online saying 'they should've done it this way' only after a project's already failed — pure hindsight bias.
    But Nico Nico Douga and Cool Japan are cases where people were already calling them bad news at the time, and sure enough, they flopped.
    107AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:55
    Re: #52
    Was Nico Nico Douga really being called risky back then?
    It's past its peak and lost a lot of users, sure, but it hasn't pulled out or gone under — you can't really lump it in with Cool Japan, which just kept bleeding money.
    61AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:46
    Was this ever the kind of business that was going to turn a profit in the first place?
    At best, the only ones coming out ahead are the companies that actually own the content.
    101AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:54
    Re: #61
    If the point was just introducing Japanese culture abroad, then returns shouldn't have mattered — makes you wonder what they were actually thinking.


    In February 2010, under the DPJ government, the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters — headed by then-Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama — adopted the 'Intellectual Property Strategic Program 2010,' launching the government's full-scale push for the Cool Japan strategy and public-private support for overseas expansion.

    Background
    June 2010: The Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters, headed by PM Yukio Hatoyama, adopted the 'Intellectual Property Strategic Program 2010.'
    Content: Positioned overseas expansion, localization, and IP utilization for Japan's pop culture and industries (anime, fashion, food, etc. — 'Cool Japan') as national strategy.
    Debate at the time: Early in the DPJ administration, plans surfaced for a national Media Arts Center (nicknamed the 'Anime Shrine'), but objections from the opposition, public opinion, and even within the ruling party over its budget and structure led to a rocky path and an eventual review.
    64AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:46
    The fund put ¥8 billion into Katana, the company running that JUNGLIA theme park.

    Thanks a lot, LDP.
    71AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:48
    Re: #64
    Guess milking the system (the so-called 'chu-chu scheme') really is the most efficient way to go.
    66AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:47
    With ¥50 billion, how much could they have paid animators instead?
    85AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:51
    Thanks to the Cool Japan Fund, tourist numbers to Japan exploded, though.
    93AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:52
    Re: #85
    No, they didn't.


    [Their heads are Cool-Crazy-Crazy Japan] (wordplay on 'head gone loopy' + 'Cool Japan')
    86AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:51
    The whole point was securing secondment slots and post-retirement landing spots for METI officials — those guys probably don't even care about the business itself.
    The original scheme was to turn investment targets into amakudari landing spots, but with losses piling up everywhere, that plan fell apart, which is why the fund became unnecessary.
    137AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:05
    Re: #86
    The retired baby-boomer/bubble-era bureaucrats who'd been parachuting into this thing all collected their full retirement payouts and stepped down one after another, before anyone could pin responsibility on them.

    Now that the old misers have finally cleared out,
    there's no reason left for it to exist, so they're shutting it down.

    Of course, there's also a theory going around that bureaucrats are timing this shutdown just to undermine the current administration.
    109AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:55
    Re: #66
    Each of them definitely walked away with several million yen.


    Cool Japan's ¥54 billion in losses is bad, but the Children and Families Agency demanding '¥7.8 trillion, hand it over!' is way worse.
    123AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:58
    Re: #109
    The Children and Families Agency's budget is really just funds reshuffled over from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and similar places.
    It's not like the budget actually grew because of the agency.
    133AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:04
    Re: #123
    If it's not actually doing anything, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare might as well spend it on something useful instead.
    146AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:09
    Re: #123
    The bad part is they went out of their way to create the Children and Families Agency just to make it easier to push budgets through.
    Same people, same places doing the milking either way.
    113AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:56
    ¥14 billion to a biofiber startup — what exactly is 'cool' about that?
    115AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:57
    Re: #113
    Honestly, investing in the textile industry in the first place seemed like a stretch to me.
    128AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:02
    I think the key to Japan's revival is boosting the budget for science, technology, and academic research.
    That's how you aim to bring back a technology powerhouse.
    The current government has this in its policy mix too, at least nominally, but it's Tamaki of the Democratic Party for the People pushing it hardest.
    Not trying to promote him or anything, but if there's one place to focus, it's this.
    No more wasting budget on 'Cool Japan' slogans — this is the time for targeted investment.
    135AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:05
    Re: #128
    Japan's science and technology were never the problem — it's the neglect of patent protection that's why people say Japan 'has no technology.'
    147AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:10
    Re: #128
    Prioritize STEM, cut back on humanities/social sciences at private universities (budget for the STEM shift)

    ¥300 billion fund to support universities shifting toward STEM — 'more popular than expected,' though some projects stalled
    https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASTCV2D7GTCVUTIL02GM.html
    According to government sources, the Ministry of Education will add ¥20 billion to the fund for launching new STEM departments in this fiscal year's supplementary budget.
    The fund was created in fiscal 2022 with a total of about ¥300 billion, an unusual program that supports universities from the survey stage, even before a new department is finalized.
    Part of the remaining balance plus the increase — about ¥100 billion combined — will mainly go toward encouraging large private universities in major metro areas, which currently lean humanities-heavy, to shift toward STEM and blended STEM/humanities education.
    The Ministry of Education has set a goal of raising the share of university students majoring in science, engineering, agriculture, and health fields from the current 35% to 52% by 2040.

    National university operating grants: Ministry of Education requests ¥1.2 trillion, an all-time high
    https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUA200LN0Q6A820C2000000/

    Up to ¥4 billion per school to expand STEM programs at urban private universities… Ministry of Education responds to future labor shortages
    www.yomiuri.co.jp/kyoiku/kyoiku/news/20251112-OYT1T50057/
    134AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:04
    Honestly, just deciding to shut this down makes it one of the better outcomes.
    They spent over ¥7 trillion setting up the Children and Families Agency
    and they're still planning more tax hikes going forward.
    At this point it looks less like an anti-declining-birthrate agency and more like a pro-declining-birthrate one.
    155AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:15
    Re: #1
    Takaichi's obviously going to take responsibility for this, right?
    156AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:15
    Re: #155
    It was Naoto Kan who set this up, though?
    159AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:16
    What on earth did those guys actually spend the money on?
    164AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:17
    Re: #159
    Their favorite hostess-club girl, or a luxury car, maybe?
    178AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:22
    Is the goal even for the government to turn a profit?
    If tax money gets spent and Japanese content ends up spreading around the world, isn't that the goal achieved right there?
    186AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:24
    Re: #178
    Even without tax money — actually, even with the government piling on regulations — the content industry spread around the world on its own strength.
    Politicians just jumped on the bandwagon afterward and took credit for it.

    Background and Key Points

    Cool Japan Fund was created in 2013 as a public-private investment vehicle (METI holds the largest stake, with private companies also contributing), designed to help Japanese content, food, and lifestyle brands expand overseas — the “Cool Japan” brand-Japan strategy traces back to the DPJ’s 2010 Intellectual Property Strategic Program under PM Hatoyama. Unlike a subsidy program, it was structured as an investment fund meant to eventually turn a profit or at least break even, taking equity stakes in ventures like anime distributors, Japanese restaurants abroad, and content startups. Cumulative losses reaching ¥54 billion (roughly $360 million) reflect years of write-downs on investments that failed to generate returns, and METI’s move to dissolve it follows repeated Board of Audit and Diet criticism over its investment screening and oversight.

    The thread’s real fault line isn’t whether ¥54 billion is a lot of money — several posters wave that off by comparing it to far larger sums spent elsewhere (the Children and Families Agency’s multi-trillion-yen budget). The actual disagreement is over what the fund was ever supposed to achieve: some argue it was structured as a for-profit investment fund and should be judged as a financial failure, while others argue that if the goal was cultural diffusion rather than returns, the losses were beside the point and profitability was never the right metric.

    What the thread doesn’t spell out is the structural criticism that has followed the fund since its founding: its governance was long flagged as a soft landing spot for retired METI bureaucrats (amakudari), meaning oversight of investment decisions was arguably compromised by the same ministry with a stake in placing staff there — a conflict of interest more consequential than any single bad investment.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (News Express+) thread “Cool Japan Fund to Be Dissolved… Losses Hit ¥54 Billion — What Went Wrong?“.

  • Coke at Mt. Fuji’s Summit Costs 500 Yen — 5ch: “It’s Pricier Than Tokyo Dome, Yet All Anyone Talks About Is Shipping Costs”

    The steep prices at the vending machines and shops atop Mt. Fuji sparked a debate on 5ch’s Nanademo Jikkyo (“Live Commentary”) board. Against posters defending the prices by citing transport and labor costs, a wave of replies pushed back with concrete comparisons, like “Coke at Tokyo Dome is only 400 yen.”

    1AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:14
    Even factoring all that in, it's still a straight-up rip-off, you maggot.
    3AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:15
    Vending machines probably just charge the standard price, right? The bottled drinks are the expensive part though.
    23AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:19
    If it's too expensive, just skip buying it and carry up however much you need yourself.
    26AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:20
    Re: #23
    It's heavy, so hauling it up there is a pain!
    28AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:20
    If you set up shop in front of the Mt. Fuji vending machines and sold bottled drinks for 400 yen, you'd make a killing!
    Amazing.
    33AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:22
    Re: #28
    Nobody's buying a lukewarm Coke that's gone soggy in the drizzle.
    30AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:21
    OP's already gone, huh.
    35AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:22
    Re: #30
    Yeah, there's no way he can win this one.
    56AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:32
    Re: #30
    He's probably hopped on a plane and gone into hiding.
    42AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:24
    https://blog-imgs-47-origin.fc2.com/c/h/i/chikugogawa/IMG_051s.jpg
    They're hauling it up with stuff like this, so it really should be cheaper.
    45AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:25
    100 km— wait, I meant 100 kg.
    61AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:34
    Re: #45
    100 kg a load is pretty inefficient.
    51AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:29
    Eating out is a total rip-off too.
    Like, even on Marugame Seimen's monthly "1st of the month" discount days,
    their daily sales still aren't running at a loss.
    Meaning the business works fine even at that price,
    so the rest of the time they're just charging customers double for no reason.
    53AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:31
    Re: #51
    So it's like how some people would take a civil servant job for 3 million yen a year, yet they go and pay 6 million anyway — that kind of weird?
    57AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:33
    Feels like China would've already rolled out drone delivery for this.
    62AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:34
    Re: #57
    How many round trips is some underpowered drone gonna need?
    65AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:35
    Re: #62
    They can reach the summit of Everest in 8 minutes — this isn't the drone you're picturing.
    67AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:35
    Re: #62
    Update your drone knowledge, man.
    79AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:44
    But how come nobody complains about having to pay to use the toilets?
    80AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:45
    Re: #79
    Kamikochi has toilet attendants, but they barely let anyone in who doesn't look like a hiker — that's shady.
    83AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:49
    When you're making Cup Noodles up there,
    does the water actually get all the way to 100°C?
    84AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:00
    Re: #83
    Does that really matter that much?
    90°C should be plenty.
    88AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:09
    Re: #83
    It boils at around 90°C up there, so it won't get any hotter than that.
    122AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:39
    Re: #83
    No way.
    Eating hard, lukewarm cup noodles and still going "so good, so good" — that's what mountain climbing is.
    91AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:11
    They've got to make all their money during the summer season, so they gouge as hard as they can.
    92AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:12
    Re: #91
    If you think that, why don't you do it yourself then?
    94AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:13
    Re: #92
    Because you can't open a new business there.
    The mountain huts in the national parks are the same — pure vested interests.
    99AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:16
    Re: #94
    So it's just sour grapes, then.
    96AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:14
    Coke at Mt. Fuji's summit → 500 yen

    Coke at Tokyo Dome → 400 yen

    If you're gonna bring up transport costs, you should be complaining about that one first.
    97AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:15
    Re: #96
    Coke at a live house venue is 600 yen…
    109AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:28
    Just come prepared in the first place.
    110AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:29
    Re: #109
    Aquarius is just too tasty, I end up drinking way more than I should 😭
    112AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:29
    Why is it okay for Mt. Fuji to mark up Coke and resell it at a massive premium?
    114AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:32
    Re: #112
    Is water from an oasis in the middle of a desert worth the same as water that comes out when you turn on a tap downtown?
    117AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:35
    If they drilled a shaft through the side of Mt. Fuji and sent supplies up like an elevator, they could probably get it down to around 400 yen.
    119AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:36
    Re: #117
    And who's paying for that construction, exactly?
    120AnonymousAug 22, 2026 17:36
    Re: #117
    How would they even recoup the cost?

    Background and Key Points

    Coke costs 500 yen at a Mt. Fuji summit vending machine because everything above the fifth station has to be hauled up by bulldozer, helicopter, or on the backs of porters — Mt. Fuji has no road or cable car to its 3,776m peak, so vendors running the mountain huts pay for that logistics out of pocket, and it’s a known, decades-old arrangement rather than a new scandal. Similarly, huts and even public toilets on the mountain (and at other national parks like Kamikochi) charge fees because there’s no municipal utility service; someone has to pack out waste and maintain facilities without any public subsidy covering the trail itself. Climbers are also told water actually boils around 90°C at that altitude, not 100°C, due to lower atmospheric pressure — a genuine physical fact, not an urban myth, which is why cup noodles never quite cook properly at the summit.

    The thread’s actual fault line wasn’t “is 500 yen expensive” — nobody defended it as cheap — but whether the transport-cost justification holds up at all once compared to other “expensive” venues. Posters citing Tokyo Dome’s 400 yen Coke argued that a stadium in central Tokyo, with elevators and paved loading docks, still charges only slightly less than a summit reachable only by manual portage, which undercuts the logistics excuse rather than supporting it.

    What outside readers might miss is that this isn’t really a free market: mountain huts on Fuji operate under long-standing concessions inside a national park, so new entrants can’t simply undercut them by opening a cheaper stall, which is why the “just start your own business there” rebuttals in the thread got dismissed as naive rather than as real competitive pressure.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo) thread “Me: “Mt. Fuji’s vending machines are overpriced” Idiots: “It’s the transport costs~ the labor costs~”.”

  • Sony’s New Releases Score in the 80s on Metacritic but Player Counts Are Cratering — Marathon, Saros, and Tokon All Struggling

    Sony’s new releases this year — Marathon, Saros, and Marvel Tokon — all scored in the 80s on Metacritic, yet threads on 5ch’s hardware/industry (“Geha”) board have been buzzing about how fast they’re fizzling out. A post claiming the fighting game Tokon’s peak concurrent player count had dropped to just four digits within ten days of launch drew particular attention, stoking worries about next year’s lineup as well.

    1AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:33
    Aren't they all in trouble? 🤔
    2AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:33
    It's at the point where you'd think they're making garbage on purpose lol
    4AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:36
    Any game that lands in the 'Special Lineup' is basically guaranteed to flop.
    5AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:37
    At this rate every studio's probably getting shut down by next year.
    6AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:38
    Metascores: Marathon 82, Saros 87, Tokon 86 — all comfortably north of 80.
    16AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:42
    Re: #6
    Funny how you never hear any good buzz about them though. Are PS5 owners actually playing these?
    20AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:46
    Re: #6
    Does the Metascore even matter if PlayStation owners aren't buying the games anyway? They only judge by whether it's free or not.
    78AnonymousAug 18, 2026 22:26
    Re: #6
    This is exactly why you can't trust Metacritic — especially for PlayStation games.
    11AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:39
    Tokon's fine since Deadpool was the only thing that went viral.
    13AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:40
    Will 'Space Baldy' (forum nickname for an upcoming Sony sci-fi title) even make it out in time for a disc release?
    15AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:42
    It's basically just a list of names written in the Death Note called 'Special Lineup.'
    19AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:45
    Let's cut Tokon some slack…
    The game itself isn't bad.
    The PSN account-linking requirement on Steam and the lack of optimization are the downsides.
    Other than that it's just… not selling.
    49AnonymousAug 18, 2026 21:01
    Re: #19
    Those downsides are way too big to just brush off.
    50AnonymousAug 18, 2026 21:03
    Re: #19
    It's not just that it's not selling — the real problem is that day one was the peak, and the player count kept dropping all through the first weekend.
    97AnonymousAug 18, 2026 23:36
    Re: #19
    It's not terrible, but the systems feel way too rough compared to other fighting games.
    People are also starting to suspect input-related bugs, so they should fix that along with the PC optimization.
    Honestly, for a combo-heavy game, barely having working input buffering is a straight-up flaw.
    21AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:47
    For Sony, shutting down studios is more profitable than actually making first-party games.
    23AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:48
    [Sad News] Sony's Marvel fighting game Tokon sees peak concurrent players drop to four digits in under 10 days
    https://krsw.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/ghard/1786862471/

    Right now it's declining even faster than Marathon.
    28AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:49
    Re: #23
    Marathon is just boring, but this game is unstable on top of being boring.
    24AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:48
    There are still like 3 more games coming in the Concord series, can't wait. (sarcastic — Concord was Sony's live-service game pulled from sale shortly after launch)
    27AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:49
    Re: #24
    Seriously? lol
    25AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:49
    Hint: the Special Lineup.
    29AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:50
    Are they intentionally trying to make garbage games or something?
    31AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:50
    Re: #28
    Wasn't it something about the anti-cheat being incredibly resource-heavy?
    34AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:51
    Nice try, hater.
    2027 has 'Granny 20,' 'Blackout Dawn 2,' 'Space Baldy,' and 'PC Bank Heist' lined up, you know?? (mocking nicknames for anticipated Sony titles)
    53AnonymousAug 18, 2026 21:07
    Re: #34
    Lol, next year's lineup is already toast too.
    'Blackout Dawn' brings back memories.
    39AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:54
    Um… please don't forget about '4:LOOP'…
    It might be next year, but still…

    52AnonymousAug 18, 2026 21:05
    Re: #39
    It's Sony's Left 4 Dead knockoff, selling itself on having 'former Left 4 Dead staff involved.'
    Already sounds doomed just from that.
    40AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:55
    Nintendo: "Pokoa, Tomodachi Collection, Splatoon, Rhythm Heaven♥"

    Microsoft: "Forza Horizon 6😤"

    Sony: "A-aaaaugh😭"
    43AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:57
    Re: #40
    Lol
    Looking at this, everyone but Sony has a strong first-party lineup this year lol
    47AnonymousAug 18, 2026 20:57
    Re: #40
    The PS5 is the only platform with basically nothing people are talking about this year.
    48AnonymousAug 18, 2026 21:01
    Re: #40
    What even is this.
    76AnonymousAug 18, 2026 22:10
    Saros was actually pretty fun.
    77AnonymousAug 18, 2026 22:22
    Re: #76
    I'd like to know how it stacks up against other bullet-hell shooters like Luna Abyss, but you don't see many comparisons out there……
    Especially now that it's not such a rare genre anymore.
    84AnonymousAug 18, 2026 22:53
    Tokon's domestic marketing has been shockingly nonexistent.
    85AnonymousAug 18, 2026 22:54
    Re: #84
    Haven't heard the name 'Yuke's' in a while. (Japanese developer known for wrestling games)
    86AnonymousAug 18, 2026 22:57
    Sony just doesn't have the sense for making games.
    90AnonymousAug 18, 2026 23:14
    Re: #86
    Well… it's a company that makes Smash Bros knockoffs…
    So yeah, what did you expect.
    95AnonymousAug 18, 2026 23:35
    This is supposed to be the peak of the PS5's lifecycle, but ever since Monster Hunter it's basically been dead air.
    96AnonymousAug 18, 2026 23:36
    Re: #95
    That's because Square Enix and Capcom ran off to the Switch 2.

    Background and Key Points

    Sony’s PlayStation Studios is a first-party portfolio (Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, plus smaller acquired studios like Bungie and Firewalk) that historically leaned on tentpole single-player releases and, since the 2010s, an increasing bet on live-service titles. “Special Lineup” (スペシャルラインナップ) is the marketing banner Sony puts on select PS5 titles for pre-order bonuses and promotion; posters treat inclusion in it as an ill omen because prior recipients (including the shut-down live-service game Concord, referenced sarcastically in the thread) flopped commercially despite the push. Metacritic aggregates critic reviews into a 0-100 score and is widely used in Japan as shorthand for a game’s quality, but it says nothing about sales or ongoing player counts — which is precisely the gap the thread is arguing about.

    The split in the thread isn’t over whether these games are struggling — everyone agrees Marathon, Saros, and Tokon are underperforming. It’s over whether Metacritic scores in the 80s mean anything at all, given that praise doesn’t seem to be translating into buzz or players. Some posters extend that skepticism into naming specific culprits for Tokon (PSN account-linking on Steam, poor PC optimization, possible input-buffer bugs), while others just wave it off as evidence Metacritic “can’t be trusted” for PlayStation titles.

    What readers unfamiliar with the Japanese context might miss is that “Geha” board cynicism toward Sony first-party output has hardened over several years of high-profile live-service cancellations (Concord being the most infamous), so the reflexive “they’re doing this on purpose” jokes reflect accumulated distrust rather than fresh analysis of these three specific games. The thread also never engages with whether Steam concurrent-player figures (the “four digits” cited for Tokon) are even a fair proxy for PS5 sales, since PlayStation platform-specific numbers aren’t public.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (“Geha”)) thread “This Year’s Sony Games: ‘Marathon, Saros, Marvel Tokon, Wolverine (planned)’ — Yeah, This.”

  • Dark-Horse Indian Jockey Scores First JRA Win — 5ch: “Hokkaido’s Farms Are Crawling With Indians”

    At Sapporo Racecourse’s 3-year-old maiden race, Suraj Narredu (India), a jockey visiting Japan for the World All Star Jockeys event, scored his first JRA win in just his second ride. On 5ch threads, the win itself took a backseat to talk about the surging number of Indian staff at Hokkaido’s horse-training farms and stables, and the 200-year history behind Indian horse racing.

    Praise has been pouring in on social media for the foreign jockey who claimed his first JRA win aboard a long shot. In the 6th race at Sapporo on the 22nd — a 3-year-old maiden race over 2,600m on turf with 13 horses entered (Realize Pario was scratched) — Fiere Chante (filly, age 3, trained by Kensuke Ogura at Ritto, sired by Fierement), the 6th favorite at 22.2x odds, won comfortably by two and a half lengths. Suraj Narredu, in Japan for the World All Star Jockeys (WASJ) event, picked up his first JRA win in just his second ride.

    Breaking evenly from gate 5, Fiere Chante settled into 6th, mid-pack. As rivals began moving from the backstretch into the third corner, she patiently held her ground along the rail. Her jockey started urging her on a touch early, but once they turned for home he drove her hard, and she gradually found another gear, reeling in Gion Bayashi — who had opened up a lead — right at the wire. She pulled clear for a comfortable two-and-a-half-length win. Winning time was 2:41.4 (good going).

    Narredu, on his first trip to Japan for WASJ, made his debut ride in Sapporo’s 3rd race aboard Mon Royale (3rd favorite), finishing 4th. But in just his second ride he pulled off a brilliant win, and when handed the microphone in the winner’s circle, he beamed and said, “It feels like I’ve reached the top of the world.”

    Source: article.auone.jp / Read the original article here

    7AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:19
    Wait, does India even have horse racing?
    50AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:08
    Re: #7
    Apparently Hokkaido's horse-breeding regions are turning into an Indian stronghold.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6GoKvNi2lA
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmuHAv9no7I
    53AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:15
    Re: #7
    It's a tradition from England, dummy.
    Over 200 years of tradition, dummy.
    This is why Japan is like this, dummy.
    97AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:38
    Re: #7
    There is — an Indian-bred horse has even run in the Japan Cup before.
    And for pace-setting workouts, it trains alongside an elephant (lol — a play on "awase-uma," the term for paired training gallops).
    8AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:20
    I heard Indians don't eat beef or pork — but do they eat horse?
    83AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:21
    Re: #8
    Isn't it Islam that bans eating pork, not Hinduism?
    14AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:25
    https://img.sportsbull.jp/raw/2026081912110482d238.jpg
    59AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:23
    Re: #14
    Haha, that's Nagura! (comedian Naoto Nagura — apparently there's a resemblance)
    19AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:34
    Re: #1
    >https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQTI0MwaEAAWz68.jpg

    The whole family's rocking sunglasses, very Indian.

    Totally "Shanti" vibes.
    21AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:35
    So he's not some jockey from Britain, the old colonial ruler — he actually rides in Indian racing day to day?
    30AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:43
    Re: #21
    His first time riding in England was only last year, in an invitational jockeys' race.
    It's fair to say Indian jockeys almost never ride in England.
    Though they probably do go over for horse-breaking and training facilities.
    23AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:36
    Re: #10
    Guess it's already gotten pretty wild over there.
    33AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:47
    Re: #23
    Apparently plenty of people working at the training farms in Hidaka or Urakawa only know one Japanese jockey — Yutaka Take — but among Indians working in the horse business, it's said there's basically nobody who doesn't know Narredu.
    26AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:40
    Michelle


    Veron
    34AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:49
    With all the scandals young jockeys keep having, JRA's short on talent — guess they've got to bring in foreigners.
    40AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:57
    Re: #34
    Honestly, if they just added more special-designated races to bring in more regional (NAR) horses, that would pull in regional jockeys too and things would sort themselves out.

    Though they'd need perks too — like not docking the starting allowance even if a regional horse finishes past the time limit, as a reward for horses that bring a jockey along with them.
    39AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:55
    Re: #1
    41AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:58
    Are the people leading horses around the paddock at regional tracks Indian too, I wonder?
    45AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:06
    Re: #41
    Yeah. There used to be a lot concentrated in Nagoya and Monbetsu, but now they're everywhere.
    51AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:09
    Re: #41
    Seems like the racing world can't really run anymore without foreign stable hands.
    NHK did a whole feature following one Indian stable hand.
    44AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:02
    Japan's probably the only place that fawns over jockeys like this.
    No wonder Michelle loves it here — must feel like being treated as an idol.
    49AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:08
    Wasn't there something about him being "India's Shinzan"? (Shinzan — a legendary Japanese Triple Crown winner)
    57AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:18
    Re: #49
    That's just, like, your own opinion.
    The ruby embedded in his forehead, though — that's a bit much.
    I really don't think that's the same thing.
    52AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:13
    Re: #33
    So basically he's the Yutaka Take of India.
    74AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:49
    Re: #52
    Well if you're going to say that, isn't the real one already "Japan's Take Yutaka" lol
    Does India even have its own Take Yutaka? lololol
    101AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:51
    Re: #74
    Mii-chan, lol (a fan nickname for Yutaka Take)
    63AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:34
    Who's that gorgeous jockey holding the number board?
    67AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:39
    Re: #63
    That's Marie Vélon, from France.
    70AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:45
    Sounds like Indian workers basically run the training farms now.
    71AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:47
    Re: #70
    Can't be helped, really — Japanese people don't want this kind of grueling, dirty, dangerous work (the classic "3K" job).

    You've got to genuinely love horses to do it.
    76AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:04
    ◆ Suraj Narredu (India) — First appearance

    "Getting to ride in Japan means a huge amount to me. I've thought Japanese racing was the best since I was young. Indian racing also has 200 years of history, and even today horses are still used as a means of transportation. I'd guess most Indians can probably ride a horse."
    99AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:49
    Re: #76
    It really comes down to how many Japanese people can even ride a horse and actually want to work in this industry.
    Even before you get to pay and conditions, there just aren't many people with the skills to do the job properly.

    Background and Key Points

    The JRA (Japan Racing Association) runs Japan’s premier “central” racing circuit, distinct from regional NAR tracks, and Hokkaido’s Hidaka and Urakawa districts are the country’s thoroughbred-breeding heartland, dotted with the training farms (bokujo) that condition and pre-train young horses before they reach a trainer’s stable. Japan’s rural workforce has been shrinking for years, and farm labor — feeding, mucking out, handling horses in all weather — is exactly the kind of physically demanding “3K” work younger Japanese increasingly avoid, so farms have turned to foreign staff, with Indian workers now a visible and growing presence in that pipeline. Narredu himself is not a novelty import: Indian racing traces back roughly two centuries to British colonial-era clubs, and he is one of India’s most decorated jockeys, in Japan specifically for the World All-Star Jockeys (WASJ) series that invites elite international riders to compete alongside JRA stars like Yutaka Take.

    Where the thread actually diverged was less about the race result than about scale — some posters treated the Indian-staff phenomenon as a quirky, isolated aside, while others insisted it reflects a structural shift, with entire farm workforces and even paddock handlers now largely non-Japanese, to the point NHK has documented it.

    One thing the thread muddled: a poster wondered whether Indians “eat horse” and floated a beef/pork taboo without sorting out which religion holds which restriction — Hinduism (India’s majority religion) generally avoids beef, while the pork taboo belongs to Islam, a distinction the thread never actually resolved.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[Horse Racing] Dark-horse Indian jockey Narredu praised online after scoring his first JRA win: “He should get a full-year license,” “Total rich-guy energy”.”

  • Hanshin’s Ihara Ryuto Hit with Report of Trouble with Woman — Tabloid Alleges Verbal Abuse at Drinking Party; Club Apologizes, Says It’s “Confirming the Facts”

    A tabloid magazine has reported that Hanshin Tigers pitcher Ryuto Ihara verbally abused a woman and pulled her hair at a drinking party this past January. The club’s head of public relations apologized at a press conference, stating that the club is “currently confirming the facts” and that no decision on the player’s future treatment will be made at this time.

    In the thread, comments were mixed: some pointed out that since no police report has been filed, a settlement may have already been reached; others speculated he may have been “set up” — provoked into anger while being secretly filmed; and still others questioned whether the club’s response was too lenient.

    A tabloid magazine has reported on trouble involving a woman and Hanshin Tigers pitcher Ryuto Ihara (26). According to the report, he verbally abused a woman and pulled her hair, among other actions, at a drinking party he attended with teammates this past January.

    [Photo included] Hanshin fans sigh… Ihara gives up 4 runs in one inning for the second straight game

    Club head of public relations Kuniyoshi Onishi, who addressed the press, apologized, saying, “We deeply apologize for the great concern this has caused our fans and everyone involved.” He went on to explain, “We are checking with [Ihara] and confirming the facts. Based on the facts we confirm, we will respond carefully and appropriately. As for his future treatment, that is not something we are in a position to decide at this stage, so going forward we intend to proceed while discussing it within the team.”

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

    2AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:27
    Kind of like the Yonsentoushin thing (a comedy duo also caught in a recent scandal), there's been a lot of this lately.
    Throwing away your career over something this dumb is just idiotic.
    5AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:30
    A lot of these guys get a sense of invincibility from their SNS follower counts and start acting tough, totally misreading the room.
    7AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:32
    Just file the police report already.
    Let the courts sort out black and white.
    9AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:32
    > No police report has been filed
    So no problem then?
    10AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:33
    An arrest could still be on the cards, y'know (´・ω・｀)
    11AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:34
    Funny how they crack down hard when someone verbally abuses a player, but go easy when a player does the verbal abuse — or assault.
    12AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:34
    Getting caught on video like that, he was totally set up.
    Rough story.
    55AnonymousAug 20, 2026 10:14
    Re: #12
    Can't shake the feeling someone deliberately provoked him and baited the whole thing.
    Definitely smells fishy.
    13AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:34
    Whether they can reach a settlement will probably decide everything.
    14AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:34
    Incoming: the Baseball Squadron, "But Soccer This, Soccer That" Rangers
    16AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:35
    Soccer has the World Cup as a goal,
    so the players actually put in the effort.
    "Yakyuu" (a dismissive slang term for baseball) has nothing like that, so you get stuff like this all the time.
    18AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:36
    Former manager Okada: "Baseball players have always been targeted, you know" (´・ω・｀)
    21AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:40
    They need to crack down hard on this now.
    Hanshin players already get spoiled rotten by all their "tanimachi" patrons (wealthy fan-sponsors) as it is.
    23AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:42
    Whatever happened with the Yomiuri Giants' Yamaguchi case?
    25AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:44
    There's the Hiroshima precedent, after all.
    Handle the punishment cleanly and their reputation actually goes up.
    28AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:46
    Re: #25
    Hiroshima botched the handling, though.
    26AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:44
    At least Hanshin responding quickly after getting scooped by a tabloid isn't so bad.
    30AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:48
    Hanshin winning it all again this year?

    They got totally crushed by SoftBank in the Japan Series though.

    Is SoftBank weak against Yokohama (DeNA)?
    I heard with all their parent company's IT/AI backing, SoftBank has insane data management on every opposing player —
    something about AI spitting out multiple answers before each at-bat based on data on the opposing pitcher and catcher?
    88AnonymousAug 20, 2026 12:20
    Re: #30
    Hanshin has its own version too — once the consensus forms in the izakaya grapevine that "we don't need Fujinami," they cut him loose. So their system kind of works too.
    34AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:51
    Cutting him would actually boost their reputation,
    and then SoftBank would just scoop him up.
    39AnonymousAug 20, 2026 09:56
    Re: #34
    Ah, I see — the Yamakawa pattern.
    43AnonymousAug 20, 2026 10:05
    No police report filed means they paid her off to keep quiet.
    So he just walks away scot-free?
    45AnonymousAug 20, 2026 10:05
    Re: #43
    If so, I guess that's a win-win?
    49AnonymousAug 20, 2026 10:08
    What are they gonna do about the weekend starting rotation?
    Both Haruto and Saiki are off the active roster right now.
    51AnonymousAug 20, 2026 10:09
    Re: #49
    Haruto is pitching Sunday.
    They just shifted his start to line up with the Giants series.
    67AnonymousAug 20, 2026 11:06
    What's he even doing pulling this stuff in the middle of the pennant race?
    Sponsors flock to Ohtani precisely because of how disciplined and safe he is — heading straight home after every game.
    69AnonymousAug 20, 2026 11:10
    Re: #67
    This happened back in January, remember.
    77AnonymousAug 20, 2026 11:38
    More shocking to me was Oyama eating rebanira (liver-and-chives stir-fry) alone.
    I want Oyama to explain that one himself.
    80AnonymousAug 20, 2026 11:59
    Re: #77
    He only announced his divorce recently,
    so any new relationship would still be in the early stages.

    His close friends on the team who are the same age all have wives and kids and prioritize family,
    so nobody invites him out after work, and he ends up eating alone.
    98AnonymousAug 20, 2026 12:51
    Pulling someone's hair is assault.
    This isn't something to brush off.
    Did the woman do something wrong too?
    103AnonymousAug 20, 2026 13:03
    Re: #98
    Well, he's a drunk jock type, after all.
    If no police report gets filed, it'll probably just end with a stern warning.
    99AnonymousAug 20, 2026 12:54
    Come to think of it, didn't "Gashiman" get off scot-free in the end? Guess the move to SoftBank counted as his atonement ritual, lol.
    101AnonymousAug 20, 2026 12:56
    Re: #99
    Kind of like Sugawara no Michizane's exile to Dazaifu, lol (a famous historical exile used here as a joke about being sent away as "purification").

    Background and Key Points

    Hanshin Tigers scandals get filtered through Japan’s weekly tabloid ecosystem (shūkanshi like this one), which specializes in breaking athlete and celebrity misconduct stories before police or leagues act — the club here is reacting to a magazine scoop, not an official complaint. Ihara’s case sits alongside a string of recent NPB precedents readers won’t recognize by name: Hiroshima’s Carp handled a similar off-field incident and, per posters, “botched” the response; Yomiuri’s Yamaguchi and Seibu’s Yamakawa each had different outcomes for comparable trouble; and one poster’s crack about “Sugawara no Michizane’s exile to Dazaifu” references a 9th-century courtier banished from the capital — a stock joke for players quietly traded away as a face-saving punishment, as some suspect happened with Fujinami.

    The thread’s real fault line isn’t whether the incident happened but what “no police report” implies. One camp reads it as evidence of a paid-off settlement, meaning Ihara faces no real consequence beyond embarrassment; another suspects he was baited into losing his temper while secretly filmed, making him the target rather than the aggressor; a third simply thinks NPB and Hanshin go easy on players compared to how harshly abusive fans are treated.

    What outside readers may not grasp is how normalized settlements are in Japan for exactly this reason — paying a complainant to withdraw interest in pursuing police involvement is a routine, culturally accepted way to avoid prosecution and media escalation, not evidence of guilt or innocence either way. The thread also never engages with “tanimachi,” the traditional wealthy-patron system that bankrolls players’ off-field lifestyles, which one poster blames for enabling this kind of behavior in the first place.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “Hanshin’s Ihara Ryuto Hit with Report of Trouble with Woman — Tabloid Alleges Verbal Abuse at Drinking Party; Club Apologizes, Says It’s “Confirming the Facts””.

  • Free Gaming PC Giveaway Branded a ‘Scam’ After Poster Demands Amazon Gift Cards

    A thread starter who posted “I’ll give away my gaming PC for free” suddenly began demanding a ¥10,000 Amazon gift card from anyone who wanted to claim it. Fellow posters piled on with comments like “that’s a scam” and “someone should report this,” and when the poster tried to explain it away as “just a drill,” it only drew more ridicule.

    1AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:05
    I'll hand it over for free if you come pick it up.
    If you want it shipped, you'll have to cover the postage yourself 🙏
    4AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:07
    I'd go grab it if it's nearby
    Where are you located?
    11AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:09
    Re: #4
    Thanks!
    It's the one with an RTX 5090
    30AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:16
    Re: #11,17
    This is obviously a scam, however you look at it 🥺
    77AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:52
    Re: #11
    Scam alert! Scam alert!
    5AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:07
    Hard to say much without knowing the specs
    16AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:11
    Even just the graphics card alone would go for tens of thousands of yen
    17AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:11
    Thanks
    Whoever wants to take it, please send a ¥10,000 Amazon gift card here first
    [email protected]
    I'll pay it right back to you, of course
    23AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:13
    Re: #17
    Forget that, just hurry up and post the pickup location
    27AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:14
    Re: #17
    That's a crime, dude
    20AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:12
    Seems like the OP's idea of "free" is different from mine
    26AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:14
    Re: #20
    It's free
    The Amazon gift card is just a deposit
    It's a common thing to do
    31AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:16
    Re: #26
    A deposit for what, exactly, lol
    32AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:16
    Re: #26
    Please explain what kind of "deposit" that's even supposed to be
    21AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:13
    Thank you, I've confirmed it
    22AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:13
    If you take the gift card and never ship the PC, that's straight-up fraud, you know
    25AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:13
    Why would I need to pay any money?
    I'll come pick it up, so just tell me the location
    28AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:15
    This is the same setup as a refund scam
    Claim there's a "handling fee" and demand money
    Someone should really report this
    39AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:21
    This was just a drill
    Anyone who fell for it, be more careful next time
    43AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:22
    Re: #39
    LOL there he is
    You're done, buddy
    50AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:24
    Is this the right place to report it?
    https://www.internethotline.jp/reports6/
    51AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:25
    Re: #50
    Same here, used this one too
    59AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:31
    Re: #50
    Guess I'll drop this URL here too
    56AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:29
    This kind of chaos is hilarious
    Where Re: #1 gets cocky and everyone turns into "I'm reporting you!"
    Glad this turned into a fun thread
    80AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:54
    Re: #56
    Wait, is this you talking to yourself (sockpuppeting)?
    61AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:34
    I've actually got a 5090 sitting in my room
    62AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:35
    Re: #61
    What are you even using it for?
    66AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:37
    Enough already
    What "crime" is that supposed to be, idiot
    74AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:50
    Re: #66
    Attempted fraud, obviously
    70AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:44
    ID:FakoMiO90
    http://hissi.org/read.php/livegalileo/20260821/RmFrb01pTzkw.html?thread=all
    82AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:55
    Re: #70
    Posting on the board is literally his job, must be a "white" (non-exploitative) workplace with actual lunch breaks
    79AnonymousAug 21, 2026 15:53
    Anyone want to buy my Dospara Galleria?
    i7 860
    GTX960 OC
    16GB
    256GB SSD
    It's an absolute monster machine
    93AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:15
    Re: #79
    Looks like it'd fetch about ¥10,000 on Mercari
    95AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:16
    Re: #79
    A monster in a certain sense, sure
    96AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:17
    Re: #79
    LOL that's worse than my old PC
    87AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:08
    Are those "giving away a PC" flyers actually sketchy?
    101AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:25
    >Re: #87
    If it's one of those "paid giveaway" events, yeah it's sketchy
    Just think of it as a garbage event designed to reel in people who don't know better
    102AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:26
    Re: #87
    That's an event where they dump certified garbage on you
    98AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:22
    Anyway, I actually went ahead and sent the Amazon gift card
    103AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:26
    Re: #101
    How is it a "giveaway" when it's actually paid? 🤔
    104AnonymousAug 21, 2026 16:34
    Re: #103
    mb, sth glitchd out, sry

    Background and Key Points

    5ch (formerly 2channel) is Japan’s largest anonymous forum, and “Nanji Jikkyou” (なんJ) is one of its busiest sports/variety subforums, known for fast-moving joke threads that can turn serious in seconds. The GPU in question, an RTX 5090, is Nvidia’s current flagship card, retailing well above ¥300,000 in Japan — so a “free” giveaway suddenly gated behind a ¥10,000 Amazon gift card is instantly recognizable to Japanese readers as the classic small-deposit-before-the-big-payout script used in phone and SNS fraud. The board link posters dropped, internethotline.jp, is not a joke; it’s Japan’s real Internet Hotline Center, a body commissioned by the National Police Agency to field reports of exactly this kind of solicitation.

    The thread didn’t split over whether gift-card-first requests are shady — everyone agreed on that. The actual disagreement was over motive: some treated OP as a garden-variety scammer to be reported, while others (after OP claimed it was “just a drill”) suspected the whole thing was a bait/troll post, with one user even accusing OP of replying to himself using multiple IDs to keep the ridicule going.

    What outside readers likely miss is the “ID” checking culture on 5ch: each post carries a per-thread ID, and sites like hissi.org let anyone pull up every post that ID made that day, which is exactly how the sockpuppet accusation got made — a built-in, community-run anti-spam mechanism unique to this kind of board culture.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanji Jikkyou) thread “I don’t need my gaming PC anymore, is anyone willing to take it off my hands?“.

  • Giants’ Yamato Shiroki throws 5 scoreless innings in first career start, catcher Takuya Kai’s game-calling also becomes a talking point

    In the Giants–Carp game, Yamato Shiroki, making his first official start, pitched 5 scoreless innings in front of a 14-person cheering section that included his parents who had traveled from Ehime, and left the mound with a chance for his first career win. On the thread, praise for Shiroki’s strong outing mixed with divided opinions over regular catcher Takuya Kai’s game-calling and how he should be used going forward.

    1AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:36
    Previous thread
    Giants Acting Manager 109
    3AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:36
    Tokyo Dome
    Starting Lineups
    [Giants] [Carp]
    4 Urata 8 Akiyama
    8 Sasaki 4 Kikuchi
    6 Izumiguchi 7 Fabian
    3 Dalbec 5 Sakakura
    5 Sakamoto 3 Montero
    7 Matsumoto 9 Sasaki
    9 Sasahara 6 Katsuta
    2 Kai 2 Ishihara
    1 Shiroki 1 Tamamura
    4AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:43
    Ishizuka's just not developing into anything, is he. Zero sense of talent from him.
    5AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:44
    If Kai's game-calling today gets weirdly overpraised and he ends up starting more because of it, that's going to be a problem.
    6AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:45
    Well, in terms of raw talent Asano's above him anyway — Ishizuka's more of a 'raw tools' type.
    9AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:46
    Point out that it was just a cheap dome home run and suddenly it's 'oh, so you ARE watching the games' lol
    11AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:47
    Kai's the best at game-calling, no question about it. That's just obvious.
    12AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:47
    19AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:53
    Everyone was dead against drafting Matsu-Go, but 'Unagi' (Eel — nickname for the scout/exec) was desperate to get him. And now look at this performance. Guess Unagi really is a god after all.
    30AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:56
    Re: #19
    Our team's thread really does love flip-flopping, doesn't it
    21AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:53
    If Kai settles in as a high-priced backup catcher, what happens to catcher Kishida?
    22AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:53
    Matsumoto had a season where he hit 5 homers even back in the spacious Sapporo Dome days, so it's not like he's totally powerless.
    25AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:54
    Didn't know a glove that color was even legal.
    26AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:55
    Basama walking a batter who looks like a lifeless zombie up there.
    27AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:55
    The Carp are losing again…

    Do they even want to win?
    29AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:56
    If things keep going like this, are the Dragons (Chunichi) actually gonna climb out of last place?
    31AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:56
    Eh, don't really care either way, though.
    32AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:57
    [Giants] First-time starter Yamato Shiroki roars out of a 5th-inning jam! Pitches 5 scoreless innings in front of a 14-person cheering section, including his parents who traveled from Ehime, and leaves the mound eligible for his first career win
    https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1a6dd5071079dad24ace4e32ce2634dd456be697
    33AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:57
    Re: #24
    He's still out there playing just fine, isn't he.
    Total success story.
    38AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:58
    Kai: 300 million yen
    Oshiro: 160 million yen
    Is this seriously allowed?
    39AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:58
    A zombie-like Kero lineup (a lifeless, weak batting order) isn't much of a benchmark for anything, but if you want to bag something like a 'first career win,' this is the best matchup for it.
    Get that first win and the weird pressure disappears.
    43AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:58
    Hiroshima's middle infield is seriously done for.
    Kikuchi's about the only one there who'd still have value anywhere else.
    44AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:59
    It's pretty rare to see a Giants FA signing like Kai who isn't even injured but just stopped being used.
    70AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:06
    Re: #44
    Kadokura, Morifuku, Inou…
    48AnonymousAug 22, 2026 15:59
    Yakult's Iwata doesn't seem to be getting into games these days, so maybe he could be had?
    51AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:00
    No idea what type of guy Kai is, but if he's making that kind of salary, I'd grit my teeth and just endure it.
    53AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:00
    George is great, huh.
    Days where he does absolutely nothing are basically gone now.
    71AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:06
    Ryuya Matsumoto (born April 29, 1993) is a former professional baseball player (pitcher) from Miki, Kita District, Kagawa Prefecture. Throws left, bats left.

    Ryuya Matsumoto (born September 18, 1999) is a professional baseball player (pitcher) from Sakurai, Nara Prefecture. Throws right, bats right. Plays for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

    Is that really just a coincidence?
    I mean, it's not his fault it's a coincidence, but I kind of hope this one doesn't stick around too long.
    100AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:09
    imgur.com/a/gD1gVOL
    121AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:10
    Re: #100 ← Isn't this kind of sad, you guys?
    112AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:09
    If the Tigers lose it's only a 2-game gap, right?
    Is that actually okay?
    119AnonymousAug 22, 2026 16:10
    Re: #112
    We don't even know yet if our team's gonna win.

    Background and Key Points

    Giants pitcher and catcher salaries and roles are what a non-Japanese reader needs unpacked here. Yamato Shiroki is a young Giants right-hander making his first official NPB start; the fact that his parents traveled from Ehime Prefecture for a 14-person cheering section reflects the common Japanese practice of family and hometown supporters organizing group attendance (“応援団”) for a player’s milestone game, especially a first start or first win. Takuya Kai is the more relevant background figure: he spent his career as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ Gold Glove-caliber starting catcher before signing a big free-agent deal with the Giants, reportedly around 300 million yen a year (roughly $2 million), a huge sum for a player who, as posters note, is a backup rather than a starter in his new team — an unusual outcome for an FA catcher of his reputation.

    The thread’s actual disagreement is narrow: whether Kai’s game-calling in this particular start should be credited for Shiroki’s five scoreless innings, or whether that’s overreading one clean outing against a weak Carp lineup into a case for making Kai the regular starter over incumbent catcher Shinnosuke Ogasawara/Kishida. Some posters flatly credit Kai as simply the best defensive catcher on the roster; others push back that it’s premature and could unfairly bump the developing catchers.

    What outsiders likely miss is the roster politics behind that pushback: Japanese teams tend to favor continuity and a catcher’s rapport with specific pitchers, so praising Kai’s calling after one game touches a real tension between paying for a proven veteran and developing younger talent like Kishida, not just a stats debate.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Giants Acting Manager 110”.

  • Yasuda Kinen Winner Six Pence Finishes Last in French G1 — 5ch: ‘Britain and France Are Becoming Galápagos Islands’

    Six Pence, who won the Yasuda Kinen paired with Yutaka Take, sank to dead last in France’s G1 Prix Jacques le Marois, while Strauss also finished 9th. On 5ch, a wave of skepticism broke out over the team’s choice of track and the horse losing his response mid-race, and the discussion grew into a broader debate about how Japanese racing should handle overseas campaigns — and about the declining standing of European racing itself.

    France’s G1 Prix Jacques le Marois

    The overseas G1 Prix Jacques le Marois was run on the 16th over 1,600 meters on turf at Deauville, France. Six Pence (5-year-old colt, trained by Hiroyasu Tanaka), competing from Japan, finished last in 10th, while Strauss (5-year-old colt, Takei) came in 9th. After the race, the team left comments on the JRA’s official website.

    Six Pence, who captured the G1 Yasuda Kinen in June alongside Yutaka Take, had carried heavy expectations. He broke well, but lost his response to the aids early and dropped to last, trailing even 9th-place Strauss.

    Source: the-ans.jp / Original article here

    2AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:25
    Because watching Naoya Railway on YouTube is more fun than watching the 'Peace-kun' swan at Omiya Park (a viral mascot bird, unrelated aside)
    3AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:26
    Guess Taiki Shuttle really was the strongest after all
    5AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:26
    That's about all he's got
    Though I'd be shocked if he just waltzes to a win in the autumn Mile Championship after this
    7AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:31
    Re: #1
    The whole strategy this time round was flawed to begin with
    10AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:33
    No way he was winning when he was already worn out from the post parade
    13AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:34
    Japan's strongest sprinter is Lord Kanaloa, strongest miler is Taiki Shuttle
    30AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:49
    Re: #13
    Still comes down to this, huh
    14AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:37
    Horses are like people — they have off days too
    15AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:39
    He used up all his power in his last race, so there's nothing left in the tank
    16AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:39
    Were the two Japanese horses running the inside rail or the outside rail?
    17AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:39
    I mean, why was everyone assuming a horse that merely scored an upset win at the Yasuda Kinen would run well in the Jacques le Marois in the first place?
    29AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:49
    Re: #17
    Yeah, exactly.
    If it were a horse on the level of Maurice or Kanaloa, I'd get it, but…
    18AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:40
    More than that, wasn't the track selection a huge blunder?
    Strategic mistake
    19AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:41
    Japan's sprint division is weak right now, so there's no point dragging them overseas
    21AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:41
    The turn never came, so he probably just lost his motivation
    22AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:43
    As long as he's not hurt, it's fine
    Just make sure that experience gets put back into Japanese racing
    23AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:44
    Why did they run a horse with zero experience racing on a straight course way out wide, off the pack, the whole way? He pulled up like he'd completely lost the will to race
    48AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:09
    Re: #23
    When they trained him on ground with a bit of moisture, he was slipping and sliding
    On race day too, the penetrometer read 3.4, equivalent to 'yielding' going (per Green Channel's X post)
    They may have been trying to run him where the ground looked better
    25AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:44
    Guess it's no good unless world-class Miura is in the saddle
    26AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:45
    Re: #25
    For a straight course it'd be Kikuzawa, right
    31AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:52
    Isn't switching leads — from right lead to left — partway through part of the jockey's job?
    37AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:56
    Re: #31
    They're not machines, they don't always do what they're told
    35AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:55
    He's a Kizuna offspring, isn't he
    Guess his ability just isn't there
    39AnonymousAug 17, 2026 19:57
    Re: #35
    Kitasan Black got dropped by 120 lengths in the King George, so which sire's offspring would actually cut it then?
    62AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:23
    Re: #48
    Wasn't the story that the outside part he ran on was the soggy ground,
    while the inside wasn't wet but was all chewed up and bumpy?
    72AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:37
    Re: #62
    Take and Takei are saying opposite things
    Take says it was 'firm ground, suits Japanese horses,' while Takei says it was 'soft'
    65AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:29
    Re: #1
    Huh? Not quite following,
    but does that mean the Japanese entrants swept 1st and 2nd place — counting from the bottom?
    66AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:30
    Re: #65
    Yeah, dead last was basically a solo run, way off the rest of the field
    67AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:31
    Meisho Tabaru might be the last hope
    Can't imagine another top-tier contender ending up with Yutaka Take again
    70AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:34
    Re: #67
    Gold Ship's a faint hope, but he'll probably vanish off-screen halfway down the stretch (Gold Ship is notorious for erratic, unpredictable running)
    71AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:36
    Some people here still equate 'overseas' with 'Britain and France,'
    but Japanese horses hold up just fine on the world stage —
    if anything, it's Britain and France that are turning into a Galápagos.

    Japan's getting results in the US, Australia, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
    It's just sprinters that aren't winning like they used to.
    Dirt racing, meanwhile, is winning big.
    78AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:46
    Re: #71
    Britain → Finally settled on their next chairman, but now another track's announced it's pulling out

    France → Cash-strapped, though they're lining up various events to bring in money
    79AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:54
    Re: #78
    Ascot, Epsom, Newmarket, and Sandown all announced they were pulling out, right?
    Feels like the only notable G1s left were the International Stakes and the St Leger
    83AnonymousAug 17, 2026 21:00
    Re: #79
    The Jockey Club's announced it's pulling out too
    81AnonymousAug 17, 2026 20:58
    Take always seems to leave comments like 'the horse wasn't good enough' when he loses, and 'I rode well' when he wins, doesn't he
    90AnonymousAug 17, 2026 21:20
    Take's still winning G1s — insane for a guy past 50
    Okabe barely won any G1s in his later years, right
    95AnonymousAug 17, 2026 21:50
    Re: #90
    Though Okabe was still winning G1s right up until just before he turned 54 too
    After that his knee injury kept him from riding the way he wanted

    Background and Key Points

    The Prix Jacques le Marois is a Group 1 run each August at Deauville on France’s Normandy coast, one of Europe’s premier miler tests and traditionally a marquee target for Japanese raiders since it sits close on the calendar to the Yasuda Kinen, the JRA’s own top mile race run at Tokyo in June. Six Pence’s Yasuda Kinen win was itself an upset, and sending a horse straight from that into a top European field is a well-worn but risky JRA strategy, since European turf, smaller fields, and pace shapes differ sharply from Japan’s. Going readings matter enormously in Europe — the “penetrometer” figure cited in the thread is the French equivalent of the going stick, and a 3.4 reading corresponds to soft (“yielding”) ground, which suits a very different type of horse than the firm, fast Tokyo turf Six Pence is bred for.

    The thread’s real fault line wasn’t the loss itself but its cause: some blamed a specific tactical error — running wide on the rail the team judged safer — while others argued the whole trip was misguided from the start, since a single Yasuda Kinen victory doesn’t equate to Group 1-winning class in Europe. Notably, Take and Takei gave contradictory accounts of the ground, which the thread flagged but never resolved.

    What outside readers may miss is that Japan’s “overseas struggles” are narrower than the “Galápagos” framing suggests: JRA horses have been winning consistently in Dubai, Hong Kong, Australia, and increasingly on US dirt, while British and French racing has been the outlier — several historic tracks and sponsors withdrawing from top fixtures, a real structural decline the thread only touches on in passing.

    *This article is compiled by excerpting and summarizing the 5ch (Entertainment & Sports News+) thread ‘Heartbreaking Last Place — What Happened to the G1 Horse and Yutaka Take? “He lost his response partway through,” “By the time the post parade was over…” — Team Speaks Out‘.

  • JA Chairman: ‘¥3,500 for 5kg of Rice Is a Fair Price’ — Hints at Cutting Farmer Advance Payments

    Miyata, chairman of the prefectural JA (Japan Agricultural Cooperatives) Group, has proposed 3,500 yen per 5kg as a price both producers and consumers could accept, while also hinting at a major cut to the advance payments made to farmers. On 5channel, reactions ranged from defenders saying “they just want to make JA the villain,” to posts describing the reality of rice oversupply and users’ own declining rice consumption, to suspicion about why prices aren’t actually falling.

    1AnonymousAug 22, 2026 13:56
    Amid continued rice oversupply driven by persistently high prices, the prefectural JA Group indicated on the 26th that 3,500 yen per 5kg would serve as a benchmark price acceptable to both producers and consumers.
    Miyata, chairman of the prefectural JA Group, hinted at a major reduction in the "advance payment" — the sum paid to farmers when purchasing their rice.
    ■Koichi Miyata, Chairman of the Prefectural JA Group
    10AnonymousAug 22, 2026 13:59
    There it is again.
    They just really want to paint JA as some evil organization no matter what.
    47AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:13
    Re: #10
    The ones doing wrong are the parasites — JA's just the host.
    89AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:34
    Re: #10
    From a consumer's perspective, they ARE the evil organization though.
    20AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:03
    ・Cut out middleman brokers as much as possible
    ・Shut down the rice futures market
    ・Handle Norinchukin Bank's losses by either cutting them loose or shifting to state support

    Do all that first before you start lecturing us about rice prices.
    46AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:11
    Re: #20
    It's less about middlemen skimming and more about upstream players hoarding stock to jack up prices.
    39AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:11
    I thought all this talk of 'people abandoning rice' was just fearmongering or a joke, but it's actually real.
    The idea that Japanese people are eating less rice is honestly shocking.
    45AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:11
    Re: #39
    Japan already eats way less rice than other Asian countries, comparatively.
    40AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:11
    Isn't it weird that even during the 'rice crisis,' they were still cranking out tons of ehou-maki (lucky-direction sushi rolls eaten for Setsubun) as usual and throwing the leftovers away?













    94AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:37
    Re: #40
    Such a waste, seriously.
    42AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:11
    There used to be a time when spotting a 200-yen 🍙 onigiri on sale was thread-worthy — people would photograph it in shock. Now everyone just buys and eats them like it's nothing.
    Getting numb to it like that is scary.
    51AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:15
    Re: #42
    Convenience store onigiri sales volume has plummeted across every chain over the past few years.
    But sweets and bread sales have been climbing steadily instead, so the price hikes haven't actually hurt the convenience stores.
    48AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:14
    I got hooked on Ken Min's yaki-beefun (stir-fried rice vermicelli) during the rice shortage and just stopped eating rice after that.
    That stuff is way too good — whenever I get a craving for rice, one bowl of it kills the urge instantly.
    62AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:21
    Re: #48
    Lol, that's literally still rice (beefun is made from rice flour).
    54AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:17
    Places like Canada and India grow rice just fine and get bumper harvests even at 50°C, yet Japanese TV news ran the lie that a mere 40°C heatwave was causing a 'rice shortage.'

    In reality, the 2024 harvest was actually bigger than the previous year's:
    2023: 7.166 million tons
    2024: 7.346 million tons ← the 'rice shortage' started in July
    2025: 7.468 million tons

    And yet it got spun as the worst rice shortage in history, and the price of a 10kg bag tripled.

    What's really scary is that when the new-crop rice harvested in September 2024 and September 2025 hit the market, prices didn't drop — they kept climbing. That can only mean price manipulation.

    Prices finally peaked on January 4, 2026, and have been falling since.
    56AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:18
    Re: #54
    Cold damage is a real risk for rice, but heat really isn't.
    61AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:20
    Re: #56
    A crop that grows just fine across Southeast Asia obviously isn't weak to heat.
    65AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:21
    I've got nothing against rice or farmers, but once I hit 35 I just couldn't do ramen-and-rice combos anymore.
    No exaggeration, my stomach literally can't handle rice like it used to.
    Even with a set meal, a small rice portion is just right for me now.
    69AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:24
    Re: #65
    This is dead serious.
    Back in my teens and twenties I could put away like 2 gou (roughly 2 cups of uncooked rice) in one meal.
    Now even a single bowl feels heavy, so I'd rather have less.
    97AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:38
    Pasta sales haven't actually gone up all that much, though.
    So what are all these people who claim they've quit rice actually eating?
    103AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:39
    Re: #97
    Probably single guys living alone.
    There's no way a parent with kids thinks 'rice got expensive, so let's switch to pasta!' — feeding boys pasta costs more than rice does anyway.
    101AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:39
    What's even the point of this?
    Just sell it for 3,500 yen if that's what they want — no one's stopping them.
    109AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:40
    Re: #101
    The problem is that with the current massive oversupply, nobody's buying at that price — hence the griping. Consumers aren't on board with it.
    129AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:47
    🇯🇵 Rice Prices Post Record 40% Plunge — 'More Farmers May Quit Farming' — New-Crop Standard Koshihikari Now Around ¥4,000 for 5kg
    https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/95285f23377fff5bd4d1cd53f4bc483842a81b1b

    The rice glut is hitting farmers hard.
    Standard Koshihikari, the most widely traded variety, has fallen from ¥30,000 per 60kg in 2025 to ¥18,500.
    Similarly, 'Shinnosuke' has dropped from ¥31,000 in 2025 to ¥19,000 — both declines of roughly 40%.
    That's the largest drop on record.

    ■'More Farmers May Quit Farming'
    The cause is the rice glut.
    After record price surges, huge amounts of the 2025 harvest are still sitting unsold.


    140AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:48
    American rice is being sold in Japan now — it was ¥1,980 for 5kg.
    I've eaten it twice and it's tasty.
    If nobody told me, I don't think I could tell it apart from domestic rice.
    149AnonymousAug 22, 2026 14:50
    Re: #140
    Lol, you've just been eating bad rice every day.
    No wonder you can't tell the difference.

    Background and Key Points

    JA — the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives group — is not one company but a nationwide federation of regional co-ops that collects rice from member farmers, markets it, and fronts them money before the crop is even sold. That upfront sum is the “advance payment” (仮払金/概算金): a provisional per-bag price paid at harvest, settled later once JA knows what it actually earned reselling the rice. When chairman Miyata floats ¥3,500 per 5kg as fair and hints at cutting that advance, he’s really talking about lowering what farmers get guaranteed now, not announcing a retail price cut. This matters against the backdrop of Japan’s 2024-2025 “rice crisis,” when bag prices roughly tripled even though harvest tonnage rose every year from 2023 to 2025 (7.166m → 7.346m → 7.468m tons) — a mismatch between reported shortage and actual supply that fueled talk of hoarding or manipulation further up the distribution chain, with prices only turning down after peaking around January 4, 2026.

    The thread’s real fault line isn’t for-or-against farmers; it’s whether JA is the culprit or merely the visible face of a system where futures markets, middlemen, and Norinchukin Bank’s own losses shape prices upstream, versus posters who think falling consumption (less rice eaten per meal, more bread/sweets, cheap imported rice) is the actual driver of the current glut.

    What outsiders often miss is that JA doesn’t set consumer prices directly — supermarkets and wholesalers do — so a “fair price” pledge from JA leadership is a negotiating signal to its own farmer members and buyers, not a price control announcement, which is why posters kept asking why shelf prices weren’t moving even as JA talked numbers.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “JA Chairman: ‘Rice at 3,500 yen per 5kg is a price producers and consumers can accept. Below that, it’s hard to sell.’“.