Puonhime
Field notes
One comment thread per note, read to the bottom and counted.
- A woman held over cocaine put her tongue out and winked at the camera on her way to the prosecutors. I counted 939 comments and got 95 to 5. But the thread was not angry at the face. It was angry at the sentence that lets her pull it At 6.49 in the evening of 17 September 2026, FNN Prime Online ran a story on Yahoo! Read →
- Mercari's share price fell about thirty per cent in a month. I counted 1,139 comments: 92 to 8. But 79 per cent of the thread never mentions the share price at all. What came back was the answer to a different question — should this company exist? At 16:25 on Wednesday 16 September 2026, ITmedia NEWS published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- Driverless taxis are to start carrying passengers in Tokyo in 2027. I counted 990 comments: 74 to 26. The top comment came from a man who drives a taxi in central Tokyo for a living, and it said that obeying the road traffic law to the letter is not enough to get through this city, so try the countryside first At 09:00 on Tuesday 15 September 2026, Impress Watch published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- Denny Tamaki, who lost the Okinawa governor election, said smears on social media had been left unchecked, and the campaign is preparing a criminal complaint. I counted 4,196 comments: 92 to 8. The top comment did not say don't sue. It said you should have spoken about the smears aimed at your opponent too At 16:23 on Monday 14 September 2026, Kyodo News published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- Okinawa has elected a new governor: Genta Koja, a newcomer, defeated the incumbent Denny Tamaki, who was seeking a third term. I counted 3,645 comments: 90 to 10. An expert note printed above the thread called this Okinawa's first social-media governor election, and 80 comments answered it directly. First place took 35,565 presses. Comments that regretted the result came to 59, one tenth of one percent of the vote, and the highest-placed of them sat at 143rd At 19:59 on Sunday 13 September 2026, RBC Ryukyu Broadcasting published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- Japan's Ministry of Justice plans to start a trial next year in which sex offenders out on parole are given GPS devices to carry. I counted 2,189 comments: 96 to 4, and 305 of them, 47 percent of the vote, said consent should not come into it at all. First place took 7,810 presses, 30 percent of the vote. That a device you carry can simply be left at home was said by 261 comments, 16 percent; implant it in the body was said by 462, one comment in five, but took only 3 percent of the vote On the morning of 12 September 2026, Bengoshi.com News published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- A Tokyo city bus driver, running empty, repeatedly honked and flashed his lights at a car, shouted an insult, and has been referred to prosecutors for road rage. I counted 2,747 comments: 83 to 17, and 79 percent of the vote went to comments asking what the other car had done first. First place took 15,485 presses. Second place, 10,094, is the comment I had shared on X. Comments that simply said road rage is never excusable took 2 percent On the morning of 11 September 2026, FNN Prime Online published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- Cars keep crossing yellow centre lines to pass cyclists under Japan's new rule, so Tokyo police will repaint half of the city's yellow lines white. I counted 1,487 comments: 94 to 6, and 31 percent of the vote went to one comment, the one I had shared on X, saying cyclists squeezing past stopped cars should keep a metre too. Comments asking why the lines were yellow in the first place took 29 percent. Comments that got the law right took 0.7 percent At midday on 10 September 2026, FNN Prime Online published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- A woman drove the wrong way down a Tokyo expressway to escape the police, was arrested in Shibuya for carrying a knife, and was released the same night. I counted 778 comments: 95 to 5, with 48 percent of the vote saying shoot her, ram her, shoot the tyres. Eighty-nine comments said the police are soft. Twenty-nine, 2 percent of the vote, asked why the charge was the knife On the evening of 9 September 2026, FNN Prime Online published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- A 25-year-old tailgated a car, ran the other driver down, dragged him, and told police he only meant to scare him. One hour and 23 minutes after the article went up I counted 94 comments: 95 to 5, with 61 percent of the vote asking for a heavy sentence and a lifetime licence ban. Thirty-four comments, 36 percent of the thread, were about the suspect's face and mask. One comment said the police do not enforce the rules At 6:00 on the morning of 9 September 2026, FNN Prime Online published a story on Yahoo! Read →
- A Russian military plane flew over the Northern Territories. Of 1,086 comments, the thread ran 85 to 15, 52 percent of the vote said stand firm and do not yield an inch, 21 percent used the word regret, and shoot it down or fire warning shots came to 133 comments and 7.7 percent. I counted 30 years of airspace violations in the Defense Ministry's own list: 18 by Russian aircraft, and zero warning shots At 2:11 in the afternoon of 7 September 2026, TBS NEWS DIG published a breaking story on Yahoo! Read →
- Thirty years of regret. What was done to Japan over the Northern Territories, the Senkakus and Takeshima, what Japan said, and what Japan did, counted from the government's own records. Japan acted with something other than words in six cases, twice or more in the same case only three times, and every one ended in a release, a deportation or a refusal. Warning shots: zero For the 30 years from 1996 to 2026 I counted what happened between Japan and Russia (the Northern Territories and the airspace), China (the Senkaku islands and the airspace) and South Korea (Takeshima), using the published records of the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Japan Coast Guard and the Prime Minister's Office. Read →
- Monday 7 September, Tokyo. The morning came with a warning of torrential rain. Of 322 comments, 54 percent of the vote said it was ordinary rain where they stood, 20 percent blamed JR's reduced trains for the crowding, and 4.5 percent said just work from home At 5:21 on the morning of Monday 7 September, the Japan Weather Association's tenki.jp published a warning on Yahoo! Read →
- Kura Sushi cancelled its Chiikawa campaign over staff misconduct with the prizes. Of 2,820 comments, 38 percent of the vote demanded compensation and legal action, and 45 percent said this was nothing new Kura Sushi, one of Japan's biggest conveyor-belt sushi chains, announced on the evening of 5 September that it was cancelling its running Chiikawa collaboration from the next morning, because "misconduct by employees" had come to light. Read →
- An 18-year-old father was arrested for killing his two-month-old baby. Of 209 comments, 48 percent of the vote said "a child had a child" — and 6 percent said the courts would go easy on him In Fukuyama, Hiroshima, an 18-year-old company employee was arrested on suspicion of murder. Read →
- China's army posted a Ghibli-style AI cartoon attacking Japan. Of 952 comments, 54 percent of the vote went to the government and the army — and 0.6 percent to the Chinese people The English-language official X account of China's People's Liberation Army posted a two-minute animated short criticising Japan's military build-up. Read →
- Five high schoolers were arrested for a honey-trap robbery in Shibuya. Of 2,677 comments, 67 percent of the vote went to one law — and 0.2 percent to the adult's side of it In Shibuya, Tokyo, five people including a first-year high school girl were arrested on suspicion of planning a honey-trap robbery: they assaulted a man, injured him, told him "this one is 15, what are you going to do about it — pay 8 million yen in settlement money," and took 300,000 yen in cash. Read →
- Japan has stopped telling employers to keep overtime under 45 hours a month. I read all 2,010 comments — half of them were never answered by anyone From 1 September, Japan's Labour Standards Inspection Offices stopped issuing the blanket instruction that companies keep monthly overtime under 45 hours. Read →
- A day at Tokyo Disney can now reach 100,000 yen for a family of four. I read all 839 comments — and the line the page agreed with most was not a complaint about the price Tokyo Disney Resort is raising prices again. Read →
- A salon charges you for being 15 minutes late, then keeps you waiting 30. I counted 612 comments — 84 percent agreement, and 47 percent of the votes were not about hair at all On 17 August 2026 someone posted on X: "I'm at a salon whose sign says a 15-minute delay costs you a cancellation fee, and I've now been waiting 12 minutes past my appointment." They added: "I get fined for being late, and you get nothing?" The post passed 110,000 likes, and the cut finally finished 30 minutes behind schedule. Read →
- "Should the Imperial Palace run be banned?" I counted 3,570 comments — 90 percent agreement, and the page is written by the people who were told to get out of the way The footpath circling Tokyo's Imperial Palace is the most famous running spot in the city. Read →
- Chilled crab ramen at a Tokyo festival left 76 people sick. I counted 656 comments — 93 percent agreement, and the top voice wasn't about the ramen. It was about the chef's past. At Azabu-Juban's summer festival in Tokyo, 76 people fell ill after eating a 2,000-yen "chilled crab ramen" from a street stall run by a nearby restaurant. Read →
- FamilyMart said hijabs are fine under its new uniform rules, and the internet caught fire. I counted 938 comments: the top voice rejects the religion outright with 5,979 votes — but the page's second subject wasn't religion. It was konbini wages. FamilyMart, Japan's second-largest convenience-store chain, changed its staff uniform rules for the first time in ten years: from September 1, employees may wear the hijab. Read →
- From September 1, the speed limit on roughly 70 percent of Japan's roads drops from 60 to 30 km/h. I counted 1,461 comments expecting a revolt — 73 percent sided with the rule. But the fourth-loudest voice said: nobody told us. From September 1, Japan's default speed limit on "community roads" — any road without a centre line or median — falls from 60 km/h to 30 km/h. Read →
- One illegally parked car stopped a Shibuya bus for 23 minutes. I counted 1,564 comments — 93 percent agreement, the loudest demand was "send them the bill" in 416 comments, and the police stood there for 17 minutes without moving the car. On the evening of August 3, a single car parked on Inokashira Street in Shibuya, Tokyo, blocked a Keio Bus route bus for about 23 minutes. Read →
- From 2031 a camera will watch your eyes. I counted 2,857 comments, and the thing Japan most wanted detected next was drink-driving — 793 comments. Illegal parking got 7 comments and zero votes. Japan's transport ministry has decided to make driver monitoring systems compulsory — an in-car camera that watches your gaze, your eyelids and your steering, and warns you when you look away from the road or start to nod off. Read →
- "He shines brightest now," said the headline. I counted 461 comments, and 42 percent of the approval went to the people nobody writes about. A Japanese YouTuber who says he committed assault at fourteen and was arrested six times afterwards has had the fighters' names removed from his cheeks and announced he is turning to music. Read →
- Japan's Ministry of Justice put up a poster reading 'Rehabilitation? Bring it on!' It came down sixteen days later. The Ministry of Justice tied its offender-rehabilitation campaign to a Netflix reality dating show about former delinquents, printed 2,000 posters reading 'Rehabilitation? Read →
- Under a headline about 'smelly ojisan,' the most-read comment was an ojisan's laundry recipe. A thread that taught instead of judged. A midsummer piece on the 'smell problem' at Comiket — the world's largest fan-comics fair, 260,000 people in Tokyo's August heat — under the headline: what separates the ojisan who smells from the one who doesn't? Read →
- Seven teenagers competed over how many minutes they could delay trains. The comment section's sentence: not a cell — a bill, with their names on it. Seven boys aged 14 to 17 — train photographers — were charged with obstructing railway business: they pulled emergency door levers and walked into closed crossings to stop trains, then competed over who caused the longest delay. Read →
- Russia protested Japan's protest. In 1,930 comments, exactly four took Russia's side — with three votes between them. President Putin visited Etorofu, one of the disputed islands off Hokkaido. Read →
- The driver was arrested for attempted murder. Japan's comment section put the people he nearly hit on trial. At a railway crossing in Naruto, Tokushima, a 55-year-old man allegedly assaulted a 19-year-old train photographer and then reversed his car at him — an attempted-murder arrest. Read →
- A Turkish driver was arrested for drifting on a Japanese public road. The comment section's first question: how does he afford that car? In the small hours of August 17, Aichi police announced the arrest of a 29-year-old Turkish company employee for drift-driving on a public road, and promised tighter enforcement ahead of next month's Asian Games. Read →
- Japan's PM stopped ten minutes' walk from Yasukuni Shrine and prayed from a parking lot. The comment section split almost down the middle — which never happens here. August 15 marked 81 years since Japan's surrender. Read →
- "99% of my tattoo clients are idiots." The room agreed 7.3 to 1 — and added the missing words: in Japan. A tattoo artist with twenty years in the trade said on YouTube that 99 percent of the people he tattoos are idiots. Read →
- Japan's most-read tech story today drew 16 comments. Everyone was busy using the map. The morning after record rain hit Chiba, Toyota switched its free "roads that worked" map to show the flooded prefecture — every road its connected cars actually got through in the last three hours. Read →
- The dancers show their faces. The men calling their videos "art" hide their names. At Awa Odori, Japan's four-century-old dance festival in Tokushima, videos zooming in on female dancers' hips and chests are spreading online — and when the festival committee confronted one uploader, his answer was "that was art." I counted the comment section 92 minutes after the article went up, 302 parent comments in a room still being born. Read →
- He deleted the video. The comment section's 38-to-1 verdict is still up. A streamer popular with Japanese teenagers filmed himself outside a famous Harajuku crepe shop, was told to stop, and called the shop kissho — "gross" — on camera, telling it to "move to a back alley." The video was gone by the next evening. Read →
- The comments knew his hotel room number. His family got five votes. A senior Akita official fronted a remote press conference about a trillion-yen AI datacenter project in a bathrobe, smoking. Read →
- Japan's feeds laugh at "ojisan fashion". The comment section answered, 5.9 to 1. Skinny jeans, shorts, hoodies past forty, popped polo collars — a listicle of what social media certifies as itai (cringe) on middle-aged men. Read →
- Japan agreed 46 to 1 about a TV fee. About the atomic bomb, 1.5 to 1. At the Nagasaki memorial the prime minister said Japan "is upholding" its three non-nuclear principles — two characters different from last year's "while upholding". Read →
- Japan bills its police cars for TV. For once, the comment section did not split. Car navigation units in police cars and fire engines owe NHK licence fees — billed retroactively. Read →
- It was never about smoking. It's about what leaks. A TV personality said smokers' rights are being violated. Read →
- A ¥5 billion hit. What Japan agreed with was the day labour. The Chiikawa film took ¥5bn in fourteen days. Read →
- Japan will surcharge your hay fever pills. The year-round patches are exempt. From March 2027 Japan pulls a quarter of the cost of any prescription drug you could buy over the counter out of insurance. Read →
- Rakuten is giving every shop an AI manager. Nobody asked. An AI store manager in every Rakuten shop, 24/7, plus a "super agent" that books and pays for you. Read →
- The story named no nationality. The comment section filled the blank in anyway. Fake iPhones, a ¥100m consumption tax refund fraud, and an origin the tax office could not identify. Read →
- He broke up the cat fight. The court found the human guilty. A Japanese cat owner stepped in to stop a fight — and got the accusing stare from both cats. Read →
- COVID in a Kumamoto Shelter: Why Disaster-Prone Japan Still Sleeps on Gym Floors A COVID case hit a Kumamoto quake shelter with no partitions, one isolation room, and 8,000+ evacuees. Read →
- "Where's the funding?" — 7,805 Japanese comments ask why that is their problem An LDP lawmaker opposed a temporary food tax cut, warning the bill would fall on the next generation. Read →