永住外国人の「生活保護」回避狙った政府　許可要件の厳格化案を発表：朝日新聞 digital.asahi.com/articles/ASV... 低賃金の「労働力」は欲しいが、その人たちが低年金の高齢者になる前に追い出してしまおうという政府。この国は排外主義に突き進んでいます。 8月6日 10:47まで全文お読みいただけます

永住外国人の「生活保護」回避狙った政府　許可要件の厳格化案を発表：朝日新聞

出入国在留管理庁は4日、外国人の永住許可ガイドラインの改定案を発表した。日本人世帯の平均を上回る年収水準や、その年収で厚生年金に30年加入していた場合の年金受給見込み額を求めることなどが柱だ。異例の…

digital.asahi.com

i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys

Today's weather is "screaming"

"When the first of August came round, the Professor realized he had pleasantly trifled away nearly two months at a task which should have taken little more than a week." -Willa Cather (from The Professor's House, 1925)

Honestly, if you can find the love hotels that are also trying to serve as business hotels, even better. I stayed at one with some friends when we went to an academic conference, and it was awesome -- great room service, great amenities, and I didn't have to talk to anyone.

Unseen Japan@unseenjapan.com · 2d ago

For decades, love hotels have been part of Japan's sex scene, serving everyone from couples to casual hookups. Traditionally they had one hard and fast rule: you couldn't leave until your stay was over. Some rooms even had auto-locks.

The Japanese government is making everyone's lives worse except for the one group that truly needs to be Detained And Deported: tourists who go on those fake-ass "Mario Kart" rides in the middle of the city.

Just minding my business walking with my family to the aquarium when

Check out this thread about some recent research by brilliant Berkeley students on how listeners attribute social identities to synthesized voices! Full paper: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Eve Fleisig @ FAccT 2026@efleisig.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Remember the backlash against all AI voices being feminine—Siri, Alexa, etc.? Now, companies use a wider range of AI voices with ambiguous names like “alloy” and “shimmer.” Bias solved forever—ha, no. What happens when people hear these supposedly neutral voices?👇

✨🎀 NEW CFP: The Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures symposium (supported by the University of Tokyo, Media, Gender, and Sexualities Study Group) is coming back for its third edition!!!✨🎀 📩 Send us your abstract by August 15 at popculturesjapan@gmail.com✨ Share widely!

Call for Papers: Queer and Feminist Perspectives on Japanese Popular Cultures Symposium 2026

A platform for critical discussions about gender and Japanese animation, fashion, video games, literature and digital cultures

events.humanitix.com

Sick. Awesome. Thanks for that. Really preferred this to funding a Blade game by the Dishonored people or people at Obsidian having jobs.

Karl Bode@karlbode.com · 4w ago

everywhere you look, things are goin' great

You've heard of ザ and ジ, but may I interest you in definite article 地?

結論から言うね それ、実は**めっちゃ興味深い**

Dr. Wes Robertson@scriptingjapan.bsky.social · last mo.

Made a video about LLM stereotypes in #japanese youtu.be/gjB79s4oCkc

I am unreasonably excited about this book purchase.

Occupation des universités, manifestations contre les bases militaires américaines d’où partaient les avions bombardant le Vietnam ; lutte contre la construction de l’aéroport de Narita sur une zone agricole ; naissance du mouvement de libération des femmes… Tokyo 68!

SoftBank’s investor presentation is one of the greatest things ever made. I’ve been thinking about it all day. These are the real slides shown in a speech where Masayoshi Son said he wouldn’t retire for at least another decade. The goose stuff is truly demented. Bravo group.softbank/media/Projec...

Well, good morning to you, too, earth.

So many cyclist deaths begin with a stationary driver blocking the bike lane. The disconnect between cyclists, who see this as a life-threatening reckless action, and drivers, who see this is a minor parking infraction, is what often leads to discord.

Jay Hightman@jay.hightman.org · 2mo ago

It will be seven years, on June 24th, that my 20-year-old daughter Robyn lost their life doing bicycle messenger work in New York City, when a for-hire driver blocked the bicycle lane and the speeding distracted driver of a box truck knocked them to the ground and then crushed them into the road.

Thomas House of Dublin exhibiting the pro-human solidarity that all of us should demonstrate.

:)

Hannah Dahlberg❄️Dodd, PhD@hedahlbergdodd.bsky.social · 2y ago

If I can find a permanent position this year, I'm going to celebrate my newfound job security by spending my grown-up money on this Lego set of the Great Deku Tree. 😍🌳 www.lego.com/ja-jp/themes...

Listened to an NPR story this morning about mass child starvation in Senegal without a single mention of Elon Musk, the guy who gleefully created the conditions for the mass starvation

I wish there was some centralized location where academics could name-and-shame other academics who publish (or try to publish) papers with AI-hallucinated citations, because I am at my fuuuucking limit.

Murderbot just gets it. (From Platform Decay by @marthawells.com)

This guy is a colleague of mine and I can confirm that the "hard sciences" faculty at my university seem set on killing the best part of the job, which is learning

Sarah T Roberts, PhD@ubiquity75.xyz · 2mo ago

I can’t.

6月はプライド月間。なぜわざわざ祝う必要があるのか。 「LGBTは生産性がない(杉田水脈・元衆議院議員)」 「見るのも隣に住むのも嫌だ(荒井勝喜・元首相秘書官)」 「種の保存に背く(簗和生・衆議院議員）」 「LGBT広がれば足立区が滅びる(白石正輝・足立区議)」 「変なLGBTどうでもいい、教える必要ない(神谷宗幣・参議院議員)」 政治に関わる人たちの差別や排除の発言が繰り返されてきた。この人たちにこそ”理解増進”が必要。世界を見渡すと残念ながら「ハッピー」とは言い難い状況。それでもこの景色を変えるために、「ハッピーであれ」と何度でもプライド月間を祝い続けたいと思う。

Ok this is a truly great tweet

Hopped over to Akita for AJJ, and I was greeted by my favorite namahage-themed Akita tourism poster.

Ah, yes, I love reading academic literature with twelve sources, half of which are the author himself.

the fuck it will

The Verge@theverge.com · 3mo ago

Gmail is going to start talking to you

Ancient Japanese wisdom: “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.” —Kūkai, probably

祭り気分の仙台が最高ー