Yahoo! Japan

Major Japanese news site won’t let anyone post comments without providing a phone number

Hey, Yahoo! Japan. If you want to ask me on a date, just say so.

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Yahoo! Japan finds most alphabetic and katakana words Japanese people want to find out about

GJ on YJ for TCOB.

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Yahoo! Japan bans ads that “create inferiority complexes” about weight, physical characteristics

Internet portal says such ads “preserve and promote discrimination.”

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You can help survivors of Japan’s 3.11 earthquake/tsunami in seconds with a quick Yahoo! search

Donations will be made for each person who runs a search for information about the tragedy, with funds helping farmers, students, and those suffering from depression and loneliness.

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If the 2011 tsunami hit Tokyo’s Shibuya Scramble Crossing, this is how high it would’ve been

New sign comes with a poignant message for the end of the Heisei era.

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Great East Japan Earthquake: Commemorate eight years and donate with a search on Yahoo! Japan

Recovery efforts are ongoing following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, and the Tohoku region still needs your help.

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Moving video commemorates anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan

The tear-jerking video encourages viewers to “Search for 3.11” on the anniversary to help support reconstruction in the region.

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Chilling Tokyo skyscraper sign shows just how tall the 2011 Japanese tsunami was

Numbers alone can be hard to visualize, but this makes things terrifyingly easy to understand.

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Heartwarming response to Twitter question confirms that yes, Tikuwa_0913, there is a Santa Claus

Over a century ago, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the New York paper The Sun asking if the rumors she heard regarding Santa Claus were true. Editor Francis Church’s now legendary response is still widely read today, as even 117 years later, it holds up pretty well. At least to me, anyway.

For today’s youth, on the other hand, coming up in an age of unprecedented surveillance and information it’s got to be even harder to maintain belief in a magical man with flying reindeer sneaking into their homes at night to deliver presents.

And so history repeats itself, but this time with newspapers on the decline, a sixth-grade child using the handle tikuwa_0913 turned to Yahoo! Japan Answers for more information on Jolly old Saint Nick.

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Yahoo! Japan makes thrill-rides out of their trending search topics with “Trend Coaster”

In the month of September at limited locations in Tokyo, the nation’s perennial favorite search engine Yahoo! Japan is offering a one-of-a-kind experience. By stepping into their motion simulator and strapping on a VR headset, you can virtually yet literally ride the waves of popularity of any topic of your choosing as if it were a roller coaster.

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Yahoo! Japan’s “50%-off” campaign isn’t quite what it seems

When Japan’s Yahoo! Shopping introduced their 15-year anniversary sale with the promise of ‘50% off’, people were of course looking forward to getting their hands on some half-price bargains. However, the products on offer turned out to be nothing like anyone was expecting…

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Yahoo! Japan donates 5x projected amount to Tohoku after unexpected number of people participate

In tribute of the third anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake on 11 March, Yahoo! Japan held a charity drive pledging 10 yen (US$0.10) for every person who entered “3.11” into their search engine.

Relying on the data that Japan’s most used search engine was privy to, they hypothesized that a maximum of 5 million yen ($48,000) from 500,000 unique IP addresses would be generated and set a limit at that amount. Boy, were they wrong.

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Lady Gaga gets her own Yahoo! Japan page complete with clickable pantsuit

Lady Gaga is the queen of unique when it comes to music and fashion. Now she has a Yahoo! Japan page that’s every bit as bizarre as she is (in a good way, of course!). The Gaga-ed version has a background filled with praise for and facts about Mother Monster in Japanese. It also features a picture of Lady Gaga herself in a white pantsuit filled with clickable links to articles and other pages usually found on Yahoo! Japan. How’s that for a homepage?

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