On this weeks show, we start out with a ridiculous discussion of Legend of Galactic Heroes bootleg DVDs, pronunciation of ridiculous, slashdot commentary, and the rules of Dai-Cast. Then we move onto real topics, starting with the examination of the link between the lost Jewish Tribes of Israel and Japan. Then we look into claims of genocide on the part of Emperor Akihito, for introducing a foreign species of fish into Lake Biwa. And we critique an American artists take on Cosplay culture, and a new Cosplayers Rights Group in Japan. NHK decides to tell us what they really want to show us through a Weather Report. Love Letters from the Police (without Sting) are calming down teens in Iwate Prefecture. And finally a story from 1968 of how to get yourself out of trouble, by TELLING THE TRUTH.

Hosts: Ian Horner, Eryn Dearden, and Jason Hill, with Brendan Dery as “Beej”.

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Topics Covered this Week:

• Beej’s Web Comic of The Week – Freefall

This week, on Dai-Cast it’s “Dai Cast Zeta”, where we pick one particular topic on Japan or Japanese pop culture, and stick with it, exhaustivly expressing our opinions for your education, elucidation, emancipation, and mental emolument, to summarily beat it into the ground, so that we never need to revisit the topic again.

On this particular round, we’re tackling celular phones in Japan, or Ketias. And to take the pulse of the gadget blogosphere, we’ve invited Joel Johnson of BoingBoing Gadgets to give us a geek’s view of Japanese phones from the outside world.

So sit back, and prepare to be educated at!

Hosts: Ian Horner, Jason Hill, and Joel Johnson, with Brendan Dery as “Beej”.

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Reference Links:

• A History of Docomo – nttdocomo.com
• Japan Media Review – ojr.org
• Japanese Phone Culture – wikipedia.org
• History of the Personal Handy Phone – wikipedia.org
• Wired – How Mobile Phones Conquered Japan – wired.com
• Japanese Subscriber Statistics – wirelesswatch.jp
• Mizuko Ito’s Personal, Portable, Pedestrian – mitpress.mit.edu
• Google’s Android Platform – gadgets.boingboing.net
• Gundam Char Phone – dannychoo.com