Blog

  • How Molly Meldrum Almost Created A Japanese Juggernaut

    Ian “Molly” Meldrum, one of Australia’s most prominent figures in the popular music world, came within a whisker in 1984 of making a then rising Japanese band reach superstardom while using Down Under as a launching pad to hit the top. Sandii and the Sunsetz had become only the second-ever Japanese act to reach the Top 10 in Australia with their 1983 hit, Sticky Music, but they were about to get kicked out of the country in disgrace. Meldrum, probably one of the world’s best-known rock journalists despite being notorious for poor elocution, stepped in and asked for help on behalf of the band, whose members had overstayed their visas…

  • Event Approvals, Grants On Offer For 50th Anniversary Of Japan-Australia Friendship Treaty

    Japan and Australia are offering grants and approval for certain events to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation between Japan and Australia in 2026. The governments of both countries and the Australia-Japan Foundation are taking all sorts of steps for broad exchange between Japan and Australia, with the active participation of local governments, businesses, private organizations, and others. The countries will recognize events as 50th anniversary events if they meet all of the following criteria: Approved events may identify themselves as Anniversary Events for the 50th Anniversary of the Signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation between Japan and…

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    The Japan-Australia Link As A Fallen Star Became A Black Hole

    Japan has become pretty much synonymous with high quality construction, but that didn’t prove to be in what was supposed to be a star project in Melbourne but ended up being more of a black hole. The 120-meter-high Melbourne Star Ferris wheel was supposed to be a boon for tourism in Australia’s largest city, as well as a strong leap forward for Sanoyas, an Osaka-based shipbuilding company looking to expand into the amusement park business. The Melbourne Star was plagued from the outset. It was supposed to open in 2006, but didn’t start taking customers until two years later. It ran for just 40 days when it was shut down…

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    Monkeying Around With Shared Kobe Steel(e)s

    Of the many commonalities shared by Australia and Japan, perhaps one of the quirkier ones is that both countries are home to a Kobe Steele known for monkeying around. Australia’s Kobe Steele founded the Orangutan Foundation International Australia (OFI Australia), and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2021 for her services to conservation and the environment. Japan’s Kobe Steel Ltd., meanwhile, monkeyed around in a far less noble way, falsifying inspection and quality data on steel, aluminium and copper products for years, affecting hundreds of customers and resulting in billions of yen in fines after causing one of Japan’s most significant industrial quality scandals in recent…

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    Have A Very Merry Mad Max Xmas!

    It was with great delight that I learned overnight that Christmas in Japan in 2025 will have a tinge of Aussie about it. And my enthusiasm was in no way quelled by the fact that this merely meant a screening of Mad Max. With a message of “Merry Mad Max,” National broadcaster NHK‘s Premium Cinema channel will celebrate the festive season with a screening of the Aussie classic propelled to worldwide success on the back of becoming a hit in Japan when it was released here in 1979. Mad Max is Australia’s most successful film franchise and Japan played a huge role in it becoming that way, as we have…

  • Pavilion Pulled Down, Packed Up And Repurposed

    The Australia Pavilion from the recently completed Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan is simply going to be dismantled, and its parts repurposed for other projects: a stark contrast to the fate of previous pavilions from earlier world’s fairs held in Japan. Last time Osaka held the fair in 1970, the Australia Pavilion had been one of the stars of the show, dazzling visitors with its architecture inspired by Hokusai‘s Great Wave Off Kanagawa in homage to the hosts. It made such a lasting impact that instead of ripping it down and forgetting about it, Aussie aficionados in Japan had the pavilion relocated to Yokkaichi in Mie Prefecture. Though at first…

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    Bigger Than The Beatles! ’60s Strayan Schoolkids Swoon At Shintaro The Samurai

    Possibly my first connection with Japan was waking at an ungodly hour (lifelong habit) and turning on the telly to watch Shintaro the samurai and his sidekick, Tombei the Mist, take on the evil Koga ninja and other assorted nasties threatening the Shogunate. I was watching The Samurai, a program where Shintaro, played by Koichi Ose, possibly did more than anything else to restore friendly postwar relations between Australia and Japan. The Samurai was the first Japanese TV to screen in Australia in late 1965, and when Ose toured Down Under the following year, thousands of children swarmed Melbourne and Sydney airports to catch a glimpse of their hero, their…

  • Whatever Happened To Japan’s Emu-chan?

    Emus take pride of place in the Australian Coat of Arms alongside the kangaroos upon which this site has a focus. And Emu-chan played a crucial role in raising spirits in Japan during the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic before suddenly and mysteriously disappearing. Sabaku, the pseudonym used by a Japanese woman working in central Tokyo and “living in the mountains about an hour’s drive from the city” according to Bunshun Online, caused a national sensation with her YouTube channel Live Together With Emu up until late 2023. Videos told the tale of Sabaku’s life with Emu-chan, which she had raised from a hatchling, delighting people with footage of…

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    The Japan-Australia Link To The Great Train Robbery

    Ronnie Biggs and the Great Train Robbery were pretty well-known among my generation of Australians growing up, and recognition of the famous long-term fugitive was enough in Japan for his 2014 death to be widely reported. What is less established, however, is that both Japan and Australia have a much closer connection to the crook than many in either country know. Biggs was one of a gang of about 16 people who carried out the Great Train Robbery in 1963, making off with 2.61 million pounds (worth about 12.16 billion yen today). Biggs used his share of the haul to pay for almost 40 years on the run, most famously…