i needed an &quot;oh, that&#x27;s really nice&quot; story today. this delivered.in every way, this seems well-intentioned, quirky, cute, fun, and positive. unless there&#x27;s some subtext i&#x27;m missing, this is just a good and nice thing happening that&#x27;s great for everyone involved.nice to have a story like that these days.

We&#x27;re looking for house! Come on, house!Holographic white Oakley&#x27;s... not bad, it pairs with day drinking.

Yep, I totally expected this article to be about Divorced Dads inexplicably catching on with Japanese youth.

I tried to pull the house but got shingles instead

Reminds me of &quot;Divorced Dads&quot; playing cards

Original video and articles (in Japanese)<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=6m21OBCVPWo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=6m21OBCVPWo</a><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fnn.jp&#x2F;articles&#x2F;-&#x2F;842101" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fnn.jp&#x2F;articles&#x2F;-&#x2F;842101</a><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fnn.jp&#x2F;articles&#x2F;-&#x2F;838709" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.fnn.jp&#x2F;articles&#x2F;-&#x2F;838709</a>

That&#x27;s awesome.Town celebrates its own via a medium that the youth seek out on their own. The youth then forge closer connections with their elders. Everyone is happy, everyone wins.

Wow this is so heartwarming.   Actually celebrating &quot;common humans&quot; is so underrated.    And kids doing this no less is even more amazing!

I thought the same thing.  The sujimon in the Like a Dragon games are conceptually pretty similar (except it&#x27;s various Yakuza mobs you&#x27;re collecting).

This sounds like something straight out of the Yakuza video game series. Which, incidentally, is a series largely focused on middle aged men - I would love a set of these cards with Kiryu, Majima, Saejima, Akiyama, Ichiban, Nanba, Adachi, etc...

I see no particular reason to discriminate even from the get-go. Nor was addressing loneliness even the goal.

Men statistically have fewer social connections and suffer more from loneliness as they get older, so if the goal is to remedy that, it makes sense to start with men first.

Seriously, I think the subtext is that people in the West equate Japanese = sexist (and therefore are an inferior people) and that the choice of focusing on ojisans, is a sexist decision made to degrade women.When in reality it probably is just a light-hearted decision since old men are goofy, a lot of visible local businesses in rural Japan tend to be run by men, and the concept provoked a laugh.

&gt;Is it so hard to just express that it’d be cool to take a neat thing and expand it?If people feel the need to do such a thing, they will do it without being asked.

If anyone makes a similar comment in the reverse situation they’re dogpiled with “bUt WhAt AbOuT tHe MeNz?” comments.

You could say the same about people going straight to claims of sexism for a perfectly innocent story.

It’s funny to me that the honest intent of my comment was merely “that’s neat, it would be cool to expand it to other members of the community” and people go straight to discrimination &amp; indignation. Is it so hard to just express that it’d be cool to take a neat thing and expand it?

Trading cards skew toward boys, and boys are more likely to look up to men.  Of course, I wouldn&#x27;t rule out old babaa cards either.

&gt;Neighborhood MILFs and Cougars?If they do that, some angry commenter on HN will shout about objectifying women.

&gt; I hope they expand it to include middle aged women in the community too.Neighborhood MILFs and Cougars?

That’s neat. I hope they expand it to include middle aged women in the community too.

I don’t speak Japanese but I would pay for this. Trying to get up and run before 6 is a chore. Having a fisherman wake up call would be awesome and motivating. Especially for someone who loves fishing.

I found Wakie[1] in 2015 while on a project in London. Every morning at a specific time you set, a stranger (real person and no AI) would call you and talk to you briefly, waking you up. I used it for about a month.1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wakie.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wakie.com</a>

I would prefer this very much to Jocko Willink

<pre><code> “Good morning! Are you up?” asks the fisherman in the video, to which the user replies “Yes, thanks to you. Are you on your ship?” “Yeah, I got up at 3, so I’m already on the sea,” he replies, before adding “I caught a really big fish.”
</code></pre>
I’m not sure how much demand there is for this product, but that really brought a smile to my face.

But AI is like video games, it can’t emulate sacrifice and other deep human dynamics because there’s no stake. If you die you restore from last save point. For AI you have infinite no-memory interactions, which changes the dynamic. In other words, your actions don’t have lasting consequences.The few games that succeed in building something deeper (for me RDR2 but you take your pick) have to carve out sacrifice and character out of the player’s time, which is finite.

Given Japan&#x27;s extreme conservatism, I doubt it.

Last year it was a real fisherman.Next year it will be an AI.

I think literally and figuratively it would involve a bathtub full of icewater.

I want a wake up call from David Goggins.

Reminds me of the fisherman call where you could sign up to have a professional fisherman give you a wake up call. 
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;soranews24.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;05&#x2F;12&#x2F;japanese-fishermen-start-morning-wake-up-call-service-to-help-you-get-your-lazy-butt-out-of-bed&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;soranews24.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;05&#x2F;12&#x2F;japanese-fishermen-start-m...</a>

I&#x27;ve seen vending machines in the USA dispense hot soup, it was at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of nowhere.No idea if they had cream of corn.

I was living in Australia in 2000 and texting was more common than calling because it was cheaper to text than call. But in the US it was the opposite. You had unlimited calling, but plans around that time had a different pricing scheme for texting (can&#x27;t remember the exact details) so could be one reason why it took the US a bit longer to finally pick up texting. I remember it was about a year or 2 later that I felt texting started to become more common in the US.

Kinkos in the 90s (back when it was a by-the-hour computer lab) had vending machines with hot chicken soup.

&gt; And vending machines with hot drinks and soups, my favorite being cream of corn soup...which I have yet to see stateside.Its a cultural thing I am sure. As an American I will say that prepared food served from a vending machine is going to be associated with low quality and possible poor hygiene. I&#x27;d equate it with food from a gas station store or roach coach (mobile canteen)- food prepared with little care or quality, destined to be sold for as little as possible while still being profitable. Stale bread, wilted vegetables, low quality meats, cheese, etc, sloppy prep. Who cares, ship it.On the other hand, I can see food vendors in Japan guarding their reputation with attention to their craft ensuring quality.

Emoji is a Japanese thing too. It&#x27;s why a lot of the early emoji are kind of odd from a western point of view, like the naruto fish cake, Japanese top secret emoji and hot bath symbol.

Yeah! The hot corn liquid from a vending machine was maybe the weirdest thing I had when I visited.

First trip to Japan, I selected what I thought was a local cherry Coke equivalent from the vending machine. I was more than a little surprised to get a can that was a) hot, and b) contained not cherry-flavored cola, but chunky sweet red bean soup (oshikuro).

The really novel thing about those vending machines is that they do both hot and cold drinks. A vending machine technician realised that the hot side of the refrigeration unit could be used for something practical rather than just disposing of the heat through a radiator.

And vending machines with hot drinks and soups, my favorite being cream of corn soup...which I have yet to see stateside.Another thing Japan had before the US was texting on your phone. I was living in Japan at the time and recall telling my American friend who worked as a Manager at ATT about texting and she thought it was the dumbest thing she had ever heard of.

&gt; There&#x27;s an old tradition of American stars appearing in Japanese television commercials, [...] before downing what appears to be about a four ounce can of Suntory Iced Rainbow Blend coffee.Was this tradition referenced or inspired by Bill Murray&#x27;s &quot;Suntory Time&quot; scene in &quot;Lost in Translation&quot; (2003)?<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=FiQnH450hPM" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=FiQnH450hPM</a>

David Lynch&#x27;s Twin Peaks commercials for Georgia coffee, featuring almost the entire cast in character and a running subplot of a missing Japanese woman: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=xAxNvhN7UUE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=xAxNvhN7UUE</a>

MMA fighters did a lot of cool stuff during the Pride days<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sherdog.com&#x2F;thumbnail_crop.php?image=http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cdn.sherdog.com&#x2F;_images&#x2F;pictures&#x2F;32&#x2F;32285.jpg&amp;&amp;width_size=600" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sherdog.com&#x2F;thumbnail_crop.php?image=http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www....</a><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=wkV8TohDyGA" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=wkV8TohDyGA</a>

&gt; Someone mentioned going to Japan and how you could get cold cans of coffee out of vending machines there.The actor Tommy Lee Jones has some amusing commercials for canned coffee:* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.brandinginasia.com&#x2F;the-tuesday-take-suntory-boss-and-tommy-lee-jones&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.brandinginasia.com&#x2F;the-tuesday-take-suntory-boss...</a>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Boss_Coffee" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Boss_Coffee</a>The premise is that he is an alien in disguise evaluating human society, so some of the situations shown are quite whimsical.

There was a story of someone finding one in the middle of a hike, and following a long cable to an actual settlement.

&gt; You have to carry your trash with you, which is a bit annoying and mildly gross if it spills.True, but it also means that most people are used to this and don’t even question it. Which means no overflowing garbage bins or the need to service them in the middle of nowhere.

Pocari Sweat is so good. I always grab a bottle anytime we go to the japanese store outside chicago. I assumed it was a fake anime product like the way they always turn pepsi into bepsi or something, but no it&#x27;s real and it&#x27;s delicious.

I found they did have bins, but they were either at the vending machine or in the entrance of any store. And there are a lot of convenience stores!

My most bizarre Japanese vending machine experience: I once found one featuring an eduroam [1] sticker.Incredulously, I tried to connect, and... it worked. I still have no idea what that was all about![1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Eduroam" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Eduroam</a>

&gt; Someone mentioned going to Japan and how you could get cold cans of coffee out of vending machines there.They&#x27;re everywhere!In rural Hokkaido, some people even have them outside their home&#x27;s driveway for people walking by. They have various teas (green, hojicha, jasmine, etc.), Coke and Pepsi products, Pocari Sweat (like Gatorade), iced coffees, and sometimes even hot teas and hot coffees that are heated on demand. They&#x27;re super convenient and something I miss having in America (we seemed to have more of them here in the 90&#x27;s and early 2000&#x27;s).The only problem is that in Japan there can sometimes be absolutely zero public garbage (or, more correctly, recycling) bins in sight. You have to carry your trash with you, which is a bit annoying and mildly gross if it spills.

These is easily one of the most heartwarming videos on YouTube.

Japanese vending machines are an act of engineering beauty:
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=3AJnGjMAObA" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=3AJnGjMAObA</a>

I dream about being able to get a cold can of Boss Coffee every day outside my house.

Better than that is the Japanese &#x27;Boss&#x27;, which even comes in a very-Japanese steel tin. Great coffee that you can now get at most Australian servos, convenience stores, etc.<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;suntorybosscoffee.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;suntorybosscoffee.com</a>It&#x27;s made in the Japanese iced style, which is easy to mimic at home and really does make a nice iced coffee.1. Get your standard filter&#x2F;drip machine. Nothing fancy.2. Double the amount of coffee you normally use. You want it coming out strong.3. Fill the receiving jug with ice.4. Drip directly on to ice.

As a New Zealander who&#x27;s been to Australia + a small handful of other countries I can vouch for Australia having a uniquely good convenience store dairy based drink industry. OAK is another old faithful brand I miss in NZ. Also Hungry Jacks (Burger King) there uses cream instead of milk in the soft serve and it&#x27;s noticeably better.

Iced coffee in Australia seems to automatically imply sweet with lots of milk (or even ice cream). This is very jarring when you expect the default “iced coffee” to be black coffee over ice.

Iced Coffee has been very popular in Australia (and especially South Australia) since the 70s:<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Farmers_Union_Iced_Coffee" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Farmers_Union_Iced_Coffee</a>(I&#x27;m assuming this is an equivalent product; I don&#x27;t drink coffee personally.)

&gt; Everyone I knew thought the idea of cold coffee was ridiculous, a quirk of the Japanese that would never catch on.Iced coffee has been around for centuries and is very common in warmer countries (and was before the 90s). アイスコーヒー is closer to cold brew than the milkshake-esque thing we call iced coffee.

it may well be &quot;cold brew&quot;, a coffee specialty that is some work to make at home and that has a very distinguished taste and contrast coffee that was brewed hot and then cooled down.

&gt; I wonder if this is something that would catch on outside of Japan.Cynically, only if someone sees a business &#x2F; money making opportunity.

Vietnamese people have been drinking iced coffee for half a century.The more ridiculous proposition here is that people, other than Americans, only drink hot coffee.

My first thought when I read this was, &quot;This is very Japanese, and nothing like it would ever happen in America.&quot; Americans and Japanese are poles apart in the ways they relate to their  communities, older generations, etc.

I still remember decades and decades ago hearing about vending machines in Japan. Someone mentioned going to Japan and how you could get cold cans of coffee out of vending machines there. This was sometime in the 1990s, before even Starbucks was a huge thing. Everyone I knew thought the idea of cold coffee was ridiculous, a quirk of the Japanese that would never catch on.I feel the Japanese have been pretty good at exporting culture, but it has a lot of misses among the few hits. I wonder if this is something that would catch on outside of Japan.

Apparently the &quot;fat Steve&quot; minecraft toy is sold out everywhere.<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.mattel.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;minecraft-steve-large-scale-action-figure-jgg67" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.mattel.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;minecraft-steve-large-scale...</a>

Well, if the edges are the Japanese life expectancy of 84 and 0, then 80 does fall somewhere in the middle. So there should be some four-year-olds in this deck, too.

Ojisan age bracket can be pretty wide, but 81 sounds to me more like an ojiichan. That said, if they&#x27;re running a business and are still somewhat lively they can possibly still pass as ojisan in context.Oniisan is much younger usually; usually I don&#x27;t hear ojiisan so much as ojiichan (as well as ojisan rather than ojichan), my wife is Japanese and it rubs her weird to hear the opposite honorific in these cases.

As I understand things, in Japanese the terms &quot;onii-san&quot;, &quot;ojisan&quot; and &quot;ojii-san&quot; literally translate as &quot;older brother&quot;, &quot;uncle&quot; and &quot;grandpa&quot; respectively - and are widely used for people who aren&#x27;t relatives.So while the colloquial use of ojisan roughly lines up with &quot;middle-aged man&quot; it&#x27;s not a perfect mapping.

“Middle-aged” is a wrong in this case translation of “ojisan”, lit “uncle” but colloquially can mean “old man” in an endearing or mean way depending on context

Ages 74, 81, and 68. Are these middle aged?

This such a genius idea to get the kids to learn about the people in their community.

Thank you!  I knew it reminded me of something!

Reminds me of divorced dads card game 
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;@AudioOpera" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;@AudioOpera</a>

Japanese websites have a great aversion to even 2005 level Web homogeneity, let alone the modern tailstraps.

Creativity thrives in Japan. I wonder why this country seems so prolific in that regards.

AI can facilitate the creation part and become invisible. It will still be p2p.

The whole point of this is that it’s people thinking about people, not some AI bullshit.

I feel like this is the kind of stuff that will be common with AI. 
Imagine having a whatsapp family group and a bot auto-generates this type of games for you based on your group.It&#x27;s a privacy nightmare but it will be fun for sure.

Interesting translation issue where they use the dictionary definition of &quot;ossan&quot; (middle aged guy) but then they&#x27;re all senior citizens.

This is a superb idea. I had seen random cat gacha but not trading cards of random dudes.Most efforts at custom TCGs seem to go nowhere at all because of the absence of any practical trading meta game, so bootstrapping that with local interest is a very neat marketing move that aligns very well with the desired community engagement.The result is that whole idea is greater than the sum of its parts.

It&#x27;s even less that we move around a lot more; technology advanced with the personal computer and Internet such that kids see adults not knowing things about the world that they already do. What is decades of personal lived experience wisdom when there&#x27;s tiktok and YouTube and chatbots?

In the US we are at all time lows for internal migration. Or at least very close to them, I haven’t checked those stats in a couple years since this last came up on HN.We used to (as a population) migrate to opportunity far more than we do now.For many reasons there is simply far less community engagement and integration going on. Fewer people put down strong “roots” in their communities these days.

Worth noting that the relations to elder is really getting rocky, and people are rethinking them in both directions.We can&#x27;t hide from the influence the elder generations had on the current situation. Japan is a developed nation with a crazy low crime rate and incredible infrastructure thanks to them. It&#x27;s also a social mess and the poster child of stagnation thanks to them.This whole trading card game surfaces both sides of the coin, with what these people are bringing to the community and also why small kids shouldn&#x27;t look to much upon them as it&#x27;s a recipe for trouble.

I&#x27;ve been taught to respect the elders. But now I&#x27;ve seen that there are enough of them which aren&#x27;t honest, good people, but only know how to present themselves in a positive light, while looking down on the ones they live with.I now stand neutral against them: they may be good, they may not be. There&#x27;s nothing in their age which makes them deserve more respect than the one younger people deserve.

It used to be that elders were few and far between, as the population pyramid was, well, a pyramid.The other day I joked in conversation that I raise my daughters to disrespect the elderly - particularly my generation in the future - as considering the fertility rates (worse than in Japan) in the region, there will be plenty of elderly compared to younger generations.I&#x27;m only half joking really. My own parents are reaching the age at which they would use some help every now and then. I have two siblings, so it doesn&#x27;t take huge individual effort from any of us.Meanwhile I&#x27;m the only one there who has children and most likely that will remain the case. Should they feel any obligation to help my siblings once the time comes?

I think society hasn’t figured out the incentives for elders currently. In private settings it’s fine, but in the work context I’ve seen few incentives for &gt;50 year olds to support younger generations. To the contrary, many of these people fear losing their job just before retirement so choose risk-averse behavior. At the same time, unlike in the village, the juniors are not their relatives so that is also not incentivizing any positive behavior.And yes there are of course very nice people who are the exception, but from what I’ve seen they are truly the exception. As Charlie Munger put it “Well, I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated it. And never a year passes but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther.”

Saying this as a rather old person myself...I have a theory that, wrt knowledge, the relative advantage of age has been at least partially eroded by rapid technological advancement. In traditional&#x2F;tribal societies, prior to the 20th century, wisdom actually accumulated with age, because the pace of change was slower. Wisdom &amp; knowledge could be passed on from generation to generation.Now, wisdom and knowledge become obsolete quickly. Many things you knew 20 years ago are outdated. The ICE engine you learned how to fix as a kid is now computer controlled, or has been replaced by batteries. Your optimistic&#x2F;open&#x2F;friendly mindset now makes you easy pickings for online scammers. Hell, even your family&#x27;s secret cherished muffin recipe is spurned by your grandchildren because it has gluten or they&#x27;re vegan or keto or whatever.All this is just a take, but when I look at voting patterns in particular, I find myself pessimistic that the elderly are wiser than average.

There was a news article few months ago, about waiting times for healthcare (in the UK, if I remember correctly). One govt official commented something like older people having to wait longer to see physicians is &quot;not a priority&quot;. I was stunned reading it, didn&#x27;t even know how to react.It is nice to read articles like this. I wish more humans looked at other humans beyond their youth, looks and their net worth

My dad got a guy assigned to his farm once from the unemployment office once. Guy was in third generation unemployed. Tried to bribe himself out of shovelling shit, but my father wouldn&#x27;t take the money. The tales a 90 year old person made redundant by society and thus avoiding society must have to tell. Stay a while and listen..

This brings back something we&#x27;ve mostly lost in modern times. Elders had respect because they knew a lot and had contributed a lot, and everyone knew that. But that&#x27;s not scalable, and we migrate a lot more now.This is an engaging way that brings that back - rather than focusing on fantasy heroes, show kids real life role models.

I hope the people don&#x27;t get too much pressure to up their stats.&gt;The rarity of a card isn’t based on fantasy stats — it’s tied to real-world contributions. The more actively the ojisan engages in volunteer work or community service, the higher the chances of their card being upgraded to a shiny version with a glossy laminated effect.

I&#x27;m a bit reminded of the cards Harry and Ron find in their chocolate frog packaging, each of which features a picture of a famous wizard, some historical, some contemporary like Albus Dumbledore. The kids had a chance of actually meeting some of the heroes pictured on their cards.

I was surprised this wasn&#x27;t mentioned in the article - I assumed this is what they were talking about.

Apparently there are trading cards for everything now: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;divorceddads.shop&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;divorceddads.shop&#x2F;</a>

For real. This is the best thing I’ve seen on HN in a long time. My kids are very into these card collections&#x2F;games and I told them about it and they thought it was a great idea to put “normal” people on these cards. Super great story and concept. Japan isn’t perfect, but some amazing things come from their society.

way to add a negative twist... there&#x27;s no reason an expansion or separate &#x27;obaasan&#x27; set couldn&#x27;t be made

This is such a cynical, keyboard-warrior take. Why do you feel the need to drag down someone else&#x27;s positive and impactful contribution? No one is stopping you from creating a card game with women as the heroes.

The article makes it clear that this was the passion project of Eri Miyahara, Secretary General of the local council and a woman herself. Though I&#x27;m sure you had noble intentions with this comment, it ignores the professional judgement that led her to create this game and turns her efforts into &quot;merely assisting men to become heroes.&quot;

&gt; Since the card game went viral, so many kids are starting to look up to these men as heroic figures.per usual, women just exist :) men get to be heroic elders, women are footnotes, merely assisting men to become heroes.

My takeaway of the cool dynamic at work here is that universally (but particularly in Japan) no one wants to be seen promoting themselves. Especially for older people they&#x27;ve done so many cool things, and are currently doing cool things now that they&#x27;re retired and have free time, but socially it&#x27;s a bit awkward to just ask, what cool and interesting stuff can you tell me about.And the physical &#x2F; game medium helps connect intergenerationally as well. But actually I could see this kind of trading card dynamic working in other situations like business networking or speed dating or something.

&gt; increased cross-generational interactioncross-class interaction too.in ~2012 i was in Tokyo, and by chance was (also) invited to someone&#x27;s birthday.. The guy was working as pizzeria-waiter, and has invited.. all his usual clients to his birthday - in his small apartment, with &quot;everyone brings some food they made&quot; instead of gifts. My friend was a client.. so i landed there too. That was the most bizarre mix of people there. Some were just mom-and-pop. Some were millionaires. And everything in between. Most were japanese, but also from about 3-4 diff. countries. And everyone talking with everyone else as equal..a very interesting cross-section - and should i say glimpse-of-future - of society.

I clicked the headline expecting a chuckle and left with an unexpectedly warmed heart.&gt; “We wanted to strengthen the connection between the children and the older generations in the community. There are so many amazing people here. I thought it was such a shame that no one knew about them,” [...] “Since the card game went viral, so many kids are starting to look up to these men as heroic figures.” 
&gt; Kids have started attending local events and volunteering for community activities — just for a chance to meet the ojisan from their cards. Participation in town events has reportedly doubled since the game launched.there&#x27;s so much more I want to comment on--it&#x27;s not screen-based, increased cross-generational interaction, strengthening community, elders having their stories known--but what I love is that these effects will compound into even greater benefits for the community.

The Oregon Graduate Institute (or maybe just the CS&amp;E dept.) once made trading cards of the professors, to promote STEM to area children.

This is a stupid idea that couldn&#x27;t possibly work. But it did?

MY TIME HAS FINALLY COMEWait I&#x27;m actually elderly

The whole point of this is that we&#x27;ve reached breaking point with the ridiculous attempt to replace everything with a digital experience. It is fitting that Japan, which was arguably the place where the digital revolution really took off, should be the first place where it is rejected.

Feels like a portal to the alternate universe we could have with modern technology but no mass media.

&gt; Seeing this, the game’s creator decided to take it to the next level. New rules were introduced, allowing the cards to be used in actual battles. The objective isn’t to defeat the opponent’s card but to outplay it based on the characters’ skills and abilities.Anyone have an idea of how the gameplay works? How do you &quot;outplay&quot; your opponent?

It already aired<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;From_Bureaucrat_to_Villainess" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;From_Bureaucrat_to_Villaines...</a>&gt; A bureaucrat named Kenzaburo Tondabayashi is killed by a passing truck after saving a boy and is reborn in the Otome game Magical Academy: Love &amp; Beast as its villainess, Grace Auvergne. Due to his politeness, he makes Grace&#x27;s personality change into a more kind person and even becomes friends with the game&#x27;s heroine, Anna Doll, whom the original Grace is antagonistic towards. Meanwhile, Kenzaburo&#x27;s original body is revealed to have survived, but he is stuck in a coma. His wife and daughter discover that he is trapped in the game and attempt to help him complete it in hopes of getting him out

My prediction is isekai.Middle aged man with lousy card stats gets isekaied, and ends up with ridiculous stats hidden on the back of his card.

This can only end one way...In an animated tv show depicting middle-aged man battles by community-service-dance-off. May include flashing images.

This is unexpectedly brilliant and heart warming. Thank you for sharing.

I&#x27;m not proposing substitute physical games (do you meant real games like football?), this just augmenting computer games with real-time data.You can even become a virtual personal shopper to interact with real clients, and getting paid as well.

As someone who got back into mtg recently, nah. I think physical games are going to hang around because there&#x27;s just something different between playing games with friends on discord versus assembling at one of our houses to play.Humans are social creatures.

I think AR or augmented reality games like this trading cards is the future of gaming, but this one is offline AR rather than online.One of the best game I ever played is the text based souvenir game shopping game on Windows 3. I can&#x27;t recall the name of the game now since it&#x27;s more than 30 years ago, but it&#x27;s about shopping souvenirs using London Underground Tube. You have a semi realistic time constraints like train schedules, your flight schedules and of course list of souvenirs items to shop. This is totally offline since there is no Internet available at the time but it&#x27;s very engaging nonetheless.My proposal for the modern version of the game is to use real-time train schedules (with delays, ticket discounts, etc) that are available publicly on the Internet for many metropolitan cities in the world for examples Tokyo, London and Berlin [1],[2],[3].Imagine you can have a real-world realistic in-app in-game items purchases feature that you personally can buy in the game and delivered to you or anyone you fancy of giving souvenirs except that you only virtually went there.[1] A real-time 3D digital map of Tokyo&#x27;s public transport system (2023 - 103 comments):<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37829061">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37829061</a>[2] Live map of London&#x27;s Underground system:<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;traintimes.org.uk&#x2F;map&#x2F;tube&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;traintimes.org.uk&#x2F;map&#x2F;tube&#x2F;</a>[3] Show HN: Ubähnchen – Animated subway map of Berlin (2020 - 102 comments):<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32647227">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32647227</a>[4] Berlin train info:<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vbb.de&#x2F;fahrinfo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vbb.de&#x2F;fahrinfo</a>

Ojisan (おじさん) is roughly &quot;uncle.&quot; Ojiisan (おじいさん) is grandpa.Same with obasan (おばさん) for aunt and obaasan (おばあさん) for grandma.

These aren&#x27;t middle-aged men, they&#x27;re straight-up old.&quot;Ojisan&quot; means something like &quot;gramps&quot;. Though given how youth-oriented Japanese culture is, I suppose it could refer to any man 35 or older.

Fantastic idea. Curious if this works in my town as well

I would add some obasan - the female counterpart of &quot;ojisan&quot;

&gt; Kids have started attending local events and volunteering for community activities — just for a chance to meet the ojisan from their cards. Participation in town events has reportedly doubled since the game launched.Kids involved in community seems to be the best result

Reminds me of this old SNL skit:<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=pzo73jYl3Ew" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=pzo73jYl3Ew</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43618143">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=43618143</a>

I share your sentiment, I don’t believe that important women don’t exist there. Surely there has been some kind of bias here. Does anyone else agree?

Trading cards cather to young boys. They look up to men.

Imagine boys and girls could have their own gender being represented and they would compete with each other in that card game, or if it&#x27;s not like &quot;Magic: the gathering&quot;, at least interact around arguing who is better. But here, girls are completely excluded from any such interaction, like: &quot;Nope, you don&#x27;t exist.&quot; Girls, who should they look up to? Having both, it allows both genders to choose whom to admire.I actually do not see the obvious reason. Maybe I missed something. My take is Japan has what some would call a gender stereotypical view. What is surprising to me is how a whole gender is excluded from something that creates much fun interaction and play. It feels surprising especially also when the project is supposed to represent a community. I almost feel bad pointing it out, because the project is so wholesome, but it&#x27;s simply what I see.I have a European lense, and I am sure I am not aware of many things of their culture. But, I am struggling to see how it&#x27;s not a blunt confirmation of typical western feminist critique. Of course, Japanese society may have another cultural framework to rationalize it, where any such critique wouldn&#x27;t even be recognized to be rational. That, in itself, reflects a possible large discrepancy in cultural views.(edit: I don&#x27;t think the creator did any wrong, I think they acted within their frame. Maybe the product wouldn&#x27;t be as successfully otherwise. My inquiry is at the level of culture and it&#x27;s undercurrent of values dictating what&#x27;s successfully and to what degree an artifact is based in cultural values and re-affirm those, well transcending mere artistic choice and artistic appreciation which should be free.)(edit 2, psychoanalysis: the artist framing males within cards... Males being looked up to... The artist psychologically in perhaps a Lacanian sense, is &quot;looking up&quot; to expressions of the mighty, assertive phallocentric values constituting society. The artist mediating societal core views by making this artifact, enacts those values by admiration, and mediates those values to the right population, boys, who by their mere gender, are both the protectors and the representations of society&#x27;s core view. I suspect Japan is a phallocentric society more so than not.)

Why are so many comments getting hung up on this?If the (presumably) male at the community center had painted a portrait of the three older buddies he had in the community, would you all be asking &quot;why does that painting only have men in it?&quot;I agree that they should do women next, given the unexpected popularity of what is presumably a pet project - but it&#x27;s not hard to understand the very simple &amp; obvious reasons why the first set of cards didn&#x27;t feature women.

Why only men? Women don&#x27;t exist in any important role in their society?

Makes you think, if your life was reduced to a trading card, would anyone want it? For most, probably not.

I like the idea. On one hand it promotes usung heroes, people who did good for their community. On the other hand it helps establishing role models.It&#x27;s better if kids have these people as role models than random rock stars or movie stars.

I remember as a young kid living in Norway, there&#x27;d be the &quot;russefeiring&quot;[0] around May where students finishing their final semester will don a brightly colored overall and cause mayhem in the town. I remember getting shot a lot with water guns. Anyway, one thing that is pretty fun about that tradition is that the students print cards for themselves with a picture and fun facts etc and hand them out to all the little kids, and we&#x27;d trade them between ourselves to have the whole collection of students.<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Russefeiring" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Russefeiring</a>

“Japan has always had deep subcultures around games, cards, and character design — but what’s new is how global social platforms amplify them. It feels like TikTok is acting as a cross-cultural layer over local fandoms. Could this become a driver for new forms of cross-border cultural products?”

Ojisan as in O.G.san as in Old Gangster san?

Erm, are there some for middle aged women to?Three months after loosing my Mum one realises and appreciates what a huge amount she did for so many people.

&gt;get largely ignored, in part due to a tightly integrated hierarchy of social rules and expectationsI think this might change in the future when men realize the social contract reward for it has been reduced to rubble.&gt;male behaviour completely changes (often for the worse) when a woman walks into the roomI observed this many times and disliked it to the point of acting the reverse (disinterested) which ironically resulted in the opposite outcome at least temporarily. I think it certainly applies to women too but is just less observable because its more passive instead of active. The standard of the average men is also a lot &quot;lower&quot; (actual average) compared to women&#x27;s to get active.

Yeah Japanese culture is very, very different from the West. But it also comes with its own set of problems and challenges.As a gay guy I&#x27;ve always thought about the topic in your last sentence; I agree that male problems (suicide rates, expectations, hypermasculinism etc) get largely ignored, in part due to a tightly integrated hierarchy of social rules and expectations - men (ignoring feelings, emotions, trying to be tough all the time) women (reliance on men, encouraging&#x2F;supporting hypermasculine behaviours).I find it both interesting &amp; sad the way that heterosexual (&amp; bisexual, etc) male behaviour completely changes (often for the worse) when a woman walks into the room. I don&#x27;t see this as much at all in the opposite scenario, though I won&#x27;t say that gay men don&#x27;t sometimes exhibit the same aggressive behaviours that straight men often do.It&#x27;s just sad to watch men not care about certain aspects of themselves that are deemed weak, and that society has no value for men not attached to a family unit (hence the suicide rate). Also look at rates of homelessness - women are more likely to be taken in&#x2F;given much more leeway by family etc than men are as a man down on his luck is a &quot;problem&quot; aka useless. It&#x27;s the same with calling for women to be forced into drafts the same way men are - heterosexual response to that is staggering - the same frequency as the response I get as a man if I say I _don&#x27;t_ want to fight in a war (aggression, being called a coward, the vitriol received for being a &quot;draft dodger&quot;).I know why it is the way it is, though and unlike many others I never forget that we&#x27;re all still just animals at our very core.

The comment here are a perfect example of how this could not exist in the west without some shitstorm trying to destroy it.I guess continuing to ignore 3&#x2F;4:1 male suicide rates is one &quot;solution&quot; to mitigate demographic aging..<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gender_differences_in_suicide" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gender_differences_in_suicid...</a>

More like 10000 [1][1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Kawara,_Fukuoka" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Kawara,_Fukuoka</a>

&quot;Rural Japan&quot; checks notes. Pop 1.7M

the idea is great by itself. However it highlights a big problem in today western society.

&gt; The more actively the ojisan engages in volunteer work or community service, the higher the chances of their card being upgraded to a shiny version with a glossy laminated effect.In systems like this, where artificial scarcity is seen as having value, making the cards _more common_ for good works seems like a perverse incentive; clearly, the best approach is to be Victor Meldrew, so as to have a rarer card.

This is such a wonderful thought. A great way to recognize the efforts put up by people in the community that often goes unnoticed and unappreciated.

How come the men on the cards have Magic&#x2F;Mana Points (MP)?

I don’t think “middle-aged” is quite the right translation.

And Elon Musk + Jeff Bezos is on there as well.

OK, Row 2 Column 2 has to be a mashup of George Bush and Barack Obama right?<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tokyoweekender.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2025&#x2F;03&#x2F;ojisan-01.jpg.webp" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tokyoweekender.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2025&#x2F;03&#x2F;oj...</a>

Not bad. That could work, but still the sentiment remains a bit elusive.Yours does nail a couple strong elements to it.It seems almost noble, or just is a celebration of quiet nobility. That is a part of it too.I feel this is one of those times we would learn Germans have a dead on word like they often do.

Although I think &quot;pure&quot; is alright to use in this context, I would probably have gone with &quot;beautifully simple&quot;.

I love this! I did not expect to love this.Wow.The cards are exemplary. Any Ojisan[0] featured on a card should feel honored. I looked at the cards shown to us and immediately was struck by the artists ability to both see the beauty in these fine people and deliver it on the card in a compelling, clearly respectful way.And the motive! It is simple and noble: Elevating Town Fathers in the eyes of those for whom they often serve.The idea is pure,[1] uncluttered by unnecessary detail and expectations. The only real complication came from the kids, who naturally wanted the game aspect to make the whole thing fun!Of course they did.Humans being beautiful. That is what this is and as much as I want this sort of thing where I live, I know it would not be this organic thing of beauty and that makes me sad. I am not sure enough of us here have what is needed.I am definitely sharing today. What a delightful story![0] Capitalized because local heroes[1] Pure is the word I use in this context. There may be better ones. Please share.

Wait, what does Japan know that 79 year old men are middle aged?

I thought it was a joke like <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;divorceddads.shop&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;divorceddads.shop&#x2F;</a> It turns out it&#x27;s something way more wholesome.

There are fundamental differences between Asian cultures and Western ones, particularly in how they view the individual versus the community, and the relationship between the young and the elderly. In many Asian cultures, the community is often placed above the individual, while in the West, individualism tends to take precedence. These perspectives have evolved differently over time, and each has its own advantages and drawbacks—there’s no single “correct” way.That said, it would definitely be more challenging to implement this kind of community-first mindset in the U.S. or Europe.

&gt; Middle-aged man trading cards
Examples are Mr. Honda (74), Mr. Takeshita (81) and Mr. Fujii (68). Japanese are just built different I guess.

&quot;Middle-aged man ...&quot;also:&quot;It features Mr. Honda (74), ... Mr. Takeshita (81), ... Mr. Fujii (68)&quot;Is this the new &quot;middle-aged&quot; in Japan?

They should have called these Salarymon cards.

i think it would be interesting to allow each Ojisan to be in charge of distribution. some would freely hand out their cards to any who ask, while some might be more &quot;stingy&quot;, awarding cards only to youth who impressed them. the game designer could periodically restock the Ojisan&#x27;s supply and each generation of cards could be mechanically rebalanced to reflect the observed rarity.

The life expectancy in this area is impressive. Middle-aged men:Mr. Honda (74) apparently expecting to live to 148Mr. Takeshita (81) about to buy a high-powered motorcycle, perhapsMr. Fujii (68) has a new sports coupe and is on very good terms with his secretary, his wife has noticed

This is so heart warming. I hope this action gains more interest to other cultures. By the looks of it, the rate of success is greater within a relatively small to medium community in size.

Middle-aged man trading cards go viral in rural Japan town