text: The world of English-language online media is evolving rapidly. Not only are publications like BuzzFeed, Business Insider, and Quartz changing the way readers consume news by merging the law of the click with real news street cred, they’re taking this model beyond US borders. Business Insider struck a deal with Tencent. Quartz has set up a local office in India. 
   
   BuzzFeed is often cited as a leader of the new media charge, but for all its innovations, in some capacities it still operates like any other business. News markets must be sought out, entered, and conquered. It has already invested in overseas English markets like the UK and India and, after receiving a US$50 million funding round, BuzzFeed announced that it will expand to Japan, among other non-English speaking countries, by the end of 2014. 
   
   Though the company has 27 reasons why moving to Japan is great, it will find one very real competitor upon arrival. 
   
   Curazy, a website for humorous, viral observations on Japan and the outside world, is steadily attracting a strong following. Recent articles titles include “What is Acrobatic Kissing?” and “Even After Their Owners Became Homeless These 12 Dogs Stayed Completely Faithful”. The site, which launched in January, attracts five million unique users per month and just closed a JPY 100 million (US$964,000) round. 
   
   The company only has five full-time employees, lead by Shinnosuke Ito (CEO), Masahiro Kawasaki (head of marketing), and Taisuke Takemoto (head of business). None of the three have prior media experience but they are all entrepreneurs at heart. Ito previously operated a tutoring school via Skype during college, Kawasaki was doing sales for a homepage web developer while working on side projects, and Takemoto, who joined this summer, was running a website design company of his own. 
   
   Curazy launched in January 2014, but its operating company, Laugh Tech, first had an interest in manga (comic books in Japan). Ito explained they launched Cosmo in October 2013, only six months after incorporating Laugh Tech (then called Bit Gather). The service was well-regarded and the netted the team the “Google Award” at a pitch contest held for Google for Entrepreneurs Week 2013. 
   
   Users, however, did not follow the plaudits and the team began planning a pivot. They had already started experimenting with a 9gag clone, Curazy Pix, a simple collection of humorous images. The early feedback was positive, leading the team to work on the release of Curazy. 
   
   Looking to the future, Laugh Tech definitely got the memo startups are supposed to set big, audacious goals. The team wants to hit 300 million in monthly pageviews and exit via IPO or acquisition within four years. The pageview goal is definitely a reach considering BuzzFeed – which does not report pageview data – recorded 179 million total visits from 25 July 2014 to 23 August 2014 from American alone, according to Quantcast. BuzzFeed’s 150 million unique users, acquired over the past eight years, are also a significant increase from Laugh Tech’s 5 million. 
   
   As a start, the company has already expanded outside of Japan. Its Taiwanese incarnation is managed by a husband-wife team who translate some of the Japan site’s content and also add localized pieces. 
   
   Early traction is a positive sign but Ito is well aware of BuzzFeed’s position in the digital media market and is no rush to become bitter rivals. In fact, his team has already identified BuzzFeed as a potential acquirer. “BuzzFeed, are you reading [this article]? Buy us!” he said. 
   
   Ito’s tongue-in-cheek approach to the company’s future evinces his sure-footed confidence. BuzzFeed may be a behemoth but Ito believes Japan will be difficult to conquer. “Humor is a part of culture, and the culture here is too different,” he said. 
   
   9月3日と4日にスタートアップアジア＠東京を開催します！8月29日まで、割引コード < latebird >を使ってみて下さい！ 
   
   Startup Asia Tokyo 2014 is on Sep 3 and 4. Until Aug 29th, unlock secret level using code < latebird > ||||| Most citizens still oppose lowering the age of majority from 20 to 18, a government survey said Saturday. 
   
   According to the poll by the Cabinet Office, 69.0 percent don’t want parental authority to end at a child’s 18th birthday. This was almost unchanged from 69.4 percent in the 2008 survey. 
   
   Only 26.2 percent backed lowering the age, down 0.5 point. 
   
   A 2007 law that specifies procedures for constitutional amendment in principle allows people 18 or above to vote in national referendums. The law calls for discussions on lowering the legal age of adulthood from 20 before it is put into effect. 
   
   However, related bills have not been initiated more than three years since its enforcement, due in part to the Liberal Democratic Party’s reluctance to lower the age to 18. 
   
   According to the survey, 79.4 percent of Japanese object to making 18 the youngest age at which people can conclude contracts to buy expensive items without parental consent, up 0.6 point from the previous survey. Meanwhile, 18.6 percent supported the change, down 0.4 point. 
   
   Asked about the minimum age at which people are allowed to adopt children, 51.5 percent answered that it should remain unchanged at 20, down 0.1 point, while 5.9 percent said it should drop to 18, down 0.8 point. 
   
   The survey also revealed waning public interest in whether the age of majority should be lowered, with 69.8 percent interested, down 5.6 points, and 29.6 percent saying they have no interest, up 5.6 points. 
   
   The Cabinet Office conducted the survey through face-to-face interviews with 5,000 people aged 18 or above nationwide between Oct. 10 and 27. Valid responses were received from 62.4 percent. ||||| Tweet with a location 
   
   You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Tweet with a location 
   
   You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Unlike in the U.S., legal adulthood in Japan doesn’t begin until the age of 20. But while that means an extra two years to enjoy the benefits and protection society affords to minors, everyone has to grow up sometime, and for one Japanese Twitter user the transition was especially abrupt. 
   
   On his 20th birthday as his parents presented him with a written notice congratulating him on graduating from childhood and celebrating his newfound freedoms, while spelling out exactly what they, and the world, now expected of him as an adult. 
   
   Twitter user @zamayuma1004’s birthday was last weekend, and this year he hit the two-decade mark. On his special day, his parents presented him with this festive-looking envelope. 
   
   Normally when someone hands you something like this on your birthday, you expect a birthday card, and the envelope did indeed have “Happy birthday” written on it. What was inside, though, was a little less orthodox. 
   
   The paper reads: 
   
   Happy 20th Birthday! Notice of Expiration of Child-Rearing Services As of October 4, 2015, your father, Yoshikazu Hasegawa, and mother, Chiaki Hasegawa, have completed their duties of raising their child: you, Yuma Hasegawa. Going forward, please become a proper and responsible member of society, like your father and mother. In addition, should you continue living in the Hasegawa family home, please make a monthly payment of 20,000 yen [US$168] for rent, utility, and grocery expenses. Also, please be aware that should you ask for a loan from your parents, interest will be charged. Points to note upon reaching the age of 20 
   
   ● You must make compulsory national pension payments. If you put this off it will cause problems, so make the payments. 
   
   ● Should you commit a crime, your face and name can now be shown on television and in newspapers. You will also have a permanent criminal record. 
   
   ● You can now buy alcohol and tobacco products. Do not drive while intoxicated. 
   
   ● You can get married without your parents’ permission. However, they may not emotionally accept your wife as their daughter-in-law if you don’t discuss the situation without them beforehand. 
   
   ● Think responsibly about the future and set aside an adequate amount of savings from the money you earn. Please enjoy your life as an adult. 
   
   Although the document might sound the like the grumblings of a pair of exasperated parents who’ve reached the limits of their patience, @zamayuma1004 says they’ve got their tongues firmly planted in their cheeks. He’s actually been paying the monthly amount mentioned for rent and expenses since last year, and he hopes to do even more to help his parents out in the future. 
   
   That said, this is a documented case of pretty tough love by Japanese standards, considering that at the age of 20 much of the population is still attending college or trade school, and that it’s customary to continue living with your parents until getting married or school or work takes you away from your home town. Still, it’s hard to argue with any of the things @zamayuma1004’s parents are saying as they tell him not to let the door of his childhood hit him in the butt on his way out of it. 
   
   Source: Curazy 
   
   Top image: Twitter/@zamayuma1004 (1, 2) (edited by RocketNews24)
target: – When young adults in the US reach the age of majority, they take on full legal responsibility for themselves and can do fun things like vote, sign contracts, and open bank accounts. In Japan, the same milestone means they get hit with rent charges and manifestos from their parents on how they're pretty much on their own now. At least, that's the case for Japanese Twitter user @zamayuma1004, who tweeted photos last week of the special gift his mom and dad presented him on the occasion of his 20th birthday (the Japanese age of majority). Beautifully wrapped in an envelope tied with red and white string was a letter titled "Notice of Expiration of Child-Rearing Services," and its contents proved the parents weren't messing around, RocketNews24 reports via Curazy, Japan's BuzzFeed-style site. "As of October 4, 2015, your father, Yoshikazu Hasegawa, and mother, Chiaki Hasegawa, have completed their duties of raising their child: you, Yuma Hasegawa," the letter reads, per a RocketNews24 translation. "Going forward, please become a proper and responsible member of society, like your father and mother." It then offers a bulleted list of advice for the new adult, including that Yuma pay into his pension, "not drive while intoxicated," and discuss any future possible wife with them or they "may not emotionally accept" her. They also mention the $168 they expect for rent and other household expenses and note that "should you ask for a loan from your parents, interest will be charged." "Please enjoy your life as an adult," the note ends. Meanwhile, Yuma insists his parents are just joshing (kind of) and that he's been contributing monetarily to the household since last year. (Centenarians probably won't be getting fancy birthday gifts in Japan anymore.)