A very nice profile of Joi and a bit on blogging in Japan.
I do have to temper some of the idealistic comments about the impact of blogs though- I think that blogs, or rather personal publishing to the web, will have much more impact over the long-term than we might imagine and less over the short-term than we would hope. I think that is a commonly held about technologies in general and I believe it applies to weblogs as well.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP – Japanese Internet star pushes blogs

Not bad, but maybe not an all-bases-loaded homer out of the park. Definitely good momentum for Ripplewood though.
Bloomberg.com: Ripplewood Garners Fourfold Return on Japan Telecom

Uhm… I could try to explain it but, nah.
USA Musume (Morning Musume cosplayers)
Via FG