http://www.japanhomepage.net/ I have 35+ links but no articles yet. I would like any critique you offer. Also any advice on how to attract articles/links. This is my first directory.
As your article directories is concentrated on the particular niche it is more difficult to get articles as you would with regular article directories. Just to get things going you should post few articles yourself. Once the traffic increases to your site the article submissions will keep coming.
The layout can be more clean. And instead of waiting for article submission, may be you can put some articles on it first.
I think directory is good you should add more categories to your directory otherwise i dont think you will be able to make it popular
Well Not bad, now you should trying to get few backlinks and trying to promote the site...all the best !