Denshi-money (electric money or smart cards) makes our lives more convenient. With Edy, a rechargeable smart card, I can buy a lunch box and a snack bar at a convenience store. With Suica, a rechargeable smart card for trains and subways, I can take the subway without using a ticket machine. I can buy things and travel around even if I do not have enough cash in my wallet!
July 04 2008 | Technology and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
Advertisements for tenshoku (career change) are found everywhere in Japan. On the packed commuter train there are wall banners advertising career change fairs and recruitment companies. On websites there are sections entitled “job vacancies” and “changing jobs”. On Japanese search engines such as Yahoo! Japan there are online recruitment sites for full-time, part-time and temporary workers. It seems from these advertisements that Japanese have no trouble in finding career opportunities.
June 28 2008 | Culture and Economy and Weekly Articles | Comments Off
Did you watch ‘Around 40’ last Friday?” “Yeah, it was very good. I felt as if it was my story…”
“Around 40” is a television drama series, which TBS has broadcasted on Friday nights since April. The drama series consists of stories about Japanese women who are around forty years old, dealing with issues such as marriage, work and childbirth. Along with the popularity of the drama, Japanese women aged around forty, so called “ara-fo” (an abbreviation of around 40), have attracted the media’s attention. Many articles about “ara-fo” are published in fashion magazines and on websites. In addition, major Japanese websites such as Nikkei BP, and Yahoo! Japan have “ara-fo” in their Japanese lexicons.
June 20 2008 | Culture and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
“Yesterday, you said that I had to do that. Now, you ask me to do this. What do you want me to do?? Why do you change your instructions so frequently? I am so confused!” A female worker in her 20s yelled this at a male manager sitting at his desk. The manager in his early 40s wiped sweat from his forehead without a word. A couple of hours later, the male manager was yelled at again by a general manager. “Why cannot you do this? Isn’t it your responsibility to manage your people? We have to do this by tomorrow morning!”
These are typical scenes in the office of a Japanese company. Middle managers in Japan are often in a position of “inside the sandwich”, somewhere between the top and the bottom. This sandwich press is pushing middle management harder than ever before.
June 13 2008 | Communication and Culture and Research and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
Women love shopping. No matter how busy they are and what little money they have, women try to buy what they want. Shopping makes them happy and feel rewarded, especially when they buy luxury goods, which is what Japanese women want nowadays.
Who Buys Luxury Goods?
June 06 2008 | Clothing, Food and Housing and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
“Metabo Taisaku” (Anti-Metabolic syndrome measures) and “Metabo Yobou” (preventions of Metabolic Syndrome) are new buzzwords in diet, exercise, and marketing in Japan.
Anti-Metabolic Syndrome Boom Sparked by MHLW
May 31 2008 | Health Care and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
Earthquakes and Tsunamis are natural disasters that Japan has experienced. However, the global food crisis, or the so called ‘silent tsunami’, is a new type of crisis that the Japanese (especially the younger generations) have never experienced before.
Continue reading…
May 09 2008 | Clothing, Food and Housing and Weekly Articles | No Comments »
