Cash Society Japan

I remember my first payday after coming to work as a teacher in Japan, being handed an envelope containing my entire month's salary in cash, which was quite a surprise to me. Japan has always been a very cash-oriented society, with no equivalent to personal checks or money orders, and when making purchases most people will pay in 10,000 yen bills. Credit cards exist here of course, but they're much less common than in the U.S., and to get one you need to pass a strict credit check and have been employed at the same company for at least a year -- a far cry from the pre-approved credit cards I'd get in my mailbox back in college. A few years ago, we bought the plot of land behind our home, I remember going to pay for it in cash, counting out the bills for the previous owner as we finalized the contract. Of course, the only thing constant in the world is change, and Japanese are slowly adopting alternate ways of paying for products, such as Suica, a rechargeable contractless smart card that can be used to pay for train tickets, food purchases and so on. One of the most innovative ideas I've seen in a long time are the cell phone with Suica cards built into them, so all you need is your phone and you can pay for just about anything.

Of course, if you want cash we've got both yen and dollars on J-List.

Food Fraud

Each year the organization that publishes the Standardized Kanji Test announces the "kanji of the year," the character that best sums up the events of the past twelve months. Previous characters have included inochi (life) in 2005 to mark the terrible young lives lost in suicides that year, tora (tiger) due to the historic Hanshin Tigers' victory in the Japan pennant, and ikusa (war) in 2001, when the U.S. invaded Iraq. The kanji of the year for 2007 was nise (nii-SAY), meaning "fake" or "fraud," due to the large number of food-related scandals that became news, including a famous restaurant caught labeling normal meat as high-grade Kobe beef and serving leftovers to customers, a confectionery company that sprayed water on stale slices of cake so they'd look fresh enough to sell, and Hokkaido-based "Meat Hope," which despite its awesome name got in trouble for intentionally mis-labeling its products. So far, 2008 has been more of the same as food scandals continue. The most egregious one so far has been a company called Mikasa Foods, which bought inedible rice that had been contaminated with pesticides and seawater (it said) for use in glue production. In reality, it relabeled the rice and sold it to more than 370 companies, which used it to manufacture everything from food to sake to beer and more -- bleah.

Fall Traffic Safety Week

It's time for Traffic Safety Week in Japan, when awareness of various automotive safety issues is raised throughout the country. Originally begun in 1948 in response to the increase in motor traffic in regional Japanese cities, the government officially adopted a twice-annual Traffic Safety Week system in 1962, designating April 6-15 in the spring and September 21-30 in the fall as special periods to promote "safety driving" (as the Japanese invariably call it). Everywhere you go for the next ten days, signs and flags will remind drivers to slow down, and there'll be plenty of police checkpoints looking for drunk drivers, people not using their seatbelts, and so on. Since Japan is crisscrossed by so many railroads there's a big problem with drivers trying to run train crossings as they close, and during this week groups like the Lion's Club will stand at train crossings wearing Haruhi Suzumiya-like "traffic safety officer" armbands to make sure drivers stop at the train crossings properly. The Japanese care a great deal about traffic safety, and often carry Shinto good luck charms specifically made for that purpose.
Yes, nothing gets the chicks like traffic safety awareness.

Ne-ver Ending Japanese Grammar Lesson

If you've paid attention while watching Japanese anime or, ahem, other videos in Japanese, you've might have noticed the word ne. This is an interesting Japanese grammatical particle that usually goes on the ends of sentences and serves several purposes, mostly related to asking for confirmation of information or agreement with an opinion. Here are two examples:

アイスコーヒー二つですね？ Aisu kohii futatsu desu ne?
You'd like two glasses of iced coffee, is that right?

今日は、暑いですね。Kyou wa atsui desu ne.
It's hot today, isn't it?

Other functions of the all-purpose Japanese particle ne include softening a sentence so its meaning it less harsh (Chotto furorimashita ne. You've gained a little weight, haven't you?); emphasizing what you want to say (Kondo chanto kiite kudasai, ne. Please listen closely next time, alright?); working as a pause in sentences, like "um" in English; and to get the attention of the listener before speaking. Girls use ne more often than men and with a higher intonation, so males should use the word with caution lest they appear effeminate, although guys speaking Japanese will mess this up all the time (it's part of our charm). Even if you don't speak any Japanese at all, just memorize the phrase ne! and pull it out whenever a Japanese person says something you want to agree with, and watch the look of surprise on their face.

Kawaii, ne?

All About Older Japanese

Most Western nations are facing the problem of ageing populations, but Japan is really leading the pack, with its combination of a very low birth rate, healthier diet and a good medical system. Japanese older people are just like elderly from any other part of the world, sometimes friendly and interesting to talk to, and other times unwilling to take crap from anyone as they dive for the last pair of shoes at a department store bargain sale. As an American living in Japan, it's can be interesting to strike up conversations with older Japanese, who will often talk about what the war years were like for them, or the time they saw General MacArthur, and there's an unspoken acknowledgement of all that's changed in the past 60 years. Since it's generally expected that the oldest son or daughter will take over the family house and care for the parents in their silver years, elderly folks generally have the benefit of lots of family around them, at least in the semi-rural prefecture where I live. Partially because of this system, and also (I've been told) because Japanese rarely leave the area where their family grave is located, you don't see people migrating to a different part of the country when they retire as is the case with Florida. The main social activity of Japanese retired people seems to be going to the doctor's office every day to sit and chat with friends while they wait to be seen by the doctor for some (usually imagined) pain, and if you ever get sick in Japan you'd better have a strategy for getting to the doctor's office early. While most of the older people living in my neighborhood are very genki (healthy, full of energy), there's one poor woman whose back is stuck at a 90 degree angle, making her unable to stand up at all. I'd always assumed this problem came a lifetime of planting rice by hand, but supposedly it's caused by a chronic vitamin B1 deficiency that was a chronic problem in the first few decades of the 20th century.

Social Security Hotel

I went to Tokyo to meet a friend yesterday. He's working for the prestigious Tokyo University, the top ranked school in Japan, and it was interesting to take in a part of the city I'd not seen much of before. The hotel we stayed at was called Eminasu, and I was surprised to see a large sign stating proudly that the hotel had been built with money from the National Pension System, the equivalent to Social Security in Japan. Yes, there's so much money sloshing around in funds like the pension system and Japan Post deposit accounts that legislators are quite unable to keep their paws off it, and regularly launch grand hakomono (lit. "box-thing") construction projects to foster economic development, provide services for citizens and (of course) secure lucrative employment for the former government employees who were directly involved with said projects when they retire. (This is known as amakudari or "descent from heaven.") Sometimes the system works okay, as in the case of the hotel we stayed at, providing a good room at a slightly subsidized rate since the government-operated hotel didn't need to generate a profit. But there are plenty of horror stories of massively wasteful construction projects made with taxpayer funds, like a sprawling resort hotel at the top of a mountain that no one ever stayed at and a now-bankrupt theme park designed as a replica of a Turkish village, complete with a full-sized Trojan horse. How fitting.

They have these hotels all over. You can stay at this one in Kyoto if you like.My hotel room was $80 per night, so I presume the ones in Kyoto will likely be the same.

The rooms certainly look nice!

Japan's Internet is #1 in the World

Japan has the best Internet connectivity in the world, according to a newly released study which compared actual data-transfer rates and overall customer satisfaction by Internet users around the world. Sweden came in second, followed by the Netherlands (#3), South Korea (#5), Germany (#9), France (#12), the U.S. (#16) and the U.K. (#24). The results were interesting to me because Japan lagged behind the rest of the world in adopting the Internet throughout the 1990s, with significantly higher prices and lower connection speeds. A lot of the slow Internet development was due to NTT, the 800 lb gorilla of the telecommunications world here, a former government-run monopoly that owned all the lines ISPs needed to lease in order to do business, and which generally kept a lot of competition out of the marketplace by functioning as the country's largest ISP directly. It turns out that having a less competition might have been a good thing in the case of Japan, since NTT and its subsidiary companies were able to execute technology roll-outs more efficiently than if it'd been up to a hodge-podge of companies, as is the case with the U.S. J-List connects to the net through hikari fiber or an optical fiber line, although it was a long wait to get our office wired for the fast connection. We actually had to make a formal request to the mayor's office (my wife happens to have the same last name as him, so we let the staff think we were related), and they passed along our request to NTT, who made sure J-List was the first customer connected in our city. Having fast, efficient Internet despite the lack of competitive pressures might seem puzzling, but it's quite common for Japan to seemingly violate the rules of Capitalism yet have things turn out okay in the end.

Wither Morality in Japan?

"Children who are able to greet others properly won't be steered wrong in life." This is one of the many tidbits of wisdom hung on metal signs put up by our local PTA, and every time I drive down a street I haven't been on before I'm strangely compelled to keep my eyes open for new signs. "People who don't show respect to their parents won't receive it from their own children." Japan is a unique industrialized nation in that its ideas on morality were never based on the Bible, unlike Western countries, and I've always been interested in how the Japanese define the concept. All elementary school kids have a class called dotoku (morality) in which they learn about various (of course secular) issues, such as how recognize and stop ijime, how to be thankful to others, and so on. "Weak-minded children are caused by over-protective parents." Yes, pinning down the basis of Japan's thinking on morality is a challenge. Is it based on Buddhism? I haven't been able to identify any active lessons that Japanese Buddhism imparts to its followers other than to be respectful of your family members, especially those who have gone on to the next world. It's a question I hope to find the answer to some day.

This one says, "Parents show their loving concern for their children when they offer advice to them." Sounds lame in English but better in Japanese.

A Taco Revolution in Japan?

"How many Taco Bell sauce packets do you have in your glove compartment?" I've got a lot, and whenever I go to the U.S. I make sure to bring back more, since they're awfully convenient and taste good, too. We had soft tacos for dinner the other day, and it was a reverent experience, with everyone making each taco with care and eating it slowly, savoring each bite. Unlike Hong Kong with its mish-mash of food cultures, with all manner of cuisine from Asia, Europe and everywhere else mixed together, Japan can be rather closed-minded about what it eats, which makes it hard to find some of my favorite items. The amazing thing about the tortillas we ate this time, though, was that they were bought here -- I kept re-reading the Japanese text on the package, unable to believe my eyes. Could this be the beginning of a renaissance of culinary internationalization in Japan? My fingers are so crossed.

Site Back UP

J-List, this site, and JAST USA / Peach Princess were all offline for a couple of hours due to a blown router with our ISP. Back up now. Whew ^_^;;

Is Japan Behind the U.S. and Europe?

I write often about how Japanese consider themselves to be a decade or so "behind" the U.S. and Europe, and almost take it for granted that their country is less advanced than the West. For example, I've heard people here remark that no one from Japan could have created a company like YouTube, capable of serving videos to every point on the globe, because no one here could think on such a nakedly large scale. Although it's all too easy to judge Japan from my American point of view, there are some core areas that could be improved, starting with thinking about the web. Yahoo Japan's video site would like to be #1 here, but it not only requires Windows 2000/XP/Vista to work, but you have to be using Internet Explorer, which is a real bummer for Linux, Mac and all Firefox users. Japanese web companies don't seem terribly interested in the outside world, either: Mixi.jp, the leading Facebook-like site in Japan, requires an email address with a Japanese ending (yahoo.co.jp as opposed to yahoo.com) to sign up. Banks can be frustrating, too. Back in my single days, I went hitchhiking up to Hokkaido, being sure to bring my bank card so I could get money from the "cash corner" (ATM) when I needed it. Unfortunately, banks and their ATMs were closed for the Golden Week holidays back then, so I wasn't able to get any cash out all week. (Banks have gotten better, but are still frustrating -- it still costs $6 to send $50 to someone's bank account, as there are no personal checks in Japan.) In the past, many of the most innovative ideas have flowed from Japan, like the Sony Walkman or the idea of putting a camera in a cell phone, but I don't think something like Skype could ever have been invented here.

Confucius Say: Take a Test, Young Man

The Japanese like tests, and there are a mind-boggling number of them offered to people of all ages, from the most popular English test (the Step Test, called Eiken here) to tests for penmanship and kanji writing ability, knowledge of world historical sites, the ability to memorize train schedules and even use of a kendama. Japan's culture of bettering yourself through study and competitive testing was imported from China, where the idea of awarding government jobs based on academic ability rather than, say, giving them to the sons of current officials, emanated from the teachings of Confucius. When I first arrived in Japan, I wanted a way to make myself study Japanese harder, and I found the perfect goal: the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), held every December. The test is set up in four levels, with level 4 being the easiest (hiragana, katakana and a limited number of kanji) and level 1 being required for entrance into a Japanese university, which worked out great because it's not hard to raise yourself up one level with each year of study. The deadline for applying for the test this year is coming up on Sept. 20, so if you'd like to give the test a try, see this site for more information. Remember that J-List genuinely loves Japan and wants to promote the study of the language, and we've got tons of Japanese study books in stock, including JLPT-specific study aids.

In other words, the idea is to use these:

and get one of these:

You Are Already Married!

Happy Wedding! To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Fist of the North Star, the popular manga and anime set in a post-Apocalyptic future in which everyone looks strangely like extras from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, the publishers are holding an actual wedding ceremony for the two main characters, Kenshiro and the woman he spent years battling for, Yuria. On Saturday, 777 lucky fans who won invitations to the event will dress up in their best formal suits to attend the special wedding, which is being put on by the famous "charisma wedding planner" Akemi Ariga. The event will be similar to the fake "funeral" for Kenshiro's brother, the warlord Raoh, and should be widely attended by the media. You can always tell someone who's on his way back from a wedding in Japan, because he's carrying a large bag of gifts he received from the new couple containing things like katsuobushi (dried bonito fish), sekihan (red-colored rice with beans) and manju cakes. Tomorrow there will be 777 Fist of the North Star fans carrying some serious otaku cred home with them on the train. Although they're fictional characters, we certainly wish Ken and Yuria lots of happiness. You are already married!

Hey! Let's go to Kyoto!

Every visitor to Japan develops, I think, a special relationship with Kyoto, the beautiful city that was capital of Japan for most of the country's history. Founded in 794 as Heian-Kyo, it was made in imitation of the great Chinese cities of the era, sporting a Manhattan-style grid pattern with wide, straight roads that are actually named, quite convenient as streets are generally not named in Japan. Of course, everyone loves the beautiful old temples, and whenever I'm in the city I've got a mental list of must-see sites that are among my favorites, from the bamboo forest at Arashiyama to Nijo Castle with its anti-ninja squeaking floors to Kiyomizu-dera, nearly destroyed in Godzilla vs. Mothra. History can be found at every corner, for example on the Gojo Bridge, the scene of a famous sword battle between the 7-foot tall warrior monk Benkei and the charismatic Yoshitsune more than 1000 years ago. When you go to Kyoto, you suddenly become linked with every other foreigner who's ever visited the cty. Even Albert Einstein, who spent several months lecturing in Japan, loved the city. As fall approaches, we'll be under attack from TV commercials reminding us of how beautiful the city is this time of year, with the slogan, "I've got an idea! Let's go to Kyoto!"

Here's the Kiyomizu-Dera commercial for Kyoto. Warning: it will give you Kyoto-lust!

And the commercial advertising my favoritest place of all, Sanjusangendo (the Hall of 33 Bays).

 

All About the Word "Anime"

Although anime has become a part of our world culture, watched by fans from all over the globe, the word anime has some interesting history to it. From the early years of the industry, the most common term for animation in Japan was doga, meaning "moving pictures," but when the groundbreaking Tetsuwan Atom (Atom Boy) aired in 1957, it was marketed as "TV manga," starting the early trend of referring to animation with the same word that's used for comic books, manga. The first known example of the word anime being used as an abbreviation for "animation" was in 1965, in an industry magazine for independent film directors, and the word started to spread out to fans from this point. By the time the popular World Masterpiece Anime Theatre series began in 1975, bringing classic works of children's literature like Heidi, Girl of the Alps and A Dog of Flanders to viewers, the word anime was universally used to refer to the genre. One of the biggest events for anime fandom as a whole was Tokuma Shoten's launching of popular anime magazine Animage in 1978, which went on to define many of the concepts of the genre that we take for granted now, bringing all fans together under the same big tent. Although the word anime is often used in the west to mean the opposite of traditional Western animation, Japanese will readily refer to Disney films using the term.

Kamakura Confidence

My daughter's been quite happy in school recently, after a trip she took with her class a few weeks ago to Kamakura, the historic town known for its many beautiful temples. As part of her Ministry of Education-mandated English class (they recently decided that Japanese were never going to get good at English unless they started studying the language earlier), the sixth graders had a special assignment: they were to approach the foreign tourists and ask them some questions that had been prepared, like where they were from and what they liked about Japan. It was quite a challenging task, since the students had taken their English lessons from their normal Japanese homeroom teacher who doesn't actually speak the language at all, and most of the kids weren't able to make themselves understood by the foreign tourists. It was the perfect moment for my daughter, who came to everyone's rescue and engaged the gaijin visitors, getting them to come and answer everyone's questions while she translated. After that, the other kids in my daughter's class had a bit more respect for her.

2009 Japanese Calendars!

It's time for J-List to role out our big volley of 2009 preorder calendars, as we make hundreds of gorgeous anime, character, JPOP, Japanese sexy idol, traditional and other calendars to our customers around the world. If you've never had one of these giant poster-sized Japanese calendars on your wall, we hope you'll consider getting one or more this year, since they really are something special, with the highest quality printing imaginable, gorgeous glossy coated sheets, and all original art, which will be treasured by you all year long. Every year it's fun to see which Japanese star will claim the coveted "CL1" spot, indicating that they are the most famous person in Japan, and this year the top spot goes to super-cute idol, singer and voice actress Yui Aragaki from Okinawa. We've posted dozens of these great 2009 calendars for preorder -- browse them all now!

Gotta Get Me Some Creamed Corn Soup

If you love "corn potage," then get to Japan as fast as you can, since people here just can't get enough of creamed corn soup. Most every famires (family restaurant) sports a Drink Bar where you can help yourself to as many glasses of iced coffee or melon soda as you'd like for 200 yen or so, and nearby, there's usually a Soup Bar with a big pot of delicious creamed corn soup -- mmm. As an American, when I think of soup I think of the Campbell's classics like chicken noodle, tomato, and vegetable beef, but these are as alien here in Japan as Green Tea Butterscotch and Rose Flavored Gum are in most parts of the world. Other types of soup the Japanese like include creamed pumpkin or carrot soups, healthy wakame (seaweed) or miso soup, or if at an Italian restaurant, perhaps some minestrone. When you get sick in the U.S., most people think of eating chicken soup, but in Japan the most common remedies are drinking a tea with ginger in it or swallowing down a raw egg in sake -- yum.

(They even have it canned.)

The Goal of Education in Japan

I remember back in the 1980s, when Japan's educational system was held up as a success story for other nations to follow. While there certainly are some good elements the country's approach to education -- like the idea of using competition to get students to become goal-oriented and apply themselves in ways I could never have dreamed of when I was that age -- not every aspect of schools here would be appreciated in other countries. The primary goal of education in Japan seems to be to help create happy members of society through inclusion in groups, and there are several mechanisms for promoting this appreciation of your own place as a member of the larger group, for example the complex system of sports and other character-building clubs that students are compelled to join in Junior High School. Whereas American Junior High and High School kids will each have random schedules, Japanese classes are fixed, with all 40 students of class 3-A staying in the same classroom for every hour of every day, as different teachers come and go depending on what the next subject is. One side effect of this is that all classes in Elementary and Junior High learn the exact same material, no matter what their individual level might be. My daughter was taking some lessons with a private tutor in the U.S. over the summer, and I was discussing the possibility that she might be borderline dyslexic with her teacher, since I am myself. The tutor asked me, "Well, if that's the case, they must have some kind of special class for her in Japan, right?" The answer is no -- unless a child is so different they're not able to go to their normal school, everyone will be treated exactly the same no matter what, the better for the harmony of the group.

Divorce and Japan

There's a sad statistic that's on the rise in Japan these days: divorce. The combination of the country's rapidly aging society, high stress levels and a new law that enables a woman to claim up to half of her husband's company pension is causing the number of older couples getting a "vintage year divorce" to rise. When I was an English teacher, I taught a wide range of students, including a fair number of housewives, and I remember being surprised by the venom some of the women were capable of spitting when discussing their husbands. I didn't understand at the time that at least some of this husband-bashing was part of a Japanese social custom you might call "out-humbling each other," as women try to show that they have the most worthless, lazy husband in the room. (Japanese mothers and grandmothers will do the same thing when discussing their own children with others, having competitions to see whose kids were the most baka, and I've had to expressly forbid this kind of talk in my own home.) The divorce rate in Japan is still comparatively low -- currently around 2.2 per 1000 people per year, compared with 4 in the U.S. and 2.6 in the U.K. -- but finding someone who is batsu-ichi (lit. "one strike out") is a lot more common than it has been in the past. Coupled with the trend of women either marrying much later or not at all, it Japan has some tough issues to face as the 21st century progresses.

They look so happy as they stamp that divorce document.