115 posts tagged “japan”

Tokyo Hostess Labor Union

3 days ago
2 comments

No, it's not the title of the next Chuck Palahniuk novel. This is for real. Someone is putting together a labor union, serious, legit, workers-be-united type thing. For the hostesses working in Tokyo, to solve problems such as unpaid salaries and sexual harassment. I am not making this up.

First thing comes to my mind is, they would have to start with defining exactly what type of employment it is (this changes what type of legal regulation will be applied). Are they directly employed by the club? If so, the club is legally required to provide health benefits and paid holidays. If they are freelancers, the club cannot bind them exclusive to one club. (Wait, is a club incorporated in the first place? It's probably owned by some dummy company)
Also, the management in this case is not your average square type characters; raise a hand if you think hostess clubs are run by square, honest, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens with no affiliation whatsoever with Yakuza (or a front company / individual working for Yakuza). I wouldn't try to sue these people for sexual harassment because some customers just kept saying obnoxious things. They wouldn't want the money flow too clear to outsiders (the whole thing would go down in public if there ever is a lawsuit; tax authorities would love to be on the hearing seat)
Which leads to another question- unlike day-time office environment, there has to be a different set of criterea for what constitues as verbal sexual harassment, because, you know, you could argue that the whole business is about those men letting out what they can't say in today's office (or at their home). Read WH's blog for a while. A guy talks about his impotence in his office to female co-workers? He could get sued. Should the same criterea apply in hostess club environment??

Interesting story, but I don't think it would catch on.

Laughing Man Business Card Case

Oct 16, 2009
4 comments

Should you encounter someone who otherwise seems to be normal produce this business card case,

Laughing Man Card Case

You should

(a): Call Tokyo Metropolitan PD, saying you've got a tip for Major Motoko Kusanagi at Section-9.

(b): Check every electronic device on your person to make sure they haven't been hacked.

(c): Pretend you are too cool to know anything about Japanimation.

Searching for a new keitai

Oct 12, 2009
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I need to change my keitai / cell-phone. I am not happy with my current one. Actually, I have been unhappy with it for quite a while, since I found out it's got the most ridiculous system to type English text mails, but I have put up with it, thinking it may just take more getting used to.

But no, it's not the question of getting used to, it's all about wrong software design.

See, when I want to write an English text and change from Japanese to English mode, by default I can ONLY WRITE IN UPPER CASE LETTERS. I need to either go to another menu to change to lower case letters, or hit a key for each letter I type. This crap is clearly designed by people who never actually write in English. (It's Docomo N902i, if anyone cares to know)

Moreover, this key I'm supposed to hit to make letters into lower case, is just below the "send" button. I have accidentally sent half-written texts because of this layout. Meh.

Actually, this is the only real complaint I have of my current keitai- I don't care about watching tv on it (why would I hurt my eyes over such a tiny screen??), and I can't use iPhone anyway as long as I stick with Docomo- though current models are way thinner and lighter, which may be good.

Problem is, very few people actually care how the English input mode is like before they make their purchase, so I doubt if those shop attendants could actually tell how it works. I have begun preliminary search, let's see what I can find..

Oil exporters considering to stop using USD

Oct 10, 2009
2 comments

If you happen to frequent business-oriented news sites like Reuters or The Wall Street Journal, you may have come across this article; some middle eastern countries (I suspect they wanted to say OPEC) are considering to stop using American dollars for their oil export transactions. They want to introduce some sort of currency basket and, according to the article, they are already in secret negotiations with central banks from EU, Japan, China and Russia.

Some American "experts" immediately fired off comments saying there are all kinds of technical difficulties for them to implement such move; but you know, technical difficulties are not the essential problem, those are the stuff they can hire experts to figure out if they have really made the decision to ditch USD.

I'm no currency expert (therefore you shouldn't rely on this post to make any kind of investment decisions), but even the fact that the news like this comes up is another sign of the slow decline of the American dollars as the world's de facto standard currency. It's not like it will go down the drain overnight, but a decade from now, it's probably not enjoying the position it is enjoying today. (You may want to read Fareed Zakaria's fascinating book called "Post-American World". He basically says that, while the U.S. succeeded in globalizing the world, it has failed to globalize itself.)

According to this certain study, in 2050 the world's biggest economy will be China, with the U.S. as No.2. And where Japan would be? No. 8. Surpassed by Brazil, Russia, and India. You know, there was this article on News Week that really struck me, comparing Japan in Asia to Austria in Europe; it said, like Austria, Japan will most like follow the path of slow decay and decline, once powerful and important, now living on memory and nostalgia, so to speak. You could say this view is now the basis of how I see Japan as the country and where the Japanese society is going in general.

American Dark Age

Sep 6, 2009
2 comments

A friend just came back from New York. I asked her how things were like, with all the recession and other cheerful news coming from over there.

She just said, "America has entered into the Dark Age!"

But apparently there was a silver lining to the arrival of American Dark Age, namely all kinds of designer shops doing ridiculous sale and many things getting super cheap. (If you really think about it, this is not such a good news, but at least it was a good news for her:-)

Japan's not doing that fine either, but Japan has pretty much been in its own Dark Age for more than a decade:-) So I guess we have been better adjusted to it; must be hard for the American people, until the first half of 2008 things were looking pretty normal. 2008 for them must be like 1991 for us Japanese.

Regime Change

Sep 1, 2009
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Man, thought I was going to write about the special kind of humanitarian operation I have conducted last Friday, but DPJ winning over LDP on last Sunday's national election in Japan is so big my attention is diverted to those news reports- and all the guessing-game as to what's going to happen next.

Japan watchers out there have access to better- written articles so I won't repeat stuff already written; LDP has (almost) never lost its position as the ruling party, which means the incoming DPJ won't have a clue how to run the show- I would predict there would be a lot of false starts and some screwups in the first 6 to 12 months, but that's the necessary process for Japanese two party system to start really functioning (more interesting would be, how LDP would handle their historical defeat and where would they be when DPJ finally will get the hang of it ??)

Funny thing about the Japanese conservatives (who mostly hate America) is, what they are today has been shaped by the US. Japan may never have had its Self-Defense Force unless Korean War broke out in 1950 and the U.S. occupying force decided they needed some local muscle for help. The U.S. also helped LDP connect with Yakuza families (so they would fight- and suppress- socialistic movement that was pretty huge in postwar Japan) and (allegedly) supplied covert fund and other help to keep LDP in power. (Read "Embracing Defeat" and "Tokyo Underground" for more on this)

I don't really think everything will change drastically in the beginning, but if they manage to better handle things, change might start to take shape in 2-3 years from now.

5.4% is actually 8.8%

Aug 2, 2009
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Japanese government is dishing out this subsidy for companies when they kept employees they otherwise would have fired. The money is paid out according to the number of people who's been kept on board, so it's easy to track the number of people who have been staying employed because of this (I guess you could say that the Japanese government is their virtual employer now).

The number for June is about 2,380,000 individuals. Current unemployment rate for Japan is 5.4% (with about 3,140,000 unemployed individuals on record- it's very easy to "go off the radar" from this, so every time you see an unemployment rate figure, it's a fairly safe bet that the actual number of people out of regular work is much higher), but if the subsidy runs out and assuming they will all be fired, the unemployment rate will go up to 8.8%.

So the unemployment rate is kept low by the government money. Maybe a LDP ploy as the election will take place this month, and they KNEW one was going to happen by September??? (Upper house term run out in September. And incidentally, this current subsidy will run out by November I think, unless the bill is renewed in the Diet. Surely a coincidence)

Burgers (and other food) getting smaller

Jul 20, 2009
11 comments

I eat fairly lot, for a skinny, bony Japanese guy (I'm about 170cm tall and weigh like 58-60 kg). My height/ weight ratio is considered "average" for the Japanese, but I guess it would fall under female category in some other countries. (There has been more than one occasion where a western woman complained that she looked fat lying next to me; it can't be helped. Bone structure and stuff is different:-)

For example, when I buy Obento (usually translated as "lunchbox", though you'd pick it up from your local convini for your dinner as well), the amount of rice feels a bit too small. So I usually get a riceball on top of it. I guess it's the metabolism thing...

Anyway. I've been keeping noticing stuff I eat to come in smaller and smaller portion. When you get a burger in fast food joints, it's obviously getting smaller. I once even saw this Italian/Latin looking guy in American accent complaining to a shop attendant that it's too small compared to what he could get back home, and he was pretty certain he was getting ripped off. I was gonna help out the poor shop attendant (who apparently had no idea what this guy was saying), but he just went off before I opened my mouth.

Other stuff, like cheese and sausages, are either coming in slightly smaller package or the number in one package is getting a little less (like you'd get 6 sausages in the same package that used to hold 8). This is apparently a national phenomenon...

Sure, the price for certain products are getting higher, and people's income is, if not getting less, pretty insecure these days, so trying to reduce stuff I guess is inevitable. Meh.

Election day

Jul 12, 2009
1 comment

Today I went to vote. This is for the election of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Congress. This is a big deal because, although it in itself is for the local government, it is viewed as kind of a pre-battle before the national election, which could happen anytime. (Japanese Prime Minister can disband the Diet any time, and for some reason, every single one of them wants to use this power. There was only one time the Diet served its full term. It's almost seen as duty, not privilege, to do the disbanding to the best advantage of LDP [Liberal Democratic Party].)

Ever since I got old enough to cast my vote, I made sure I exercise this right every time I could. I strongly believe it's very important for everyone to do so if you are living under a democratic government system.

See, if there are 100 people who can vote, and 50 people actually cast their vote, and one candidate won by getting 30 votes, did s/he really get the "majority of the voting public"? After all, 70 out of 100 people didn't vote for her/him.

Besides, young Japanese people should really go and cast their vote; Demographically, young people are already a minority compared to over 60s population. On top of that, very few young people go to polling station, where elderly citizens are more likely to cast their vote. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that everything (from taxation, allocation of public welfare, etc.) goes favorable for the elders, and at the cost of the young (or the generations not yet born).

If you have been watching what's happening in Japanese politics, you'd know that LDP is losing support fast. Japan after WWII has practically been "one-party state" under supposedly democratic constitution (this system of LDP having all the power and political muscle, was actually helped by the U.S. to come into place. check out books like "Tokyo Underworld" or "Embracing Defeat" for details)- some call Japan "the most successful communist nation ever":-)

Current Prime Minister claims to exercise above-mentioned disbanding right, but he's losing political muscle to do that; they know they'd lose in the next election. About time.

Yearning to be a housewife/ The rise of "Marriage Hunting"

Jul 4, 2009
8 comments

or yearning to be a stay-at-home mom, or whatever is the current correct expression. According to a recent survey, majority of female university students in Japan expressed their 'most desirable future' is to be a housewife. That's right, not working, not being independent, they want to discard the whole thing. About 25% said they would want to work for a while, get get married and 'settle down' (thus ending up as a housewife/stay-at-home mum). Only 25% said they would want to keep working and maintain their professional career.

Until like 20 years ago, housewife was not something Japanese women chose to be, but forced to be. If you would start working for a company, you would be wearing ridiculous uniforms and do secretarial work. You'd marry someone from the office (or through other means) and subsequently quit your job to, as a Japanese expression goes, 'enter into the [or his] house'. Sometimes, a boss brokered such marriage for some of his underlings with bright future. (See, it was pretty much a must for a guy to be married and have a child to rise above certain position; you have a wife at home so you can work late without worrying about housekeeping and stuff, and you have a child so you'd be more loyal to the Company) For women to keep working and be independent, for most cases, was just not the option. I'm not saying it was right, but it was just the way it was.

Looking back, this system worked because job security for Japanese men were pretty solid. (in fact, once you got yourself a job in a fairly large company, you never really worried about getting fired. They might send you to some godforsaken place, force you to work 16 hours everyday, but layoff was just not happening.) Back then the focus was on the lack of option for women, but no one really thought the whole thing worked because men could (mostly) earn enough, earn steadily for his family (most importantly, single-handedly).

Of course, the job security thing is pretty much thrown out of the window. Sure, you don't get the good news as easily as you could in the U.S., but compared to the old days before the burst of Bubble Economy, that's one factor everyone would give a serious thought on when thinking about, you know, future and stuff.

Another aspect is many of the working, independent Japanese women in their 30s and 40s are not happy, and not providing positive role-models. Many of them are downright unhappy for having to work long hours, their partner/husband not being very helpful with household chores (or inability to find one because they are too busy), and how hard it is to raise a child partly because of fecked up support system out there (Japanese social welfare for child-raising is designed with working-pops and stay-at-home moms in mind, and hasn't really been updated) and partly because said support from the husband side isn't exactly ideal.

So there's this new trend, "marriage hunting" (the term is coined after the Japanese word for "job hunting"), which is pretty much about women trying to score and secure a single guy with a stable (at least seemingly so) and well-paid position/ profession. However, there are only 3.5% of single Japanese men between age 25-35 who earn more than 6 million yen (about 60,000 USD) per year, whereas more than 60% of single Japanese women expect that much of income from her prospective husband. Go figure. Good luck ladies.

On the other hand, many Japanese men are shying away from the whole business- about 25% of men in their 20s haven't been with a girlfriend for more than a year- and are becoming really shy. They won't call up a girl or ask one out unless they really know the girl would respond positively or would agree. (Even better, many would hope the girl would take the initiative thereby freeing them from, you know, making decisions and taking the lead and stuff)

Politicians and many other "specialists" are trying to figure out how to stop this diminishing number of newborns, but the thing is actually pretty simple; people are not even getting married in the first place, because of the economic insecurity. And even for the married couples, the support system is just not what they expect. (more than 70% of Japan's welfare budget goes to things that support elderly citizens. They tend to go to vote more often, you know.)

So. In today's Japan, the whole thing sort of came full-circle; the feminism movement fought so hard to liberate women from this prison called housewife-ing, but now, it's something that modern women crave for. And statistically speaking, it won't happen for many of them.