A Clouded Outlook



Sometimes Japan seems to be on the wrong continent. Everywhere else in Asia, from Shanghai to Mumbai to Jakarta, there is an aura of perpetual motion, a sense that tomorrow will be better than today. The region is on a frenetic 365-day-a-year hurtle into a brighter future. Japan once shared Asia's dynamism and mission. But not anymore. Today, Japan is an island of inertia in an Asia in constant flux. Japan's political leadership is paralyzed, its corporate elite befuddled, its people agonized about the future. While Asia lurches forward, Japan inches backward.

And yet no one in Japan is doing very much about it. For 20 long years, ever since the spectacular collapse of a stock-and-property price bubble in the early 1990s, the economy has existed in a near cryogenic state. The postbubble period of malaise called the "lost decade" has stretched into the lost decades. Growth has been practically nonexistent, the welfare of the Japanese people has suffered and the old industrial titans of Japan Inc. are retreating on the world stage. Japan will likely lose its cherished status as the world's No.2 economy this year, to a more energetic China. Though that was inevitable, the fact that China is so quickly closing the gap in economic power doesn't bode well for Japan's standing in the world...more at TIME Magazine.

Looks like the guys running the AIM listed love hotel group, Japan Leisure Hotels need a bit of viagra

They report that earnings have gone very soft and limp indeed

Are the Japanese losing interest in sex?

http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/20100...-forecasts.htm

Sorry to say I did not know she was even here. She probably wanted it that way though.

from here

Five people died after a rescue helicopter belonging to the Saitama prefectural government carrying seven people crashed Sunday on a mountain in the city of Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, police said.

The seven on board the helicopter included a 54-year-old pilot and a 32-year-old co-pilot, three aviation security officers of the prefectural government and two rescue workers from the local fire department, according to the local government.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said the chopper was smoldering but had not gone up in flames.

The helicopter for disaster prevention was on an operation to rescue a member of a nine-climber party on the mountain at the time of the incident around 11:10 a.m., police said.

The chopper went down after sending down the rescue workers to the ground to rescue a female climber who fell into a waterfall basin in the mountain. (more)

A popular Swiss tourist train carrying mainly Japanese holidaymakers derailed in the Alps on Friday, killing one and injuring 42 others, local police said.

Police would not confirm the nationality of the deceased, but Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that the fatality was a 64-year-old Japanese woman.

She was among 14 tourists and a guide on a eight-day tour to Switzerland organised by ANA Sales Co, said the news agency, quoting All Nippon Airways.

The group was due to return to Japan next Tuesday, said the airline.

The derailed train which carried 210 passengers is the Glacier Express which links the Alpine resorts of Zermatt and St Moritz, a spokesman for police in Valais canton, Jean-Marie Bornet, told AFP.

"Three wagons were derailed, two are completely laid down. In these two wagons, the passengers were mainly Japanese," he said ... (more)

"Interview an authentic Canadian Samurai"---AFN on flickr


Ok, ok, I hear you saying, "Who the fuck cares?!"

Wearing the Santa hat in the above photo just possibility could be the answer to the ULTIMATE MYSTERY OF JAPAN...


For more than a decade, Hisano Yamazaki has being doing the Kanto AFN radio shows, "What's Happening Outside the Gate" and "Learning Japanese with Hisano and Dave"? However, she avoids photos of herself at all costs.

Now thanks to the Institute for Japanese Cultural Exchange, there are only two labeled photos of Hisano Yamazaki on the Net...


Possibly these are also photos of her on a linked page....
.

On her blog, Ms. Yamazaki [山崎久乃 (ヒサノ・ヤマザキ)] even makes light of her hatred of photos of herself in these blog comments:

(Ok, do I get my Creepy Internet Stalker Merit Badge now?)

B-Mobile (which uses the best quality network, Docomo) is now offering "talkingSIM", a voice and data SIM for under 4000 yen per month!

Refer to:

B-Mobile talkingSIM: BOTH voice and data for under 4000 yen per month
Softbank Sucks: July 23, 2010

Japan PM's wife question's ability of husband to lead in new book
WORLD News | TVNZ.co.nz | July 23, 2003
Japan's first lady has written a book publicly questioning her husband's ability to lead the country titled What on earth will change in Japan now you are Prime Minister?.
Naoto Kan became leader of the world's second largest economy last month.
In the book his wife, Nobuko, writes a long list of his failings.
She criticises his delivery of his first policy speech in parliament, as well as his fashion sense and inability to cook...more...

English teacher used "hangman"-like game at school where student hung himself
The drawing found in the school papers left behind by the student who killed himself.
The drawing found in the school papers left behind by the student who killed himself.

YACHIYO, Chiba -- A foreign English teacher in charge of an English class at Shumei Yachiyo Junior High School is facing criticism after it emerged that the teacher drew pictures of a person being hung (ala the game "Hangman") when students answered incorrectly in class. In 2008, a student at the school hung himself, but the teacher allegedly continued using the game regardless.

The parents of the student who killed himself, meanwhile, are angry. "This kind of teaching is a problem," they have said.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/...na020000c.html

Let's start a new life with iDish.
さあ、iDishのある生活をはじめよう。