Asian hotspot Tokyo

[yanpa]

Business trip: Tokyo

Tokyo has emerged from the dark days following Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami, re-assuming its position as an Asian hotspot for business travel. You can see it everywhere, – in the recent spate of new hotel openings, expanding airports and buzzy restaurants and hotel lobbies. The scaffolding has come down after a massive facelift of the iconic Tokyo Station in the heart of the city, and the new Tokyo Skytree tower gleams on the edge of town, attracting millions.

Despite Japan’s 20-year-long recession, Tokyo’s business class hotel scene is dynamic, with a raft of new players. In the last decade, big international chains such as Shangri-La, Peninsula, Hyatt, Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental and Ritz-Carlton have moved in, dominating the luxury hotel scene. Japanese companies are reclaiming their turf by tearing down old standards and putting new hotels in their place, such as the Tokyo Station Hotel (2012), the Palace Hotel (2012) and the Capitol Hotel Tokyu (2010).

... ad nauseam...

When did this "20-year-long recession" happen? Oh, and "the practice of tipping is nearly non-existent in Japan".

[Taro Toporific]

When did this "20-year-long recession" happen?

失われた20年
rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/rd/058.html

Oh, and "the practice of tipping is nearly non-existent in Japan".

No tips --- Just bribes like "key money"

[Samurai_Jerk]

It seems like McGinnis is channeling Tyler Broolay.

[Taro Toporific]

It seems like McGinnis is channeling Tyler Broolay.

FTFY: Like McGinnis is channeling Tyler Broolay having giddy backdoor fun with toyboy Tyler Brûlé.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I'm also bedazzled by talk of a recession, too. Hasn't anybody noticed the figures banks have been reporting in this cuntry over the past few years (some of which were also effectively tax-free for the financial institutions).
Japan's economy per se hasn't been "bad" for maybe 15 years....
Things remain in the economic doldrums for the majority in Japan due to increased adoption of the third-world economic model the United States adopted in the early 1980s and has since imposed on much of the rest of the world.

[yanpa]

Yeah, I understand recession to be the economy contracting. Sure it's done that on occasion, but not for the the entire past twenty years. OK, it hasn't exactly had the growth we would like to see, and there has been a stupendous amount of wasted potential, but that's a different beast.

...

Look dispassionately at Japan's economic performance over the past ten years, though, and “the second lost decade”, if not the first, is a misnomer. Much of what tarnishes Japan's image is the result of demography—more than half its population is over 45—as well as its poor policy in dealing with it. Even so, most Japanese have grown richer over the decade.

In aggregate, Japan's economy grew at half the pace of America's between 2001 and 2010. Yet if judged by growth in GDP per person over the same period, then Japan has outperformed America and the euro zone (see chart 1). In part this is because its population has shrunk whereas America's population has increased.

...

http://www.economist.com/node/21538745

[Samurai_Jerk]

20 years of recession would by definition be depression.

[yanpa]

Dat's true.

Anyway, the era when one could hope that reporters for top international news organisations could get their basic terminology right is evidently long behind us

[Samurai_Jerk]

Dat's true.

Anyway, the era when one could hope that reporters for top international news organisations could get their basic terminology right is evidently long behind us

Word. I'd almost be willing to let it slide since he seems to be more of a travel writer than a reporter but this is supposed to be a business travel piece.

[Mike Oxlong]

Wi-Fi connections at three Japanese airports allow snooping of email

Users of free wireless Internet connections at Narita, Kansai and Kobe airports are vulnerable to electronic eavesdropping of their email and Web browsing, according to a study by an information and communications specialist released Tuesday.

Such risks can be prevented by encrypting Wi-Fi connections, but the three airports refrain from doing so in favor of user convenience, as password entry would be required for encrypted Internet connections.

Free Wi-Fi connections are available at about 900,000 locations nationwide, including public facilities and convenience stores, but many of them are not encrypted, according to Masakatsu Morii, a professor at the graduate school of engineering at Kobe University.

“Users should understand there are risks and avoid exchanges of important information like credit card numbers,” said Morii, who conducted the research in late July.

In a test at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, Morii sent email and browsed the Web on a PC, which he monitored using a second computer running network analysis software that can be acquired free of charge.

He was able to view the title, content and delivery address of the email, in addition to the PC’s IP address and URLs of websites he visited.

Morii achieved the same results at Narita International Airport and Kobe Airport.

According to Morii, many places like airports with a large number of visitors choose not to encrypt free Wi-Fi connections in order to skip procedures such as entering passwords.

“As we place emphasis on user convenience, we do not encrypt” Wi-Fi connections, an official at Narita said, adding the service becomes available only with user consent. “If there are important communications, we encourage the use of encrypted connection.”

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/0 ... ing-email/