Economy
Fed to start tapering bond purchases this year: Bernanke
The Federal Reserve maintains its $85 billion-a-month asset purchase program, but says it could begin scaling back later this year.
Language | BILINGUAL Mar 11, 2013
A personal invitation to the I-hate-cherry-blossoms club
by Kaori Shoji
It’s that time of year when the Japanese turn their thoughts to what I call the 3-S’s: sakura (桜, cherry blossoms), sakamori (酒盛り, drinking parties) and shuran (酒乱, getting raucously drunk). Fifty weeks out of the year we’re our dull, proper, work-addicted selves, but ...
Language | BILINGUAL Mar 4, 2013
Tense times in Japan's relationships with its neighbors
by Michael Hoffman
It's a dangerous, unpredictable world. Twice in January Chinese warships in the East China Sea challenged Japan's Maritime Self Defense Forces patrols in a manner deemed threatening. And on Feb. 12 came North Korea's nuclear test.
Language | BILINGUAL Feb 25, 2013
The Japanese traffic light blues: Stop on red, go on what?
by Peter Backhaus
Road traffic in Japan is a complicated affair. Apart from those narrow, crooked streets that sometimes end without warning, you have to get used to unclear right-of-way rules and the national fetish for backward parking.
Language | BILINGUAL Feb 18, 2013
Can-can dancers, tea-time snacks and katakana confusion
by Mark Schreiber
In last month’s column, I looked at the origins of several famous Japanese product brands. Thinking back, perhaps the very first brand I noticed here was a confectioner named 文明堂 (Bunmeido). The company, a 老舗 (shinise, well-established shop), was founded in Nagasaki in 1900, ...
Language | BILINGUAL Feb 11, 2013
Providing for old age somehow connects to V-day blues
by Kaori Shoji
I was talking to a joshikōsei (女子高生, high school girl) friend of mine (yes, I’m fully aware of this exalted position) and she told me that these days in sociology class, Japanese teens are taught that by the time they start paying taxes, the ...
Language | BILINGUAL Feb 4, 2013
'Abenomics' will either make or break Japan's economy
by Michael Hoffman
This story is concerned with money, vast sums of it, amounts quite beyond most people’s imagination. The operative word is chō (兆, trillion).
Language | BILINGUAL Jan 28, 2013
What's in a Japanese name? More than you might expect
by Mark Schreiber
Last year I went to Yumenoshima Park in Tokyo’s Koto Ward to see a museum housing the 第五福竜丸 (Dai-go Fukuryu Maru, aka No. 5 Lucky Dragon), the ill-fated fishing boat that inadvertently sailed too close to a 水爆実験 (suibaku jikken, thermonuclear test) at Bikini ...
Language | BILINGUAL Jan 21, 2013
Men shouldn't fear seductive snake women this year
by Kaori Shoji
Did you have a hatsuyume (初夢, first dream of the new year) and did it involve hebi (蛇, snakes)? If the answer is yes to both, omedetō gozaimasu, you've hit the jackpot.
Language | BILINGUAL Jan 14, 2013
Hit product lists laud the year's marketing successes
by Mark Schreiber
Toward the end of every year, Japan’s print media and many business organizations look back on “hit products” whose successes helped define consumer spending over the previous 12 months. The term hitto shōhin (hit products) is credited to the 日経流通新聞 (Nikkei Ryutsu Shimbun, Nikkei ...
Language | BILINGUAL Jan 7, 2013
No loss for words when expressing scale of DPJ's defeat
by Michael Hoffman
December’s election aftermath offered a good chance to learn synonyms for “crushing defeat” and “overwhelming victory.” Taihai (大敗, great defeat), kanpai (完敗, total defeat) — not to be confused with kanpai! (乾杯, cheers!) — kaimetsutekina haiboku (壊滅的な敗北, annihilating defeat), zanpai (惨敗, crushing defeat), rekishitekina ...
Language | BILINGUAL Dec 31, 2012
Even language has winners and losers
by Peter Backhaus
If there’s one thing to be sure of in Japan these days, it’s that by the end of the year you will have a prime minister different from the one you started out with. This year was the sixth year in succession to follow ...
Language Dec 30, 2012
The wonderful worlds of 100 waka
by Stuart Varnam-Atkin
The scene: England, Boxing Day 2012. The archetypical Carters are relaxing after a cold turkey lunch (with bread sauce) and are watching the Royal Family’s latest sonnets being read on the goggle-box. Time for a game! “‘Scrabble’?” “No, it always becomes ‘Squabble’!” “‘Monopoly’?” “No, ...