Masako Tsubuku - The Japan Times

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Feb 9, 2018

Japanese consumers increasingly face stealth price hikes via 'shrinkflation'

In Japan, a phenomenon known as "shrinkflation" — an important economic countermeasure against inflation for businesses — has been catching the attention of consumers.

JAPAN / YEN FOR LIVING

Jan 12, 2018

Electric vehicles are here, but are they practical and economical?

The future seems to belong to electric vehicles (EVs).

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Dec 31, 2017

Lessons about Japan's school catchment areas

A neighbor recently asked us to sign a petition requesting that the local education committee keep a certain elementary school open. Due to falling enrollment, students who attended the school would be transferred to a different one in the near future.

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Dec 8, 2017

Abe's free day care pledge may be an appealing solution for the wrong problem

Just before the recent Lower House election in October, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to make public day care services and kindergartens free for children between the ages of 3 and 5 and free for children below the age of 3 if they were from lower income households.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Dec 3, 2017

Can a death kill property value?

The apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, where police found the remains of nine bodies in late October is one of 12 units in a two-story wooden apartment building located 10 minutes from Sobudai Station on the Odakyu Odawara line. Each unit consists of one room and a kitchen and, according to various media, rents for about ¥20,000 a month. The suspect in the murder case moved into the apartment in August, even though he didn't have a job at the time.

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Nov 10, 2017

Are libraries to blame for Japan's slump in bunko paperback book sales?

Kiyondo Matsui, the president of the publishing house Bungei Shunju, spoke at this year's All-Japan Library Conference, which took place in Tokyo on Oct. 12 and 13. During his talk, Matsui asked the assembled professionals to no longer acquire bunko editions of books for lending in their libraries.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Nov 5, 2017

A gut feeling that you need an extra toilet

Everybody knows that Japan produces the most technologically advanced toilets in the world. They pretty much do everything except pull up your pants when you're finished. And one of the more pleasant surprises greeting foreign visitors to Japan is the ubiquity and accessibility of public toilets.

JAPAN / YEN FOR LIVING

Oct 13, 2017

Japan's student grant system could leave university grads in deep black hole of debt

Everyone knows that a university education leads to a higher salary, but how much higher?

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Oct 1, 2017

Re-registering property: The lie of the land

According to an article that appeared in the Asahi Shimbun last June, authorities are unsure of the title holders to 4.1 million hectares of land in Japan — in total, an area equivalent in size to the island of Kyushu. Though this problem has been evident at least since the 1980s, the government didn't do anything about it until a few years ago when it appointed a group of scholars to study the matter. The group's results were announced on June 26.

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Sep 8, 2017

Japan's lottery rakes in declining revenues as younger generation gives jackpot chances a pass

Several weeks ago Mavis Wanczyk, a 53-year-old woman from Massachusetts, won $758 million in the Powerball lottery — the largest single winner jackpot in North American history. Wanczyk said at a news conference that she had already quit her job and plans to "hide in bed."

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Sep 3, 2017

The hot topic of high-rise fire prevention

The fire that killed at least 80 people in London's Grenfell Tower in June, as well as similar apartment building blazes that recently occured in Dubai and Hawaii, has brought the world's attention to the issue of safety in high-rise residences.

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Aug 11, 2017

Japan's health care is far from free, and ballooning costs could mean higher premiums

Japan's health insurance system is considered "universal," since it covers everyone in the country, but it is hardly "free" in the sense of having the government pay for everything with tax revenue.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Aug 6, 2017

Reviving Japan's old shopping arcades

As everyone knows, Japan has an unmanageable surplus of vacant housing. According to the latest government surveys there are more than 8 million unoccupied houses and apartment units in Japan and that number will increase to the point where one in four or five residences will be empty by 2030.

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Jul 7, 2017

Lower tariffs on EU cheese imports may not translate to reduced prices for 'fromage' lovers

Japan and the European Union just announced a deal on free trade and will seek to reach a final agreement by the end of this year. The EU has already promised to phase out its 10 percent levy on Japanese automobiles, while Japan says it will eliminate taxes on a raft of food items.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Jul 2, 2017

New law to guarantee the guarantor pays

Until the postwar growth period, the majority of Japanese rented rather than owned the places where they lived, but renters in Japan have never had much in the way of rights. Still, it is difficult to evict someone from a home they rent, even when they've been delinquent with payments. The Leased Land and House Lease Act essentially requires a landlord to go to court to carry out an eviction, which can be costly in both time and money, even when a tenant is clearly at fault.

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Jun 9, 2017

With stagnant minimum wage, a 'decent life' is out of reach

One of the bedrock principles of market economics is that as demand for labor goes up, so do wages. Lately, there has been evidence that this idea may no longer be true.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Jun 4, 2017

Parking the car can drive you crazy

In the 1990s when we rented an old house in Saitama Prefecture, we needed a parking space since we had a car at the time. There was none on the property and so we talked the landlord into tearing down a decrepit prefabricated storage shed that stood next to the house. He did, and then, at our own expense, we had a carport erected on the newly vacant lot.

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

May 12, 2017

Japan waking up to the problems of sleeping cash

In recent weeks there have been two well-reported robberies of people carrying large amounts of cash on the street. Thieves got away with ¥384 million after attacking a merchant in a Fukuoka parking lot. In Tokyo's Ginza district, a mugger managed to take ¥40 million from a man walking along a popular shopping boulevard. Both crimes happened in broad daylight.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Apr 30, 2017

Safety Net Law to offer new lease on life for abandoned buildings

On April 19, the Lower House of the Diet unanimously passed a revision to the Safety Net Law. The revision creates a new system that will register vacant properties with local governments and, ideally, these properties will be renovated and then rented out to low-income individuals and families who are otherwise unable to access public housing, which is currently at a premium in Japan, especially in large cities.

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Apr 22, 2017

Tellmeclub's bankruptcy grounds discount travel services

On March 27, discount travel company Tellmeclub filed for bankruptcy while a number of its Japanese customers were still overseas on package tours.

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