Tag - big-in-japan

 
 

BIG IN JAPAN

JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 27, 2012
For some, jail is the best place for aged care
So it's come to this: "Prison is heaven, freedom is hell." A country of which this can reasonably be said is in sad straits. Can it be reasonably said of Japan? It's the subhead of a recent article in Shukan Shincho magazine whose main title is "Happy prison life." Prison life is not happy, unless in...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 20, 2012
Japan faces a long, hot, nuclear-free summer
Is Japan — and particularly the Kansai region — going to have enough electric power to get it through peak summer demand? The Meteorological Agency's three-month projection for May through July, posted on its website (www.jma.go.jp/jp/longfcst/000_1_10.html) hedges its bets. For the four...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 13, 2012
Beware not the loud girls, but the plain ones
No one who remembers the ganguro (black-face) girls of the mid to late 1990s will be shocked by Friday magazine's little article on the hadeko (loud kids) of today, but it all gives rise to a bemusing question: How did the age-old quest for beauty become transmuted into a quest for weirdness?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 6, 2012
Weeklies take a look at faiths, (misplaced) hopes and charities
Which religious groups were most successful in raising funds for earthquake victims in the devastated parts of Tohoku? In its Golden Week double issue, Flash (May 8-15) ran an article about the heretofore unreported nexus between last year's disaster and religion. The most generous donor by far, which...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 29, 2012
Japanese families on endangered list
The family is humanity's oldest and most universal institution. But its shape, size, aims and ideologies seem infinitely variable. Japan's families down the ages have been polygamous and monogamous, multigeneration and single-generation, swarming with children or comparatively, if not entirely, devoid...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 22, 2012
The weeklies need to expand their worldview
Japan cuts the world down to size. Thumb through the popular weekly news magazines to get the idea. The weeklies pride themselves on broader, bolder, feistier coverage than the daily press typically musters. All the same, theirs is a small, shrunken world. It consists of four countries: Japan, the United...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 15, 2012
Are women really on the ascendancy as some media proclaim?
'Joshi bakari ga naze tsuyoi?" ("Why is it that only women are strong?") asks Aera (Mar. 26). The question may be a valid one, at least when limited to international sports events, where Japan's women over the past several years have been outshining their male counterparts as they excel in soccer, women's...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 8, 2012
Lack of strong ties spurs business of dying alone
New businesses arising to meet new needs tell us much about the times we live in. A cleaning company named Green Heart, for example, thrives on a peculiar expertise. Its website explains: "Sadly, it often happens that unclaimed bodies go long unnoticed. In summer after two days, in winter after four...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 1, 2012
Sky Tree to offer world's highest bungee jump
Tokyo's newest and biggest visitor attraction, the 634-meter-high Tokyo Sky Tree in Sumida Ward, will open to the public on May 22. And if 11th-hour contract negotiations bear fruit, visitors to the Sky Tree may soon have the opportunity to plummet 430 meters (over 1,400 feet) toward terra firma, in...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 25, 2012
Is Japan as busy as it first seems?
Are things what they seem? Can you tell a book by its cover? Does the face reveal the heart? Does your appearance give you away?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 18, 2012
Yu Darvish under the magnifying glass
Barring a major natural catastrophe, war or government upheaval, the vernacular news headlines for the next several months are almost certain to be dominated by baseball. Specifically, former Nippon Ham Fighters hurler, Yu Darvish, who on April 8 is scheduled take the mound in his first start for the...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 11, 2012
The power of bad news
Weekly Playboy magazine discerns among young people a rising interest in Buddhism. This is surprising, given Japan's well-known "religion allergy" — or not, given that troubled times often inspire spiritual quests.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 4, 2012
Anti-yakuza laws are taking their toll
Five months after tough new ordinances cracking down on the activities of organized crime syndicates went into effect, it's not yet clear what impact, if any, they've had on gang activities.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 26, 2012
Media continues to despair over Japan's fall
Japan's decline has no historical parallel. It is a current fed by two streams — economic and demographic. Economically, barring an unforeseen upsurge, gross domestic product is forecast to fall 16 percent by 2025, 42 percent by 2050. Demographically, in 50 years there will be 40 million fewer...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 19, 2012
Media ratchets up fear of another major earthquake
So called megathrust earthquakes such as the one that struck off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture on March 11, 2011, tend to occur in pairs, with a relatively short gap between them.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 12, 2012
This country needs a lot more lovin'
Japan's rather tepid sex life of late has drawn considerable attention, not so much prurient as anxious. What does it mean when young people in their sexual prime are bored by sex or can't be bothered with it? The implications are various: psychological (has life grown too virtual to be real?), economic...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 5, 2012
Stressful times lead to rise in child-abuse cases
Who can contemplate a newborn infant unmoved by its helplessness? Few living things are as vulnerable; none for anywhere near as long. Far beyond infancy, into childhood and adolescence, human beings are, if not utterly at the mercy of circumstances beyond their control, at least impressionable to a...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 29, 2012
Unconventional thinking is the way forward for Japan
Yubari, Hokkaido, claims several distinctions, few of them enviable. It is Japan's only bankrupt city, and also its most elderly. Forty-one percent of its sagging population of 13,000 (down from 117,000 50 years ago) is aged 65 or over. That's of nationwide significance because within 40 years, Japan,...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 22, 2012
Japan needs a little Cuban-style happiness
A Japanese journalist in Cuba sees decaying buildings and undernourished citizens and wonders, "Why aren't these people depressed? Why, on the contrary, do they seem positively happy?"
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 15, 2012
'Made in Japan' label under assault
Take a stroll through home sweet home. You'll almost certainly see an entertainment system, refrigerator, microwave oven, rice cooker, toaster, mixer/blender, vacuum cleaner, heater/air conditioner, hair dryer, electric blanket and so on. From personal hygiene to food preparation to recreation and entertainment,...

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