Plastic surgery

In Japan, South Korean singers have become very popular in the last few years.　According to the news, music sales in South Korea are less than one thirtieth of those in Japan because of the popularity of illegal music downloads and low-priced music CDs. Thus, Japan is a necessary and attractive market for South Korean music agencies. Under these circumstances, well-selected young South Koreans study not only singing and dancing but also the Japanese language before their debuts.

Speaking of South Korea, it's well-known in Japan for plastic surgery. Many Japanese people assume that minor plastic surgery is so popular among South Korean women that it doesn't a convey negative image there. I've head that it's partly because South Korean women place great value on beauty. As a matter of fact, they seem to make great effort to be as beautiful as possible. In a TV program, it was reported that South Korean actors/actresses tried to improve their acting skills to survive in the competitive show business there since it is thought that any actor/actress could obtain good looks through plastic surgery.

In Japan, minor plastic surgery has become common recently. Some people reckon that if plastic surgery can get rid of their complexes and change their lives in a positive way, there's nothing wrong with it. However, plastic surgery still conveys both positive and negative images in Japan.Personally, I don't want to risk looking even worse and complications, although it's said that the risk of minor plastic surgery is low.

Career-minded women exploited by companies.

About 15 years ago, despite many women still working at traditional assistant positions without promotion potential, well-known companies would take every chance to advertise themselves by showing what a good environment and opportunities they gave their capable female employees. Since the times and the law required companies to offer career paths to more women, major companies took advantage of a tiny number of their female employees working on the same level as men in order to improve their images. Unsurprisingly, this helped companies improve their image.

Contrary to good images conveyed by companies, I would often hear various complaints and about terrible situations from these career women. When a large company was introduced as a good workplace for career-minded women in a TV program, my friend working on the same level as men in the company sighed about the introduction, saying that the information in the TV program was far from the reality. She added that she had realized her company's ulterior motive behind the advertising campaign. Sadly, it's just one example.

As for my company where I was working in a male-dominated position, it didn't try to use their female employees in order to improve its image. Rather, my company didn't pay attention to doing that. However, I was sometimes requested to deliver a speech as a part of the recruitment activity of my company.

Today, women working on the same level as men have become much more common. However, many companies still try to show what a good working environment they give their female employees and what important roles their female workers are playing in their businesses. I think that these appeals imply companies have many problems solved.

Needless to say, all of these problems aren't attributed to companies. Our economic structure that is overly dependent on working long hours and some traditional ideas are the fundamental problems.

Career women supporting male co-workers after work

As I mentioned in my previous post (click here), when I was looking for a job in male-dominated positions with career paths while I was a senior in university many years ago, assistant positions without career paths were still common for women, although the law required companies to give women the same opportunity for promotion as men. Under these circumstances, in job interviews, some companies tried to make sure if I was used to male-dominated environments. The fact that I studied at a male-dominated economics department in a male-dominated public university was  often helpful. On top of that, my frankness and relatively male-like character (男っぽい性格), which might be have been developed mostly in such a male-dominated environment, unexpectedly gave a good impression to companies.

When I was in my mid-20s, like me, many women working on the same level as men were more frank, more independent, and stronger than the average Japanese woman, even if they looked cute. Thus, these career women were less popular among Japanese men since many of them culturally wanted to catch less intelligent, dependent and adorable women. Nonetheless, these career women, including myself, would be often asked to go out for dinner and a drink after work by their male co-workers. In my experience, when male workers wanted to grumble about their jobs and their families/girlfriends, they viewed career women as the best fellows. They reckoned that career women were still women and had enough knowledge about businesses to make conversations with them exciting and constructive. When I was forced to be a listener during conversations with my male co-workers at restaurants, I felt like I was a hostess at a bar (Note 1).

Today, the situation has changed. However, independent and solid women are still playing this role. I think they are still not popular among Japanese men, although I've noticed that more and more young men like independent and solid women.

Note 1:
In Japan, there are many bars called スナック(sunakke, this word is from snack bars in English) and clubs. In these bars, women called hostess/ホステス sit beside customers whether they are men or women and talk with them. No physical contact is allowed. Some men go there just to get the hostesses to listen to their stories while drinking.

Female workers struggling with the idea that women should be かわいい/Kawaii

When women are evaluated or described, being かわいい/kawaii（cute, pretty, adorable and so on) both in appearance and in characters is highly valued in Japanese society. I would say that being かわいい/kawaii is an important element for women to attract men. Despite that, the concept of かわいい/kawaii is so ambiguous that I can't clearly define it. However, I can say that men still tend to view immature or less intelligent women to be かわいい/kawaii, although more and more young men don't do that. 

I started working at male-dominated positions with career paths immediately after graduation (It was many years ago). At the time, assistant positions without career paths were still common for women, even female university graduates, I would often be forced to struggle with the idea that women should be かわいい. The fact that some women were working on the same level as men was annoying for conservative men, although they understood that the times required it. Companies expected these women to perform better than the men. This was because companies need to convince their conservative male workers that they had made the right decision to employ these women since their conservative male workers were against hiring these women. However, the better these women performed, the more negative attention they attracted. Both male and female co-workers gossiped about them, saying that 女のくせに. I don't know how I translate the typical phrase into English, but the translation might be that you shouldn't do it because you are a woman or it's unbelievable that women do it. The phrase is used when women exhibited behaviors go against the stereotype.

Women working on the same level as men sometimes suffered from the feeling that the more highly they were appreciated at work, the less value they had as women. In fact, it was not easy for these women to find a boyfriend who appreciated and supported their careers. 

Today, more and more people, regardless of gender, keep an open mind. However, I sometime find that some men still stick with the idea that women should be かわいい/kawaii. As a matter of fact, some men don't want to work under female managers. Some male managers don't want to hire capable women because these women seem to be smarter or older than they are. I think that these attitudes are based on this idea. However, as far as I know, men who can manage capable women well and take advantage of their abilities tend to succeed.

Come to think of my first job hunting when I was a senior student

When I was writing about the recruitment of new graduates here a few days ago (click here), I thought of the old days when I was struggling with job hunting as a senior student.

First, ridiculous interview questions asked by companies such as "do you want to get married and have a child in your 20s?" came to my mind. These were not just questions to break the ice. Companies seriously asked these questions; in fact, a board member of a major corporation spent some time asking me in the final interview whether or not my parents would mind if I were transferred since I'm a only child. I had a hard time convincing him that my parents wouldn't.

When I was a senior in university, companies offered positions with career paths to male university graduates, expecting them to work many years; in contrast, companies still tended to offer traditional assistant positions without career paths to female university graduates, expecting them to support the male workers. Thus, when female university graduates applied for the male-dominated positions, they were always forced to deal with such questions since companies tried to make sure that their female candidates were suitable to the positions in every aspect.

Next, these tough circumstances reminded me of a male friend with whom I studied economics in my university. During a conversation with him, when I blurted out that I felt like I wanted to give up pursuing the male-dominated positions since I had great difficulty obtaining a job offer for the positions, he asserted that I should work on the same level as men, saying that taking an assistant job was meaningless to me. His strong words got rid of my wavering mind, making me feel like I was qualified, and encouraged me to keep struggling to obtain an offer.

After that, I imagined what my life would be like if I had accepted an offer from a company at the time. The company liked me and gave me an offer, expecting me to work in Europe five years later after joining the company. When I was a senior, I neither had an interest in English nor working abroad, and my TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) score was not good. Despite that, people of the company insisted that I was cut out for working abroad and tried to convince me that I would be able to improve my English if I took the English courses provided by the company. Although I didn't join the company, now come to think of it, the people judged me well.

Japanese people are missing their hometowns and old days

A few days ago, the 92nd All-Japan Senior High School Baseball Championship Tournament ended. A team from Okinawa won the championship. The victory made Okinawans feel very happy not only because it was the first victory for an Okinawan team but also because Okinawans were greatly frustrated with the government's attitudes toward Okinawa.

The championship is held every August at the Koshien stadium/甲子園球場 in Hyogo prefecture/兵庫県 next to Osaka. In June and July, prefectural tournaments are held in every prefecture, and the winners (49 teams) can attend the championship. All the games in the championship are broadcast live on TV. Surprisingly, every year, many people pay attention to the championship; in fact, the stadium is packed with spectators throughout the 15-day period.

http://koukou-yosegaki.com
/izakaya/

The long time popularity of the championship seems to reflect how much people miss their hometowns and old days. In Japan, many people leave their hometowns to enroll in universities, or to start working. It's not easy to meet people who were born and raised in Tokyo. People from outside Tokyo tend to get tired of living in the spiritual desert, Tokyo. A few months ago, it was reported that the long term popularity of a Japanese restaurant in Shinbashi/新橋, Tokyo was because the restaurant had a way of reminding its customers of their old days in their hometowns. (Shinbashi/新橋 is popular with a lot of businessmen as an entertainment town). In the restaurant, there are shelves of notebooks; each notebook has the name of a high school written on its spine (click here). ts customers are free to read them. If you find one with the name of your high school, you can leave your comments in it. If there isn't one, you can add a new notebook for your high school. Many comments written by people from the same school or same town make you unwind, and encourage you to struggle on your life in Tokyo (click here).

Although I've moved many times since I was a little girl, I've never missed my hometown (I could say that Osaka is my hometown). However, I always feel closer to people from my high school than from my university when I first get to know them after graduation. I don't know why.

Unique companies' attitudes toward new graduates in Japan

In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced a few weeks ago that the employment rate for new graduates of four-year universities this March was 60.7%, down 7.6 points from last year (In Japan, the school term begins in April and ends in March).  It turned out that 16.7% of the graduates had neither enrolled in graduate schools et cetera nor started working. These graduates are most likely to find themselves in a serious situation since they will have great difficulty getting a job. This is becoming a social problem.

Until a decade ago, it was common in Japan that people worked many years for the same company. Changing jobs, especially in your 20s, was frowned upon, giving the impression that you were unable to overcome and adjust to obstacles in the workplace. Because of this, recruiters focused on hiring new graduates who had great potential to contribute to the company. In fact, corporations would hire a large number of new graduates in April every year. For the first few years after they joined companies, they were trained without being expected to show a performance equivalent to their salaries.

With the introduction of Western management systems and the Japanese economic downturn, however, more and more companies have reduced the investment in their new young employees and have come to seek for people having job experience and expertise. Job changes have more common, although frequent job changes in your 20s are still disadvantageous.

However, having said that, most of the companies, especially corporations, still interview large numbers of university juniors and seniors to secure capable human resources, and then officially promise some of them that they will be hired if they can graduate. This indicates that if university seniors don't get an offer before graduation, it will be very difficult for them to obtain a stable job after graduation. Because of this, when university seniors realize that they have no chance of obtaining an offer before graduation, they tend to fail classes purposely in order to stay in university since an undergraduate status gives them more opportunity to get a stable job.

It's been said that the issue of how society will increase employment opportunities for new and young graduates without job experience is a challenge in the current recession. However, the future of Japan depends on them. I've heard that this attitude toward new graduates is unique, although South Korea seems to have a similar attitude.

In your country, how do new university graduates get a job?

Graves remind me of an annoying tradition

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a tradition of visiting family graves during the Bon period (If you are interested in finding more information about Bon, click here).  When I went to a cemetery a few days ago, the graves reminded me of a tradition I didn't want to follow. At the same time, I realized how many people don't like the tradition much, since I found more untraditional tombstones where one character words such as 心/heart and 愛/love were carved.

In Japan, family names are generally carved on tombstones like 田中家之墓/Tanaka family's grave. 田中/Tanaka is a one of very popular family name. 家/ke in this context means family. 墓/haka means grave. Since the rate of cremation in Japan is over 99%, your ashes are placed in a tomb. In addition, a few family members' remains are usually placed in a single tomb. The full names of all the family members are carved on the side of the tombstone or a small stone placed beside it. In other words, your ashes are supposed to be placed in the family grave to which you belong. If a woman marries a man and takes his family name, she will belong to her husband's family. If she unfortunately dies young before her husband does, and if he is conservative, her remains will be placed in his family grave where the ashes of his parents or grandparents are placed. Needless to say, you can have your own grave if you want and are allowed to do so.

It's tradition that families are considered more important than individuals. In the past, if a woman married a man named Taro Tanaka, for example, she culturally took his family name:Tanaka. She would be always referred to as a 田中家の嫁/a daughter given to Tanaka family. Actually, there isn't an English word equivalent to 嫁/yome. If I were referred to as ○○家の嫁, I would feel offended since the phrase often implies that I have to pay more attention to my parents-in-law than my parents or things like that.

Recently, individuals are emphasized more. More and more people don't stick to the traditional idea of which family you belong to. However, at wedding parties, the expression "○○家 と○○家の結婚披露宴/ a wedding party for ○○ family and ○○ family" is always used. Other than that, you can sometimes find the tradition in daily life.

Japan has become a tropical island

These days, the heat wave has been making headlines.The topic of which city reaches the highest temperature today in Japan is reported every day and catches public attention. This summer, all the cities throughout Japan can probably win this competition. Even some cities in Hokkaido/北海道 (which is located in the northern part of Japan and usually has relatively cool summers) sometimes reach 37 degrees C, so they are able to make the top 30. In Hokkaido, which is well known for dairy farming, the cows are suffering from a lack of appetite due to this abnormal heat. As a result, they yield less milk. The heat wave is expected to have an adverse effect on dairy production. Vegetable yields are also suffering from the heat. Prices are soaring. To be honest, I don't mind the summer heat. I used to play golf under the burning sun when I was living in Malaysia. However, this scorching summer heat is intolerable and discourages me from doing anything.

At Narita International Airport, which is currently crowded with Japanese travelers returning from foreign countries, this hot and muggy weather seems to make these travelers realize that their summer vacations are over. n the news, they are surprised to see how hot it is in Tokyo, realizing that it's hotter in Tokyo than in the tropical islands where they spent their vacations such as Phuket in Thailand and Hawaii.

I've heard that many places worldwide like Moscow have abnormal summer heat. Russia announced about a week ago that it would temporarily halt the export of wheat due to the drought. Since Japan is overly dependent on imported foods, it is expected to affect our lives. What is going on with the earth?

Please see the links below. These beautiful pictures make me determined to protect the earth.

http://twitpic.com/1a815x

残暑お見舞い申し上げます！
(This sentence is a typical expression used in greetings around between the 8th of August and the end of August)

Mrs Watanabe--Japanese housewives having a great influence on the foreign exchange market

As you might know, the declining birthrate is one of the big issues that Japan is facing. The public has realized that it will definitely put Japan into a serious situation. However, some of our social situations make people hesitate to have a child or more children and our government still hasn't taken effective measures against these situations. In addition, although the government requires companies to give their employees environments that encourage them to have more children, they haven't fully met the requirements. In my opinion, as long as companies keep requiring their employees, regardless of gender, to work long hours, the birthrate won't increase.  Given the fact that the workforce in Japan is shrinking, I think that companies should take advantage of capable mothers, although I know that it will compel companies to bear more cost.

Under these circumstances, capable stay-at-home mothers and housewives, many of whom were forced to quit their jobs, tend to start doing their own businesses or make extra money at home. Electronic financial transactions are particularly popular among these women since it's easy to start doing if they don't expect to make big profits. Many of them don't have a high level of expertise. Although the transaction amount with which each person deals is usually very small, the total amount is big enough to have a powerful impact especially on the foreign exchange market.

According to the news, some Western foreign exchange dealers found that transactions made by Japanese individual investors, particularly housewives, often affected the exchange rate when they examined factors for frequent dollar-buying that any technical analysis couldn't explain. Since a British newspaper referred to these Japanese housewives as Mrs. Watanabe, which is a common Japanese family names, the term "Mrs. Watanabe" has been used in Western countries. I don't know why Watanabe was chosen. I wonder if it's because a Japanese actor named Ken Watanabe is popular in Hollywood these days. Actually, I didn't know about the term until I watched a TV news program a few days ago. Have you heard of the term?

Is longevity good or bad? It depends on how you have led your life

About a week ago, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan announced that the average life expectancy of Japanese women was 86.44 years old and that of Japanese men was 79.59 years old in 2009. The average life expectancies of both men and women reached the record high consecutively for the last four years. The average for women has ranked top for the last 25 years in the world.  Right after that announcement, it was reported that a 113-year-old woman who is the oldest in Tokyo was missing. She doesn't live where the resident registry data shows that she is supposed to be living. It turns out that 34 people over 100 are missing throughout Japan. These incidences reveal our social problems. It's a sad fact that nobody, including their children, know where such elderly people are. However, given the current social situation, it can happen.

I have a lot of relatives and longevity runs in those on my mother's side. My great-grandparents on my grandmother's side enjoyed their lives for over 100 years. Since both of them died of old age without struggling with diseases, I would say that they literally enjoyed their lives. Ironically, before my great-grandmother passed away, her daughter (my grandmother) started suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer type. A 92-year-old female relative still enjoys playing mahjong with her friends every day. According to her granddaughter, every time I lived in a foreign country, she tried to get to know about the country well. Actually, her strong curiosity often astonishes younger people. In contrast, some elderly relatives are so selfish and persistent that their families, friends, et cetera have a hard time taking care of them. As a result, their peers tend to drift away from them.

Every time I see these situations, I realize that your last life stage reflects how you have led your life, although some diseases are beyond your control.

Japanese people tired of pinching pennies

In Japan, it's believed that the spirits of our ancestors come back to see their descendants around the 15th of August, so there is a tradition of visiting family graves during that time. It is referred to as Obon/お盆. Because of this tradition, many factories temporarily suspend their production for a few weeks around the 13th to the 16th of August in order to give their employees a long holiday. Even people working for other companies still tend to take their summer holidays around this time, although recently more and more people take them during other periods in the summer to avoid the peak season crowds. 

Elderly parents, especially those living far from their children, expect them to come home during the Obon period. This is mostly because older generations consider it to be a traditional day of family gathering. In contrast, younger people tend not to want to go back in part because the return home costs them a lot more money than they would like to spend. In addition, many of them want to take advantage of their long holiday and travel overseas, since the summer holiday is the longest holiday for many workers.

According to the news, this year, a lot more people are expected to depart for foreign countries during the Obon period than last year because of the strong Japanese Yen and people being tired of pinching pennies（節約疲れ in Japanese). because of many people being tired of pinching pennies these days, プチ贅沢 is a catch phrase to appeal to consumers. プチ/puchi is from the French word "petit," and 贅沢/zeitaku means luxury, so the phrase means spending a little more money than usual to make yourself happy. Yesterday, McDonald's Japan announced that it had been very successful during the first half of this year due to high sales of new burgers costing four to five US dollars each. This is significantly more expensive than ordinary burgers, and the new burgers were introduced in order to meet the needs of customers desiring プチ贅沢. 

It's been said that many Japanese people try to save a high proportion of their disposable income, regardless of the state of the Japanese economy. As a matter of fact, the high propensity of the Japanese to save has enabled Japan to avert a critical crisis, as it is able to borrow locally to finance its budget deficit. On top of that, it's known that the number of suicides in Japan has been increasing for years. Some of the Japanese elite are suffering from depression.Given these circumstances, if people can afford it, they sometimes spend a little extra money to help ease their stress, not considering it extravagant.

It's said that Japan could get enmeshed in an irreversible situation like Greece if our government doesn't take action as soon as possible. Because of this, the hike in consumption tax from five percent to ten percent is being discussed. I'm sure that the hike will be enforced sooner or later.

Anyway, every time summer comes around, I start wanting to listen to the following song. I think that this song reminds many Japanese of the old days.

This is Japanese and universal hospitality

Japanese companies usually educate their employees on Japanese hospitality, and put much value on the idea that you should think about what your customers want, putting yourself in their position.It's based on a tradition that is referred to as おもてなしの心/omotenashino-kokoro in Japanese. If you wait on customers or offer hospitality at work, you will be required to offer a level of service above and beyond what is stipulated by the employee manual. In other words, responding to a variety of situations, you need to think about what to do and try to offer the best service and hospitality to your customers. This doesn't mean that you have to cater to any request made by your customers. If you encounter unreasonable requests, you will be required to decline them in the proper way. Needless to say, that's easier said than done. I think that it is important for you to try to decline unreasonable requests even though it is difficult.

As I mentioned in my previous post (click here), in Japan, visitors sometimes feel uncomfortable when they are served drinks and snacks without being asked if they'd like them. Given the aforementioned idea of Japanese hospitality, people should ask their visitors if they'd like anything before they serve drinks and snacks, although I've realized that more people do that than before. When the visitors don't want what is being offered, they should frankly reply, without hesitating, saying "no thanks". Actually, people still tend to consider it bad manners to decline an offer, and worry that it might offend people. The hosts, on the other hand, should readily accept both positive and negative answers. On top of that, you shouldn't expect others to give you the same level of hospitality as you usually offer.

To make matters worse, there is an awkward tradition in some areas, such as Kyoto. As far as I know, some conservative people in Kyoto still consider that when you are offered something, you should decline it out of politeness even if you really want it. Because of this, hosts in Kyoto strongly urge their visitors to accept their offers even when their visitors decline.

I don't know when the custom of offering a cup of Japanese tea with some snacks to your guests started, but I'm sure that at the time, water and Japanese tea were the only common drinks and you weren't able to buy drinks on the way to your destination. Because of this, visitors were most likely to be thirsty and hungry when arriving at your house, so even if you didn't ask in advance, the hospitality was always welcomed. Now that the times have changed, if you always offer the typical hospitality just out of custom, not thinking about what your visitors and guests want, it won't be hospitality. The idea that you should think about what others want, put yourself in their position, then think about what to do is the fundamental basis of human relationship.

  

Japanese hospitality can annoy you

When I was a university student, I would give school kids private lessons to make money. I usually went to their house and gave them a two-hour lesson. When I started giving a student a lesson at 4 pm, for example, his/her mother would always came to the room around 6 pm. Can you guess why? The mother would bring a piece of cake and a cup of tea or things like that to me. Even though she paid enough money for the lesson to me, she would serve them every time I gave a lesson. Her attitude toward me is pretty common. As a matter of fact, when you visit a Japanese friend's house even without notice, you will be usually served a cup of tea and some snacks without being asked if you'd like them. Due to this custom, Japanese people often take some snacks or sweets with them when they visit someone's house. These are our customs based on our hospitality.

When I lived in Malaysia, I had an Australian friend who gave private lessons to Japanese people at their houses. She would sometimes get annoyed by being served a cup of tea without being asked. She told me that she would find it difficult to decline the offer under some circumstances. When I lived in China, I would sometimes ask a Chinese masseuse (or massage therapist) --who often visited Japanese client houses --to come to my house. One day, while massaging me, she asked me why Japanese people tried to serve a cup of tea or some snacks to her even though they paid for her massage. She wondered how she should deal with the offer and decline it when she didn't want it. When I have dinner with my non-Japanese, I often notice that they feel uncomfortable with being served by their Japanese friends. In ordinary Japanese restaurants, a dish is often served on a big plate and is placed on the center of a table. You can take some from the dish if you want. If you cannot reach the dish, you can ask someone to take some for you. However, some Japanese will　try to serve you food despite not being asked. They also would try to offer to pour beer into your glass.

To be honest, I'm sometimes annoyed by being served drinks and snacks insistently at someone's house even though I politely decline. When I notice that someone takes umbrage with me not accepting his/her offer, I'm reluctant to eat the snacks served. In restaurants, I often feel uncomfortable being served by my friends since I want to my enjoy meal at my own pace. It also can disturb my conversation with others. In my opinion, the hospitality that makes feel others uncomfortable is not real Japanese hospitality (click here) even though it's seemingly polite. These offers are intrusive and hypocritical even though people are doing it with good intention. People always offer such surface hospitality just to satisfy themselves, although some people believe that the hospitality will make everyone feel happy.

Is Japanese hospitality great or annoying??

Japan is known for offering good customer service at shops etc. As a matter of fact, I often hear that foreign tourists are surprised to be offered good service free of charge. For example, in any restaurant, a glass of water and Japanese tea are always served free of charge. In many restaurants, a piece of wet tissue or towel to wipe your hands comes with the free drink. Since Japanese people don't consider these things as service, they are surprised to see some people from other countries are impressed by these things. They are also surprised to know that the free drink isn't common in other countries when they go there. According to the news, a statistic has shown that Chinese tourists--the number of them has been sharply increasing in the last few years -- are impressed most by the good customer service.

The service is our tradition and it's based on our hospitality, which is referred to as おもてなしの心 in Japanese. It's said that the good service based on Japanese hospitality is key for Japanese companies to expand their businesses in the global market. From this perspective, in China and Taiwan, some Japanese companies are fiercely trying to educate local people on the Japanese customer service ethic.

My story so far might make you feel like our service and hospitality are really good. I think that if you are a customer and are offered good service or hospitality at shops, restaurants and hotels, you will be satisfied with them. However, if you are offered our standard hospitality by your Japanese friends when spending time with them, you might find it difficult to deal with the hospitality. It's more likely to annoy you. In fact, my non-Japanese friends had a hard time dealing with our standard hospitality offered by their Japanese friends. I'll talk about why in the next post. I think that it's very difficult even for Japanese people to understand what Japanese hospitality is. Because of this, some people offer regular service without considering the situation that is necessary to offer real Japanese hospitality. As a result, they sometimes annoy others.

People from Kyushu/九州 are open-minded

In my previous post (click here), I said that many people from Yamaguchi Prefecture/山口県 played important roles in transforming Japan into a modern nation about one hundred and fifty years ago. Other than them, many people from Kyusyu region/九州, which consists of seven prefectures, especially from Kagoshima Prefecture /鹿児島県, are listed as historical figures. Since Kyusyu region and Yamaguchi Prefecture are located near the Asian Continent, people there were more likely to be subjected to the influence of foreign countries at the time. They were the most sensitive to global situations and were relatively used to accepting different values during the period of national isolation.

The tendency of being open to new values still remains with people in Kyushu. Professor Robert Campbell of the University of Tokyo, who is a well-known American scholar of Japanese literature in Japan and often appears on TV, looked back on his life in Japan in a interview. According to the interview, he first came to Kyushu to study Japanese literature many years ago. As soon as he arrived at a university there, a Japanese professor treated him as if he had studied under that professor for a long time. The professor didn't care about his poor Japanese and his nationality:American. Local people also had an open-minded attitude toward him. He felt comfortable with that. He concluded the story, saying with feeling that the first experience in Japan made him feel like he wanted to study more in Japan. He's been in Japan for about 25 years since then.

I've heard an interesting story about school kids. Some statistics have shown that when transfer students come to a class, students in Kyushu have the most interest in them. Students in Kyushu always welcome transfer students warmly whereas ones in other areas tend to hesitate to speak to them. On top of that, many actors/actresses, singers and so on from Kyushu have succeeded.

I don't have many friends from Kyushu, so I have no first-hand experience of this. However, It's most likely to be true.

Could people from Yamaguchi Prefecture save Japan?

In Japan, more people lately have taken an interest in Japanese history, especially the late Edo Period. This might be in part because by examining the history, people are trying to find some hints for overcoming the difficulties caused by the prolonged economic stagnation. They really need to find a breakthrough.

The TV show, "Ryoma-den/龍馬伝", enjoys high ratings, although I think that the main actor, Masaharu Hukuyama/福山雅治", has contributed to it. The show depicts a historical figure in the late Edo Period named Ryoma Sakamoto/坂本龍馬. On top of this, the number of young women who like visiting historical sites has been increasing for the last few years. They are referred to as Rekijyo/歴女.

I watch the show on Sundays. I think it's interesting. It might be more interesting if you remember that incidents in the show happened only about one hundred and fifty years ago while you watch it. In the show, a man named Yataro Iwasaki / 岩崎弥太郎 from a poor family appeared as a friend of Ryoma Sakamoto/坂本龍馬. He is actually a founder of the Mitsubishi /三菱 business group. I think you might have heard of Japanese companies named Mitsubishi xxxx, such as the Mitsubishi Corporation/三菱商事.

Ryoma Sakamoto/坂本龍馬 is from Tosa Domain/土佐藩, which is currently Kochi Prefecture/高知県. In the late Edo Period, other than him, many people from Choshu Domain/長州藩, which is currently Yamaguchi Prefecture/山口県, played important roles in leading Japan to become a modern nation. Immediately after the show reminded me of that fact, I heard the news that UNIQLO, a well-known clothing retail chain in Japan, would adopt English as its official language since the company was going to compete in the competitive global market as a global company, not as a Japanese one. Actually, the company is from Yamaguchi Prefecture /山口県. Three decades ago, it was a very small company that did business only within the prefecture. Now, UNIQLO is a growing company and a leader in the market. The company has developed a new business model.

Our Prime Minster Naoto Kan/菅直人 was born and raised in Yamaguchi Prefecture /山口県. Although he is put in a difficult position, I hope that he is going to do well.

Korean actors fascinating Japanese women

When I visited my parents' house about five years ago, I was surprised to find a mug with a picture of a popular Korean actor, Bae Yong Joon, on it. I immediately asked my mother where and how she had got the mug while gazing at it with round eyes. She happily said that she had gone on a short trip to Korea and had bought it there since she was fascinated by the very popular Korean TV show, Winter Sonata, and its starring actor, Bae Yong Joon.

About eight years ago, the show was broadcast and it ignited a Korean boom in Japan. Since then, the actor has been popular. Although I realized how popular some Korean actors and Korean TV shows were among Japanese women over 50, I didn't imagine that my mother was intrigued by that show and Bae Yong Joon.

Although I don't know Korean TV shows well, I think that many of them present platonic love and pure love in a romantic way. It's been said that such stories remind Japanese women over 60 of their bittersweet experiences. This is partly because many of them weren't allowed to marry the man whom they really loved because arranged marriage was common when they were young. In other words, these shows make them feel as if they could return to their youth when they were falling in love, since they can find similarities between the stories and their own experiences. The virtual romances seem to give them energy to deal with a harsh reality that they have to get along with their retired husbands who hadn't paid attention to them for many years until their retirement.

On the 30th of Jun, another popular Korean actor, Park Yongha, who was also in the public limelight in Japan when the aforementioned Korean TV show was broadcast, committed suicide. According to the news, the 32-year-old actor went to heaven, being watched by a large number of his female fans dressing in mourning. Surprisingly, 90 percent of them were Japanese women even though his funeral was held in Seoul only two days after his death. Most of them were seemingly middle-aged. They were collapsing into tears.

ご冥福をお祈りいたします。

the very popular Korean TV show, Winter Sonata

Why is the girl group, AKB48, popular in Japan?

In my previous post (click here), I wrote about a popular girl group called AKB48, which is produced by Yasushi Akimoto. Today, I'll talk about the reasons for its popularity.

According to a TV show I watched recently, AKB48, like Disneyland, always offers an original world in a single place. The group has an exclusive theater in Akihabara, Tokyo and puts on shows there almost every day. The members always wear the same original costumes. Because of this, if you go there, you can be part of their special world. In addition, since the group consists of over sixty girls, you might be able to find a favorite among them - just like you have a favorite Disney character.

The members' stage positions, the main vocal and so on are decided based on a fan ballot called "総選挙/the general election”. I guess that since the phrase 総選挙 is very popular in our society due to the recent political fuss, the phrase was chosen intentionally. The members announce their platforms for the so-called general election. You can get one vote for each CD you buy, although there are other ways to obtain votes as well. As you can easily imagine, some fans buy many CDs so that they can vote many times for their favorite girl to make her stand on the center of the stage.

All in all, this system enables the fans to feel as if they, themselves, could produce an idol. It's said that this has helped the group become popular. The members, on the other hand, need to improve their various skills and impress people to acquire more fans.

In my opinion, in Japan, men more or less like women who are dependent, immature, indecisive, dutiful or reserved because these women make them feel that they, the men, are superior. So, women often affect this kind of personality in front of men. This is one reason that girl groups like AKB48 are able to become popular. Give the fact that many wives wear the pants at home in Japan, girl groups like AKB48 make young men feel happy before they have to deal with the harsh realities of married life.

AKB48

Why are girl groups popular in Japan?

The day before yesterday, girl groups were discussed on a TV show.Since I found it interesting, I'll tell you about it.

In Japan, every ten years or so for the last thirty years, a girl group appears. Until now, three groups have appeared in total and all of them have become popular. These girls are cuter than average, but many of them aren't notably cute, which makes boys and young men feel as if the girls were their friends. It's been said that this sort of familiarity with the idols helps these three groups become popular.

In 1985, about fifty high school girls were selected in a popular TV show to form an idol group called Onyanko Club (おニャン子クラブ), which you can see in the first YouTube video. The group captured the hearts and minds of boys and young men. Although it broke up in 1987, some members are still popular now and appear on TV shows.

In 1997, another group called モーニング娘/morning-musume appeared, which you can see in the second YouTube video. First, the group received public attention because it was produced by a well-known musician named つんく/tsunku. The group consists of ten girls on average, and it changes members frequently. The frequent change of members is a strategy to capture public attention. Since elementary school girls sometimes become members, during the peak of the group's popularity, many young girls used to pay close attention to it, dreaming of joining it. I would say that the group is still popular, but it is much less popular now than it was up until five years ago.

About five years ago, a third group called AKB48 (the third You Tube video) was formed by a Yasushi Akimoto/秋元康, who is well known as a songwriter, music producer and so on. As a songwriter, he has written the lyrics of a wide range of many popular and great songs. His strategy for making the group popular is unique and noteworthy. Even though I'm not interested in the group itself at all, I follow it as a businesswoman. I think that you can find useful hints to develop new business models if you see why the group is very popular lately.

The AKB of AKB48 is from Akiba. Akiba is the abbreviated form of Akihabara/秋葉原, which is well known as an area where there are many Otaku and costume maids. Since the group has an exclusive theater as their home base in Akihabara and consists of around forty-eight girls, it was named AKB48. In the TV show that I mentioned at the beginning of the entry, AKB48's popularity was discussed, and they were compared with Disneyland (I might talk about this in a future post).  

I wonder if such groups consisting of many girls could be popular in other countries.