Philip Brasor - The Japan Times

BUSINESS / Economy / YEN FOR LIVING

Aug 23, 2015

Chinese shoppers keep Japan's tills ringing

The lower yen, fewer visa restrictions, cheap flights and trust in Japanese products are all helping fuel the boom in Chinese tourism to Japan.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 22, 2015

The same old story on rural depopulation

A story that is constantly upbeat quickly becomes tiring. Conflict and resolution are necessary to maintain interest, and while happy endings are still more popular than depressing ones, characters should go through some sort of emotional turmoil before arriving at them.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Aug 21, 2015

History of a health-obsessed shogun; soccer star beauty challenge; CM of the Week: Asahi Beer

Every Japanese schoolkid knows that Tokugawa Ieyasu was the first shogun of Japan and initiated the long, war-free Edo Period (1603-1868), but few know that he didn't rule from Edo (present-day Tokyo). He ostensibly handed rule of the country over to his son, Hidetada, only two years after establishing...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 15, 2015

Post-3/11 power-conservation goals change the energy game

The heat wave rolling over Tokyo is a godsend for Olympics bashers like former newscaster Hiroshi Kume. On his TBS radio show last week, he said that five years from now when the games are held here, they will "violate the Olympic charter," which requires an environment where all athletes can demonstrate...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Aug 14, 2015

The shock of the old; boy band melodrama; CM of the Week: Kirin Beverage Co.

The shock of the old and abandoned is the theme of the late night "road movie" documentary series "Haikyo no Kyujitsu" ("Holiday in the Ruins"; TV Tokyo, Fri., 12:52 a.m.). Two teams of TV personalities — one in the United States and the other in Japan — explore man-made facilities that are no longer...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 8, 2015

Uniqlo can't survive on bargains alone

Tadashi Yanai, one of the richest men in Japan, told the Wall Street Journal last week that he was "disgusted" by the video of a couple having sex in a Beijing outlet of the clothing chain Uniqlo. The video quickly went viral in China, and Internet commenters wondered if it wasn't part of some weird...

BUSINESS / Economy / YEN FOR LIVING

Aug 8, 2015

Japan's elderly boomers squeezed to pay more as care facilities struggle

The elderly nursing care industry is facing a perfect storm of problems as the ranks of elderly swell and subsidies from local authorities and central government shrink.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Aug 7, 2015

Detective mystery in Tokyo; child soldiers of World War II; CM of the Week: Toyota

Actor Sho Aikawa used to be the king of straight-to-video movies. He's now all over the place, and stars as officer Ken Kobayashi in the occasional mystery series, "Setagaya Chuzai Keiji" ("Setagaya Police Substation Detective"; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.).

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Aug 3, 2015

World Heritage site tourism; visualizing Hiroshima's bombing; CM of the Week: Mitsui Real Estate

Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Hakubun Shimomura takes time away from dealing with the new national stadium to make a guest appearance on the travel program "So da, Dokka ni Ikko?" ("Well, Where Shall We Go?"; TV Tokyo, Tues., 6:57 p.m.). Shimomura is there to introduce...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Aug 1, 2015

Going for gold in the stadium blame game

Yoshiro Mori, former rugby player and prime minister, and current head of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics' organizing committee, is not a man of few words. When the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, took it upon himself to discard the design for the new National Stadium because cost estimates had gotten out...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS

Aug 1, 2015

Your home may be your castle, but not all of it is yours

When we were thinking about buying a condominium some years ago, we looked at older units and brand new ones, and one of our least favorite features was pebbled or fogged window glass, which was ubiquitous. Early on, when we didn't know any better, we asked a real estate agent how much it would cost...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jul 25, 2015

Housecleaner of the dead; ridiculous quizzes; CM of the Week: Family Mart

The housekeeper who cleans the homes of dead people, Aiko Tanizaki (Atsuko Takahata), returns in the special two-hour drama "Ihin Seirinin: Tanizaki Aiko 5" ("The Cleaning Lady of Things Left Behind: Aiko Tanizaki 5"; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.).

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jul 25, 2015

Shizuka Kamei and Shintaro Ishihara have the security debate the Diet should have had

When Shintaro Ishihara retired from politics after failing to get re-elected last December, it seemed we wouldn't have the right-wing firebrand to kick around any more, but last week there he was in Shukan Asahi talking to former Liberal Democratic Party comrade Shizuka Kamei about various topics, including...

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Jul 25, 2015

America still rules the world of Japan's theme parks

The success of Tokyo Disney Resort and Universal Studios Japan has a lot to do with their business models and the way they've exploited their appeal to certain demographics in Japan.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jul 22, 2015

Real-life cave man; pretending to live in old Japan; CM of the Week: Line Music

Based on a true story, "Dokutsu Ojisan" ("Cave Man"; BS Premium, Mon., 9 p.m.) dramatizes the life of Kazuma Kamura, who ran away from home when he was 13 to escape abusive parents and lived alone in a cave on a remote mountain for 43 years.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jul 18, 2015

Despite what the media says about juvenile crime, the kids are alright

In an essay he wrote for Asahi Shimbun's Internet magazine Webronza in June, professor Mikio Kawai, a specialist in "serious crime," revealed the results of a survey he conducted last March among 1,456 "older" people. He asked the respondents if they thought juvenile crime was on the increase. Sixty-two...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jul 11, 2015

Japan should re-examine the idea of marriage to help spur a baby boom

After decades of a national conversation about the need for more babies, there is still disagreement as to what sort of measures Japan should take in order to increase its birthrate. The obstacles are financial, social and physiological, and before they can be addressed properly they must be identified...

BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING

Jul 11, 2015

Consumers slow to embrace generic drugs

In May, the health ministry announced that it would set a new target for the use of generic pharmaceuticals. In 2013, 46.9 percent of the prescription drugs dispensed in Japan were generics, and at first the ministry said it wanted to raise this portion to 60 percent by 2017, but the Council on Economic...

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF

Jul 10, 2015

New 1960s-style cop drama; veteran actors playing hard-boiled detectives; CM of the Week: Kewpie

The title of TV Asahi's new police drama, "Keiji Shichinin" ("Seven Detectives"; Thurs., 9 p.m.), is meant to strike a chord with older viewers who will remember "Shichinin no Keiji," one of the most popular series of the 1960s — a cop show that wasn't about action but real police work, and which tackled...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jul 4, 2015

Filmmaker wants Japan to remember the 'comfort women'

NHK recently aired a documentary that touched on the 50th anniversary of normalized relations between South Korea and Japan. The main theme was how after World War II Japan prioritized state-to-state relationships with countries it had invaded during the war. Individual victims were sacrificed to expedience,...

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