If you could be born again, would you still want be married to your present partner?
When the Hakuhodo ad agency asked this question at the end of last year, 50.1% of husbands and 38.5% of wives replied yes, exposing a significant difference in replies between males and females. Interestingly, however, the percentage of responses by childless couples (52%) was nearly 10 points higher than from couples with children (42.9%). The […]
A Long-term Vision for the Future: A Message for Mankind 5,000 Years from Now by Konosuke Matsushita
Konosuke Matsushita's 250 Year Plan Konosuke Matsushita’s vision didn’t just stop at business management; it extended to government and politics, and even to human happiness. At 37 years of age, Konosuke Matsushita announced a 250-year plan for Matsushita Electric (now Panasonic). He declared that the mission of industrialists was to establish an earthly paradise suffused […]
Why Do Japanese Like Open Plan Offices?
Why Do Japanese Like Open Plan Offices? Why hasn't telecommuting taken root in Japan, even in the midst of a pandemic? Here is an answer. By R. Kopp For the American coming to work at, or even visiting, a traditional Japanese office, it’s a shock. Rather than the individual offices or cubicles that are typical […]
Truth About “Stay Connected” in Japan
Changing Japanese people's behavior i-mode was introduced around 25 years ago. It was the world’s first internet access service exclusive to mobile phones. An early 2000’s research suggests that the average Japanese person had a mobile phone by the time they started middle school. Japan was reportedly the first place with videophone services. So accessing […]
Accommodating Muslims in Tokyo, Japan
Shared house only for Muslim people By Ryoji Shimada, staff writer Japan’s first-ever shared house set up exclusively for the Muslim Community has began operations from late February in a posh district of Tokyo. Such a facility is a reflection on Japan’s growing diversity. According to the Japan Muslim Association, currently about 10,000 Japanese Muslims […]
Can Japan Overcome the Innovation Dilemma?
What should we learn from Steve Jobs and Sony’s Akio Morita? By K. Ohno Interview with Clayton Christensen Clayton M. Christensen is a professor at the Harvard Business School. He holds a BA with highest honors in economics at Brigham Young University, an MBA at the Harvard Business School, and a DBA at the Harvard […]
Ozasa: 70 Years in Business Selling Only 2 Items at 3.3m2-SHOP in Size With $3.3 Million in Sales
Long-standing Small Shop Business in Japan Kichijoji, the number one spot in the “place in Tokyo I’d like to live” rankings. Three minutes’ or so walk from Kichijoji Sation, the focal point of the area, is “Ozasa,” a tiny Japanese sweet shop, founded over 60 years ago. For over 40 years, a line of people […]
Who is Eiichi Shibusawa?
The 1,000 yen, 5,000 yen, and 10,000 yen bills (Bank of Japan notes) will be renewed by the first half of 2024. The 1,000-yen and 5,000-yen bills will be the first new banknotes in 20 years, and the 10,000-yen bill will be the first in 40 years since Prince Shotoku was replaced by Yukichi Fukuzawa […]
House Renovation in Japan: Giving a New Shine to Mokuchin Apartments
How to renovate a room cheaply By Ryoji Shimada, staff writer According to last year's survey, the number of vacant houses in Japan is about 8.46 million (compared to about 8.2 million in the previous survey), and the ratio of vacant houses to all houses (vacant house rate) is 13.55%. Vacant houses are one of […]