Human Dignity

I introduced to you yesterday how pet boom has been heated up in Japan (Pet Boom in Japan).

In the blog, I mentioned about a gorgeous hotel room for a dog.

Maybe I should have compared the above luxury room with some hotel room for a human being which is popular in Japan.

This is called Capsule Hotel.  Let me show you inside.

Can relax?  Why not!

But it looks basically used just to sleep.  The capsule hotel is used, for example, when people miss the last train due to drinking too long hours or overtime work (yes, it would happen in Japan!) because taxi fare in Japan is high and staying capsule hotel would be cheaper.

I also heard many foreign tourists also use the capsule hotel as regular hotel is very expensive particularly in Tokyo.

Capsule hotel is OK but doesn't look as good as the dog's one above.

Rather, the capsule hotel might be closer to a regular pet hotel, which is a cage type.

OMG...

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Pet Boom in Japan

A pet boom has heated up year by year in Japan, and pet business seems to be rapidly growing in Japan by finding any hidden demands of pet owners.

Japanese pet businesses I find interesting include the followings:

Look at the face of the dog!  She looks so happy and gorgeous by her nails being colored.  I also heard there are other types of beauty saloons for pets.

Next one is a pet hotel but is not a cage type and is unbelievably luxury.

The room looks better than ones I usually stay at...  She looks really relaxing there and to like there much better than cage style hotel.

It seems not unusual that pets are treated as a human being (or more than that) these days.  So, it is quite natural to have a funeral for her.

And of course she needs a grave.

Undoubtedly, pets are regarded as family members by their owners, and owners in many cases do not hesitate to spend lots of money for those family members.

Business people in Japan continue to catch the needs of the pet owners.

Hope the money oriented mindset of those business people doesn't result in treading down of the owners' pure emotions.  

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English As An Official Language

As the world gets smaller, the necessity for common language increases.  Not many people would disagree that such a common language is currently English.

As I discussed before ("Japanese and English are Completely Different Languages"), mastering English is very difficult for most Japanese and causes us to think how to overcome this tough task.

In many cases, people spend more time for learning English by reducing time for learning Japanese, which is criticized.  Ideal approach is to master both Japanese and English, but capacity of most people is limited and is not expanded, so we need right balance of our commitment.

Lots of discussions to find right way to deal with English have been going on, but unfortunately, most of those discussions seem to me not productive.  Most Japanese still can't find answer for how to prioritize learning English in their lives while Japanese are further delaying to master English, compared to some of other countries' peoples.

In such a sluggish situation, some Japanese companies have made the big step by choosing English as their official language.  These companies include Uniqlo (apparel) and Rakuten (EC commerce).  In my view, they both are rapidly expanding their businesses to overseas and occasions to deal with foreign countries are also increasing.  The decisions to make English as their official languages seem to be "top-down" from their leaders, taking into consideration necessities of English in their businesses.

Mr. Yanai - Uniqlo

Mr. Mikitani - Rakuten

The degrees to take English into their operations should vary between the two companies.  As far as I know, however, they both are having all meetings in English and all correspondences (both paper and email) in English.

Now other companies and maybe the whole Japanese society are paying their attentions to these two companies.  I think if Uniqlo or/and Rakuten succeed in their attempts, then many others would follow to implement the similar idea into their business, which is very "Japanese" way meaning not becoming a first one but just following others doing...

I used to work at a company in Tokyo, which I think uses English most in Japan.  For example, meetings are done in English if there is just one non-Japanese although there are 100 Japanese.  I have a favorable view for the two companies' decisions to implement English as I believe using English is the first thing to do rather than repeating unproductive arguments towards English.

And I am almost sure that their attempts succeed in as I think a reason why Japanese are not making an effective commitment for English is because many people in the Japanese society, who are not good in English, do not want to move towards English and become resistance for any movements.  So, once drastic decision is made like this time, I think things should move OK.

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School Caste in Japan

It is said that a hierarchical society, called "school caste" exists in a class of a school, mostly junior high and high schools in Japan.  Similar division of a class existed when I was a student, but ours was not something, which was treated as a problem, but merely phenomena in a children's society.  But what's currently going on is an insidious bullying, which is deep-laid, and is recognized as a social problem in Japan.

For example, a student who is so treated as belonging to a lower class is imposed some restrictions for languages to use, opportunities to talk to teachers, and so like.

What's going on in the school caste can be seen just by students there, and it is difficult for adults to recognize it.  

If what's going on in the class as discussed in the above is all true, the existence of such a hierarchy in school is very disappointing and can't be allowed.

At the same time, I wonder what a root cause of the sickness among these young people is, and  two major possible reasons come up off the top of my head.

First possible reason I think is the nature of Japanese people, who are nice in the front but are vicious behind.  Their way to abuse is not physical but rather a mental attack.

Second one is any influence of internet, which possibly directs user's mind to introverted way and thus possibly causes insidiousness.

I'm clearly blaming bullying students there for their abjection, but at the same time feel sorry that they are also scared by some situation like " I would be bullied if not bullying others."

Who could rescue all these students?  Supposed to be adults, right?

Unfortunately, many of adult's societies in Japan, including teachers' unions, have similar problem to the school caste as I know.  I can't expect those adults who are in the similar situations themselves.

In fact, bullying at schools became a social problem more than 30 years ago in Japan, and since then there have been many victim students who committed suicide due to being bullied.

Situations have not been much improved or even become worse by having more victims.

It just shows how helpless adults are here in Japan.

But we adults do not give up and continue to tackle the problem.

I believe young people understand that school is not only where to learn but where to make many friends as well.

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Karaoke Evolution

Karaoke should be one of very notable Japanese cultures.

I don't know an official starting date of Karaoke, but guess it's been more than 40 years since it became popular among normal people in Japan.

I heard that a Karaoke machine was invented by the guy in the below picture; however, he didn't register a patent for his invention.  If this is a true story, it means he lost enormous amount of royalties, which have been supposed to come from Karaoke.

As far as I know, Karaoke was originally used at bar.

I remember having paid around US$2 per song at the time.  Yes, it was not cheap.

I think a room style called Karaoke box is more popular these days in Japan.  The charges for Karaoke box are generally more reasonable than one charged at bar.

There many people sing Karaoke without drinking alcohol.  Even small children go there and sing anime songs, for example.

Some Karaoke box has unique interior decoration.  The below Karaoke box is using Evangelion, which is popular Japanese anime.

Recently new style of Karaoke box has come out, which is just for alone.

It seems a purpose of Karaoke changes from party to more concentrating on own song.

Japanese seem to really like singing a song, and Karaoke would further evolve.

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Cat Cafe

Modern societies are very complicated and make people living there sick and tired.

And people need some relief from the hell.

Some people turn to cat for heal.

Cat cafe has been getting popular in Japan.  I should not analyze any reason behind this boom but just feel some relationship of the popularity of such a cafe with people's mental sickness, which seeks relief, just like other pet business.

Nature of cat is different from one of dog.  Dog seems to approach to human and tries to become friends, but cat doesn't intentionally do anything but just behaves by her instinct.

People are intentionally or unintentionally calculating costs and benefits most of the time to survive in our societies.  But they don't have to calculate and can be themselves when dealing with cat, which heals their mind.

Smart people calculate the cat's great healing power for their business.

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Japanese Host Club

I introduced a Japanese hostess bar (or club) yesterday (Hostess Bar).  In fact, there is also a host club in Japan, which is opposite to a hostess club, i.e. men serve women.

There are some very fancy host clubs like below.

To give you a closer shot of hosts

Did you notice certain similarity in their hair style?

Interestingly, there are many guests, who are hostess.  I guess those hostess would like to be treated by male in their private time as they treat male at business?

Dom Perignon is prestigious drink, and a customer who orders the bottle of Dom Perignon would be very specially treated.  But you should know the most expensive Dom Perignon (called Platinum) would possibly cost around US$10,000 (!!!) at a host club.  Just for one bottle (!!!)

Well, different people, different world, which I can't follow, can you?

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Hostess Bar

Hostess bar takes root in the Japanese society but doesn't seem so in other countries, particularly Western countries, which has caused my curiosity.

Hostess bar is a place to drink where female staff entertains customers (mostly male) by sitting at the same table and with attentive conversation.

There are different types of hostess bars in Japan, whose names and prices are different.  Here I will talk about the most prestigious one, which is called a "club" unless otherwise mentioning.

Major places in Tokyo, which there are many clubs, are Ginza, Akasaka, and Roppongi.

Price they charge is amazingly so high that normal person like myself can never go (in fact, I've never been there as a customer).  I heard that a table charge (i.e. charge just for a seat, thus not including an order) is normally more than US$1,000 (!).  Accordingly, a club is usually used by either very wealth person (such as high-profile person, doctor, etc.) or one who doesn't have to pay himself (such as business executive and politician).

Hostess there wears Japanese kimono in many cases and tries to educate herself to catch up with various topics, such as politics, economy, sports, international matters, and so on, which the prestigious customers possibly prefer to have a dialogue with her.

Needless to say that a hostess' biggest and only motivation would be "money" and a customer should know it but still likes to visit the place, which provides mysterious atmosphere, by paying lots of money.

It sounds to me just waste of money, but maybe those people (both a hostess and a customer) must know the different world, which I don't know.

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Warning: Japanese Tax Authority Given Much Power

The Japan's national tax authority is given a good deal of discretion.

Japanese tax rules have many "gray" areas where tax rules are not certain.

In such gray areas, the national tax authority exercises its given power, and in this sense, taxpayers in Japan are very vulnerable.

The above situation doesn't allow taxpayers in Japan to take aggressive or even reasonable tax plannings because if such tax planning ideas are deemed as tax avoidance by the tax authority, then the taxpayers can hardly succeed in defending themselves.

The fact that there are few tax lawyers in Japan gets situations worse for taxpayers, as those taxpayers are not legally protected whereas the tax authority is getting stronger.

It is a tax accountant who usually supports a taxpayer in Japan, but a tax accountant is just an accountant and can't legally protect the taxpayer.  What a tax accountant could do for its client is just to infer the tax authority's interpretation of uncertain tax rules somehow, which does not make a taxpayer's position stable.

So, I personally think that the Japanese tax authority "intentionally" creates unclear tax rules and exercises its power to make a judgement in the uncertain areas in favor of them.

If I'm right, what the Japanese tax authority is doing is very similar to what tax authorities in developing countries do.  It's at least not a tax authority in a democratic nation.  I hope the tax authority is improved urgently.

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Even A Good Citizen Doesn't Have To Pay Unnecessary Tax

Some tax related issue has been recently raised in the U.S.  The issue is that large multinational corporations, such as Google and Apple, are not paying enough tax in the U.S. by not repatriating their income back to the U.S. among possible other tax planning ideas.

To the extent that I understand the issue properly, I'm not quite sure what's going wrong with Google and Apple's tax sensitive attitudes, assuming that they are just trying to save tax in compliance with tax laws, but are not avoiding tax by breaking laws.

The U.S. tax authorities and government might not be happy with the tax planning ideas Google and Apple are conducting.  However, corporation is also a citizen under the laws and has a right to protect its property, i.e. money.  If the government needs to invade the citizen's property, that should be justified by laws.  In other words, as far as the citizen is in compliance with laws, the citizen should not be taxed on its property.

As can be seen in the above tax issues of Google and Apple, U.S. corporations are generally very tax sensitive.  Many of their tax plannings are very aggressive.  It is not unusual that their business plan is motivated by tax, and they even move their business headquarters to low tax jurisdictions.  As a result, U.S. corp's effective tax rates (i.e. ratio of tax paid over their earning) are generally low, maybe around 10 to 20%, as seen in their financial statements.

By contrast, Japanese companies' mindset for tax is very different from the U.S. companies'.  Many Japanese companies respect their obligation to pay tax very much, rather than protecting their money.  Japanese companies are usually not tax oriented.  Although they try hard to comply with tax filing and payment, they don't initiate aggressive tax planning.  Accordingly, Japanese companies' effective tax rates are usually around 40%, which is much higher than U.S. companies (i.e. 10 to 20% as in the above).  These Japanese companies, who are paying decent amount of tax even if they might not have to pay that much, should be viewed as a good citizen by the Japanese government, but their pure compliance with tax laws without effective tax planning is not necessarily welcomed by their investors, since the companies' money is their investors' money, and those investors would possibly like to protect their money by taking more tax saving ideas.

I think a citizen, whether it's natural or corporate, should insist on protecting its money from being taxed as far as complying with rules.

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Japanese Employment Relationship

As mentioned in the last blog (New Grad's Job Hunting 2), more than 30% of new employees straight out of college leave their companies within three years these days in Japan, and this stats is regarded as surprisingly high in Japan, taking into account the fact most of Japanese labors used to stay at the same company through their careers even though the employees had certain complains.

One of major reasons for such "easier" movement than used to be could be change in employment relationship between a company and an employee, specifically the company's less commitment for "lifetime employment."

The Japanese companies used to guarantee their workers' employment throughout their careers.  Plus, compensation of employees generally increased every year.  Employees, in return, had loyalty to their companies by devoting a large part of their lives for the company's work.  Under this kind of employment relationship, I assume that leaving the current company should have been something similar to leaving family and been a very tough decision.

Many Japanese employees worked long hours by sacrificing their private times.

Also, they respected relationship with their colleagues and spent lots of their times with the colleagues, for example, by going out to drinking after work, playing golf on weekends, and so on.

However, the above lifetime employment model has been weakened maybe last a couple of decades as the Japanese economy became globalized, and Japanese companies have more foreign investors, who request for restructuring labors, as I understand.  The employees' loyalty towards their companies have been weakened in accordance with the management change.

I don't know which is better, the old employment model (i.e. company guarantees its employees' lives and the employees in turn devote themselves to the company) or the current one (flexible relationship), as each model has both pros and cons.  But I can at least say that we are now in transition of change in employment style, and many Japanese employees are lost.

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New Grad's Job Hunting 2

As I discussed in the last blog (New Grad's Job Hunting), those young people start their work from April.  Most companies held a welcome ceremony for those new employees.

Welcome Ceremony

After the ceremony, most Japanese companies provide training to new hired.  Topics covered in the training vary depending on each company but usually include fundamental things like a business manner (e.g. how to vow, exchange business cards, etc.), which might look interesting to foreigners but is important as a business person in the Japanese business society.

The new hired join a division which they are assigned.  The section is not necessarily related to what the new employee wants to do or can do by utilizing what they learned at university.  Most Japanese companies seem not expecting the new grad to bring the skills they learned at university, but rather rotate the new grad different divisions possibly every a few years or so to find the best fit for the employee, as I guess.

The training and rotational assignment are based on an assumption that the employee stays at the company through his/her career.  However, the things are changing these days.

It is reported that more than 30% of new employees from universities leave their companies in three years.  This is surprising stats in the Japan's labor market where lifetime employment used to be normal.

The new hired used to stay at the first company through the whole career even though they felt certain mismatch to the company; however, such a mismatch could become an enough reason to change job today as the Japan's labor market becomes more flexible for job changing than used to be.

Students cannot necessarily come up to the best result after going through the job hunting and might just take an offer from a company although the company is not their first choice.  Then they might try to create their career while working at the first company for a few years and look for next chance to move up to the better career.  There should be other motivations to move, however, the truth is this sort of early movement is now accepted in the Japan's job market.

Hunting a job has been very tough for students for more than a decade.  New grad might have become very smart to survive in such a difficult situation.

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New Grad's Job Hunting

New grads from schools start their works from April in Japan.  This is because Japan applies a fiscal year starting April 1 and ending March 31, and schools and most of major Japanese companies follow the same.  Japanese companies don't usually hire new grads through the year unlike American companies.

College students start their job hunting from their junior year.  The timing students can start job hunting (i.e. the timing companies can start holding their hiring sessions) is determined under an agreement among companies, schools, and the government.

The timing was October of students' junior year, which was recently made later to December which seems to be further delayed to March.  The reason for these movements to delay the timing is due to concerns that students cannot concentrate on their school works by starting their job hunting so early of the middle of their junior years.

Although lifetime employment concept in Japan is diminishing, it is still true that many Japanese work at the same company through their lives and thus job hunting is very important for the students.

However, not many students know their own adequacy, what sort of companies exist in markets, which way to go, etc., etc.  Remember they are still 20 or so years old!

Due to this difficult situation, many students tend to choose large, stable, and established company, which is supposed to exist for at least the students' life time and guarantee their lives. It is not usual that students select their job to match to their adequacy or what they really want to do, particularly under the current tough job market situations.  A list of popular companies among new grads is announced every year and has large companies in high orders.

Life is only once and very short, we all should enjoy it.  However, we first need income to live our lives and job, which provides us with stable income.  These young guys are smart enough to understand it somehow...

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Extremely High Quality Sensitive

Most Japanese care about the quality of products very much, which seems to me to result in raising prices of items.

Taking vegetables as an example, there are standards for vegetables to be sold on the market.  Vegetables would be categorized as imperfect due to the following reasons: they are too big or small; there are scratches; their colors are pale; their shapes are a bit twisted, etc.  These standards are not important for taste or, of course, safety.

For example, if cucumber is twisted maybe half an inch, it would be graded as "imperfect," can't be marketed, and would be just threw away.

Farmers say that these standards are necessary since Japanese consumers are very demanding.  However, there are many consumers, who welcome cheaper vegetables due to their imperfection, and sales of imperfect vegetables are very popular among consumers.

It is not clear to me which comes first; consumer's demand for perfection or farmer's intention to sell good things at higher price (with higher margins)?

But it is clear that Japanese are generally paying or are forced to pay higher price for high quality of goods or services, which seems not so important.

I personally would like to buy cheaper stuff by taking a small fault.

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Onomancy

As mentioned in the last blog (Kanji Name of Foreign Sumo Wrestler), person's name is generally carefully decided since most Japanese believe selection of name influences the person's fortune.

The way to do fortune-telling by the person's name is generally based on stroke count of the name.

For example, the total number of strokes of the name, including both first and last names, is believed to tell fortune of the whole life, particularly after 50 years old.

Also, stroke count of family name is for fortune in younger age of maybe up to 20 years old and reads the person's identity; total stroke counts of last letter of family name and first letter of first name is used to read fortune in the period of 20 through 50 years old and the person's personality and talent; total stroke counts of first letter of family name and last letter of first name reads fortune in daily life, such as relationship with others.

Other factors, such as sound of each letter, the person's birth date, and so on, are also considered to come up to more certain results of fortune telling.

Of course, there are no scientific or rational reasons for the above onomancy like other fortune-tellings, however, many Japanese, particularly older generations, believe this fortune-telling and thus care about naming of a new-born.  In fact, I'm also a believer of onomancy and read through several onomancy books when my daughter was born, and decided her name based on my careful research, which my wife and I believed the best one!

Not only for a new-born baby, but even adults, particularly certain high-profile people, like actor/actress, sometimes changes his/her stage name aiming at a better career as I assume.

Younger generation seems not care much about onomancy but care more about the sound of name and tend to name which sounds "cool."  Accordingly, popular names for new born babies (which are announced every year) in recent years are completely different from ones in old years, maybe a few decades ago.

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Kanji Name of Foreign Sumo Wrestler

Sumo is popular in Japan and some of other countries as the Japan's national sports.

Currently there are six tournaments a year, each of which lasts 15 days and most of sumo wrestlers, called rikishi in Japanese, fight one match a day and 15 matches in total through each tournament period.

There used to be just a few foreign sumo wrestlers, however, the number of the foreign sumoists increased dramatically in last a few decades, and there are currently many foreign sumoists mainly from Mongolia and European countries.

Many of high rankings are dominated by these foreign wrestlers.  Top ranking is called yokozuna, and there are currently two yokozuna wrestlers, both of which are Mongolian.  Second highest is called ozeki, and there are four now, two of which are from Bulgaria and Mongolia.

Each rikishi has a fighting name called shikona.  The way to determine shikona varies, but in any case shikona is expressed in Japanese Kanji.

For example, the following wrestler is from Estonia, and his shikona is 把瑠都, which is pronounced "ba ru to" and is derived from the Baltic Sea (Japanese pronunciation is "ba ru to."), where his country Estonia is located nearby.

Baruto (把瑠都) (right)

As other example, the below rikishi is from Russia, and his shikona is 阿覧, which is pronounced Alan and comes from his original first name.

Alan (阿覧) (right)

There are no strict rules for kanji translations of names, however, each kanji letter usually has several meanings and certain image in its looking.  Furthermore, many Japanese have some brief that the person's fortune is largely dependent upon the selected kanji letters.  Accordingly, kanji letters should be very carefully chosen, and I believe the kanji names of the above two wrestlers were also done so.  I will discuss about how kanji letters are determined for a good fortune next time.

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Need Foreigner's Help to Understand Our Own Stuff?

I sometimes feel that normal Japanese things change to something special after being valued by foreigners.

For example, as you may know, ukiyoe is a wood print, which was very close at hands of people during the Edo era that is the last samurai era.

Ukiyoe was first deemed art by a French woodblock artist.  He imported a china from Japan to France and found ukiyoe which was used for wrapping of the china.  The ukiyoe was made by Hokusai who later became a very famous ukiyoe artist.  The French artist was very impressed by the ukiyoe, and the ukiyoe became widely known in some Europe countries since then.  Following the ukiyoe boom in Europe, Japanese started treating ukiyoe as art.

Hokusai

Like ukiyoe, manga used to be just popular, or even despised in the Japanese society particularly by adults.  However, it seems to have been revalued after being accepted and becoming widely popular in foreign countries.  The Japanese government is now trying to introduce or export manga to overseas as one of the Japanese sub-culture items.  I don't disagree to officially introduce manga as sub- or pop-culture item of Japan, but am surprised by the fact that manga is a part of the nation's initiative, which seems not realistic a few decades ago when manga was not so accepted by our society.

As the other example, mt. Takao has been having many more attentions from Japanese since five or so years ago after being given triple stars by the Michelin.

Mt. Takao is located in Tokyo and is close to an urban area, regardless, it has lots of nature.  Many people living in Tokyo and other near areas realized but maybe didn't appreciate it very much.  They seem to have recognized the beauty in this sightseeing spot after the Michelin's high evaluation, and since then mt. Takao has become something special rather than just popular spot.

The above all three items used to be just general among ordinary people and were given higher status after receiving recognition from foreigners.

I'm proud that the Japanese things are accepted by foreigners.  On the other hand, I wonder if Japanese don't have its own views to value the Japanese things or need foreigners advice to recognize true values of those Japanese things.

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A Lion at Home?

In Japan, some point out that recent young Japanese generation tends not to go out of Japan, based on certain stats, which shows prominent decline in the number of Japanese people going abroad to study from around 2000, although other argue that the interpretation of the stats is not right.

Regardless of the argument of incorrect interpretation of the stats, the above observation that the young Japanese people's negative behavior towards overseas seems to be followed by people around the young generation, such as universities' professors or senior people at their companies.  They say that students don't try to study abroad or young employees don't hope for overseas assignments.

My impression is also similar to one that they are not aggressive to go out, particularly when compared to young generations in our neighbor countries, such as South Korea, China, etc.

My feeling might be further supported if the fact, which Japanese currency, Yen, has been much stronger than 80's, is taken into account.  Yen became much stronger in the late 80's, and many Japanese people, including myself, studied abroad, as the strong Yen made tuition and living costs in overseas lower, and going abroad became easier.  Yen is recently becoming weaker, however, it's still stronger by around 30% than 80's.  Regardless, young Japanese are not so attracted by this currency advantage.

One analysis for the young people's passive attitude is that many young Japanese believe they can just live in Japan without taking any risks such as studying abroad or an overseas assignment, if they don't expect huge success in their lives but just expect normal lives.

This sounds very convincing as there seem not to be any other reasons for the younger's negativeness.

But, if the young Japanese really believe that they can stay in Japan without much dealing with foreign countries, it's of course wrong even though they are OK to live just normal lives.  I think they also understand it's wrong and are just making such an excuse not to go out.

Well, what are true reasons for their hesitations then?

Just would like to be "a lion at home"?

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