Japanese children are admonished not to point at a passing hearse, since to do so would bring their parents' demise. There are regional variations on this admonition. For example, in Sapporo children are taught to conceal a thumb ("oya-yubi") as a precaution against their parents ("oya") dying...

English-teaching school, Gaba, is to IPO on Mothers on December 1st. The company will be offering 14,200 shares at JPY265,000, giving the company a market cap of JPY11.39bn (US$97.4m). The company in its current form was created as recently as June 1994, through a management buy-out...

This week we were going to comment on the pending IPO by the Gaba English school, and the sorry financial and moral state of English schools in Japan in general. However, given that this is issue Number 400 of Terrie's Take, we thought it might be better to take some time out and toot our own horn. Gaba won't list until December 1st, so plenty of time for them next week...

Prime Minister Abe has declared revision of the Constitution a goal of his administration. He and like-minded conservatives believe the present Constitution, drafted by Americans at the behest of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers after the Second World War, bears the stamp of a foreign power and is not Japanese in spirit.