Having cancer at any age is a shock, but it is never worse than when found in a child. Among Japan's roughly 20m kids under the age of 15, about 1,600 of them have the most common form of cancer in children -- Leukemia. Of the various types of this blood disease, approximately 80% have Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and 20% Acute Myelocytic Leukemia (AML).

Informed of the renovation of flophouses in Kotobukicho, a stone's throw from JR's Ishikawacho Station in Yokohama, I visited the Yokohama Hostel Village (YHV), on the second road from the canal. The kind people at YHV fixed me up with a room in Hayashi Kaikan, a renovated flophouse, for 3,000 yen a night...

In Japan's recruiting world, apart from the 800lb gorilla called Recruit, there really isn't any company that has bridged the various disciplines of the industry. Instead, success for those companies which have gone public has come from specializing in a particular skill area. There are the temp staffing agents, the online job boards, the outplacement agencies, and as of this week, the real McCoy -- executive and personnel placement.

The Nikkei survey reveals Japanese believe foreigners find Azabu-Hiroo the most livable quarter of Tokyo and the Shitamachi among the least livable.