If you were asked, "Which period between 1940 and now led to the largest loss of male workers from Japan's economy?" You probably would answer World War II, since during the period 1939 through to the surrender in August of 1945, around 2,000,000 soldiers, over 3% of the population, perished in the pursuit of Emperor and empire. However, in fact the period of greatest loss (but not necessarily loss of life) of males from the Japanese workforce is...

The nurse filling out the prescription said that they would give our daughter Tamiflu. We were concerned at hearing that, since we'd heard the media reports about the drug and didn't want to take any chances. But the nurse told us that the alternative drug was "sold out" because everyone was looking to switch from Tamiflu. So it was either the Roche drug...

Ever since the Chinese overtook Japan as the largest holder of foreign reserves, the US in particular has started to realize that having a bunch of foreign governments you're not necessarily friendly with holding your debt isn't such a good idea. While only Hillary Clinton has so far come out and said that the foreign holdings are a risk, perhaps she should have gone further and said...

Japan is rightfully known as the land of vending machines. It's hard to say why there are so many, given that there are already plenty of little specialty shops down every alley. But perhaps one reason why there are no fewer is the simple fact that this relatively law-abiding society doesn't see vending machines as...

It's been a while since we wrote about divorce in Japan. However, an article in the Daily Yomiuri several weeks back reminded us that this is one big black hole in Japan and the law has not caught up with the changing social realities. The article was the so-called "Troubleshooter" column, in which a woman says...

In our January 21st editorial giving business predictions for the year, we commented about Nikko Cordial's JPY18bn (and rising) window dressing scandal, and in contrasting it with the Horie-Livedoor scandal, we wondered why the Nikko guys were getting off with just a fine and a slap on the wrist? Well it appears that...

The Nikkei carried a short article today about the Justice and Internal Affairs Ministries meeting to discuss changing the rules for monitoring foreigners resident and working in Japan. Until now, the registration of foreigners...

Something that strikes foreigners driving in Japan is the number of families who let their young kids ride in the front on a parent's lap, or in the back, unharnessed. "Don't the parents care that they might kill their kids?" is the frequent shocked refrain. Well apparently not. In 2005...

As Japanese electronics manufacturers rediscover their place in the consumer electronics world, competing with Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean companies by introducing innovative and high-end products, Intellectual Property (IP) is increasingly becoming the point of leverage that defines success or failure. As a result...

What small Japanese electronic toy created in 1996 has sold more than 40m units around the world, and within its target age group of under 15's purportedly has a 100% consumer recognition rate? Hint: when it went on sale in 1997, at its peak it sold at a rate of one unit every 4 seconds in North America ...