Terrie's Take 716 -- Evolution of Japanese in 100 years, e-biz news from Japan

Sun Jun 30 22:47:35 JST 2013

* * * * * * * * * T E R R I E 'S T A K E * * * * * * *
A weekly roundup of news & information from Terrie Lloyd.
(http://www.terrie.com)

General Edition Sunday, June 30, 2013, Issue No. 716

+++ INDEX

- What's New -- Evolution of Japanese in 100 years
- News -- Medical fees to rise in 2014
- Upcoming Events
- Corrections/Feedback
- Travel Picks -- Orange Cafe in Hayama, Iris Festivals in Ibaraki
- News Credits

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-------------------- DELTA AIR LINES -----------------------

DELTA LAUNCHES NEW TOKYO-HANEDA-TO-SEATTLE SERVICE WITH A FUN QUIZ AND A
TRIP TO SEATTLE.

Want to win a trip to Seattle- Now’s your chance.

To celebrate the June 3rd launch of its new daily, nonstop service between
Tokyo-Haneda(HND) and Seattle(SEA), Delta has organized a quiz with prize
of trips to Seattle.

The quiz is called “Sleepless Nights in Seattle” and asks a variety of
questions in a multiple-choice format. All you have to do is answer as many
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a pair of round-trip tickets from Tokyo-Haneda to Seattle, three nights
hotel accommodation, a Seattle City Pass, and a special dinner for two.

Test your Seattle knowledge and you could soon be enjoying a sleepless
night or two in the Emerald City.

Find out more at www.delta-new-route.com/Seattle/jp/en
-----------------------------------------------------------

+++ WHAT'S NEW

Back at the start of June there was an interesting article
(http://dailym.ai/1aYF02d)
in the Daily Mail of the UK about what humans would look like in 100,000
years, inspired by a study done by artist and researcher Nickolay Lamm and
Dr Alan Kwan, a PhD Washington University in St Louis. Their findings were
that humans of the future will have huge foreheads, flat faces, and
saucer-like eyes. While the graphics and the content of the study are
rather cheap looking, the article itself inspired a lot of web commentary
about whether the two researchers really understood the dynamics of human
evolution.

On the face of it, they did their job, taking into account the natural
physiological developmental changes in humans over the last 100,000 years
and extrapolating both the changes and rate of change to the next 100,000
years. But they ignored one important new dynamic in human development --
that of scientific breakthrough facilitating human needs and desires. As
one commentator said, it's highly likely that within 1,000 years or less,
mankind will be able to and indeed will want to transfer personal identity,
memories, and intelligence to a long-lived machine rather than a naturally
created host. Just as we get cosmetic surgery and take longevity
supplements today, we will want to trade our bodies for androids in the
future.

This got us thinking about Japan and its challenges, and how it is likely
to develop in the next millennia. Considering Japan's inclination towards
incrementalism, commentators (see this report: http://www.21ppi.org/pdf
/thesis/120827.pdf) pessimistically say that Japan will happily see its
fortunes decline and that the demographics in 2050 will be: 92.5m people,
39% of the population over 65, 6m home care patients, 2 retirees for every
worker, and the eventual ejection of Japan from the list of developed
nations. But these projections ignore the core aspects of human nature,
such as the willingness to change when a certain threshold of pain is
crossed, or when external factors (including technology and migration)
cause a new outcome to be more desirable and less threatening. In Japan's
case the pain and desire are just not strong enough yet.

[Continued below...]

-------- Japanese Editor/Writer for Dog Portal ------------

www.doglovers.jp is looking for a Japanese editor/writer who loves dogs, to
join its team and become the content/community manager for the portal.
Doglovers.jp's mission is to change attitudes of Japanese dog owners to
their pets by introducing the psychology of dogs, the rewarding social
aspects of living with a dog, and fun stuff that is happening overseas
relating to dogs. The site is already up and running and has major
sponsors.

The job involves:
- Setting standards and "tone" for the content on the site
- Working with contributors to help them improve their writing and
photographic efforts
- Working with recruiters to attract, assess, and apply applicants wanting
to become contributors
- Creating content ideas and campaigns to get community engagement (we
offer contributors incentives)
- Creating stories, especially in the early stages of the project

This position is open to full-time (preferred) and part-time (possible)
applicants, including, potentially, applicants not residing in Japan. You
must be fluent in Japanese, able to write to commercial level, love humans,
and love dogs.

Contact: info at doglovers.jp for details.
-----------------------------------------------------------

[...Article continues]

So in looking into Japan's future, but taking an even less scientific view
than Messrs Lamm and Kwan, we think there will be one of two outcomes:
either Japan will be comfortable with its loss of world influence and
docilely accept irrelevance and poverty for its elderly, OR, it will
regenerate its population with fresh blood -- meaning immigration. This is
an interesting conundrum for the nation's rightist leadership: whether to
let Japan become so weakened that China starts extracting territorial
claims, or to accept a bunch more foreigners moving in. We think that Abe
and his bureaucrats can see the writing on the wall and that in some way or
form foreign immigration is on the cards. It's just a matter of when and
how.

So how will immigration happen?

In fact, we suspect there is a master plan already in motion, started under
the guise of tourism, which is being skilfully sold to the populace as a
savior for the nation's financial situation. For example, have you noticed
how before the Senkaku problem, the Japanese mainstream media liked to
focus on how much more cash Chinese tourists were spending than Westerners?
Ergo, Chinese tourists were desirable as an all-important source of income
to struggling sectors of the economy. Now that the Senkaku dispute has put
a wrench in that wheel, the government has quickly picked up and moved its
game to the next acceptable source of tourists -- the citizens of Thailand,
Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia.

There was an interesting comment from the Japanese embassy in the
Philippines about how although Thais and Malays would get visa-free travel
to Japan, Filipinos would have to settle for multi-entry visas due to the
fact that after China and Korea, Filipinos are the nationals most likely to
overstay their visas in Japan. Ahhh, OK, so the Japanese government is very
conscious of the connection between tourism and unregulated immigration and
is trying to tie  reward to reliability. Again, this is reasonable on the
face of it, but if they were really concerned about overstayers, why relax
travel restrictions for that nationality at all? We think the answer is
that because in fact they do want people to come here and feel that they
can handle those who won't go home again. We're sure the authorities
realize that for SE Asian tourists, for every genuine tourist there will be
two job seekers, who with easy repeat access and LCCs will be more likely
to return home and apply for a work visa legally than start working
straight away as an overstayer.

An article in the ABS-CBN news website, (http://bit.ly/15TL46o), reinforces
the fact that with repeat access to Japan, there will be an increased
problem with prostitution (in this case forced prostitution -- a despicable
practice) and other abuses (sweat shops, etc.) of certain demographic
groups. Yes, that's what happens when you make borders porous. People do
what they do at home in the new country, and if there is money there, they
will want to stay and make a living out of it. Not just prostitutes, but
also cooks, engineers, sanitary workers, home workers, and many others.
This is human nature and it's what immigration is all about.

We think the macro view of government is that immigration is inevitable,
and by massively relaxing tourism entry requirements there will be a sudden
influx of millions of friendly and non-threatening foreigners who will help
change citizens' otherwise hardcore attitudes to immigration and having
foreigners participate in the economy. This view goes a long way to
explaining why the Japanese government was so insistent in bringing in the
new Zairyu cards and stricter control of foreigners last year, because they
know that they will be needed. Tourism is a surreptitious, but welcome,
move to opening the nation's borders and letting what comes naturally
happen, naturally.

Therefore, extrapolating what future Japanese will look like in 100 years
(let alone 100,000 years), our forecast is that thanks to
tourism-begets-immigration, they will have huge foreheads, flat faces, and
saucer-like eyes. Yup, who needs 100,000 years when you can get the same
result through interbreeding in 2-3 generations? :-)

...The information janitors/

***------------------------****-------------------------***

------ English Community Manager for Travel Portal --------

www.japantourist.jp is expanding and is looking for a English native
editor/writer who has previous experience managing online communities and
curating content. JapanTourist.jp was set up to help Japan promote its many
attractions to foreign tourists and in particular to demystify and remove
anxiety by travellers about how to get around and deal with Japan. The site
has been running for 18 months and is now Japan's largest online inbound
travel portal.

The job involves:
- Servicing the needs and concerns of our partners around the country
- Working with Technology to prioritize software development of the site
- Working with Sales to harmonize and integrate the efforts of that team
with the Partners
- Curating the best stories (and occasional editing) for display on the top
page of the site
- Working with contributors to help them improve their writing and
photographic efforts
- Creating content ideas and campaigns to get community engagement by
contributors
- Creating incentives and campaigns to re-engage dormant contributors

This position is open to full-time (preferred) and part-time (possible)
applicants, including, potentially, applicants not residing in Japan. You
must be able to deal with the many personalities involved in the community
and have a clear sense of mission and have a self-starter attitude.
Japanese capability is helpful but not essential.

Contact: info at japantourist.jp for details.
-----------------------------------------------------------

+++ NEWS

- Easier visas for Filipinos
- Lixil to buy American Standard
- Japan's TPP position seeks 5 categories of protection
- Housing starts up again in May
- Medical fees to rise in 2014

=> Easier visas for Filipinos

While visas will still be required for Filipinos, in line with relaxation
of country entry regulations for nationals of other SE Asian countries,
Japan is going to start issuing multiple-entry tourist visas to Filipinos
as well. The new rules will come into place on July 1st. Apparently the
reason that Filipinos were not offered a visa-free status as for Thailand
and Malaysia was because after Chinese and Koreans, Filipinos have the
highest rate of people overstaying their visas. The government reckons that
the new rules will increase visits by SE Asian nationals by 250%, to 2m
people a year by 2016. (Source: TT commentary from philstar.com, Jun 28,
2013)

http://bit.ly/1cCd6ab

=> Lixil to buy American Standard

The toilet fittings business is a competitive one, and Japan's number two
player, Lixil, has just upped the ante with an offer to buy out the largest
US maker of toilets, American Standard. Lixil has offered somewhere around
US$342m for the business, which includes assuming US$200m of debt. American
Standard may be the largest toilet maker in the USA, but with an EBITDA of
just US$49m last year, it is not the largest player nor the most profitable
in that market. However, given that Lixil already owns the American
Standard asian business, presumably they know what to do with the brand
going forward. (Source: TT commentary from wsj.com, June 28, 2013)

http://on.wsj.com/1aYrZWe

=> Japan's TPP position seeks 5 categories of protection

It's hardly surprising to learn that the five categories of farm products
Japan wants to protect from the TPP free trade deal are: rice, wheat, beef,
sugar, and dairy products. Considering that most of the other nations
in TPPproduce one or more of these products, one wonders why the
Japanese are
even bothering to put these items up -- other than to be seen to be
sacrificing wheat, beef, and dairy as the talks progress, perhaps. In the
end, we see Japan keeping rice and sugar protections, and possibly dairy.
The actual date from which Japan can officially participate in the
TPPtalks is July 23rd, after the US clears some regulatory issues to
admit
Japan. The TPP participants are: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan
(from next month), Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, USA, and
Vietnam. (Source: TT commentary from globalpost.com, Jun 28, 2013)

http://bit.ly/19Lftb5

=> Housing starts up again in May

Abenomics profits trickling down, OR simply a logical market reaction to
consumption tax doubling by 2015 and near-term mortgage rates going up?
Apparently housing starts in Japan are up significantly, with 79,751
dwellings approved for May, up 14.5% over last year. This is the highest
number of starts since October 2008. Most of the dwellings are
condominiums, and both rental and owner-occupied unit sales are up. ***Ed:
While it's good to see cash being cycled back into the economy, the problem
with property acquisition is that it locks up the consumer's cash in a
long-term singular purchase.** (Source: TT commentary from e.nikkei.com,
Jun 28, 2013)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20130628D28SS920.htm

=> Medical fees to rise in 2014

Consumption Tax is going up next year, so of course the Health Ministry
sees next April as the ideal time to also put up the basic costs of health
care. From next year, patients will have to pay more for outpatient visits
at hospitals and clinics across the nation. There is no word of what the
increases will be, but the Nikkei is giving examples in the order of
30%-50% more. ***Ed: So, what's the bet this is the government's back door
subsidy to the medical sector in return for support on TPP and other
deregulatory measures being planned? Either way, demographics and the
government's debt repayment obligations ensure that health care will not
stay cheap in Japan for long.** (Source: TT commentary from e.nikkei.com,
Jun 27, 2013)

http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20130626D2606F01.htm

NOTE: Broken links
Some online news sources remove their articles after just a few days of
posting them, thus breaking our links -- we apologize for the inconvenience.

***------------------------****-------------------------***

------ The Robert Grondine Memorial Scholarship Fund ------

In 2011, we lost a great friend and colleague, Bob Grondine. Bob made
considerable contributions in Japan to the legal and business community as
well as important civic and charitable efforts. Not only was Bob a
wonderful friend, family man and mentor, he was also a role model as a
leader in US-Japan relations.

Among a number of US-Japan causes, Bob was an important supporter and chair
of the Japan Advisory Committee of the United States-Japan Bridging
Foundation, an organization established to grow global leaders through a
program providing scholarships to American college students to study in
Japan. Students designated as Grondine Scholars will be selected for their
ability to emulate Bob's intellect and spirit as well as his dedication to
the
US-Japan relationship. The fund will keep his mentoring spirit alive and
memorialize his great legacy.

Donations of all amounts are welcome. To learn more, visit www.
bridgingfoundation.org or click on the link below. Thank you.

https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/us-japanbridgingfoundation
-----------------------------------------------------------

+++ CANDIDATE ROUND UP/VACANCIES

=> BiOS, a leading bilingual IT services and resourcing company, is
actively marketing the following positions for customers setting up or
expanding in Japan, as well as other employers of bilinguals.

** HIGHLIGHTED POSITION

BiOS is urgently looking for an Account Manager with experience in
recruiting and account management for IT infrastructure service delivery,
at our BiOS office in the Minato-ku area. The candidate will be responsible
for supporting the continued development and management of our existing
clients, and serving as the BiOS frontline and primary point of contact for
new clients and onsite staffs, as well as networking and developing
opportunities with potential clients. You will also be responsible for
providing a permanent recruitment support.

Due to the technical nature and demanding work environment, this position
is suitable for someone with solid experience in recruiting, sales, account
management, or similar client-facing tasks, preferably in IT. In addition,
since this role requires direct communication with both internal staffs and
clients who are bilingual in English and Japanese, fluent English and
Japanese will be required.

Remuneration is JPY3.6m - JPY4.5m plus commission, depending on your
experience and skill level.

** POSITIONS VACANT

- Bilingual IT Support Engineer, Japanese IT services provider, JPY4M -
JPY5M
- Corporate Assistant, BiOS, JPY3M - JPY4M
- Service Delivery Manager, data center services provider, JPY5M - JPY7M
- HR/Office Manager, global licenses renewal services provider, JPY5M -
JPY7M
- Bilingual Data Center Engineer, global financial firm, JPY3.5M - JPY4M

Interested individuals may e-mail resumes to: tomohiro.kimura at biosjp.com.
Check out the BiOS web page for other jobs: www.biosjp.com/careers.php.

** BiOS Job Mail

Every 2 weeks BiOS sends out a regular communication to its job seeking
candidates, called BiOS Job Mail. Every edition carries a list of BiOS’s
current and most up-to-date vacancies, with featured entries containing a
short job description and every job being linked to the main entry on the
BiOS home page. Regardless of whether you are unemployed and searching,
thinking about a career change, or just curious to know if there is
something out there that might suit you better, the BiOS Job Mail
newsletter is an easy and convenient way for you to stay informed. If you
would like to register for the BiOS Job Mail, or to find out more, please
email tomohiro.kimura at biosjp.com.
-----------------------------------------------------------

***------------------------****-------------------------***

+++ UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS

------------------ ICA Event - July 24th-------------------
Speaker: Dr Greg Story, President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan

Title: "Igniting Workplace Enthusiasm - How to Create Engaged Employees"

Details: Complete event details at http://www.icajapan.jp/

Date: Wednesday, July 24th, 2013
Time: 6:30 Doors open, Buffet Dinner included and cash bar
Cost: 4,000 yen (members), 6,000 yen (non-members). Open to all No sign ups
at the door!!!!!!!
RSVP: RSVP by 5pm on Sunday, July 21st. Venue is The Foreign
Correspondents' Club of Japan

http://www.fccj.or.jp/aboutus/map
-----------------------------------------------------------

***------------------------****-------------------------***

+++ CORRECTIONS/FEEDBACK

In this section we run comments and corrections submitted by readers. We
encourage you to spot our mistakes and amplify our points, by email, to
editors at terrie.com.

=> No corrections or comments this week.

***------------------------****-------------------------***

+++ TRAVEL DESTINATIONS PICKS

=> Hayama Cafe “Orange Blue”, Kanagawa
Cozy seaside spot inside the Museum of Modern Art

“Orange Blue” is a cozy cafe, just in front of Issiki Beach, Hayama. It is
inside The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, but you can have tea here without
entering the museum. The cafe is inside a long, glass covered room facing
the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. You can enjoy a cup of pleasant tea, as
well as beer, cake and some light meals. It's open from 10 AM to 5 PM,
closed Mondays. By car, the cafe is 7.2 km from Zushi Interchange or a
20-minute bus ride from JR Zushi Station. Definitely worth the stop if
you're in that area.

http://en.japantourist.jp/photos/hayama-caf%C3%A9-orange-blue

=> Itako Iris Festival, Ibaraki
Blushing brides and purple petals in Ibaraki

Most of the year, the canal-laced town of Itako in Ibaraki prefecture is a
quiet place. Come in June, however, and you'll find the town awash with the
color purple and traditional wedding parties being ferries gliding up and
down the local waterways. On May 18th, Itako kicked off its 62nd annual
Iris Festival. Over the course of six weeks, over one million irises
(around 500 different varieties) will unfurl their indigo, pale violet,
white and even yellow petals in the Maekawa Iris Garden on the bank's of
Itako's river. The iris plots are criss-crossed by a series of wooden
bridges, from which visitors and photographers can find the perfect vantage
point to shoot pictures of the bloom.

http://en.japantourist.jp/view/itako-iris-festival

***------------------------****-------------------------***

***********************************************************
END

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+++ ABOUT US

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Written by: Terrie Lloyd (terrie.lloyd at japaninc.com)

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