The fact is…..
There’s nothing that going to make married Japanese have more sex with their spouses….neither side is interested. Sexless marriage is the NORM in Japan after a couple has their first child or after three years, which ever comes first.

Japan mulls cutting work hours to spur fertilityThe Japanese government is considering implementing considerably shorter working hours for public servants with young children, in a bid to coax workers into having more babies….
….public servants - working hours would be reduced to four hours a day, or 20 hours a week, for parents with children aged six and under….
…Currently, full-time national public servants have to work at least 40 hours a week, though individuals with children under the age of three are allowed to take off two hours per day….more…

Here’s your Japanese word of the day, tewonuku—–to cut corners, and slipshod construction is what Japan excels at best. To say that construction of Japan is “shaky” is to say the least of the story. Basically, construction in Japan is a crime. Let’s tewonuku!

Japan’s construction shaky
Japan’s four top general contractors enjoyed revenue growth for the April-December period, but six second-ranking companies are still struggling for survival and their need for greater debt renunciation is putting pressure on Japan’s banking system as a whole and dragging down the speed of the nation’s economic recovery.….more….

Way back in March, I had put this Bloomberg editorial about “Japan Lags Burkina Faso” in my clipping file. Now I guess it’s time to dust it off.
Japan Inc’s report of Japan’s “recovery” after the “Lost Decade(13 years and counting)” reminds me of Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown.

Japan cuts its growth estimates
business.scotsman.com, June 14, 2005
JAPAN yesterday cut back estimates of its economic growth in the first three months of this year, saying sluggish overseas demand led to slower exports growth and stagnating inventories.

First Botswana, Now Japan Lags Burkina Faso: William Pesek Jr.
March 18 (Bloomberg) – Japan has a unique talent for killing economic recoveries just as they get going. It’s a dubious skill, and one that’s rearing its head once again….

My f’ed gaijin buddy Bobo-the-Clown has a great story here in Mainichi today.

Homeless yakuza terrorize Tokyo parks
MDN-Mainichi
…Japanese who associate the yakuza with wealth, even if it is the result of ill-gotten gains, the idea of a gangster living on the streets is close to unthinkable. But the number of homeless yakuza inhabiting parks and living under bridges is apparently skyrocketing, especially in central Tokyo….”There are two tent villages in the park where I live, each of which is controlled by a different homeless yakuza…When it comes to the flower-viewing season (in early spring), they have these huge battles over who’s going to have the right to get paid by people to save a space for their company parties. The brawls they have are like the fight scenes in the old yakuza movies.”…more…

THis report set me to thinking of a better way to determine when the “Lost Decade(s)” is finally over, That is, there seems there no way to determin when Japan’s ongoing recession has ended. The new economic indicator for the Japanese economy finally has turned around is when the yakuza are hiring again.

OH, THE HORROR!
What would Japan be without its legions of bagladies?

Japan aims to ban free plastic bag distribution by stores
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has announced a draft plan to stop retailers from giving out plastic bags for free amid efforts to improve the environment …
…”If everything goes as scheduled, the bill to ban free distribution of plastic bags will be sent to the parliament in 2006 at the earliest,” an environment ministry official said.…more….

ripped off from Greggman.com

OH, THE HORROR!
What will happen to department stores selling Mystery Bags full of junk after New Years?
Large department stores in Japan have entire industries devoted to plastic bags or wrappings inside of wrappings. What will happen to the industry of getting the “wrap” on gift wrapping?
What will become of engrained art “tsutsumi” & noshi that has filtered down through the ages to wrap purchases of natto at 7-11?
Hey, wait a minute. Let’s start selling 3Yen.com tote bags!

Although never noticed by polite Japanese or mentioned by the Japanese news, Tokyo’s legions of homeless manage to retain their dignity in the face of a trials of living in most expensive city in the world. In some ways Tokyo is the cheapest city in the world: many convience stores provide past-epiration-date box lunches free for the taking, the climate is mild enough to live outside nine months of year, and the city parks look the other way at the homeless camps.
It ain’t an easy life—it’s living rough—very rough since the average age of homeless person in Japan is over sixy,

Japan has costliest cities
Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe have preserved their status as the world’s most expensive cities to live in, while Manila and Bombay are among the cheapest…[according to] the bi-annual Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey of more than 130 cities.
New York, assigned an index reading of 100 and ranked the 23rd most expensive city in the world, down from 13th a year ago, served as the basis of comparison. Tokyo stood at a whopping 141 and the Osaka-Kobe zone’s was 136. London, in seventh place, was on 121.…more…

I often recomend Tsukuba University just outside Tokyo as a good place for foreigners to go to the university in Japan in terms of generous grants and I was pleased to see that the cities of Omuta, Kastuyama, Tsukuba, and Yokkaichi scored highest in Asia (joint 14th place with scores of 112.5) As an added note, the quality of life survey deemed Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver rank top in North America, in joint 18th place (score 112).

Japan’s ski industry is dead–around half of Japan’s 700 ski resorts are bankrupt, but pretend keep their business open because there is a Japanese law that requires them dismantle their lifts and replant their ski slopes with tree if they stop operations. Nut wait there’s the Great White Hope–the Australians. Aussies who think they have found great snow almost at their back door at places like the Hanazono Ski Resort in Niseko Japan. Niseko is described by e-Travel as “overseas skiing and boarding with no jet lag or altitude issues, sensational value for money, easy access and terrific culture and people make Japan a winning destination.”

The Japan’s Ski Industry Stumbles on Age and Economy
SHIGA KOGEN, Japan - The Japanese Alps sparkled in the sun after fresh powder dusted this ski resort, the largest in Asia. But on a recent weekday morning, almost 20 percent of the 71 lifts were closed; a long string of chairs climbing a mountain flank was empty except for one black-clad figure.….more…

Young NEETs —”not in education, employment “— are a becoming part of mainstream Japanese society. Every family I know in Japan has a NEET lurking in the background. The problem is that the ”belief in suited jobs” does not match Japan Inc’s needs. Japan is spending 37 billion yen— about $350 million USD starting this year for job-training boot camps to snap NEETs out of of their “dream” daze.
This mismatch is covered in the following Kyodo Press series.

NEETs sticking to aptitude for jobs
TOKYO—Rika Fukunishi, 24, who plays a prostitute at a red-light district during the Edo period (1600-1868) is about to finish her apprenticeship. ”From today, I am free,” she says with a bright face….”I am sticking to my dream. Without a dream, you cannot be sure whether you are living or dead. I have no intention of becoming an ordinary female office worker,” said Rika…The words ”belief in suited jobs” are spreading …. young people believe there will surely be jobs best suited to them…more…

The news story calls the Japanese diet the most extravagant in history but fails to to mention that it is also the least interesting. Literally, Japan is Life without Spice.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT / Consumed– The often-finicky eating habits of Japanese consumers are creating problems on a global scale.
…Japan is at the top of the world in terms of “food mileage,” an indicator of the amount of transportation energy used to bring food to the tables of consumers… “The Japanese today have a diet that is more extravagant than the diet of any royalty of any nation of any period in history,” said a senior agriculture ministry official.…more…

–Fried Antarctic whale kabobs

My Japanese office here at Maybe-the-Largest-in-Japan Inc is more like an Adult Daycare Center than a business—everyone is over 50 years old and spend most of there time shuffling back and forth to the toilet. If South Korea’s workforce is aging quicker, they are in one big steaming pile of trouble!

South Korea
The aging workforce will weigh heavily on economic growth
The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Evaluation and Planning (ITEP) recently said that Korea’s manufacturing workforce will soon begin to age at a quicker rate and like Japan, people in their early 50s will make up the biggest share of the working population in the manufacturing industry in the next 5 to 10 years…more…

<--My coworkers divining software design.