“a speech that is simply read, no matter how drearily, shows that the speaker is ‘prepared'” Read the rest of this entry »
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Why is it still okay to “present” by reading from the PowerPoint slides or a totally prepared script?
December 31, 2008 at 12:37 pm (Japanese business and economics, Japanese meetings, Japanese presentations, Yankee Samurai)
Why is the Japanese economy so geared towards exports?
December 30, 2008 at 11:04 am (Japanese business and economics, Japanese history, Postwar Japan)
– Due to postwar currency controls, companies had to export to earn hard currency in order to buy the raw materials needed for any kind of production,including for the domestic market, Japan being famously short of primary products. The government giving their limited foreign currency reserves mainly to companies that exported exagerrated this trend. After that, I guess they just got into the habit…
– The domestic competition in some industries is so severe that exporting is actually easier than selling at home. It is noticeable that in industries where that is not the case (pharmaceuticals, life insurance, consumer finance) the big players basically don’t bother
Salaryman myth of the day
December 29, 2008 at 12:09 pm (1)
Lifetime employment is the Japanese way Read the rest of this entry »
Why do you have to be so careful with business cards?
December 27, 2008 at 10:37 pm (Japan and Korea, Japanese business and economics, Japanese etiquette and manners, Japanese religion and superstition)
Although I’ve never heard this explanation, I am convinced that this, like taking of your shoes, is based on an almost lost superstition rather than any practical or social factors. In Korea, anything that someone has written their name on has to be treated with the same care as a business card in Japan. I caused a scandal by writing an error correction on the back of a piece of paper that someone not in the class on that day had used as a name tag the week before.
Why are there so many vending machines? Second attempt
December 27, 2008 at 1:05 am (Japanese shops, Konbini (Japanese convenience stores))
Tags: Vending machines
Shops are traditionally clustered in shopping steets (shoutengai) rather than being corner shops, and even now some posher suburbs have no shops for miles
Why are yakuza so happy to mark themselves as criminals with tattoos?
December 26, 2008 at 10:06 am (Edo period, Japanese crime and punishment, Japanese history, Yakuza (Japanese mafia))
Tags: Japanland, Karin Muller, tattoos
“In Edo times, criminals were branded across the cheek or forehead to mark them for life. Once the yakuza came into power, they deliberately turned the punishment into a badge of pride” Read the rest of this entry »
