North Korea Missile Launching: Different Reactions from Different Perspectives

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Nikkei (Business Perspective) – The Ministry of Finance is discussing decreasing the maximum value of money allowed to be sent into North Korea. Currently transactions totaling over 1 million yen are prohibited. Businesses take note: if any transactions are not reported fully, financial penalties will incur.

NHK (Scientific Perspective)NHK this morning interviewed experts on missile behavior to analyze exactly what type of missile was launched by North Korea. If the missile was designed for launching satellites, as claimed by North Korea, then the missile would have to have gone much farther and straighter than had occurred.

Asahi (Comical Perspective) – Prime Minister Aso was asked “The long range missile fired from North Korea today traveled further than the one previously. Do you think this shows that North Korea’s ability to develop technologically is progressing? ” Aso replied: “You’re speaking to the wrong person. You should ask a technology expert.”

“Death in a Hole” 3 Takes on the Sad Story of Takae Gasho

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(Background) While golfing in Rupetau Golf Course with her two sons and husband, Takae fell into a 5 meter deep, 1.5 meter around hole and died.

NHK Briefly Mentions – NHK News, after the G20 Summit and North Korea, mentioned the story of Taka e ¾ the way into their news broadcast. “We were walking behind Takae when she fell, but we did not see any hole” as reported by a policeman who spoke with the family.>

Yomiuri Dramatizes –Yomiuri’s title tells it all: “Woman falls into deep hole and dies before her husband and children’s eyes”. Add the grizzly detail of “when her body was found it was half covered in sand” and you feel like you’re reading a Stephen King novel.

Asahi Accuses – Asahi’s choice of words compared to Yomiuri’s made it clear who’s responsible. Yomiuri tells “workers that morning had surveyed the golf course and found nothing irregular” while Asahi claimed “the manager had surveyed the golf course and found nothing irregular.” Asahi’s closing paragraph stated the golf course could be investigated on “suspicion of professional negligence leading to death.”

The Economic Downturn and its Effects: Most Pessimistic to Most Optimistic

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4 – NHK: The biggest news on economic glum came from the NHK news station today. Within the financial community the highly anticipated “Tankan Survey” done by the Bank of Japan stated record pessimism amongst company executives. 61% stated their companies were doing poorly, while only 3% stated they were doing well. This measure is the worst it’s been since the survey’s inception, about 30 years ago.

3 – Nikkei: Not to be outdone, the Nikkei then reported that bankruptcies from listed companies in 2008 had reached 45. This is the highest rate of bankruptcies since WWII. To underscore this point, the second worst year of bankruptcies in Japan was 2002, with only 22 bankruptcies.

2 – Asahi: The Asahi ran a headliner this morning about how lay offs and the economic downturn are good for some companies. Reporting from within the headquarters of a recruiting agency that hires part time workers (a company called あず) executives were rejoicing on how this is their chance to get more recruits for part time work than ever before. They referred to the “” the furi-ta- or “seasonal worker” spirit!

1 – Yomiuri: The headlines at Yomiuri this morning topped the optimism radar. They made no mention of an economic downturn, but instead decided to focus on North Korea. So you’re probably expecting some kind of article regarding missile launches accidently dropping missiles on Japan? Nope, the headliner read: Kim Jong Ill’s thinness is due to dieting, he’s getting thin due to health reasons.”

One of the Brains of Postal Privatization Charged with Theft

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Youichi Takahashi, one of the brains of Koizumi’s postal privatization, was brought up on theft charges today. Apparently his political acumen did not translate into an ability to commit crime.

The security tape revealed a man, looking just like Youichi, opening up a fellow bather’s locker. He took both an expensive Italian 100,000 yen watch and a wallet with 50,000 yen in it.

When confronted by the authorities, he confessed, stating “I’m sorry. I saw the watch and was interested, like what kinda person would carry such a nice watch?”

Construction Projects for Fixing and Rebuilding Roads Freeze Across Nation

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All across the nation local governments are calling the national government to figure out what to do with construction projects where the funds have frozen. The transportation minister made a speech stating that due to “economic concerns” certain projects have had to be cancelled. In response a local governor stated “I don’t think we should be stopping construction projects due to economic concerns. Safety should be our #1 concern. “

Nikkei Index’s Drop is Lowest in 8 Years

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Japan’s Nikkei Index was actually looking pretty good in the summer of 2008, with modest gains due to developing country’s demand for Japanese stocks. Then came what is called in Japan as the “Lehman Shock” in September, which sent stock prices on an unending downward spiral. Compared to March of 2008, the Nikkei has fallen 35%, in 2000 after the tech bubble it had fallen 36.5%

Prime Minister Aso Pushes for Speedy Adoption of Budget

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Prime Minister Aso came out with a strong statement last night calling for reconciliation on any budget differences by the middle of April. He submitted his budget proposal for 2009 to the Diet yesterday. He stated a necessity for economic stimulus, and the opposing party’s will to agree or not agree with be judged by a snap election.

Representative Ozawa, the leader of the opposition party The Democratic Party of Japan, stated it wasn’t such a good idea to push through a budget where the exact amounts of spending had not yet been decided.

Discount on Highway Tolls Increases Highway Usage, in Some Cases 60%

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If any of you have driven in Japan you’ll know it costs about 40 dollars to drive the distance of the state of New York. That all changed on March 28 + 29th, where the Japanese authorities decreased their artificially high toll system to 1,000 yen (with some exceptions).

In most cases the traffic increased around 50%, on the busiest roads of Okayama interchange, and the Tokkaido roads. However the roads around Nagoya and the “central” road (Hachijyoji Junction) only increased their usage by a mere 3-5%.

How many more traffic jams does Japan now have? It has 30% more in some areas, but according to the authorities that is less than what they expected. “Please look at this from the perspective of in the long run, this will be good for our economy” a transportation ministry official said.

“Utada!” – seeing a Japanese pop singer in New York

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Fresh from an experience seeing U2 on Dave Letterman in New York, I had high expectations to get some intimate, alone time with Utada Hikaru. After all, U2 is one of the largest rock bands in the world, yet I was able to get 5 feet from Bono as he exited a coffee shop. There was only about 25 bystanders standing outside awaiting a glimpse of the singer, who’s met with the pope and U.S. president, amongst other people.

So you can imagine the shock when I arrived to see Utada, and had to literally fight my way to catch a glimpse of her. The crowd was not only difficult to wade through but also took on a mind of its own. Every once and a while the crowd would erupt with “Ahhhh!” screams of glee that made it sound like Utada was on the other side of the window pane, pressing her nose against it. Turned out she was still at the opposite end of the store, her body would just move slightly more into view of the crowd’s 50 cameras.

Naturally I gave up on getting a good glimpse of the singer, and backed away from the windows that held her in view. As I started to leave I was stopped by body guards, forming a line. I waited, patiently I might add. Then the dam broke, the crowd had gotten wind Utada was departing. They all rushed and pushed on security (and me, among other innocent bystanders) to get closer. It reminded me of a mosh pit at a Tool concert. I held my ground, and had enough time to scream “Utada!!” in a very american accent trying to pronounce a Japanese name (to be fair, I was making fun of the american host that was interviewing her).

The power and popularity of the Japanese culture in New York City is something I’ll never underestimate again. Next time I visit Utada I’ll be sure to bring my camera.

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