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John Stuart

Having originally set forth from Vancouver, Canada on what was supposed to a three-hour tour, John found himself washed up on the shores of these well-charted and populous isles some 25 years ago. Now working as a Tokyo-based freelance translator, he enjoys drinking in many of the city’s tachinomiya (standing-only bars) in his free time, but after short spans often finds himself in search of a chair.

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Posted by John Stuart Translations (Page 2)

With over a billion registered users worldwide, Facebook is the king of online social networking services. In Japan, however, there are signs that its dominance is starting to crumble.

Facebook launched a Japanese version of its website in 2008. Initially, the platform experienced sluggish user growth as it struggled to compete with already established Japanese SNS sites produced by the likes of mixi, Mobage, and GREE. However, after well-known companies in Japan began to use Facebook as a marketing tool, it caught on with the general public and by the end of 2012 had 17.12 million users.

A mere five months later, however, that number has dropped to 13.78 million, a 19.5 percent drop in less than half a year.

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The great debate: Eye-opening survey asks ‘How often do you wash your bath towel?’

According to practitioners of feng shui (Chinese geomancy that is supposed to help improve one’s life by bringing in positive energy), when you dry your body with a bath towel, you’re not just wiping away drops of water, but removing misfortune as well. So, if you use the same bath towel the following day without washing it, you’ll just be reintroducing the misfortune you had gone through the trouble of wiping away the previous day.

If that’s true, and the results of a recent survey are to be believed, then some of us are far luckier than others…

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Subway Japan solves Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) pudding dilemma

Head on over to your nearest Subway the next time you’re wondering, “How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?” Starting May 29, the purveyor of those fresh, delicious, made-to-order subs is offering double meat portions on selected sandwiches.
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On May 1, market researcher Risk Monster released the results of its first ever “Companies the Japanese Can be Globally Proud Of” survey. Conducted February 25 to 27, the survey received valid responses from 1,000 men and women between the ages of 20 and 69. A total of 200 companies with annual sales of at least 250 billion yen and a minimum of 5,000 employees were targeted by the survey.

Coming in at number one was…
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Tales of subway groping are unfortunately commonplace in Japan, and anyone committing such a pathetic and cowardly act deserves every punishment given. But what happens if you are falsely accused? Often filled well beyond capacity, there is a real possibility of such a thing happening if you ride the trains running throughout Japan’s major urban centers. No matter your innocence, with a 99 percent conviction rate should the case go to court, one Tokyo lawyer says the best thing to do if wrongly accused is, run…

Attorney Takashi Nozawa provides the following advice to anyone who might find themselves caught up in this nightmarish, no-win situation.
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According to Hong Kong dailies dated May 11, university officials in Beijing and Shanghai were reported as saying authorities had directed them to refrain from teaching seven subjects in their classes including “freedom of the press,” “human rights” and “universal values.”
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GungoHo Online Entertainment Continues Upward Surge, Market Cap Exceeds Nintendo in Morning Trading

On the morning of May 13, GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. (JASDAQ Standard) rose by its maximum allowable single day limit of 300,000 yen (approx. US$3,000). The stock increased 28.79 percent to 1.342 million yen (approx. US$13,420). The rise comes on the heels of a 17 percent gain on Friday, May 9.
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According to Reuters and others, a major foreign-owned restaurant chain operating in China possibly used tainted meat products. An organized crime group exposed on May 2 is said to have sent falsely labeled meat products containing rat, fox and other contaminants to the Mongolian hot pot specialty restaurant chain Little Sheep which is owned by U.S.-based Yum! Brands of the U.S., operators of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and other well-known restaurant chains. This latest revelation comes to light not long after it was revealed this past January that KFC China was using chicken that had received excessive doses of growth promoting agents and antibiotics. China has become a major market for the restaurant titan, and the company is said to be at wits end as it deals with successive scandals occurring there.
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Frozen Beer and Beer Cocktails – Mr. Sato Checks Out Kirin Ichiban Garden

With Golden Week over, it means summer and hot, humid days are just around the corner. Knowing you’ll need a cooling and refreshing oasis to escape to in the months ahead, Mr. Sato headed over to the Mori Trust Garden in Toranomom District, Tokyo to scope out the offerings at Kirin’s Ichiban Garden.

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Subway Japan to Offer 290 Yen Bran-Tastic Breakfast Sets

Jumping into an increasingly crowded morning menu market, starting May 15, some Subway’s in Japan will start selling bran muffin sandwiches and breakfast sets for the morning crowd.

Three different types of sandwiches using healthier, high-fiber bran muffins will be offered: soft-boiled egg, tuna and mayo, and ham and cheese.

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In April 24, Kanagawa prefectural police sent papers to prosecutors concerning a pub operator in Yokohama city on suspicion that two of its female staff members violated the Entertainment Business Act by serving beer and other alcoholic drinks to a group of young girls, including a 6th grade elementary school student.
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Yahoo! Japan president Manabu Miyasaka announced at a press conference on the 25th that the company would introduce a new system by the end of the current fiscal year which allows employees to take up to one year off from their jobs. The system, which is based on the concept of sabbaticals, allows employees to spend up to one year freely pursing whatever they desire, albeit without pay. Though fairly common in the west, offering such a system of leave is very rare for a Japanese company.
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“Customer growth is stronger now compared to immediately after the quake,” said G, an organized crime group affiliate familiar with the illegal drug market. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995 proved there was a good post-disaster market for illegal drugs among temporary housing residents and others suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As a result, when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, dealers from major urban centers swiftly loaded up and headed north to disaster-afflicted areas in the Tohoku region in search of quick profits.

According to G, “First on the scene were the stimulant drug pushers who began selling out of their cars on the back streets and in pachinko (pinball) parlor parking lots. Customers were wide-ranging, from high school students and young bar hostesses to grandfathers and grandmothers. Inferior grades of speed which couldn’t be sold in Tokyo and Osaka were offloaded there.”
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Say Goodbye, Japan — Häagen-Dazs to Close Last Store on April 25

Sorry guys, but no more pick-and-mix cups, cones or parfaits of tantalizingly delicious Häagen-Dazs ice cream will be available in Japan as of Friday, the last of the well-known brand’s outlets is scheduled to close up on April 25.

Though you’ll no longer be able mix your favorite flavors into a cup of scrumptiousness at a Häagen-Dazs-branded shop, the purveyor of pleasurable experiences (or so the ads tell us) will continue to sell pre-packaged offerings at convenience stores and supermarkets throughout the country.

So I can still get Häagen-Dazs at the supermarket, what’s the big deal you ask? Well, the brick-and-mortar locations carried flavors and creations not available in off-the-shelf form.
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MOS (Mountain Ocean, Sun) Food Services announced on the 18th that it would open all 1,400 of its MOS Burger outlets at 7:00 a.m. by the end of the year. The hamburger chain already operates 430 of its stores from that early hour and plans to progressively open the remainder at that time. McDonald’s Japan had been aggressive in the breakfast space with its “Morning Mac” campaign, and MOS Burger’s move is expected to intensify competition. At a press conference MOS President and CEO Atsushi Sakurada explained that the number of people eating breakfast out was increasing, especially among the elderly and working women, adding, “Change in the morning person market is accelerating. I want to strengthen our preparedness.”

Could this mean additional woes for an already troubled McDonald’s Japan?

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Suspected of violating laws related to acts of violence, the first trial for company employee Yoshihito Harada, 25, was held at the Nagoya district courthouse on 16 April. Harada stands accused of puncturing the tires of parked cars that were driven by women in an effort to strike up conversations with the drivers. When asked if there was any truth to the indictment, Harada admitted, “It’s true, I did it.”

According to the opening statement by prosecutors, between April 2011 and December 2012, Harada used a screw driver or other sharp object to puncture the tires of five different cars. The cars had all been parked outside supermarkets in the cities of Miyoshi, Nisshin and Toyota, Aichi Prefecture. In all cases the stated reason was so that Harada could establish contact with the women.

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Facebook Opens Brick-and-Mortar Store in Myanmar – Or Does It?

In a recent visit to Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, we made a rather interest discovery; it would appear Facebook was trying to muscle in on the hot Southeast Asian clothing market.

Even after closer inspection, however, we were unable to determine whether or not Zuckerburg and crew were in fact the backers behind this chic apparel retailer.

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Having ruled out Colonel Mustard with a candlestick in the dining room (thanks Hasbro), Osaka prefectural police at the city’s Taisho station are trying to figure out who made off with national flags from two of the district’s elementary schools on April 16.
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It became evident on the 16th that as a general rule, Chinese authorities would soon ban domestic media companies from using quotes from foreign media sources and information garnered from Weibo, the country’s popular microblogging website. Citing the need to “form a healthy reporting structure,” among other reasons, authorities are preparing to lay out strict reporting regulations

The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), state authorities that control domestic media, made it clear they will start “requesting reporters and editors” not to use reports from foreign media sources or citizen-generated content from the Internet without first gaining prior approval.

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Free Gifts and Cheap Coffee No Help as McDonald’s Japan Troubles Continue

The collapse of McDonald’s Japan continued as the company recorded declining year-over-year sales for the 12th consecutive month at the end of March. The situation is dismal, as whatever the company does seems to end in failure.

Its 100-yen menu (about one US dollar) and free giveaways no longer impress customers who have grown accustomed to deflationary pricing. Its “Food in 60 seconds or next burger free” campaign, which the company initiated in January as a measure to help revive fortunes, also failed to deliver. And there doesn’t appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel. Its most recent venture, free gum and other “unique”gifts to purchasers of breakfast sets, has been roundly criticized on the Internet as being a “hackneyed idea.”
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