The number of people moving into Tokyo exceeded that of people moving out by 90,079 in 2006, topping the 90,000 level for the first time in 43 years, according to the latest migration statistics.
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April 2007Praise Points
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Happy Broadcast Day!
Yes, today is Broadcast Day. It marks the day in 1925 when the Tokyo Central Broadcasting Corporation (NHK's predecessor) began broadcasting from a temporary radio studio in Shibaura, Tokyo. Broadcast Day was established by NHK in 1943. On March 22 NHK awards the 'Broadcast Culture Prize' at NHK Hall.
Can't make it to NHK Hall? Well, tomorrow visit a department store and contemplate a mannequin. The 24th is Mannequin Day, marking the mannequin's Japanese debut at an industrial promotion fair in Ueno Park in 1928.
Too busy to go out? Then gaze at the light above your head on the 25th. On this day in 1878 fifty arc lamps flared on at a celebration marking the opening of the Central Telegraph Station at Ginza Kobikcho. These were Japan's first electrical lights. In 1927 the Japan Electric Association declared March 25 Electricity Day.
The Japanese calendar is dyed in red-letter days. Not all have roots in historical events. Some days are selected from word play.
Take, for example, Jazz Day. It is January 22 because that month and the word jazz share two initial letters and 'zz' looks like '22.'
Then there are those days resulting from neither a pun nor historical event.
This past Tuesday was LP Record Day and also Electric Calculator Day. The LP and calculator were both products for daily life made with the latest technology and later superseded by devices bundling their functions. The first LP pressed in Japan reached stores on March 20, 1951, and the long-playing record was eventually replaced by the compact disc, which debuted in Japan in October 1982.
Calculator Day was declared by a trade group in 1974 to mark Japan's ascension to the summit of the product's manufacturer. Today, because all electric devices with keys and a display have computation ability, there is no way to come up with a total figure for calculators.
The hellacious war of the calculators, in which companies continually released new products and slashed prices in a last ditch effort, is now a favorite tale of economic profs and others hoping to instill the dark moral of a price war. When the CD debuted, there were as many as 70,000 different kinds of LPs in Japan. These were swept aside at lightning speed, and now distribution over the Internet is poised as the LP's avenging agent.
The 'Nikkei Shimbun,' Japan's largest financial daily, contacted relevant companies and trade
groups to confirm the origins of LDP Record Day and Calculator Day. 'According to our company history, our first LPs when on sale on March 21,' said one spokesperson. As for Calculator Day, 'people in the industry created the memorial day after deciding among themselves Japan was the global leader in calculator production.' There is no way they could know the day Japan became global leader. Dubious assertions acquired the cachet of historical fact.
Anyone for creating Truth Day?
March 27th is Cherry Blossom Day, established by the Japan Sakura Association in 1992. The 27th is a nice conjunction of pun and cultural association. 'Sa' of 'sakura' suggests 'sa' of 'san' (three) and likewise ku 'ku' (nine). Their multiple is 27, when the cherry blossoms look their best, leastways in the Kanto Region. On this day the Japan Sakura Association plants cherry trees in school grounds.
You can skip Silk Road Day (the 28th) and forget Spherical Moss Day (the 29th). But do get out on the 27th. The bloom will ravage you.
-- Burritt Sabin editors@japaninc.com
I just returned from two weeks in Japan and whenever I am asked about my trip, I seem to skip over the Buddhist temples, fresh udon noodles and Zen gardens and go straight to . . . the toilet.
To be sure, Japan has endless charms and attractions. I will forever be changed by the A-bomb lessons of Hiroshima, and I made so many wishes at Shinto shrines, the gods surely will be busy for the next decade. However, if I could bring back one souvenir, it would be the Toto toilet.
Trust me, these are not mere rings of white porcelain. The thrones, which blink and hum, are pervasive; I found them at the Hyatt in Kyoto, a McDonald's in Tokyo and every restroom in between. The simplest models have pleasantly heated seats, a nice toasty touch when you're freezing your butt off sightseeing. With the press of a button, you can transform the toilet into a bidet, with varying fountain abilities. Or skip the toilet paper and try a fan dry instead. There is even a soundtrack that evokes a washing machine in its final cycle. The swishing sound is so calming, others might start banging on the bathroom door for a turn.
Oddly enough, the stalls labeled as "Japanese" offer little more than an upscale hole in the ground. The toilets called "Western" have the high-tech gadgetry. A word of advice to Japan: Take credit for this innovation. In the West, we're just happy when there is TP.
Any other toilet tips out there?
tea is a natural antiseptic that relieves itching and swelling. Try it on inflamed breakouts and blemishes, sunburns, even puffy eyelids. And that's not all. In the lab, green tea helps block sun-triggered skin cancer, whether you drink it or apply it directly to the skin - which is why you're seeing green tea in more and more sunscreens and moisturizers.
quite another. But people who sip just half a cup a day are almost 50 percent less likely to wind up with hypertension than non-drinkers. Credit goes to the polyphenols again (especially one known as ECGC). They help keep blood vessels from contracting and raising blood pressure.  Pope Benedict XVI blesses the faithfull during a weekly general audience at the Vatican in February. The Vatican is planning to beatify 188 Japanese martyred in the early 17th century, giving Japan's small Roman Catholic community a boost, an archbishop said Sunday. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to approve the process in April with a ceremony set for November, Nagasaki's Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami said. (AFP/File) |
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The Vatican is planning to beatify 188 Japanese martyred in the early 17th century, giving Japan's small Roman Catholic community a boost, an archbishop said Sunday.
Pope Benedict XVI is expected to approve the process in April with a ceremony set for November, Nagasaki's Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami said.
Beatification is an act of the Pope to declare that a deceased person deserves public veneration, a first step toward canonisation, or the elevation to sainthood.
Mother Teresa, who won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work in Calcutta and died in 1997, was blessed with the honour in 2003.
The martyrs, including four clerics, were killed between 1603 and 1639 during Christian persecution by feudal shoguns, which lasted until 1867, when the emperor's authority was restored.
"The Cardinals' conference in the Vatican gave approval to the plan last month, making it 99 percent certain," Takami told AFP by telephone. "We have already started collecting donations around the country to prepare for the occasion."
The idea was first raised when the late Pope John Paul II made an unprecedented visit to Japan in 1981.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan has spent some 15 years researching the 188 candidates.
They include Julian Nakaura, part of a delegation sent to Rome who was later hanged upside down and killed in Nagasaki in 1633, and Peter Kibe, an underground Catholic preacher who was caught and tortured to death in 1639.
"The Pope's decision may have little impact on Japanese society as a whole, but will weigh much on our church's way of thinking and attitude," the archbishop said.
Manabu Kosasa, 67, a descendant of Nakaura, said: "Despite the ban, Julian Nakaura worked hard underground and offered his life for international exchanges. I feel proud that his endeavour is being repaid at long last."
So far, 42 people related to Japan have been canonised and 205 others beatified in this predominantly Buddhist and Shintoist nation.
There are around 1.9 million Christians in Japan, 1.5 percent of the population, and Roman Catholics number about 444,000.
The country's most celebrated saints are 26 martyrs, including four Spaniards, one Mexican and one Portuguese, who were killed in 1597 in Nagasaki, the cradle of Japanese Christianity, and canonised in 1862.
Prayer Update
Roger & Gaynor Ridley
February 2007
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