Big in Japan: Welcome to Japan, now surrender your identity!

by Matthew Firestone on

Much has already been written about Japan’s new immigration control system.

For those of you who may have missed the news, as of November 20th, all foreigners entering Japan must now give their fingerprints, have a photo taken and submit to a detailed interview.

Although these new entry procedures have been attacked by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, the Japanese government has been steadfast in their defense of the initiative.

Needless to say, the vast majority of foreigners living in Japan are all together pissed off.

It’s one thing to collect personal information on tourists, but it’s another to submit spouses of Japanese citizens, registered journalists and long-term residents to this level of invasiveness.

Following a brief vacation to Australia, I had the pleasure of having my personal rights violated first hand, and will now describe them to you for your learning pleasure.

Upon arriving at Narita airport, I was shuttled into the gaikokujin (??????; foreigner) line, at which point a dashingly attractive but ice cold woman handed me a Q&A form to explain the new rules.

Although I was initially surprised at the lack of English mistakes (a rarity on official Japanese government forms), the justifications for the new immigration control system were amusing enough.

Intrigued? It gets better. Click below to keep reading…

For instance:

Q: Why do I need to be fingerprinted and photographed at immigration control?
A: By collecting personally identifying data of visitors to Japan, we will be able to indentify persons considered to pose security risks. This will help us to prevent terrorist attacks.

Sure. It’s interesting that this legislation comes at a time when the birth rate is dropping, and economists are arguing that increased immigration is the only way to save the Japanese economy. In a country as intensely xenophobic as Japan, it’s a shame that politicians can’t follow America’s lead by building a giant wall around their country. Oh wait – Japan is an island!

Q: What if I am not able to provide a fingerprint from my index finger?
A: If you are not able to provide a fingerprint from your index finger because that finger is missing from your hand, then you will be required to provide a fingerprint from another finger.

Sure. You will then be escorted directly to the police station and interrogated for hours on end regarding your suspected affiliation with the yakuza criminal organization.

Q: What will happen if I do not provide fingerprints or a facial photograph?
A: Your immigration control officer will carefully examine your case to determine whether or not you fall into one of the exempt categories.

Sure. For those of you who aren’t accustomed to Japanese subtlety, this actually says that you will escorted to the departures area, checked in on the next flight back to your country, and blacklisted forever from Japan.

Anyway, the good news, at least in my case, is that I made it back to Japan safe and sound, and managed to secure myself a shiny new work visa. So, it’s fairly likely that Big in Japan will continue well into 2008, assuming of course that I don’t happen to lose any fingers between now and then…

How to tell the Chinese and Japanese apart

by Jerry Guo on

Sometime all you need is a picture (or two in this case). James Fallows, a correspondent for The Atlantic based out of China right now, has posted a great observation about the difference between the Chinese and Japanese. He looked at a simple case of how workers refuel a jet. When it comes to the Japanese, they’re fastidious, orthodox, and dressed to match. With the Chinese, well … anything goes.

I’ll leave it to him to fully explain; don’t want to ruin the delightful juxtaposition of the two photos. I think he really hit something here with the observation that China is all about “finding a way to do things” while Japan is all about “the way of doing things.” It’s a succinct but thoughtful way of looking at things. Though I would caution, as someone very familiar with Chinese culture, that the country’s moving away from this wild wild west image. Or at least they want to. I feel they’ll be more like Japan in 5, 10, 20 years. Or maybe even by next summer’s Beijing Olympics. They’ll be on their best behavior I suspect.

By the way, Fallows has a wonderful blog about China on which he files pretty in-depth posts. He also had a short piece in this month’s Atlantic on tourism to Wolong Panda Reserve that’s worth checking out.

How Much is that Spider Monkey in the Window?

by Brett Atkinson on

Being a pet lover and a frequent traveller can sometimes be pretty challenging. Personal experience has shown that a well-adjusted Siamese cat can sometimes turn into a ratbag when left with a newbie house-sitter (that’ll teach me for naming the cat Havoc in the first place….).

If you’re living in Japan, help is at hand in the form of pet rental companies. Yep, if you (or your landlord…) doesn’t approve of you having a regular four-legged and furry companion, companies like Zoo Japan and Janet Village will let you share in the joys of pet ownership for periods as short as an hour. It’s not just cats and dogs either. Six hours with a hamster will set you pack 1000 yen (around US$9 ) while a sojourn with a spider monkey goes for 100,000 yen (around $US900).

There’s no word if you really form a bond with your new non-human buddy if the companies also offer a rent to buy scheme.

Big in Japan: Why Japan leads the world in suicide

by Matthew Firestone on

Before you read any further, please adhere to the following warning:

Although it’s the Holiday season, this post most likely is going to depress the hell out of you, especially if you’re living in Japan.

Are you still with me? Alright then, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you.

This week, the Japanese government announced that the number of suicides in the country topped 30,000 for the ninth straight year in a row. Clearly, this was one record that they were not happy to achieve.

At the press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said that a combination of economic hardships and job stress were the leading factors behind the high suicide rate.

Although the government said that employers were obliged to treat depression at the workplace, they are also proposing a range of measures including raising society’s awareness of depression and promoting mental health programs.

In fact, the government hopes that by the year 2016, they will have succeeded in cutting the number of suicides by 20 percent. “This is a problem that needs to be dealt with comprehensively by society,” Machimura told reporters.

%Gallery-7436%

The raw data on suicides is, to say the least, all together depressing.

According to government projections, 32,155 people killed themselves last year, which was a decrease of 397 from the previous year.

However, according to data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), Japan’s suicide rate remains the ninth-highest in the world.

(In case you were wondering, Lithuania had the highest suicide rate, followed by Belarus and Russia. And, for the record, the United States ranked No. 43 in the report).

So why exactly do so many people in Japan kill themselves?

Although it’s difficult to objectively measure quality of life, Machimura believes that Japanese people are strongly impacted by financial pressures and job stress.

“Suicide rates tend to rise when there is a recession and long working hours may also have an influence” said Machimura.

However, despite the monumental task ahead, Machimura is convinced that the government can effectively reduce suicide rates. “Suicide can be prevented. A sickness of the heart is a sickness, therefore it can be cured.”

%Gallery-6477%

Government findings also indicated that the highest rates of suicide were in the northern prefecture of Akita. The report also found that men are more likely to commit suicide than women, and that Monday was the most popular day for ending one’s life as opposed to a Saturday or holiday.

In regards to methodology, the most common method of suicide chosen by Japanese people is hanging, while young people prefer to asphyxiate themselves on the carbon monoxide from charcoal burners.

The report also highlighted the sad reality that Tokyo train services are frequently halted by people jumping on the tracks.

As I said, today’s post was anything but shiny and happy, though hopefully everyone reading this can take a moment to appreciate the value of their lives, and head into the weekend with a smile their face.

On that note, please do smile – sometimes it truly is the best medicine!

Big in Japan: Exploding piggy bank helps you save money

by Matthew Firestone on

Do you have problems saving money? Need a little bit of extra cash before the winter holiday season? Wish there was some way to teach the little ones about the value of money?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above questions, than I’ve got the answer that you’ve been looking for.

In a press conference last week, the famous Japanese Toy Maker TOMY Co Ltd announced the release of their new exploding piggy bank, which they hope will make saving money more of a thrill.

Seriously.

Once activated, the battery operated piggy bank shakes, shines and beeps on an hourly basis to remind the user to feed it coins. However, if the user fails to add money to the bank on a daily basis, it responds by simply exploding.

(If you want to be all technical about it, the bank actually opens its skull-marked door and scatters your change all over the floor, though I can assure you that this is really, really annoying.)

The exploding piggy bank will go on sale this week in Tokyo, with a price tag of $27 or around 3000 yen.

Since the Japanese are always keen to hype the latest fads, the introduction of the exploding piggy bank was met with a surprising amount of fanfare.

At the official press launch last week here in Tokyo, a spokeswomen for TOMY introduced the product with remarkable gusto.

“This is a piggy bank where you have no way but to save,” said the spokeswomen. “We wanted to add some thrill to an act that’s usually painstaking.”

The product is expected to fly off the shelves this holiday season, especially since piggy banks are usually a hot end-of-year item.

As the spokeswoman from TOMY was quick to point out, this is the time when people try to become diligent about adhering to their New Year’s resolutions to spend less money. And of course, children are also keen on putting away the money that they receive from their family for the holidays.

Believe it or not, the piggy bank market is actually big business in Japan. In fact, this isn’t even the first time that TOMY wowed consumers with their innovative products.

This time last year, the company launched a popular piggy bank with a screen showing comic characters that grow older according to the amount the user saved.

Remarkably, the company sold 250,000 units, though they are optimistic that the exploding piggy bank will break this previous mark.

You have to hand it to the Japanese…

I mean, I could never save any money as a kid, mainly because the best part of putting my money in a piggy bank was later bashing the thing open with a hammer.

With that said, check out the awesome photo of the Majapahit terracotta piggy bank, which was built and later smashed for loose change sometime around the 14th century in Trowulan, East Java.

Clearly, I wasn’t the only person to favor aggression over fiscal responsibilty!

** Special thanks to my dad for finding this random bit of Japanese news! **