Japan’s Amazing Earthquake Technology!

TOKYO – Japan sits on an earthquake belt that has resulted in some of the most destructive quakes in history, but in recent times no modern high-rise buildings have suffered any damage, attesting to their sophisticated quake-resistant construction.

In fact, Japan is noted for having the world’s most advanced quake-resistant technology, and boasts over 500 buildings that are 100 or more meters high, none of which has ever lost as much as a window.

What is not generally known, however, is that the basis for this technology was discovered and was in use more than 1200 years ago.

Even more surprising, perhaps, is that the technology was first used in the construction of huge Buddhist temples and high-rise pagodas—a pagoda being, a many-storied Buddhist tower that originated in India, moved to China and Korea, and finally to Japan around 585 A.D.

Pagodas, built in the compounds of Buddhist temples, are both symbols of Buddhism and storage towers for sacred religious objects. The first pagodas in Japan were built entirely of wood, and had from three to five stories, topped by a spire that made them look even higher.

The 5-storied pagoda on the grounds of the Horyu Temple in Nara, built in the 6th century, undulates like a “snake dance” when an earthquake occurs, with the central pillar swinging like a long pendulum. The temple itself is believed to be the oldest wooden building in the world. The nearby Todai Temple, constructed between 724 and 749, is recognized as the largest wooden building in the world.

Both the Horyu and Todai temples and their adjoining pagodas have suffered some earthquake damage since they were built, but none have ever collapsed.

Architects and engineers who recently supervised repairs on the Toshodai Temple in Nara, built in 759, were well aware in advance that it had withstood many quakes in its 1,245-year history, but they were nevertheless amazed at the sophistication of the technology that made its survival possible.

The Takenaka Corporation engineer who supervised the repairs said that the temple construction consisted of wooden beam joints encircling huge pillars, which allowed the different parts of the building to shift slowly during an earthquake, absorbing the seismic vibrations.

He added that the joints of the large pillars supporting the tile roof of the huge temple absorbed the shock of earthquakes and allowed the pillars to tilt, but once the shaking was over the pillars returned to their upright position.

While various other types of earthquake-resistant technology have gone into the construction of high-rise buildings in Japan since the 1930s, the first building to make use of the ancient temple and pagoda technology was the 27-story, 130-meter-tall Umeda DT Tower in front of the JR Osaka Station, completed in 2003.

The new tower uses a hybrid, base-isolated, system combining three shock-absorbing devices between the second and third floors. The 30,000-ton weight of the building’s upper floors is supported on 12 linear “riders.” When an earthquake occurs, the upper portion of the building slides back-and-forth on shock-absorber devices, reducing the impact of the tremors by approximately 50 percent.

The Takenaka engineer said the difference between ancient Japanese builders and their Western counterparts illustrated a fundamental difference in Asian and Western philosophies.

He pointed out that early Westerners built “hard” unmoving structures of stone in an effort to resist the forces of nature, while Japanese buildings were constructed to absorb the energy of nature rather than resist it.

The huge Marunouchi Building in front of Tokyo Station, which opened in 2002, also uses shock absorbers to protect it from earthquakes. Its dozens of shops and restaurants, the latter on its upper floors (with fantastic views of the Imperial Palace Grounds and central Tokyo), made it an instant tourist attraction.

Japan’s advanced earthquake technology has made its high-rise buildings among the safest in the world.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

Secrets of Japan’s Award-Winning Designs

TOKYO – By the 1980s the Japanese had become world leaders in industrial and commercial design, a phenomenon that has had a fundamental influence on American and European designers, making it imperative that they improve their own designs in order not to be totally replaced, as well as providing them with new insights into the nature of good design.

This phenomenon has a historical precedent. In the early 1600s foreigners in Japan began to ship various Japanese handicrafts to Europe wrapped in the now famous woodblock prints, which at the time were so cheap and so lightly regarded (at least by the foreigners) that they used them as wrapping paper.

In Europe the woodblock prints quickly became collector’s items, changed hands for large sums of money, and dramatically influenced European painters in their use of form and color.

Long before that era, the Japanese sense of design had become an integral part of the culture. Rather than concentrating on philosophical quests for absolute or eternal truths, or occupy themselves with abstract concepts of a transcendental God or of art for art’s sake, Japanese artists and designers endeavored to extract the essence of nature and then to express it in simplified as well as symbolic forms.

Instead of viewing straight and curving lines as opposing expressions, the Japanese regarded them as the same element in different manifestations, like water that is constantly undulating and changing its shape, or the flame of a candle that flickers, but both maintaining their essence.

For these reasons Japanese artists have traditionally avoided perfect symmetry in composition, believing that it lacked vitality.

Western industrial and commercial design concepts, introduced into Japan as early as the 1860s, were at first slavishly copied, and for nearly one hundred years the traditional Japanese sensibilities were suppressed by the Japanese themselves as well as by foreign importers who brought in their own product samples to be copied.

However, between 1945 and 1955 the Japanese sense of design, based on handicrafts and textiles that had achieved the level of fine arts more than a thousand years earlier, began to re-emerge and to reassert itself. Hundreds of design schools were established. Organizations began sponsoring design contests.

These ancient impulses were first applied to industrial machinery and again to textiles, and then gradually to products destined for the export market. The number of original product designs created in Japan between 1955 and 1965 was incredible to those who were not familiar with Japanese history.

In characteristic fashion, the Japanese expended enormous amounts of time, energy and talent on applying their traditional design sense to modern-day products, giving design a far higher priority than Western manufacturers were wont to do.

On the commercial/graphic design front, the Japanese did not have to go through a learning or adaptation process. As the economy grew from the 1950s on, so did the output and quality of graphic designs, particularly in posters, magazine and newspaper advertisements, and in book illustration.

A great deal of the sensual appeal and the overall ambiance of life in Japan today is a reflection or manifestation of the essence of Japanese design concepts in advertisements, architecture, automobiles, art, crafts, kimono, yukata, interior decorations, public posters, magazines, even in traditional food displays.

The power of Japanese design comes from the fact that it is a direct expression of both the dynamic and static aspects of nature, which has a positive impact on the human senses as well as the intellect and the spirit.

Foreigners wanting to do business in Japan can benefit enormously from studying and reflecting on the essence of Japanese design, and building it into their products and marketing programs.

All travelers need to do to reap the same benefit is to stop, look closely at things Japanese, open their minds, and let the natural energy flow into them.

If you are really interested in good design, I recommend that you obtain a copy of my book, ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE DESIGN – Understanding & Using Japan’s Classic Wabi-Sabi-Shibui Concepts.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

View from the Top of Tokyo!

TOKYO – Every year some quarter of a million people climb to the top of Japan’s famed Mt. Fuji to get a fantastic view of a big chunk of the country, including Tokyo in the distance.

There is a much easier way to get a bird’s eye view of Tokyo that is only a few minutes from any part of the city, and can be reached by elevator. This alternative choice is the landmark Tokyo Tower, which at 333 meters in height (1,093 ft.) is higher than France’s Eiffel Tower.

Built in 1958 to facilitate radio and television broadcasting, Tokyo Tower has two observation decks, one 150 meters above ground and the other at the 250-meter level, making it one of the highest observation decks in the world.

Located on one of the many low hills that dot the south and southwestern portions of Tokyo, which adds to its height above sea-level, the tower was an instant hit with city residents and visitors alike because at the time of its construction there were no high-rise structures in the city.

Both of the tower’s observation decks are equipped with fixed telescopes for close-up views of the sprawling city, but one of the most popular views from the decks doesn’t require a telescope.

On clear days, the towering pinnacle of Mt. Fuji can be seen to the southwest, 100 kilometers (62 mi.) away, adjoining the shores of Suruga Bay. [Visitors flying into Japan have reported sighting the snow-clad peak of Mt. Fuji when they were still 300 miles out.]

But the views from Tokyo Tower that are the most interesting – and useful – are those of the city itself, because they provide viewers with an opportunity to see the layout of the sprawling metropolis, which, from ground level, can be more confusing than a maze.

Among the most prominent of the several dozen major “centers” that make up the city that are identifiable from the observation decks are the Imperial Palace grounds, Nagata-cho (government center), the famous Ginza shopping and entertainment district, “hotel center” in Minato Ward, the wild and wooly Roppongi entertainment district, the Marunouchi, Otemachi and Nihonbashi business districts, the forest of high-rise office buildings in the Shinjuku district, the young people’s entertainment and shopping havens of Harajuku and Shibuya, and Ikebukuro with its towering Sunshine Building in the northwestern portion of the city.

And that is not the half of it. You can also see the Akasaka geisha district, the shopping and entertainment mecca of Asakusa which until 1956 boasted one of the world’s largest and most elaborate red-light districts, and the imposing sumo stadium in Ryogoku.

Then there is Tokyo Bay with its man-made island of Odaiba that is noted for its shops, restaurants and hot spring spa; along with Disneyland on the northeastern edge of the bay, Haneda Airport, the famous Meiji Jingu Shrine, and more...including Yokohama and other nearby cities.

The ground and lower levels of the Tokyo Tower complex include a variety of gift shops and restaurants, plus a large wax museum that features replicas of famous personages.

The tower complex is within walking distance of several subway stations, including Kamiyacho on the Hibiya Line, Roppongi 1-chome on the Nanboku Line, and Onarimon and Shiba Koen stations on the Toei Mita Line. It is within 5 to 10 taxi minutes from more than a dozen of the city’s leading hotels.

While most visitors to Tokyo Tower automatically go during the day, the night-time views of the city from its observation decks are spectacular and have an ambiance that is totally different from the daytime views…making it one of the top romantic spots in the city for couples.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

Travelers Can Enjoy Japan’s Most Popular Pastime!

TOKYO – The favorite pastime in Japan is not shopping, attending sports events, watching television, sightseeing, soaking in hot spring spa baths, or even patronizing the country’s huge network of “love hotels.” It’s dining out!

There are over 800,000 general eating and drinking establishments in Japan, and if this doesn’t seem like a very large number, one has only to recall that the whole country is only about the size of the American state of Montana, and that some 80 percent of this landmass is uninhabited because it is made up of great mountain chains.

Expressed another way, over 90 percent of Japan’s 126 million people live in a combined area about the size of a single county in Montana.

In Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and other major cities there are numerous three-and-four-block districts that have as many as five hundred restaurants of one kind or another. Single buildings often have from ten to thirty or forty restaurants in their basements and on upper floors.

In addition to these fixed restaurants, at any one time throughout the year there are an additional several hundred thousand portable food stalls on the streets selling such things as baked sweet potatoes, O’den (a kind of stew), yakitori (barbecued chicken on sticks), and okonomi (a kind of seafood pancake quiche).

Then there are several thousand konbini, or convenience markets, that sell ready-made breakfast, lunch and dinner meals, attracting hundreds of thousands of customers daily.

And if you have the idea that it might be difficult for foreign visitors to find familiar restaurants in Japan, there are some 30,000 American and European restaurants, 61,000 Chinese restaurants and 3,200-plus eating places categorized as Oriental restaurants -- not to mention some 4,300 hamburger joints.

Now there is something new that has added a more expansive dimension to dining out in Japan – large food theme parks that seem to be proliferating like, well, like bugs bunny.

While Japan’s conventional theme parks have had some tough years since the early 1990s, not so the new breed of food parks. These new dining courts appeal to people across the board, from nearby office workers and shoppers to families that want to eat out in a fun atmosphere at bargain prices.

Food courts [as opposed to food parks] are old hat in Japan. Almost every major office building in the country has its own food court – as do department stores. But this new phenomenon has broadened the food court theme to the park and village concept.

Interestingly, all of the restaurants in some of the food villages serve only dish – like soba noodles or okonomi.

The best known and most popular of the okonomi theme restaurants is Okonomi Mura, or Okonomi Village, in Hiroshima. The “village” takes up three floors in a high-rise building, and attracts over one million diners a year, including thousands of foreign visitors. The other top nine food theme “villages” and “parks” in the country are:

Raumen Stadium, in Fukuoka (ramen noodles)
Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum, in Yokohama (ramen noodles)
Yokohama Curry Museum, in Yokohama (curry dishes)
Naniwa Kuishinbo Yokocho, in Osaka (variety of Osaka specialties)
Shimizu Sushi Museum, in Shizuoka (sushi from nearby port of Shimizu)
Ramen Yokocho Shichifukujin, in Hiroshima (ramen in Showa era shops)
Ramen Jokamachi, in Kumamoto (“castle city” style ramen)
Ikebukuro Gyoza Stadium, in Tokyo (different styles of deep-fried dumplings)
Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest, in Tokyo (confections to die for)

Foreign visitors cannot say that they have really “done Japan” if they have not sampled at least one or two of the new food villages.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

Travelers Can Max Out on Japanese Manga

TOKYO – Travelers in Japan who are manga (mahn-gah) fans can now max out on them by spending time in manga-kissa (mahn-gah kee-sah), or “manga cafés,” that are stocked with hundreds of manga books that, for a small fee, patrons can sit and read for hours at a time.

For the few people around the world who are not familiar with the term manga, it refers to Japanese comic books, which, along with anime (ah-nee-may), the Japanese word for animated films, have taken the world by storm.

Like kabuki, samurai and tsunami, these two words have transcended the Japanese language and become part of the vocabulary of the world.

Anime and manga have not only transcended international and linguistic borders, they have spawned two of the most dynamic industries in the world, and have become powerful cultural forces in Japan, in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Manga, or the comic books, generally come first because they provide the titles, names and storylines, and if they are successful they may be animated—a much more expensive process than printing and binding books.

Animation is, of course, a modern technology, but manga have been a part of Japanese life since the 7th century, when Buddhist monks began to create picture scrolls depicting animals, flowers, leaves and other symbols. Some of these early scrolls featured animals that acted like humans…and satirized Buddhist priests.

By the 13th century manga were being used to decorate the walls of temples. In the 16th century, manga began to appear as hanga (hahn-gah) or woodblock prints. Some of the most popular of the larger of these prints depicted 69 different sexual positions, which, among other uses, were given to newly married couples on their wedding night.

In the 1700s manga woodblock print artists began to make collections of their prints, write captions for them, and bind them into books. By that time, the content of the prints ranged from exuberant eroticism and political satire to depictions of nature.

As the decades passed, artists began to include stories as well as captions in their manga books, with the narratives gradually becoming more and more important. Eventually, books illustrated with manga became the leading literary form in the country.

The most popular of these books featured prints and stories about famous courtesans in Japan’s huge red-light districts, and were known as ukiyo-e (uu-kee-yoh-eh), which can be translated as “portraits of the floating world.”

The word manga was created in 1815 by an artist named Hokusai, who was to become one of Japan’s most famous hanga masters. He made the word up from ideograms meaning “whimsical” and “picture.”

Just as Japan’s woodblock prints had a major impact on European painters in the 16th and 17th centuries, Western techniques of shading, anatomy, and perspective were introduced into Japan in the late 1800s, resulting in dramatic changes in the appearance of manga.

By the early 1900s, manga books were a thriving part of Japan’s new publishing industry. With the onset of war in the 1930s, the activities of manga artists and publishers came under government control. Only those that supported the military goals of the government were allowed to stay in business, and then only on a drastically reduced scale.

With freedom restored in 1945 and the prewar publishing giants reduced to small operations, new manga artists and publishers sprang up by the hundreds, publishing cheap copies called akahon (ah-kah-hone) or “red books.”

One of these new artists was a former medical student named Tezuka Osamu, who revolutionized the content of the comics by creating such characters as Mighty Atom and writing storylines in a variety of themes about real life. His New Treasure Island, published in 1947, sold over 400, 000 copies, resulting in the industry changing from producing comics for children to comics for teenager and adults.

Now, there are monthly manga for boys, for girls, for salary men, for young women, and for virtually every other group, covering everything from fashion and male-female relations to how to be an effective manager. The sales numbers of many of them are in the millions. A number of the most successful ones are sold around the world in translated editions.

Animated films based on Japanese manga are also sold world-wide, as theater films, television series and videos. Their plots run the gamut of human interests and emotions, from adventure and love stories to action films.

Their categories include mecha (may-chah), or “big robots;” hentai (hane-tie), or “porn;” martial arts, science fiction, fantasy, and “cyber punk,” etc.

The Japan Foundation estimates that between 70 and 80 percent of the young people in the U.S. and other foreign countries now studying the Japanese language were prompted to do so by their desire to read manga in their original language.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

ENKAI ! – How to Party Japanese Style!

TOKYO – Until the last couple of decades the Japanese had a reputation of being workaholics, not given to letting their hair down and having a good time. The Japanese were indeed hard workers, but the impression that they didn’t go in for parties and other forms of entertainment was way off the mark.

One of the earliest anecdotes in Japan’s creation myth is about a party held by one of the gods that became so boisterous he was kicked out of the pantheon as punishment. He didn’t give up partying, however, and apparently passed on his predilections for a good time to the human progeny of the gods. In any event, entertainment of various kinds has been a significant part of Japanese culture since ancient times.

As in virtually all societies, singing, dancing and drinking were major entertainment activities in early Japan, with copious references to them in historical records. And rather than decrease with the passing of time, entertainment has grown in volume and variety to the point that since the mid-1950s it has been one of Japan’s largest industries—if not the largest.

One of the most characteristically Japanese forms of entertainment today is subsumed in the word enkai (inn-kigh), which is usually translated as “Japanese style banquet” and is a kind of generic term that refers to a gathering where food and drinks are served, and which serves several purposes.

The first enkai of record occurred in the 7th century at the imperial court on New Year’s Day and on other auspicious occasions during the year. In 1873 the celebration was renamed Shinnen Enkai (sheen-nane inn-kigh), or New Year’s Banquet, and was held on January 5th.

This was discontinued as an imperial court event after World War II, and was later picked up by the general public as a way of celebrating special occasions any time of the year, including New Years and at the end of the year, when it was called Bonen Kai (boh-nane kigh), or “Party to Forget the Year” just ending.

Shinnen Kai and Bonen Kai are still held annually by the thousands throughout Japan, but there are dozens of thousands more that are held to celebrate promotions, company events, farewell parties, assignments abroad, political rallies, family gatherings, welcoming parties (for new company or club members), etc.

In earlier times the locations for enkai were almost always restaurants or halls that had Japanese style rooms with tatami (tah-tah-me) reed-mat floors, but now many, especially large ones, are also held in hotel banquet halls that are Western style, with tables and chairs.

The importance of the enkai to Japanese can hardly be overstated. They are one of the primary ways the Japanese bond with each other in both formal and informal ways during the proceedings, which generally include a number of short speeches, a great deal of toasting and hand-clapping, and often singing and dancing performances by individuals or groups.

For the Japanese the enkai are an institutionalized and ritualized way for them to express and nurture their Japaneseness, to shore up their psyche and energy, and strengthen their bonds with each other and their guests.

Foreign business people can get a lot of cultural mileage out of sponsoring enkai for their Japanese affiliations, as well as by attending (when invited) those staged by the Japanese side.

Dinners (and sometimes lunches) arranged for large tourist groups in resort hotels and inns are typically done enkai style, with the participants wearing yukata robes, sitting on tatami floors at low tables, and being called upon to participate in some kind of entertainment.

Visitors in Japan, for business or pleasure, should make an effort to attend at least one enkai. They are a marvelous way to physically, emotionally and spiritually experience the traditional culture. [See my book, JAPAN UNMASKED -- The Character & Culture of the Japanese.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

Look Out Bill and Steve! Here Comes Kohei, Genri!

TOKYO – Until the late 19th century you could count the number of Japanese entrepreneurs on a few hands and feet. People just didn’t start new businesses, either because there were no new ideas or starting a new business was prohibited by the government and/or by deeply entrenched custom.

In fact, it was not until the last decades of the 20th century that entrepreneurship began to attract public attention in Japan. High school and university graduates went directly from school to work for some company—and the bigger and more famous the company the better.

The 1990-1 “Big Bang” in reverse that let much of the air out of Japan’s “bubble economy” resulted in a new mentality of individualism and personal independence among a growing number of young Japanese, changing things dramatically.

Now, hundreds of thousands of young Japanese prefer to work part-time or on a contract basis rather than as full-time regular employees, and thousands of them are doing what was unthinkable just a short while ago—they are founding their own companies.

What is even more extraordinary—for Japan—is that many of these new entrepreneurs start their businesses before they finish school. In some cases, while they are still in high school, and without bothering to go on to college.

Said one successful 20-year-old company president of a research firm that comes up with new product ideas: “Academics have no bearing on business.” He started his company with several of his buddies when they were still in high school. One of their first clients was the cosmetics giant Kanebo.

Another facet of this extraordinary phenomenon in Japan involves a growing number of young men and women who have taken an entirely new look at such traditional materials as silk, wood and hand-made paper, and are creating new products that combine modern and futuristic designs with the innate aesthetic qualities of the materials they use.

Kyoto, the imperial capital of Japan from 794 until 1868 and the center of Japan’s arts and crafts for more than a thousand years, has become a hotbed of entrepreneurship in the creation of new apparel and furniture lines. This new breed of businessmen and women has reached the point where they are now exhibiting and selling in New York, Milan and other global markets.

Young female entrepreneurs are among the leaders in this movement, working with traditional silk producers and dyeing companies to create handbags, jackets, and other apparel that are unique not only in their materials but in the artistry of their designs.

The day has obviously arrived when younger Japanese are going back to their cultural traditions as a source of creative ideas that can be turned into modern-day products—tapping into handicraft traditions that achieved the level of fine arts more than a thousand years ago.

This new breed of Japanese fashion designers, with their access to classic materials and unique Oriental design concepts, could very well eclipse the pop designers of Milan, New York and Paris in the near future.

It is surely this new breed of Japanese that holds the future of Japan in their hands. No longer chained to the past, no longer prohibited from using their imagination, and now having access to totally new frontiers of opportunity, they could take Japan to a new level.

One famous Kyoto manufacturer of incense now sells his products worldwide, achieving the sweet smell of success from a product that was once seen mostly in shrines and temples and at funerals.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

Japan’s Izakaya Outdo Ireland’s Pubs

TOKYO – Ireland is famous for its pubs. Japan should be even more famous for its izakaya (ee-zah-kah-yah).

Izakaya literally means “public drinking place,” but they are more than just bars or lounges that serve drinks. They also serve food, and larger ones have extensive menus. They are also set apart from regular bars by their size, layout, décor, and furnishings, and the way the staff greets and serves customers.

When people in Japan go out to drink they may go to a bar or a lounge, where the décor is subdued and the atmosphere is quiet. But when they go out to party, it is invariably understood that they go to an izakaya.

A spate of new books on the izakaya reveal just how widespread they are and the role they play in Japanese life. The books identify three categories of izakaya: those that evoke nostalgia for the past; those that are decades old and appeal to older people, and those with atmospheres that are thick with the intimacy of the traditional Japanese way of life—and inspire fiction writers.

For the record, government statistics show that there are approximately 150,000 izakaya in Japan, a remarkable number given fact that the urbanized area of the entire country is about the size of a single county in a larger American state. [In addition, there are some 198,000 bars, cabarets and nightclubs in Japan’s cities, attesting again to the role that drinking plays in Japanese society.]

Seating in izakaya tends to be long, picnic-style wooden tables and benches. Staff members shout out greetings when patrons arrive and thanks when they leave in an atmosphere of raucous camaraderie that is not generally associated with the Japanese. Patrons typically share tables with strangers. Conversations are lively and loud.

Unlike other drinking establishments in Japan where most of the customers are male, izakaya patrons include couples, young women in twosomes and larger groups, and both young and middle-aged men. Many of the mixed-sex groups are co-workers.

Izakaya offer both foreign residents and visitors alike the best opportunity for experiencing a side of life in Japan that is far removed from the formality and rigidity of normal daytime activities, and far more revealing of the character of the Japanese.

Drinking alcoholic beverages has been an integral part of Japanese culture since its inception, first as a ritual associated with Shinto religious practices, then as a vital element in interpersonal relationships in both private and public settings, especially in business, political and other professional affairs.

Because drinking originated as a religious ritual it became imbued with deep-seated cultural meanings and uses that went well beyond the more casual approach to drinking alcoholic beverages that developed in the West.

To the Japanese, drinking was not just a recreational activity or an incidental way of relaxing and forgetting the cares of the day. It became the “oil” that lubricated relationships, the glue that bonded people, and the oath that formalized commitments and contracts.

Drinking also became the one culturally sanctified occasion when people could dispense with the strict etiquette that controlled their behavior and language at all other times -- etiquette that made it critical for them to conduct themselves in the precise way prescribed for their social level, gender, and position.

It was only when drinking and having reached a certain level of intoxication that people could “let their hair down,” speak relatively freely to each other, and behave in a rambunctious or licentious manner, depending on the venue and circumstances.

In earlier times, establishments where drinking was an important part of the activity included inns and restaurants of all kinds -- and there were probably more inns and restaurants in early Japan than in any other country, with the possible exception of China.

Then in more modern times along came bars, cabarets and nightclubs in numbers that were astounding. And among these establishments, none were as important in the lives of ordinary people as the izakaya, the Japanese equivalent of the traditional Irish pubs and early American saloons and taverns.

If you are coming to Japan, I suggest that you put izakaya near the top of your list of things to do.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles, each one with a direct link to Amazon.com's buy page, go to www.phoenixbookspublishers.com.

Japan Creating Planet of Androids!

TOKYO – A new “breed” of robots now rolling [and walking!] off the assembly lines in Japan will no doubt change the future, not only in the way people work, and what work consists of, but also in the way they live their private lives.

The emergence of Japan as a leader in the design and production of first robots and now humanoids is, in fact, astounding, given the history of the country.

While the Industrial Revolution was going on in the West (from about 1750 on), Japan was virtually closed to the outside world and followed a policy of limiting, and in some cases prohibiting altogether, the kind of international trade and technological research that was part of the great changes sweeping Europe and the United States.

Furthermore, Japan had no tradition of the kind of state or private sponsored research that gave birth to the Industrial Revolution in the West. In fact, it was the policy of the Shogunate governments, particularly the last one that began in 1603 and ended in 1868, to maintain the status quo in both the economy and society.

So what happened? What changed in Japan? What made the Japanese suddenly become leaders in virtually every category of technology and science?

The national and political motivation that resulted in Japan becoming a technological superpower was, at first, an absolute obsession to catch up with the West in terms of military strength in order to avoid being colonized by Western powers, and later to achieve its own expansionary goals.

This motivation was fueled by a Zen-derived ability to focus on specific goals and to work toward them with incredible diligence, combined with a samurai-derived do-or-die spirit that was unbounded.

A second aspect of this extraordinary drive to catch up with – and surpass! – the Western powers was a deeply embedded view of themselves as a culturally and spiritually superior people who could achieve whatever they set out to do.

Another cultural factor that played a key role in Japan’s rapid rise to economic prominence was the fact that the Japanese were inherently “fuzzy thinkers” -- that is, they were imbued by their culture to think holistically, to view and see things from all angles; all perspectives.

This factor resulted in the Japanese being able to quickly understand the most complicated technology, often make improvements on it, and visualize how it could be utilized in a variety of ways.

And it is this cultural trait that has made the Japanese leaders in the creation of hard and soft robot technology. The stakes are high. Honda predicts that robots will eventually outpace its automobile business. If Honda and other proponents are correct, the size of the robotics industry could end up overtaking the PC industry.

Japan’s industrial giants are investing millions in developing consumer robots. Eye-catching robots like Sony's Aibo and Honda's Asimo have grabbed most of the headlines, but Japanese companies are developing practical robots that will be cheap, convenient and ubiquitous.

In early 2005, electronics maker Sanyo launched "Hopis," a medical robot designed for the consumer market. It looks like a toy but is packed with electronics – a speech synthesizer, a digital thermometer, a tonometer to diagnose eye disease, a glucose meter for diabetics, and various other sensors.

Designed to be an on-site doctor's assistant, Hopis is able to question patients in detail and send the answers to a medical center using its built-in wireless Internet connection. Mass production is expected to make Hopis a consumer item like a TV set or washing machine.

Labor-saving robots are hitting the market in growing numbers. In 2005, Fujitsu launched the Maron-1, a sentry robot that can be remotely controlled with an internet-enabled phone. The robot can send pictures of its surroundings to the owner's mobile phone. Equipped with electronic ears and eyes as well as proximity sensors, Maron-1 can alert the owner when it detects intruders.

Mitsubishi is also targeting the medical market with a robot that performs many functions of a human nurse. The multifunctional robot is 3.3 feet tall, weighs about 50 pounds, and moves on wheels. It is billed as house sitter, nurse and a "family friend."

The robot nurse is equipped with a video camera, voice- and face-recognition capabilities, and an always-on Internet connection. It can be programmed to remind its "master" to take medicine, and call for help if it detects unusual sounds or movements in the house.

“The Planet of the Apes” was far-out fiction. “The Planet of Androids” is present-day science.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

In Japan Good Design is Everywhere!

TOKYO – In the 1960s and 70s a number of Japan specialists and media pundits predicted that Japan would become the world’s largest economy—bypassing and overshadowing the United States.

Those predictions were naïve to say the least, but Japan has in fact become a world leader in a number of key areas that include technological advances in several scientific fields, particularly the creation of new materials.

This development is especially remarkable because invention and innovation were virtually taboo in Japan from the mid-1600s until the last decades of the 19th century, putting the Japanese some 200 years behind the Western world in scientific research and technology.

But there is one area in which the Japanese have been more advanced than Westerners—intellectually as well as technologically—for well over a thousand years, and that is in the world of design and in the creation of arts and crafts that are superior in both design and quality.

As far back as the 7th century Korean immigrants began bringing sophisticated Chinese art and craft technology to Japan. During the golden Heian period (794-1185) this technology and the accompanying master/apprentice system of training were integrated into Japan’s common culture.

Each generation of artists and craftsmen raised the bar on the standards of design and quality until they reached the level of a fine art. When the first Westerners showed up in Japan in the 16th century they were astounded at the technological ability of the Japanese and the quality of their crafts.

But it took the Japanese almost exactly one hundred years—from the 1860s to the 1960s—to get out from under the influence of foreign importers and to begin incorporating these traditional design and manufacturing skills into their export products, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Today, the philosophical and ethical principles that are the foundation of Japanese design and product quality are being adopted worldwide, creating what is now being called a new era of design.

Despite the inroads that have been made in Japan by Westernization and modernization since the 1860s the traditional design and quality concepts are alive and well, and they are tangible and visible for all to see.

Even in crowded Tokyo and other Japanese cities the evidence of good design and quality are visible on subways and trains and in the streets—on advertising posters, on storefronts, in product displays, in the architecture and interior furnishings of shops and restaurants, in buildings and offices.

For the discerning foreign visitor in Japan, just a few days can be an extraordinary aesthetic and cultural experience that is the highlight of the trip. If you look closely, the whole country is a virtual museum of modern and traditional art that adds an emotional, intellectual and spiritual ambiance to daily life.

[See my book, ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE DESIGN -- Understanding & Using Japan's Classic Wabi-Sabi-Shibui Concepts.]

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.