90+1 penalty from #Keisuke #Honda propels #Japan to #Brazil after 1-1 draw with #Australia; East #Asian giants qualify for fifth WC in a row—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) June 04, 2013
2007- has seen #Japan develop a unique footballing identity based on precision passing, ingenious counterattacks tinyurl.com/n33sk2h #JFA—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) June 04, 2013
For anyone who was socialised in the developed world during the 1980s, 1990s and maybe even 2000s, Japan was arguably synonymous with one thing above all: technological magnificence, much of it in the service of futurism. As a whole, the West only managed to take industrial development to a certain point and no further: more than anyone else, it was the Japanese that transformed the world of nineteenth century-style factories churning out clunky analogue products into a universe of cute, smart electronics manufactured by R&D intensive laboratory-plants. Japanese ingenuity represented Advancement.
Yet in recent years, Japan seems to be pioneering a new form of whatever is to come for humanity – and it doesn’t look as sexy. Indeed, examining the various macro-trends within the Japanese economy and society as a whole – trajectories almost certain to be followed by much of the rest of the planet – the Brave New World being sketched out by this particular member of the G3 are enough to give us all pause for thought:
1. Bubble Mania. Way before anyone had coined the phrase ‘credit crunch’, the Japanese had produced a world-class real estate bubble, with select properties in the pricier areas of Tokyo reaching a stunning ¥30m/US$215,000 per square metre. The consequences were predictable: the asset bubble was pricked; the Japanese government bailed out horribly exposed financial institutions instead of letting them go to the wall; property prices collapsed anyway; and conventional economic growth has been unheard of in the country ever since. This did not stop the United States (and to a lesser but still vast degree, Europe) from copying this particular Japanese model.
2. Nuke Me Slowly. This is a caption from an ironic t-shirt that our CSO spotted being sported by a Yoshi’s Island player in London during the mid-1990s; however, the Japanese seem to have taken this exhortation all too literally, with the construction of nuclear power plants on earthquake fault lines yielding nation-defining results at Fukushima. This has not stopped other quake-prone nations – India, China and Iran amongst them – from opening nuclear power plants in catastrophe-guaranteeing locations.
3. File>Print x ∞. Confronted with a two-decade economic slump and reeling investor confidence, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has responded in the manner required for testing times: ordering the Bank of Japan to print the bejesus out of what is left of the yen. This strategy – such as it is – may have the benefits of engendering a temporary stock market spike and giving a little bit of breathing space to vastly overstretched and uncompetitive Japanese exporters; it will also bring Japan to new economic lows while not solving any of its structural problems. Naturally, both local and global audiences – from idol group Machikado Keiki Japan to über-economist Joseph Stiglitz – are begging for more.
Filed under Economics, Finance, Political Science
Iconic ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs to shut its one remaining café in #Japan on 25/04/2013 to concentrate on supermarket, grocery shop sales—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 23, 2013
Closure marks the end of a 29-year over-the-counter presence in #Japan, starting with first outlet in trendy #Aoyama tinyurl.com/cuwfku4—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 23, 2013
Filed under Business, Culture, Urban Life
#Hype machine cranking up in pre-release publicity as Electronic Arts' #FIFA14 pitted against #Konami's latest iteration of PES, #PES2014—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 18, 2013
#FIFA 'finally focusing on realistic gameplay' after nearly 20 years of 'simulacrum' football; #PES vaunts brand new engine, #AFC licenses—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 18, 2013
Lack of new market entrants highlights entrenched #duopoly; App Store + Google Play 'not generating real competition' tinyurl.com/ch3moo9—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 18, 2013
Filed under Culture, Football, Technology
https://twitter.com/Mediolana/status/321954625538375680
Filed under Technology, Urban Life
#Ponanza programme beats #shogi master Shinichi Sato in Japanese chess first; 'Deep Blue shades of #Kasparov' tinyurl.com/dyw4nht #iRobot—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 02, 2013
Filed under Culture, Technology
221,000 tons of debris from 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami scheduled to hit the US by October 2013, with 1.3m tons 'now in Pacific'—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) March 25, 2013
Much of debris 'highly radioactive', posing problems for sea life, humans; devastation 'profoundly symbolic' tinyurl.com/cvbftmv #Japan—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) March 25, 2013
Filed under Environment
Government survey shows 80.9% of #Japanese 'open' to the idea of living alongside other ethnic Japanese with backgrounds in other countries—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) March 03, 2013
@ end of 2011, just 300,000 foreigners of Japanese descent living in #Japan; #Fukushima disaster 'reduced attraction' tinyurl.com/bewtpqu—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) March 03, 2013
South Korean manufacturers #Pantech, #LG and #Samsung bringing out #FullHDsmartphones after Japanese & Chinese rivals #Sony, #ZTE + #Huawei—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) January 23, 2013
Taiwan's #HTC first to introduce #FullHDsmartphones (Q4 2012); 5-6" screens, eight-core processors 'the new normal' tinyurl.com/b3kyhvo #KR—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) January 23, 2013
Filed under Business, Technology
1/2 reactors online in #Japan 'discovered' to be on fault line; 'second #Fukushima' could finish off world's #3 economy tinyurl.com/d52b22w—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) December 16, 2012
Filed under Environment, Technology
