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(December 7, 2004)
Neo Yatai Mura, or "villages
of neo food stalls," consist of
clusters of around a half dozen colorfully decorated food stalls parked in open
spaces in office districts, where lunch-goers can relax in alfresco surroundings. |
 |
(November 29, 2004)
Cell phones that allow users to pay for their shopping just by holding them over
a reader at the cash register, aptly nicknamed o-saifu keitai (wallet cell phones), went on the market in July 2004. |
 |
(October 5, 2004)
Japanese athletes brought home a record haul of medals from
the 2004 Athens Olympics, and thanks to their efforts the Japanese economy has
also struck an unexpectedly large pot of gold. |
 |
(April 2, 2004)
As they work to quickly wipe away the longstanding problem
of nonperforming loans, major banks in Japan appear set to rise again. |
 |
(March 25, 2004)
Flat-panel TV sets, digital cameras, and DVD recorders are
the three must-have items in Japan these days, and sales of these electronic devices
are booming. |
 |
(March 3, 2004)
Mobile phones, users can now be
notified of incoming calls with songs performed by the musicians themselves. Called
Chaku-uta - ring songs - the service is anticipated to create a
new market for the music industry. |
 |
(February 12, 2004)
Male-oriented products, ranging from apparel to sports cars,
have sold poorly in recent years but are now enjoying a resurgence. Those in the
retail and distribution industries have come around to the view that, among individual
consumers, products for men are back in style. |
 |
(February 10, 2004)
Nowadays it is quite common to see mothers and daughters shopping
or traveling together like friends. The trend to have fewer children has led to
closer relationships between mothers and daughters. Department stores and travel agencies
have reacted quickly and are coming out with various products targeting the M&D
(mother-and-daughter) market. |
 |
(January 19, 2004)
Among the many new trends associated with recent advances in
information technology is the proliferation of "weekend entrepreneurs."
These are people with regular salaried jobs who manage to turn their hobbies or
talents into profitable sidelines or even full-fledged businesses. |
 |
(November 28, 2003)
Metal molds are indispensable in the manufacture of industrial
products; the more complex the product, the more advanced the molds needed to
produce it. Japanese molds have a global reputation for precision and durability. |
 |
(November 20, 2003)
With the opening of a new station on the Tokaido Shinkansen
(bullet train) line in Tokyo on October 1, the competition for passengers between
rail and air services has intensified, with two major bullet-train routes, the
Tokaido (Tokyo to Osaka) and Sanyo (Osaka to Fukuoka) lines, giving the airlines
a serious run for their money. |
 |
(October 24, 2003)
It has been nearly 30 years since the convenience store distribution
model was introduced to Japan from the United States. In that time, Japanese konbini, as the stores are known colloquially, have developed a vast array of services
and have become a cornerstone of Japan's retail sector. |
|
(October 22, 2003)
International interest in Japanese publications like manga (comic books), fashion magazines, and novels is rising sharply. This trend has
spurred growth in the business of publishing translations of Japanese originals,
not only within Japan but also in other countries. |
 |
(September 24, 2003)
While the overall consumption of alcoholic beverages in
Japan has remained relatively flat over the past 10 years, the consumption of shochu has been rising steadily. |
 |
(September 17, 2003)
In recent years, the number of people buying takeout lunches is increasing. Especially
popular are box lunches (known as bento), and convenience
stores are making new efforts to increase their share of this market. |
 |
(August 7, 2003)
Despite a sustained bout of deflation in the wider economy,
companies in key sectors of the manufacturing industry, such as electrical appliances,
automobiles, and steel, have begun increasing their investment in plant and equipment. |
 |
(August 6, 2003)
Except for plasma displays, the most promising candidate to succeed LCDs as the
next generation of display-panel technology is organic electroluminescence, which
holds the promise of bendable screens and crystal-clear images, perhaps even enabling
the creation of wearable display panels. |
 |
(July 17, 2003)
Cellphone companies are engaged in a fiercely fought race
to add new advanced functions to their handsets. The first new battleground is
the task of enhancing the built-in cameras many phones now feature from the previous
300,000-pixel level to the one-megapixel level. |
 |
(June 26, 2003)
Water shortages,
which the world faces now and is predicted to face even more in the future, are
a particularly acute problem, and Japanese universities and companies are making
a variety of efforts to alleviate them. |
 |
(April 11, 2003)
Consumers are snapping up digital cameras in ever-increasing
numbers as prices fall, picture quality improves, and new features like powerful
zoom lenses and video are added. |
|
(March 19, 2003)
The rising popularity of plasma TVs is the latest
manifestation of the digital age in Japan. A hi-tech revolution is transforming
the quality of viewers' audiovisual experiences. |
|
(February 25, 2003)
The Japanese game software industry
is currently undergoing a major reorganization. A typical example is the
merger between Japan's fourth largest game publisher, Square Co., and the
fifth largest, Enix Corp., which will take place in April 2003. Square
is the producer of the Final Fantasy series, which has sold an estimated
30 million titles, while Enix produces the 24-million-selling Dragon Quest
series. |
|
(February 3, 2003)
Japanese automakers have
taken the lead in commercializing environmentally friendly fuel cell
vehicles that run on hydrogen. In December 2002 Toyota Motor Corp. and
Honda Motor Co. became the first companies in the world to market fuel
cell vehicles when they leased some cars to government agencies and universities
in Japan and the United States. |
|
(January 17, 2003)
In 2002 two Japanese won Nobel Prizes in the same year for the first time
ever. While
the backgrounds and work environments of these Nobel laureates may
be completely different, companies played a large role in the success
of both. |
 |
(January 10, 2003)
Mobile phones have become a major provider of entertainment
on the train. These phones are extremely versatile multimedia tools that allow
users to do everything from doing e-mail to playing online games, and
even listening to music. |
Copyright (C)2007 Web Japan. Edited by Japan Echo Inc. based on domestic Japanese news sources. Articles presented here are offered for reference purposes and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.
