Surely you've heard this one: the Chinese word for "crisis" (危機, weiji in Chinese, kiki in Japanese) is composed of the two characters for "danger" and "opportunity". This reveals the wise Oriental insight that a crisis is an oportunity for progress, an impressive outlook we'd all do well to emulate. Or so we've been told for decades by management gurus, New Age philosphers, generic pundits, and even world leaders.  read more »

So I was watching an old recorded show about participants in the most recent (?) Tchaikovsky piano competition held in (I assume) Russia. I wasn't watching too closely, or I could tell you more about the program and event; sorry, I only caught a few moments here and there.  read more »

What's the most difficult language to learn?

It's a good question, and an extremely difficult one to field.

What's the most uninformed response you could give to the above question?

That one's not so difficult; I've got the answer right here!  read more »

I have an old clipping from Letters to the Editor (Japan Times, February 04, 1995), in which reader Kazuya Izaku of Saitama Pref. displays an all-too-rare sensibility on the matter of "Japanese" actions in the wake of the terrible Kobe earthquake. Here's an excerpt:

From the terrible tragedy of the Kobe earthquake, at least one piece of good news has emerged: Individualism in Japan is alive and well.  read more »

So while I was recently checking a few random stories on The Japan Times, I also spied the following:

How do you feel about the Narita incident and "guinea pig" foreigners?

This is one of those "ask people in the street" polls; the topic refers to instances of police unfairly targeting foreigners as targets for random security checks, placement of drugs in passengers' luggage for airport security tests, etc.  read more »

I don't often check The Japan Times online or off, but happened to load it up today on the screen. (Actually, I was curious about news of the iPhone's appearance in Japan.)  read more »

As in last time's Commenting on "10 Reasons Japan Is Better Than America", here I comment on a post on the Hunter Nuttall website: 10 Reasons America Is Better Than Japan.  read more »

I see that Wired magazine has an all-things-Japan correspondent who, unfortunately, is a wee fond of the easy generalizations.

In Meet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese Internet:

"Japan is a nation where the 3:17 train arrives every day at 3:17 — not 3:16 or 3:18..."  read more »

What's all this about robots?

Heard this one yet?

"While Westerners harbor cultural fears toward robots, Japanese culture fosters a special relationship with robots, welcoming them into society as equal partners."

Oy vey. It's time to send this idiotic myth to the scrapyard, once and for all.  read more »