Moby Grape comments

Electric car sales are booming in the States, Europe and China, and all have some sort of support from their governments. And Japan has a strong position amongst the 20 or so companies making electric vehicles. Cleaner, safer cars, what's not to like. Why are some so negative? Should Henry Ford have built America's highway system? You're worried that supporting electric vehicles might cut into oil subsidies?

the more TEPCO and Abe waste the more they get, and yakuza are happy too. and more reasons to have classified government secrets. nuclear power is great like that.

Spotify claims that artists will get paid decently in the future, when they have more users, but founder Daniel Ek had an estimated wealth of $400 million now

would be interesting to hear younger artists have a go, but given that the writer wishes that Katy Perry would have contributed, glad it was left to the old-timers

The management of Starbucks Japan has long been unstable, and changed a number of times. As mentioned by others, the food they serve is inedible. The coffee is so-so. Also unlike America, they were never successful with music, and only kept small, hidden, random stock of goods.

still burikko in her 50's

Amazon is evil thru and thru. They have a near monopoly now for selling books, CD's and DVD's, and each time they gain marketshare they press the copyright holders for better terms, and lower their prices a notch to hold off competitors. They care not all all for books, music of film, just trying to grab marketshare, drain every yen out of it, and if some vendors go bust they could care less. Do buy your books and CD's anywhere but from Amazon. Doing business with Amazon is dancing with the devil.

great article, thanks for providing. wish it had a few more links

rate hike to help cover for TEPCO's reckless behavior. no penalties despite their incompetence, stupidity, greed and spineless behavior. TEPCO executives stuff their pockets and the people of Fukushima continue to suffer. TEPCO is an LDP assisted disease and disgrace

Have long felt that the whaling industry would naturally collapse if operating on level grounds. Now it is propped up by the government so that Japan does not have to suffer the indignity of having other countries tell them what they can and can not eat. The few people who do like whale meat are mostly old men who find it nostalgic.

natto

Japan is not the biggest music market in the world, America is much bigger. Japan is #2, but is #1 in selling CD's, because Japan has tried to straight arm downloading and streaming services in favor of selling $25-30 CD's. Esp. in the case of idols, labels can make "special" versions and sell the same songs over and over. Older acts like Clapton and Dylan draw all over the world, and often command high ticket prices, because they are amongst the all-time greats, and there are many people who still love and respect them, even if they might not be at their creative peaks now.

I can see why some might dismiss Deep Purple, the Stones or Clapton as tired oldies acts, but not Jeff Beck. His playing is still fresh and brilliant, and he always has an ace band

AKB48 are moderately cute girls with little talent working as Lolita puppets for their minders and ad agencies. Unfortunately because the media follows them so much, as they follow the smell of money (as they do with Johnny's male puppets), not much attention gets paid to Japanese musicians with actual talent, which is annoying. There is more to music/entertainment in Japan than idols. Also their overseas popularity is overblown. Despite millions spent on establishing them in Singapore, they only created a modest following. And across Asia K-pop is much bigger.

Paul Watson wants to be on "Dancing With the Stars" more than he wants to save the ocean. The way to get Japan to stop whaling is simple, stop telling them they can't. There is no economic reason to do it, just pride and not wanting to be dictated to.

hopefully Japan will continue to develop solar energy and bring down prices. utilities working with politicians seems certain to keep prices high, and a cozy relationship between the two.

if the Japanese government says safe, how could one doubt? haha

the best phone on the market has been introduced, and folks here don't buy it because the fingerprint thing, paranoia can be fun. FEMA is stockpiling the hollow points, run for the hills

This underlines what an embarrassing crap airport Narita is.

if SMAP never appeared on TV ever again Japan would be a better place

great looking woman, but no musical talent whatsoever

what a garbage story, one analyst trying to dump on Apple. They increased their sales by 16 million in one year and it gets called "flat". Other companies wish they had such "problems". Most laughable is mention of threat from Blackberry. Apple still has very strong brand loyalty, and for good reason.

this is a crazy ruling. Amazon is the evil one in this, not Apple. Amazon screws publishers and music companies to gobble marketshare, and then puts the screws to their vendors harder next time .

on no, confusion in the market place

Dewi Sukarno, the name the 19 year old bar hostess Naoko Nemoto took on after hooking up with the then 57 year Indonesian head of state, Sukarno, who she shared in a polygamist relationship with five other women. She continues to live on Sukarno's fame and money many years after his death. She appears on Japanese TV showing her vast skills in being selfish, vain and vulgar. Who is she calling a fake and a prostitute?

This story does not have much cred, it completely lacks detail, and is more extrapolation on net gossip. This is not to say that China does not have serious safety issues with food, however doesn't it seem suspicious that the only companies mentioned are American? I have had Japanese tell me seriously that KFC stores do not have rats around because they catch them and serve them. What is the message of this story, only buy safe Japanese fast food?

There is a good deal of Japanese art, architecture, film, anime, manga, food, literature, music and fashion that is of interest to the world outside of Japan but that has not been well marketed. Many countries have schemes to promote their pop culture internationally. The question is will the Japanese government do something useful or squander the money alloted on misguided notions and handouts to cronies. The popularity of Korean TV and K-pop helped mount this campaign.

and Japan?