Ending year 2010 with Kou-Haku (Red and White) music show

For most of Japanese, the way to end the year is watching Kou-Haku music show broadcast by NHK. This music show is a live show, and singers whose song represent the year 2010 get together in Shibuya NHK theaters.



Critics say that songs released in these days are targeted so narrowly segmented generation that few songs can be known by various generations. Thus, the show lost its charm that many Japanese love that show.



That being said, still Kou-haku get viewer-ratio of 40 to 50%, that means still almost half of Japanese watch this show to end the year.



This year's favorite singer(Group) of mine is Ikimono Gakari.

This band name was come from that two of the members was used to be in charged to take care of animals in their elementary school when they were 1 st grader.



They are going to show up 38th out of 44 singers.

The song will be 'Arigatou(= Thank you)'



This song is so good. If you have been in Japan this year, probably you had many chances to hear this melody and lines.

Click this Pic : linked to YouTube

Now the end of year 2010 is getting closer !!

Today is December 22. And tomorrow, Dec 23rd is national holiday in Japan, celebrating incumbent Ten-no's birthday.

24th is a business day, and most of schoools, like elementary shool, junior high, high school etc, will end 2nd semestar. And of course, it's Chirstmas Eve!!

In most of the companies, except financial indusry, the only business day left in 2010 are only 27th, and 28th.

So, everybody is in a mood to celebrate the end of year 2010.

Even in Shinbashi, which is a famous area for old fashioned businessman, people seems celebrating and enjoying this season.

Look at the pic below. It makes us very happy to know that even that Shinbashi area is

celebrating this season like this!!

Daytime: Open Space in front of Shinbashi Sta, where people use as meeting point.

Night time: People will come here to meet with frinds, to go drinking bar, etc.

Ebizo, prince of Kabuki world, is in DEEP, DEEP Trouble

Many tabloid media covered last week about one of celeb's drunken brawl on the night of November 25. The celeb's name was Eibzo Ichikawa, 33 year old, prince of the Kabuki world.

According to Ebizo himself at the press meeting after he came out of the hospital, he was the victim of the brawl. He got a severe injured and left eye got blooded, teeth chipped, left cheek broken.

Kabuki world is called 'Ka ryu kai' and deemed as very special world apart from ordinarly people's world, and it is said that they have many unique rules.

When Ebizo returned to his home with blooded face and many stains of blood on his shirts, his newly wed-wife got upset, and called up police and ambulance.

It seems this reaction got may accueses from the inner-people of Ka-ryu-kai, especially, from Ebizo's mother, claiming calling up police is not a considerable way because when the fact the Ebizo has been involved in drunken brawl turned out, it will hurt Ebizo's career as a Prince.

Yes it is. As his mother anticipated, his reputation fallen so deeply and quickly.

Now all advertisement casting Ebizo pulled out. Ebizo himself wanted to be nominated as 'National Treasure' by his age of 40's. But this dream has to be evapolated definitely.

But, personally, I have no interest in this gossip.

Murder Case of Ear Cleaner Aesthetician

On Oct 21, prosecutors requested the death penalty for the suspect who is allegedly a murderer of the Ear Cleaner Aesthetician.

The reasons why this case got attention from nationwide are;

1) The first case prosecutor requests death penalty under the newly introduced jury trial system. Jury system has been introduced into Japan’s trial system since May 2009. It is because it has been pointed out for a long time that there were huge gaps between the judgments of the professional judges and common sense of ordinary people. Professional judges tend to sentence relatively light penalty to even the criminals who committed crucial homicides. Japan’s citizens called for more strict penalties to such criminals.

Since this jury system started, many cases had been judged by juries already. But this is the very first case prosecutors seek for death penalty. So, how the first judge by juries is going to be is the one of the reason why this case gets attention.

2) Weirdness of victim’s job: Ear Cleaner Aesthetician
This case’s victims were the young woman (20) who worked as ‘Ear Cleaner Aesthetician’ and her grandmother (78), killed by one of this young woman’s clients, 40-year-old man, of Ear Cleaner Aesthetic Salon.

Wait. Nobody knew that ear cleaning salon can be a business in Japan, until this case was appeared to public. Ear Cleaning salon is a place where young woman cleans your ear in a small Japanese style room, privately closed for anybody but just a young woman and you. And a young woman will clean your ear, putting your head on her thighs.

No need to say, this murderer needs to be strictly punished based on a law. This is a criminal case.

On the other hand, what I want to say to young women is just put yourself away from this kind of weird job.

Image Pic of Ear Cleaning Salon

Haneda Airport expanded new international terminal on Oct 21

Haneda Airport has started the operation of new International Terminal since Oct 21.

Haneda was used to be the sole international airport in Tokyo area.

But when it came to its maximum capacity of the flight arrival/departure, the residence near Haneda airport refused to expand its facilities.

Then Narita Air Port was opened in 1978. But many protesters to the Narita Airport continued to protest to its operation plan, the further expansion plan of Narita was difficult to be executed.

(this protests was a very famous riots along with the movements of the socialists since 1960s.)

Then, Haneda came back as International Airport by expanding its new international terminal.

As many complained that Narita Airport is too far from Tokyo city area, this Haneda expansion was welcomed so much by many Tokyo area residents because this new expansion will give more convinient access to Tokyo city area, roughly 40 min to Shiodome JR railway station.

(still Narita is in operation, so we should make sure which Tokyo Airport the flight you ride would arrive.)

Tabaco Price Raised

From this Oct. 1st, tabaco price went up because the Government raised tax on it. In Japan, retail price of tabaco is restricted and it should be the same price nation wide.

It used to cost JPY320-/pack. Now it costs JPY420-/pack. It could be a huge burden for smokers.


Accroding to the JT's (Japan Tabaco: dominant tabaco production company) 2009survery, the smokers ratio of the man was 38.9%, while it used to be 83.7% in 1966. This is significant decrease.

Meanwhile, the smokers ratio of women is flatten since 1966, which is 11.6%.

The number of the smokers is expected to decrease with this significant rise of the price. (Now various kind of support kits to quit smoking are well-sold. )

(Left Img is the most popular brand in Japan: Mild Seven.)

(sorry somehow, the picture does not show up in right direction)

Just came back from NY

Just came back from NY. I landed at Narita airport. The way I come back to my hometown is use bus, which departs from exactly the exit door nearest from the arrival gateway.

When I go to Narita airport. I will not use bus because I can't expect arrival time in case traffic jam happens. Bus transportation from Tokyo area to Narita use highway, which run through the cities where Tokyo Disney land located. So, more often than not, heavy traffic jam happens, especially when you go through there day time.

But, time is not be a matter when you go back to home. So, bus tranportation is convenient and confortable because it will bring you to the relatively large railway station near from your home directly, that way we don't need to be bothered by cumbersome frequent transfer one railway line to another, that you may need until you get to your destination.

Try bus transportation when you go into Tokyo cities area.

Political Scene

Since I changed the title of this blog, I like to make a brief review of the recent political scene in Japan.

All of the actions being taken recently by politicians are taken under the pressure of the coming August's election for the Upper House.

Last Summer, Democratic Party won the historical victory in the Lower House election, and the support ratio for new prime mister raised more than 80%. And Liberty and Decmoractic party lost its upper hand. The only way to revive themselves is to putting a new leader who could appeal to wide range of constituents all over the nations. Then Tanigaki became their leader because they could get strong supports from old tycoons of LDP.

A book "What if a girl sports manager of high school boy baseball team read a book of Management by Peter F Drucker" has been sold more than 350,000

This book's title is so long that it's usually called 'Moshi Dra". The book referred in its title is, of course, a management book written by Peter F Drucker, whose books are also very popular among the Japanese businessman. Probably, there is literally no one who never heard of the name of P.F. Drucker in Japan as long as he or she has an experience of professional work. As you know, P.F. Drucker emphasizes the importance of the employees and customers as opposed to the too-highly-well-paid top executives. Those ideas are really resonate with Japanese fundamental culture. So every books issued written by, and with the name of P.F. Druker on it well sold for long years. However, all those books are somewhat serious, so potential readers are limited.

Then came this book. This is a novel book, based on the idea of what if a high school girl, who determined to lead her high school's boy baseball team to win the national competition, then became a manager of the team, reads the book titled 'Management' written by P.F. Drucker. In this book, the girl tries to apply the insights she got from the book 'Management', to solve the problems.

One of the topics which gets many attentions is about the author. This authoer, Natsumi Iwasaki, is used to working as the co-director of AKB 48, which is now very popular professional dance and sing team composed of actual high school girls.

According to his accounts, he get this idea when he worked with those high school girls, who always compete each other very hard to win the star position in the team. He soon realized even in those severe competitions, they sometimes help each other with pure mind to be a truly one-team. That happened when one girl start outstsnding in the team, showing her talent to control other team members. She could draw out each team member's individual talents, and make it shine as one strong light ball as one team. It helped for the team to get astonishing success in the Show Biz.

This book is not a summary of the P.F. Druckers 'Management.' but will show some possible case studies when you try to apply some ideas you got from the 'Management', and be a good gateway that leads you to the referred authentic book of 'Management' by P. F. Drucker.

Ranking of the Most Trusted Brand Name

Recent couple of days, temperature goes up and down everyday, from feezing 3 to 5 degrees Celsius to 18 degrees Celsius. And last Friday evening, it snowed even in Tokyo area. It was not just we saw snow flakes comming down, but they accumulated over the loof top of building, vehicles, and sides of the road. According to the news show, it was some 48 years ago when we last had snow in Tokyo area this late April. This is so unusual, and since most of the dry-cleaning shop runs their Spring Campaign for winter clothes until two weeks ago, many people had brought their winter coats to dry cleaning shops. So, there were many people who only put on the scarf around the neck without overcoat on freezing days.


Nikkei BP consulting has just announced the result of the survey on the most trusted brand name in Japan. Here is the top 50 ranking of the top brand name trusted by consumers, and business people in Japan.

No.1 Uniqlo
No.2 Google
NO.3 Studio Ghibli
No.4 Sony
No.5 Panasonic
No.6 Nintendo DS
No.7 McDonald
No.8 Microsoft
No.8 Windows
No.10 Suntory
No.11 Nisshin Shokuhin
No.12 Rakuten
No.13 Disney
No.14 Nintendo
No.15 Coca-Cola
No.15 YouTube
No.17 Yahoo!
No.18 Tokyu Hands
No.19 Fuji Television
No.19 Wii (Game)
No.21 Kirin Beer
No.22 iPod
No.23 Daizo ($1 shop)
No.23 Mos Burgar
No.25 Q.P (Food)
No.26 Muji(Clothes)
No.27 Haagen-Dazs
No.28 Sharp
No.29 Seven-Eleven
No.30 CupNoodle
No.31 Calbee
No.31 Canon
No.31 Honda
No.31 Mister Donuts
No.35 Aquos
No.36 Toyota
No.36 Yamato Transport
No.38 Gyoza-no-Osho (means King of Dumpling)
No.39 SoftBank
No.40 Apple
No.40 Nike
No.42 Prius
No.43 Meiji Seika
No.44 Calpis (known as Calpiko overseas)
No.45 Amazon
No.45 Sogenpi-cha (brand name of tea)
No.47 Kentuckey Fried Chicken
No.48 KAO
No.49 Addidas
No.50 Asahi Beer
No.50 Ito-en
No.50 Nagatani en

The research was conducted during last September 2009.

Matsu-ya. Their aggresive Price war seems to succeed

I have to coming out. Yes, I am a looser, or liar.
Despite of my previous recoomendation to go to Yoshino-ya, today, I stopped by Matsuya and tried their Gyudon (Beef Ball.)

I couldn't keep away from their lucrative offerings that Gyudon only costs only 250 Yen!! Even it comes with combo,that is with miso soup, egg, and small vegetables only costs 380 Yen.

This is unbelievably cheap,given that one Big Mac costs 360yen, and if you add drink and potatoes, it will cost 650yen now. So, this Gyudon combo only costs half of Big Mac combo. (Most importantly, Gyudon combo comes with salada bowl. you need to be health conscious these days.)

Sure enough, the restaurant was very crowded with salarymen, young men and even young women.

Taste was good. The taste of beef is not so good. (sorry for Aussie beef lovers.) But Matsuya proud of its juicy source that does not use any artificial food preservatives and other food additives. And it was really, really good.

But among the others, it was very awesome when you have a nice decent dinner with just 380 yen.

This campaign will end by April 23.

Price of Beef Ball goes down to 270Yen ; Yoshinoya Spring Campaign means the competition of U.S beef and Aussie Beef

Obviously, Japanese salaryman loves to eat Gyu-don (beef ball). You know salaryman, who wears black suite and tie, it's still a soldiar uniform of Japanese business man?

And Japanese salaryman loves to eat Gyu-don, because it's 'Fast', 'Yammy', and 'Cheap'.

Yoshino-ya is one of the biggest and oldest Gyu-don chain restaurants. It is 111 years since it started. They once dominated the market. But recently, they are almost loosing its position. Their monthly revenue went down by 20% from previous year. That's because of severe competition with Matsu-ya, and Suki-ya, same gyu-don chain restaurant whose revenue continuosly go up.

Then, Yoshino-ya started run spring campaing to cut down the price of rice ball by JPY 270 , aiming at the recovery of the market share. Yoshino-ya's beef ball usually costs JPY 380, while Matsu-ya's beef ball costs 320 Yen and Sukiya's cost 280.Yen, although they counter offered the pcampaign by marking down its by 250 Yen.

Where does this price gap comes from? Yes, Yoshino-ya only use U.S. Beef to maitain its quality of taste, texture of the beef. According to Yoshino-ya, they once tried to use Aussie beef especially in a period of mad cow epidemic, but couldn't keep its quality.

While Matsu-ya and Suki-ya use Aussie beef because they weigh the cost.

From my view, I usually recommend Matsu-ya most, and secondary Suki-ya. But at Suki-ya, you better not to oder ordinal beef ball, but make sure to add some toppings, because texture of beef of them is not good. But they provide various menus for toppings.

However, with this mark down, I really recommend you to try Yoshino-ya and try taste U.S beef and taste of 111 year traditions.

Electric Vehicle start blooming. Nissan and Mitsubishi

Spring of 2010 has just arrived, and cherry blossom is blooming over this weekend.

And it seems that Electric Vehicle seems start blooming in Japan.

Nissan has announced that their 100% Electric Vehicle "Leaf" has just started accepting pre-order from this April 1st, with the price of less than $30 thousand, after allowing for the subsidiary from the Government. It will run 160km per full charge. Yes, it is still more expensive than traditional gas vehicles. But Nissan is expecting that the cost of EV for 6 years would be same as the one of cars, given the cost of gas fuels. Its sales target of 2010 is aiming to sell 6 thousand in Japan.

Then, Mitsubishi is forced to discount its brand new EV "i-MiEV" by less than $25 thousand, aiming at 9 thousand vehicles in Japan within this fiscal year.
(Sorry to say, but I didn't realize that Mitsubishi could afford to spend such R&D cost, since we don't see much Mitsubishi vehicles in town nowadays.)

Similar to the other countries, EV is considered as strategic industry for future. And "Eco" is truly a buzz word to sell things in Japan, largely thanks to the subsidiaries from Government not only for the cars but also various type of products, such as home appliances, PCs etc.

Thus, it is very interesting to keep watching how much EVs are to be sold despite of current weak economic situation.

Nissan Leaf Mitsubishi i-MiEV

1,250 New grads has joined Toyota

April 1 is the fist day of the fiscal year of 2010. And it is also the first day for most new grads from schools join their companies and start getting earnings by themselves.

Toyota has just welcomed 1,250 new employees, who have just graduated from schools last March. The number of the new employment went haf from the last year due to its bad financial results for two years and current recall problems.

But those severe employment situations are not only for Toyota but many of the companies in Japan are suffering from their financial reuslts, so it was a very severe employment situations for the new grads this year. The total number of the new grads who have joined the company from this April 1st reached to 760,000. It is reported that only 85% of new grads could find their jobs from this April 1st.

I wish those freshmen have a good start for their lives.

Photo shows one of a scene of ceremony of Toyota

New Year of 2010

As you already aware, In Japan, a new year starts from April 1 in many fields, such as fiscal year in the companies, schools, government etc. So, probably you saw many people having flowers in their hands on their way home last Friday night.

And today, one of the famous TV program ended, which is the talk show hosted by Mr. Souichiro Tawara. It has been broadcast for 20 years, and covered mainly political and economical topics on Sunday morning. It was one of the most influential TV programs. Some people didn't like Mr. Tawara because he sometimes interrupt while his guest is still talking and summarised their points differently from what they were talking. He was inflammatory, provocative. But the program certainly contributed to make politics more close to general people.

It is said that the reason of the end of the show is not because of the viewer ratings but because of Mr. Tawara's high commissions. Major TV stations are suffering the decrease of the revenue, so they needed to cut back its operation cost. It is sad to see such TV program is disappearing from private TV programs.

He was born in 1934. He is one of the few active journalists, born before WW2.

Sakura -graduation

It's getting warmer and warmer these days, and TV news says that Sakura in Kyshu area already bloomed. Probably, Sakura in Kanto area will bloom soon. It is expected that the best time to see cheery blossom this year will be from next week.

That means it's time to graduate from school in Japan. Sakura represents the season for graduation; departure, leave from someone you spent so many times with, and encounter someone new.

There are a lot of Sakura songs.
Here are most favorite Sakura songs;

No.1. Sakura; by Kobukuro
They are boy duet. Their voices and harmony are beautiful.

No.2 Sakura; by Naotaro Moriyama
He is a solo singer. His voice is also clear and sweet.

No.3 Sakura; by Ketsumeishi
This is not my choice. But this is popular as well.

No.4 Sakura color: by Angela Aki
She sings about her days in Washington D.C. Lyrics are about Tidal Basin.

Bluefin Tuna and Nuclear weapon

It was a relief that the ban for bluefin tuna was rejected at a vote of U.N meeting. The total consumption of Tuna in Japan has been flattened off for these 5 years. The reason of the rapid growth of the Tuna consumption is not because of Japanese, but because of the increase of the numbers of the countries that newly started eating Tuna fish. Actually, the one who bought Tuna with the highest price in the market at the beginning of this year is a Chinese trader.

My wife told me.
"Look at the nuclear weapons. The countries who owned the weapons keep possessing them, while newcomers are banned to possess them. If we ban the Tuna fishing, we should follow this rule. Disappearing Tuna from our dishes is like disappearing beef from American dishes. Eating Tuna is tradition and culture for Japan started before Christ was born. (Yes, this is true.) So, countries newly started eating Tuna should be banned the consumption in the first place."

She is so convincing.

Princess Akiko had been bullied at school !?

Of course, royal family's gossips are the things most tabroid papers had been persuing all the time. But this news was different. All major madia covered the story as top news.

The spokesman for the Imperial Household agency officially announced on Friday that the 8-year-old princess complained of a stomachache and expressed deep anxiety and has not attended school since early Tuesday.

This issue has two aspects;

1) Masako-sama,
Masako sama, princess and this girl princess's mother, has been getting better from her severe depression, and gradually has started working again for her official jobs as royal family member. If she realized that the absence of her daughter from school has now widely broadcast and provoked many arguments, she would be depressed again and may stop her jobs again, which always provoke many critics from her opponents.

Royal family has a lot pf pressures to behave in accordance with traditional written or unwritten protocols. Current emperor's wife was the first woman who married with emperor from outside of nobility. Thus, she had criticized from everywhere about her outfits, the way she speaks, and even the way she waves her hands. Then she suffered aphasia.

When Masako sama was proposed by Prince, she refused to accept it in the first place. She was the most expected diplomat at that time. She had graduated from top national university in Japan(Tokyo Univ.). And she passed the exam and became a diplomat. She had opened her way by her own intelligence and efforts. But finally, she accepted the proposal and gave up all of her dream, because prince had made commitment, saying "I'm going to protect you with my all efforts." Despite of prince's commitment, Masako sama became suffering severe depression, because she could not bear baby for long time. After long medication, she had a baby, but it was a girl, who is now in question. She's loved by many Japanese. but since Masako sama had been struggled with child-bearing issue. I simply have deep concerns of whether Masako sama get worse of her disease or not.

2)Eduction system

FIgure Skating in Olympic

Woman's Figure Skating in Vancouver was a game which most of Japanese people were looking forward to watching. And yesterday's free skating was the game which literally all of Japanese watched.
It was unfortunate Mao won the silver medal despite of most Japanese expectations. But she performed pretty well, given the slump of her during the year of 2009. She was about to loose to be nomination for this year's Olympic.
And other two woman athletes are also performed well.

The results were
Silver Medal ; ASADA, Mao (born in 1990)
4th ;ANDO, Miki (born in 1987)
8th ;SUZUKI, Akiko (born in 1985)

Among those athletes, Suzuki Akiko amazed most Japanese. She won the 1st prize in Junior High School competition. But afterwards, when she became a college student hundred miles away from her home, she was so overwhelmed by the pressure from her surrounding that she suffered anorexia. She could hardly get up from her bed. So she eventually went back to her home town, where her mother made home-made nutritious foods for her. She lost her weight to 32Kg from her original weight was 47kg. Thanks to her mother's continuous warm supports, she came back to the NHK competition in 2008, and won the third prize. Although she remained in 8th position, her smile with her satisfaction after the competition impressed so much.

It was a great and exciting game.

(From left; Asada, Ando, Suzuki,)

PM Yukio Hatoyama: 15M Yen from Mon is too small to remember!!

It turned out in the lower house budget commitee, that Yukio Hatoyama's Mom donated 15MillionYen to his son, Yukio Hatoyama, claiming that Yukio needs money for his cronies.
To our surprise, this was quoted by his real little brother, who was also told by her mon at the same time that: "Your big brother is busy and in need for money for his cronies. How about you? Yor are loner, so you don't need money, do you?"

LDP is claiming that this quote is exactly the testament that Yukio begged her mon to donate money.
But I don't think so. His mom is actually a wife of ex PM, Ichiro Hatoyama, and a daughter of the founder of 'Bridgestone.' She could not be an ordinary house wife.

She seemed to inherite a good virtue of trarditional Japanses, who won't complain about his husband's earnings, and without a word from his hus, when she understands that it's a war time for her hus, she would give him a fund of war from savings so that her hus could win the war. (while I don't see such wives anymore. ) :)

This case is just a matter of the amount of the money.
But it is already apparent that her mom gave him some Billions Yen.
Some Million yen is too small to remember for him.

You can't judge their clan from the standard of ordinary people.

Don't waste of the time in committee. There are a lot to be discussed.

Rakuten announced it goes for China Market with Baidu

Japan E-commerce shopping mall giant, Rakuten, announced on Jan 27, 2010 that it will invest JPY 4.3B for next 3 years to expand its business in China with founding JV with Baidu.

Rakuten's financial achievements for recent years are relatively good. Its business shows 16.8% growth in 2008, while other legacy traditional departments stores are struggling and having started closing their flagship shops all over Japan.

Rakuten is founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Hiroshi Mikitani received the MBA from Harvard Business School , and Bachelor of commerce degree from Hitotsubashi Univ.

(Still, I believe most of Japanese counts which university they graduate from. Hitotsubashi Univ. is one of the top national Universities following Tokyo univ. So, he's elite, anyway.
He started working at Industry Bank of Japan. It is no easy thing to get a job there.)

He mentioned that 1997 was the best and only time period he could start venture business like this, given the meltdown of the stock market due to the end of IT bubbles.

Among those period, many IT venture companies came out. But most of them went bankrupt.
I think Rakuten is the most successful company among the companies came out those days.

Anyway, any of IT companies never had been succeeded to expand its business overseas.

Rakuten itself tried to expand U.S.A in 2007, Thailand in 2008,

Rakuten is very famous to serve not only for the consumers who use their web site, but also for the retail shop owners who open their shops on Rakuten's online mall platform, by elaborating fundamental knowledge about online business, and providing marketing analysis afterwards.

So, Rakuten is more of a service company rather than IT technical companies. They are proud of this saying those servers are their most valued core competence.

I don't know if those service oriented approach works in other overseas markets.
Let's see.

Prosecutor questioned Ichiro Ozawa

Ichiro Ozawa has been a well known politician for decades, and is considered now he is the substantial Prime Minister of Japan.

Last year's historical victory of the Democratic Party of Japan for the election for House of Representatives is considered mostly thanks to the leadership of Ichiro Ozawa.

And the yearly budget for 2010 is considered to be made under strong leadership of Ichiro Ozawa, while incumbent PM Yukio Hatoyama could not show any leadership for the budgeting process.

(In this early January, he visited China being accompanied by "600!!" policy makers, included newly elected lawmakers. That's the evidence how influential he is at the moment.)

So, DPJ is really expecting Ichiro Ozawa's leadership and ability for next year's election for House of Council, so that DPJ can rule the majority of the House of Council, which enables DPJ to pass the laws without help from other parties.

However, he is also well-known as a person who treat the his opponents very badly even if such opponents are in the same party.
Also, he does not like to show up in the media and talk to the citizens directly. From my perspective, his leadership is old type.

If he ended up resigning his position, it will have a great impact for the future of Japan.
Although he is denying all the suspcions posed by inspectors, and many politcians, including cabinet members are supporting Ichiro Ozawa.

The cult of Amatuer

I wanted to know more about Google and some other IT companies to understand why so many IT companies can become so large in very short time.

I picked up the book titled "The cult of Amatuer" written by Andrew Keen.

The title of the Japanese translated version is like "Google, Youtube, Wikipedia, what would thier future be?".

This title does not represent precisely the content of this book . (You know, when it comes to translated books, sometimes those things happen.) But this was an interesting book, because Google and others are growing so rapidly despite of the many critics, which can be seen in this book.

I think those healthy critics give a strength to the U.S IT industries.