Tag Archive: japan news – expert

Job-juggling is challenging yet beneficial

Japan - Expert

Vocabulary: 1. foster [verb] – encourage or promote a development of something Our president ensures that we foster our new system. 2. entrepreneurship [noun] – the activity of setting up a business I am a graduate of bachelor’s degree major in Entrepreneurship. 3. overtime [noun] – time worked beyond one’s scheduled working hours I might do an overtime this week. 4. contribution [noun] – the part played by a person or thing in bringing about a result to advance I would appreciate if everyone gave their contribution to the company. 5. income [noun] – money received for work Employees have multiple jobs to increase their income. 6. ailment [noun] –…
Read more

Retiring seniors go on working

Japan - Expert

Among the ranks of developed countries, Japan is one of those with labor shortage woes. To tackle such shortage, the country needs to come up with more policies to pull retirees back into the workforce. Florian Kohlbacher, an adjunct professor at Temple University’s Tokyo campus and director of the Economist Corporate Network for North Asia, says that 60 in Japan is still young. Most Japanese people have long, healthy lives. An overhaul in company policies, work culture and seniority policies is needed to encourage seniors to continue working after retirement. People who’ve found jobs after their mandatory retirement want to keep working not only to stay active — they actually…
Read more

Tokyo taxis lowered fare

Japan - Expert

Riders delightfully welcomed the new Tokyo taxi fare, which is fairly affordable for people who use cabs for short distances. Leaflets were handed out to the public to introduce the new fare system to interested passengers at taxi stands. Commuters, especially elders, were so pleased to know about the new and improved fare system. The new fare for the first 1.052 kilometers is ¥410. It used to be ¥730 for the first two kilometers. Taxis have stickers of the new fare system in both English and Japanese. This fare revision was set in motion to address the continuous plunge in the the number of taxi passengers. Taxi companies also hope…
Read more

Foreign trainees face tough road in Japan

Japan - Expert

  Foreign interns and students in Japan hailing from neighboring countries find it exacting to adapt and keep their lifestyle. Most of them leave their home countries in hopes of greener pastures. Countries like Vietnam offer training to their citizens who will be deployed to Japan as technical interns. Foreigners are filling the gap in Japan’s labor shortage. Despite the auspiciousness of the project, some trainees suddenly disappear upon deployment. Problems with pay and inferior working conditions are deemed to be the cause of disappearances. Some trainees start believing that their spurious dreams of greener pastures surface so they decided to return to their home countries. Trainees from China and…
Read more

Prevention of cyber attacks

Japan - Expert

Tokyo police began taking steps to fight against cyber attack by automatically detecting probable threats or virus, and sharing them online via a secured server. About 100 companies whose offices – such as railways operators, airlines, financial institutions, telecommunication services – situate around Tokyo participated in the said project. These companies all have key infrastructure and advanced technology. Companies can gain access to the information even if they are not under attack. While the sharing strategy has strong proponents, others believe that sharing threat intelligence does nothing to protect against the next attack.This plan of action hopes that information sharing will eventually lead to predictive analytics that will help combat…
Read more

Companies hire more women to avoid overtime work

Japan - Expert

As more and more companies adjust to cater to the needs of their female workers, they see working women as key to lessening overtime work. Hiring women to reduce overtime work is gaining support from female workers as they find this move fruitful. In a Tokyo-based cosmetics company where the employee pool is dominated by women, workers start to prepare for home at 5PM. This is despite the fact that their work hours officially end at 5:30PM. One of the said company’s employees said that this is very advantageous for her as gets to spend more time with her 3-year-old son and more time for herself. Japan exceeds Europe and…
Read more

Working mothers receive support from companies

Japan - Expert

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made increasing the participation of women in the workforce a crucial component in his comprehensive economic growth plan. Backed by several researches, womenomics could increase the gross domestic product of Japan and help address the country’s declining labor force. Despite the policy change, a lot of critics think that womenomics’ benefits cannot be realized without concrete transformation in work culture and attitude towards working mothers in companies. Acknowledging the potential benefits of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s womenomics, several companies have started giving more support to working mothers. For example, one company has asked its working fathers who take parental leaves to share stories on how…
Read more

Onsen adds sake into baths

  A new kind of service is being offered to customers of various ryokan inns located in Niigata Prefecture. Customers can now enjoy taking a bath in an onsen hot spring together with sake in it. The so called furosshu is being offered on the 26th of every month in 10 onsen districts in the said prefecture. Hotel Senkei Corporations’s Vice President, Takeshi Iida, is the person behind this idea. Takeshi Iida says he hopes guests can enjoy the uniqueness of Niigata through the sake-infused onsen. The said service is indeed a big success, gaining more praises and compliments from satisfied customers. The management is also considering to expand their…
Read more

Rural areas offer good life

Most people in their twenties and right after college have preferred to live in a hustle and bustle of a big city – eager to accomplish and achieve something. Facing a large amount of work load, working in a stable and secured company, and making friends with everybody everyday can be a lot of fun. But in Japan, this kind of notion is changing. Younger Japanese generation now opt to live in rural areas. A 29-year-old mother, Kanako Sato, is one of the many who have chosen to live in a slow-paced and secluded area. It all started back when she was doing her volunteer work – cultivating the land,…
Read more

Children’s love in a truck

  A transit company headquartered in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture provided its drivers emotional support through the Kodomo Museum Project. The said scheme was carried it out by designing trucks with drawings made by the drivers’ children. This project was brought about to curtail road accidents. 15 other companies in the Kansai, Kanto, and Chubu regions had participated in the project succeeding its launching two years earlier. Hirofumi Miyata, president of Miyata Traffic and head of the Kodomo Museum Project, thought opting for state-of-the-art driving equipment may not be enough to prevent the occurrence of vehicular collision. While finding a better strategy, he chanced upon a picture drawn by a driver’s…
Read more