Discussion topics

Less than 20 years ago, the only challenges for the 100 residents of the tiny island of Kakara, off southwest Japan, were the elements and ensuring the fishermen’s catch could get to market on time. 

Today, the islanders are outnumbered three to one by wild boar who feast on their gardens and are becoming increasingly aggressive and territorial.

The problems facing the residents of Kakara are being repeated across Japan, with boar numbers exploding as rural populations decline. 

After more than a decade working in tech, Kimbal Musk (brother of famous technologist Elon Musk) decided to lean into his true passion: local food. He now runs a chain of local food-focused restaurants called The Kitchen, as well as Big Green, a national nonprofit that builds educational gardens in public schools.

Walmart is taking aim at Amazon's Kindle business and diving into the business of selling e-readers, e-books, and audiobooks through a partnership with Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten.

As part of the deal, Walmart will start selling Aura-branded e-readers made by Kobo, a division of Rakuten, in stores and online at Walmart.com. Kobo is one of Amazon Kindle's biggest competitors. 

At the MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference held in Singapore this [year], Japanese researcher Jun Rekimoto presented a form of tech called ChameleonMask which he dubbed a “Human Uber” that “shows a remote user’s face on the other user’s face.”

How it essentially works is: ChameleonMask uses a real human as a surrogate for another remote user. The surrogate user wears a display as a mask which shows a remote user’s live face and transmits the user’s voice.

Japan has the lowest rate of gun deaths in the industrialized world. Why is that? Watch the video and discuss it with your teacher, or write about it using the discussion questions below.

Fasten your seatbelts for a flight departing to Paris—and never leave the ground.

That’s exactly what 12 passengers did at First Airlines in central Tokyo this week, where they relaxed in first and business-class seats and were served four-course dinners, before immersing themselves in 360-degree virtual reality (VR) tours of the City of Light’s sights.

The number of asylum seekers to Japan grew 80 percent to a record 19,628 in 2017--but only 20 were accepted.

Immigration is a controversial subject in Japan, even as the population ages and its workforce shrinks. The government in mid-January 2018 limited the right to work only to those Japan regards as bona fide refugees. As a result, the average daily number of applicants for asylum fell by 50 percent in January as compared to December 2017.

Hours before a rare snowstorm hit the Hague in the Netherlands last month, Sergeant Erik Smit got a call from dispatch: A Jack Russell was locked out on a third-story balcony.

Neighbors heard it barking and knew that the owner, who had left for work at 7:30 A.M., would not be back until the end of the day, when the terrace would be covered by several inches of snow.

Sergeant Smit of the national police force rang a few doorbells and yelled some questions to residents, but no one could help. He then radioed for a 22-ton fire truck with a crane and platform.

The closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics saw Tokyo teasing the 2020 Games with a video featuring Pac-Man and Mario. The 2024 Games in Paris, however, might take things a step further.

Tony Estanguet, co-president of the Paris Olympic committee, says he plans to hold talks with eSports officials and the International Olympic Committee about adding competitive video games to the Games.

Mental health counselors often recommend that clients clean their home environments every day. Dirt and squalor can be symptoms of unhappiness or illness.

But cleanliness is not only about mental health. It is the most basic practice that all forms of Japanese Buddhism have in common. In Japanese Buddhism, it is said that what you must do in the pursuit of your spirituality is clean, clean, clean. This is because the practice of cleaning is powerful.

Tokyo's subway system has begun experimenting with playing classical background music on its trains to provide a more comfortable travel experience.

Tokyo Metro Company began the trial on January 29, 2018, in selected trains between Naka-meguro and Kita-senju stations on the Hibiya Line. Music pieces such as Debussy's ‘Clair de Lune’ and Chopin's nocturnes are being heard between 10 AM and around 2 PM. The volume is set lower than train announcements.

A purple cape has become an unlikely weapon in Japan's efforts to get its workers to work fewer hours. Employees at a Tokyo-based IT services company were recently forced to wear such "embarrassment" capes if they worked late on the third Wednesday of the month.

Taobao, China's biggest online retailer, is hiring two people who must be aged 60 years or older to assess new products aimed at middle-aged and senior consumers.

Applicants are expected to have a harmonious relationship with their children, be an influencer in society such as in square dance groups, enjoy reading about psychology and sociology, and have at least one year of online shopping experience.

Japan’s job market is the tightest it’s been in more than 40 years, giving leverage to labor unions pressing for bigger pay hikes at annual wage negotiations and raising prospects for higher consumer spending and inflation.

The jobs-to-applicants ratio rose to 1.59 in December from 1.56, the highest since January 1974, labor ministry data showed. That means there were nearly 1.6 jobs for every applicant.

A "rant" is passionate, typically angry, speech or writing about a particular topic.

The topic of this rant from 2013 is the failure of marketing schools to prepare students for the new internet-based marketing industry. 

All of Norway’s short-haul airliners should be entirely electric by 2040, the country’s airport operator said on Wednesday, cementing the Nordic nation’s role as a pioneer in the field of electric transport.

“We think that all flights lasting up to 1.5 hours can be flown by aircraft that are entirely electric,” chief executive Dag Falk-Petersen said, noting that would cover all domestic flights and those to neighbouring Scandinavian capitals.

While hard work is certainly the key to success, billionaire Richard Branson maintains that there is value in taking time away from the office to unplug and decompress. In a recent blog post, the entrepreneur explains why a three or four day work week can actually be beneficial to the future workforce.

Japanese men in their 30s and 40s are the biggest drivers of the bitcoin boom. 

Forty percent of bitcoin trading between October and November was conducted in yen, according to a Nikkei report.

Japanese investors, mostly men, came to dominate trading after regulators started to shut down cryptocurrency exchanges in China.

Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday it will develop “connected cars” jointly with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to offer online services to drivers.

Together with the Chinese e-commerce giant, Japan’s third-largest automaker by volume will aim to launch online payments for fuel, parking and other services in China through the jointly developed vehicles.

Global automakers are focusing on connected cars with internet access to provide drivers with online payments, shared traffic information and other advanced services.

​It seems like everyone is getting into blockchain these days. After all, companies claim to like "transparency", "security", and anything to do with the roller coaster ride that is Bitcoin. But consider this: Tuna.

There are now several blockchain-based projects that aim to stop illegal tuna fishing. The idea is that blockchain-verification would assure consumers and others that the fish were ethically sourced. Or maybe it's just PR, who knows.