Asia *** 3 Intermediate

Stories Checked for Students of English by Jamaby

Lawyers decry expansion of poverty, seek remedy

TOYAMA (Kyodo) Poverty is expanding in Japan, with people more likely than ever to be employed on a temporary basis and making low wages, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations said during a two-day meeting on human rights. Making matters worse, the trend has been crossing generational lines due to a lack of a sufficient social security system, the lawyers' group warned. (Japan Times)

Life — it's all in the books

Sometimes it seems I live holiday to holiday. Having just finished Respect for the Aged Day, and the Autumn Equinox (both national holidays) I am now looking forward to Sports Day in October. The problem with national holidays in Japan, however, is that they are rarely a chance to relax. Instead, they are a chance to do another obligatory something somewhere. There will be the obligatory sports festivals to attend on Sports Day for example. Not a moment to spare. (Japan Times)

Ties that bond though cultures apart

With a wry but happy smile, Jennifer Rose DiLaura recalls the day she and her husband first met their daughter, adopted from China. "Together with seven other American couples, we were ushered into a room with chairs arranged around the edge, in the center of which was a group of toddlers wrapped up against the cold, with their caretakers. With her photo in our hands, we recognized Ariana almost immediately." (Japan Times)

Testing for what?

The education ministry has made public the results of nationwide scholastic tests conducted for sixth graders and third-year middle school students in April. Depending on the problems, the percentage of correct answers was eight to 16 points lower than in April 2007, when similar tests were held for the first time in 43 years. The ministry says the main purpose of the tests is to measure the scholastic ability of individual children and to help teachers improve their academic guidance. But the test results show only whether students gave correct answers or not; it doesn't show how they arrived at the answers. (Japan Times)

Long road to recovery for Sichuan province

SICHUAN, China — At a magnitude-8, according to the Chinese Earthquake Administration, and with a force 30 times stronger than the Great Hanshin Earthquake (1995), the Sichuan disaster left more than 69,000 people dead, 390,000 injured, 18,000 missing and 11 million homeless. An estimated 3.5 million homes are needed for the survivors, and even though the government has dispatched 1.5 million tents and will provide 1 million prefabricated housing units, there will still be a shortage of 1 million homes. These statistics are distressing enough; however, they still did not prepare me for the devastation that I witnessed first hand. (Japan Times)

Vivienne Sato

Vivienne Sato is a unique cultural concierge in Tokyo, full of the lowdown on both high art and mass culture. Vivi knows what and who's happening in the city 24/365, and if she's present, the party is on till the wee-wee hours. Always dressed to the nines — and often to the nine hundreds — with her signature towering wigs and platform shoes, Vivi rules over the city's night scene as a benevolent drag queen. Her social life might be an endless partyathon, but her private one is all about art: She is a painter, illustrator, movie critic and architect. And this homebody alter-ego is no party animal: The artist Vivi loves working in the quiet with just the hushed steps of her 17 tarantulas providing the background music: Italy's Tarantella, of course! I'm average in Tokyo. I really don't stick out that much. It's just my wig that stands out, not me. I mean, Japanese love uniforms, and not only kids but adults also do cosplay, so I am just another normal urban creature. In Tokyo, anything is OK. (Japan Times)

New, centenarian society

This year's Respect for the Aged Day, last Monday, found a lot more aged to respect than ever before. According to Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry statistics, over 36,000 people in Japan are now over 100 years old. Many others are close behind. Over 28 million people were aged 65 and over, one-quarter of all Japanese women and one-fifth of all men. That adds up to a lot of silver seats and discount movie tickets! While most elderly people appreciate respect, they would appreciate a serious reshaping of policies and a reconsideration of attitudes even more. The government needs to start planning now for a very different future society that will need more than just added silver seats on trains. A sense of reality demands a different vision of care and ways to lead active lives. (Japan Times)

Industrial power demand falls 0.1%

Industry consumed less electricity for the first time in three years last month as slower export growth and high energy costs sapped demand. Power sold to industrial users fell 0.1 percent in August compared with a year earlier, data released by the Federation of Power Companies showed Friday. That represents the first decline since July 2005. (Japan Times)

Coordinating human life

While I was in the city the other day, I saw a sign on a building that described a certain company, in English, as "human life coordinator." I suppose life is something like a pant suit — you've just got to coordinate it. In a country like Japan experiencing depopulation, and where a large number of people are busy coordinating their deaths (funerals, wills, inheritances, etc.) this company would thrive if it moved out to the countryside, countryside where dying is almost an obsession. (Japan Times)

Autumn basho begins with apology

Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho and Asashoryu both got off to winning starts by beating their respective opponents on the first day of action at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday. But with sumo thrown into a state of turmoil over a recent alleged drug scandal involving three Russian wrestlers, attention was turned to damage control with newly appointed Japan Sumo Association chairman Musashigawa first apologizing to fans and promising a strict new regimen for wrestlers. (Japan Times)

20 million people now 70 or older

The number of people aged 70 or older has topped 20 million for the first time, according to government statistics released Sunday. There are an estimated 20.17 million people in that age bracket, up 570,000 from Sept. 17 of last year, according to the figures released by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry ahead of Respect for the Aged Day on Monday. (Japan Times)

Women-only train cars shameful

When I stayed in the United States, I realized how advanced public transportation is in Japan. But there is one thing about our train system that I am ashamed of: the women-only passenger car. India also has this system, but Indians adopted it for religious reasons. In Japan, it was adopted because of some men who touch women's bodies and the women who complain about it to the train company. Although the system protects women from such men, it should be abolished because it makes the rush-hour problem even worse. Moreover, it is unfair to most men and can hardly be considered a fundamental solution to the problem. (Japan Times)

Tarsem talks us through his fantasy world

A lot of people get out of film school full of ideas, but when faced with the reality of making a living, they decide to make commercials or a formulaic Hollywood movie or two. Still, they think, "Once I make some money, I'm gonna take my millions and make the films I really want to make." In reality, this happens about as often as Amy Winehouse is sober. So give it up for Tarsem Singh, one of the few people who's actually gone and done it. A director who enjoys making music videos (R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion") and commercials (Nike, Coke, Levis), and has done one Hollywood serial killer flick ("The Cell," with J-Lo), Tarsem self-financed "The Fall" with millions of his own money. (Japan Times)

Tatsuo Asakura

Tatsuo Asakura, 29, is a driver on the Flower Nagai Line, a tiny one-car train in the middle of Yamagata Prefecture's rice and wheat fields. Although it's the only form of transportation for school children and the elderly who live in farmhouses scattered around the valley, the dire financial straits of the company that owns the train line have been threatening to put a halt to its scenic rides for years. By 2005, it was all coming to a tragic final stop when the local government warned the troubled company, Yamagata Railway, that the bailout was getting too difficult. To keep the little train running, Asakura saw tourism as the only hope, and, unbeknownst to his superiors, began offering hilarious guided train rides to visitors. From a mere 350 out-of-town passengers a year in 2005, he increased their number to 7,000 in 2006 — today, more than 20,000 tourists enjoy the fun trip with fairytale views. His 4-year-old son is often with him, on the right track to become as cool as his dad. No matter what your position is, the company is yours; it belongs to you. I was the youngest at Yamagata Railway, assigned to toilet cleaning, but I kept thinking that my company was in deep trouble. I felt responsible for saving it. (Japan Times)

A dog by any other name

OK, I admit it. For humor's sake, I do on occasion stretch the truth. But this time, believe me, there is nothing elastic in what I am about to tell you. It's a stone cold fact. Here it is: (Japan Times)

Toyota flies toward the future

Toyota aims to take us on a magic- carpet ride in mobility in about two years with its new vehicle called the Winglet. The device is the latest addition to the company's range of "partner robots" — concept vehicles whose purpose is to explore future forms of personal transportation. Toyota believes that robots will be a part of its core business by 2020, along with a switch from gasoline power to electric power. The Winglet started life seven years ago as a Sony Corporation project before Toyota purchased it during a round of restructuring at Sony in March 2007. Of the team that completed the project — adding Toyota's partner-robot technology and finalizing the styling — two were ex-Sony and five were on loan from Sony. (Japan Times)

Getting back on the horse

This year's sublime fiasco with the sub-prime mortgage market in the United States had made me wince at the plight of U.S. mortgage holders, even though I am not one of them and I have but a buck ninety-eight invested in American banks. But it's made me recall the rough years of Japan's real estate bubble, during which time I had a house yanked from under my feet here in Tokyo. And I didn't even own it. I was renting. (Japan Times)

Long-distance becomes longtime romance

Felix Moesner met Makiko Aikawa in 1991 when he was doing a one-year robotics internship at Toshiba Corp. and a home-stay at her grandmother's house in Yokohama. Then a university student, she often visited after cooking classes at a restaurant nearby. They eventually fell in love, but Felix, originally from Appenzell, Switzerland, returned to finish his studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. (Japan Times)

Communicating through the unsaid

Sculptor Gakushi Yamamoto arrives looking as if he tumbled out of bed — or rather rolled off his futon and into the nearest shirt and pair of jeans that came to hand. And that may be so, considering he has had to travel two hours to meet up in Moto-Azabu for 10 a.m. We choose to sit on square upholstered hassocks rather than on the carpeted floor of Asian Collection Contemporary Art Gallery. Which is rather odd considering there are also 10 chairs available. The problem is, they are exceptionally hard to use, being a) made of iron and b) created in miniature. (Japan Times)

A linguistic boxing match from a true classic

Internationally acclaimed English theater director David Leveaux first visited Japan 20 years ago as the substitute director of "Dangerous Liaisons" after an English colleague had to pull out. Now Leveaux, 50, is back in his second home after a bewildering series of trips from his London base to Vienna, New York, Dublin and Spain. When he first came to Japan, the director says he didn't know anything about the country. That chance encounter was to be the first of many as, in 1993, Leveaux co-founded the Theatre Project Tokyo (tpt) with Japanese producer Hitoshi Kadoi, and remained its artistic director for the next 13 years. (Japan Times)

Christian Bale: a peek behind the Dark Knight's mask

<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "I have never thought of myself for any duration of time as a sort of sex symbol," he says very seriously, though magazines and fan polls indicate that many others have. (Fans of usually call themselves Baleheads.) (Japan Times)

The hidden costs of thinking about money

PRINCETON, N.J. — When people say "Money is the root of all evil," they usually don't mean that money itself is the root of evil. Like St. Paul of the New Testament, from whom the quote comes, they have in mind the love of money. Could money itself, whether we are greedy for it or not, be a problem? Karl Marx thought so. In "The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts" of 1844, a youthful work that remained unpublished and largely unknown until the mid-20th century, Marx describes money as "the universal agent of separation," because it transforms human characteristics into something else. A man may be ugly, Marx wrote, but if he has money, he can buy for himself "the most beautiful of women." Without money, presumably, some more positive human qualities would be needed. Money alienates us, Marx thought, from our true human nature and from our fellow human beings. (Japan Times)

Get back to where you once belonged

The countryside in Japan has a reputation for being backwards. This is partly true. In the countryside where I live we walk backwards, we drive backwards and sometimes we even do our laundry backwards — by drying it out first, then washing it. This is unlike the big cities, such as Tokyo. As you know, Tokyo has wards. I've just never been able to figure out if they are back-wards or for-wards? (Japan Times)

"Harry Potter" translator Yuko Matsuoka Harris

Yuko Matsuoka Harris, age 64, is the translator of the "Harry Potter" books in Japan and the president of the series' Japanese publisher, Say-zan-sha. Similar to the series' Hermione, Matsuoka has always been exceptional: As one of the best simultaneous interpreters in Japan, during her 30-year career she has specialized in intellectual property and patent law and regularly worked for the United Nations. The perfect match for the genius of J. K. Rowling, whose books have sold 400 million copies worldwide, Matsuoka creates masterpieces equal to their originals. Her flawless texts were penned during a 10-year sentence that she spent under virtual house arrest in Harry's world -- but she still managed to stay sane in the process, a feat only one with magical powers could have achieved. Beloved by fans, who have already purchased 24 million copies of her translations, she has also been the driving force behind the Japan Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) Association, established by her late husband in 1986. Trust your instincts. My friends recommended that I get the rights to the "Harry Potter" books. I read the first in one sitting and was hooked. I knew this was the project I was preparing for my whole life. It didn't bother me that at that point I had never translated a book nor published much. I knew that I could do it. (Japan Times)

Some look forward to a harmonious future

The following is from the text of an e-mail sent to Jeff Kingston from Cindy Zhang, a Chinese university student. What disappointed me most about the memorial was that I had expected the exhibition to be condensed and focused, but, things were just the opposite. Although disappointed, I had to give the memorial the right to be huger than necessary — were it not so, it would have been politically incorrect in some sense. After the visit, I often wondered why I was not the least touched or moved by the exhibition. One reason is that I was already familiar with that history, so nothing on display made me feel aghast or strike me as particularly overwhelming. The second reason is that my family have not much, if not nothing, to do with the city. For me, the massacre is like a legend — I believe it to be true only because I choose to. (Japan Times)

Cabinet Office report points to recession

With the word "weakening," the Cabinet Office on Thursday effectively called an end to the longest expansion of the postwar period. In its report for August, the office did away with the July phrasing that the recovery is pausing, making it clear the economy is heading downward instead of staying flat. (Japan Times)

Shot in the arm for nursing care

Under an economic partnership agreement between Japan and Indonesia, nurses and nursing care workers from Indonesia are arriving this week. As the number of aged people needing medical treatment and nursing care is increasing in this country, the Indonesians will be welcomed by hospitals and nursing care homes. But many people who came to Japan from developing countries under the Training Program for Foreigners are subjected to low wages and long working hours. Institutions concerned should take utmost care to ensure that Indonesian nurses and nursing care workers are not subjected to similar conditions. One thousand Indonesian nurses and nursing care workers are supposed to come to Japan in two years. According to Jiji Press, only 226 people from Indonesia will arrive at first. After their arrival, they will receive Japanese language training and basic instruction in studies related to their jobs. Then they will work as assistant nurses and assistant nursing care workers. (Japan Times)

Chances of being a lay judge put at one in 4,911

The chance of getting selected as a lay judge would have averaged one in 4,911 had lay judge panels been introduced last year, according to an estimate based on data provided by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said there were 2,643 indicted cases that would have been subject to deliberations last year by a panel of lay and professional judges. Such panels are set to be introduced next year for serious crimes. (Japan Times)

Keeping the global circus in business a matter of balance

Does the presence of a safety net make people too reckless, lazy and dependent? Or does it allow people to experiment, develop skills in a secure environment and prevent the penalization of healthy high spirits. This could be an argument about how to run a circus. A trapeze act is no fun if the safety net is pitched too close to the performers so that a fall becomes no fall at all. The performers' skills are honed by the awareness of danger. If all the danger they have to worry about is a mild graze or two on their knees, there is really very little incentive to train, sharpen their sense of balance or keep themselves physically fit. (Japan Times)

Pets demonstrate sanctity of life

In Japan, around 400,000 dogs and cats are killed at public health centers every year. Most are taken there by their owners for "unavoidable reasons," as the owners put it. What that means is that the owners are going on a trip and won't be home to care for the pet, or they're just tired of taking care of it, or the pet got sick. The reasons go on and on. I strongly believe that a pet's life should not be ended for such inconsiderate excuses. People do not actually know how dogs and cats at public health centers are "put to sleep." Many people believe that animals are euthanized. Not so. They are put in a stainless-steel box into which is pumped carbon dioxide: The poor things suffocate to death, dying in agony. (Japan Times)

In the cool lap of luxury

I first met Uncle earlier this year at the cherry-blossom-viewing party on Shiraishi Island. He seemed kind of young to be an uncle, but his beard made him look a little older. Uncle was passed out under the cherry trees. I didn't see him again until Sea Day, or Marine Day as it is sometimes called, when he came to the beach on Shiraishi Island. He came on the car ferry in his car stuffed with accouterments for the long weekend: a parasol, a small child's swimming pool and a portable bed. All of this was set up next to the Moooo! Bar. (Japan Times)

Steel plant restarts despite fire

KITAKYUSHU — Nippon Steel Corp. said it resumed crude steel production Wednesday morning at its Yawata Works plant complex in Kitakyushu, the day after a fire forced a temporary shutdown. The gas pipe fire had yet to burn itself out as of 1 p.m. (Japan Times)

Convenience stores can conserve

As for whether 24-hour stores should be required to reduce their operating hours to save energy, aren't there dozens of energy-saving measures that could be implemented without this debate? Too much energy is being wasted on debate! For example, put doors on refrigerators. Pictures of the products can be affixed to the outside. I wish all stores with refrigerated goods would at least cover their fridges at night. In summer, when I walk into a convenience store, it often feels like the whole place is just one big refrigerator. If they put doors on the fridges, they could use less energy for cooling and there would be less competition between heaters and fridges in the winter. Another idea: Reduce the number of vending machines. What the heck are vending machines doing right next to 24-hour convenience stores anyway? (Japan Times)

What is the greenback's sustainable value?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — How much further will the dollar fall? Or has it already fallen so far that it will now start to move back to a higher level? For travelers to the United States from Europe or Asia, U.S. prices are dramatically lower than at home. A hotel room or dinner in New York seems a bargain when compared to prices in London, Paris, or Tokyo. And shoppers from abroad are loading up on a wide range of products before heading home. (Japan Times)

More questions than answers

Regarding the July 20 article "Teenager held in dad's stabbing": How bizarre we can get? A 15-year-old girl "admitted stabbing her father in the chest several times with a knife." She "didn't like to be told to study" by her parents. The police got a call "from the teen's family" saying "the daughter stabbed her father." Since there was only the mother, son and daughter remaining, which member of "the teen's family" made the call? Then, instead of the "family" calling 119, the "family" left the father "collapsed in his bedroom and bleeding." But before that, the mother heard "arguing voices." Didn't she know whose voices they were? Didn't she bother to find out what the issue was? Did she think it was the neighbors? (Japan Times)

Professor Kunihiko Takeda

Professor Kunihiko Takeda, Ph.D., is vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University and one of the world's leading authorities on both uranium enrichment and recycling. The 65-year-old is also a bestselling author of books with titles such as “We Should Not Recycle!” “Recycled Illusions” and “Why Are Lies Accepted on Environmental Issues?” Professor Takeda should know why: Although a member of just about every prestigious academic and governmental entity, he has stayed independent and made a career out of challenging the establishment. He has never taken any garbage from anyone, not even during his 27-year tenure at Asahi Chemical Industries, where for five years he was director of the Uranium Enrichment Laboratory. He also kept his record clean as vice deputy president at the Shibaura Institute of Technology before joining Nagoya University in 2002. His fresh and original views are clear in his most recent book, “Hypocritical Ecology,” which has been flying off shelves at the speed of 100,000 a month since being published this June.. Kunihiko TakedaJUDIT KAWAGUCHI PHOTO (Japan Times)

My Life as a Gaijin, Kimono Incarnate

Kimono Incarnate are two different blogs written by Melanie Gray Augustin. The former centers around the experiences of an Australian native living and teaching English in a foreign land, while the latter offers a taste of her artistic interests and entrepreneurial efforts selling creations made from kimono fabric. Having first moved to Japan in 1999, Melanie returned to Australia after living in Japan for three years. "The whole four years living back in Australia, I pined for Japan, and wanted to come back again," she wrote in an e-mail interview. Returning in 2006 with her husband, she began blogging My Life as a Gaijin and Kimono Reincarnate. Recently, Melanie took some time to share with us her appreciation for Japanese design, how to incorporate a blog into e-commerce, and her love of shoes. What was your inspiration to start blogging? (Japan Times)

Go for broke, Japan!

The person shouting this is a close friend — a Japanese English instructor — who with looping earrings, sliding bracelets and multiringed fingers shows more metal than a brass band. She's noisier too, with a big-eyed, rubber-tongued enthusiasm for her work. I wish she'd lend me some of her energy. Instead, I settle for pasta and wine. Lots of wine. (Japan Times)

A well-armed goddess

On July 2, at the lowest tide of the year, my neighbors and I prayed to the goddess of the sea. The islanders call her Benten (also known as Benzaiten), and she lives on her own special island, just off the coast of Shiraishi Island. Here she convenes with the sea and brings us luck, prosperity (well, most of the time) and protects us from evil. It is at this time every year that Benten extends an invitation to us to come and worship her in her own little festival. This very low tide exposes a sandbar that connects her island with ours, and serves as a walkway adorned by a stone lantern that appears to be floating when the tide is high. On normal days, even at low tide you have to trudge out in knee-deep water to get to Benten Island. Perhaps this is to keep out the paparazzi. Goddesses are pretty hot stuff after all. (Japan Times)

Aoi Miyazaki: from TV princess to rescuer of trafficked children

<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Miyazaki said she was lucky enough to be taken overseas many times by her parents when she was young, so she has experienced enough not to be "shocked" by much. Still, she says, her experience of talking to fishermen in Greenland and then, a little while later, fishermen in the Maldives was shocking. (Japan Times)

Leaving the Beijing bird's nest behind

<< CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Ai doesn't think architecture is such a big deal. He constructed the building we're sitting outside today in 2000, from the same traditional blue-gray bricks that were used in old Beijing's hutongs, and has since worked on 60 projects. He wrinkles his nose. "They told me it was architecture, but I just built my house. We do these things so lightly. They take us two weeks. One took me just an afternoon to design. To me, it is a natural ability to think about space or volume. We've done more work than many architects do in their whole lifetime." (Japan Times)

Relationship coaching over the phone

It is easy to spot Jack Ito and his wife Toshie. They're walking hand in hand around the lobby of the Prince Hotel in Shinagawa, looking as much culture-shocked as in love. The Itos have traveled from Asahi, a small town near Choshi in Chiba Prefecture by bus, a journey of two hours. But since neither are strangers to rising early, there's no problem, they say. They come to Tokyo so rarely, it's all quite an adventure and Toshie can't wait to hit the shops. (Japan Times)

Actor's new role: to remind G8 of their pledges

SAPPORO — The Group of Eight leaders need to "act now" and place eradicating poverty at the top of their agenda because 30,000 children are dying every day in the developing world, British actor Bill Nighy said. Nighy, an established actor who has appeared in the films "Love Actually," "Notes on a Scandal" and "Pirates of the Caribbean," is also an ambassador for Oxfam International, a U.K.-based confederation of 13 organizations aiming to reduce poverty and injustice. (Japan Times)

Cherry farmers Mitsuyo and Shunji Ono

Shunji Ono, 71, and his wife Mitsuyo, 70, are farmers in Yamagata Prefecture's Sagae City. Besides taking care of the rice paddies their ancestors have tended for hundreds of years, the Onos are famous for growing Sato Nishiki, the sweetest and most expensive Japanese cherries. Developed about 90 years ago by local farmer Eisuke Sato, and only grown in Japan, Sato Nishiki are considered perfect for ochugen (summer gifts), with 500 grams of the highest grade selling for ｴ10,000 in Tokyo. Since their arranged marriage 50 years ago, Shunji and Mitsuyo have worked side by side, sharing three meals at home and sleeping on futons next to one another. The two believe that a marriage with plenty of jokes and gaman (endurance) bears the sweetest fruit. Shunji: Marry the person you feel relaxed with. I had another omiai (arranged meeting), and that girl really wanted to marry me because my family is quite rich as we have lots of land. But I felt that if I'd married her, I'd lose out to her. Like I would pull out all my hair because of the stress. But with Mitsuyo, there is none of that. With her I laugh so much that my face is filled with wrinkles — and look at all the hair still on my head! We work together every day, and we sleep beside each other every night. (Japan Times)

Nursing care in trouble

Nursing care establishments are suffering from a severe labor shortage as many workers quit each year because of low wages and harsh working conditions. The government should realize that if this trend continues, the nation's nursing care system could collapse. Improving the wages and working conditions of nursing care workers will be imperative to secure a sufficient number of workers and, ultimately, better services. In fiscal 2006 the government decreased benefits paid to nursing care establishments from the nursing care insurance plan by 2.4 percent to try to curb spending growth. But this has worsened the financial condition of nursing care establishments. Inasmuch as personnel costs take up a large percentage of operating costs, it was inevitable that such establishments would lower workers' wages. (Japan Times)

Home stay with a working family

Regarding the June 26 article "Retirees start hosting home stays": I would like to offer my experience as an American student currently studying in Tokyo at Sophia University. My host family fits the description of a "nuclear family of the working generation." But contrary to Succeo Co. director Chitose Takeshima's comment that this reduces "the meaning of a home stay," I believe my experience is enriched. True, both of my host parents, 34 and 32, work during the day while their two daughters, 7 and 5, are at school. However, I am also away from home until about 8 p.m. each day due to my classes and club activities. At the end of each day, we share a relaxing meal together while swapping stories about our busy days. I find this to be a very relaxing and valuable part of my day, as our discussions range from embarrassing moments of the day to current events. (Japan Times)

Director Kore'eda on his '24 -hour' epic

Hirokazu Kore'eda began directing in 1991, while working for TV Man Union, a major TV production company. His first theatrical feature, 1995's "Maboroshi no Hikari" (English title: "Maboroshi"), was selected for the Venice Film Festival competition — a rare honor for a tyro director. His international breakthrough, however, came in 1998 with "Wonderful Life," and his 2004 followup, "Dare mo shiranai (Nobody Knows)," a drama about children abandoned by their mother, was screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where 15-year-old star Yuya Yagira won the Best Actor prize. This is your first real home drama — a basic genre in Japanese films. Did you want to see how you stack up against other directors who have worked in it? (Japan Times)

Women's shoe designer Moe Enomoto

Moe Enomoto, 28, is a women's shoe designer whose Sellenatela brand is carried by exclusive stores in Tokyo's Ginza and Daikanyama districts, and in San Francisco's hip Venus Superstar Boutique. Fascinated by beauty and driven by a desire to empower women of all lifestyles, Moe hopes that her shoes give women the confidence and energy to go far in style and comfort without having to walk in others' footsteps. Nobody can succeed alone. I design by myself, but to make the actual shoes, I need many people's support. Three or four days a week I work in the factories with craftspeople whose expert advice improves my original idea, but even if we make a masterpiece, unless a store carries it, nobody would even know it existed. Many people are involved with just one pair of shoes, so I don't even feel comfortable calling the finished product my own: It is ours, really. (Japan Times)

Negligible rise in fertility rate

The nation's fertility rate — the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime — has gone up, albeit slightly, for two consecutive years. But the population remains on a downward trend. The government needs to foster economic and social conditions that will make it easier for people to marry and have children. Japan's fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.26 in 2005, but rose to 1.32 the following year and reached 1.34 in 2007. The increase, however, was due to many women in their 30s apparently deciding to have a child before they turn 40. In 2007, 599,141 babies were born to women in their 30s, up 18 percent from the previous year, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. (Japan Times)

It's a Disney world after all

Once upon a time — about 50 years ago — a man had a dream. The dream involved the creation of a magical kingdom where the man's many visitors could frolic happily. So happily, in fact, that they would each shell out tons of money to be there. Oh, and the dream also involved a mouse. While Walt Disney lived to see that dream come true in the States, he never saw the magic of Disneyland in Japan. The Japanese version may look the same, but it's not. The differences work out not so much in language and attractions, but in overall cultural oomph. (Japan Times)