Yōkoso – welcome to the Japan category of this blog. This blog was inspired by my love of Japanese culture and their consumer trends. I was introduced to chambara films thanks to being a fan of Sergio Leone’s dollars trilogy. A Fistful of Dollars was heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo.
Getting to watch Akira and Ghost In The Shell for the first time were seminal moments in my life. I was fortunate to have lived in Liverpool when the 051 was an arthouse cinema and later on going to the BFI in London on a regular basis.
Today this is where I share anything that relates to Japan, business issues, the Japanese people or culture. Often posts that appear in this category will appear in other categories as well. So if Lawson launched a new brand collaboration with Nissan to sell a special edition Nissan Skyline GT-R. And that I thought was particularly interesting or noteworthy, that might appear in branding as well as Japan.
There is a lot of Japan-related content here. Japanese culture was one of odd the original inspirations for this blog hence my reference to chambara films in the blog name.
I don’t tend to comment on local politics because I don’t understand it that well, but I am interested when it intersects with business. An example of this would be legal issues affecting the media sector for instance.
If there are any Japanese related subjects that you think would fit with this blog, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment in the ‘Get in touch’ section of this blog here.
This presentation on South Korea was done before Squid Game took off on Netflix. South Korea can enhance and leverage its soft power in fields such as K-pop, soap operas, movies, video games, contemporary art, sports, education, business, and technology. Geography dealt Korea a poor hand as it historically has been invaded by China and by Japan. South Korea now has the economic and cultural resources to produce significant soft power, allowing it to design a foreign policy that will give it a larger role in global governance. South Korea today has an unparalleled opportunity to expand its international influence in ways that would have been unimaginable just a generation ago. Scholars, journalists, authors, industry leaders and other leading experts join us for sessions to raise the level of understanding of South Korea’s soft power and analyze the role of soft power in the context of U.S.- ROK alliance while offering suggestions for how Korean soft power can be used to broaden and strengthen the alliance.
Rush Doshi
Rush Doshi, former director of the Brookings China Strategy Initiative and a former fellow in Brookings Foreign Policy, and Michael O’Hanlon, director of research in Brookings Foreign Policy, followed by a panel discussion with experts who focused on analysis concerning the U.S.-China relationship and China’s grand strategy. This was to mark the launch of Doshi’s book The Long Game.
Dasani UK case study
One of the first posts I wrote on this blog was about Dasani which was in reaction to one of the stories that run about the brand in the media. Dasani is a bottled water brand owned by Coca-Cola; it is similar to Watson’s Water in Hong Kong and Singapore. It is processed and purified, rather than being a natural spring water. Tom Scott does a complete run down of the history of Dasani in the UK.
Shanghai Animated Film Studio
Shanghai Animated Film Studio has made films from world war two to the present day. The golden age for the studio was between the 1950s when they experimented with films using Chinese art techniques to the cultural revolution. Havoc in Heaven draws on Peking Opera.
North America Is Biggest Ransomware Target, Chainalysis Says – Bloomberg – This quote in the article about ransomware stood out to me: “The number of bad actors responsible for these widespread attacks is surprisingly small,” the report said. By taking action against the biggest players in groups such as infrastructure providers and money launderers, it said, “law enforcement can have an outsized impact and disrupt the operations of multiple strains.” – If ransomware was treated as war by other means that it actually is, rather than thinking of it as a law enforcement problem, things might get better. It would require the west to target ransomware payment rat runs and take out its key ransomeware players through covert means
Elite Capture of Foreign Aid Evidence from Offshore Bank Accounts Jørgen Juel Andersen Niels Johannesen Bob Rijkers – disbursements to highly aid-dependent countries coincide with sharp increases in bank deposits in offshore financial centers known for bank secrecy and private wealth man- agement, but not in other financial centers. The estimates are not confounded by contemporaneous shocks such as civil conflicts, natural disasters, and financial crises, and are robust to instrumenting with predetermined aid commitments. The implied leakage rate is around 7.5 percent at the sample mean and tends to increase with the ratio of aid to GDP. The findings are consistent with aid capture in the most aid-dependent countries.
Among the Taliban: a soldier-turned-writer’s journey through Afghanistan | Financial Times – I’ve benefited from the west. I had to fight, though; it has not been easy, but I hate being a victim. People kicked my head in. I kicked theirs in back. Things improved after I left my hometown of little opportunity in 1997. The Pakistani boys left back there are told to pull their socks up, get called Pakis, are accused of turning England into an Islamic state, forced into marriages, have fingers pointed at them by politicians when it’s convenient, and today they’re being told to change from being undereducated town-dwellers to remote coders for international tech companies. Yeah, right. A plane ticket to a war zone is much easier – great essay in the Financial Times
Vietnam’s factories lurch into crisis from worker exodus with holiday shopping on the line | South China Morning Post – thousands of workers – originally from the poorer parts of the country – who are leaving for their hometowns, an exodus that has left business owners in a state of panic over labour losses. Of the 3.5 million migrant workers employed in Ho Chi Minh City and its neighbouring provinces, 2.1 million want to return home, according to state media reports – explains Nike’s problems indicates that its systemic rather than brand or sector based in nature
Radicalised normal: how Britain fell to the conspiracy… – The Face – interesting essay. But one that I think under estimates the nature of what I’ve called angry Britain. Angry Britain don’t like the speed of change, they’re drawn from all classes of society. Angry Britain encompasses
National Trust members who feel its fine to be racist, like someone out of the the post-war Windrush period. As well as the traditional conservative working class racist who wore their views on their sleeves
New age believers looking for answers, 5G was something that they latched on to. They were always there in society, but weren’t mainstreamed until recently
Behind Coca-Cola’s new agency and marketing approach | Ad Age – why Coke cut Accenture, Arroyo indicated it was because the consultancy did not have the global scale Coca-Cola is seeking. “I think they are a fantastic, phenomenal agency from a capability standpoint,” he says. “Our challenge was more one of geographical reach. Their level of capabilities are very different depending on the geography around the world.” – and here was me thinking that their thinking wasn’t up to snuff as digital transformation isn’t the answer to every problem and their creativity lacking despite being a good number of hot shops
Foreign Office ‘warned UK-based Hong Kong critics about extradition risk abroad’ | Hong Kong | The Guardian – Hong Kong government figures list 19 extradition agreements with other nations including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Portugal. In response to the law, several countries including the UK, Australia, Germany, France and the US, tore up their Hong Kong agreements. Chinese authorities record at least 59 extradition agreements, including with countries across Asia and Europe, although not all are ratified. Several countries including France and Australia have indicated they will not ratify their agreements
The return of Huawei CFO becomes a nationalist moment for China — Quartz – China is turning the return of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou to the country into a celebration of its perceived diplomatic victory—a “win” rather than “win-win”—over the US and Canada. The timing couldn’t be better: its National Day celebrations fall on Oct. 1. Meng, who is also the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in late 2018 in Vancouver at the request of the US for alleged violations of its sanctions on Iran. After a lengthy battle against extradition in Canadian courts, Meng last week reached a deal with the US justice department. Meng admitted she misled banks regarding Huawei’s dealings with Iran; in exchange the US agreed to defer her prosecution until next year, after which the charges could be dismissed. Meng pleaded not guilty to charges of her committing bank and wire fraud – not surprising, also interpreted as a sign of terminal US decline.
The panellists look back to Tom Ford, in particular his notorious, provocative advertising campaigns during his tenure as creative director of Gucci, while wondering whether his present day collections have the same impact. The glamour of the Tom Ford tenures at YSL and Gucci including the old collections is also dissected. The analysis of the Tom Ford legacy is timely as Gucci has looked to relaunch some of his old signature pieces.
The debate doesn’t touch on Tom Ford and his impact on culture beyond luxury such film making. The outtake for me is that Tom Ford may have a longer and more relevant career than Karl Lagerfeld.
Macau casino stocks shed $16bn as government seeks greater oversight | Financial Times – the Chinese territory opened a 45-day public consultation on revising its gaming law, which is expected to step up scrutiny of operators in the world’s biggest gambling hub. Casino groups’ 20-year concessions to operate in Macau are set to expire next year. The authorities’ move to tighten control of casinos is also proceeding as Beijing embarks on a broad campaign to reshape the country’s business, political and cultural landscape in a bid to stamp out inequality and promote “cultural prosperity”. Chinese regulators have imposed stringent conditions on the country’s biggest companies in the tech, online education and video gaming sectors, and authorities have targeted social behaviours perceived as harmful
A decade of the Tim Cook machine — Benedict Evans – it will carry on making a certain kind of product for a certain kind of customer. That’s been the plan ever since the original Macintosh, and in some ways all that’s changed is how many more of those customers there are. The original Mac sold a few hundred thousand units in 1984, but Apple now sells half a million iPhones every day. Apple and the market grew into each other
In Depth: How Evergrande Hid Its Debt – Caixin Global – A source familiar with the capital market in Hong Kong said that Evergrande had raised a lot of money overseas at interest rates higher than 15%, which one source found to be perplexingly high. “How could Evergrande make a profit borrowing at such high interest rates?” the source asked. – I don’t think Lehman Brothers is the right analogue, but maybe Enron or MCI Worldcom are?
Kids who grew up with search engines could change STEM education forever – The Verge – It’s possible that the analogy multiple professors pointed to — filing cabinets — is no longer useful since many students Drossman’s age spent their high school years storing documents in the likes of OneDrive and Dropbox rather than in physical spaces. It could also have to do with the other software they’re accustomed to — dominant smartphone apps like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube all involve pulling content from a vast online sea rather than locating it within a nested hierarchy. “When I want to scroll over to Snapchat, Twitter, they’re not in any particular order, but I know exactly where they are,” says Vogel, who is a devoted iPhone user. Some of it boils down to muscle memory. But it may also be that in an age where every conceivable user interface includes a search function, young people have never needed folders or directories for the tasks they do. The first internet search engines were used around 1990, but features like Windows Search and Spotlight on macOS are both products of the early 2000s. Most of 2017’s college freshmen were born in the very late ‘90s. They were in elementary school when the iPhone debuted; they’re around the same age as Google. While many of today’s professors grew up without search functions on their phones and computers, today’s students increasingly don’t remember a world without them
Germans Demanding New China Policy. Will the Next Chancellor Deliver? | National Review – no matter who wins, German public opinion, pressure from the United States, and the strong possibility of having to partner with the Green Party in a coalition government make it likely the victor will be pushed in a more hawkish direction. The same hardening found among the German public is also happening in Parliament and the foreign ministry. Conservatives in the United States rightfully lament how bureaucracies often influence policy outcomes against the wishes of the principals leading them, not the other way around. When it comes to the future of Germany’s China policy, those bureaucratic exertions might not be such a bad thing
Most Germans believe their ‘golden age’ is over, poll finds – “These findings suggest that, while Angela Merkel has cemented Germany’s position as a great European power, the cornerstones of her legacy – neutrality and consensus building – will not be enough to defend the unity of the EU, and its place in the world, in the years to come.” Germans will head to the polls on September 26 to elect a new parliament and choose a successor to Mrs Merkel, who has served as chancellor since 2005. Her own party, the Christian Democratic Union, is lagging its coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrat Party, in polls. Mrs Merkel’s SPD finance minister, Olaf Scholz, is likely to become the next chancellor.
Foreign Office ‘warned UK-based Hong Kong critics about extradition risk abroad’ | Hong Kong | The Guardian – Hong Kong government figures list 19 extradition agreements with other nations including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Portugal. In response to the law, several countries including the UK, Australia, Germany, France and the US, tore up their Hong Kong agreements. Chinese authorities record at least 59 extradition agreements, including with countries across Asia and Europe, although not all are ratified. Several countries including France and Australia have indicated they will not ratify their agreements
How China’s ‘996’ culture is changing | Advertising | Campaign Asia – brands should be “non-judgmental and show empathy and kindness towards the young generations.” By doing so, they can keep momentum going even after “lying flat” no longer trends. “If brands can even help young people to achieve their personal goals, that would help build the loyalty of the younger consumers in the long term,” she advised. brands should be “non-judgmental and show empathy and kindness towards the young generations.” By doing so, they can keep momentum going even after “lying flat” no longer trends. “If brands can even help young people to achieve their personal goals, that would help build the loyalty of the younger consumers in the long term,” she advised.
Lithuania says throw away Chinese phones due to censorship concerns | Reuters – The National Cyber Centre’s report also said the Xiaomi phone was sending encrypted phone usage data to a server in Singapore. A security flaw was also found in the P40 5G phone by China’s Huawei (HWT.UL) but none was found in the phone of another Chinese maker, OnePlus, it said. – given the closeness of Russia and China, at least some of the concern will about their mutual help of each other in the cybersecurity realm
Report: Fake chips flood in to exploit supply shortage – Oki Engineering has opened a chip verification service. And after opening the service in June, Oki had received 150 inquiries by August. After studying about 70 cases it found problematic chips in about 30 percent of them. With constrained supplies customers are prepared to buy from “unconventional sources,” the report said. Industrial and medical equipment manufacturers are amongst those to have subscribed to Oki’s chip verification service
Tokyo based digital experiential agency teamLab came up with an interesting installation in the basement of GINZA 456. But the exhibition was live-streamed so that viewers from around the would could enjoy Walk Walk Walk Home. Walk Walk Walk Home was designed to provide a COVID-safe experience, that still fostered community.
Consumers were invited to colour one of a range of characters and upload it. The characters that consumers submitted walked in real time on the YouTube Live Stream. When a character is touched, the character reacts, sometimes stopping temporarily interrupting Walk Walk Walk Home. When a new character walked out, the name of the town where the character was contributed from is shown. teamLab did Walk Walk Walk Home for Japanese telecoms provider KDDI. It runs until the end of the COVID-19 epidemic. More related content here.
Anita Mui biopic
Anita Mui was a giant in the world of Cantopop, she was often considered to be its Madonna. But the Madonna analogue doesn’t really do Anita Mui’s career justice. Given that most things have become political in Hong Kong; it seems like the right time to reflect on Hong Kong’s historic role at the centre Asian popular culture for much of the 20th century and the Anita Mui biopic sits at the centre of it. Mui kept performing up until the last prior to her dying of cancer. Judging by the trailer the CGI of Hong Kong up to the early 2000s is amazing. Mui remained at the top of her game from 1982 to 2003, when she died at the age of 40.
Greater Bay Airlines
Cathay Pacific has been bleeding like a stuck pig due to COVID. But that also means now is an ideal time to set up a new airline. Greater Bay Airlines looks to connect Hong Kong with other cities in China and some parts of the belt-and-road. It looks like it might be a discount airline judging by the planes. The have started with a fleet focused on Boeing 737s. What is obvious is that there hasn’t been much money spent on the GBA brand. It’s almost like non-branding, see for yourself. That sea green looks its a tint lighter than Cathay Pacific’s palette but otherwise the same.
Matrix Resurrectons
Since the entertainment industry has been riding on the success of the John Wick franchise, it made sense for the media to return to The Matrix. Matrix Resurrections is the fourth instalment of the series. It is hard to judge from the trailer, but it doesn’t seem to be a neat take-up from the third instalment.
Rethinking Chinese politics
This is a great discussion with the author of the book Rethinking Chinese Politics. In his book and the interview the author Joseph Fewsmith discusses the challenge of power transition in China. He doesn’t discuss the rumoured assassination attempt against Hu Jintao during a PLA Navy inspection visit to Shanghai. More information on the book here.