Ged Carroll

Category: japan |日本 | 일본

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.

  • Documerica + more news

    Documerica

    The U.S. National Archives collection of Documerica photos that were originally taken on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1971 – 1977. There is such a great selection of images in Documerica released under a creative commons license and I love using them in slideware. Documerica featured the work of between 70 and 120 photographers

    Residents Take Part in Organized Daily Exercises in One of the Public Pools at Century Village Retirement Community.

    Business

    Chinese Way of Doing Business – In Cash We Trust – NYTimes.com

    MasterCard usage is growing five times faster in emerging markets than in the US – Quartz

    BP to use Angolan gas to fuel European homes – Telegraph – to plug the gap that mature UK fields aren’t filling and provide alternative supply to Russia

    Consumer behaviour

    Hotel Guests Turn Away From TV and Toward Streaming Media

    Placing the displaced: Lessons from researching the Irish community in London // Articles // breac // University of Notre Dame

    Is Dunbar’s Number Up? – University of Toronto

    Economics

    China Magazine Floats Idea of Selling Parts of Currency Reserves – Bloomberg

    George Osborne faces £24bn dilemma on UK bank stakes – FT.com

    Chart of the Day: European Unemployment Hits New Record – which will take longer to turn around than the economic numbers

    Chinese manufacturers are beset by a global slowdown and rising wages – gradual change in the structure of the Chinese economy

    Career mistresses, and the truth about women holding up half the sky in China – Campaign Asia – great article about consumer attitudes of Chinese women. Family cramps aspirations, financial gain is a key driver

    London property being snapped up as quickly as before 2007 crisis – Reuters

    BBC News – MPs question government’s infrastructure spending plans

    A rate cut won’t help Europe because investors still lack confidence in European banks

    The danger is that UK companies will spend their cash abroad – Telegraph – because it makes more sense than the economic uncertainty in the UK

    Finance

    Rethink listing rules after ENRC: top investor – Telegraph

    Bank lending to bounce back as bad debts fall – The Independent

    FMCG

    Junk foods avoid ad ban by targeting children online | The Guardian – not terribly surprising

    Innovation

    Oslo Copes With Shortage of Garbage It Turns Into Energy – NYTimes.com

    How Skynet Might Emerge From Simple Physics

    Luxury

    China calls time on expensive watches in face of crackdown – FT.com

    Media

    Clarification to Guardian’s Wrong Article, Again… | Socialbakers

    Facebook’s Declining User Growth Rate – AllThingsD – law of big numbers

    Five reasons why this is the worst earnings report Facebook has ever issued – Quartz

    ‘Facebook is dead’ among young people | PRWeek – it will be interesting to see if they can turn this around. Especially interesting that this is the message coming from BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat and 1Xtra news editor Rod McKenzie

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Predicts the Future of Streaming Video – Peter Kafka – Media – AllThingsD

    Deloitte’s UK Media Consumer survey ’13

    Digital Marketers Say It’s Becoming More Important to Rank in Global Search Engines

    Yahoo Announces New Ad Formats: Mobile-Friendly Native Ads And A Big ‘Billboard’ On Its Front Page | TechCrunch

    Auction System Helps Place Digital Outdoor Ads – WSJ.com

    Meme

    Twitter Users Mark ‘Ed Balls Day’ Anniversary | Orange UK

    Online

    Yahoo acquires 4 million user to-do app Astrid, service to continue as is for 90 days – The Next Web

    Free Speech on the Internet: Silicon Valley is Making the Rules | New Republic

    Security

    Proposal seeks to fine tech companies for noncompliance with wiretap orders – The Washington Post

    Why your personality will be scored in the next 5 years | VentureBeat

    Software

    Surface Tension: The effect of Surface on Windows revenues | asymco

    Apple to release OS X 10.9 with new power-user features, more from iOS later this year | 9to5Mac

    Jony Ive paints a fresh, yet familiar, look for iOS 7 | 9to5Mac – a move away from web 2.0 reflection metaphors. More here The Flattening of Design – NYTimes.com

    Apple addresses WWDC sellout, says that separate Tech Talks are coming this fall (Matthew Panzarino/The Next Web)

    Technology

    I, Cringely The Decline & Fall of IBM – I, Cringely

    Web of no web

    Here’s the Real Reason Why Virtual Reality Doesn’t Work Yet

    Google gets people ready for Glass with new how-to video

    SoLoMo: Kotak Bank Celebrates Foursquare Day in 200 Banking Branches | VisibleBanking.com

    Microsoft IllumiRoom is a coffee table projector designed for the next-generation Xbox | The Verge

    Wireless

    Samsung Marketing Advertising Budget Casts Dark Shadow Over Android | BGR – 9.2 billion dollars marketing spend, that’s one hell of a competitive advantage

    Apple’s Share of Worldwide Tablet Shipments Falls Below 40% in 1Q 2013 – Mac Rumors

    Active antennas invade next-gen smartphones

    Softbank posts 50% operating profit margins in its mobile business

    BlackBerry’s CEO is correct: There’s no future in tablets – I think that this is a cross form factor phenomena of commidisation driven by the Android operating system

    Does anyone know why Google bought Motorola?

  • Crafty startup + more things

    Lisa, a former colleague from Yahoo! has joined a crafty startup. The Yahoo! alumni network has a bit of a reputation with crafty startups. Hack Day pioneer Chad Dickerson was instrumental in the growth of Etsy. My Mum now has a compelling web application:

    In a nutshell, Wool and the Gang is a knitwear brand where you can either buy our designs hand-knit by artisans in Peru or you can buy a kit to make it yourself. We have some pretty exciting plans which I can’t go in to detail here but suffice it to say I’m excited and so are a number of investors here in the UK.

    That’s why I’m looking to fill out the team to completely overall the online experience and build something which is currently super secret. If you know anyone for the following roles, please pass them my email rodwell@woolandthegang.com

    1. User Experience – KICK ASS! We’re starting from scratch and need brilliance. I suspect this is not full time but a contract position as we design the new site and product

    2. Marketing Associate – Great opportunity for a young, smart whipper-snapper who wants to get in to marketing (PR/email/content/social etc.) I’m willing to train but must be smart, love fashion, creative and good with the odd number

    3. Front End Developer – full time.

    Wool and the Gang as a crafty startup taps into the Etsy marketplace. The side hustle, bored pensioners or part time gig to channel one’s creative side into. I’m not surprised. Over the years, as I occasionally went home and joined my Mum on fabric and knitting wool shopping trips, the customer base I have seen in the shops have gotten younger. The market seems to be like a dumbbell, with young and older people engaging. It will be interesting to see if this can be extended online with the rise of the successful crafty startup.

    Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner’s first album as Electronic is being reissued, you can stream it for free via a nice looking app on the great satan of social networks here.

    BBC Labs great interactive illustration of the UK class system was fascinating and shows in a positive way just where the license fee goes despite UK politics. Class is a complex concept for people who’ve never lived in the United Kingdom.

    https://youtu.be/UDIHrX-Jp2E

    It was so embedded in UK culture that it was referenced in this skit on modernity.

    Root Blog posted the excellent documentary Synth Britannia. None of that guitar and drums crap, real music. Despite the UK’s place as ground zero for punk, heavy metal and glam rock from the 1980s onwards it pioneered a lot of electronic music styles. 

    Japanese company Denso Corp. came up with a killer smart phone application, an key ring finder. I imagine that his works far better than the version from the 1980s gadget catalogue Kaleidoscope (US readers think Sharper Image catalogs of the same vintage). tMore Japan related content here.

  • Siberian meteor burst + more

    Siberian meteor burst

    I know that there have been 500 people with minor injuries, but  the Siberian meteor burst felt like I was living in a Jerry Bruckheimer film. The best observation I saw about it was in Vice magazine’s email newsletter which asked why so many drivers in Russia had managed to film the asteroid rather than keeping both hands on the wheel? The reason for the multiple recordings of the Siberian meteor burst is driver cams used to help with car accident disputes. The Siberian meteor burst brought back memories of the Tunguska event in 1908 which levelled large swathes of Siberian forest.

    Business

    “Physically Together”: Here’s the Internal YHOO No-Work-From-Home Memo | AllThingsD – I could see a post coming on from Becky McMichael about the benefits of remote working and flexible hours etc etc

    PrivCo | LIVINGSOCIAL $110M Debt Infusion From Existing Investors With Oppressive Terms – I wonder what implications this will have for GroupOn

    Consumer behaviour

    HBO: The Weight of the Nation interesting site on obesity in the US

    Culture

    So there has been extensive character redesigns and different actors will be voicing some of the main protagonists, but I am super-excited that Production I.G are returning with another installment in the Ghost In the Shell series of anime. Arise looks amazing judging by the trailer footage now available on YouTube. More Japan related content can be found here.