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Health conscious Japanese women are running in style

Masashi — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:57:25 +0000

The quickest way to beauty is to sweat.” So goes the battle cry in a recent issue of Anan, Tokyo’s most influential women’s magazine. A year ago this same publication had boldly endorsed sex as the surefire way of attaining and maintaining a beautiful body.

Now its paradigm has shifted, as more women equate fashion with health and the sense of true empowerment gained by strenuous workouts. And far from being sports geeks, these women don’t forget to accessorize their activities with femininely attractive sports paraphernalia. “Because sporty is sexy!” declares another blurb in the Anan issue, followed by: “Women who sweat are beautiful from the very core of their beings.”

“I think the magazine is finally starting to realize that their readers have other interests beside sex, dieting and clothes,” said Yuka Takahashi, a model who works regularly for the magazine and is herself an avid workout fan. “Nowadays, fashion has got to be about individual happiness, well-being and ecology. It’s great that they’re finally tapping into those things.”

Among the increasing number of young women acquiring this sports/health consciousness are those who have embraced the latest Tokyo fad: running. The number of Japanese who run more than twice a week has reached 280,000, according to a sports publication company Runners Inc., and a growing number of them are women under 45, mostly concentrated in and around the city.

When it comes to Japanese television it’s just plain weird, but when they invent things its even weirder

Masashi — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:31:44 +0000

A compilation of useless inventions by the Japanese. I wonder who uses them except for the inventors themselves. Picture on the right shows a solar powered lighter.

Japan steps up executions

Masashi — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:11:18 +0000

Japan on Thursday hanged four convicted murderers as it steps up the pace of executions, an official said.

Japan is the only major industrial country other than the United States to use the death penalty. The government has said public opinion has demanded that they increase the pace of its executions.

The justice ministry executed four people aged 41 to 64 in different places in Japan, a justice ministry official said. All of them were convicted of murder.

One of the executed inmates, Kaoru Okashita, 61, was convicted of killing two people including an 82-year-old woman with whom he had a property dispute.

Japan parties signal compromise in central bank stalemate

Masashi — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:04:43 +0000

Japan’s two major parties signaled Sunday they would reach a compromise on the next central bank chief, with only three days left before the post falls vacant amid global market turmoil.

The opposition hinted it would back one of two potential candidates to lead the central bank of the world’s second largest economy, amid signs the ruling coalition is willing to put forward a new name.

The opposition, which controls one house of parliament, flexed its muscles last week to vote down the government’s pick of Toshiro Muto, currently the number two at the Bank of Japan.

The opposition argued that Muto, a former heavyweight in the finance ministry, was too close to the government to ensure the central bank’s independence.