Blog #6: Japanese Cars

Hi, everyone! I'm Takuya. I'm gonna write about Nissan(日産） which is one of the famous Japanese car companies. I love cars, especially sports cars and Nissan has many sports cars and they look very cool so I want to introduce them to you.

Nissan's cars which I specially like are GT-R, SKYLINE series, and FAIRLADY Z. These cars not only cool, but also have high-performance engines so they are also driven as machines for races. They sometimes win the championship so it becomes a good advertisement of Nissan and Nissan is still continuing to be famous in the world.

In addition,there are not only sports cars, also low displacement cars(kei-cars), compact cars, and electric vehicles(EV). The most famous one is LEAF. This car do not emit carbon dioxide because the energy is 100% electricity and it was awarded by World Car of the Year 2011. A lot of car companies have produced ecocars such as hybrid cars but they could not produce EV such as LEAF because of lack of the technique. Thus, I think Nissan has supreme technology.

However, the price is more expensive than other companies' cars a little, so Nissan's share in the car market is not so wide. Japanese company which has the biggest share is TOYOTA but TOYOTA has only family cars and compact cars so I like Nissan rather than TOYOTA. I wish Nissan will have No1 share in the market.

If you are interested in Nissan, please check the link and enjoy!
http://www.nissan.co.jp/

Blog #6: My favorite brand

Hi. I'm Keiichi. As you know I'm the heaviest shopaholic in Gakushuin uni, so today I introduce one of famous fashion brand .

One of my favorite fashion brand is "H&M". It sells fashion products, including cloths, accessories, jewels, cosmetics, and whatever associated with fashion. In 1947 its first outlet was opened in Västerås, Sweden, with its origin name "Hennes"as cloths for women, and 20 years after, it started to sell men's and children's clothing and changed its name to " Hennes & Mauritz". Now its name was changed to "H&M", which is expanding all over the world, and has about 2600 stores.

There are two reasons why I like H&M.

Firstly its price. Its products are always so cheap compared with other fashion brands, but not be seen so cheap. This brand always knows what is trendy, what people need, how to sell its products for more consumers, and appropriate price for them, so it can be attracting so many people in the world.

Actually I bought them only about 1000yen!!! (but left below is not H&M's product. I bought that necklace at Forever21, which is also fast-fashion brand.)
How amazing they are :p

Secondary its policy. Its policy is "interpret the latest fashion trends and create collections that are accessible to all." That is, H&M does not target particular people like fashion lovers or teenage girls. It opens its door for everyone, regardless of their age, their country, or whether they like fashion or not. Nowadays, not to target age-group is most important thing to succeed in business.

(I really miss these shoes...I wanted to buy it when it was announced, but it was sold out when I went to outlet.)


Before I researched about H&M, I didn't know its policy or marketing strategy at all although I go its outlets once two weeks. But after writing this blog, I could know a lot about H&M and I came to have more interests in it. Besides, my heart is extremely exhausted because of exam, so this blog really became breath-fresher for me!!!!
Good luck everyone for your exam! And hopefully, see you in summer!!

Blog #6: Japanese amazing company

Hi, I'm Sayuri. Today I would like to talk about one of famouse Japanese brand, CASIO . It was founded in 1957 so they've been for 55 years. At biggining, they delveloped electronic calculater. This is a photo.

After that, they developed  many kind of electronic devices. Maybe, when you hear the name of CASIO, you guess their watches. But today, I forcuse on their electronic dictionary "EX-word".

Look! It's so cool! It's like a small computer! This is CASIO's electric dictionary. Of couse, I have it. And I see many colleage students have CASIO's, and you?

This is reaally useful. There are so manny functions, here.

・many kinds of dictionaries in it (about 35 dictionaries)

・pronounciation (English and other languages)

・touch panel (we can write someting to serch)

・a collection of words for TOIEC

・SD card (to add a new dictionary)

etc......

Thanks to these function, it has No.1 share of the market. And I love it because it's light to carry, cool design. And moreover it is smart!!! I think Japanese company always think about small things. And as a result, they could make super useful dictionary!

Sayuri

Blog #5: Rethink about jobs

Hello everyone! I’m Makiko. I know this is sudden, but I’ll ask you 2 questions;

1.   Can you draw figures of a nurse, a flight attendant, a teacher of a kinder garden and a florist in your mind with your imagination?

2.   Then, can you draw an astronaut, a mechanic, a scientist, a pilot, a policeman and a surgeon, next?

Done?
Okay, then I’ll guess your imaginations. The people for the question No.1 are women and people for No.2 are men, aren’t they?
Correct?
This is exactly what I want you to think about through reading my post. People tend to think that jobs which require kindness and communication skills are for women and the ones which require the scientific knowledge and physical power are for men.

But can’t girls have a dream to be an astronaut to change the human’s history? Can’t boys long to the florist to make people happy? Of course they can! But as you’ve EXPERIENCED just now, people still have a prejudice for women’s jobs and men’s jobs. So we have to throw them away.

Now I want to introduce some interesting programs to solve these problems.

First of all, watch this video below.

This is made by EU. What did you think? Wasn’t it awkward? Well,it was failed. There was a big argument all over the world soon after it had made. And because of a lot of criticism, EU stopped using it.

Next thing is a “Girls’ Day.”
On this day, girls go to the scientific companies or laboratories and experience “men’s jobs.” This is carried out in many countries. It would be a good opportunity for girls to think about their futures in those kinds of jobs.

At last, let me introduce my favorite video about this topic.

Isn’t it awesome? I like it very much!

People’s lifestyles are changing and the differences between men and women are getting less. The era of quiet modest girls is over now. We can do whatever we want. The only thing we have to do now is to put off our stupid suits of prejudice!

GIRLS, BE ANBICIOUS.

Blog #5: Electric Competence

 Hi, guys!! I'm Takuya! I'm gonna write about 鴻海精密(Hong-Hai), a Taiwanese company.

 Have you heard this company's name? It ranks third in electric world and increases its share of the market. No1 and 2 in this world are SAMSUNG and LG which are Korean companies. A lot of Japanese know these two companies' name, however, Hong-Hai is not so famous in Japan compared to them. I think the reason is that it does not have own brands. For example, SAMSUNG has Galaxy, a smart phone, and it is very popular in Japan. But Hong-Hai does not have. 

 Then, why it can increases its share and grows recently? The reason is many companies orders to manufacture their products to Hong-Hai so its profit is increasing. Very famous companies such as SONY, Panasonic, and Apple also do that and this is the reason why I am interested in this company. 

 Why they do that? Why don't they manufacture their products by themselves? Because Hong-Hai has very skillful technique and ordering to it is cheaper than manufacturing by themselves. Thus, a lot of famous and popular products, for example, liquid crystal TV, PS3, and iphone are produced by Hong-Hai!! Doesn't it sound interesting? They are made in Taiwan! Do you have an iphone? Probably, it is also made in Taiwan, not in U.S.! 

 Hong-Hai will be continuing to grow so you should remember it because it is more famous than Japanese electric companies. In the past their products had good quality so they became popular in the world but their shares are decreasing recently. One day, I think Hong-Hai would have No1 share in electric world.

 Here is the rink. Please check it out if you are interested in it.

http://www.foxconn.com.tw/

Blog #5: Our future

Hi, I'm Sayuri. Today, I would like to talk about "our future". There is a big probrem in Japan, that is "nuclear power plants".

The nuclear power plant in Ooi re-worked from July 1st. It was the first case after the accident in Fukushima.

Why Japanese government dicided to re-work? Kansai Electric Power Co.,Inc.(Kan-Den) has 11 nuclear power plants. This is percentage of electric power in Kan-Den. Surprisingly the nuclear power is the highest percentag. Since the government dicided to stop the all nuclear power plants, it couldn't supply enough electricity.

If it doesn't rework the nuclear power plants, the poeple who live in the Kansai area have to save 15% of using electricity in this summer(By 節電.go.jp ). By the way, Tokyo Electric Power CO.,Inc.(To-Den) could save 18&% of it(by YOMIURI ONLINE). And it was hard, wasn't it? But we realized that we had used much more electlicity than we need.

So the Japanese government dicided to rework one of nuclear plants in Ooi to keep supply of electricity. But more than 20,000 people gathered in front of the official residence to protest aginst the re-woking.



But they are poeple who live in Kansai?  They think about Kansai poeple? The nuclear power plants have danger. It is true, we felt it by 3.11. In the other hand, there are many people who have got much benefit from them. People who work there, people who live in Ooi; they recieve money from government and Kan-Den, and so on. We have to think about them because they are not bad people and they just make a living.

Just saying "Stop Nuclear Electrisity!" is nonsense. Because we already  know about it and it can't move the government. So we have to think about human life(include people who live in Ooi) and offer new type of generation. It's not easy way. But now we have to dicide our future.

Sayuri 

Blog #4: Swilling Soda

 Hi! I'm Yu! Today, I'll introduce you the news article which I'm interested in.

 On May 30th, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he planed to introduce the prohibition of swilling soda to deal with a fatness problem in NY. This prohibition will restrict the sales of drinks which contain sugar such as soda, ice tea, sportsdrink in restaurants to 16 ounces.

 However, beverage industry started a campaign against it on the street and the media. The American Beverage Association(ABA) takes the initiative in this campaign. This industry made New York Stake withdraw the introduction of soda tax in 2010. They insist on the freedom of choice of drinks. In addition, they think that drinks contain sugar are aimed at and  low-income consumers will suffer heavy losses directly for this prohibition.

 To be sure, fatness causes many diseases. It will increase the amount of medical bill and the expense will fall on the country and autonomies. However I doubt whether this goverment intervention has a effect on fatness problem. Although they people can't drink soda too much at restaurants but they can buy soda at supermarkets and drink at home. I think that his prohibition can't keep the number of overweight people.

Anyway, it is getting hotter and hotter and you will get to want to drink soda. But, be careful not to drink soda too much to keep weight!

See you next time!

Yu

Blog #4: Raw liver

Hello everyone! Today, let me introduce a sad news.
On July 1, Japanese government officially forbid any restaurants to sell the "raw liver" and a lot of people went to Yakiniku-shop to eat it the day before. 

It all started with the food poisoning-case happened at the Yakiniku restaurant "Yakiniku Shuka Ebisu" last April. Some boys eating these were dead of O-111 virus contained in them. After this harsh case, since last October, every restaurants which treated raw meat dishes had to boil  meats used for such dishes in the water more than 60 degree Celsius at least 1 minute, if they are ordered. Also they had to cut and boil such meats by using cleaned equipment. However since yesterday, Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry forbade to sell raw livers because they can contain some viruses like O-157 virus which can make people die at the worst, and especially in summer such viruses can be expected to increase.

But this decision can give some restaurant bad incentives. Some analysts, in this case, some restaurants will provide a raw liver by changing its name from "Liver sasimi" to just "Liver" because consumers will want raw liver more by forbidding.. Especially the restaurant which has big connection with local consumers will not be able to ignore their wants for providing a raw liver so  it can provide a raw liver as a liver for boiled, in order to keep its customer.

I agree with its decision but I think Japanse government should have decide a certain rimit for forbidding a raw liver. If it decided to forbid to provide them "FOR 3 MONTHS", consumer wouldn't likely to eat them. One reason many Japanese people disagree with this order is that the goverment has not decided to forbid it whether forever or not.

Anyway, I rearly eat raw meats in a Yakiniku restaurant so it doesn't matter for me!
Please be carefull if you eat something raw in summer.
See you!

Keiichi.