Japan's usual method is to improve on a product, do it right (high quality) and charge for it.

However, ANA may launch the budget airline possibly in business 2009.

Reason – to cope with increasing competition from the planned expansion of Haneda and Narita airports.

ANA will link Japan with destinations in Asia.

ANA officials said alliances with other airlines in Asia is under consideration.

Have you ever flown on a budget airline? 

source 

A crane tipped over at a construction site in Tokyo.

The top crashed into the sixth floor of a neighboring building.

You can bet, the operator's butt was biting the seat and the residents on the sixth floor had other activity from below as well.

The crane was moving rocks and other debris for a 12 story building with two underground floors.

I once taught a class to a group of crane operators….terrible students but nice guys.

The operators were working on the construction of the nuclear power plant in Kariwa and one of them was working the world's largest crane.

I asked him if he thought that was 'cool.'

"Nope…the thing turns at the speed of the clock…one degree a minute. Takes forever to do anything. The little cranes are more 'fun.'"

Yeah….unless they fall over.

Would you like to drive a crane?

70-30 or 80-20…see # 49.

Hospital care is more affordable in Japan than it is America, for example…mostly because everyone in Japan has insurance.

Contrary to popular opinion that it would be abused…that’s the American way…like going to a buffet…if it can be used to one’s heart’s content, then it better be used.

In Japan, there is abuse…but it would be the exception. Japanese don’t enjoy

buffets as much as their super-sized American friends.

There is a story about 4 old women who met everyday at the hospital to talk about their ailments. One day one of them didn’t show up. Another asked where she was.

“Oh, she didn’t feel well today, so she stayed home.”

The health system gets abused sometimes, but it is still affordable and everyone has insurance.

Japan must be doing something right, no?

Her husband didn't take the slaying lieing down… She hit him in the head with a hammer several times while he was asleep…I guess he was lieing down.

But, then the hammer to the head wasn't enough. The old fart got up and ran away. But, the wife was prepared. She hacked at him with a kitchen knife until the deed was done.

She opened drawers, called the police and told them they had been robbed.

Japan's population is graying and so are the number of crimes committed by the elderly.

The judge said – "The crime was relentless, cruel and based on a strong murderous intent." But, he added, "It deserves sympathy that she could not tolerate her husband's violence for a long time, and it is understandable, considering her age, that she was too ashamed to consult anyone about it."

Giving her luck…the woman will live out those 8 years.

Net surfing, working on a notebook PC, and PDAs won't be what they used to be.

The group will be established next month and run by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology and private companies.

The institute aims to develop and commercialize by around 2015 a network that

can xfer data at 10gigabytes/sec or ten times faster than the NEXT GENERATION network.

Some $260 million will be invested in the project over the next five years.

100 billion devices will be able to access the network simultaneously and still enjoy extremely fast data-transfer speeds.

PCs, mobile phones, surveillance cameras, medial sensors and other devices will be able to connect to the network.

The technology will offer stable and reliable high-speed wireless access even on moving high-speed trains.

The Next Next Generation – that's thinking ahead. 

The U.S. has been crying foul. The Chinese yuan is undervalued. Let’s force the exchange rate so it will be more favorable for exchange. Then and only then will the trade imbalance be rectified…they say.

I say – no way! When they forced the Japanese to revalue the yen in the 80′s, nothing happened to the trade imbalance.

And now, finally someone important agrees with me.

Let the market decide. When and only when the US begins making products that the Chinese want and can afford and start to buy, then and only then will the trade imbalance begin to shift.

What do you think?

I remember when my Japanese father-in-law died. I was out teaching when I got the news. Around 10pm I made my way to the morgue in the basement of the hospital where he spent the last year and half of his life.

Family was sitting around him, mourning him, and tears flowed freely.

The local funeral director came in, lowered himself to his knees, bowed, "I am sorry for your loss."

We returned his bow.

He then opened up a book of funeral plans, and said "Okay, let's get started."

Right there. Right then. When the family was most vulnerable, he negotiated the best flowers, the best layout, the most costly priest, our family could afford.

At one point, "That much money will get your father/husband a better name on his tomb stick and a happier eternity."

More money = happier after life….and, well you get the picture.

How about a sushi buffet during the dinner while the loved one is being cremated? Or a better pick of karaoke songs?

It takes about two hours for a loved one to be cremated. The family 'enjoys' a dinner with family and close friends while that happens.

Japan's Rising Sun is setting:

* 25 million of Japan's 127 million people are 65 or older amid increasing life expectancies and record low birth rates.

* Around 36 per cent will be aged 65 or over in 2050.

* By 2050 Japan expects to have the world's largest proportion of pensioners.

VIP services, individuals are thinking, planning overtime, on how they can capitalize even more, yep, make a killing on the death of the ever greying Japanese.

What do you think?

It used to be that you could always find a Japanese runner or two or three among the top runners.

Not so much so in the men’s group anymore. The female runners, however, are a different story.

I wonder how they will do this year.

Users can make payments by merely holding their cellphone handset with a credit card function over a specialized reader at cashier's counters in stores.

Taxis, convenience stores….the number of readers has grown 3-4 times in the past year to around 240,000 units nationwide.

Payments can be withdrawn from a bank or other savings account and gift points aren't sacrificed. Oh, boy!

Japan has three electronic settlement formats for cell phones:

1. iD system operated by NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co

2. QUICPay service provided by JCB Co. and Toyota Finance Corp.

3. Visa Touch/Smartplus offered by Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos Co.

It sure is getting easier to spend money you don't have.

How much is your credit card debt?