Japanese cities have olympics dream.

Japan is back on the Olympic trail with two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki — site of atomic bombings in World War II — teaming up to make a bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics that will emphasize world peace.

The announcement comes a little more than a week after Tokyo lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympics. Tokyo organizers have not indicated whether they will bid again.

A number of cities already have expressed interest in vying for the 2020 Olympics, including Istanbul, Budapest and Delhi. A host city is expected to be named in 2013, and only one city per country is allowed to submit a bid.

Japanese turn to counting the pennies..

Not long ago, many Japanese bought so many $100 melons and $1,000 handbags that this was the only country in the world where luxury products were considered mass market.

Even through the economic stagnation of Japan’s so-called lost decade, which began in the early 1990s, Japanese consumers sustained that reputation. But this recession has done something that earlier declines could not: turned the Japanese into Wal-Mart shoppers.

In seven years operating in Japan, through a subsidiary called Seiyu, Wal-Mart Stores has never turned a profit. But sales have risen every month since November, and this year, the retailer expects to make a profit.

That is an understatement. Across the board, discount retailers are reporting increases in revenue — while just about everyone else is experiencing declines, in some cases, by double digits. As a result, the luxury boutiques, once almighty here, are reeling.

Sales at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, makers of what has long been Japan’s favorite handbag, plunged 20 percent in the first six months of 2009. In December, as the global economic crisis unfolded, Louis Vuitton canceled plans for what would have been a fancy new Tokyo store.

In the 1970s and ’80s, and even as the economy limped through the ’90s, a wide group of consumers spent generously on Louis Vuitton bags and Hermès scarves — even at the expense of holidays, travel and, sometimes, meals and rent.

Now, the Japanese luxury market, worth $15 billion to $20 billion, has been among the hardest hit by the global economic crisis, according to a report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Retail analysts, economists and consumers all say that the change could be a permanent one. A new generation of Japanese fashionistas does not even aspire to luxury brands; they are happy to mix and match treasures found in a flurry of secondhand clothing stores that have sprung up across Japan.

In 2008, average household spending fell a record 69,509 yen, or $762, to 3.5 million yen, or $38,475, from a year earlier, and is expected to fall again this year, said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life.

Underlying Japan’s accelerating frugality is a “deflationary gap” of 40 trillion yen in the Japanese economy, a situation where total demand falls short of what an economy produces. When this happens, companies cut prices, but since they still do not make money, they have to lay off workers. Fewer workers mean still less demand, creating a vicious circle, and prices fall further.

The dismal economy encourages thrift, too. Unemployment is at a record high of 5.7 percent, compared with 9.7 percent in the United States. A troubled government pension system, as well as ballooning government debt, has driven a widespread fear of the future, prompting people to save, not spend.

Famous Japanese cartoonist disappears

Popular Japanese cartoonist Yoshito Usui, whose manga and animation series ‘Crayon Shin-chan’ has attracted a worldwide fan base, has gone missing on a hiking trip, police said Wednesday.

Usui, 51, left his home north of Tokyo Japan last Friday for a day-trip to mountains in nearby Gunma, a prefectural police official said.

But he has since been unaccounted for with calls to his mobile phone left unanswered, the official said. ‘We are searching for him in the mountains.’

Usui made his debut as a manga author in 1987 and gained popularity in the 1990s with ‘Crayon Shin-chan’ featuring the daily life of Shinnosuke, a mischievous five-year-old Japanese boy.

‘We are seriously worried,’ said a spokesman for publisher Futabasha Publishers Ltd., which has released some of his comics.

Japanese Recession bites hard

Aid groups say thousands of Japanese families are living under the poverty line. For many that means they cannot afford to put food on their tables. One organization is trying to fix Japan’s hunger problem.

Volunteers at the Second Harvest Food pantry in Tokyo fill cardboard boxes with bread, vegetables and canned goods. The boxes soon will be sent to families living around the city.

“Our three main groups of people are refugees, single mothers and Japanese who are unemployed,” said Ruby Sakuma, the pantry’s coordinator. “Right now we have about 140 households we are serving. They get one package of food every two weeks, a total of six packages and when those six packages are sent we send them a letter saying this is the end, if they are in really dire circumstances then we sometimes renew their order and send them another six packages.”

Sakuma says during this year’s global economic slowdown it has been harder to keep up with demand and fill their clients’ orders.  Second Harvest is Japan’s first and only food bank. Workers go to supermarkets, restaurants and other businesses to collect food that often, because of damaged packaging or other problems, would have been thrown away.

This waste is what compelled American Charles McJilton to help create the organization in 2002.

“Japan every year throws away about 20 million tons of food, worldwide food aid is only about 8.5 million tons. So over two and a half times the food that is delivered in the form of aid, is actually thrown away here in Japan. But at the same time, there is virtually no infrastructure in place within Japan to get those tons of food out to individuals out there who need it,” he said.

Japan has been hit harder than many other countries in the global financial crisis. Exports tumbled and Japanese joblessness has now risen to its highest levels in several years.

Japanese develop nurse robot

Japanese scientists have developed a robot that looks like a huge, happy teddy bear and is designed to lift hospital patients in and out of their wheelchairs and beds.

Named RIBA – short for Robot for Interactive Body Assistance – the android was developed by the Japanese government-run Riken research institute and could be deployed in hospitals and retirement homes within three years.

Development took two years and the robot is able to lift a weight of 61 kg on its foam padded arms. Covered in a soft skin designed to protect patients, the robot is also able to recognise faces and voices, as well as responding to up to 30 spoken commands.

Japan faces a twin crisis of the world’s most rapidly ageing population, which is increasing the pressure on the health system, as well as a declining birth rate, meaning fewer workers.

Anticipating a shortfall in staff within the next two decades, many Japanese firms are carrying out research on electronic employees – which have the added bonus of not requiring a wage and being available 24 hours a day.

Japanese minister warns his party is in trouble

Japanese voters are turning away from Japan’s ruling party in virtually every district and the opposition is on track to win in a landslide when elections are held this weekend, a senior Cabinet minister said Tuesday.

At stake in the elections are all 480 seats in the Japanese parliament’s lower chamber. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan has been widely projected by the media to win 300 seats or more — which would likely force Prime Minister Taro Aso out of office.

With just days left before the elections Sunday, Aso and other leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have tried to play down the polls, saying many voters remain undecided and arguing that the opposition does not have the capability to lead the country effectively.

But on Tuesday, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano acknowledged the party, which has governed Japan for almost all of the past 54 years, is in serious trouble.

“Each constituency across Japan, without exception, is in a difficult situation,” Yosano said at a news conference. “My constituency is no exception. A huge wave of the DPJ is sweeping over Tokyo. It looks like they could control the parliament under a one-party dictatorship.”

Japan’s opposition has strengthened dramatically over the past two years, when the Democratic Party took control of the less powerful upper house of parliament.  The Democratic Party has never controlled the Cabinet, or fielded a prime minister.

But they have continued to gain under the leadership of Japanese lawmaker Yukio Hatoyama, the scion of a political family who is now poised to take over as prime minister if Aso’s party loses as the forecasts predict.

Hatoyama, who was campaigning in the Tokyo area on Tuesday, has promised to cut wasteful spending and spur the economy by putting more money into the pockets of consumers.

He has also vowed to make Japan’s foreign policy less dependent on the United States, Japan’s main military ally and trading partner and his messages appear to be getting traction.

In the latest poll, the Kyodo news agency projected Sunday that his party could win more than 300 of the 480 lower house seats being contested in the elections. That would allow it to comfortably unseat the Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan since 1955, with the exception of nearly 11 months in 1993-1994.

Japanese comic superhero drawn to Tokyo Olympic bid

Japanese comic strip football superhero Captain Tsubasa is facing the most challenging match of his storybook career by trying to capture the 2016 Olympic Games for Tokyo.

Bid rivals are Chicago, who have been backed by President Barack Obama, Brazilian football legend Pele has thrown his weight behind Rio while Real Madrid skipper Raul supports the Spanish capital in the race to be host city.

“I’m happy if this can help,” said Yoichi Takahashi, the Captain Tsubasa creator, as he drew the comic’s main characters in the centre of a huge flag of the Tokyo 2016 Olympic bid committee.

With more messages from top athletes and celebrities, the flag will be displayed in Copenhagen, where the International Olympic Committee will choose the 2016 host city on October 2.

“At the moment, I am drawing a story about an Olympic team and I feel personally attached to the bid,” the 49-year-old Takahashi said.

Aside from their 1968 Olympic bronze medal, Japan have struggled in world football. They debuted in the World Cup finals in 1998 and their best result was a last-16 spot in 2002 on home turf.

Captain Tsubasa was launched in a Japanese boys’ weekly magazine in 1981. It featured midfielder Tsubasa Oozora (whose name means “big-sky wings” in Japanese) and goalkeeper Genzo Wakabayashi. It has spread around the world in cartoon books, animated films and video games, read and watched avidly by superstars like Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti and Fernando Torres.

AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso admitted that when he was a child he’d always stop a game of football with friends to be in front of his television in time to watch “Holy e Benji,” the Italian title of Captain Tsubasa.

Japanese star Hidetoshi Nakata, who retired after the 2006 World Cup, used to mimic one of Tsubasa’s trademark overhead kicks. When Shunsuke Nakamura joined Espanyol from Celtic last month, the 31-year-old was asked if he had watched “Campeones: Oliver y Benji,” the animated series’ Spanish title.

Captain Tsubasa is “Captain Majed” in Arab countries, “Super Campeoes” in Portugal and Brazil, and “Supercampeones” in Spanish-speaking Latin America. North American viewers know him as “Flash Kicker.”

Captain Tsubasa boasts a combined Japanese circulation of 900,000 copies; in book form, the stories have sold more than 70 million copies in the country. Foreign sales are estimated at 10 million copies.

Alien Japanese spore producer found in San Francisco Bay

Wakame, a delicious variety of kelp used in Japanese salads and soups, is bad news for San Francisco Bay. It is native to Japan, China, and Korea, and is farmed in France and Britanny, but alien to West Coast waters. It was spotted here a few months ago at the San Francisco Marina, and is outpacing marine scientists’ efforts to eradicate it. It has been labeled as one of the world’s 100 worst invaders.

The Japanese plant is aggressive, fast-growing, and larger than any local variety of kelp. It propagates by releasing millions of spores which attach to docks, piers, pilings, and boats. When it gets a roothold it crowds out native species, clogs waterways, and shades out sunlight needed by local plants and animals. It can grow at the rate of an inch a day.

“It’s depressing”, says Chela Zabin, a biologist at the Smithsonian Marine Invasion Research Laboratory in Tiburon, who found it in May. Since then it has been spotted in several other yacht basins.

There is an ironic twist to this story. The Smithsonian lab that is trying to keep Japanese kelp from invading the Bay is located on the site of the WWII Naval Net Depot (photo below) which strung a steel net across the Golden Gate to keep Japanese submarines out of the Bay.

Japanese wine catching up to its competitors

Japanese connoisseurs have enjoyed imported wine for years, but some admirers are now focusing their attention on domestic varieties.

While wines imported from France and other countries are still popular, Japanese wines have gained attention. Some top hotels are stocking them along with imports and department stores have sections dedicated to domestic wines.

Suntory Holdings Ltd., a major producer of whiskey, beer and soft drinks, is striving to upgrade the quality of its wines this year, the 100th anniversary of its winery in Yamanashi Prefecture.

The company said it is jointly developing wines by strengthening technical exchanges on grape cultivation and fermentation with a French winery in Bordeaux.

Hokkaido Wine based in Otaru is producing wines using only grapes grown on its own land or grown by farmers under contract. It operates a vast winery in the town of Urausu, where its Tsurunuma vineyard resembles those in France and Italy. Experts say European chardonnay grapes grown in Hokkaido have helped to change the taste of domestic wines.

Speaking on the merits of growing grapes in Urausu, Naoru Imamura, who is in charge of the vineyard, said the red wine produced there has a light bouquet because the tannin content is low, while the white wine is crisp.

Hokkaido Wine’s main products are relatively cheap, selling for ¥1,000 to ¥1,800 a bottle.

Lords of the Samurai – San Francisco

The culture of the samurai and their code of conduct (bushido) have long captivated the imaginations of both young and old in the Western world. In the special exhibition Lords of the Samurai, on view from June 12 through September 20, 2009, the Asian Art Museum takes an intimate look at the daimyo (literally “great name”), or provincial lords of the warrior class in feudal Japan (approx. 1300s to 1860). Trained to be fierce fighters, daimyo also strove to master artistic, cultural, and spiritual pursuits.

Through more than 160 objects—armor, weaponry, paintings, lacquer ware, ceramics, costumes, and more—this special exhibition explores the principles that governed the culture of the samurai lords. Nearly all of the objects in the exhibition are from the collection of one of the most distinguished warrior clans, the Hosokawa family. This collection is housed in Japan’s renowned Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo and in the family’s former home, Kumamoto Castle on Kyushu island, Japan. Seven of the artworks on view have been designated Important Cultural Properties, the highest cultural distinction awarded by the Japanese government. Three of the artworks are designated Important Art Objects, another prestigious distinction awarded only to the works of notable artistic and historical significance.

This exhibition marks the first time that the Hosokawa family’s heirloom arms and armor, paintings, and decorative and applied art objects have been shown in a comprehensive way in the United States.