Month: October 2005

Japan’s own FedEx, continuing the airspace oligarchy

Japan Post is starting an international air cargo company with ANA. That this can happen at all is pretty cool. Pre-Koizumi Japan Post couldn’t enter business deals like this one. For that matter, pre-1980’s ANA basically couldn’t do anything without a government green light (back in the day, JAL had a monopoly on international air travel, JAL and ANA split big-city domestic routes, and ANA and JAS split small-city routes). Now, the two are collaborating to make an East Asian FedEx.

One thing that bugs me, though, is that Japan basically has just two airlines, plus a tiny third guy named Skymark. Almost every commercial airline flight in Japan is ticketed by JAL or ANA, except for a couple of propeller plane flights to minor islands. You’d think that Japan could support some more companies in this area, given that it has a ton of money (recession be damned) and a population that loves to travel.
Continue reading Japan’s own FedEx, continuing the airspace oligarchy

A solution to the U.S.-China trade deficit?

With the successful launch and return of the Shenozhou 6 earlier this week, China is in the grips of space fever. And like most other things Chinese these days, it hasn’t taken long for someone to figure out how to make a buck/RMB/yen/Euro.

The Taipei Times is running a story today with the headline:

“US company begins selling lunar land rights to Chinese.”

A US company has set up operations in China to sell land on the moon for 115 yuan (US$15) a hectare, cashing in on renewed interest in space travel after the successful five-day voyage of Shenzhou VI.

The so-called Lunar Embassy, touted as the first extraterrestrial estate agency, started operations on Wednesday in Beijing, the China Daily reported.

It will issue customers a “certificate” that ensures property ownership, including rights to use the land and minerals up to 3km underground, said Li Jie, agent for the company in China.

“We define it as a kind of novelty gift with the potential of unlimited increase in value,” said Li.

Lunar Embassy was set up by US entrepreneur Dennis Hope in 1980, 11 years after the Apollo II mission first landed on the moon.

Hope believes a loophole in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty makes his sales legitimate. The agreement forbids governments from owning extraterrestrial property but fails to mention corporations or individuals.

Apparenly, it isn’t just the Chinese that are buying. According to the article, over 3.5 million customers have been served a little slice of the lunar pie, and Hope has branches in 7 other coutries, including the US, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

I have no idea on what basis this guy thinks he can claim the moon on a commerical basis, but there is one interesting plot twist:

The company could run into problems in China, though, with the Chaoyang District branch of Beijing’s Administration for Industry and Commerce launching an investigation.

The Beijing News cited Chaoyang bureau staff as saying sale of land on the moon was not listed as the company’s business when it was registered.

I wonder how much longer it will be before we have a headline that reads: “Chinese company begins selling lunar land rights domesically.”

Wasting one of the world’s highest literacy rates?

In case the original book wasn’t mindnumbingly simple enough for you, it seems that a manga version of Kanehara Hitomi’s Hebi ni Piasu has been released.

Hebi Manga

I know that this book received tons of attention in Japan when it, along with Wataya Risa’s Keritai Senaka was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in early 2004, but after reading it in Bungei Shunju that March, my initial impresison was (and for the most part still is): publicity stunt.

Reading this recent post over at Japundit hasn’t given me cause for greater optimism. I know we’re admonished not to judge a book by it’s cover, but when a 13 year old kid wins a national literary award for a work called Kono Misteri ga sugoi, it’s time to start asking questions about the national intelligence quotient.

I think it is a wonderful idea to encourage the budding literary talents of Japanese youth, but are you telling me that the best Japan has to offer is in the first grade? At least one person seems to think so. The post links to a Yomiuri story (Aptly titled “Teen writers steal spotlight / Veterans worried publishers putting businessbefore talent”) has Shinji Inagaki, chief editor of Shogakukan’s literature section saying this:

“Young people in their teens and 20s, who have been said to be aliterate, are actually quite adept at reading and writing text messages on their cell phone. Their desire for creativity is strong,” he said.

Text messaging = creative drive???!!!

Fortunately, not everyone in the entire Japanese population appears quite so deluded as suggested by the article’s mention of declining sales figures. Let’s hope this trend, like most others in Japan, is short lived.

Chinese capitalism in action

From the BBC:

‘Babies for sale’ on Chinese eBay

Chinese police are investigating a report of attempted baby trafficking on an internet auction site, according to a state-owned newspaper.

The advertisement was reportedly placed on eBay’s Chinese website, Eachnet.

Boys were advertised for 28,000 yuan ($3,450) while girls were offered for 13,000 yuan ($1,603), Eachnet manager Tang Lei told the China Daily.

The offer could have been a hoax, but it comes as baby trafficking is seen as an increasing problem in China.

Bush to meet with Godless heathen?

Today the Taipei Times is running a story with the headline: “Dalai Lama to visit Bush ahead of his trip to China.”

So, I start wondering: Would Bush really meet with the Dalai Lama this close to his first official visit to China? We all know how snarky the Chinese can get when you provoke them. (And the Japanese may as well forget about restarting talks over the East China Sea dispute.)

Before I could go any further, I’ve got the link open only to discover:

Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is to make a high-profile 10-day visit to Washington next month, during which he is expected to meet with US President George W. Bush, a rights group said.

Rights group? Oh, you must mean the International Campaign for Tibet, the organization that keeps President Bush’s schedule.

The article contines:

The 70-year-old Dalai Lama’s itinerary during the Washington visit beginning Nov. 8 “anticipates likely meetings with US President George Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other key Congressional leaders,” the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.

After finishing the article, I noticed it was a feed from AFP, so I ran a Yahoo! News search. Turns out all the other outlets who ran the AFP story ran it under the headline, “Dalai Lama set for high profile Washington visit, may meet Bush.”

Nobody saw this one coming (UPDATED 10/21/05)

Update: I was obviously kidding about the comment below that, “all Chinese and Koreans should at all times maintain attitudes of extreme outrage towards the past aggressions of the Japanese and express these attitudes verbally, physically, and if possible even through pantomime.”

However, I attended a meeting a few days ago in which a Chinese academic suggested that Japan should, “always show sincere repentence voulnatily, without a time frame.” You could almost smell the smoke rising from the ears of some of the Japanese in the room.

Content from one of three links in MOFA’s latest e-newsletter:

Visit to China by Mr. MACHIMURA Nobutaka, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan

October 18, 2005

With regard to Minister MACHIMURA’s visit to China, a minister in the Embassy of Japan in China was contacted by the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in the afternoon on 18th October, and the Chinese side informed the Japanese side that it is difficult to receive Minister MACHIMURA in China under the current situation, as the atmosphere is not favorable.

(END)

And since Joe’s last post on Koizumi’s Yasukuni visit attracted so much attention in the comments section, let me just say that I think all Japanese should visit Yasukuni at least three times daily, every single day of the year! And, all Chinese and Koreans should at all times maintain attitudes of extreme outrage towards the past aggressions of the Japanese and express these attitudes verbally, physically, and if possible even through pantomime! And, Rummy should skip Japan on every visit to Asia! And, God doesn’t exist, the death penalty rocks, all abortion should be illegal, and your parents lied to you about Santa.

Chinese IP law: it’s not the size of the book, but how you use it

I just got back from a talk given by Mark Cohen, an American intellectual property lawyer currently serving as U.S. Patent and Trademark Office attaché in the Beijing embassy. Very, very enlightening.

This guy literally wrote the book on Chinese IP law. One of his PowerPoint slides was a picture of the book from its side. The reason he put this on a slide: he was talking to an American businessman on a transpacific flight, and mentioned the book in conversation. The businessman said it must be one of the shortest books ever. It’s actually about 500 pages… as thick as many of the casebooks we get in American law schools.

Honestly, if I were sitting next to Mr. Cohen, I would have had the same reply. The impression most people get of intellectual property law in China is: “what intellectual property law in China?” What Cohen had to say was a paradigm shift for me: the problem is really that there’s too much IP law in China!
Continue reading Chinese IP law: it’s not the size of the book, but how you use it

Frogstyle


I’ve had one of these hanging on my keychain for over three months now, but most of the green paint has been scratched off mine.

What is Frogstyle?
To people searching for happiness, to people feeling down, to people lacking something, frogs bearing a message for those sorts of people, that is FROG STYLE (furoggu sutairu). FROG STYLE has plenty of friends. When you see one on the street, please try getting a warm message from the frogs. Maybe, just maybe it will cheer you up!

Origin:
Once upon a time, the frog progenitor, the -ANCESTOR FROG- came from across the sea. (There are various stories, such as that he accidentally got stuck in ‘bottle mail’ and drifted across the waves.) Thereafter, FROG has been thriving all over the world. So far, 16 varieties have been identified. However, new types are continually being discovered. (From the book “Frog Life” by Frog researcher Kero Kaeruda)

Bandai’s Frogstyle screensaver is now the official screensaver of Mutantfrog.com.

Mac version here.

Yasukuni revisited

We kind of knew it was coming: Koizumi went again. Protests broke out in Beijing and Hong Kong. Best dismissal EVER:

Koizumi told reporters in Tokyo that he made his visit as a private citizen and not in an official capacity, saying that “China and South Korea will eventually understand.”

The angry reactions in China and Korea are covered in more depth in AFP’s article.

UPDATE: Another great Koizumi jab: “In principle other people should not meddle with matters of the heart… much more, foreign governments should not say ‘you should not’ when the Japanese are offering sincere condolences to the war dead from Japan and other parts of the world.”

The Roots of Japan

The good people at Utopia Network (“Millenium Era/For New Space Age!”) have cleared up this confusing historical problem once and for all.

Around 355-360, the ocean country “Kudara” had been conquering with Saishu Island in today’s South Korea, Tsushima, Kyushu, Chugoku area, Shikoku area and Kii Peninsula in today’s Japan. In about 360, the ocean country “Kudara” founded the Yamato Dynasty with the emperor system and the centralistic country of Japan in today’s Nara Prefecture, Japan. And then the relative control of Kudara Dynasty began in Japan. Japan and Kudara had the strongest relationship just like the same country. And most of the Japanese traditional culture came from “Kudara.” “Emperor Jinmu” in the ancient book of “Kojiki” was “King Onjo,” who was the founder of Kudara. And “Emperor Sujin,” who was the founder of Japan, was seemed to be the grandson of “King Kei,” who was the 12th King of Kudara Dynasty. Also, “King Kinshoko,” who was the 13th King of Kudara Dynasty, founded the great ocean country “Kudara” in 346. The Kudara Dynasty were descendants of “Joseph,” who was sold to the Ancient Egypt, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, and Adam in “The Old Testament of the Bible.”