Japanese debate how foreigners should refer to them
Japanese debate how foreigners should refer to themA chrysanthemum by any other name would smell as sweet THE WORLD calls the leader of China Xi Jinping. His North Korean counterpart is known as Kim Jong Un. The man who led North Vietnam to independence is almost always dubbed Ho Chi Minh. In all three instances, the surname comes first, and then the given names, as is customary in China, Korea an
The surprising revival of the Hawaiian language
The surprising revival of the Hawaiian languageCould that success be replicated elsewhere? Ma uka, ma uka ka ua,Ma kai, ma kai ka ua SO SING THE children at Hawaii’s Punana Leo O Hilo kindergarten on the Big Island of Hawaii. “It is raining on the uplands, it is raining by the sea.” The chant is much like any other “Rain, rain, go away” nursery rhyme, but it has an unusual power: it is one of the
Japan’s sex industry is becoming less sexual
Japan’s sex industry is becoming less sexualAn ageing population and a protracted economic slump have changed the face of the business IN THE 17th century Yoshiwara, in north-eastern Tokyo (then known as Edo), was one of a number of red-light districts. Both female and male prostitutes walked the streets, offering a full range of services. Four hundred years later Yoshiwara remains a centre of the
Bitcoin-futures contracts create as many risks as they mitigate
Bitcoin-futures contracts create as many risks as they mitigateAnd don’t mention tulip-bulb futures! OFTEN promoted as a way of mitigating risk, futures contracts are frequently more like new ways of gambling. That was true of a close precursor to the instrument, introduced in the Netherlands in 1636, linked to the hot investment of the day—tulip bulbs. Likewise the world’s first two futures contr
Bitcoin is a speculative asset but not yet a systemic risk
Bitcoin is a speculative asset but not yet a systemic riskIs there an investment case for the cryptocurrency? FINANCIAL markets rarely miss opportunities to make money. That is as true of cryptocurrencies as anything else. Trading in bitcoin futures began on the Cboe Global Markets this week; CME Group will launch its own futures on December 18th (see article). That has given a further boost to th
Toshiba admits to a ruinous overpayment for an American nuclear firm
Toshiba admits to a ruinous overpayment for an American nuclear firmIts share price plunged by 40% in three days as investors worried about its financial viability THE probe in 2015 into one of Japan’s largest-ever accounting scandals, at Toshiba, an electronics and nuclear-power conglomerate that has been the epitome of the country’s engineering prowess, concluded that number-fiddling at the firm
The strong dollar has given Abenomics another chance
The strong dollar has given Abenomics another chanceBut a bottleneck of corporate timidity remains a big problem JAPAN’S prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was the first foreign leader to meet Donald Trump after his improbable election victory. The photographs show him smiling almost as broadly as the new president-elect. But not even Mr Abe could have guessed how much he would have to smile about.
Epic fail
AS POLLING errors go, this year’s misfire was not particularly large—at least in the national surveys. Mrs Clinton is expected to win the popular vote by a bit over one percentage point once all the ballots are counted, two points short of her projection. That represents a better prediction than in 2012, when Barack Obama beat his polls by three. But America does not choose its president by popula
Not a molecule of sense
Not a molecule of senseA push to disabuse Germans of a homegrown form of quackery IT MAY not be as ancient as acupuncture, but homeopathy is the closest thing Germany has to a native alternative-medicine tradition. Practitioners line the high street. Upper-class Germans swear by it. Unusually, Germany gives homeopathy a privileged legal status. Whereas other medicines must meet scientific criteria
I don’t
SEIKO, a 35-year-old journalist in Tokyo, is what the Japanese refer to as “New Year Noodles”. The year ends on December 31st, and, by analogy, the period when a Japanese woman is deemed a desirable marriage prospect ends after 31. It could have been worse: the slang term used to be “Christmas cake” because a woman’s best-before date was considered to be 25. Soon a new expression may be needed: me
Computer says: oops
Computer says: oopsTwo studies, one on neuroscience and one on palaeoclimatology, cast doubt on established results. First, neuroscience and the reliability of brain scanning NOBODY knows how the brain works. But researchers are trying to find out. One of the most eye-catching weapons in their arsenal is functional magnetic-resonance imaging (fMRI). In this, MRI scanners normally employed for diag
Answering the machinery question
THE ORIGINAL MACHINERY question, which had seemed so vital and urgent, eventually resolved itself. Despite the fears expressed by David Ricardo, among others, that “substitution of machinery for human labour…may render the population redundant”, the overall effect of mechanisation turned out to be job creation on an unprecedented scale. Machines allowed individual workers to produce more, reducing
Master plan
LAST year Japan lowered the voting age from 20 to 18. But Minami, a high-schooler from Tokyo, does not plan to vote in an election for the upper house of the Diet, or parliament, on July 10th. Like many Japanese, she finds politics dull. The upcoming election will probably not change their views. The government, led by Shinzo Abe, is likely to trounce the floundering opposition. Mr Abe’s poll rati
Frankenstein’s paperclips
Frankenstein’s paperclipsTechies do not believe that artificial intelligence will run out of control, but there are other ethical worries AS DOOMSDAY SCENARIOS go, it does not sound terribly frightening. The “paperclip maximiser” is a thought experiment proposed by Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University. Imagine an artificial intelligence, he says, which decides to amass as many papercli
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