White Collar Exemption bill to be renamed September 11, 2007
Posted by fukumimi in Politics.1 comment so far
The new Minister for Health, Labour, and Welfare, Yoichi Masuzoe, has apparently called for the proposed white collar exemption bill to be renamed, because of the negative image attached with the current name.
The white collar exemption bill calls for increasing the number of white collar workers who will not be eligible for overtime pay, and has also been called the “no overtime pay” bill, which obviously doesn’t go down well with significant portions of the electorate.
So, Minister Masuzoe has decided it shall be called the “Happy Family” Bill. (家族団欒)
I guess the assumption is that with no incentive of overtime pay, workers will go home earlier and spend more time with their families and that will lead to some model of happy family life.
Maybe the fact that his appointment to the MHLW post has been seen as responsible for the (vanishingly brief) opinion poll recovery after the cabinet reshuffle, or the positive response to his theatrical (although probably heartfelt) performance lambasting MHLW officials who have recently been exposed as embezzling pensions funds (as well as screwing up the pension fund records) over decades and the organisation for being less than forward about making these incidents public or even punishing those involved, has gone to his head, but this latest attempt at media politics may be rather ill-advised.
Firstly, it is no secret that the white collar exemption bill is being pushed by the Keidanren and other big business lobbyists who are keen to add another way to reduce their wage bill. Apparently the vast restructuring over the course of a decade and hiring part-time or casual labourers (often illegally) in their place isn’t enough. Does Masuzoe want to be identified as another big business lapdog?
Secondly, exemption status already exists for people in managerial positions. There are actually several criteria which have to be met for exemption status to take effect, but the labour bureaux are lax about enforcing these criteria, which means that many companies again break the law by conferring vacuous managerial titles to employees who do not have the ability to control their workday as required by the exemption criteria. Given that many people who don’t conform to the current criteria are being denied overtime pay, it is natural for workers to fear that any new guidelines will also be subject to interpretation/(un)enforcement creep. Without meaningful changes to the way work is actually delegated to exempt employees, specifically with regards to realistic and achievable targets, and the explicit removal of time based management techniques (including but not limited to tactics like proclaiming flexible working hours but scheduling numerous regular meetings at the start/end of the day), this bill is certain to mean a reduction in the hourly wage of exempt employees.
Third, if the MHLW seriously thinks that the majority of people not covered by the current exemptions are in an economic position where they are willing and able to sacrifice money for more time with family to enhance their lifestyles, they really live in a parallel universe. Net earnings inclusive of overtime has not increased for the majority of middle class households for many years. Maybe these civil servants should swap places with a typical employee for a few months and find out what it is like in the real world.
Fourth, Masuzoe really shouldn’t talk about family issues, because that is just inviting the tabloids to take a good look at his personal life. Check out this week’s Shukan Bunshun magazine, as they have already started. Masuzoe has had an “unorthodox” personal life, by Japanese standards. He is currently on his 4th wife (his 3rd wife was Satsuki Katayama, another LDP politician), and has had 3 children, all out of wedlock (the first of which was born whilst Masuzoe was still technically married to Katayama). He is apparently currently being sued by the mother of the two younger children for breach of contract, according to the Bunshun article. Happy families indeed….
[For the record, I couldn't care less about what kind of family or personal or private life an individual cares to lead, as long as it is legal and consensual. What I don't care for is the pretense that this particular piece of legislation is being furthered for anything other than big businesses' selfish interests]
Google video ad on Zakzak September 11, 2007
Posted by fukumimi in Internet.add a comment
On this page at Zakzak, one of the internet properties owned by the Sankei newspaper/media group, Google are running video ads. There doesn’t seem to be much ad content, and most of the time it is running ads for its own iGoogle (and sometimes the space just displays the usual AdWords text advertising). It is the first time I’ve seen an iGoogle video ad. Funny thing is, the clickthorough returns a 404 Not Found error. LOL.
Sharp signals offensives in the display market September 3, 2007
Posted by fukumimi in Japan, electronics.add a comment
Sharp released details of its new touchscreen integrated display, which does not require a touchscreen module overlay.
Unlike traditional touchscreens which are based on resistive or (as in the case of the iPhone) capacitative approaches, the Sharp approach is based on an optical approach, with an array of optical sensors integrated into the LCD display. The Sharp touchscreen display supports multi-touch by default, with individually addressable optical sensors for each pixel on the display (which is a 3.5 inch high resolution half VGA display). The advantage of this optical approach compared to the capacitative approach as employed by the iPhone is that any object can trigger the touchscreen mechanism (an iPhone touchscreen would not respond to input by a gloved finger or the tip of a long nail, for example which makes it less than easy to use for young girls with long manicured nails who tap keys with their nails)
Sharp claims that the aperture ratio for these optical sensor integrated LCD panels is on a par with their existing LCD panels, which means no more light is blocked by the addition of the optical sensor array, maintaining brightness compared to their existing displays. As there is a non-negligible insertion loss associated with a traditional touchscreen overlay which can be avoided with this new approach, better power efficiency can be achieved for the same external brightness performance.
The optical array can also act as a scanner to read barcodes, business cards and the like.
The integrated approach theoretically allows for a thinner module than a traditional LCD + touchscreen overlay approach.
This follows on Sharp’s announcement earlier in the month showing off its vision for LCD flat panel displays in the near future, which featured 50V display with a thickness of just 20-29mm, improved power consumption and lighter weight, clearly stating that Sharp sees the future with LCD, rather than EL technologies (specifically OLED).
Krispy Kreme expansion and the redevelopment of Ginza September 2, 2007
Posted by fukumimi in Food and Drink, Japan.5 comments
The second Tokyo location for Krispy Kreme has been announced, it will be located in the new ITOCiA development on the east side of Yurakucho (on the other side of Sotobori-dori from Printemps department store)
ITOCiA is a 21story (+4basement levels) 75,900m2 development, the cornerstone tenant will be Marui department store taking up a full 8 floors.
ITOCiA is hot on the heels of the new Marronnier Gate development which had its official opening yesterday (with Tokyu Hands the headline tenant here), which is located next to Printemps and across Namiki-dori from Ginza Velviakan, another development which opened earlier this year. Printemps, the traditional mecca for Marunouchi and Ginza OL fashion, is not being left behind, and is in renovation mode with a re-launch set for later this month.
The flurry of new developments in the north west corner of Ginza is likely to have an impact on the area’s center of gravity.
Whilst Printemps, Marronnier Gate and Velviakan appear to cater to the traditional Ginza shopper, the arrival of Marui in (or near) Ginza is likely to split opinion. Whilst Ginza has already seen low priced players such as Uniqlo, Zara, Gap, Shoes retailer ABC Mart, etc establish a presence (and Scandinavian powerhouse H&M expected to make an entrance next year), none have been on the scale of Marui’s attempt. Marui’s target market is the mainstream young female market, which traditionally has not been catered to in Ginza. Some traditionalists worry that Ginza will lose some of its individual flavour.
Marui’s foray into the Ginza/Yurakucho area is due to the development of the East Tokyo Bayside area. Marui has always had a strategy of targetting terminus (and major interchange) stations and has a network of stores in a ring around central Tokyo. Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Ikebukuro take care of the west side, and Kitasenjyu, Kinshicho, and Oimachi took care of the East side and North-South axis, complemented by stores in Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa.
However, the redevelopment of the East Tokyo bayside area (east end of the Yurakucho line) and the JR Keiyo line catchment area (highlighted by the resurgence in popularity of the Shin-Urayasu area - an area which was popular back in the bubble era but left half-developed when the bubble burst), has given Marui an incentive to build a store to capture these customers.
That the JR Keiyo line’s Tokyo terminus is actually located at the far south end of Tokyo station and is within easy walking distance from the Yurakucho/North end of Ginza, and with Ginza 1-chome and Yurakucho stations on the Yurakucho lines are also close by are consistent with Marui’s typical store location strategy.
The Yurakucho store also allows Marui to close down its store in Oimachi, which is declining in status as a teminus station (and was too close to the redeveloping Kawasaki and had overlapping catchment areas)
By moving the south east Tokyo location up from Oimachi to Yurakucho, it also increases the ability to capture customers who live on the central western bayside area (e.g. Hamamatsucho/Tamachi/Shinagawa down to the Tamagawa river) which is also being redeveloped with a significant residential development component.
The redevelopment of the east side of Tokyo will accelerate with large projects like the New Tokyo Tower project and the redevelopment of the traditional financial district around Kabutocho in the pipeline. The area from Nihombashi (Nihombashi Mitsui Tower next to Mitsukoshi) south to Ginza already is seeing extensive development (the Yaesu side of Tokyo station being a prime example), and as development spreads east, the center of gravity of the Tokyo metropolis may be starting to swing back towards its traditional center.
B2B September 2, 2007
Posted by fukumimi in Uncategorized.add a comment
That’s “back to blogging”.
After a self-imposed month long hiatus, I plan to get back on-line and writing. (Whilst I would like to report that I had an idyllic vacation somewhere, unfortunately that was not the case)
One thing I will try to do going forward is to attempt to make my posts a little shorter. No promises though…..
