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Greetings From J-List

5/16/2012

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the return of Okinawa to Japan by the U.S., and there was a ceremony marking the event attended by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and U.S. ambassador John Roos. Japan's southernmost prefecture, Okinawa was a separate kingdom with its own culture and language until it was annexed by Japan in 1609, and to this day it's expected that Okinawans will be different from Japanese in subtle ways, usually violating the rules of joshiki or "universal common sense" that mainland Japanese pride themselves on. (For example, they love A&W root beer, which Japanese nearly always dislike.) Okinawans are thought to be attractive, and most of the major pop groups from the 1990s hailed from talent schools on the island, though South Korea has taken over this role lately. A big issue in Okinawa today are the U.S. military bases, which take up 20% of the prefecture's land mass and bring various hardships to the local population, though much of the economy depends on military-related jobs, too. In addition to hosting the U.S. bases, Okinawa's second most important economic activity is serving as the setting for the obligatory "fan service" swimsuit episodes that virtually every anime series has these days.


There are many reasons for Japan's falling birth rate; Okinawans are subtly different from Japanese.

Last time I talked about the international coverage of the impending "extinction" of the Japanese people, which will happen a millennium from now according to current projections. Making predictions about a time that far into the future is silly, of course, but it is interesting to explore the reasons Japan's birth rate went from 2.75 children per female in the 1950s to just 1.38 today. Some of the more obvious reasons include economic ones (it costs a small fortune to raise a child in Japan) plus the trend of people leaving more rural prefectures and moving to cities, where the scarcity of parks and wide-open spaces can turn off many would-be parents. There's an inverse relationship between education of women and a country's birth rate, and it's interesting to compare modern Japan with Afghanistan, where education of girls is seriously lacking and the birth rate is 6.5 babies per female. Finally, stress and other factors lead Japanese couples to engage in the horizontal mattress dance less often, driving the trend in "sexless" marriages. Clearly the best way to solve the problem is for more gaijin to marry Japanese women, which will introduce an element of competition and get Japanese males back into the bedroom.

While I love Japan, there are some challenges to living here, including difficulty finding really good cheese, movie theaters that cost the equivalent of $22 per person and the occasional street that's so narrow a car and a bicycle couldn't pass each other side-by-side. There's also a huge problem with hay fever during allergy season, thanks to erroneous policies by Japan's Ministry of Forestry, which decided to standardize planting sugi (Japanese cedar) trees almost exclusively several decades ago...leading to a massive outpouring of pollen when all the trees start to flower at the same time. Happily, researchers in Toyama Prefecture have developed a special strain of Japanese cedar that produces no pollen, and plans to plant 30,000 saplings in the coming years. Maybe in a generation or so that unfortunate aspect of living in Japan can be improved.

J-List pays a lot of attention to what awesome products from Japan our customers are most interested in. For example, we have a report (J-List version here, JBOX.com here) that tells us what keywords people are searching for, so we know to stock lots of Touhou, Tenga, Evangelion and shimapan products for everyone. I also like browsing all J-List products in "wishlist" order, which shows us what products customers are adding to their J-List wishlists and lets us judge relative popularity of all products. You're almost guaranteed to find something you didn't expect!

Today's New & Restocked Items

Touhou Akaneya Rubber Keychain -- Alice

Huge Update of Dual-Sided Touhou Keychains

You know those awesome Touhou keychains? Well, we've got the rest of the series here for your collection and enjoyment. Featuring Sakuya, Remilia, Marisa, and other cute Touhou characters. The best thing is, these keychains are dual-sided, showing the back of your favorite characters, and very awesome to hold in your hand. VIEW PRODUCTS