CommsDesign – Hello Kitty may be key to 3G success
And for 3G, Bergqvist said, “We as an industry have not, by and large, been able to create something that is transportable from one operator to another. We have not created something yet where two operator systems would be interoperable. We have not created open interfaces in those data-oriented systems, particularly in Japan and Korea.”
Hello Kitty to the rescue? Who cares about 3G? NO ONE! Get this damn 2G stuff working properly first and I’ll maybe conisder 2.5.
via slashdot

NY Times – Get Off Those Sidewalks, Smokers, and Go Inside
Health-conscious Americans might suspect the new rules are an effort to shield nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, or to put a dent in cancer rates.
But to Japanese critics, the new outdoor smoking ban suggests that officials in this tidy nation worry more about singed suits than sooty lungs.
The new rules, which apply only to premier districts of central Tokyo, are intended not to promote health, but rather to cut the litter of discarded cigarette butts and to reduce damage to clothing on busy sidewalks.
As much as a triumph of abstainers over smokers, the new laws also reflect a rare victory for women in the country’s subtle war between the sexes.
Half of Japan’s men smoke a pack a day, by far the highest rate among major developed nations. In contrast, Japanese women, who like to project an image of fresh-faced purity, smoke at the lowest rates in the developed world Û 14 percent. They have supported the ban most.
Here’s another strange phenomenon in Japan. Smoking ban to keep the streets clean. It’s not about health or cancer. If this phenomenon grows, that would be a good direction, but it would only be able to grow in the densest parts of the major cities.

NY Times – Sushi With Respect for Past and Present
Eric Asimov’s review of Sushi Seki- sounds good!

NY Times – Teaching Japan’s Salarymen to Be Their Own Men
Feeling suffocated by his father’s emotional distance and depressed by the idea that he was expected to follow in his dad’s footprints, Mr. Toyoda fled the family business for a spell of travel in the United States. While there he discovered feminism and reflected on the role of men in his own society.
…
“Eventually, I realized that the problems I was suffering didn’t come from me, but rather from Japan’s traditional patriarchy,” he said. “Traditionally, Japanese men don’t attach importance to their family life at all. I, for one, hardly ever had a proper conversation with my father.”
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What many of them do share with their Western counterparts is a feeling that men must find a way to be both vigorous and sensitive. This starts by rediscovering life outside the workplace, sharing time with their families and, above all, learning Û often for the first time Û how to communicate personal thoughts.
Great stuff here!