Japanese Online Lessons using SKYPE

Exciting Japanese company: Start Today

May 15, 2018

Do you know a site called ZOZOTOWN or a company called Start Today that runs the site?

ZOZOTOWN is Japan’s largest fashion mail-order site where many popular brands gather, and it has enormous popularity from fashionable people and young generation.

http://zozo.jp/

 

Start Today’s market capitalization exceeds 1 trillion yen, which is slightly higher than the goods plan managing MUJI, and more than twice the largest department store, Mitsukoshi Isetan HD. (As of May 9, 2018)

 

This time, I picked up this company for the following three reasons.

 

Reason 1: Business model is cool

Normally EC is prone to price competition and profitability tends to be low.

However, the company’s current profit margin for the most recent three years exceeds 30%, 32.86%> 34.61%> 33.26%.

This is because the company’s main business is consignment sales, sales are not sales value of apparel products, but from commission from shops.

The consignment sales commission rate is said to be around 28%, which is higher than department store with real store, and inventory risk is also not included because ownership of inventory is in shop.

Although the apparel brand may have its own EC site, since only brand products are sold, users wanting to buy products of various brands will buy with ZOZOTOWN.

In addition, the company attracted attention by issuing new products called ZOZO suit.

http://zozo.jp/zozosuit/

This is a suit for accurately measuring the shape of the user, allowing users to order at their exact size and ZOZO gains the strongest tool for selling their own brand products It will be.

 

Reason 2: Management is cool

Mr. Maezawa, president, is also a luxury car collector such as Bugatti Veyron, Aston Martin, Ferrari Enzo etc.

When he caused an accident while driving Pagani Sonda, the other car was Maybach, so it became a hot topic to have caused accidents between super luxury cars.

He is also famous as a collector of arts and paintings and it became a hot topic that he bought a painting of Bathkia’s for 12.3 billion yen at an auction. (Before that, he also paid 6.24 billion yen at auction for an art work of Buskia.) There are not so many Japanese executives of listed companies that spend money in this way.

Reason 3: Personnel strategy is interesting

Working hours in Japan are generally from 9 to 5 o’clock, but ZOZOTOWN is 6 hours from 9 to 3 o’clock. Mr. Maesawa set a goal that “employees should give the best performance in the shortest time and use the remaining hours for fun.” Also, hiring highly qualified engineer at a maximum annual income of 100 million yen became a hot topic.

Since the company announced that it will strengthen overseas expansion by IR, the name of the company may be recognized in your country from now on.

 

PS

For Japanese learners who are interested in presentations, IR, economic terms, etc., I think that it will be a good learning to see IR movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqoCpUGPxtY

How 18 Japanese companies got their quirky names?

May 10, 2018

Since I gathered most of the information from the Internet, there are some information that I do not know whether it is true or not.

But, especially for those with dealings with companies on this list, I think that it will be a good story.

SONY (Sony)

It is combined the Latin “SONUS” which became the origin of English “SONIC” meaning sound, and English “SONNY” meaning boy.

 

Canon

“Cannon” was the first camera prototype machine with the thought of creating the best camera in the world with the help of Kannon（Avalokiteshvara）.

It became English “Canon” because the pronunciation is similar and meaning of “standard”, “normality” are appropriate.

 

MINOLTA (Minolta)

Kana notation of “a ripening rice plant”.

※ Now merged with Konica and KONICA MINOLTA

 

NEC

Nippon Electric Company, Limited “that is written in English (Nippon Electric Company, Limited).

 

Sega (Sega)

From SERVICE GAME.

 

Bridgestone (Bridgestone)

Founder’s surname “Ishibashi” in English, “Stone Bridge”, turning it over to “Bridge Stone”.

 

EDWIN (Edwin)

“D” and “E” of “DENIM” are reversed, turning “NIM” 180 degrees to convert it to “WIN” and convert it to richness of idea and to EDWIN.

It is enthusiastic to want to do free thought utilizing denim.

As another theory, there are many Japanese jeans makers in Okayama prefecture, there is also the theory that the company that is the Tokyo headquarters to compete with it, “Edo wins” = “Edo + WIN” originated.

 

Glico (Glyco)

From “glycogen” discovered from oyster broth.

 

Calbee (Calbee)

Composite word of calcium + vitamin B series.

 

MOS FOOD SERVICES (Moss food service)

Mos Burger’s MOS is an acronym for Mountain, Ocean, Sun respectively.

“Mountain, the sea, the sun” mean “with noble and dignified like a mountain”, “with a deep wide mind like the sea” and “with a passion that does not burn out like the sun”.

 

fumakilla (Fumakira)

FLY + MOSQUITO + KILLER

 

Kao (Kao)

Face wash soap was initially called “face soap”. Face → Kao

 

DHC

The initials of Daigaku Honnyaku Center (University Translation Center).

Originally it was a company started from the translation industry and still uses its company name.

 

Chifure (Chihure cosmetics)

It is from the initials of the “National Regional Women’s Organization Liaison Council (Municipal Welfare Council.

 

AUTOBACS (AUTOBACS)

It adds Service to products (Appeal, Unique, Tire, Oil, Battery, Accessory, Car audio) to be provided.

From the philosophy that AUTOBACS SEVEN’s official name SEVEN always keeps searching for the seventh product for customers.

 

Secom (Secom)

It is a coined word that abbreviates the word “Security Communication”.

 

MARUHA (Maruha)

It puts the wave round and puts in the meaning that it wishes for safe fishing. It is a source full of kindness that prayed for fisherman’s safety.

 

STUDIO GHIBLI (Studio Ghibli)

GHIBLI (ghibli) means “hot air blowing in the Sahara desert”.

Hot feelings such as “Make a whirlwind in Japanese animation world!” are put in it.

 

How was it?

I was most surprised at the origin of DHC.

 

How many chat topics do you have?

April 26, 2018

How many chat topics do you have?

“Chat” is an easy talk without deciding the theme. As well as talking with family and friends, chatting is essential in dates and business.

When I ask the Japanese businessmen around me, they say that the chat is very important.

One of them insists that “If you do various interesting talks and impress the other person with your charm, business negotiations will proceed. If you talk about the product from the beginning, no one will succeed.”

I agree that it is more necessary to sell yourself than goods.

 

People who don’t run out of things to talk about are called “people with many drawers.”

Let’s hold a number of drawers in your head.

Here are four examples of chatting.

 

1, Weather talk

Japanese love to talk about the weather. It is likely to start from this topic in many cases. You do not have to talk from yourself. Please try to enrich the story of the weather that the other person speaks. Please keep in mind that you always return it positive way.

Example

A-san: “It is cold today, is not it?”

B-san: “Yes, it is said that it is the coldest winter this winter, but the cold weather makes hot sake delicious, so why do not we go drinking together next time?

 

2, News stories

From now on, let’s check the Japanese news. Besides big news, an interesting news such as “baby panda in Ueno” are also useful. If the other person likes animals or cute things, you may be able to mix those topics in the middle of the story. Also, Ueno is famous as a sightseeing spot, so you can use it when that story comes up. Television, internet and radio are useful, and referring advertisements in the train is also helpful to know outline of news. If you have news you care about, look it up on the spot with a smartphone.

 

3, Review your country

How well do you know about your country? Let’s check not only cultures and customs, but also current trends in your country. By knowing how it is different from Japan, you may be interested in the other party. You may also find the same place as Japan. A special products of your city is a good topic to talk about.

 

4, School days experiences

Have you tried hard on something? Not only your major field of study, but also part time job or your boom at that time can be a good topic for chat. It would be better to summarize some of the hardships into episodes rather than having fun. Japanese people are interested in how you have studied Japanese. Let’s recall, for example, what was difficult and what kind of words you liked.

 

Some people think that, “Even if I have stories, I cannot speak well!” However, listening to chats properly is one of the most important things. Especially for the people from Chinese background, I recommend that it is better to nod more than you normally do when listening the conversation.

Having a personal motto

April 20, 2018

Do you have a personl “motto”?

The motto is the word that you always keep in mind, and also the word that encourage yourself. In other words, it is a word that expresses the policy for living.

Having a personal motto is an easy and cool way to express yourself. Japanese people often say a personal motto when introducing themselves in public. So what kind of personal motto are famous among Japanese? Many people take from four-character idioms, proverbs, words of celebrities and literature of old age, but anything can be used as long as you reprove yourself or to rule them.

Well then let me introduce the popular motto among Japanese.

 

1, “Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The meaning is to think once in a lifetime, to cherish the opportunity to meet people.For those who want to cherish their relationship carefully, they are likely to be the perfect motto.

 

2, “Persistence pays off.”, “Constant dripping wears away a stone.”

It is a very famous proverb. It is hard to continue each and every thing, but if you continue, you will surely be able to gain trust and be powerful. If you have done something hard, such as practicing sports or instrument playing, I hope you can talk about that episode.

 

3, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

The father of Indian independence, Gandhi’s words. Even though you graduate from school and start work, studying continues on a daily basis. It is a perfect word for people with ambition. It might be good to put your words in great words of your country.

 

4, “Fortune is unpredictable and changeable.”

It is from the old story of China. It means that what you think is happy is unfortunate and what you think is unhappy can make you happy. Whatever happens, you better not be quickly deciding and you should be cautious.

How was it? If you do not have a personal motto yet, you may ask your friends, colleagues, seniors about their favorite motto. If you try living while thinking about what is good for you, you may find good words.

 

 

What are the New Three Grand Cuisines?

April 16, 2018

Do you know that the Three Grand Cuisines are French, Chinese, Turkish?

There are various theories why these were chosen and main reasons are as follows.

 

(1) The royal cuisines of these countries were developing.

(2) The land of these countries is wide and has abundant ingredients.

(3) These countries were thriving in trade, making it easy to get food from other countries.

(4) These countries are the center of culture In each region　and have great influence on other countries.

(5) Interest in meals is high

 

I understood well about these reasons. However, there is obvious discomfort in me. Yes, that is caused by Turkish food.

 

Turkish food is certainly delicious. The other day a Norwegian friend taught me a delicious Turkish restaurant and so I went there. It was very delicious. However, the question remains as to whether Turkish cuisine is among the top three in the world. (← Sorry! Turkish people m (__) m)

 

So, I would like to ask all of you, what food do you choose for the New World’s three great dishes?

 

Unlike in the past, it is not necessary to think about the above five factors now and even ordinary people like me can eat delicious dishes and can get food materials from all over the world easily.

 

When I asked my friends, There was a person who pinpointed “It’s Northeast Chinese food!”

A friend who like curry has chosen India. A friend who likes beer chose German cuisine. It was because there are many dishes that match beer. Some people answered “curry, ramen, hamburgers!” He did not choose countries, lol The reason he answered so was “Food is not belonging to a specific country now.” Certainly, Indian curry and Japanese curry are different things, so I think it make sense. Even in Chinese food, Cantonese cuisine and Szechuan cuisine have different taste.

 

Then, it becomes difficult to define ” New Three Grand Cuisines ?so I changed the question to ‘Please list the three countries where the food is delicious’.

 

Below are the countries my friends chose.

France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, India, China / Taiwan, Korea, Thailand,

Vietnam and Japan.

 

I chose China / Taiwan, Italy and Japan.

What do you think??

 

PS

Besides the world’s three greatest cuisines(世界三大料理), there are expressions of [the world’s three greatest ___(世界三大〇〇)] such as the world’s three greatest night views(世界三大夜景), the world’s three biggest disappointments(世界三大がっかり).

https://travel.rakuten.co.jp/mytrip/amazing/world-big3/

The world’s three largest ___ can be good conversational topics, so please remember (^ ^) /

 

Battle of Japan’s gourmet sites for survival

April 4, 2018

In preparation for a corporate event or reception, usually we need to find a suitable restaurant. Where should you go for tasty food or the ideal restaurant? Or just use Yelp or TripAdvisor to search local restaurants?

If you need to find a restaurant in Japan, you are recommended to use Japanese gourmet sites that provide the latest information on various types of restaurants. In this article, we will introduce five well-known Japanese gourmet sites, and then explain the latest trends and business models of these websites for your reference.

 

 

GURUNAVI

GURUNAVI is a long-established gourmet site that started in the 1990’s. It contains the latest information which are mostly provided by the restaurants, not much real reviews from users.

 

HOT PEPPER

HOT PEPPER provides many coupons to attract many users who are looking for good food at preferential price. In contrast, HOT PEPPER is more suitable for young people to prepare for banquets or parties, more than business purposes.

TABELOG

The strength of TABELOG is their rankings and real reviews from users. Their new business model probably broke the stronghold of GURUNAVI. According to an analysis of the total visits of websites, TABELOG has a share of 50% or more.

(http://hiryu.hatenablog.com/entry/2016/04/14/193236).

However, it seems that TABELOG’s popularity has dropped recently. Many users are dissatisfied with their services because many advertisements have been appearing in the website.

If you become a paid user, you can see rankings without any advertisements.

 

Retty

Compared with the decreasing popularity of TABELOG, Retty gets success in very less time and become popular. TABELOG shows reviews in an anonymous way, while Retty launched a real-name system. This difference contributes to its high popularity and high praise for its credibility of reviews. Not only users, Retty also attracts the attention of many investors. From 2012 to 2016, it has raised a total of 2.5-billion-yen investment fund.

Although Retty achieves significant growth, its future development crucially

depends on what kind of monetization strategy will be adopted.

 

HITOSARA

Although HITOSORA is less well-known, it gains huge support from food lovers with its unique concept of “searching restaurant by chef”. Retty shows reviews with the user’s real name, but those are almost general comments. However, you can search restaurants by gourmet experts or famous chefs via HITOSARA. For this reason, most restaurants shown in HITOSARA are high class restaurants, that suitable for business purposes.

 

Perhaps you have noticed that the popularity of gourmet sites is directly related to their business models.

 

First Generation (Gourmet Site 1.0)

The business model of gourmet sites like GURUNAVI and HOT PEPPER is a kind of commercial advertising. Information shown in the site are mostly provided and paid by the restaurants, and there is no real review that users wish to know.

 

Second Generation (Gourmet Site 2.0)

TABELOG is committed to collecting users’ voices. We classify it to be the second generation. In certain extent, its content is also a kind of commercial advertising, but it also collects fees from users. By the way, TABELOG is operated by a well-known company called “価格(Kakaku).com “, which is popular with price rankings of home appliances and reviews.

 

Third Generation (Gourmet Site 3.0)

Although Retty has not yet announced its pricing model (monetization strategy), as it uses a real-name system and cooperates with social networking platform, we classify it to be a new business model. HITOSARA is also classified into the third generation because of the same real-name system.

 

In the near future, we would like to focus on the development of the third generation of gourmet sites, or whether the birth of fourth generation will bring a new impact to the industry.

 

PS.

For your reference, the following is a brief summary of various foreign language versions of gourmet sites.

(as of April 4, 2018)

 

【GURUNAVI】 https://www.gnavi.co.jp/

Foreign Language Editions：

English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Malay

 

【HOT　PEPPER】 https://www.hotpepper.jp/

Foreign Language Editions：

English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Korean

 

【TABELOG】 https://tabelog.com/

Foreign Language Editions：

English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Korean

 

【Retty】https://retty.me/

Foreign Language Editions：

N/A

 

【HITO SARA】? http://hitosara.com/

Another site: https://savorjapan.com/

Foreign Language Editions：

English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Korean

If you want to find a job in Japan, do not choose “super localized companies”!

March 30, 2018

Do you know what kind of Japanese company is good for advancing your career?

 

The following are the two checkpoints:

(1) the company has developed international business

(2) the company has actively implemented the policy of employing foreign nationals

 

In contrast, it is suggested that you should avoid choosing “super localized companies” with the following conditions:

• business development in Japan only
• all employees of the company are Japanese

Below I will show you how to evaluate a company’s employment conditions in order to separate from super localized companies.

 

First of all, you have to check the company’s “domestic and overseas sales ratio” and “the proportion of foreign employees.” There are many relevant information and data for the public, you should be able to find both checkpoints easily. However, making judgement just according to this information is not enough. Because even if the company has a higher proportion of overseas sales, it may be commissioned by the overseas trading companies for the sales operations. With regard to the number of foreign workers, the company may include foreign employees who are living and working overseas, while there are no foreign nationals in Japan office.

 

So, I suggest you more checkpoints as follows:

(3) whether or not any foreign nationals are employed in the management layer

(4) whether or not any foreign nationals are employed in the HR team

 

If there are foreign nationals working in the management layer, it can be said that the company has a relatively high possibility of developing a global business, and has a higher number of English-speaking Japanese employees.

 

In addition, it is supposed that the HR team is usually the most localized department. If there are foreign nationals working in the HR team, it can be said that the company’s diversity is making good progress. Coupled with the perspective of foreign employees carrying out recruitment and training, it can be said that the company can provide foreign nationals a friendly working environment.

What do you sell?

March 28, 2018

Overseas travelers to Japan were asked what they would like to take home with them and try to sell as a business. Here are the interesting results.

No. 1 Gourmet foods

Japanese food, ramen, and Japanese candy were popular answers.

Okonomiyaki, curry, tsukemono, sesame dressing, furikake and other such items were also popular.

Suprisingly, many travelers also liked Japanese bread.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir liked Japanese bread so much he opened a Japanese style bakery in Kuala Lumpur.

 

No. 2 The Japanese character and way of thinking

Many travelers also said they would like to make a business out of the Japanese mentality, consideration toward others, hospitality and politeness.

No. 3 Traditional culture

Traditional items like kimonos, yukatas, bonsai trees, hand towels, and Japanese sake.

 

No. 4 Cosmetics

This was particularly a big hit among Asian visitors who also bought cosmetics as souvenirs.

During　Chinese New Year, Matsumoto Kiyoshi drugstores are full of travelers from China.

 

No. 5 Pop culture

Otaku, anime, print club photo booths, and so on.

 

Stationery, the Japanese transportation system, and kotatsu (discussed in the last newsletter) also ranked high.

Japanese businesses have been aggressively developing transportation infrastructure projects similar to the shinkansen and Japanese subway system overseas, so maybe the Japanese transportation system will eventually be used in everyone’s country.

 

 

 

 

Technique of how to tell

March 16, 2018

Does anyone have trouble that you are not able to communicate well due to too straight expression?

Today, I will introduce a book to such people. It is [伝え方が9割] (つたえかたが９わり、Important things occupying 90% in the way to communicate).

I had the opportunity to listen to the lecture of Mr. Sasaki, the author of the book, and it was interesting, so I would like to introduce this book today.

 

Mr. Sasaki is also a copywriter and CM planner, and as a result of pursuing a good way of communicating, he insists on the following two things.

• You can change scenes that are refused as “no” to “yes” if the way to tell is good!
• If that can be done, life will surely change!

 

For example, if there is a person who wants to date, how do you invite?

He says there are three steps to change “no” to “yes”.

【1】 Do not use words in your head as it is.

【2】 Imagine the inside of the opponent’s head.

【3】 Make a wish consistent with the merit of the opponent.

 

According to this steps, not to say straight like “I want to data with you”. imagine what the other person likes (eg : He / She likes Italian food), “There is a restaurant that offers amazingly delicious pasta. Why don’t we go together?” Both have the same goal of inviting to “date”, but how to tell is quite different, right?

 

He asserts, “How to tell is not sense, it’s technique!”

It is not easy to learn the sense, but anyone should be able to master the technique if they study. If you are interested, why not try reading it?

https://goo.gl/YKx1W2

For beginner level to intermediate level people, we also recommend the manga version.

https://goo.gl/xDuxK4

Funny non-Japanese celebrities living and working in Japan

March 8, 2018

I’d like to introduce you to funny non-Japanese celebrities living and working in Japan.

【Atsugiri Jason】

Jason became famous for his phrase “Why Japanese People!” to lament the difficulty of the Japanese language.

https://youtu.be/R0j3gmBQpMk

He wanted to be a comedian in Japan, but they don’t give out visas for that, so he came to Japan and joined an IT company that was expanding in Japan. Later, he attended an entertainer training school, and has continued both jobs until the present time.

 

【Pakkun】

This comedian works as a team with a Japanese comedian. He not only appears on comedy shows, he also does other work as the moderator of an English education program and a commentator. He is actually a prodigy and graduate of Harvard.

http://gree.jp/packn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrAKjEMrX3I

 

 

【Chad Mullane】

Chad dreamed of becoming a comedian. When he came to Japan to study abroad he felt Japanese comedy is the best in the world. After graduating from high school, he entered entertainer training school. Now, in addition to working as a comedian, he also works as a translator, translating many Japanese comedy movies.

http://chad.jp/subs/

 

I have three reasons for telling you about these people.

First, they are all are very good at Japanese.

Second, just like Jason Atsugiri, you can come to Japan and work at a job for which a visa is relatively easy to get, and then find work in the kind of job you really want.

Third, Pak-kun and Chad get many offers to do work other than being comedians. In other words, it’s important to have a career plan once you arrive in Japan.