7-Eleven Takeover Bid Should Be About More Than Money

Gearoid Reidy from The Japan Times:

Couche-Tard has yet to lay out anything about this deal, from a per-share offer to a demonstration of how it intends to manage 7-Eleven better than its current custodians. And though the suggestion that the chain is a critical piece of national infrastructure like nuclear plants might be opportunistic, 7-Eleven has more value than simply its worth to shareholders.

The konbini style stores like 7 are a unique gem that is truly Japan. I do worry that a foreign takeover would tarnish their utility.

Nintendo Opening a Museum in Kyoto

From The Japan Times:

The museum in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, is located inside a renovated old factory built in 1969, where the gaming giant began life making Western-style and Japanese playing cards and later repaired consoles.

The company on Tuesday also released a video of Shigeru Miyamoto, the renowned creator of Super Mario Bros and other famous games, giving a sneak preview of what's inside.

"The Nintendo Museum is a place where visitors can learn about Nintendo's commitment to manufacturing that places importance on play and originality," Miyamoto said in the clip.

Booking flight now.

Lawson Store Employees Offered Language Badges to Help Communication with Foreign Customers

From Kyodo:

Japanese convenience store operator Lawson Inc. has started requesting staff to wear a badge if they can speak a foreign language, aiming to cater to an increase in overseas visitors, the company said Tuesday.

The badge covers seven languages -- English, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Nepali. Lawson said it chose them as the most commonly spoken by foreign tourists and based on the nationalities of Lawson staffers. Wearing a badge will be voluntary.

This is a great idea to help assist those not comfortable in Japanese and to reward employees of Lawson to invest in language studies. I've seen these kind of language badges elsewhere and they do help foster inclusiveness in multicultural settings.

NTT Apparently Still Runs a Telegram Service

From The Japan Times:

The annual number of telegrams the NTT group handles peaked at about 95 million in the 1960s, when the group was still Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public, and plummeted 96% in about 60 years to about 3.8 million amid the spread of more accessible online communication methods such as email and messaging apps.

The most common reason for using telegrams was emergency communication during the peak period, accounting for 86%, but congratulatory and condolence messages have accounted for over 90% in recent years.

News to me.

Space Mountain Draws Fans on Final Day for Operation Before Renovation

Kanon Chikamori from The Mainichi:

Maho Yamamoto, 27, who visited on the final day of the ride, told the Mainichi Shimbun, "Since it (the closure) was announced, I've been counting down to this day. The ride's charm is its ability to simulate space." Her mother, Kumiko, 62, said with a smile, "I'm overwhelmed with emotion. I've been bringing my daughter to Disneyland since she was little, and we used to ride it twice or three times a day. It's a bit sad, but I'm also looking forward to the new Space Mountain."

Japan's Tourism Issues Stem from Predictable Destinations

Damian Flanagan from The Mainichi:

You can pretty much assume what 90% of the first-time visitor's itinerary to Japan is going to be. They are going to spend some days in modern Tokyo, probably take a day trip to the Great Buddha at Kamakura, then take a bullet train to temple-y Kyoto, and if time permits, take a side trip to ancient Nara or take Instagram photos of the Torii in the sea near Hiroshima. You know the picture. All of that is pretty much a given, and the only variety in many trips is likely to be whether there is also an excursion to somewhere like Nikko (home of the Three Wise Monkeys) or Hiroshima (lest we forget) or very occasionally some places further beyond (mountain spa onsen, check), especially if there happens to have been a recent travel feature about it in the New York Times.

Why is it that visitors to Japan have such a concentrated, predictable itinerary when visitors to France are fanning out in every direction from Normandy to the Dordogne or Provence?

As a totally selfish person, I very much welcome the tourists to continue to stay on the Tokyo-Kyoto path and stay away from my part of Japan.

Food Poisoning from Yokohama Department Store Bento Makes 140 Ill, Kills One

From South China Morning Post:

Grilled eel, a popular summer delicacy in Japan, is behind a department store food poisoning incident that has left more than 140 people sick and one dead, the store’s president said.

Shinji Kaneko of Keikyu Department Store in Yokohama – about an hour from Tokyo – apologised after the customers, who last week bought lunchboxes containing eel, suffered vomiting and diarrhoea.

Japan Rice Stockpile at Critical Level Due to Poor Yield, Tourism Surge

Timothy Hornyak from The Guardian:

“The chief reasons behind the record-low inventory is a decline in production last year due to high temperatures combined with water shortages, and the relative cheapness of rice prices compared to prices of other crops such as wheat,” farm ministry official Hiroshi Itakura told Agence France-Presse.

“The increase in demand by foreign tourists has also contributed,” Itakura said, and added that “we are not in a situation of facing shortages of rice”.

This is the headline that would stoke the most outrage in the country. Never mess with the rice.