A lot of Japan’s weekly magazines sometimes publish double points from the final week in December with the intention to give employees a while off. Such points can simply be recognized by logos, banners or trim on their covers that seem in gold, though three magazines — Aera, Sunday Mainichi and Friday — have abstained from the apply this 12 months.
From wanting on the magazines’ contents, you’d by no means have guessed what a loopy 12 months 2020 has been. Nonetheless, with many station kiosks closed because of the pandemic, I think that their newsstand gross sales and advert revenues nearly actually declined, and it’s to their credit score that they’re placing up a courageous entrance for readers. Issues actually can’t be simple.
So, in recognition and appreciation of the magazines whose contents have contributed to this column over the earlier 12 months, we’ve included brief excerpts from all of their New Yr’s points, so as of their look on the newsstands.
Josei Seven (Jan. 7-14) gives wise well being and life-style recommendation for ladies after turning 60. It contains halting the usage of drugs to decrease blood stress, ldl cholesterol and blood sugar; canceling life insurance coverage insurance policies and fixed-term financial savings accounts; refraining from caring for his or her husband and grandchildren; and shelling out with use of eye make-up and permitting grey hairs to indicate.
In the meantime, a headline in Shukan Gendai (Dec. 26 to Jan. 2) — “If they arrive to your property, it’s already too late” — appears to point that the tax workplace goes after earnings from internet auctions and different on-line gross sales. The journal reported that 1,680 circumstances in 1,877 audits had been discovered to have did not report earnings in 2019. Together with penalties, their complete taxes got here to a not-inconsiderable ¥6.5 billion.
One of many surprising side-effects of working from house, in accordance with Weekly Playboy (Jan. 11), has been extra circumstances of acute decrease again strains or, in some circumstances, slipped discs. Kazuma Ito, a sports activities coach, advises readers the correct methods to carry heavy objects and carry out stretching workouts to strengthen one’s decrease again. “If injured, apply heat, which promotes circulation and can expedite restoration,” Ito says. “The outdated remedy technique suggested towards motion, however we now know that this causes the fascia (connective tissue) to stiffen.”
Shukan Taishu (Dec. 28 to Jan. 4) appears to be like on the rush by pharmaceutical firms to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and asks how quickly vaccinations will start in Japan. A journalist tells them phrase on the road is that the primary doses for front-line medical staff and seniors are anticipated to be out there by March, however “could also be as late as June.”
Shukan Put up (Jan. 1-8) encompasses a dialogue between crime author Atsushi Mizoguchi and journal editor Tomohiko Suzuki about customs and traditions noticed by yakuza gang members on the new 12 months.
Aera (Dec. 28 to Jan. 4) means that extra households might be refraining from giving money for otoshidama (customary new 12 months presents to youngsters), as an alternative stuffing the pochi-bukuro (the Japanese equal of a Santa’s stocking) with pay as you go reward playing cards and different sorts of cashless devices.
Veteran critic Kazuya Fukuda opinions three well-known outdated companies in Tokyo’s Ginza district — a restaurant, a bar and a barber store — and marvels at their “composure and tenacity” to climate the coronavirus pandemic in Sunday Mainichi (Jan. 3-10).
Shukan Asahi (Jan. 1-8) offers crime prevention suggestions for seniors — significantly these receiving house care, with well being considerations and residing alone — who must take additional precautions towards being focused by spurious gas-meter readers, swindlers who request appointments over the phone and burglars.
A author for Spa (Dec. 29 to Jan. 5) test-drives the Aion S electrical automobile from Chinese language producer GAC, which in its house nation sells for the equal of a remarkably reasonably priced ¥422,900. (Or about ¥600,000 with non-obligatory air con and 40-kilometer prolonged cruise size.) This significantly undersells the electrical car fashions presently out there in Japan.
In Asahi Geino (Dec. 31-Jan. 7), historian Atsushi Kawaii appears to be like on the draconian edict issued by warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi within the late sixteenth century, which geared toward disarming Japan’s peasants by banning them from proudly owning swords.
Flash (Jan. 5-12) runs photographs of 11 members of the Nationwide Weight-reduction plan (all males, with one exception) proven strolling whereas texting on their smartphones.
Shukan Jitsuwa (Jan. 7-14) faucets into the Teikoku Information Financial institution for a have a look at the traits of a number of the 3,696 enterprise corporations that might be observing at the least 100 years since their founding. The record contains the Takashimaya division retailer (190 years outdated); the maker of Ryukakusan, a abdomen treatment (150 years); and Seiko Holdings, whose forerunner started manufacturing timepieces 140 years in the past.
What would have occurred if the individuals snowbound for as much as 52 hours on the Kan-Etsu Expressway in mid-December had been driving electrical autos? Usually, notes Shukan Shincho (Dec. 31 to Jan. 7), the batteries in such vehicles lose as a lot as 20% of their perform in subzero temperatures. And versus the shorter utilization (maybe 24 hours) on a full cost, gasoline-powered autos on a full tank might be able to idle for between 40 to 50 hours. For the roughly 20 million individuals residing within the components of Japan which can be commonly hit by heavy snowfalls, electrical autos are merely not sensible.
Shukan Bunshun (Dec. 31 to Jan. 7) interviews the pseudonymous “Miss A,” the potential marriage candidate who to date has paid some 30 visits to convicted mass assassin and demise row resident Takahiro Shiraishi.
Friday (Jan. 8-15) follows up on 10 main circumstances which have rocked Japan, a number of of which stay unsolved. Included are the December 2013 deadly taking pictures of 72-year-old Takayuki Ohigashi, president of the Gyoza no Osho restaurant chain; the disappearance of 7-year-old Misaki Ogura from a tenting web site in Yamanashi in September 2019; the slaying of a household of 4 in Tokyo’s upscale Setagaya Ward on the night time of Dec. 30, 2000; and the suspicious 2018 demise of 77-year-old enterprise magnate Kosuke Nozaki, an unapologetic womanizer who reveled in his self-bestowed nickname — “the Don Juan of Wakayama.”
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