McDonald’s Japan is in trouble now. After having lost a previous lawsuit for overtime pay from a manager, more are coming now from past and present managers who also found themselves effectively being paid less and worked more after promotion.
This article out today shows that McDonald’s Japan is going to have to start trying to settle these cases and appease current managers or face the consequences later.
I’m just going to post some of my thoughts on IKEA Japan as seen through the eyes of someone who’s been to IKEA in both the U.S. and Japan. Things they are doing right: Paid to have a station named after them on the Port-Liner train (which takes people from downtown Kobe to Kobe Airport)….
A very interesting case because of the TYPE of data that was being kept. Things like “Her husband is Indian, the worst.” I think this is a bad translation of “saitei” meaning that she (or he) is just the lowest. Just a big put down. Another example that was in the Japanese news was listing…
The story about the murder case in Japan that I wrote about here in “CNN Almost Writes Pop-Japanology-less Article” has been described in a bunch of papers as a case of the traditional world of Sumo, and it’s incredibly tough training has produced a murder case which questions the fine line between “keiko” or a…
The “mimamori keitai 005Z”, or the “protection cell phone” (my translation) is set to be released in March 2011. The phone has a crime prevention buzzer built in, and only has 1 button on it. The display is a tiny 1.2 inches, and was designed with young children in mind. It will also be equipped…
I think this story isn’t getting as much air time in Japan as it should… not because of the right wing activist angle, not because of the suicide angle, but because a guy took a taxi to the south gate of the Japanese Diet building and… pulled out a gun Ok, maybe I overemphasize with…
I was glancing at some of the clothes for sale on the Yahoo! Japan’s auction service today when I came across a jacket which was advertised as Abercrombie & Fitch. The genius seller of the auction was kind enough to offer proof of the authenticity of the jacket by providing a close-up photo of the…