The Shinkansen is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by four Japan Railways Group companies. Since the initial Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened in 1964 running at 210 km/h (130 mph), the network (2,459 km or 1,528 miles) has expanded to link most major cities on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū with running speeds of up to 300 km/h (188 mph), in an earthquake- and typhoon-prone environment. Test run speeds have been 443 km/h (275 mph) for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a world record of 581 km/h (361 mph) for maglev trainsets, in 2003.

Nearly 300,000 electric bicycles have been sold in Japan in the past 12 months, and opting for one means never again paying for gas or parking tickets — and no more dreaded and impoverishing shaken vehicle-inspection tests.

Overseas, less than 100,000 electric bikes are sold in the United States each year, and they sell in small numbers in Western Europe — held back by their unfashionable image as a “ladies’ bike.” But they have gained a solid foothold in India, and in China, the biggest market of all, there are sales of over 10 million electrical bicycles a year, some selling for as little as 30,000JPY.

Pachinko, a pinball game peculiar to Japan, is played on a machine that has a vertical, glass-covered panel with target holes guarded by many protruding pins. The player operates an electronic plunger located between the panel and the glass to shoot steel balls the size of large beans to the top of the panel, from where they filter down through the pins. If a ball enters a target hole, the machine dispenses ten or more balls. The player can use the balls he wins in this way to continue the game or, if he accumulates enough of them, can exchange them for money, cigarettes, food items, or some other such prize.

Pachinko is one of the most common pastimes in Japan. Every town, no matter how remote, has at least one pachinko parlor. The approximately 17,400 parlors located throughout the country have a total of about 3.4 million machines and take in around 15.8 trillion yen per year. This is equivalent to about 40% of the annual sales of Japan’s automobile industry.

Pachinko is believed to derive from the Corinthian game imported from U.S. around 1920. It started as a game for children but was gradually modified into one for adults and then turned into a business. It spread particularly rapidly in the early postwar years when a pachinko boom in Nagoya triggered a proliferation of pachinko parlors throughout the country. 

Pachinko probably took hold in Japan because it is the type of amusement Japanese tend to prefer: something casual and not taking much time. Another reason for its continuing popularity may be that the pachinko machine manufactures regularly come out with new machines sporting new features designed to hold the public’s interest.

[Tetsuwan Atomu]        [Uchusenkan Yamato]    [Kaze no Tani no Naushika]      [Majo no Takkyubin]

Animated cartoon movies existed in Japan before the Second World War but most were produced for use in education and government PR.  

It was not until the advent of television in the postwar years that animated cartoons came into full bloom. Probably the greatest influence on the course of Japanese animated movies came from Tetsuwan Atomu (Atom, the Boy with Arms of Steel) and a number of other TV cartoon series produced by Mushi productions, a company founded by cartoonist Osamu Tezuka. 

The unprecedented success of the movie version of the 1974 TV series Uchusenkan Yamato (Spaceship Yamato) set off a flood of other full-length cartoon cinemas. More recent offerings, such as Kaze no Tani no Naushika (Naushika of Windy Valley) and Majo no Takkyubin (Special Delivery from the Witch), both directed by Hayao Miyazaki, employ highly sophisticated techniques to create animated action films that are fascinating even for adults. Many of these have also been well received overseas. 

Japanese TV cartoons are exported throughout the world, mostly to Southeast Asia, but also to Europe, the United States and many other countries. Overseas TV stations generally broadcast them in serial form.

Mazda Motor Corporation has announced that it will progressively implement 10 policies to enhance its employees’ work-life balance starting on August 11, 2008. The enriched personnel system offers more flexibility through measures to address the balance between an employee’s work and childcare and/or care for family members. These measures will enable Mazda to actively support the development of its employees’ careers.

Mazda has long been among the leading companies in Japan for policies that promote a healthy work-life balance and the effective utilization of female employees. The company abolished the “clerical staff” and “career staff” job classifications in 1999. In 2000, Mazda introduced the “super-flextime” system, which allows employees to plan and manage their working time without fixed office hours. In 2002, Mazda set up the industry-first “Waku-Waku Kids En” in-house daycare center, available to employees with pre-school aged children. This was followed in 2003 by the introduction of nursing leave which far exceeds legal requirements.

After 1973, Japanese annual birth rate is declining continuously.

   1947→4.32

     1971→2.16

   2003→1.29

The average first marriage age of a man is 29.8 years old in 2005　　　　

                                   <Graph-II ; the single rate>

                            Woman    　　　                                        Man

42.9% of men 30-34 years old do not marry.

 　     　<Graph-III ; the birth rate> 　　　　  

Past few decades, young woman bore many children, but now delivery age is rising, and the birth rate is decreasing. 

It is not easy to solve this issue. We must get a good environment such as good society and government support. So that everybody advances and bears a child, and can want to grow up. I think that this is modern and urgent issue of Japan.

Bonsai (dwarf trees) is an art form that consists of planning a tree in a ceramic pot and then, through a process of cultivation that draws on and accents the plant’s vital powers, producing a natural elegance of form pleasing to the eye. It originated in China and was introduced to Japan during the Sui and Tang Dynasties ( the Nara and Heian Eras of Japan), whereafter it developed independently in Japan.

The ability to produce bonsai can be said to spring from the resourcefulness of the Japanese people who, in their love of natural beauty, have tried to bring it closer to their lives.

The kite is a universally known plaything.

In many languages, the word for “kite” has an interesting origin. The Japanese word comes from “sail swollen with the wind,” the Chinese from “wind harp,” the English from the name of a bird, the French from “stag beetle,” and Spanish from “comet.”