Only in Japan - Poke Out Somebody's Eye With That!

I glance over the Japanese News everyday. Usually there isn't much going on. We don't have stuff like the Martin - Zimmerman trial going on here.

Here is something that I saw in this mornings news that made me go "WTF?"

It seems that a 30-year-old girl fell down in between the opening on the train platform and the train (looks like the Keihin Kyuko going to Isogo - towards Yokohama way from Tokyo. I don't know what station this is). And, in order to get her out, the station workers had to ask for and enlist the help of passengers to push the train far enough away from the platform so that the girl could get out! 

Like I said, "What the....?"

"Heave ho!"

Anyway, this impressed me for two reasons. One; how in the hell does a 30-year-old woman actually fall through the crack between the train and the platform??? Now, I've seen some places where the gap was pretty wide, maybe 7 or 8 inches... But an adult falling through to the ground? I know lots of Japanese girls are really skinny, but that's ridiculous! (I have, in many drunken stupors feared falling through the cracks, though!)

The other thing that impresses me is that, in 30 years in Japan, I have never seen or heard of such a thing. Now, I don't mean that I've never heard, "Don't fall through the cracks!" But that's like something your mom would tell you that never happens (like when you are playing with a stick or a plastic sword) ala; "Be careful with that or you'll poke someone's eye out!"

Uh, no mom. That never happens, OK?

But this girl actually did fall through! And THE KICKER, in this internet and smartphone age, is that people were there to take photos of it and upload them to the Internet immediately.... So now, it's not just hearsay that someone fells through the cracks; there's photographic proof...

Maybe I will be more careful walking on the train platform and maybe I won't be swinging around my umbrella next time like Luke Skywalker... 

Might fall through the cracks,... but not before, of course, poking somebody's eye out!

The Japanese Idea of "Freedom" and an American's Idea of "Freedom" is Different

The average Japanese doesn't know how good they've got it. In Japan, crime is virtually non-existent, the police don't hassle people (never hear of "police brutality") and one can feel safe in their own neighborhood at night. America is not a free country at all anymore. Nevertheless, I often meet Japanese people who have been to the United States and they tell me that they love the country because it is "freedom."

I've come to the conclusion that the idea of what "freedom" is to a Japanese person is different from what "freedom" is to an American.


The Japanese confuse "wide open spaces" with "freedom."


Watch the video below of the famous Japanese girl's group, "Puffy." This video was shot in the USA. This is pretty indicative of what Japanese people consider "freedom." Watch it for a minute.

You see? Wide roads, convertible cars the size of boats, wide open spaces, Statue of Liberty, California palm trees, having a big assed dog, sandy beaches, Los Angeles freeways, driving out in the middle of the desert... These are the things that represent "freedom" to a Japanese.


What represents "freedom" to an American? Well, of course I can't speak for all Americans, but huge cars, big dogs, sandy beaches and Los Angeles freeways (as well as concrete statues) do not represent freedom to me in the least.


Freedom is, to me, is the ability to walk down the street in a major city and smoke a cigarette (I don't smoke) or drink in public or to be able to walk out of my house any time at night or day without the oppression or fear that I am going to be attacked or robbed... And that means being attacked or robbed by criminals or the police, but I repeat myself. These are all things taken for granted in Japan. 


Freedom is, to me, to be able to do what I want as long as I don't interfere with other people or bother them. Or to not have other people or the police infringe upon me for no apparent reason.


Freedom is not the United States in 2012 that is for sure.


Sandy Beaches in California? Sure. Just make sure you don't barbecue or throw a Frisbee or a football or dig too deep a sand castle on an Los Angeles beach. It's now a $100 dollar fine if you do.


CBS reports in LA County Updates Ordinance on Ball, Frisbee Throwing at beaches:

According to Lucy Kim, from the LA County Department of Beaches and Harbors, a first-time offender will have to pay a $100 fine. For a second offense, beach-goers will face a $200 fine. Three or more infractions within one year will result in a $500 fine, Kim said.

The new ball and Frisbee tossing rules will be relaxed during the winter off-season.

The ordinance also prohibits digging any hole deeper than 18 inches into the sand, except where permission is granted for film and TV production services only.

♫ The home of the brave... 

and the land...of the... freeeeeeeeeeeee! ♫

Right! They are going to relax the rules in winter off-season... Great! Nobody goes to the beach in winter off-season!


Of course throwing a Frisbee or football at the beach isn't the complete or comprehensive definition of freedom. Nor is children being able to make sand castles as they wish; neither is the ability to drink or smoke at the beach (neither of which is legal on California State beaches). But I think these are pretty symptomatic of a very un-free country.


Freedom in Japan today blows away freedom in the USA today... Evidence? Here, here, here, here, here and here, just to point out a few.


We can drink and smoke in public, throw Frisbees and make sand castles as we please... Heck, we even have convertible cars too... Admittedly we're a tad bit short on the wide roads department but we have the best public transit and train and subway system in the entire world to make up for that.


Probably not the perfect definition of freedom, but a heck of a lot closer than today's USA is.

Finally! Tokyo to Get Cellphone Service in Subways!

It never seems to fail. I could be sitting around at home or in the office all day and not get a single phone call to my cellphone (not really complaining), but sure as the sun will rise in the East tomorrow morning, the moment I get into a subway train, and the door closes, someone will call me.

As soon as the train leaves the station - in between stations - there's no cellphone reception in Tokyo. 


But that's all going to change this year!


CNN reports:

Users of the iPhone in Japan have long had one grievance to share -- the poor lack of signal on phone giant Softbank's network.

Walk underground or stand in an elevator and you can expect the line to go dead on any Softbank phone, let alone on a moving subway train. Of course, one should never speak while in the carriage, but for those wishing to download news or send text messages, each tunnel is a frustration.

Tokyo Vice Governor Naoki Inose and Softbank president Masayoshi Son agreed at a meeting at the municipal head office to resolve the issue whereby a phone signal can be found in the passageways under the city, but not while moving between stations -- affecting millions of commuters.

According to the Mainichi, Son "proposed that e-mail use be enabled in subway trains because doing so would raise people's productivity."

......

The antennas will be paid for by a consortium of the three telephone giants, Softbank, NTT Docomo Inc and KDDI Corp, so should serve all phones, and could be up and running by the end of 2011.

I don't really want to talk to people on the trains, but would love to be able to read the news on the Internet or check stock prices or watch Youtube.

I hope they do arrange this as soon as possible. It looks like Osaka will have this service in 2012!

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One More Phase in the Shattering of Mainstream Media

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I rode the Tokyo subway today and saw a sign inside the car that notified the passengers that as of July 24, 2011, terrestrial television stations will no longer broadcast analogue signals in Japan and will finally make the switch to digital.

This signals what could be the final nail in the coffin of many of the FM radio stations in this country and the collapse of TV Tokyo and TBS.

I predict that InterFM will either be bankrupt or sold to a new owner by 2014 and TV Tokyo will be in the same situation: insolvent or absorbed by another company by 2016.

I'd like to explain why in this post but first let me give you some important details involving the background of broadcast signals so that you may have a better understanding and why I think this way. Let's see if you come to the same conclusions that I have.

Let's start with AM and FM radio.

AM is called "Amplitude Modulation" and its signal is wavy. When an AM signal comes to an obstacle like a mountain or a tall building, it bounces off of it in many directions and continues going. This is why, in many areas of the United States, there are some AM stations whose broadcasts can be heard over 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) away. The AM signal is like an ocean wave so, if there are no mountains to make the signal deflect into the heavens, the signals will bounce along the earth's surface.

This makes AM radio great for talk and the friend of people who drive long-distance trucks.

FM is called "Frequency Modulation" and it goes in a straight line. When an FM signal hits a mountain, tall building or other obstacle, it stops. We've all had the experience that our favorite FM station drops off when we go through a tunnel or through a valley. That's the shortcoming of FM radio.

What many people do not know is that terrestrial TV uses the same FM frequency for its broadcasts too.

People who were brought up in Japan may remember from their childhood small portable transistor radio that had the AM / FM band on them but also played TV channels NHK and NHK Educational (1 & 3).  If you understand that analogue TV uses FM frequency to broadcast, then you now understand why those old transistor radio's had TV channels on them.

This is important so keep this in mind.

On July 24, 2011, the TV channels will stop broadcasting analogue signals. What this really means is that they will stop using the FM band for transmitting their services and go to terrestrial digital.

FM, Frequency Modulation, is a broadcast wave. Digital broadcasting is not a wave at all. Digital broadcasting is a completely different technology. Digital broadcasting is not a wave, it is binary data.

I suppose that some of you have seen binary data before. It's a series of zero's and one's and looks something like this:

00110010111100101101001110100010000100001000001

00110001000011101110001010101001001000100111000

01011110111101111011011111110010001000001101010

That is binary data. The reason why digital broadcasting is so clear and high quality is that, with binary data, it is either "on" or "off" unlike an AM or FM signal that can be blocked or deflected by tall buildings, mountains or even trees. Binary Data is crystal clear.

Now, how does this spell the end of FM radio? Bear with me here, cause now we're getting to the nitty gritty.

The future of FM radio doesn't lay in what they broadcast or how they up the ante of quality of content (but, of course, it will always be a competition between stations for dwindling audience and sponsorship dollars)...

The future of FM radio depends on what Toyota does.

That's right. Toyota is the one who decides what is going to happen. In my opinion, it is obvious that FM  is is serious trouble and that we are now witnessing the end of an era; and it's happening, in slow motion, right in front of our eyes.

But, don't take my word for it, decide for yourself. Let me explain further...

Think about this: Where do most people listen to FM radio? In cars, right?

The Japanese government and all the big manufacturers in this country, Sony, Panasonic, etc. (who, by the way, all have an incestuous relationship with each other and Toyota in stock holdings) are pushing for the digital conversion big time. These manufacturers need their flagging fortunes to get an injection of sales and profits that new broadcasting and new equipment will generate. Digital equipment costs anywhere from $500 - $2,000 (USD) a set. The Japanese manufacturers want and need for the Japanese public to go whole-hog into digital broadcasting. They need the public to dispose of their analogue equipment and buy the new digital equipment... (By the way, a cursory check of analogue equipment at Bic Camera the other day - what little I could find - showed that all the analogue products were all manufactured outside of Japan).

If digital broadcasting is a failure in this country, then it's going to hurt Japanese manufacturing for a very long time... The analogue equipment I saw was all manufactured in Malaysia, Indonesia, and I found some from Taiwan (which was surprising).

Now, how does Toyota fit into this equation?

Imagine your car dashboard. It has a GPS, CD player, and television/radio set all built together. Most people have an analogue device (with terrible TV reception!) From July 2011 there will be no cars that come with that device. They will all be digital.

After July 2011, on your dashboard, you will have a digital GPS, Internet, digital TV and digital radio. Want to do Social Media, YouTube, Twitter, U-Stream, blog? Got you covered. Need to Google or Yahoo search? Sure. When you need traffic conditions, just a click on your GPS will give you up to the minute details on traffic and road conditions. All the TV channels? No problem. Throw on top of that 6 digital radio channels and, of course, a CD player and probably an iPod connection, and you have the next generation of car entertainment system. (In Japan, as of now, there are 6 digital radio channels that are shown on CS or BS television. These channels broadcast soft jazz and classical music).

Toyota HD Digital Screen. 

All sorts of fun things like iPod, digital TV and digital radio... 

Do you see FM or AM radio? I don't

Remember I wrote that digital signals are binary data and analogue is a broadcasting wave? This is important now.

I ask you, dear reader, to consider; Since Sony, Panasonic, etc. and companies like Toyota and Nissan all have an incestuous relationship as to stock holdings and company ownership, and they desperately need to have the Japanese public buy their digital devices that cost at least $500 each... And digital devices receive binary data and are not analogue compatible... Do you think that Toyota will cut a hole in your dashboard, just under your $500 digital GPS, TV, Internet, radio device in order to install a $1 dollar made in Indonesia FM tuner?

I don't, and I think it is insane to think otherwise. Actually, the notion is laughable, isn't it?

So, if people can no longer hear FM radio in their cars, then where are they going to listen to it? In the subways with their white earplugs through their iPods and iPhones?... Get serious. Nobody does that now!

If there are any folks reading this who remember how popular short wave was way back when compared to what it is today, then they have a good idea what I think the future of FM radio in Japan looks like....

No FM radio in the car spells doom for the FM stations because if no one can listen in their car, then FM will have no listeners at all... No listeners means no sponsors. No sponsors means no money. No money means no FM...

I cannot imagine how they will survive the next 5 ~ 10 years.

If I were a station like J-Wave - that still has good ratings and high listenership - I'd get into negotiations real soon for an open digital radio channel... And, no, the license and digital conversion are not cheap. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars. The smaller stations will never afford it, so they are dead.

And that's why July 2011 is the last nail in the coffin of FM radio in Japan.

But what about AM radio you say? Ah, that's the interesting contradiction. AM radio will probably survive. Because AM car radio is the bottom of the pit for basic car equipment (besides nothing at all)... Almost every Tokyo Taxi has an AM radio in it. Few have FM radios.

Tomorrow I will explain why this entire situation bodes ill for TV Tokyo and TBS TV.

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