Tokyo sky tree

      Tower with Asakusa area            Tower with the golden obect

Approximately twice the height of the Eiffel Tower, the 634-meter, ¥65 billion (US$806 million) Tokyo Skytree opened to the public on Tuesday.Even though opening day had bad weather, a lot of people visited the new Tokyo landmark.

There are the commercial building called Tokyo Soramachi and aquarium around the tower for being as the central attraction of Tokyo.

Saying what came in my heart when I saw this new tower design was "Hmm…not new!!" and "Was it necessary to make it?"

Then, I was interested in "what is the concept?" and I checked it on the internet.

I found the styling and color concept in the official website, but it seems to have too much detail and no one realized about them.

 For example, the styling image came from the big tree which stretched up toward to the sky, The styling which changed gradually from a triangle section to a circle comes from Sori(warpage)  and Mukuri(arch rise) which is seen in traditional Japanese architecture. As for the color, it's the original color based on Japanese traditional color Ajiiro -the lightest color in the Aizome(indigo dyeing) world.

Although there are deeply thought concepts in their design, no one realizes about it without explanation.

From normal people's point of view, it's just like a kind of future tower design or something. The official site said that they aimed at the elegant design, but I think that Eiffel Tower looks more elegant.

The lighting concept called Iki(swankiness) and Miyabi(elegance) is also difficult to understand without the explanation. It seems like just a colorful illumination. I mean, it doesn't surpass the current level.

Simply put, the things that building the world highest broadcasting tower and making a commercial place and illuminating it are completely same as Tokyo tower did before and there is no improvement. It's just higher than Tokyo tower.

Even so, Japanese media reported daily that "Skytower surpassed the height of Tokyo tower" "It's the world highest broadcasting tower!!" and "Many people visited and lined up for hours on the first day". I think it's like same atmosphere as the postwar high-growth period in Japan and it leaves a lot to be desired. I think the biggest problem is that it lacks of the vision like "let's make a new concept for new century"

Regis Arnaud French newspaper Figaro reporter described similar things in the Newsweek Japan. He said the thought of "building a high construction equal progress" is outdated and it has been an exclusive feature of developing countries.

He also said that Skytree looks as a symbol of decline not progress.

Tokyo chose the way which follows a third class city such as Guangdong and Dubai. Tokyo will be eaten up by developers in the future.  Bitter fruits could grow on the tree called Tokyo Skytree in the long run.

I think he pointed out perfectly about this issue that Japanese media never did.

http://www.newsweekjapan.jp/column/tokyoeye/2010/12/post-267.php

         Omotesando Hills                                                 Doujunkai apartment          

Tadao Ando famous Japanese architect designed the Omotesando Hills with his the new concept that featured the memory of the city about 10 years ago.

For examples, the height of building is low to fit in the landscape, roof greening to connect with zelkova trees on the Omotesando street and recreating of the part of outer wall of the old Doujunkai apartment which has been loved by neighbors for long time. As mentioned above, his concept which avoiding to break the landscape and history of the city and passing the memory of people onto the future is really smart.

I think the point of view that Tokyo skytree doesn't have is these kind of vision.

Before start to make the tower design, they should have deeply thought about it.

Japanese people are easily warmed up but easily cooled down.

I hope that Tokyo Skytree will never decline several years later.

We can't scrap it easily compared with Golden shit in Azumabashi.

Is "Complete Gacha" illegal or not?

A social game is very popular in Japan, but it's a hot topic now because of its charging system called "Complete Gacha". It makes young people's speculative heart fun and young people use a lot of unexpected money. 

Media reported that Comp-Gacha( Complete Gacha) which is used by two major company called Gree and DeNA(DNA) has the possibility in violation of truth-in-advertising law.

Gacha is the new charging system in social game that players pay money and collect some designated virtual cards to get virtual item. Then in Complete Gacha, players collect a particular set of virtual cards including more rare cards in order to obtain rare "grand prize" items. This system is used in the game called "Exploring the Doriland(Dream land)" and 90% of their profit comes from this system.

The etymology of the word "Gacha" comes from so-called "Gacha-Gacha" (Capsule toy in the U.S) which players insert money into vending machines to get a capsule containing a random toy. It reminds me that I spent my meager allowance until I get my target toy and then I was warned by the person in the shop when I was a kid. Probably, I wouldn't stop because I thought that it should have come soon or I was worried about if I stop now, next guy must get it instead of me. Thinking back now, it was waste of time and money.

The problem now is the same situation that the last card which players are looking for to complete the set never show up. Players have to pay in each try, so there is no end to the number of kids who spend over one hundred thousand yen without thought. Besides, game companies seems to control these odds.

In addition, people use  real money to get this rare cards on Yahoo auction so-called RMT(real money trade). I saw the price tag on one rare card for one hundred sixty thousands yen!!  Also, some people copied this item illegally and sold them in this auction. Someone made over thirty million yen in only one month.

In fact, there is the same business already in Japan and it has been already forbidden by the law. Simply put, companies must not conduct the prize which let people show more than two kind of cards. The reason why this law started which was from the famous snack so-called Pro-yakyu Chips(professional baseball potato chips) where chips come with one baseball players trading card. The system that if people complete few hit cards, they can get the mini-bat made most of the kids addicted. After that, this problem became big issue and finally, Japanese government banned this system.

It's the same situation with the problem which is happening in a social game world. I think only different point between two is that Pro-Yakyu Chips gives us of course potato chips, but social game doesn't. In addition, people are allowed to exchange their cards in case of duplication with Pro-yakyu Chips, but not in social games. To make matters worse, Yakuza will intervene in this business and it could be in their valuable income source like in Korea.

There is same style charging game in the U,S too. However, " The internet gambling prohibitive law" was conducted in 2006, and RMT act was prohibited.

eBay decided to remove all related RMT items in their auction site. It became a big issue and Korean government established "The law about the game industrial development" to prohibit RMT comprehensively. All of games are checked strictly about gambling-related presence before it's released.

I personally don't think that young people shouldn't play games. However, I feel disgust about recent social games, because these games only focus on making money from players. The relationship between game companies and consumers became disrupted that game companies provide nice games and they give fun experiences to players by their big effort and consumers pay for this value.

With this in mind, I don't agree with "Complete Gacha" and RMT system.

Gree and DeNA released that they will discontinue "Comp-Gacha" but they didn't say "including Gacha too" . It seems to be a just performance to avoid from their stock price going down after all. It can't deal with the issue anyway.

To say my opinion from this standpoint, I support to Nintendo who said that we don't think to use "Gacha" system. I hope they will make a new concept game to make players gather and excited or to make stage family-ties like Wii. I hope Nintendo will suggest the concept proactively to avoid games to be bad image. Of course, we consumer keep in mind this common rule that we need to pay for valuable game as in compensation.

http://sipo.jp/blog/2012/05/post-4.html

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/nitoyon/20120511/comp_gacha_probability 

ベストエアライン

航空会社ランキングサイト大手のスカイトラックスが２０１１年度のベストエアラインの結果を発表しました。アナウンスによるとカタール航空が２００８年度１位で今回２位のシンガポールエアラインを抜いて１位を獲得しました。３位には２０１０年度の１位のアジアナ航空が入りました。以下４位以下はキャセィパシフィック、タイエアウェイズ、エディハト航空、エアニュージーランド、カンタスエアウェイ、トルコ航空、エミレーツが顔を並べました。

投票は１０ヶ月間で世界１００カ国から１８８万人が参加しました。

ワールドベストエアライン2011

1 カタール航空(UAE)

2 シンガポールエアライン

3 アジアナエアライン(韓国)

4 キャセィパシフィック(香港)

5 タイ国際航空

6 エディハト航空(UAE)

7 エアニュージーランド

8 カンタスエアウェイ(オーストラリア)

9 トルコ航空

10 エミレーツ(UAE)

まず驚いたのが西洋の先進国と日本の航空会社が１つもランクインしていないところです。

ベストテンに入っている顔ぶれを見ていると中東、アジアがほとんどである。

理由は簡単でUAEはオイルマネーにもの言わせて新しい機体をどんどん購入したり優秀なスタッッフを世界中から集めているからである。日本以外のアジアも経済状況がよくコストダウンするような事はしていないのであろう。

日本の航空業界でいうとANAがアジア地区のスタッフサービスで１位になっている他は全くだめでしたね。私は日本の航空会社は少なくとも１０位以内に入っていると思っていました。やはりリセッション以降経済的な理由で機材を新しく出来なかったりサービスや値段で対抗出来なかったのでしょう。

このランキングをみていると航空業界はある意味新参者でも良い機材と良い人材を確保出来れば一気にランキングをあげる事が可能な世界だ。

お客さんに取ってライバルがたくさんいて競争原理が働く事は歓迎すべきことなのでこのようなランキングはとても意味のある事だと思う。

（後日キャビンアテンダントの人にこのことを聞いたらこのランキングは影響が大きく非常に気にしているそうです）

しかし結局お客さんにとって自国のエアラインが言葉や文化の理解に於いて一番である事は間違いない。例えばいくらシートが快適でも日本語で映画が見れないとだめなのである。食事においてもやはり日本食を食べたい。そういう意味で言うと一見航空会社がたくさんあってお客さんが選べる環境に見えるが実質はあまり選択肢はないのである。ご存知の通り日本においてはJALとANAの２つくらいだ。

日本人の目線で言うと日本の他の航空会社にもっと参入してもらいたいと思うしもっと各社独自のサービスを提供して切磋琢磨してほしい。安全性、キャビンの快適性、食事、エンターテイメント、ホスピタリティ、マイレージサービス、価格などいろいろ差別化のアイデアはあると思う。

でも安全第一で競争してくださいね。

http://www.worldairlineawards.com/

Best airline

The World's Best Airline in 2011 was announced by Skytrax which has the largest airline and airport review and ranking site.

According to their announcement, Qatar Airways won the coveted title of  the World's Best Airline.  Ranked No 1 in the world, Qatar Airways surpassed the 2008 winner Singapore Airlines into 2nd place, with Asiana Airlines (Best Airline in 2010) in 3rd position. Cathay Pacific Airway and Thai Airways International came in fourth and fifth, respectively. Etihad Airways, Air New Zealand, Qantas Airways, Turkish Airlines and Emirates fill out the top 10 list..

The winners are voted by more than 18.8 million airline passengers from 100 different nationalities over 10 months.

The World's Best Airlines 2011

1 Qatar Airways(UAE)

2 Singapore Airlines

3 Asiana Airlines(Korea)

4 Cathay Pacific Airways(Hong Kong)

5 Thai Airways International

6 Etihad Airways(UAE)

7 Air New Zealand

8 Qantas Airways(Australia)

9 Turkish Airlines

10 Emirates(UAE)

I was surprised that there were no Western and Japanese airlines.

Most of airlines come from Middle East and Asia.

It is easy to explain the reason. UAE buy newest airplane one after another by using their oil money and they hire a lot of good staffs from all over the world. Surprisingly, cabin attendant job is not popular among these countries, because UAE airline hire cabin attendants as migrant workers from foreign countries. Asian countries are also in the good economy situation and they don't need to conduct the cost down like Japanese airlines.

As for Japanese airlines, it was not good result except ANA won the 1st place in staff service in Asia area.

I expected that Japanese airlines at least ranked in best ten.

They seem to suffer from bad economy after the recession. So they couldn't renew their aircraft and couldn't give nicer service and reasonable price compared to best ten airlines.

Looking at this ranking, I think in airline world, even newcomer can get good ranking result if they can buy new aircraft and hire good staffs.

As the costumer point of view, this ranking is really meaningful, because, it would be good situation that there are a lot of competitors and cause the competition principle.

I talked with ANA cabin attendant about this topic when I went to Japan on business trip 2 weeks ago and she said this ranking has a big influence and we pay attention to this result.

However, as for customers, it's sure that the domestic airlines are the best in language and cultural back ground.

For instance, for Japanese people, even though the seats are really comfortable, they can't enjoy the flight without Japanese movies. Also, Japanese people prefer Japanese food.

With these in mind, it seems like there are a lot of airlines and customers can choose from many options but, as a matter of fact, there is no choice. As you know, there are only two main airlines such as JAL and ANA.

As for Japanese customer point of view, I hope that other new Japanese airlines join the market and develop through friendly competition with their original service. There are a lot of ideas for a way to differentiate themselves such as safety, cabin comfort, meal, entertainment, hospitality, mileage service and price.

However, don't forget that safety is always first.

http://www.worldairlineawards.com/

Jury duty

Three of my co-workers got letters of notice recently and two of three went to court taking some day-off and another guy out of it finally.

As you may know, people who live in America don't have a choice in this situation except with special reasons. Yes, just like the name implies, it is a duty.

Additionally, selection is random.

Most American people don't like jury duty because it requires taking at least a few days off and daily pay is only few dollars. It is not enough for lunch.

Also, it's not clear how many days it will take. Some people don't have their voters registration because people are selected from this data base.

Unfortunately, the government stopped using this database and uses the driver license database instead. The odds of being chosen are one in sixty eight.

Jury duty came from England to America in 1788. The main purpose was reflection of public opinion and values in their judgment. The American government believes that it promotes democracy.

However, this system has some downsides. First of all, sometimes large mistakes in judgments occasionally are made. The prejudice that the jury has also problem.

As in the case of former American football player O.J Simpson. He was found innocent by a jury consisting of eight black people out of 12.

Additionally, the lawyer often performs dramatic speeches to attract the sympathy of the jury.

Secondly, it is easy to imagine that an amateur jury can't make accurate judgments complicated civil case such as patent infringement.

Actually, if I receive judgment from jury, I'm concerned about the capability of an amateur duty. I would prefer a professional judge to an amateur jury.

Meanwhile, a similar system has been enacted in Japan since 2009. It's called "Saiban-in system" or "Citizen judge system" There are some differences from the jury duty system in the U.S. First, Saiban-in system deals with only a criminal court.

Secondly, the citizen judge decides guilt or innocence with a judge and a lawyer.

However, citizens have to decide a criminal punishment.

According to the survey, 64% of Japanese people think that they would feel heavy responsibility because, their judgment would decide the defendants' fate.

Simply put, they don't think that they have the confidence about their judgment.

I'm also concerned about their privacy, it's not safe. I don't want to give a strict judgment to Yakuza(gang).

In conclusion, I agree with the basic concept of jury duty reflecting citizen's opinion in their judgment. However, this system has some downsides.

I think a hybrid idea of mixing Japanese style and US style would make it much better.

I mean, it should be focused on only a criminal court, not civil case like in Japan.

I think that including civil cases means too many judgments we have to deal with.

Also, we only judge guilt or innocence, not deciding a criminal punishment, like in the U.S. I think it's too heavy for citizens to decide a criminal punishment.

Finally, both government should pay more for daily payment!!

Written in Aug 2011 and revised May 1st 2012