Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the world, more and more consumers are shunning the potential dangers of brick-and-mortar stores in favor of their online alternatives. Major e-commerce platforms, along with their counterparts peddling everything from inter-personal communication to insurance products, have become the primary beneficiaries of the pandemic era. Yet, as their market values hit one record high after another, the global world of "big tech" is also facing unprecedented scrutiny as governments around the world finally begin to grasp and rein in their influence.

It is no longer news that Japan's provincial areas are facing a steep long-term decline , as the country's overall population decreases and ever-more opportunities for work and high living standards become concentrated in Tokyo. As provincial areas face a steady decline in population, the local tax base, proportional to the declining number of people and businesses that make the locality their permanent home, is also declining in tandem. With the same areas facing ballooning costs from pensions and healthcare as the population ages, the fiscal shortfall threatens to break the fragile balance of payments for the local governments.

"Digital transformation" has become a hot trend in the non-IT business world in the past few years. As a slew of software firms come to maturity peddling productivity-enhancing programs for more legacy firms, the legacy firms have come to grips with a renewed sense of crisis that they need to adopt more IT in their day-to-day operations just to keep up with tech firms that can achieve so much value with relatively few employees. The idea of using the tech firms' own products to help retool the likes of manufacturers and traditional brick-and-mortar service operators is becoming not just mainstream but urgent as they adapt to the work-from-home world of COVID-19.

Recently, Nike released a short advertisement on Youtube that depicts three Japanese young athletes of non-mainstream ethnic identities (two Korean, one half-black) overcoming discrimination and bullying through their participation in their schools' and communities' soccer teams. Despite the intention of crafting a universal message of social inclusion in a country grasping an unprecedented question of what to make of an increase in Japanese residents of non-Japanese descent. The ad was picked up by international media outlets as a sign of the country's continued reorientation from centuries of self-designated ethnic and cultural homogeneity.

For many Japanese people, the first and probably the most common type of "foreign food" that they encounter and partake in their lives is Chinese food. Ever since the first Chinese migrants brought the cuisine to the Japanese masses in the pre-World War II era, Chinese food has been the go-to choice for those looking to fill their stomachs on the cheap. With the country's defeat in World War II, many Japanese residents on the Chinese mainland were uprooted and returned to Japan, where many eeked out a living by peddling foods of their previously adopted homelands.

More than a year ago, I argued that a history of ethnic conflicts and a political structure that gives too much regional autonomy threatens the peace the country achieved under Abiy Ahmad, a 2019 Nobel Peace laureate. Indeed, as 2020 draws to a close, the Ethiopian federal government is on a military offensive against Tigray, a northern region whose ruling political party was once behind the political force behind the authoritarian regime that Abiy and his allies worked hard to overthrow. With the federal government cutting off electricity, water, and internet to Tigray and a large number of locals fleeing across the border to Sudan as refugees, the war threatens to destroy Abiy's hard-earned international reputation as a peacemaker.

For most casual readers of world history, the term "sphere of influence" has a distinct feel of yesteryears. The word conjures the image of colonial heydays when European powers drew artificial lines on a world map to mark the geographical limits of their competing interests. Within the drawn boundaries, puppet states were without any ability to make any independent decisions. Instead, small states are forced to follow the grand designs of their superpower "allies" and "partners" and not communicate with other superpowers. Students of history are taught that with the advent of formally signed agreements, of political, economic, and military nature, such "spheres of influences," grounded in unequal relationships between small and large states, are no longer present.

Trump has made himself clear even as Biden secured the 270 electoral votes needed to secure his election as the next president of the United States. Through speeches, official statements, and tweets, the current president assured the general public that he is not yet backing down, taking the election to the next stage of recounts and legal conflicts. During this whole process, his supporters stood by him, calling for vote count stoppages, recounts, and throwing out "illegal" votes wherever it suits the incumbent, and for every online article that celebrated the Democratic victory, hundreds of social media posts called that the election is not yet over, echoing Trump himself.

I was eating mochi for lunch when I started wondering how the word mochi managed to enter the English language despite the product being not so well-acquainted among the average native speaker of English. The word itself is completely meaningless to someone without exposure to Japanese or the wider East Asian culinary tradition, a simple transliteration of the Japanese term for "gluttonous rice cake" that has, in some corner of the Western world, symbolize an exotic snack almost exclusively, despite it being around for thousands of years and used in dishes sweet and savory, for proper meals and desserts.

When people talk about dynamic centers of future industries in Japan outside Tokyo, Tsukuba, a town some 45 minutes by train north of Tokyo, gets frequent mentions. Home to high rankin, tech focused University of Tsukuba, the national space agency JAXA, and various state-funded science research organizations, the town is supposed to use its human capital in STEM to propel a series of successful tech startups, just as Stanford and Berkeley help to fuel Silicon Valley with human talent.

For a publication that is known for supporting liberal causes, most important of all the respect of human rights around the world, the Economist can be highly pragmatic. The magazine argued for institutionalizing international migrants as second class citizens in their host societies to placate the worst tendencies of anti-immigration xenophobia that has made headlines in many recipient countries. Setting aside the discussion on whether systematically introducing bureaucratic and economic inequalities between migrants and "natives" contradicts the principle of universal human rights, one should not doubt that the Economist  values practical solutions over lofty ideals in dealing with real-world issues.

In a TV interview in the aftermath of the World Food Program (WFP) receiving this year's Nobel Peace Prize, a former senior Japanese official at the WFP spoke of the one big lesson from his more than 30 years with the organization. He noted that every inequality, no matter how far away, is relevant to every nation and people around the world, and it is necessary for everyone to keep their eyes peeled for every conflict that emerges to better understand themselves. The words of the former WFP manager could not more in time today especially in Japan, as a deadly military conflict rages in the Caucasus with little mainstream coverage.

In a small coastal town three hours drive from Tokyo, a beautiful two-lane wind through seaside hills overlooking remote beaches barely visited by tourists. Mostly uninhabited, the winding road is home to few occasional gated housing compounds, cordoned off from public views with high concrete walls and dense canopies of palm trees. Only by walking higher up the hills, away from the road, one can see what are inside the mysterious compounds. They are luxury private homes with large balconies facing the ocean, flanked by Mercedes and BMWs, fronted by meticulously tended gardens, standing in what seems to be the middle of nowhere with a great view.

One of the great tragedies of the smartphone era is just how attached the average user is to the device. Anywhere, anytime, people are glued to their little screens, seeking stimulations in the most mundane of situations. The propensity for people paying attention to smartphones rather than anything else around them has required local authorities to put up posters and warning signs to discourage their use under certain circumstances, lest aloof smartphone users unwittingly bump into others or worse, hurt themselves by absent-mindedly wandering into busy roads and railroads.

I recently had an opportunity to speak to a group of new university graduates just joining a particular Japanese firm, as part of the company's initial training for new hires. As an icebreaker to get to know the group a bit better, I asked each member of the group about why s/he decided to join this company. The answers, to my sheer disappointment, was extremely underwhelming. One mentioned that the company is big and stable, another said that the firm's older employees all seemed to be very friendly, and scariest of all, one person bluntly mentioned that there is no particular reason that she chose the firm over others.

Back when I was living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between 2012 and 2015, one thing that I noticed was the sheer prevalence of people doing things on rooftops. The city was home to dozens of high-rise condominiums and office towers, and almost every single one of the high-rise's rooftop was being used, either as a bar, a restaurant, or in the case of many condominiums, pools and just a simple open activity space for the building's residents. The prevalence of open rooftops was so commonly accepted that people would assume that, whenever there is a high-rise, the rooftop would be accessible.

Back when I was still an employee at the logistics division of the major Southeast Asian e-commerce operator Lazada Group, I undertook an initiative at the warehouse to improve the speed at which orders are processed. The idea was to rearrange the physical layout of the area designated for processing and packaging products bound for delivery to customers so that workers can get the work done without moving as much. By pushing tables together and laying down rudimentary slides for packages to travel between different processing stations, the exercise shaved off about two seconds from the time it takes to process one order.

On the streets of Katsuura, a small coastal town on the far side of Chiba prefecture is a scene that one will never see on the streets of Tokyo today. Two brightly lit stores with giant "Sale!" signs specialize in the latest repertoire of portable fireworks, for people to enjoy in their backyards. The stores are not meant to be discreet. Occupying the two prime spots across each other on one of the town's main shopping streets, their wares spill onto the streets on carefully laid out tables, standing out from the other, much more dimly light lit outlets of restaurants and banks.

It's rather odd for me to hear people question my Japanese-ness even implicitly in Japan. Granted, I am by no means Japanese by ethnicity or nationality, but speaking Japanese without much of a foreign accent while having the looks to fit straight into the mainstream, I am accustomed to people assuming that I am Japanese as long as they don't ask for my real name or a copy of my identity card.

Japan has not heretofore been known much for gin. While the country's whiskeys and beers are garnering global recognition for taste and quality in recent years, not all Western liquors are equally taken on by the general public. But as major distillery Suntory has started marketing its own domestically produced gin to a domestic audience, it could be a harbinger of not only Japanese but global, interest in a more wide-ranging alcoholic experience. Indeed, if the new opening of bars and pubs in Tokyo is anything to go by, previously little consumed liquors, from mezcal to pisco sour, are gradually becoming mainstream.

When I first heard about the massive explosion that obliterated the port of Beirut, my first thoughts went to the small West African country of Gambia, where I jetted off back in 2012 as a grad student in London. To my surprise, the country was filled with Lebanese residents. The Lebanese dominated the local economy, running everything from local shops selling imported goods to large logistics companies that made international trade to that remote corner of the world possible. Locals seem to be accustomed to the Lebanese presence, established over course generations of migration as part of European colonization.

There is probably no worse time for people looking for a career change. As COVID-19 continues to rage around the world and output data show double-digit declines across major economies and rising unemployment, employees are lucky that they still have a job. In a world in which employers are concerned whether they will have enough business to cover them for the months to come, none are particularly keen on expanding the number of employees at this very moment. For those who are currently stuck in jobs that are less than interested in and looking for a way out, it seems they are unlikely to be successful at it until COVID goes away.

The "Go to Travel" campaign was supposed to symbolize the return of Japanese tourism. In an industry that has been battered by a 99.9% decline in the number of foreign tourists, the government-initiated campaign promised to save restaurant and hotel operators around the country by subsidizing domestic tourists to make up for the shortfall. Yet, just a few days before the campaign was due to start, the government announced that trip to and from Tokyo, the epicenter of COVID transmissions in Japan, will be excluded as a target for subsidies, leading to a surge of cancelations of hotel and tour bookings.

At first sight, the massive two-floor Patagonia store in the heart of Tokyo sounds like a place where the fashionistas of the world would spurn. Ceiling-to-floor posters extol the value of independence and ruggedness, as beautiful men and women are pictured cooking, kayaking, and hiking in the resolute mountains of, well, Patagonia. The men and women in the posters are simply dressed, with durable dark-colored, simply designed coats, jackets, and pants, a far cry from the vibrant colors and thoughts put into the arrangements among clothes worn by the passersby on Tokyo's high streets.

COVID-19 has reiterated the importance of selling products online. As the fear of contracting the disease compels people to minimize time outside the home for as long as possible for many people, online shopping has become the primary method for many people to secure both their daily necessities as well as simply indulging in the pre-COVID habit of window shopping on the high streets, but only online. As materialism grips Asian societies , consumers increasingly find themselves unable to get away from the urge to browse what to buy next, even if it can only be done in front of a smartphone or a computer screen.

As the coronavirus epidemic continues to spread around the world, moving abroad to improve career prospects may be the last thing that many people are thinking about. But individual careers do not take a break just because parts of the world economy are temporarily shut down to help suppress the further spreading of COVID-19. Just as it was before the emergence of COVID, moving to a different country for work may be extremely helpful for career development. In particular, in the post-COVID world, Japan and South Korea may be two locations that prospective job seekers should examine.

As COVID-19 progresses, it has become a statistical fact that East Asia has fared noticeably better than many other world regions. While the likes of Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan did not experience much of an outbreak at all, and China and South Korea, despite doubts about data and secondary outbreaks, largely kept new infections under control, the same cannot be said in many other world regions. Western Europe received the unglamorous title of the world region with the worst rate of infections for a time, before the US, Brazil, and now India and Russia well on the way to surpass the tolls of the epidemic in former hotspots like Italy and Spain.

COVID-19 has been a difficult time for those who love to travel. As countries enforce lockdown to minimize the risks of citizens contracting the disease from one another, shutting national borders has been a standard procedure. Airports emptied out as airlines canceled flights, and even among supposed visa-free travel zones like the EU, internal checks on supposedly non-existent national border controls have made it difficult for citizens to exercise their right to move, live, and work anywhere within the zone. While the talks of regional "travel bubbles" abound among countries that seem to have suppressed the epidemic, the return of unhindered travel around the world remains far away.

A few days ago, a few hundred Japanese and (mostly) foreigners in Tokyo and Osaka marched through downtown streets to show solidarity with those protesting racism in the US and around the world. The protestors were triggered by news of a Kurdish long-time resident of Tokyo being brutally handled the Tokyo police, for no other reason than arguing back about a suspected traffic violation. No doubt protesting for a noble cause, the few hundred that marchers created little ripple in Japan aside from a few short news articles in the country's few English-language media.

The Chinese Communist Party is found of using the statement, "hurting the feelings of Chinese people" when speaking about actions and words of foreign governments that it finds distasteful. The phrase has often been mocked outside the country as nothing but a propagandistic tool. The mockery stems from the belief that unelected government cannot speak for the "feelings" of a citizenry that did not elect it, and that the Chinese elite, secluded in their own world away from the general public, neither have a clue nor any interest in finding out whether the majority of the populace really see eye-to-eye with government officials on the foreign "offenses."

It seems yesterday that mainstream media was arguing about the supposed danger of "internet addiction" as kids and adults alike are foregoing real-world relationships in favor of spending more time in front of a screen, building virtual communities via video games and social media. psychological issues were highlighted in the discussion, with experts fearing a greater prevalence of cyberbullying on online forums, social isolation through the loss of ability to form real-world emotional bonds with people, and competitive showing off through falsified Instagram shots leading to suicides and mentally scarring a generation.

President Trump was not shy about claiming the credit for giving every American citizen USD 1,200 as part of the stimulus package to "wage a total war" on COVID-19. While the letter, awkwardly sent weeks after the actual USD 1,200 was paid out through bank transfer or personal checks, was clearly intended to boost Trump's upcoming reelection campaign against Joe Biden, the point implicitly made in the letter goes beyond his simply reiterating his supposed care for the American people; it speaks to the financial capacity of the United States as a nation that goes beyond the will of an individual president to bankroll his way back into the White House for another four years.

The Japanese language has a term サービス精神 ("the spirit of service") to denote anyone who has the mentality to be helpful to others, whether the others in question are clients, coworkers, or family members. The idea of being helpful to others is an essential part of the concept of "omotenashi," the idea of predicting and then following through with what others would find most pleasant and comfortable. In the world of business of retail, hospitality, and other service industries, the spirit of service is needed for customers to happily part with their money .

Tokyoites, living in their train- and bus-filled metropolis, often take for granted that getting from Point A to B within the city takes no more than a few minutes of wait at the local train station or bus stop. Even in the depth of the coronavirus epidemic, the city's trains and buses have continued to run their regular schedules, with little changes beyond keeping windows open for better air circulation. Judging from half-empty trains even during what would normally be considered rush hour, revenues from collecting fares have undoubtedly seen a significant decrease, but that has not changed the operations schedules by much.

A common refrain that is often heard about the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic is that the growth of dense urban areas has in some ways contributed to the rapid spread of the virus. The close proximity in which people live and work, along with the highly developed and extensive transport networks that carry people through and beyond major urban areas have allowed the virus to be transported and exposed at unprecedented speed and range. In other words, in areas that lack major cities, the coronavirus would be less damaging.

The mandatory social distancing rules and government-mandated lockdowns associated with the ongoing coronavirus epidemic has hurt economies around the world as the flows of good, traffic, and capital grind to a halt. But perhaps no industry is suffering during the lockdown more than restaurants, bars, and other establishments that serve readily made food and drinks to the masses. As spots where plenty of people congregate and food are prepared and passed around among different people before being consumed in often densely packed halls, they are rightly viewed by the authorities as potential hotspots for a deadly virus to easily pass among complete strangers.

家醜不可外揚, or "don't tell others about the negatives of one's own family," was a principle that my parents have mentioned upon multiple occasions. They stated that for others to be in on the knowledge of the family"s misfortunes and misconduct will tarnish the family's image so badly that it will be more than just an issue of the usual "losing face" when interacting with others  or bringing embarrassment, ridicule, or shame upon the family. To keep negative information private was often seen as a precondition for the family as a unit and its individual members moving up in the social hierarchy by keeping public reputation squeaky clean.

The prediction about the potential death toll from the coronavirus has become grimmer by the day. With experts in the US predicting that the virus may kill as much as 200,000 people within the country, extrapolation of the prediction to the entire world would see millions perish as the virus continue to rage uncontrollably in corners of the planets that are less capable of implementing measures designed to suppress excessive face-to-face contact among residents without their suffering grave economic consequences. The permanent loss of a significant portion of the world's productive labor force is now not unimaginable.

At first sight, the program seemed like just another travel-themed variety how all too common on Japanese TV in recent years. A group of entertainers, actors, and comedians alike, watched and commented on a video that showed a Japanese chef traveling around the world, checking out local restaurants, and going through the menus. As it is so often the case, the guests at the TV studio bantered about foreign stereotypes and politely but superficially discussed the exotic nature of countries that they frankly have no wishes to ever step onto in their lifetimes.

Yesterday, in a dramatic press conference, Yuriko Koike, the governor of Tokyo, noted that the city is on the cusp of a major spike in the number of new cases of coronavirus infections. As a measure to prevent further spreading of the virus, Koike called on the city's residents to voluntarily refrain from unnecessary outing over the weekend. As an additional measure, she announced the closure of the city's major parks to prevent people from gathering to view cherry blossoms that are blooming at the moment. The country's major news outlets duly reported Koike's press conference as headline news.

In the past few days, international media have been lamenting the emergence of individuals who openly flaunt the increasing levels of lockdowns and quarantines levied against them by authorities around the world to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. Stories abound of people sneaking out to dinners, jogs, meetings, concerts, and spring break parties. The general public, understandably, has jumped to criticize these individuals for being irresponsible and putting everyone around them in danger of catching and then dying from the COVID-19.

In the past few days, the charts for new infections and deaths from the Covid-19 epidemic has made for some grim reading. Even as the number of new cases tapers off in mainland China, the number of new cases and deaths has jumped manyfold in Italy and across western Europe. The list of countries with infections is continuing to grow, with cases now being uncovered in countries that have less institutional and medical capacity to stem future spikes in new infections. As the World Health Organization declares a pandemic, countries are quickly shutting down borders to save themselves.

As the coronavirus continues to strike fear into the heart of the general public across the world, the most urgent task is to find enough medical supplies to handle surging demands for those seeking them just to soothe their concerns. Masks, hand sanitizers, and soap are flying off the shelves, leading to massive shortages and waiting lists for manufacturers not set up to increase production to unprecedented volumes even as they face their own difficulties from lack of raw materials, logistical bottlenecks, and staff members who are too afraid or simply cannot make it to the assembly lines.

For the Japanese and foreigners alike, Japan is known as a land of hot springs... Perhaps too many hot springs. In a land where people have too few holidays and young workers faces decreasing starting salaries and increasing uncertainties in their job security, coaxing more people to far away from major cities even for a weekend trip is proving more and more difficult. And for those who are looking for an ideal dip in naturally warm waters, there are just too many hotels and hot spring towns fighting for attention using ever more ingenious ways.

As the coronavirus rages on both in China and across much of the world that the Chinese have frequent contact with, there has been an increasing emphasis on how the general public can avoid catching the virus just from going about their daily lives. While the talks of the need to arm oneself with proper tools and behaviors for isolation from potential carriers has led to shortages in everything from surgical masks to rice and toilet paper, even the hardiest isolationists must concede that in a global economy that depends on international movements of goods and people, people locking themselves indoors for weeks on end simply is not feasible.

It is funny how situations can change so quickly when it comes to a spreading virus. Just a week after this blog praised Japan for its relative calm despite having the largest number of cases outside China , the country is making a gradual but visible descent into increased concern and vigilance about the virus at the grassroots level. As several pieces of news about growing infections in Japan, the general public is becoming visibly irritable.

It has been several weeks since the coronavirus epidemic broke out of the central Chinese city of Wuhan. As China went into crisis mode, with the government struggling to stop a virus that has now infected tens of thousands and killed hundreds, Japan, as the next-door neighbor, inadvertently faces the pressure of how to prevent similar mass infection. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the number of people who travel between China and Japan, Japan has now become the country with the largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases outside China.

I thought the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani was the pinnacle of how a superpower can display its unhindered political power. Here it is a sovereign country A murdering a top military official of sovereign country B, entirely within the territory of sovereign country C without any sort of explicit agreement from elected officials of said country C before the event taking place. Complaints from C's officials are almost entirely ignored by their counterparts from A on the ground of national security taking precedence over respecting sovereign rights.

Global media outlets and government institutions are going into overdrive to spread information about a new strain of coronavirus originating in a seafood market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. With more than 800 people infested, dozens dead, and cases already spreading to eight countries, there is clear urgency for significant measures to be taken globally to ensure that necessary precautions and medical resources are in place to prevent it from becoming a global-scale epidemic in the coming weeks and months. The Chinese government, for one, has taken dramatic measures to lock down entire cities to prevent the disease from spreading.

The sudden escape of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn from house arrest in Tokyo has captured the attention of the world, however briefly, of how the Japanese justice system works. Unfortunately, the attention has been a largely negative one, seen from the Japanese perspective. In so many words, the international news outlet has expressed mild sympathy for Ghosn, who they see as destined for a lengthy legal battle that he cannot possibly win fair and square, given Japan's 99% conviction rate and a prosecution system that can repeatedly arrest released suspects whenever new charges emerge.

For frequent viewers of Japanese TV shows, the widespread use of blurring people and whole neighborhoods out can be quite noticeable. When shows take to the streets, interviewing people or following them to their homes and workplaces, everyone and everything that are not the subjects of the shows is pixelated to mask identities. The widespread use of visual disguise is a result of strict Japanese laws on privacy protection, which require that individuals only be displayed after receiving explicit consent from them to do so. For a crowded street, asking the passerby one by one is impracticable, so better blur the whole thing out.

The announcement from the police department is as idiosyncratically Japanese as any announcement can be. In a short message relayed by multiple TV stations and across social media, Japanese authorities warn the country's seniors to be careful when eating the traditional rice cakes for new years, as the sticky substance has led to more than one instance of the elderly choking and then die from suffocation as the stuff gets stuck in the throat. In all seriousness, the police advised that seniors ought to make sure they cut their rice cakes into small pieces and chew many times before attempting to swallow.