Hiroko's Hitokoto

No matter what you do during June, you'll be inundated with sights and sounds of the World Cup. This massive event influences not only the media, but the other areas of our daily lives, e.g., the stock market -- such as a TV advertiser's stock price going up or down depending on whether their spots appear during scheduled games. TV viewer figures are hitting over 61% when the Japan team is playing, and even when other national teams are playing, ratings are still around 23%, which is pretty high. Some companies are reportedly thinking about changing their commercials featuring new players other than those from the French National Team -- which has already been knocked out of the competition. In other news, the song used for the Nike TV commercial, "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis vs JXL has hit Number 1 on the UK music charts. Also, the Ministry of Education has apparently given approval to their workers to watch the soccer games during work time. And for those w...

The World Cup is starting and excitement fills the air. Every TV station has something featuring soccer -- almost all the time. Security is a big issue in Japan, but perhaps nothing compared to Korea, where the Korean army has issued weapons to men standing by for trouble. Here in Japan, some "official" hooligans have already deported at Narita airport. I'm personally not that interested (sorry to those of you who are soccer lovers!) in the World Cup. But as I've found out recently, it's become very important when arranging business meetings, phone calls, etc., to check the game schedules first! Suddenly lots of overseas managers are coming to see their Japan operations, and are asking us for early morning meetings so that they can make their way to the various stadiums. Infact, in the case of some of our British customers, I'd had to completely avoid booking meetings for days when England is playing. The World Cup is indeed a global festival. Estimates are th...