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Feature/News Focus advisory+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Feb. 20_(Kyodo) _ KWS is to move the following feature/news focus stories in the upcoming week. Call +81-3-6252-8318 (feature editor) or e-mail: ota.narito@kyodonews.jp.
---------- Supermarkets checking out department stores' IC tag success
Ichiro Kitamoto reports from Tokyo: Supermarkets are following department stores in introducing integrated circuit tags as easy bill payments will help increase their profits and make shopping more convenient for customers.
To help in the introduction, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is backing IC tag testing, and some supermarkets have already entered the stage of practical use.
For example, when a customer puts down a shopping basket containing goods to be purchased at a specialized cash register, the sound of a scale is heard and a store clerk sees the names and prices of the goods appear on a display screen.
---------- Food safety fears make delivery services hot business
Shinichi Tokuda reports from Tokyo: Some providers of food delivery services are doing good business by touting the safety of their products.
Their businesses have expanded amid consumer anxiety about mad cow disease and agrochemical residues on vegetables.
In response to such consumer concerns, a growing number of food delivery companies are making extra efforts to ensure the quality of the food they sell. They are gathering detailed information about how their products have been produced, including the methods used to catch or farm fish or to raise cattle.
---------- Young Japanese traveling again before college graduation
Itaru Yashiro reports from Tokyo: The trend for young Japanese to travel overseas before they finish college, which has been sluggish in recent years due to the recession and bad job market, is making a comeback with cheap packages offered by travel agencies, such as a seven days in London for 70,000 yen and three days in Beijing for 32,000 yen.
These trips were popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Japan's economy was booming. But with the collapse of the bubble economy many young people could not even think of heading overseas for a holiday when they were having difficulty securing jobs after graduation.
---------- Farmland turned into oil fields in rural Japan
Tsukasa Kamata reports from Higashi-Omi, Japan: A unique recycling project was launched in the town of Aito eight years ago that involves growing rape blossoms, pressing their oil, using it for cooking, and then collecting the used oil and refining it into fuel for diesel-engine vehicles.
The project has since spread to local governments, agricultural organizations, environmental groups, businesses and high schools across the country, and a nationwide network has been created.
The town was merged with other towns into the city of Higashi-Omi in Shiga Prefecture in 2005.
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Takahiko Nagoya compiles a series of three news focus stories on discussions on education reforms at the Central Education Council, an advisory panel to the education minister next week.
(1) Official curriculum guideline to be revised in 2007
TOKYO: In 2001, the year before the current official curriculum guideline was introduced, Ken Terawaki, then councilor at the education ministry who played a role as the spokesman for pressure-free, flexible education, said proudly, "Curriculum contents have been reduced 30 percent, enabling all children to get a full mark."
An elementary school teacher in Nagasaki Prefecture pinned hopes on the new guideline, but the reality was different. Since the change, more children are not keeping up with their lessons.
He soon figured out the reason. "Despite decreased lesson hours, there is no drop in education levels" he said.
(2) Education philosophy of each school to be tested
TOKYO: In a meeting held by the education ministry at a junior high school in Tokyo's Tama area in April last year, students were divided into two groups of opinion, one supporting the current five-day school week and the other opposing it.
The first group said it is good for Saturdays to be a holiday, while the second group said that contrary to general expectation, the system has taken away their latitude. A ministry executive attending the meeting eagerly listened to what students had to say while taking notes.
In the same month, the ministry with the help of a private organization carried out a large-scale survey on parents' and guardians' views about compulsory education. However, the question on whether the five-day school system should be revised had been taken off the original list upon request from the ministry.
(3) English education the state's strategy
TOKYO: At an educational curriculum division meeting of the Central Education Council in late January, some council members called on the education ministry to make a prompt decision about whether compulsory English lessons should be introduced into elementary schools, a decision that has been shelved for one and a half years since study into it started.
When the study began, introduction of such classes was said to be an established policy, but the move has unexpectedly come to a standstill.
After a survey to compare international scholastic abilities was published at the end of 2004, there were mounting calls for giving priority to Japanese language classes, in which achievement levels are declining. The problem of how to foster English teachers is another barrier.
---------- Antiaging boom spreading in Japan
Yo Nakai reports from Tokyo: An "antiaging boom" is spreading in Japan, involving not only cosmetics manufacturers but fitness centers, hot springs, beauty-treatment clinics, cosmetic surgery and restaurants, as the entire nation seems to be pursuing eternal youth.
Antiaging cosmetics is one of the three top areas for cosmetics makers, along with skin-whiteners and hair tonics. The market of antiaging cosmetics grew 154% in four years from 2000, according to Shiseido Co., a leading cosmetics producer.
In October last year, Shiseido put on the domestic market a product called Revital Retino Science Lotion AA, a capsule which the company says contains a vitamin that helps the skin to be reborn, after carrying out hundreds of experiments over a period of three years.
---------- U.S. technology to improve nearsightedness gaining ground
TOKYO: A U.S. technology that improves nearsightedness is catching on and undergoing clinical testing in Japan.
The technology -- orthokeratology -- is designed to correct nearsightedness by keeping special contact lenses in the eyes while you sleep to change the shape of the cornea so that you can see clearly after you remove the lenses. The effect lasts for about a day or two.
It has been used in the United States, Europe, China, South Korea and Taiwan because people can improve their vision without undergoing an operation.
---------- Textile producers gear up for second Cool Biz campaign
Junji Yamaguchi reports from Tokyo: Textile producers are preparing to go all-out in this summer's second phase of the Cool Biz campaign with the launch of new materials, after having missed out on profits last year.
In the recent seasonal clothing campaigns -- last summer's Cool Biz and this winter's Warm Biz -- which encouraged people to dress to keep cool in summer and warm in winter in a bid to reduce energy consumption in the workplace, department stores and supermarkets made handsome gains on sales of specially marketed clothing lines. Textile companies, however, failed to benefit from the boom as the sudden announcement of the campaigns had left them with too little time for adequate preparation.
Koizumi launched the Cool Biz campaign in June last year, urging bureaucrats and politicians at all levels to ditch their suits and ties for more casual clothing and set an example to regular employees.
---------- Podcasts open up new terrain for broadcast, ad businesses
TOKYO: Podcasting, a new type of Webcasting via Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player, might prove a boon for businesses that are increasingly catching on to its novel commercial potential.
After making its debut in Japan around late 2004, podcasting, or distribution of audio files via iPods, has been popularized at an impressive speed.
Programming on offer includes news, music, language lessons, interviews, book readings and comic performances.
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