Japanese

Synspective Inc., a Japanese SAR satellite data and analytic solution provider, announced a launch agreement with the German launch services provider, Exolaunch, to launch the second demonstration satellite; StriX-β on a Soyuz-2 launch vehicle from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia in late 2021. It is aimed to demonstrate ‘InSAR (Interferometric SAR)’...Read Full StoryLaunch VehicleRussiaSatellite ConstellationData IntegrationGlobal CompaniesTechnology CompaniesData ManagementExolaunchSynspective Inc.JapaneseGermanStriX-βThe Strix-βVP Of Launch ServicesSAR

In collaboration with the The Pokemon Company, the Kagawa Prefecture branch of the Japan Post has unveiled a new postbox featuring Slowpoke as a member of the “Udon PR team”. Japan Post also revealed a new delivery car with slowpoke decals, which will be used to deliver packages in the Takamatsu city area. [Thanks, Famitsu!]Read Full StoryKagawa PrefectureFamitsuThe The Pokemon CompanyThe Japan PostShellderIwate PrefectureSlowpoke UdonUdon PostboxSlowpoke DecalsJapanese SugarTakamatsu CityWordplayMarchYadonFoods

OAKLAND — With flickering candles and folded paper cranes, purple flowers and signs held aloft, hundreds of people gathered Tuesday night in Madison Square Park to express their sorrow over the killing of eight people a week ago in the Atlanta area, including six Asian American women — and to share their resolve that such tragedies must come to an end nationwide.Read Full StoryAtlantaAsian PeopleHate CrimesAsian AmericansPoliticsViolenceCommunitySan FranciscoKoreanJapanese [email protected] IslandersBike East BayJoe BidenKamala HarrisGavin Newsom

For the uninitiated: NYC-based Sakara is a wellness-focused brand that specializes in the clean-eating lifestyle. It's best known for its plant-based meal-delivery service that infamously costs a very pretty penny; the three-day plan is $239 total (including breakfasts, lunches, and dinners) and the five-day plan is $349 total. Having tried out Sakara previously, I can confirm that the nourishing meals are hyped up for delicious reasons — the expenses, however, are much tougher to swallow. But, with such an impassioned fanbase (Sakaraheads?), workarounds to living that clean-eating life for less have surfaced: 'I cannot afford the meal plan so I bought the cookbook about a year ago. It’s honestly my favorite. It’s a bit pretentious and some of the dishes are a bit complicated but they are all absolutely delicious and have helped me look and feel my best. I didn’t know salads could taste so good. Highly recommend,' one R29 reader commented on our review of Sakara's meal-delivery service. Intrigued at the prospect of eating like Gwyneth Paltrow for a fraction of the cost, I decided to check out the founders' bestselling cookbook, Eat Clean, Live Dirty, featuring 240 pages of cult-favorite recipes, healthy lifestyle tips, and more for the comparatively low price of $29. Read on to follow my journey of making Sakara's breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and desserts from scratch at home — including how much $$$ I actually was able to save and if the effort was worth the reward.Read Full StoryNew York CityMeal Delivery ServiceFood ProcessorWhole FoodsFood & DrinkOrganic MealsCook Quick MealsFruit SaladsR29AmazonJapaneseAsianSakara MealsSakara Ingredients CostsNYC-based SakaraGwyneth PaltrowMary Berry

SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific were mixed in Tuesday trade, with Chinese search giant Baidu making its debut in Hong Kong. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 edged 0.53% higher while the Topix index gained 0.33%. South Korea's Kospi slipped fractionally. Mainland Chinese stocks dipped as the Shanghai composite shed 0.21%...Read Full StoryTechnology StocksHong KongBaiduMarketsShanghaiU.S. StocksStock InvestorsTopixKospiHang SengMSCIJapaneseSoftbank GroupSouth KoreanSamsung Electronics

The 777-300 took off from Istanbul Ataturk airport at 1:20 am on a February day to Hong Kong, the city where I had a meeting with a client to start a project. Turkish Airlines Flight 70 was going to take about 10 hours to fly over all of Asia, so I decided to have a light dinner and get some sleep to stay awake when the plane passed through Indochina. I had wonderful memories of that region that I had not visited in more than 20 years, so I was very excited to see it, even from a height of more than thirty thousand feet.Read Full StoryHong KongGreekDodecaneseItalianJapaneseMexicansTeriyakiNorth AmericanColombiansBrandTextileAsiaEuropeClientGenerations

Buy: adidas.com/pharrell and select retailers globally. What We’re Saying: Last time we saw Pharrell he was using creepy robots to deliver his latest sneaker. Now, however, it appears to be back to business as usual, as the multihyphenate is prepping a new release with adidas. Scheduled to arrive later this...Read Full StoryAdidas OriginalsFashionCelebritiesInfoRelease DateInstagramAdidas.com/pharrellPrimeknitJapaneseChineseHighsnobietyHU NMDPinkSneakerLacesPharrell

A recent Bank of America (BofA) report projects that by 2031 India will become the third largest economy in the world . According to analysts, that year it will reach Japan's nominal GDP and would also surpass Germany. India is currently the sixth largest economy in the world by nominal...Read Full StoryInflationWorld EconomyChinaAsian MarketsFinancial MarketsBofABusiness StandardUnsplash.comNomuraPPPIndranil Sen GuptaJapanese Finance CompanyCountryNominal GDPForeign Exchange ReservesSonal Varma

TOKYO (Reuters) - Daiichi Sankyo Co said on Friday it had begun the production of AstraZeneca Plc’s COVID-19 vaccine in Japan.The drugmaker said in a release it will prepare the vaccine in Japan, including vial filling and packaging, using the bulk solution provided by AstraZeneca.The Japanese government has already arranged to buy 120 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, enough for 60 million people. Most of the doses will be made in Japan by Daiichi Sankyo, JCR Pharma and other local partners.Astrazeneca PlcCovid-19 VaccineVaccine DosesReutersDaiichi Sankyo CoAstraZeneca Plc 'sJapaneseJCR PharmaTOKYO

No matter which way you choose to listen to music today — phone, iPod, or any other listening device — do you remember what started it all?The Walkman was the original portable music device that allowed people to take their entertainment with them on the go. Over 385 million of them would be sold, and become a staple and identifiable part of the 1980s that laid the groundwork for all future electronics that allowed you to listen to music on the go.If you’re like me, you grew up on cassettes, and one of the best presents I ever got was a duel cassette recorder. Do you remember those? The real focal point was that you could now copy cassettes and God willing, you had one that had high-speed dubbing to quicken the process. Looking back, this might have been the first form of music piracy that would set the stage for Napster down the road.Either way, if you remember, and used cassettes, you know at some point you wanted to take your music on the go. A boombox or ghetto blaster was cool, but not the transportable music you hoped for. Plus, the big ones had to be hooked up to car batteries. Sony would help solve this problem in 1979, allowing the 80s — and the culture — to be transformed with the Walkman.Early Listening Devices That Came Before the WalkmanThe Walkman definitely wasn’t the first portable listening device, and would not be the last, but it took media consumption to the next level. The ubiquitous yellow design and headphones would become synonymous with portable music the same way the iPod and the white earbuds would a few decades later.The thing is, we already had the technology. It just took the foresight to create a better packaging and ease of use — much the same way Steve Jobs did with MP3 players. The concept of the Walkman — a magnetic tape player — had been around since 1963 in the Netherlands where Phillips had first created it. Its original intention was to be used for quick playback for secretaries or journalists.There were also other portable electronics such as transistor radios. They limited you to what was being played on the radio, but at least you still had the option to take music on the go with you. Sony had always been a part of this technology and had introduced a small transistor radio way back in 1955 when a young Marty McFly struggled not to break up his parents.They introduced cassette tapes in the 60s and even though they were embraced, people still preferred listening to vinyl. The appeal of cassettes, however, was that they were small and compact and would lend themselves better to car stereos. Vinyl couldn’t exactly compete with that — nor could 8-track players.Kids, you may have to ask your parents what vinyl or 8-track was…How the Walkman First Got DevelopedLike many inventions, the Walkman was a solution to a problem. The co-founder of Sony, Masaru Ibuka, would use a Sony product called the TC-D5 cassette recorder to be able to listen to music while traveling.This bulking piece of equipment wasn’t the most conducive thing for carrying around, and he asked executive deputy president Norio Ohga to design a smaller device that was only meant for playback.He also wanted it to have stereo sound to better enjoy his music and also so that it could be listened to on headphones.They built the first prototype from a modified “Sony Pressman” which was a mono cassette recorder. The Pressman also offered a bit of an interesting name…The Walkman was finally put together and was made of a silver and blue metal case and called: “TPS-L2.” The TPS-L2 would be considered the world’s first low-cost portable stereo. It was originally released in Japan on July 1, 1979, and sold for close to 40,000 yen.At the time, this was the equivalent of around $150 U.S. dollars and if you adjust for inflation, it was the equivalent of about $498.66. That’s a sizeable chunk of change, and I had no idea they went for that price.I guess if you think about the first versions of the iPod; it went for around $399 and adjusted for today, which would be the equivalent of around $518. So I guess the original Walkman was a steal!Giving the Walkman Its NameThat Pressman name had hung around for a bit and Sony experimented with a few unique ideas on what to call this little portable stereo. In Japan, where it was called the TPS-L2, it was thought that for launch in America in June 1980, it needed a more descriptive name. The first idea was to call it the “Sound-About” and was actually first introduced with this name.The next possible name that it would transition to would be called the “Stowaway” in countries like the UK, but this presented a problem; it’s hard to market and advertise something that has various names in different countries.Sony actually had a tough time finding a universal name that wasn’t trademarked all over the place. Coming up with an uncopyrighted name took them a lot of time and a lot of money. When nothing was coming together, they went back to that original Pressman device. They swapped out the “press” for “walk” as a way to describe what the primary use would be for this new device. I still think the Sound-About isn’t the worst name I’ve ever heard.Marketing the WalkmanIt seems weird that there was a time when the embracement of Japanese culture wasn’t as commonplace as it is today. The Walkman was seen as one of the first ways to bring some “Japanese-ness” into not only North American culture, but also global culture.We know the best electronics have come from Japan, but this wasn’t common knowledge in the early 80s. Sony wanted to promote the idea of high technology but also the concept of miniaturization. The Walkman was like taking your giant home stereo and shrinking it down into something that could fit into your hand.They were also aware that the name Walkman may isolate women, so early advertisements made sure to show “Walk-men” and “Walk-women.”They based a big focus of the advertising on the personalization of this new device. As we discussed before, up to that point the transistor radio was the only way to listen to music on the go — and they limited you to whatever radio stations you could tune in to, and the playlist that was on it. If you liked jazz and only had access to rock stations, you were pretty screwed.So Sony focused on the idea that this was a music revolution as now you could take your own custom music anywhere you went. From mixtapes to multiple cassettes, you had a ton of options everywhere you went.The other big thing is you could listen privately, obviously a huge selling point to young punk teens and their crazy punk music. There was also no fear of being mocked for wanting to rock out to some Bananarama anywhere you went.At the time, this was a kind of revolutionary advertising. They were promoting this high technology — which seemed amazing to everyone — but at the same time making it seems like they made it for an individual. Not only is this product awesome, but you can listen to all the Depeche Mode you want.If you were into Depeche Mode.It goes back to that idea that it’s not the device you like per se — it’s the content. I don’t necessarily love my iPhone but I love all the music I have on it, the podcasts I love listening to, my friends to reach out to at the touch of a button, and all the pictures on it that make me happy. The device is just the vehicle to deliver the content you love, and that’s what Sony hit upon with the Walkman; it was mass marketing and personal differentiation.The Initial Response to the WalkmanNot forgetting that the Walkman first debuted in Japan, it would be a hit right out of the gate. Sony originally predicted that it would sell about 5,000 units a month.They sold 50,000 in the first two months.In America, the Walkman actually had a disappointing first few months of sales — but then the advertising campaign kicked in full steam and they were off to the races.This also had a massive impact on the sale of cassette tapes. By 1983 cassettes outsold vinyl for the first time ever. This also led to a huge influx of competition by other companies trying to get on the Walkman craze. Companies like Toshiba and Panasonic started putting out their own versions.Introducing the Yellow WalkmanSony would unveil the iconic yellow Walkman, which is a pretty interesting story on its own.Sony had some focus groups for a potential new yellow “sports” Walkman to see what people thought. They presented the new Walkman to men and women in the groups, and the initial response was pretty positive. This new yellow Walkman seemed sporty and better than the boring black ones that were everywhere.On the way out of the focus group, they allowed everyone to take a complimentary Walkman and put a bunch of original black ones and the new yellow sports ones on a table.Everyone took the black ones.Why would people do this? The idea was that people just want to be nice to someone who’s being enthusiastic about something new, such as how the moderator was being with the new yellow Walkman. And since people were getting on board with the yellow Walkman in the focus group, it becomes more difficult to speak up against a group.Sony wanted to stay with the original yellow color, but in theory, could have put out an orange one and might have got the same feedback because of the issues that can come with market research. What helped propel the yellow sports Walkman was, again, a brilliant advertising campaign and its ability to stand out as the must-have accessory.It’s again similar to the iPod. Once you see something in an advertisement and then see it out in the streets in actual life, it becomes a bit of a desire. If marketing is doing its job right, they are selling a feeling or emotion, and a lot of times this is what you are buying.There’s also a sense of “keeping up with the Joneses” as you always want what the other guy’s got. Electronics companies have always had smart ways to create a buzz by getting it out there in the public.Companies like Kindle would plant people on subways in major cities like New York and London with their new e-Readers as a way to show it in action and create a desire in other people who are witnessing this new must-have item in real-time. Again, this is something Apple has probably done better than anyone in history. Once people saw others out for a jog with that yellow Walkman in their hands — and those yellow headphones in their ears — it created the desire.The Massive Influence of the WalkmanWe cannot understate the impact and the influence of the Walkman. It may be the one object that can best define the 1980s. Everyone had one — or had some form of one at some point. It perfectly combined portability and privacy. It ran off two AA batteries and could run for quite a while on them as long as you weren’t doing a ton of rewinding...(Remember having to try to end one side in the right place so you weren’t already into the first song on the second side? These were real struggles. Again, ask your parents, kids.)In 1986 the word “Walkman” entered the Oxford English Dictionary. It seems bizarre, but Walkmans were still being manufactured until 2010. The Walkman was finally discontinued on October 23, 2010, but the units that were made could still be sold as there was a demand for them in a bunch of countries.The Tremendous Impact on Fitness by the WalkmanThis is something that never occurred to me until researching this, but it makes total sense now. I’ve worked in fitness for a lot of my life, along with spending a lot of time in the gym.If you like to work out, can you even picture yourself doing it without music? Today, we have our phones and Bluetooth headphones, and don’t think twice about it. But the Walkman helped usher in more people to fitness in the 80s than Richard Simmons.Music has become synonymous with working out, and sometimes I have forgotten my headphones and just left the gym because I don’t think I could work out without music. When the Walkman first hit, so did a boom in fitness in the 80s. Millions started using the Walkman to exercise from running to training in the gym. People could now listen to what they wanted instead of whatever crap was blaring over the gym speakers. The Walkman is also seen as creating the aerobics craze and turned more people on to getting fit. From 1987 to 1997 — which was the height of the popularity of the Walkman — the number of people who said they started walking for exercise increased by 30%.Wrapping it UpHopefully, this has been an enjoyable trip down memory lane for you. There is a lot of interesting history behind the Walkman and it’s no doubt cemented itself as a part of pop culture. It leads the way for the Discman, the MP3 player, the iPod, and your iPhone (or Android if you must…)The Walkman changed the way a device could be marketed, and it also influenced the entire culture. It was a must-have item, and, like any great device — something you didn’t even know you needed.Photo by pawel szvmanski on UnsplashPop CultureWalkmanMusic PiracyJapanese CultureIpodPop HistoryBlack CultureNapsterTCTPSYellow Walkman SonyToshibaAppleSony PressmanPanasonicSteve JobsMasaru IbukaNorio OhgaRichard Simmons