Politicians to return ¥48 million

Politics

All 59 elected members of the Upper House have suggested to give back section of their salaries in July before they to work as legislator.

All of them returned a sum of money about ¥48 million. The sequence of the enactment earlier this month of law revision changes that makes it possible for parliamentarians to voluntarily return part of their pay.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/new-upper-house-members-to-return-y48-mil-from-july-salary

Photo credit: http://www.international.ucla.edu/asia/article.asp?parentid=90692

Transports

Most of Japan’s biggest online electric retail shop had stopped shipping Apple products especially the Cupertino and California-based Company.

Yodobashi.com and Biccamera.com, the two of Japan’s largest electronics online shop, still have Apple products at their shop, but they advice customers should come into the store to pick it up.

Amazon Japan, another electronic online shop, continues to sell Apple products online. In the fact, Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/195018/japanese_online_stores_stop_shipping_apple_products.html

Photo credit :http://www.anonscope.com/

High-speed rail in Japan

Transports

There is the luxury of high-speed rail travel in Japan. The first bullet train, the shinkansen, was introduced after the end of the Second World War. Now the shinkansen network that operated by Japan Railways connects Japanese cities through almost 1,550 miles of road.

The early trains could drive with speed of 130 mph but the lastest version, the N70 series that was opened service in 2007 could drive with speed of 186 mph. The new E5 series will introduce in 2011. It can drive with 199 mph that possible to travel form Tokyo to Amori about 419 miles away in three hours.

More than 150 million people each year use the bullet train service between Tokyo and Osaka while Japan airlines(JAL) fly 3.9 million people from Tokyo to Osaka in the same time.

Japan plans to introduce the next generation of bullet trains in 2025. A service will connect Tokyo and Nagoya in around 40 minutes. It uses maglev train system called magnetic levitation which are faster than conventional trains.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/05/high-speed-rail-japan

high 69.3% want gov't to take more economic steps

Business

From annual poll, it showed 69.3 percent of people want the government to take further economic measures and 25.5 percent want the government to bring back financial status that it is the highest rate on record.

But the largest group at 69.6 percent called for medical, pension and other social security measures. Ranking after economic steps were called for measures to deal with the graying of society at 56.5 percent and labor issues at 49.4 percent.

Some 26.7 percent also said their lives are worse than last year, the against 4.0 percent who said they are better, and 68.8 percent who replied same answer.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/business/news/20100808p2g00m0bu009000c.html
Photo credit : http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/01/21/poll-who-thinks-california-economy-is-bad/29691/

Toyota's Japan hybrid sales top one million

Business

Toyota’s hybrid vehicle sales had topped in July. It was bought one million mark in Japan and 2.68 million in worldwide of the vehicles.

Toyota is the leader in hybrid cars that use two power sources. It is gasoline engine and another source. The first hybrid car in the world that Toyota produced was Prius in 1997. Currently, Toyota produced eight passenger hybrid models to sell overseas.

Sales of hybrids have been sold quickly in recent years because of high gasoline prices and increasing public awareness of global warming.

Last year, Toyota recalled 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles to repair a flaw in the breaking system worldwide that it made Toyota Dishonorable. However, the Prius remained the top car in sales in Japan.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jMHs0PYmaS7AbNNaoImRAlkNsFsA

Photo credit: http://www.itechnews.net/tag/car/

Strange texts for learning English

Education

The Japanese’s main problem in learning English is the terrible textbooks. “Eigo Note” and “Shogakusei no Eigo” are the textbooks for fifth and sixth graders that are full mistakes

The CDs for those two books are bad accents in English because it is translated by Japanese, so this is highly unnatural pronunciation in contemporary English. This does not help children learn or get used to correct pronunciation.

We should get rid of the government textbooks and get books written by native-speaking Engliah teachers who have a perfect grip of correct vocabulary, expressions and grammar. ”Nakama” and “Genki” are a good example japanese-language textbooks that were wriiten by Japanese professors working in the United States.

English is a global language. The mature will get a good job if they know how to use English effectively. Then children should learn English by perfect textbooks.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/rc20100711a8.html

Photo credit : http://www.tofugu.com/2008/02/28/japanese-textbook-review-genki-i/

2 Japanese students win gold medals

Education

Two Japaneses students won gold medals . There were 517 participants from 96 nations and areas in 51 st International Mathematical Olympiad for high school.

The two Japanese students were Shutaro Inoue and Akio Kishikawa. It was the second gold medal for Kishikawa. In addition, three other Japanese students, Genki shimizu, Takuma Kitamura and Hiroki Koshiyama also won silver medals.

In last year, five Japanese won gold medals and one Japanese won a bronze in the competition that held in Germany. I think Japanese students is intelligent, and I would like to congrat with them too for winning the gold medals.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9GTEJ281&show_article=1

Photo credit :http://www.tufsd.org/shms/news.html