Nostalgic “competition with machine”

 I have read the book, “Competition with Machine” written by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. It is a theory on information economy by professors from MIT School of Business, ‘Sloan’.   The book warns that computer will continue eroding into human areas. In particular, employment in the middle-skill level will be reduced, with employment divided into two distinct polarities, that is, physical low wage labor and creative high income labor.   Computers will also cover driving and translation. White-collar jobs will be...

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Growing talents in Anime and Manga

 I am serving as the overall chairman for the “Anime and Manga Human Resources Development Government Linkage Consortium”. It is a job in the Ministry of Education. The other day, I invited Mr. Tetsuya Chiba, and teachers from Monkey Punch and held a symposium.  I had such a conversation: “ I am someone who likes to read. However, I only read manga. Manga forms a part of my   body. In the NHK program, “The 100 books of Japan”, where 100 people choose a book each,   I was the only one who chose a manga. I was reproached by university...

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ICHIYA’s POP Eye – Restaurants

  From Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Moshi Moshi Nippon’s “ICHIYA’s POP EYE”.   Today’s topic is Restaurants!   My office is in Akasaka, Tokyo. Within 100 meters, there are several restaurants from different countries with food other than Japanese food. China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, America, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Nigeria.   Surely, there is no other country that has as many international restaurants as Japan. There isn't another country with so many French and Italian flags, either. As...

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ICHIYA’s POP Eye – Karaoke

 From Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Moshi Moshi Nippon’s “ICHIYA’s POP EYE”.   Today’s topic is Karaoke!   Karaoke, Japan's biggest invention. Since it's creation 30 years ago it has spread around the whole world. Songs are provided via transmission, so many songs from around the world can be sung.   There is a service where the machine gives points for your singing-skills and ranks them across the whole country. You know where your song is ranked on a national scale. You can even record your song on a CD. Using a camera, you can sing a...

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ICHIYA’s POP Eye – Emoticons

　From Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Moshi Moshi Nippon’s “ICHIYA’s POP EYE”.   Today’s topic is Emoticons!   Are you using emoticons on your smartphone? A heart symbol, note, animal or facial expression. It's funny that there are so many symbols, right? In Japan, emoticons were widely used ever since the Internet became available, and they evolved.   This, for example, represents a smiling facial expression.  (^_^)　　   In the west, this is used to show a smiling face, right?   :-)   In Japanese emoticons, the face is...

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