Word: japanism
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...produced by the government in the hope that men will learn to effortlessly relieve their wives at the wok. In 2006, Japanese men were invited to benchmark themselves against the central character of Love Mum More Than Anyone-a TV drama series about an exemplary stay-at-home dad. Japan's print media has also decided that men need to be educated in a style of fathering hitherto unknown. Not long ago, the idea of a Japanese magazine about fathering might have been dismissed with a derisory snort. But last year saw the launch of two upscale glossies now duking...
...Available for more than two years in Japan and much of Europe, cell-phone banking has been slow to catch on in the U.S., in part because of lack of interest. Wells Fargo shuttered its mobile banking offering in 2002 after only 2500 people had signed up over 18 months. (It plans to launch a new service later this year.) A recent study by Forrester Research found that only 10% of Americans said they would consider mobile banking, versus the 35% or so who already bank online. "It's hard to motivate someone to download something on their phone...
...Other industrialized cultures, like Japan, don't even have words for adolescence... Your position also flies in the face of the ultimate test: common sense. Teens are still completely isolated from adults in this country; their role models are more absurd than ever; more young people than ever are being raised outside the nuclear family; they're living more than ever under the thumb of the fashion and media industries; the "war on drugs" failed miserably, and drugs are still as available as ever. And you honestly think that teen turmoil is the U.S. is declining...
FamilyMart, the 7-Eleven of Japan (which is confusing, since 7-Eleven Inc. is now owned by a Japanese company), has opened 12 stores in California under the excessively excited name Famima!! Its vision of America is pretty complimentary: we're an upscale!!, modern!!, clean!!, cheery!! bunch. Although it has plenty of Asian items, the chain pushes its prepackaged but fresh-pressed panini as well as microwavable pastas. And damn if it didn't improve on the Twinkie: its packaged dessert with a chocolate-covered banana topped with whipped cream and rolled in a vanilla cake is perfect convenience-store...
Beard Papa's is the Dunkin' Donuts of Japan, only it has replaced fried dough with cream puffs on steroids. It opened its first U.S. store in 2003 and has been invading mall spots. Inside each store, Japanese women in uniforms push down on metal levers to plop rich, creamy custard mixed with whipped cream into oversize profiterole shells. Like so much of Japanese culture, Beard Papa's has taken our creation and refracted it through the mythological wholesomeness of America in the 1950s--which is just what you want fast-food dessert to taste like...