Word: salarymens
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...while the economy as a whole is in the longest period of sustained growth since World War II. Despite the recovery, however, wages in Japan have remained stagnant. All those companies that cut payroll during the recession years have been slow to add full-time jobs, working their remaining salarymen until they drop and hiring increasing numbers of part-timers to fill...
...standard dramatic police work for the 53-year-old Miyamoto, who manned a station on a commuter train line in Tokiwadai in northern Tokyo. Miyamoto was the sort of police officer who helped elderly pedestrians pass the train crossing, and kept an eye out for the drunken salarymen who, buzzed from a night of office imbibing, threatened to take headers off the platform. "He held the safety of the people in this community as his top priority," says Hiroshi Kawano, a local grocer. Miyamoto was an ordinary omawari-san - Mr. Patrolman - one of thousands of cops who man the kobans...
Mindful of Kyoto, the government has lately shifted the focus to cutting greenhouse gases. That gave birth to the Cool Biz policy in 2005, under which offices save energy by keeping summer temperatures at a stifling 82.4°F (28°C). To beat the heat, salarymen are told to doff their black suits in favor of light colors and open collars. The result made the Prime Minister occasionally look as if he were addressing parliament from a beach in Waikiki, but at least Cool Biz had more style than a similar Japanese idea from the 1970s: the short-sleeved business...
...only his pitching prowess that has earned his beloved status: While most Japanese players show all the flair of dour salarymen, Matsuzaka - with his spiky, sometimes dyed hair and cool self-confidence - more closely resembles the dropout hipsters who populated downbeat Tokyo at the turn of the millennium. But his 95-mph fastball and old-school work ethic and competitiveness have earned him the loyalty of traditional fans...
...World Records. With the country's low fertility rate (1.28 births per woman) and its 5.2 million baby-boomer workers due to reach retirement age beginning in 2007, there won't be enough young people to replace retirees in the labor force, let alone support armies of idle pensioners. Salarymen who reached mandatory retirement age used to be dismissed as "industrial waste," but aging Japan will find itself increasingly dependent on its elderly to maintain productivity. "How seniors will be able to contribute to society may change the direction of Japan," says Shigeyoshi Yoshida, the executive director of the Japan...