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After a long wait, Apple's iTunes Japan music
store has finally opened, allowing customers here to download
Japanese and international music for around $1.75 per song.
Despite the large number of digital-savvy users in Japan, it's
not at all surprising to me that it took so long for Apple to
get the iTunes store up and running. Japan can be a very
conservative place, and to big companies with established
businesses, nothing is more terrifying than change, any change
at all. Apple has had to navigate between greedy record
companies who have kept the prices of CDs at the artificially
high price of $30 for decades, and industry groups like the
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers
(JASRAC) and the Recording Industry of Japan (RIAJ), who have
closed ranks against any kind of digital distribution of music
that doesn't guarantee more profits for them than conventional
CDs. A big problem was JASRAC's insistence that Apple follow
"Japan's rules" when it came to selling music online,
which apparently meant that the industry group was to receive
7.7% of every song sold in addition to what the actual copyright
holders receive. It's all very silly when you think about the
fact that in Japan, you can go into any one of thousands of CD
rental shops and rent a whole album for $3 or less. Sadly,
Japan's copyright-happy record industry lacked the vision to
allow Apple to sell Japanese music to customers outside of
Japan, so worldwide fans of JPOP are shut out from participating
in the Japan iTMS. Apple isn't the first company that's had to
endure pressure from the establishment in Japan: Amazon was
blocked from selling products below list price on their site
here, since price fixing is still allowed for some products,
like books and CDs. If there's one good thing that's come from
the past decade of recession in Japan, it's that many of Japan's
closed economic doors have been forced open, letting the light
of competition and common sense flood in. If you want to see a
hilarious commercial that marries the iPod with Sazae-san, one
the most popular anime in Japan's history, here's the link:
http://www.jbox.com/sazae (Quicktime required)
The Japanese do drink a lot, from beer to sake
to harder stuff. Letting alcohol act as a lubricant in human
relationships is a time-honored social practice in Japan, and
one of the first words I learned when I came here in 1991 was
"nomunication," a word that combines "nomu"
(to drink) with the English word communication. Japanese
drinking establishments differ somewhat from those in the U.S.,
of course, with different mixes of atmosphere and menu. One of
the most popular places to throw some back with friends at are
"izakaya" (ee-ZA-ka-ka, roughly meaning "a place
to sit and drink in"), comfortable Japanese-style
restaurants that serve beer in large glasses along with various
Japanese meals, from sashimi to squid pizza to yakitori. Back in
the old days I used to frequent small bars called
"snacks" (an odd word which came from the fact that
they sell light meals along with alcohol), where you can sing
karaoke and get a "bottle keep" (i.e. your own private
bottle) for drinking with friends. There are also places that
pattern themselves after American and European models, which use
English words like "bar" or "pub" to
describe themselves. Last week I was in Tokyo with friends, and
we found the cutest Irish pub in Shibuya that served a good
range of beers we can't usually find in Japan. Japanese usually
learn to drink in college, where in the past they would be
cheered on by friends while they chugged a huge class of beer.
This practice, called "ikki nomi" (beer chugging)
became a problem when a college freshman drank too much too fast
and died.
Congratulations to J-List's own Daisuke, who's
baby boy was born yesterday. We're having quite a population
explosion around here -- Yasu's wife is pregnant with their
second daughter and is ready to pop any day now, Jun's wife has
their first bun in the oven, and Dawn in San Diego (whose
important job it is to cut the paychecks) also has a little
bundle of joy coming too.
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