MEDIA
WHAT YOU MISSED IN THE JAPANESE PRESS
BY MARK SCHREIBER
After Dark : Times Still Hard
JORDY THEILLER
The Wako department store in Ginza , Tokyo
Efforts by the Liberal Democratic Party government to jump-start the economy have seen stock prices soar and the value of the Japanese yen plummet , to the glee of exporters .
Some believe that if things were really on the upswing , this would be indicated by outlays for corporate entertainment . So the Nikkei Marketing Journal ( 24 April ) surveyed expenditures in three major urban areas famed for their nightlife : Ginza ( Tokyo ), Sakae ( Nagoya ) and Kitashinchi ( Osaka ).
The news , unfortunately , was not very heartening . By the time both hands on Ginza Wako ’ s clock point to midnight , streams of people can be seen flowing towards Ginza Station , while taxis remain lined up in a 400-metre queue .
Out of the 38 Ginza restaurants surveyed , 24 % said business was “ good ”. Among 33 bar and nightclub owners queried , just 15 % gave the same response . Meanwhile , out of 31 taxi drivers , only 3 % described the times as being good .
The situation is similar in Nagoya ’ s Sakae district . “ Before the Lehman Shock [ in 2008 ], customers often ran up charges of ¥ 10,000 to go back home to the suburbs . Now it ’ s just a short ¥ 1,000 ride to Nagoya Station ”, grumbled one taxi driver .
Located within Sakae , Nishiki is where staff members of Toyota Motor Corporation and their various vendors typically go to drink . It ’ s been said that if the automobile business catches a cold , Nishiki sneezes .
Thanks to the recent decline in the value of the yen , car sales are up , and the area ’ s denizens yearn for better times that , it is hoped , will come very soon .
In the good old days , popular hostesses in Osaka ’ s Kitashinchi neighbourhood would expect male customers to meet them for a light meal and some shopping a few hours prior to their bar opening and before accompanying them into the establishment . Now , however , the girls wait for their customers on the street outside the bar . No more meal tickets for them , alas .
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ’ s policies aimed at bolstering small and medium-sized firms have led to a change in the tax code . The allowable expenditures for wining and dining have been raised to ¥ 8mn per year . What ’ s more , these outlays can now be applied even when the books show a loss .
Yuichi Kamiya , an office director at Ginza Shako Ryoin Kyokai , General Inc ., an association of Ginza establishments that was founded in 1925 and currently has 1,695 member businesses , told the Nikkei : “ Drinking and concluding contracts go together . We ’ d like to be thought of as one of the gears that turns the Japanese economy ”.
12 | BCCJ ACUMEN | MAY 2013