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Feature/news focus advisory+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 27_(Kyodo) _ KWS is to move the following feature/news focus stories in the upcoming week. Call +81-3-6252-8318 (feature editor) or e-mail: [email protected]. ---------- Family joys resumption of Tokyo-Warsaw flight in summer Ko Hirano reports from Tokyo: Chopin aficionados and those wishing to visit famous sites in Poland such as Warsaw's Old Town and Auschwitz will find easy access to the country from Japan this summer. One family in Tokyo is particularly excited about news that LOT Polish Airlines will operate direct charter flights between Tokyo and Warsaw in July and August, resuming the service for the first time in 15 years. Jaroslaw Waczynski, director for the Polish National Tourist Office in Tokyo who has been involved in the plan from its inception, says the news means a lot for him, his Japanese wife Masako Ezaki, a Warsaw-trained professional pianist, and their two-year-old daughter Yuki-Aleksandra. (Eds: One photo accompanying this story is available via e-mail) ---------- Japanese pitches Cambodian pepper to reclaim major producer status Maya Kaneko reports from Tokyo: A Japanese entrepreneur has been striving to market Cambodian peppers globally to reclaim the country's status as one of the world's major pepper producers up until the 1960s. Hironobu Kurata, 36, a former aid group worker who supported refugees returning to the country to take part in the 1993 U.N.-sponsored elections, now operates a 1-hectare pepper field in Koh Kong Province near the Thai border and sells products in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, mainly targeting foreign tourists. In an attempt to explore the Japanese market, Kurata participated in a government-backed trade fair in Tokyo last month to introduce his organic black, white and dusky-red fully ripe peppers. The products were vacuum-packed and decorative bags for wrapping were also available. ---------- Supermarkets trying to develop own brand goods Asahi Omori reports from Tokyo: Major supermarkets are beefing up their commodity strategies, including development of their own brand goods, to cope with the rise of Uniqlo, GAP and other specialized clothing stores by appealing "fashions and low prices." "We would like to create an image that ours are reasonably priced and have a sense of beauty," said Yukio Fujimaki, a director and head of the clothes business headquarters of Seven & I Holdings Co., a major supermarket chain operator. To reform the sales-sluggish clothes division, the company invited Fujimaki, famous in the apparel industry as an expert on sales floors, from Isetan Co., a major department store, in April last year. ---------- World's largest yoga teaching chain opens its course in Tokyo Kenichi Yamashita reports from Tokyo: A yoga boom that first started in the United States is fast growing in Japan with the world's largest chain opening a course on breath control fitness exercises in Tokyo's Ginza district. In the one month since BIKGRAM YOGA launched its first training program as the creator of hot yoga on the 11th floor of a Ginza building in January, about 2,200 people signed up for the exercises. "About 70 percent (of them) are women in their 20s and 30s who hope to reduce their weight or get rid of distress," said Kenji Ehara, 36, who is in the business division of BIKGRAM, which operates about 1,500 fitness classes in various countries. ---------- Exact number of Minamata mercury poisoning sufferers unknown Chitose Nakagawa and Shunsuke Sano report from Kumamoto, Japan: Tsuginori Hamamoto has lost his parents and has himself been confined to a wheelchair for more than 30 years due to an ailment first considered a rare illness but which later gained worldwide attention as Minamata mercury poisoning. May 1 marks the 50th anniversary of the official confirmation of the disease. Hamamoto, 70, speaks out about Minamata Disease, saying local people blamed patients for eating "rotten fish" until the government admitted the ailment was caused by mercury contained in wastewater discharged from the factory of now defunct Shin Nippon Chisso Hiryo (nitrogen fertilizer) K.K. (present Chisso Corp.) in the western Japan city of Minamata. ---------- Dormitories for company employees turning to homes for the aged Yosuke Fukuoka reports from Tokyo: Remodeling of dormitories for company employees into pay homes for the aged is increasing with a coincidence of the needs by enterprises which want to sell their assets for rationalization after the collapse of the "bubble economy" and nursery home operators which want to build such homes at less expenses. As many remodeled elder care facilities are located in residential areas in central Tokyo, they are popular among elderly people, but their number is limited. Century Life Co. of Tokyo, a company in the group of Haseko Corp., a major condominium construction company, will open a six-story, 64-room block of condominiums in a quiet residential area near JR Nishi-Chiba Station, east of Tokyo, in June and will start to invite applicants in April. ---------- Counselor with experience helps stepfamilies Toshihisa Onishi reports from Osaka: Takako Hirose asked the children sitting around a round table, "What would you do if your papa bought a cake for you, but you are full?" The children were hesitant to answer, keeping their eyes down, but at last one of them said, "I would eat it after saying thank you." Hirose said this gave her the feeling that there is a strong sense of resistance to refusing in such a situation, and children are always trying to be nice to their parents. The occasion was a seminar held in Osaka for people with children who have remarried, and the children. Thirty people from eight families, including 12 children, ranging in age from 3 to about 15 or 16, attended the gathering. ---------- Japan's travel agencies lure rich with luxury packages Shinichi Tokuda reports from Tokyo: Overseas travel for Japanese has long ceased to be special treat that only the rich can savor. Many Japanese these days frequently pop off to foreign countries by booking the many discount air tickets and reasonably priced package tours on offer. Nonetheless, the travel industry is again focusing its attention on the big profits it can reap from high-end tour packages. One major player in the business, H.I.S. Co., for example, appears to be pleased with its business that caters to customers with a taste for extravagance. "We hope to tap further into the demand from wealthy tourists," said Hideyasu Umetani, who is in charge of the new operations targeted at the rich. ---------- Food education to promote better eating habits catches on Isato Ishii and Ryuichi Asada report from Tokyo: With the popularization of fast food and convenience stores, Japanese are becoming less interested in the manner of eating and food ingredients. Official statistics show that one in five junior high school students does not eat breakfast, and less than half of young children cannot properly hold chopsticks. Yoko Matsunari, representative of the Food Education Research Society Mogu Mogu in Saitama, said that people need to realize they are being influenced by trends. --------- KWS is to start the release of a five-piece stories on how public entities and private sector people are dealing with the problem of a steady decline in the birthrate and aging of the population next week. |