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LEAD: Feature/news focus advisory+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 5_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING)
KWS is to move the following feature/news focus stories in the upcoming week. Call +81-3-6252-8318 (feature editor) or e-mail: ota.narito@kyodonews.jp.
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KWS has started 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. The first, second and third items moved on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively.
---------- REIT market growing as land prices in business areas turn up
Mai Iida reports from Tokyo: With land prices of Japan's key commercial areas turning upward, the market of relevant financial products like real estate investment trusts has been expanding.
The total number of listed REITs rose to 30 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange following three REITs' listing in March while the market capitalization of Japan-REITs has totaled some 3 trillion yen, up roughly 1 trillion yen from a year earlier.
"Although it took about three years for REITs to earn recognition, the type of investors has broadened," said Hidekazu Sano, general manager of the structured finance department at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. "The growth seen in last year is not just a one-time thing, and it's likely to continue in 2006."
---------- Budding entrepreneur introduces British to Japanese fast food
William Hollingworth reports from London: Fish and chips, burgers, pies and kebabs are the traditional fare for many British people in need of a quick bite to eat while on the go.
But one enterprising young man is hoping to lure his fellow countrymen away from their usual fast food habits, and introduce them to the delights of battered octopus.
William Christophers has just finished constructing a mobile yatai (Japanese food stall) selling takoyaki.
---------- California filmmaker promotes awareness of Japanese atomic bomb survivors
Mandy Willingham reports from Los Angeles: Last August marked the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, yet Japanese-American filmmaker Steven Okazaki worries the nuclear attacks and their cautionary lessons are in danger of being forgotten.
"If you really ask young people they know very little about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think that's very disturbing," said 54 year-old Okazaki.
---------- Chinese businessman trying to improve Sino-Japanese ties
Eiichi Shiozawa reports from Shanghai: At a restaurant overlooking Shanghai's Pudong area on the night of March 14, Chinese businessman Jiang Xiaosong, 54, hailing from Shanghai and active also in Japan where he has a home, hosted supper for Japanese singer Shinji Tanimura, a professor at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and Xue Peijian, president of Shanghai's largest media business group.
"At a time when political relations between Japan and China are bad, we should make efforts in the field of culture," Tanimura said. In reply, Xue said, "We respect your efforts." (To move on Thursday)
---------- China radically altering itself since Deng's lectures
Eiichi Shiozawa reports from Shanghai: On the morning of July 14, 2005, Jiang Nanchun, the president of a Chinese advertising company, rang a bell to open trading on the NASDAQ stock market in New York to become the first Chinese given that honor.
Jiang, 33, established his company, Fenzhong Chuanmei or Focus Media, in Shanghai in May 2003 to show ads on liquid crystal display panels installed near elevators in buildings.
Two years later, his company's shares were listed on the NASDAQ, becoming the first Chinese company to do so in such a short period since its founding. In 2005, its sales totaled $68.2 million. (To move on Monday)
---------- Regional gov'ts open shops in Tokyo to promote local wares
Shinichi Tokuda reports from Tokyo: Shops operated by regional governments to promote sales of local products have sprung up in Tokyo and grown in popularity due to people searching for original goods available only in certain localities.
Some shops run by prefectures known for an abundance of regional cultural and other attractions are seeing particularly brisk business.
Kunitaka Okura, who manages a store run by Okinawa Prefecture, for example, exults about the strong business showing of the commercial establishment.
---------- Dormitories for company employees becoming homes for the aged
Yosuke Fukuoka reports from Tokyo: The number of former company dormitories being remodeled to serve as private nursing homes is increasing to meet the needs of corporations seeking to restructure their assets after the collapse of the "bubble economy" and nursing home operators who want to build facilities at reduced expense.
As many of such remodeled elderly care facilities are located in residential areas in central Tokyo, they are popular with elderly people, but their number remains limited.
Century Life Co. of Tokyo, a company in the condominium construction group Haseko Corp., 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.
---------- Single malt whisky popular with those who like to be different
Takakazu Tsunoda reports from Osaka: Japanese-made single malt whisky has been around for decades, but sales recently have been picking up as more people willing to try something different savor the individual taste and aroma depending on the producing area.
Sales of single malt whisky by Suntory Ltd., which makes the "Yamazaki" and "Hakushu" Japanese varieties and also imports single malts, increased by 12 percent in 2005 over the year before. It aims at increasing its sales by 20 percent this year.
Last year, the company sold 150 barrels of single malt whisky produced at its Yamazaki distillery in Shimamoto, Osaka Prefecture, in prices ranging from 500,000 to 1 million yen per barrel. One barrel of a very special single malt was priced at 30 million yen.
---------- Firms offer various measures for female workers with children
Junko Suzuki reports from Tokyo: Companies are increasingly adjusting their working conditions for female employees with children to permit them to continue working, in an effort to secure a labor force threatened by the pending retirement of baby boomers, a dwindling birthrate and an unprecedented aging society.
Some firms are even reemploying women who quit their job after getting married or having children, as they see securing the labor force as an urgent matter.
"The first year after returning to work was terrible. My child's nursery school would call me and ask me to come because my child was running a high fever," said Hiroko Kojima, not her real name, who works for a publishing company.
---------- Coffee shops becoming popular places to talk about science
Emiko Hayashi reports from Tokyo: Coffee shops are becoming popular venues for "science cafes" where scientists and ordinary citizens can meet and chat about science over a cup of coffee.
At one of these establishments, people discussed a variety of themes ranging from neutrinos and earthquakes to genetics.
Science cafes started in Britain in 1998 as a way to bring science into people's daily lives. Their distinctive feature is that they involve discussions among a few participants. And they have been popping up all over Japan in the past few years.
---------- Prefectural gov'ts all-out to lure baby boomers after retirement
Hirofumi Fujita reports from Tokyo: Local governments trying to combat shrinking populations are going all out to woo the huge numbers of baby boomers set to retire beginning next year into moving to farming villages in their regions and reactivating local communities.
Fukuoka, Shimane and more than 10 other prefectural governments have incorporated various measures in their fiscal 2006 budgets, including the opening of consultation windows for those wishing to move to local areas and the provision of information about job opportunities in agriculture and about vacant houses.
"So far, the flow of people has been mainly that of the younger generation to major cities for the next stage of education and employment, but the movement of middle-aged and elderly people from cities to rural areas will be the next flow," said Norio Kamijo, head of the consumer research institute at Dentsu Inc., Japan's largest advertising company.
---------- Musicians making debut on Internet
Hodaka Tazawa reports from Tokyo: Some musicians are making their debut on the Internet with no compact disks (CDs) are on sales as a culture to enjoy music with music players in mobile phones, such as "iPod," is going to firmly be established.
"It is a fun to learn how many people will listen to my song," said singer-songwriter Sonomi Tameoka, 27, who has made her debut with the song "Kuroi Kami (dark hair)," a song released on the Internet as the first song in the "Net Artist" by Columbia Music Entertainment Co.
The song has been registered in the "I tune's Music Store," a distribution site of Apple Computer Inc. of the United States, where a client can obtain a song at about 200 yen a piece.
---------- Frozen food makers vie to offer ever easier-to-use products
TOKYO: The overall sales of frozen food have stayed more or less flat lately but one segment of the market, namely, ingredients that go into packed 'bento' lunches is growing vibrant.
Such items have begun to sell well as retailers are trying ever harder to broaden the lineups of such items, industry observers say.
Another notable trend is an increase in frozen food products that do not require further cooking or heating to unfreeze them. Food makers are betting on the promise of this new product category.
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