Raw Japan
Slices of Japanese business, politics and life
Japan’s Tiger in the tank?
What goes up must at some point come down.
The world of sports is full of examples of bright lights who shone briefly before crashing back down to earth.
Tennis burnout used to grind teenage sensations into the dust with alarming regularity, with even all-time greats such as Bjorn Borg stressed into premature retirement, albeit the Swede was 26 when he made his shock decision to quit.
Every sport has them, prodigious talents who flew too close to the sun, destroying their chances of joining the pantheon of mega-greats.
Japanese sports fans are hoping teenage golfer Ryo Ishikawa does not join the growing list, just two months after making his major debut at April’s U.S. Masters.
Cars, stars, and TV commercials
In these hard times, you know a car is important when the maker hires Robert de Niro to promote it.
That honour goes to Subaru’s new flagship Legacy touring wagon, which went on sale in Japan today. Fuji Heavy Industries (which owns the Subaru brand) even put out a press release last week just to say the two-time Oscar winner would appear in its TV commercials in Japan.
