"Japanese government worried young adults aren’t drinking enough alcohol"

Photo and text from Japan Today, 8/19/22.

The National Tax Agency (NTA) has a problem with the youth of today: They simply aren’t drinking enough alcohol anymore. According to an independent study, roughly half of young adults in Japan do not — I repeat NOT — even have a daily drinking habit.

Some people might consider this a good thing in that it results in healthier and more productive people less likely to yell at me on a train station platform for no reason. But these are all matters handled by other government agencies. The NTA is all about getting those taxes, of which alcoholic product sales are a rich source.

However, “Drink more, so we can get your money!” is not a great promotional slogan, so the NTA has opened up marketing ideas to the general public in their Sake Viva! contest. Until 9 September anyone between the ages of 20 and 39 can participate alone or in groups of two or three to come up with new sales strategies that would appeal to young adults. Anything is open for consideration, but the NTA mentioned that they’re expecting an emphasis on home drinking and utilizing the metaverse for sales among the ideas.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/japanese-government-worried-young-adults-aren%E2%80%99t-drinking-enough-alcohol

And do check out the reader comments. Some of them are mucy more enlightening that the news story...

New Resource: Behind the Camera

Introduction (from the source):

Behind the Camera is an open-source website that creates new critical directions on the history of photography, feminist art history, and the history of modern Japan. It is a pedagogical tool for the growing global investment in diverse and expanded histories of photography and gender studies.

Part database, part teaching module, the website’s primary resource is a series of short lecture videos created by experts in the field, each re-examining an aspect of the history of photography from a feminist lens. The videos are a part of exploration modules that include translated primary source materials, annotated bibliographies, and high-resolution images that make research opportunities available to a wider audience. These resources are linked to an interactive timeline that charts the activities and accomplishments of women photographers alongside major events in Japanese and photo history. The result of five years of collaborative information gathering from libraries around the world, these resources bring together disparate information on women and photography in Japan, so that scholars and students can use it to draw connections and produce new scholarship on this important, understudied subject.

Cushman, Carrie and Kelly McCormick, eds. Behind the Camera 1.0: Gender, Power, and Politics in the History of Japanese Photography. 2022. https://behindthecamerajapan.arts.ubc.ca/. Accessed August 11, 2022.

URL: https://behindthecamerajapan.arts.ubc.ca/

See also (less academic): Rare Historical Photos - Photographs that document the Japan’s transformation in the 1950s

URL: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/japan-photos-1950s/

"第14回国際手話言語学会 - Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 14: 2022, Osaka, Japan" - September 26- October 1, 2022 - National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku)

TISLR14 will be held at the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku). TISLR will be held for the 14th time, but this is the first time it will be held in Asia. For this reason, we have also incorporated a project (panel discussion) that will serve as an opportunity to build a network for sign language linguistics research in Asia. This conference will be held online and onsite in parallel, with consideration given to preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus. We look forward to your active participation and submission of research presentations.　

Date: September 26 (Mon), 2022 - October 1 (Sat), 2022

Venue: Hall at the National Museum of Ethnology
Online and onsite sessions will be held in parallel
National Museum of Ethnology
10-1 Senri Expo Park, Suita, Osaka
565-8511, Japan

Main organizer: National Museum of Ethnology

Schedule:
September 25 (Sun) – 26 (Mon) : Pre-event (Japanese sign language class, Asian sign language workshop, welcome drink [tentative], meeting with interpreters [Presenters are required to attend])
September 27 (Tue) - September 30 (Friday): Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR14)

Official languages: Japanese Sign Language, American Sign Language, International Sign Language, English

https://www.tislr2022.jp/