WITLife #11 – Nesting with Osechi
Career, Japan Trends, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers 
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken, 2000-03). In her recent posts, she’s been watching the news in Japanese and sharing some of the interesting tidbits and trends along with her own observations.
It looks like Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso will be getting a lump of coal in his stocking. The Cabinet approval rate is currently at 16.7%, down 22 points from last month, and the disapproval rate is up 30 points to 64.7%. Further probing into sources of dissatisfaction revealed that 40% had no hope in the government, 27.6% criticized its bad policy, 26.5% faulted its lack of leadership and 26.4% said it could not be trusted. In addition, in response to the question “Who is more suited to being a politician?” 23.9% picked Aso but 34.8% picked Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) leader Ichiro Ozawa.
As a result of the “New Year’s Nesting” phenomenon, expensive osechi are a hot item for Japanese department stores. Whereas in previous years osechi selling at 10,000 yen or more were popular, this year meals in the 30,000-50,000 range are the best sellers. A customer shopping for osechi said she had planned to go to Hawaii for the holidays, but with the high fuel surcharge could no longer afford it. After deciding to spend New Year’s at home, she will put her plane fare/trip money toward a deluxe osechi. I guess you could call this practical pampering? Another factor is that prices of fish and other osechi ingredients went up this month, so the one-stop shopping that osechi packages offer seems like a deal compared to having to purchase all the necessary items yourself.
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