Friday, August 8, 2003 Big in Japan David Beckham. star soccer player now with Real Madrid (which bought him from Manchester United), husband of Posh Spice (remember her? No?), and an enormously popular sex symbol in Japan. Endorsements for chocolates, mobile phones, and even a line of skincare products. Forty-five thousand people paid about $25 apiece to watch him and his team PRACTICE in the Tokyo Dome a few days ago. Go figure. Real Madrid's David Beckham controls a ball during an exhibition soccer match between Real Madrid and FC Tokyo at Tokyo's National Stadium, Tuesday, August 5, 2003. Real Madrid blanked the Japanese side 3-0. Real Madrid is in Japan, after China, as part of an exhibition Asian tour including Hong Kong and Bangkok. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis) 9:56:18 PM    Comment on this post! [] Cute is In Okay, here's something that entirely escaped my attention, although he's certainly not as Big in Japan as David Beckham or Bob Sapp... Japan goes barking mad over chihuahua TOKYO (AFP) - Japan has gone barking mad over a big-eyed chihuahua named Que-chan and if sales of the photo collection are any indication, its upcoming CD is likely to be a big hit. After appearing in a television commercial for consumer loan firm Aiful Corp. last August, Que-chan (pronounced KOO-chan), has been the subject of a photo collection that has sold 80,000, a children's picture book, and over 200 related products. Now the cute canine features on the front of Aiful's credit card dressed in a black suit and tie and will even "sing" on a CD set for release later this month, a spokeswoman said. "There have been other star pets before, but the Que-chan boom is the first time one has spawned a social phenomenon," said Japan Pet Model Association spokeswoman Yumiko Kotani. 9:31:01 PM    Comment on this post! [] Neat Optical Illusion: Brough to my attention by someone in the States, is this neato optical effect, from the back cover of a Japanese book called Trick Eyes 2 Click to see the full effect: I will, of course, be buying this book as soon as possible. 8:29:23 PM    Comment on this post! [] The New Scapegoat? To steal from Mark Twain, history may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme (knee-jerk anti-globalists, take note): Is China Replacing Japan as U.S. Scapegoat? by William Pesek Jr. Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Times were when corporate America loved to hate the Japanese. Tensions hit a fever pitch in the 1980s when Japan's boom seemed destined to bankrupt U.S. automakers and suck up every skyscraper, Warhol painting, movie studio and golf course in sight. Nowadays, the fear is that Japan is sliding into a deflationary spiral. Japan lost its footing, and the U.S. lost its scapegoat. Paranoia was waning by the time Michael Crichton's novel Rising Sun' hit bookstores in the early 1990s. As Japan morphed from superpower to troubled economy, U.S. manufacturers couldn't blame it for their deficiencies -- they had to admit their own faults. Enter China, which is suddenly the biggest predator on U.S. radar screens. A growing chorus of politicians and manufacturers is pointing fingers at China's currency policy, which executives believe gives Asia's second-biggest economy an unfair advantage. The rest at http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&sid=aRg4_9QIxBXA&refer=columnist_pesek 7:16:56 PM    Comment on this post! []