Society

Holiday shopping blitz in Japan lacks momentum due to short supply

Dec 27 (Japan Times) - The year-end and New Year’s shopping blitz is lacking steam in Japan due to stalled goods production blamed on shortages of semiconductors and other parts and components.

“A wide range of consumer electronics have been affected” by the parts shortages, an industry analyst said.

Sony’s PlayStation 5 video game console marked cumulative sales of 10 million units in July this year, only about eight months after it was released in November 2020, reaching the milestone faster than any other PlayStation model. But PS5 is now seen selling for over Y100,000, double its regular price, on online flea markets amid a supply shortage.

Last month, Nintendo Co. lowered the fiscal 2021 sales estimate for its Nintendo Switch game console to 24 million units from 25.5 million units. The current level of production “cannot meet demand,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said, adding that he sees “no signs” of the situation over the semiconductor shortage improving any time soon.

Home-use printers are also in short supply. At retail outlets, many relatively affordable models, with price tags of below Y40,000, are on back order. This has resulted from “both logistics constraints and semiconductor shortages,” an official of a major printer-maker Seiko Epson Corp. said.

Do Bears Prefer Acorns or Berries?

Bear sightings across Japan have already climbed to nearly twice the level recorded during the same period last year, prompting entry bans in mountain areas behind Kyoto’s Ninna-ji Temple and the cancellation of hiking events in Kansai, while new research suggests that the key to reducing encounters may lie in understanding what bears eat in each region.

Copper Thieves Target Japanese Shrines

Copper roofing panels were stolen from several shrines in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, including a city-designated cultural property, in the latest case amid a nationwide surge in copper thefts targeting shrines and temples across Japan, where soaring metal prices have fueled crimes that leave historic religious buildings damaged, exposed to the elements, and facing repair costs of millions of yen.

1200-Year-Old Temple on Miyajima Reduced to Ashes

Flames broke out on the morning of May 20th on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Prefecture, home to one of Japan's World Heritage sites, destroying Reikado Hall near the summit of Mount Misen.

From Bento Boxes to Garbage Bags, Rising Costs Hitting Daily Life Across Japan

Uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East is beginning to affect daily life in Japan, as concerns over crude oil supplies spread to restaurants, cleaning services and even household garbage disposal systems across the Kansai region.

Tochigi Robbery-Murder Suspect’s Wife Posted Dance Videos on Social Media

A 25-year-old woman arrested as a suspected ringleader in a robbery-murder case in Tochigi Prefecture once posted cheerful dance videos on social media and was remembered by those who knew her as an energetic and outgoing young woman.

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