Newspaper
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When did you first start reading newspaper?
Why?
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What different kinds of newspaper are there in
your country?
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How important is it for people to read the
news rather than watch it on TV? Why?
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Naomi S. Kida is perhaps the first Japino
to make it to the finals of Miss Universe-Japan. Born in Tondo,
Manila, in June 1988, she made it to the Top 5 of the beauty contest in Tokyo
on June 17, 2011.
Naomi is the daughter of Cristina Rivera
Santiaguel of Imus, Cavite and Masami Kida, president of a cement production
company.
Fluent in Japanese, English and Filipino,
Naomi regularly visits the Philippines and stays in Almanza, Las
Piñas, with her aunt.
“If I am back here and speak Tagalog, I
have to change my [frame of] mind. It takes me one to two weeks to adjust,”
she told the Inquirer over lunch recently in a restaurant in Salcedo
Village, Makati City.
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NEW YORK — New York ranked first and Tokyo sixth among
120 major cities in the world in terms of competitiveness, according to a survey report released Monday by
Citigroup Inc. and the research arm of The Economist magazine.
London and Singapore
came in second and third, followed by Paris and Hong Kong tied for fourth
place.
The report ranks
cities in eight categories of competitiveness, including economic strength,
human capital, institutional effectiveness, social and cultural character,
and environment and natural hazards.
While many European
and U.S. cities earned high rankings overall, Asian cities dominated the top
rankings in the economic strength category. In this most highly weighted
category, 15 of the top 20 cities are in Asia, and 12 of them are in China.
Among other Japanese
cities, Osaka ranked 47th, Nagoya 50th and Fukuoka 63rd.
"Cities are engines of prosperity and innovation.
. . . But as cities vie for
investment, talent and business, we recognize that competitiveness is about
more than growth," said Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit.
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Your local area
·
Where is your hometown?
·
How long have you lived there?
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What is there to see and do in your local
area?
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What improvements would you like to see made in
your local area?
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A doctor in Japan has landed himself
in trouble with the police after posting footage of his drive in a
Ferrari sports car on YouTube. He is facing charges of exceeding the speed limit after the footage showed him driving at
124km/h (77mph) in a 40km/h (25mph) zone, police say.
The 50-year-old
doctor, from Okawa in Fukuoka Prefecture, was reported to police by angry
YouTube users. He reportedly said he "wanted people to understand the
beauty of a Ferrari".
The six-minute video
is titled "Ferrari 458 Italia Drive in Japan 2011" in Japanese, and
was filmed using a camera positioned behind the driver. It shows the car
leaving an underground car park and driving along highways and coastal roads in Fukuoka, southern
Japan, on the morning of 24 April 2011.
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Friends
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How important is friendship to you?
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Do you have friends who live in other
countries?
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What qualities do you look for in a friend?
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What kind of thins do you like to do when you
get together with your friends?
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Thousands of
antinuclear protesters took to the
streets of Tokyo and other cities Sunday, the first anniversary of the
earthquake and tsunami that triggered
the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Near the head office
of Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the crippled complex, demonstrators called for the country to abandon nuclear power and restore the
prefecture, where more than 100,000 residents were forced to relocate.
In Koriyama,
Fukushima Prefecture, some 16,000 people attended an antinuclear gathering in
the city and called for scrapping
all of Japan's 54 commercial reactors, which provided a third of its
electricity before the Fukushima disaster.
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TOKYO — Japan said
Friday it was applying to UNESCO to have its cuisine listed as a global cultural treasure as part of a bid to restore
global confidence in its food after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Tokyo is to ask the
UN's educational, scientific and cultural arm to register "Washoku:
Traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese" as part of the intangible heritage of humanity, the
foreign and agriculture ministries said. "Washoku" or the Japanese
diet, is traditionally based on rice, fish and vegetables, but the varied and
highly seasonal cuisine of the country has won it plaudits around the world.
The government said
washoku was characterised by
respect for nature and the importance placed on the way in which dishes are
served as well as the quality of ingredients used. The nation also
"needs to restore confidence in Japanese food, which has been adversely
affected by rumours due to the
nuclear accident" at Fukushima, the government said.
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Transport
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How do you usually travel around your town or
city? Why?
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What do you think of public transport in your
town or city?
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How do you think we could persuade more people
to use public transport?
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Entertainment
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Do you go out a lot or do you prefer home
entertainment?
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What kind of things do you watch on TV?
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Can you easily entertain yourself when you are
alone?
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Are there many places for entertainment in
your area?
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SINGAPORE — Japan's
richest man, Tadashi Yanai, has been ranked
88th on the Forbes business magazine list of the world's wealthiest people.
Forbes said Thursday
that Yanai, founder and president
of Fast Retailing Co., which operates the Uniqlo casual clothing chain, is tied for 88th on the list with a net
worth of $10 billion, up from 122nd last year. He is the only Japanese on Forbes'
top 100 lists for this year.
Mexican
telecommunications magnate Carlos
Slim Helu, with a net worth of $69 billion, is at the top, followed by
Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
More than one-third
of the people on the top 100 list are from the United States. Among the Asian
region, Hong Kong and India have four each, Malaysia two and mainland China
one.
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