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The decline of physical bookstores is a common problem worldwide, but is especially severe in Japan due to a rapid aging population. As an avid reader, who always dashes to the nearby bookstore wherever I visit to check out content people care about, I am keen to learn any new business solutions in this area. In this post, let’s take a look at some of the innovative things Japanese booksellers are doing in this headwind....

The advent of mobile phone makes consuming news an anytime, anywhere habit. With it comes anxiety and other mental health issues induced by nonstop consumption of negative content. We’re going to look into the reasons driving us to overdose on negative content, despite knowing for sure that it feels unpleasant. Then we’ll examine some coping strategies to stay informed while maintaining our composure. why do we consume negative content? We are programmed by our genes to be more attentive to negativity....

A rapidly aging population is a common phenomenon for most developed countries. This is especially true in Japan, where it is estimated that by 2040, a third of the population will be over 65. This impacts various public policies such as social support system and a shrinking work population. Due to this trend, the government is keen on promoting an active and healthy elderly population. In this blog post, let’s look at a local role model for aging wisely, and what advices she can offer to the younger generation....

Minimalist living, especially in big cities like Tokyo, has always fascinated me. A few years ago, I rented a 25 square meter Airbnb condo in Tokyo for a few weeks and attempted to live as much like a local as possible. I went to local supermarkets to buy and cook my own meals everyday, strolled around the neighboorhood to patronize the smallest shops, and commuted by packed trains to the...

Our frequent distractions amid constant changes in the outside world provoke our survival mode frequently. We easily become restless, which affects both our physical and mental health. We seem to lose touch with our innate calmness. In recent years, I find out that practicing mindfulness by turning our antenna from outward (e.g., refreshing social media, binge viewing shows, etc.) to inward (focusing on our breath, fleeting thoughts and senses) anchors me on what I can control vs the external forces that are beyond my control....

2023 is coming to a close and in the same tradition, I decided to tally my book reviews. This year presented me with a big challenge. I was diagnosed with a serious illness and had to go through treatment and surgery for half of the year. This period was like a trekking expedition when I had a lot of solo time during pain and suffering to ponder and self-reflect. My...

We always hear the catchy phrase you are what you think, but is this true? Recent reading of neuroscience and psychology books taught me that our brain is not trustworthy, because thinking can be unreliable due to its automatic (thus uncontrollable) mechanism. We are easily derailed by cognitive bias, and allow our contrived stories/thoughts to create negative experiences. In this post, we will see how our brain’s wirings can trip us, and how mindfulness can mitigate....

Mental distraction from information/choice overload is a common problem worldwide. Having an anchor for our taste and what we are meant to do provides a more stable path without being easily swayed by cyclical trends that are just like seasonal wind. But is good taste innate or honed by practice? In this post, we’ll look at Matsuura Yataro, who is a renowned lifestyle essayist and ex-chief editor of Kurashi no Techo (Notes on everyday living), a magazine dedicated to promoting aesthetics in living well....

In this digital era, what values can physical bookstores still offer? In this post, we’ll look at the Japanese cultural mecca Tsutaya Daikanyama T-Site, which started a revolutionary wave of curated spaces promoting idea exchange, lifestyle exploration and rural revitalization. Its central promise is that visitors can enrich what they already know, and find some new hobbies at the same time. We’ll also look at how the company behind Tsutaya...

My professional interest is in applying recommenders to travel planning and reservation. So it is natural that I’ll keep up with books on both technical implementation and those that dissect the cultural influences of recommendation systems. After finishing the book Computing Taste, which charted the change of recommendation systems in the music/movie industry, I want to extend what was discussed in the book to changes in software development paradigm, as well as societal views on mistakes or criteria for finished products....