Here’s a run-on sentence: “Tyler sat down with Patrick to discuss signature fields on the back of credit cards, whether bank tellers or waitstaff are more trustworthy, the gremlins behind spurious credit card declines, how debt collection and maple syrup […]
Japanese workplace culture is the opposite of America’s at-will employment. “Japanese companies are barred both by societal and legal constraints that make it very difficult to fire employees.” So they invented “the oidashibeya, literally the banishment room or the expulsion room.” ~ learn […]
Everyone can find 3 seconds per day, right? “In 2022, researchers from Australia’s Edith Cowan University, in collaboration with Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Japan, found that doing eccentric bicep contractions for just three seconds a day for five […]
“Dagashi (駄菓子) are small, inexpensive Japanese confectionery and snacks you would find in corner stores. 10 yen for an Umaibou, 30 yen for a Cabbage Tarou. It’s what you would buy on your walk back home from school and fight […]
“Solar went from the most expensive source of electricity in the 1950s to the least expensive source of electricity in the 2020s.” The root cause: hundreds of billions of dollars of both public and private investments. Those investments, first in […]
This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review. “In the UK, Italy, Japan, and France remarkable longevity is instead predicted by regional poverty, old-age poverty, material deprivation, low incomes, high crime rates, a remote region […]
“Though the concept [of a golfer picking up everyone’s bar tab after nailing a hole-in-one] largely faded away in the US, it became a big business in Japan, where golfers who landed a hole-in-one were expected to throw parties “comparable […]
A fascinating and geeky look at how payments work in a country where 40 payment methods are accepted at 7-eleven. “Payments in Japan have changed enormously in the last 20 years. The rate of change is accelerating. You will see […]
This isn’t a startup, but it’s certainly innovation. “Japan’s Daikin has kicked off an air conditioning “subscription” service in Africa that let’s users turn on the AC – only on days they need it – through a smartphone app. … […]