Common Japanese high schools have their sport clubs. After the classroom lectures, students work out in clubs, for instance, baseball club or tennis club. Unfortunately every year some died during sports club activities. According to Minis…

My daughter bought textbooks for her senior high school. For elementary schools and junior high schools, textbooks are free of charge. But for senior high schools, students have to buy textbooks. Her textbooks consist of 36 books. The tota…

Since 1953, Japan Meteorological Agency have been researching the beginning date of cherry blossom. The agency assigned one specific tree as the standard tree, and checks it every season. The Tokyo's standard tree is planted in Yasukuni Sh…

On March 18, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism published the official land prices in Japan. All of 10 most expensive places are located in Tokyo. The most expensive point is "4-5-6, Ginza, Chuo ward". Its price is 33,…

On March 18, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism published the official land prices in Japan. According to it, the average land price for housing area of Tokyo 23 wards is 518,600 yen ($4,333 €3,964) per 1m2. The follow…

In 2013, the total sales of books and magazines were 2 trillion yen ($18 billion, €17 billion). The sales amount of books is decreasing year by year. The following shows the changes in sales amount of books and magazines from 2004 to 2013.…

As of 2011, there are 3274 libraries in Japan. More than 10% of them (394) are located in Tokyo metropolitan prefecture. Tokyo is the heaven of library. Figure : The number of libraries by prefecture, 2011 Prefecture Number of Libraries To…

My daughter will go to a senior high school from April. She ordered her school uniform. The uniform consists of a jacket, winter skirt and summer skirt. The jacket cost 12,250 yen. The winter skirt was 7500 yen. The summer skirt was 7250 y…

My wife, my son and I went to a restaurant today. My wife and I ordered combined plate dishes. It cost 1296 yen ($10.89 €10.05). My son ordered hamburg steak. Its price was 972 yen ($8.17 €7.53). Image : combined plate dish Image : hamburg…

Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry researches about employee's salary every year. According to it, the nationwide average annual salary was 4,796,800 yen ($40,309 €37,475). It includes bonus and overtime money. It also includes tax, so ta…

Yesterday, three Japanese tourists were killed in Tunisia by terrorists. In these cases, the embassies of Japan in the local area supports Japanese citizens. In 2013 Japanese embassies in the world carried out 17,796 of emergency services …

Currently, some big laborers unions are negotiating about their wages with their management teams. Some unions got good news. For instance, Toyota will raise the worker's wage by 4000 yen (per month). Last year, Toyota raised the wage by 2…

Sento is a Japanese communal bath house. The customers pay entrance fee at the front desk. Currently the entrance charge is 460 yen ($3.80 €3.59).The following shows the changes in the entrance fee for sento in Tokyo, 1948-2014. Year Price…

As of 2014 Dec 31, total 15,198 animal hospitals are registered on Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. 3939 of them are for agricultural/farming animals, 11,259 of them are for pets. The following shows the number of …

There are 32,718 churches in Japan as of 2013 January 1st, which are registered on Agency for Cultural Affairs. Number of churches per population is higher in western Japan, and it is low in eastern Japan. Figure : Number of Churches per P…

Total 77,394 temples are registered on Agency for Cultural Affairs as of 2013 January 1st. Interestingly the number of temples is less than shrines'. Personally speaking, I thought the number of temples is larger than shrines'.The number o…

According to a survey by Agency for Cultural Affairs, there are 81,389 shrines in Japan as of 2013 Jan 1. The data below shows the number of shrines by prefecture. Low rate prefectures are Okinawa, Osaka, Tokyo, Kanagawa and Hokkaido. Okin…

In 2014 December 1.7% of citizens received welfare (Public Assistance) from the government. The following data shows the ratio of individuals who received welfare in 2014 December by prefecture. The rate is relatively high in Osaka and Hok…

In 2014 December, approximately 2.2 million people received the public assistance money from the Japanese government. The number of people receiving the public assistance money is increasing year by year. The following shows the changes in…

There is Public Assistance system to support poor people in Japan. The government gives poor families some amount of money every month. Not all poor families can receive the welfare, but some poor families in the specific condition can rec…

Japan Pet Food Association estimated that there are 9.959 million cats in Japan, 2014. The following shows their estimation about the number of cats in Japan, 2010-2014. Year Number of cats 2010 9,612,000 2011 9,606,000 2012 9,748,000 2013…

My son is a junior high school student. He will attend a cram school spring session in his spring break. It will cost 39,042 yen ($328.08 €289.20) for 19 lessons. My son does not like to go to the cram school. He sometimes skips the cram s…

This year, Giants infielder Shinnosuke Abe will get the highest salary again (510 million yen = $4,266,150 = €3,765,840). He was converted from catcher to infielder. Buffaloes pitcher Chihiro Kaneko who got most wins and best ERA last year…

According to IDC, Apple was the top supplier in the smartphone market in Japan, during 2014 July-September. Total 5.21 million smartphones were sold in 2014 July-September. Apple's market share was 64%. Figure : 2014 July-September Smartph…

Recruit Sumai Company reported "Top 10 Tokyo's towns where people want to live in". According to it, Kichijoji is the most popular town to live in. The following is the list of the top 10 towns. Rank Town Points 1 Kichijoji 426 2 Ebisu 343…

My daughter will go to a Tokyo Metropolitan senior high school from April. Yesterday my wife wired the enrollment fee. It cost 5650 yen ($47.48 €41.85). It is much cheaper than the fee of private schools (example of one school: 355,000 yen…

Meiji Yasuda Institute of Life and Wellness conducted a survey about people's love relationship and marriages, in 2014. According to it, 41% of single men in the 20s have never had any girlfriend. 12.5% of single men in the 40s have specif…

Japan Pet Food Association researched the average life-span of cats and dogs. According to it, the average life-span of cats is 14.82 years. The average life-span of dogs is 14.17 years. The research was conducted in 2014. ■ Dogs Figure : …

Nikkei press estimated 2013 market share of travel agencies, in terms of domestic trips in Japan. According to it, the total sales of 2013 were 4.132 trillion yen. JTB (formerly known as Japan Tourist Bureau) had the biggest share. JTB als…