Financial Times (September 5)
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has “lacked distinctive policies of his own or an independent political base. Going forward, “Japan needs a different kind of leader.” The next leader “requires communication skills and a compelling programme.”
Tags: Communication, Different, Distinctive, Independent, Japan, Leader, Policies, Political base, Prime minister, Skills, Suga
1843 (April/May Issue)
“The emoji is the modern hieroglyph. Thousands of years after the Egyptians made their mark, picture-based writing is transforming how we communicate.” This is not a step backwards “to a more primitive, childish form of communication…. Both hieroglyphs and emoji are far more powerful than they appear.”
Tags: Childish, Communicate, Communication, Egyptians, Emoji, Hieroglyph, Picture-based, Powerful, Primitive, Writing
Bloomberg (April 12)
“U.S. public companies are moving away from the traditional shareholders’ meeting, opting instead to interact with investors online. Sensible as this might seem in the internet age, it’s important to ensure that it becomes a way to improve — rather than stifle — communication.”
Tags: Communication, Companies, Investors, Online, Shareholders' meetings, Stifle, U.S.
The Week (October 31)
Designed to foster communication and collaboration, open office layouts are having a negative impact on employee productivity and satisfaction. “Overheard conversations can result in a 5 percent to 10 percent decline in the performance of cognitive tasks…like reading, writing, and other forms of creative work. Noise can impair workers’ ability to recall information and do basic arithmetic. It also can decrease productivity by as much as 86 minutes per day.”
Tags: Collaboration, Communication, Employees, Impact, Noise, Performance, Productivity, Satisfaction
Bloomberg (July 18)
Japan needs to mend relationships with its neighbors. After the upper house Diet elections, “LDP leaders would be wise to focus their resources on overcoming opposition to the most difficult structural reforms. That doesn’t mean Japan can’t take measures it deems necessary to bolster its defenses, such as increasing its military budget, or even making cosmetic changes such as renaming its military the ‘National Defense Forces.’ Such decisions should be based on strategic concerns, not a desire to fire up patriotic fervor. They should be communicated to Beijing quietly but transparently, well in advance.”
Tags: Asia, China, Communication, Defense, Diet, Elections, Japan, LDP, Military, Relationships, Resources, Structural reforms
Wall Street Journal (June 24)
“For a country with a reputation of being a technology forerunner, Japan holds on dearly to all things tangible. Four of the world’s five biggest newspapers are Japanese. Faxes remain a staple of business communication. And the compact disc is alive and well.”
Tags: Communication, Compact disc, Digital, Faxes, Japan, Newspapers, Print