Hello again from your good friends at J-List!
We’ve got a new face around here at J-List, Mayumi Ishiwata, age 24. A girl from Maebashi, she studied English for one year in Ireland — a rare place for Japanese people to go to study, but she wanted to go somewhere far from other Japanese students so she could really master English. She likes reading, and is a fan of Japanese classics of literature like the Tale of Genji. She wanted to study English more, but she’s unfortunately terrified of flying, and was only able to fly to Ireland with the help of tranquilizers. You can mail her at [email protected] .
With the continuing negative growth of the Japanese economy (which has fallen into a recession for the fourth time in the past 10 years), the unemployment rate has shot up to 5.3%, which is unheard of in a country that has enjoyed near-full employment for decades. Everywhere one looks there seems to be more bad news, more layoffs, and hope that the U.S. will recover quickly and help lead Japan back into the black. In addition to high unemployment among Japanese, another area that’s been having a very tough time are foreigners living here in Japan, especially “Nikkei” (Japanese descended) workers from Brazil, Peru and elsewhere. These workers are often the first to be cut when a company has financial troubles. Take a trip to the local employment office (called “Hello Work” in typical Japanese style) and you’ll see dozens of foreigners with their hands in their pockets, milling around and hoping for some work to come in.
When J-List goes to hire Japanese staff members, we first call up the local Hello Work to see if they’ve got anyone in their lists with the skills we need — mainly English writing skills, experience living abroad and using English, familiarity with computers. We also run advertisements in the newspapers, also in some weekly “employment journals” that are published in each area, and start doing our interviews. All interviewees bring a filled-out Japanese “rireki-sho” or standardized resume, which has spaces for writing all pertinent information about education, job experience, interests, and of course, blood type. It has been an odd aspect of Japan that employers can list potential jobs for “men” “women” or “either” and put age limits — say, 30 and under. Last year, legislation was passed in Japan making that illegal — another example of Japan’s society running 10-20 years behind the West.
Ever since the Playstation 2 came out in Japan, the VHS format has been on its way out as a format. Very few adult productions are released on video anymore, and when they are released, the prices are nearly always higher than comparable DVD releases, due to the higher duplication costs and shrinking economy of scale for videos. We’re looking for feedback — if you are a fan of the VHS format and prefer it over DVD, and would like to see, say, productions released by Soft on Demand carried by J-List in both DVD and VHS format (even though the VHS release will be $10-15 more than the DVD), we’d like to hear from you. Thanks!
For the first weekend after Thanksgiving, we’ve got a super bunch of items for you, including:
- First, we’ve got some nice new magazines for you, including some nice kogal and amateur items and “rape play” magazines for fans, including the deluxe new issue of Stalkers
- For fans of Japan’s hot and famous AV idols, we’ve got the Top AV Idol Best 10, which features Kurumi Morishita, Ami Ayukawa, Nana Sakura and many more girls in very nice nude shots
- Photobook fans should check out Gravy, the very nice hardcover erotic photobook by Satomi Nakagawa, and we’ve also got a new issue of Photoshot for you (with many famous girls)
- For fans of cute Japanese girls and school uniforms (all over 18 of course), check out the cute Buru Mani vol. 4
- If you like video CDs in your magazines, with lots of sample footage in MPEG format, we’ve got the new issue of Multi Boy, an erotic magazine with tons of Bunko Kanazawa, Pu-ko Kumano, and more
- We have some excellent erotic manga posted to the site for you, with new works from Hit Comics, Oak Comix and a very erotic work from Tsukasa, as well as fresh stock of some excellent works that have sold out
- For yaoi fans, be sure and check out the new X-Boy’s, another very hard-core collection of yaoi “bara” (rose) themes
- For doujinshi fans, we’ve got a dozen or so all-new doujinshi posted, all of which are very nice new books released at the last Comic Market in Tokyo
- DVD fans have many nice new items today, including a dynamite *240 minute* erotic collection of sexual performances by the lovelY Ai Nagase, for fans of this 100% authentic girl
- Also from Soft on Demand, the elegant Natsumi Kawahama is a “Virginity Hunter” who takes pleasure in claiming the cherries of men
- For all those who wondered why there was no AV for women, we’ve got a super *4 hour* release of adult video material directed by female AV director Chie Kanbara, made by a woman for women, with tons of classic moments in SOD history
- For anyone who loves Soft on Demand’s unique products, we’ve got limited stock of Japanese “nobori” banners, a kind of vertically oriented cloth advertisement, for you to hang up in your room for a little piece of Japan
- For fans of scat themes, we’ve got limited stock of a release by SOD, which we’ve posted by customer request
- Finally, although video releases in Japan have become scarce with the onset of DVD, we’ve got a killer new item for you — the lesbian tale of incest and motherly love, starring a new face in the AV world here, Madoka Ishii
- We have some cool “sign plates” posted to the wacky signs and stickers page, with funny messages that are both useful and wacky
- Also: fresh stock of one of our most popular items, Japanese headbands (hachimaki) that say “Goukaku” (“I will pass the test”) and “Nippon ichi” (“the best in all Japan”)
- J-List carries a line of tasty traditional hard candies from the Edo period of Japan, and we’ve gotten in fresh stock of Kuro ame (black candy) and the very interesting “sugar ice”
- Also, for those wanting to improve the health of their teeth, we recommend the delicious sugar-free gum from Japan, Xylitol, which features a very advanced ingredient for removing tooth decay (and it’s very tasty)
- Finally, our “wacky things from Japan” main page includes a deluxe new Japanese bento lunchbox (one that’s not particularly cute, for those who were too shy to buy one of our other bento boxes), the ultimate way to cook tempura or other fried food, fresh stock of our popular Japanese onigiri (rice triangle) maker, and more. Check out the J-List site now!
Remember that you can use the J-List search engine to find products easily. The engine is “smart” and allowed you to search for words in any order (e.g. Fubuki Akira, or Akira Fubuki). It also has a list of “search synonyms” that it uses to help match products — so that you can search for, say, bishoujo or bishojo and get the same items both times. We’ve posted a link to “search help,” giving some pointers on searching for products on the J-List site. If there’s anything we missed, please let us know!
The J-Mate site (http://www.jmate.com) has been updated with a new interview with Mami Gotoh, the lovely lookalike AV idol who resembles the lovely idol from Morning Musume, Maki Gotoh. Read her describe aspects of the Japanese AV world, including the difference between “rental” and “sell” videos, about her private sex life, and more.
