Greetings from J-List April 24, 2000

Greetings from Japan, on this quiet Monday evening.

Remember those Gap jeans jacket commercials they were running a few months ago? They ran the same ads in Japan, too, and they’ve had an incredible effect on Tokyo young people — in the streets of Shibuya and Shinjuku, *everyone* is wearing them! In Japan, when something becomes popular, such as “loose socks” or Tamagotchi or strawberry iMacs, they catch on like wildfire and rage until people come to their senses. I wonder what will be next?

J-List is doing some hiring of Japanese staff this week, so I thought I’d explain some Japanese work practices. The three types of jobs in Japan are “albeit” (originally a German word that the Japanese have adopted, it’s usually shortened to “baito” in Japanese), or part-time, hourly-wage-based work; “part” (from the English, part time) which denoted half-day hourly work with some benefits such as health insurance; and full employee. Many young people in Japan are “freeters” (“furiitaa”) or people who are free from work-related commitments — they go from baito to baito as they please.

For tonight’s update, we’ve got some nice new items, including:

• First, manga, manga, and more hentai manga, including excellent new offerings from Sakura Comics, Hot Milk Comics, EC, and more
  
• Great back-in-stock photobooks, including more copies of Uchu Girl (the most popular AV gals of the mid-90’s), the excellent Saira (traditional Japanese kimono erotica), and more
  
• New hard- and soft-cover photobook items by Kikuchi Rie (age 16), Yasuda Ryoko (age 15) and Nakamura Eri (age 15)
  
• For Video CD fans, a great selection of “one shot” items, including very unique fetish VCDs, at great prices
  
• A great new soft-vinyl toy on the Anime & Toys page for Gizmo fans
  
• Also on the Anime & Toys page, great new books for Gundam and modeling fans.
  
• More!
  

There’s a unique job opportunity for 2-3 unique persons in San Diego with an exciting new company in the adult anime simulation game market. Knowledge of the Japanese language, and experience with distribution, sales, and magazine publishing are plusses. If you’ve got a passion for this unique field and want to be involved with this exciting new enterprise, contact mailto:[email protected] for more information.