Transcript

Hello and welcome to today’s news from TotemoTech on August 1st, 2023. In today’s news, we have two significant stories to cover.

First, Japan is facing a potential labor shortage of over 10 million workers by 2040. To address this issue, companies are exploring new ways of working, such as implementing a three-day workweek. At the ‘Digital Business Days - SaaS EXPO- 2023 Summer’ online event, key personnel from companies that have adopted the three-day workweek system will discuss whether it will become the norm in Japan.

Moving on to the tech world, Twitter has made a surprising change in Apple’s App Store. Previously known as ‘Twitter,’ the app’s name has been changed to ‘X.’ This change was announced by Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, who tweeted, ‘Blaze your glory!’ The reason behind this sudden rebranding remains unknown.

Next, we turn to the controversy surrounding the official Barbie movie account in Japan. The account issued an apology for its handling of the ‘Barbernheimer’ movement in the United States. The Japanese account expressed regret for any discomfort caused by the inappropriate reactions of the US official account.

In other news, starting from August 2nd, JR East and three other companies will discontinue the sale of registered Suica and PASMO cards. This decision follows the suspension of sales for anonymous Suica and PASMO cards on June 20th.

Moving on to a new insurance offering, Kansai Electric Power and Nippon Life have launched a ‘power outage cost insurance’ for households. This insurance, priced at 100 yen per month, provides compensation of up to 10,000 yen for power outages.

According to a recent survey conducted by Sony Life Insurance, popular figures among middle and high school students in Japan include Hiroshi Takahashi and HIKAKIN. The survey asked students who they aspire to become as adults and found that these influencers ranked highly.

Lastly, at the VR event ‘Virtual Market 2023 Summer,’ Kaori Kose achieved a Guinness World Record. The record was for the ‘highest number of dance videos performed by avatars posted on Twitter within one hour,’ with a total of 665 videos.

That’s all for today’s news. Stay tuned for more updates from TotemoTech. And that’s all for today’s news. Thanks for listening to TotemoTech.

Keywords - japan, tech, news