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From Shohei to ‘Zelda’, Japan’s big soft-power year

4Jan

By Webmaster IKON MalaysiaNo Comments

Opinion

From Shohei to ‘Zelda’, Japan’s big soft-power year

In a year in which Walt Disney Co struggled with expensive flops and audiences finally fell out of love with superhero movies, Japan scored a best-ever series of soft-power hits. Little by little, the country is getting better at pitching its copious wares overseas, and 2023 proved that. From Super Mario’s domination at the theatre to Netflix Inc’s adaptation of best-selling manga “One Piece”, it was a year when audiences demonstrated their increasing fondness for the soft-power super-power. With “The Super Mario Bros Movie”, Nintendo Co’s tie-up with “Minions” creator Illumination Entertainment Inc, the Kyoto-based video game maker scored the second-highest grossing movie of the year worldwide, beaten only by Warner Bros Discovery Inc’s “Barbie”. Nintendo is the prime example o...

Do you want your clothes to shrink our forests?

Do you know what you’re wearing? I don’t just mean if it’s a shirt or a jumper, or whether it’s designer or fast fashion. I’m talking about the fabric — and its source. Cotton is fairly recognisable, and many know wool comes from sheep. But do you know that linen is made of the blue-flowered flax plant? That cashmere and mohair come from different breeds of goat, while angora comes from a type of rabbit? And polyester and polyamide are made out of oil? Perhaps the least well-known origin story, and one of the most significant for the climate and biodiversity crises, is that fabrics such as viscose, lyocell and modal were once trees. These materials, known collectively as man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCFs), are made of dissolved wood pulp and account for just over 6% of our cl...

Strong Singapore dollar causing permanent brain drain from Malaysia

Thanesh, who has a diploma in IT and management, jumped at the opportunity of a job in Singapore even though he has to start work a few days before the Deepavali celebrations. He has secured a job with a company providing ground handling services in Changi Airport and starts with a basic salary of S$2,000 (RM6,982) per month. With an allowance and overtime, Thanesh expects to get a net monthly income of S$2,300. He estimates his travel expenses from Johor Bahru, where he will stay, to Changi Airport in Singapore to be less than S$350 per month. After deducting the cost of accommodation and food, Thanesh is confident of setting aside more than RM1,000 per month. What workers like Thanesh are expecting to put aside as savings corresponds closely with the findings of a survey on wh...