Many Japanese anime are financed by a seisaku iinkai, a production committee. Several companies invest together, and each holds the rights for its own channel of use. The news site ITmedia notes that the system spreads risk.
The site GIGAZINE names a drawback. Every investor becomes a rights holder, so decisions cannot be made quickly.
Article 35 of Japan’s Patent Act deals with shokumu hatsumei, inventions that employees make in the course of their work. An amendment of 2015 added a rule. If a contract or a similar rule says so in advance, the right to obtain a patent belongs to the employer from the moment it arises. The employee has the right to receive sōtō no rieki, a reasonable economic benefit.
Okagesama de (お陰様で): thanks to you. A Japanese explainer notes that it carries the meaning: “I could not have done it alone, but I was able to do it thanks to you.”
Ichigan (一丸): one lump. The Daijisen dictionary defines it as a single mass with one heart. Its example: zen’in ichigan to natte nankyoku o kirinukeru, everyone becomes one to get through a crisis.
At the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August 2016, Japan’s men’s 4×100 meter relay team won the silver medal in 37.60 seconds, an Asian record. The runners were Yamagata Ryōta, Iizuka Shōta, Kiryū Yoshihide and Cambridge Asuka. None of the four had a personal best under ten seconds in the 100 meters.
The team used an evolved andāhando pasu, underhand pass. The runner who gives the baton and the runner who receives it stretch their arms further than at the Beijing Olympics. This gains distance between them and cuts time.
On the evening of October 6, 2015, Kajita Takaaki of the University of Tokyo spoke to the press after being named for the Nobel Prize in Physics. He said: Watashi no namae wa dashite itadaita ga, Sūpā Kamiokande, soshite Kamiokande no kenkyū gurūpu ga mitomerareta no da to omou. “My name was put forward, but I think it is the research groups of Super-Kamiokande and Kamiokande that were recognized.”
Fukasawa Naoto designed the wall-mounted CD player of Muji, the no-brand retailer. The Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired it for its permanent collection. In the magazine Bungei Shunjū, Fukasawa said: Jibun o hyōgen shitai to iu omoi wa arimasen. Zutto ii “futsū” o sagashite kimashita. “I have no wish to express myself. I have always been looking for a good ordinary.”
Deru kui wa utareru (出る杭は打たれる): the stake that sticks out gets hammered. An article on the dictionary site JapanKnowledge explains it: a person with talent who stands out, or a person who acts presumptuously, tends to be resented or criticized by others.
The proverb appears in the Hōjō godaiki of 1641, in older spelling. A later form, deru kugi wa utareru, uses kugi, nail, in place of kui, stake.
From 2000 to 2005, NHK broadcast the documentary series Purojekuto X: Chōsenshatachi (Project X: The Challengers). Its main characters were unknown Japanese people. It told the hidden stories behind new products, social incidents and giant projects, as “a story of organizations and groups.”
In April 2024, NHK began a new series, Shin Purojekuto X.
The researcher Nakamura Shūji sued Nichia Corporation, the company where he had worked, for a fair reward for his invention of the blue light-emitting diode. On January 30, 2004, the Tokyo District Court valued the invention at 60.43 billion yen and ordered Nichia to pay 20 billion yen, the amount he had claimed for the time being.
In January 2005, the two sides settled. Nichia agreed to pay about 843.9 million yen.