Masako Harada canceled her annual vacation and pooled her savings with her bonus to spend more than US$2,500 on tickets for the 2002 World Cup soccer finals.
She didn't stop there. Even though she doesn't like burgers, she ate every day at McDonald's for a month to win tickets in a contest.
She plans to shell out Japanese yen 20,000 (US$155) for a satellite dish to watch the games live on Sky PerfectTV.
PHOTO: AP
"I'll spend whatever it takes to fulfill the World Cup experience," said Harada, 33, a telephone systems engineer.
Japan is counting on these fans, plus almost a half-million foreign visitors, to help the world's second-biggest economy rebound from 12 years of decline that left it with a lower credit rating than first-round opponent Belgium. Economists are skeptical it will get much of a kick.
"There are deeper problems in the Japanese economy for it to simply be pulled out of recession by this event," said Eiji Kitada, an economist at Hamagin Research in Yokohama, where the final game will be played June 30. Among them: a five-year decline in bank lending, 2 1/2 years of falling prices and a jobless rate stuck near a record high.
In addition, the first World Cup held in Asia is also the first hosted by two countries. Japan, which built seven new stadiums for the May 31-June 30 tournament, will reap only half the benefits of being a host because it will split the 64 games with South Korea.
An increase in spending by fans, officials and the media may come at the expense of reduced spending on movies, the theatre and other forms of entertainment as people stay at home to watch games on TV, economists said.
World Cup spending will add just 0.3 percentage point to gross domestic product in the three months ending June 30, said Shinichiro Kawasaki, a senior economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute.
That may not be enough to avoid the economy shrinking further -- gross domestic product will shrink 0.2 percent this quarter, according to the latest Bloomberg News survey.
In Yokohama, 45 minutes by train from downtown Tokyo, local merchants share the pessimism of economists.
Take Hiroko Tominaga, who runs a bakery next door to Kozukue Station, the closest train station to the 72,370-seat Yokohama International Stadium. She doesn't plan anything special to commemorate the games, such as soccer ball-shaped cakes.
"It just wouldn't be worth it to do something special," she said. "It will be like any other business day."
Others are more confident. Sky Perfect Communications Inc, Japan's biggest pay-television operator, the only Japanese broadcaster showing all 64 matches live, aims to sign up 360,000 new customers by the end of the tournament, spokeswoman Naoko Ohya said.
Adidas-Salomon AG, the official supplier of this year's tournament balls, forecasts sales will rise 30 percent in Japan this year, helping it meet its goal of overtaking Nike Inc as the largest seller of branded sporting goods in Japan.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary