Tokyo Customs

We went to Tokyo Customs at May 14^th. It is a nice experience because I have never visit the Customs in China and United States. When people mentioned Customs, the first thing appeared in my mind is people who work in international airport ask passengers to declare what they bring from other countries, and in some cases they can ask passengers to pay taxes for their goods. However, the speaker told us they have three main missions.

First of all, they need to ensure the safety and security of the society. They’ve been developing network for both internal and external to make sure there’s no illegal drugs, firearms, terrorism-related items and goods are delivered in the country. During the visit, the speaker showed us the X-ray machine they used in their daily work. The machine was put in a big room, workers brought samples in and detected whether the product met the standards or not. The other important way for them is drug detector dogs. Japanese used to import the excellent as well as qualified drug detector dogs from U.S. at very beginning, but now they have been trained the baby dogs by themselves. And all the special workers perform very well. Secondly, they need to collect consumption tax for imports fairly. Japanese 10% of national tax revenue is come from Customs daily work, which is 5 trillion Yan. Usually, there are 2 types of major sources in Custom’s duty; international mails and passengers’ baggage. To reach the more fairly charge of tax, they also have been developing and improving the tax systems. Thirdly, They need promoting trade facilitation. Japanese government set up an Authorized Economic Operator Center at Tokyo Customs. It is a program focus on the security and facilitation of international trade through partnership between private sectors and Customs. Also, they use Nippon Automated Cargo and Port Consolidated System to process most of the import as well as export declarations. It is very effective so that save the both human resources and reduce the consumptions.

Sumo

The experience about watching sumo is very unforgettable. Sumo is the most famous sport in Japan. It used to be a ceremony for Japanese royal family. So still now before two players ready to fight, they throw the salt on the ground. Japanese treat well-known sumo players like super idols, include young boys and girls. Usually, people start training to become a sumo player around 15 years old. They can start the competition after few years. I was told by Higuchi-san that sumo players are “not fat”; they control their average body fat around 15%. He used American football player as an example and said sumo players are as strong as them. I totally disagree with him. Because sumo player looks totally different than American football players; American football players are very strong and full with muscle. I searched information online after I backed hotel. The website I visited shows sumo players usually eat a lot to become fatter, but the food they eat are strictly controlled by the experts to balance the nutrition. I found people’s age range from 20 to 36 on the brochure, and the middle number is around 27. And all the 4A players are older than the average age. I think it may stands sumo is not only depended on the strength that young people have, but also require for the skills—based on the abundant experience they got in the past, they have more chance to win in the competition.

It is impressive that players fallen from the stage frequently during the competition. I was so worried about the people who was setting in the first row; they may get injured if the people with huge weight fallen in them. However, Higuchi-san told me the seats in the front are collected by sumo companies, they treat those seats as precious gift to their top guests. It is very hard for me to image it is an honor for people to seat near the stage.

 Sumo player and me. :)

 Sumo players.

Snacks and souvenirs that every audiences got before we came in the stadium. 

Ainu

Ainu is a group of aboriginal that lived in the north of the Japan. In the past, they depended on the natural resources to fishing and hunting. Also, they collected the fur from animals they hunted, herb they got from the mountain to trade with other tribes of people. It seems that their living environment was rule orderly. During the visit in Ainu museum, we watched the show about how they play with their special instruments, how they prey for the bear’s soul. It is interesting to learn those types of thing because they are kind of Japanese ancestor; their history is a part of Japanese culture.

I spent a lot of time to learn the process of development from a newborn baby. It is interesting that although they thought everything happened in their lives was connected with god and the birth of new life is a happy occasion, they didn’t have any special celebration for new births. Because they thought the new baby are too weak that the pretty clothes and celebration would attract evil to come. Child usually started help to release the burden from their parents since they reach 7 years old. They played at spare time, but most of the games they played also were types of training for their future use, such as hunting and fishing. They changed their hair styles since they were 12, and then they can join different kinds of ceremonies. Girls can get tattoo after they changed their hairstyles, and after 4 or 5 years they are allowed to marry to men. The child can start their new life if they can live independently, then they have the right to support his family members. For some of senior managers in the tribes, the top ruler usually takes care of people who don’t have any other relatives in the world. It may shows Japanese’s collectivism have existed from that period of time, or even older.

People are prey for bear's soul. 

Tuna processing company

We went to a tuna processing company at May 11^th. It was called a “tuna processing company”, however it has the whole process start from fishing to delivery, store (warehouse) and sell.

They own a boat that can fishing and store 280 tons of fish. Usually, they start the sailing in May, and the fishing will keep 10 months long. They usually fish in different public sea areas and in different seasons. The sea on the West of the Australia is the place they always go. They don’t need to buy the licenses or pay for some countries because the public sea area is open to all the countries that sign the agreement with the organization. However, during the lecture time, the speaker didn’t answer the question about overfishing directly.

All tuna stored in the freezer warehouse. Besides the tuna they caught by themselves, outside users can store tuna in their warehouse as well. They only need to pay for the store fee; 12 Yan for send in and take out the each piece of tuna in the warehouse, and 10 Yan per kilogram is the fee for freezer. The temperature of feezer has to be controlled under -60 centigrade. The speaker told us that is the degree can keep tuna fresh, or the color of fish would change and it will influence the taste. Only in some cases, the customers will come to pick up the tuna they ordered in a very short time, and then tuna can be stored in freezer about -30 centigrade. The people working in the control center were proudly told us they use one computer to control the three freezer, and the system they keep using is already 40 years old. It’s still very usefully as well as efficient. Additionally, they have the backup plan to cope the emergency happens; with help by government, they use seawater to evaporate the gas and make the whole system operate fluently.

KRT

At the first day we started our trip in Tokyo, we went to Higuchi-san's company and enjoyed the field trip there. Because I am in supply chain management major, and transportation as well as warehouse are very significant components of supply chain. So I learned a lot real business about supply chain during the trip. 

The Kawasaki-Rikuso Transportation (KRT) is a transportation company that owns 150 trucks, and the drivers. All the drivers are direct managed by the transportation department. Higuchi-san told us this is a good way to get control of the transportation to make sure the trucks will arrive in time and decrease the delay rate as low as possible. Most of the product can be delivered at the destination in 2 days after the date they were ship.

Also, one of duty the warehouse have is to make sure retailers will be satisfied with the food they imported from other countries. KRT hired people to do this job. During the trip we saw 3 or 4 people gathered together and do the detection process. For the wine, even there is a small scratch on the bottom of the bottle the wine will be rejected to the producer. Producers have right to decide whether the defective items will be destroyed or sell with discount. It is known that Japanese are strict about their food. I was surprised there were individual rooms are special for dairy products. People working in that type of area have to clean the potential bacterial though the air shower room before they get in the working area. And they have many physical ways to clean themselves as well. Because Japanese always want small product, to adjust the product with Japanese demand, the product imported with huge package usually need to be change to small package. “Market can changes in 10 days.” Said by the speaker of the day. So they use people to pack the product instead of machines.

 Employees are re-packing the product to smaller size.

 Japanese food component label always very big so that make people attention on it.

People detect the dairy product in individual room.