Dormant for most of the COVID-19 pandemic, Victory Diseases is now rapidly spreading to the general public, and it’s already showing signs of catastrophic damage to society, the economy and our health.

More Gustos and Cocos filled with families, less izakaya filled with businessmen brown-nosing their bosses. Parks filled with children playing. Women leaders balancing out men in boardrooms, with equal decision making power. This sounds very much like a great future to look forward to.

What you say and do has a deeper and more powerful impact than it ever did before. Your every word and sentence, the tone of your voice, and even your body language automatically sends a message to everyone who sees and hears you.

In one week, children in Japan will go back to school.

This will be a horrible mistake.

If Japan’s healthcare system is reeling with 20,000 new daily cases, imagine what happens when it hits 200,000.

It’s time for a serious plan.

Today, Japan hit an all-time high record for COVID-19 cases of 18,888. The big question now is whether or not this wave will be different from previous waves. I think this wave will be different, for a number of reasons.

Is getting an MBA worth it? I get that question every week, even two decades later. Here is my uncensored, objective take on the value of an MBA, and If I could do it all over again, what I would do differently.

In 2018 it was revealed that Tokyo Medical University had deliberately altered entrance exam scores for over a decade to restrict the number of female students and ensure more men became doctors. The university later admitted that they had falsified test scores.

In Japan last month, several refrigerators containing COVID-19 vaccine were sabotaged. The saboteurs timing couldn’t be worse, because their misguided actions will likely result in more deaths as vaccinations are now being cancelled due to a shortage.

So what does a world look like when FaceBook and Youtube lose their ability to use targeted ads? The bottom falls out of the business model.

And I for one say, burn it all down.

I unfollowed someone on twitter last week, because reading their tweets made me feel bad. I remember the moment I noticed the feeling, and thought to myself, “is there any good reason to follow this person at all?” I scrolled through their tweets and noticed three things…

Instead of a competition between city-states of one empire, the olympics is now a competition of athletes between countries around the world. Cities in these countries put everything on the table to bid big and bigger in an effort to be the host of the olympics, even to extremes that they can’t afford.

I couldn’t help but wonder in disbelief at the decision by Universal Studios Japan’s to officially open their new Nintendo theme park this week, in the middle of the pandemic when almost no one in Japan has yet to receive the vaccination.

It sounds nuts, but it’s actually worse. Nintendo missed their biggest business opportunity in 100 years.

When I moved to Japan I ran into a classic problem: Many vendors stateside won’t send snail mail (letters) to Japan, or if they do, it can take weeks, sometimes longer. I needed a solution to get both personal and professional mail in a timely manner, with zero issues, so I can continue running my businesses in North America seamlessly.

My wife and I brought our cat into Japan. We have a lot of recommendations and advice for people getting ready to move to Japan. Japan is such a detail oriented and operationally excellent country that, with enough time and some attentive project planning, you can avoid quarantine altogether.

It would seem that the number of Apple Stores in a given country or geography should correlate with the size of the market. So if the United States with a population of 328 million has 271 Apple Stores, why does Japan, with a population of 126 million and the second-largest economy among democracies worldwide, only have 10 Apple Stores?

COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE WORLD, JAPAN’S CULTURE IS FASCINATING. So much about it stands out from the rest of the world. I wouldn’t use the word weird. If you do, just look a little deeper, and you’ll find another word. I guarantee it.