Kakebo

Control your spending, save money, regain peace of mind, and make your life happier and healthier with Kakebo—the traditional Japanese method of money management that is still widely used today. Having enough money to live is one of the most important factors affecting our health. Trying to balance expenses—utility bills, housing, healthcare, food, and for many, the costs of raising children (not to mention paying for college!)—leaves us worried and stressed. But there is a solution: Kakebo, a practical, proven method that helps you keep track of every penny, manage spending, and save up to thirty percent more! With this invaluable guide you’ll interact with your spending every day for two years, and learn how to manage your personal budget. Designed like a diary, it allows you to record all your daily expenses week by week so you can see exactly where your money goes. Each day is divided into four categories: 1. primary needs—food, personal hygiene, children; 2. optional needs—shopping, cosmetics, gifts; 3. culture and free time—restaurants, books, entertainment; and 4. extras/foreseeable expenses—such as travel, repairs, tuition, and taxes. Kakebo begins with setting a monthly budget. At the beginning of each month, enter your fixed incoming funds and outgoing expenses, and set a savings target. Then, each day, record your various expenses. By keeping close tabs on what you’re spending, you’ll be able to identify the waste and see the most significant areas where adjustments can be made. Kakebo also offers practical and motivating tips that teach you how to save more successfully. Kakebo isn’t just about money—it helps to develop self-awareness, self-discipline, and self-esteem, and promotes peace of mind. Best of all, you can begin any time of year—individually marking the months and days without wasting any pages. Plus, its simple yet inviting for-color graphics help you break down each expense and easily identify see where adjustments need to be made.

Are you really aware of what you spend?Do you know how to value things beyond their price? For the answer to these questions and more, look no further than Kakebo- the budgeting journal used by millions every day in Japan to manage their household spending. The Japanese believe that tidiness in one's finances is as important as tidiness in one's house - indeed for them, the act of thinking mindfully about where one's money goes is in itself a recipe for calm and wellbeing. Keeping a Kakebo is easy. At the start of each month simply decide how much you want to save and what you need to do to achieve your goal. Then note down your weekly spending and at the end of the month see how it all tallies up. There are slots for you to personalise your Kakebo according to your own spending routine, and space to reflect and make changes as you go along. Start today - and discover the life-changing magic of Kakebo...

People in Japan are masters of minimal living, able to make do with less in all aspects of life, whether it's de-cluttering personal belongings or savvy seasonal cooking. But at the heart of all this is the kakeibo- the budgeting journal used to set savings goals and track spending. The premise is simple- at the beginning of each month you sit down with your kakeibo and think mindfully about how much you would like to save and what you will need to do in order to reach your goal. The kakeibo then gives you space to jot down your weekly spending and reflect on the month just gone. The simple act of completing your kakeibo ensures that saving is a part of your everyday life, while also giving you the opportunity to reflect and improve every month.

The present study analyzes the livelihood security system of contemporary Japan in international comparison from a historical and gender perspective. It posits ‘livelihood security systems’ rather than ‘welfare states’ or ‘welfare regimes’ as its object of analysis to enter the role of non-governmental institutions and of governmental policies reaching beyond income transfers into vision. Based on rich statistical materials, the evolution of Japan’s livelihood security system in recent decades is traced to reveal a rigid male breadwinner orientation increasingly out of step with social realities. The need for remedying the gender bias built into Japan’s social insurance schemes has been politically highlighted since the late 1990s, but legislative action has continued to be deferred. The author argues that at present the livelihood security system of Japan is not only dysfunctional, but actually functioning in reverse, in a sense of furthering social exclusion. The study concludes with suggestions for a possible reconstruction of Japan’s social security system, arguing for an increased role of the ‘third sector’ or ‘social economy’ in livelihood security and care provision. This book will appeal to scholars and students with an interest in social policy, welfare economics and gender studies, as well as Japanese politics and society.

This is a specialized study of the organization,ideology and activities of the Japanese Special Higherpolice, the Tokkô, notorious in pre-war and wartime years for its harassment of opponents of the government. Within a comparative framework, this book explains the elements of Tokkô brutality and abuses of authority, analyses police traditions and looks at the Tokkô's interactions with other Japanese institutions and the broader sociopolitical climate. Sources include confidential Tokkô documents and interviews with former Tokkô officials. First published in 1990, this title is part of the Bloomsbury Academic Collections series.

This collaborative book explores the artistic and aesthetic development of shojo, or girl, manga and discusses the significance of both shojo manga and the concept of shojo, or girl culture. It features contributions from manga critics, educators, and researchers from both manga’s home country of Japan and abroad, looking at shojo and shojo manga’s influence both locally and globally. Finally, it presents original interviews of shojo manga-ka, or artists, who discuss their work and their views on this distinct type of popular visual culture.

Japan was the first Asian country to become a mature industrial society, and throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, was viewed as an ‘all-middle-class society’. However since the 1990s there have been growing doubts as to the real degree of social equality in Japan, particularly in the context of dramatic demographic shifts as the population ages whilst fertility levels continue to fall. This book compares Japan with America, Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Sweden and Taiwan in order to determine whether inequality really is a social problem in Japan. With a focus on impact demographic shifts, Sawako Shirahase examines female labour market participation, income inequality among households with children, the state of the family, generational change, single person households and income distribution among the aged, and asks whether increasing inequality and is uniquely Japanese, or if it is a social problem common across all of the societies included in this study. Crucially, this book shows that Japan is distinctive not in terms of the degree of inequality in the society, but rather, in how acutely inequality is perceived. Further, the data shows that Japan differs from the other countries examined in terms of the gender gap in both the labour market and the family, and in inequality among single-person households – single men and women, including lifelong bachelors and spinsters – and also among single parent households, who pay a heavy price for having deviated from the expected pattern of life in Japan. Drawing on extensive empirical data, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars interested in Japanese culture and society, Japanese studies and social policy more generally.

This is the first book in English to provide a fully illustrated guide to the use of polearms - ranging from the earliest halberds and spears reaching Japan from the Asian mainland to the sophisticated naginata, nagamaki and various forms of yari used by the Japanese samurai through the medieval period. While the sword remains the best known of Japanese weapons, it was the halberd (naginata) and then the yari that dominated the battlefields up to the early seventeenth century, and thereafter the yari became an important status symbol to many warrior families. Additionally, the authors focus on the actual method of use of these weapons, hitherto an almost unknown aspect in the West.