For Bargains, Chinese Visiting Japan Look past Nations' Ill Feelings

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Jonathan Kaiman, For Chinese Visiting Japan, Bargains Make It easier to Overlook Nations' Ill Feelings. Los Angeles Times, Mar 21, 2016 (under the heading On the Ground).
www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg ... 20160321-story.html

Three consecutive paragraphs:

"Although Japanese toilet seats, rice cookers and other electronics were once the most popular purchases, Chinese shoppers have more recently taken a turn toward food and hygiene products such as milk powder, spirits and even condoms.

"Japanese media coined a term for the trend: bakugai 爆買, which translates to 'explosive shopping.' In December, the publishing company Jiyu Kokumin Sha 自由国民社 ['koku" is Chinese pronunciation] named it the most popular word of 2015.

" 'For things where quality isn't just a nice thing, it's essential — like milk powder — Chinese want Japanese products,' [Peking University professor Jeffrey] Towson said. 'The irony is a lot of Japanese products are manufactured in China. They know that and they don't care.'

My comment:
(a) The conventional wisdom is everything is expensive -- make it extremely expensive -- in Japan. I thought Chinese shop there thanks to quality. This report does not explain why Chinese believe Japanese goods are "bargains."
(b) bakugai  爆買  (Both "baku" (as in 爆弾, see (c)) and "kai" are Chinese pronunciations. The "ka-i" is a noun whereas "ka-u" 買う is a verb (to buy).  The "kai" is softened to "gai" because the "ka" is not placed at the beginning of the word. The "ka-i" (plus "ka-u") and "ba-i" are Japanese and Chinese pronunciations of 買.)
(c) Japanese English dictionary:
* baku-dan 爆弾 【ばくだん】 (n): "bomb"
* kai 買い 【かい】 (n): "buying"
* tada 直 【ただ】 (n): "(arch[aic]) straight; direct"

(d) "MATSUBARA Tadayoshi, mayor of Tokyo's Ota City — a quiet district that is home to the Haneda international airport — said in an interview that he plans to install an Airbnb-style home-stay system to accommodate the recent influx of Chinese tourists. The district's hotels are operating at more than 90% capacity, he said.  'On the other hand, we have over 60,000 empty houses and rooms,' he added."
(i) Ōta, Tōkyō  東京都 大田区
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cta,_Tokyo
(In English, it calls itself Ōta City)
(ii) In Japanese language, its head is 松原 忠義 大田区長 (not mayor).  (For the original meaning of "tada," see (c).)
(iii) Tōkyō has 23 Special Wards 特別区. A 1943 law elevated Tokyo's ward above those (merely "Wards") in other cities -- hence Special Wards (which is unique to Tokyo).  Autonomous in most functions from the Tokyo metropolitan government 東京都庁 (whose head is governor 東京都知事), all Special Wards are identified as municipalities, or cities, in English. The chief executive 区長 of a Special Ward is elected through popular vote.

choi

(e) "Tadayoshi said that the government would give visitors coupons for free access to Ota's public baths, a popular attraction."

With the most public baths among Special Wards, 大田区 is noted for 黒湯 (褐色の冷鉱泉), the dark color derived from humic acid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humic_acid
("is produced by biodegradation of dead organic matter. It is not a single acid; rather, it is a complex mixture of many different acids")
(f) "The website of a popular talk show reported that at one Kyoto apartment block, the landlord angered residents by renting several rooms to Chinese tour groups that caused late-night rackets rolling their suitcases through the hallways."

racket (n; mid 16th century: perhaps imitative): "[IN SINGULAR] loud unpleasant noise; a din  <the kids were making a racket>"  (brackets in original)
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/racket

(g) "Locals in Ginza have complained about Chinese tourists 'acting as if they're in China,' the Japanese edition of Yahoo News reported. Their bad behavior — including talking loudly, squatting on the sidewalks and eating and drinking on the street — was unbefitting of the tony shopping district, the article reported."
(i) I have been in US for 32 years. Long time ago, I came to realize I have not see a single American squatting, whatever the ethnicities (except East Asians, including those from Indochina) and whether new arrivals or not. So I have tried hard to avoid squatting. However, once in a blue moon I do that (consciously or unconsciously)when I need to do work on ground, because kneeling on one knee gets tiring quickly.
(ii) etiquette in Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Et ... Eating_and_drinking
(section 4 Eating and drinking)