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This paper discusses the cultural attraction, ‘soft power’, and importance of cultural proximity to the popularity of the Japanese language in Hong Kong over the last three decades. Exploration of both primary and secondary sources constitutes the main research methodology employed. Email surveys and face-to-face interviews were undertaken to ascertain the nature and degree of the cultural attraction that stimulates local people's interest in learning Japanese language and culture. The paper concludes that Japan's ‘soft power’, i.e., popular culture and cultural products, are the most influential driving forces behind the popularity of Japanese language in Hong Kong. Also, the Japanese cultural proximity to the Chinese is another factor that excites local people's interest in learning Japanese as a foreign language. In the Hong Kong context, geopolitical and national identity factors do not seem to detract from the popularity of the Japanese language. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the determinants of Hong Kong tourism demand for the top-three major tourist arrival countries, namely Mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan, with an error correction model. Specifically, this paper will examine the effects of relaxing the visa requirement, the launch of the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), for Mainland Chinese tourists in 2003. Empirical results show that tourists are income-elastic and consider international tourism to be a luxury good. Tourists are more sensitive to changes in the nominal exchange rate than to changes in the foreign pricing level. The positive effect of the launch of the IVS for Mainland Chinese tourists outweighs the adverse impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on tourism demand for Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comprehensive index for measuring investor sentiment of the stock market of Hong Kong, China. It highlights that the turnover variable of a stock market is positively related to market sentiment. It also examines how the performance of the world's two largest stock markets that is, U.S. and Japanese markets affect the Hong Kong market. The daily data which is the simple average of daily high, low and close prices has been used to construct the sentiment measure.

This paper is vested with the purpose of critically discussing the defining features of social withdrawal by drawing references from studies in Hong Kong and Japan in particular. With the use of empirical data, the practice implications for working with young people in acute social withdrawal are examined with specific reference to the four defining features, namely, time, place, social relations and social status. It is argued that unless the defining features and the implied directions for measures and practice are thoroughly addressed, personal troubles and social ills that give rise to the downward spiral of withdrawal as a personal experience and social phenomenon cannot be broken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both Japan and Hong Kong seek to enhance the English standard of their secondary school students by implementing a native-speaking English teachers scheme, named the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme in Japan and the NET (Native-speaking English Teachers) Scheme in Hong Kong. However, the implications of these programmes seem to be sociopolitical more than educational. As for Japan, JET is a consequence of an explicit political strategy to promote international relationships. The Japanese Government is keen to bring up a generation that is able to understand other countries yet retain Japanese national consciousness. On the surface, the Hong Kong NET Scheme seems to be a more straightforward language improvement programme. However, the Japanese experience suggests another level of analysis. The Hong Kong Government is never as explicit as Japan as to what it wants to achieve through the NET Scheme. Though NET is claimed to be a language improvement scheme, there is no evidence to show how effectively this kind of programme can work in local Hong Kong secondary schools. With a special interest in the ideologies behind the two language improvement programmes, this paper attempts to explore their sociopolitical and cultural meanings beyond their educational surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of long-standing political tensions between Japan and the People's Republic of China, Japanese remains a highly popular language to learn in Hong Kong. This is evidenced by the growth in number of Japanese-related courses and programmes offered at schools and universities in the Special Administrative Region. Although Japan is a dominant economic force in the region, the trend is not entirely explained by demand for Japanese in the workplace. A questionnaire survey of samples of students at three Hong Kong tertiary institutions explored respondents' motivation to learn both compulsory languages (English and Putonghua) and elective ones (Japanese, French and German). Results confirmed the popularity of Japanese as a language of choice, and found the motivation to learn it both affective and pragmatic, but more affective. Follow-up interviews identified three major issues involved in students' choice of Japanese: the appeal of Japanese popular culture; the perceived usefulness (or otherwise) of the language; and geographical proximity. A sense of shared traditions and high culture between China and Japan did not appear to be an issue for these respondents. Current political issues between China and Japan also seemed to be irrelevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]