Is it really that good?

[Ono Seiko and Aaron Gerow]

MITI released its third industrial activities report for April to June of 
this year and, as can be expected, the overall index for industrial 
activities was down 0.8% from the previous term, the third quarterly 
decrease in a row.

Well, if you think you've mistakenly gotten mail from some economics list 
like Dead Fukuzawa, here's the other news.  The same report said that 
some industries are doing better than others and the one that is doing 
BEST is the film industry--yes, the film industry.  Its index increased 
8.6% from the previous term and 18.1% over the same term the year before. 
 Just so that people don't too excited, most of this is the result of 
_Titanic_, not an increase in Japanese film viewing.  But the report does 
echo previous reports saying that the economic downturn is doing the 
movies good.

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
KineJapan list owner
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