Sunmark Publishing Rights Highlights
and NEWS Mail--January 2020 Issue

Hi, I’m Akiko Kuwajima, a member of the Editorial Department at Sunmark.

 

Do you know what yuzu is?  

The citrus fruit yuzu (Citrus junos) is in season from November to December in Japan. I love yuzu!

There is a yuzu tree in my parents’ garden. I made yuzu pepper ( seasoning paste made with chili pepper,  yuzu peel and salt ) and ponzu vinegar (citrus-based vinegar sauce) the other day, and it was delicious—the perfect seasoning for cold weather.

In addition to being a fruit that can be eaten, in Japan yuzu is sometimes put into a hot bath. It is said that if you soak in a yuzu bath, you will not catch a cold.

Happy Christmas and a good New Year to you!

If you have any questions or inquiries about this NEWS Mail, please contact Ms. Shino Kobayashi, Rights Manager (rights@sunmark.co.jp).

 

 

Topics of the Month

2019 Annual Top 10 bestselling book rankings

Annual book sales rankings were just announced by TOHAN and NIPPAN, two major national distributers in Japan. According to NIPPAN’s lists, Zero Training by Tomomi Ishimura is ranked #18 overall, and five titles from Sunmark including Zero Training are ranked in the top 10 by genre. God Is a 5th Grader is ranked #10 in the Non-Fiction list, The Mind reaches #8 in the Business list, and Zero Training hits #3 in the Health & Beauty list.

Hot Titles

Drills to Easily Improve Memory

by Yoshihiro Ikeda

ISBN978-4-7631-3762-3 C2036

158 pages / June 2019 / 1,300 yen (w/o tax)

Rapidly improve your memory with only two drills a day!

Description

Drills to rapidly improve memory, developed by a mid-forties, frequent winner of the “Best memory in Japan” award.

If you feel it’s difficult to memorize something no matter how hard you try, to memorize a large amount of material, or to find the time to memorize something, these drills are for you.
 
The key to memorization is “inspiration.” A spark of inspiration stimulates and sears information into the brain.

These drills install a “flash sensor” into the brain that will help increase overall memory quality.
 
These drills can be done at any time and with no time limit. Reaching the correct answer is not important. Doing two drills a day gets you through all of them in about a month.

 

It’s never too late to strengthen your memory. Stop worrying about memory loss now, and improve your performance at work or in your studies. 

From the table of contents

Prologue             The secrets of memory
Chapter 1            Detection drills
Chapter 2            Categorization drills
Chapter 3            Collation drills
Chapter 4            Image sensor drills
Chapter 5            Relevance drills

From the editor "Hasumin"

At the Japan Memory Championship, contestants need to memorize such things as 300-digit numbers and chronological tables within five minutes. Among those in their teens and twenties, many from top universities, the winner was none other than author Yoshihiro Ikeda. Drills to Easily Improve Memory is the result of extensive research.  Fortunately, one’s memory can be “trained” at any age. Those who have given up on the possibility of sharpening their memory are encouraged to give these drills a try.

 

Author:

Yoshihiro Ikeda

Yoshihiro Ikeda won the 2019 Japan Memory Championship.  He has also become Japan’s first Grand Master of Memory. His interest in improving his memory started with a love of mnemonics, leading to him eventually take part in the championship. He achieved overall victory after 10 months of training, despite being in his forties. He has been victorious six times in a row up to 2019. In 2013, he won the World Memory Championship to become Japan’s first Grand Master of Memory (GMM).

His current mission is to help those the world over to improve not only their memory but also their overall brainpower. He has enjoyed coverage on TV, the radio, and in publications. He is the technical director at the Active Brain Association and an ambassador of Life Kinetik.

The Household Chores Nobody Talks About

by Satoshi Umeda

ISBN978-4-7631-3778-4 C0077

191 pages / September 2019 / 1,200 yen (w/o tax)

The entire day can slip away doing household chores. The amount seems endless!

Description

Creator of popular company slogans such as “Somebody’s work makes the world go around” and “If you’re doing part-time work, do TOWNWORK,” and author of The Ability to Explain It in Words Is Your Weapon, Satoshi Umeda is a successful copywriter. He has now given names to those miscellaneous, unnamed household chores.
 
“I couldn’t have said it better myself!”

“I was nodding so much I thought my neck would break!”

“Never before have I wanted my husband to read a book this much!”

Sympathetic voices flooded onto his Twitter page when a post about “What I’ve noticed after taking paternity leave” received over 12,000,000 views. He recognized and named 70 miscellaneous household chores that people do throughout their day.
He also provided a useful chore duty signup list at the back, along with helpful professional tips at the end of each section.
 
This book will make household chores seem much less daunting.
 
Chores are no longer just a woman’s responsibility.

From the table of contents

Chapter 1: Morning
Rearranging / Tupperware dilemma / Runaway sponge / Complaining / Tissue disparity / “Angerfulness” / Heightened sense of smell / Laundry selection / Re-rolling toilet paper / Mental time adjustment / Desert household / Unnecessary wetness / Not so fast / Clearing a path / Key radar / Entryway obstacles / Returning home safe and dry / Battery countdown

Chapter 2: Afternoon
Spacing / Checking for dirt / Lost partner / Runaway scissors / Someone else’s pee / Kitchen farm / Food test / Cold warning / Kitchen lunch / Speed dressing / Major cleaning / Window stretches / Refill explosion / Chore exhaustion / The underworld / Attack of the memories / Pop a wheelie

Chapter 3: Evening
What’s it called? / Slime / The dust dance / The hair conspiracy / News from a distant shore / Shaky housewife / Take it back / Cafe refugee /  Memo; memory / Buying doubles / Stalling / Distraction / Choosing a register / Lining up twice / Finger licking / The late return of the point card / Forever waiting

Chapter 4: Night
Racing the delivery man / Rescue / The non-auto cook mode / The germ illusion / Lack of words / Homemade food waste / Sticky sponge / Unruly rice grain / Trying to be green / Wet garbage / A small sink filter net / Double bagging / Trash bag tying hell / Grateful but not grateful / Kitchen confinement / On your knees / Fighting monsters / Endless chores

From the editor "Awajii"

 

Honestly, I thought I was good at doing household chores until I worked on this book. I have experience living alone, and I am now married and in charge of laundry. But from Chapter One I realized I wasn’t doing things properly. This book is perfect for both the hard worker and those who had the wrong idea. There is also a chore duty signup list at the back that will make teamwork all the easier!

Author:

Satoshi Umeda

Satoshi Umeda was born in 1979. He graduated from Sofia University, Faculty of Science and Technology. He spent four and a half months on paternity leave in 2016 and 2017.  Posts he tweeted about his experience at home received a massive response of over 12,000,000 account views. Umeda has recently done copywriting for human resources company Recruit and coffee company Georgia. He is also the communications director for a Sunday morning TBS television drama. His book series has sold over 300,000 copies, which includes The Ability to Explain It in Words s Your Weapon (Nikkei Publishing). He is a visiting researcher at Yokohama City University and a part-time lecturer at Tama Art University.