Karen Reeds described an interesting sighting:
"Another origami sighting from the world of J-drama, courtesy of my husband.
A Japanese airline company uses a paper-airplane flying contest as a way to
weed out potential employees. Very funny! (Paper airplanes also figure in
show's opening/closing trailers.)"
I would just to add a bit of information about this, I don't know
whether paper airplanes are used in evaluating employees before hiring, but
I do know that for many years now JAL has invited world record-holder Takuo
Toda to their induction ceremony every April 1st, and had him teach the new
employees how to fold paper airplanes. Apparently JAL feels this is
something they should be able to do.
There are several technical universities that require freshmen to
build paper airplanes as well, though not necessarily origami ones.
And did you know that Japanese astronaut candidates are given a test
that involves folding paper cranes? It's quite a serious test, lasting
several hours and looking at concentration, productivity, accuracy,
consistency, and determination, and a lot of candidates are weeded out by
it!
So, origami is serious business!
best,
Andrew Dewar
