「经济学人」日本的共享经济 (1)

Can share, won't share

Why Japan's sharing economy is tiny

Hotel rooms are in short supply yet regulations hamper Airbnb and other sharing platforms

hamper: 经济学人中常见的一个词，表示某个事物阻碍/妨碍/牵制了另外一个事物，英文解释为“to make it difficult for someone to do something”

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AIRBNB, an American platform for booking stays[1] in other people's houses, can barely conceal its frustration. A law passed last year for the first time legalised minpaku, or home-sharing, in Japan, but also sharply restricted it. From June 15th hosts can rent out their property for a maximum of 180 days each year, provided[2] they register with the local authorities. Most hosts will not meet that deadline because they are still obtaining their registration numbers, and on June 1st Japan's main tourism body unexpectedly decreed [3] that any without them had to cancel reservations at once. Airbnb accordingly eliminated four-fifths of its roughly 60,000 listings in Japan. Holidays are at risk.

[1]stay可作可数名词“停留，逗留，暂住”，英文解释为“a limited time of living in a place ”

举个

I met her towards the end of my stay in Los Angeles.

我在洛杉矶的逗留快要结束的时候遇见了她。

[2]provided: 连词，表示“如果…才会…”，英文解释为If you say that something will happen provided or provided thatsomething else happens, you mean that the first thing will happen only if the second thing also happens.

举个

The other banks are going to be very eager to help, provided that they see that he has a specific plan. 

如果他有一个具体的计划，其他的银行才会非常渴望提供资助。

[3]decreed: 在文中作动词表示“发布命令”，英文解释为If someone in authority decrees that something must happen, they decide or state this officially.

举个

The government decreed that all who wanted to live and work in Kenya must hold Kenyan passports. 

政府下令要求所有想在肯尼亚居住和工作的人必须持有肯尼亚护照。

同时，还可以作名词表示“法令；判决”

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The experience illustrates the country's hesitant[迟疑不决的] approach to the sharing economy, in which people rent goods and services from one another through internet platforms (a broader definition includes companies renting out goods they own, such as bikes, for a short time). A generous estimate of the sharing's economy value in Japan is just ¥1.2trn yen ($11bn), compared with $229bn for China. “It's a very difficult situation,” says Yuji Ueda of Japan's Sharing Economy Association.

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Opportunities certainly abound. Almost 29m tourists visited Japan last year; the goal is to attract 40m by 2020, when Tokyo hosts the Olympics. But the number of hotel rooms is not keeping up with demand. Japan's government reckons that sharing could also help it to provide public services such as transport, especially in rural areas, as it struggles with a declining and ageing population.

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-To Be Continued -

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