Japan Inc. articles from August 2003

Japan Inc. archives from August 2003

From the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... WHEN FOREIGN VISITORS FIRST arrive in Japan, there are plenty of things that take them by surprise. After a little time in the country--and a little analysis--some of those oddities seem considerably less strange. But pachinko, its culture and...

To the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... Dear Mr. Kelts, I greatly enjoyed your "Energy Issue" and was delighted (at long last) to read a full explanation of the many issues surrounding Sakhalin. I do, however, disagree with your piece on Tepco and the threats of a possible...

Raising the bar.(more lawyers sought)
August 1, 2003... JAPAN, THE ONLY DEVELOPED country fortunate enough to have a serious shortage of lawyers, has finally accepted defeat and launched a massive drive to recruit a fresh "army of solicitors." Radical reforms to the country's creaking legal...

Beached whale banquet.(beached whales should be eaten)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... After Japan threatened to withdraw from the June International Whaling Commission meeting in Berlin over its whaling conservation platform, a Fisheries Ministry panel announced a solution to the mysterious natural phenomenon of beached whales:...

Fuel cells for the masses.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... IF YOU'VE BOUGHT A car recently, your next car will be powered by a fuel cell. Or at least that's what advocates of the technology would like you to believe. But there are plenty of obstacles to work out before the streets are jammed with...

NTT targets China.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Japan's telecom giant, NTT, is targeting China in its efforts to develop systems integration operations. The monopoly intends to more than double its local revenues in China by 2007, anticipating a rapid expansion in that country's information...

Attain CoolOne.(The Pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc.'s newsletter)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Japan is gadget heaven. Who else but the Japanese would have come up with the inimitably-named "CoolOne"--not a new digicam from Nikon, folks, but a washable keyboard. Oh yes. Many's the time I've been working hard at my PC only to glance down...

Apple G5.(The Pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc.'s newsletter)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... As the second biggest market in the world for Apple, Japan is bound to get all excited about this one--the new Power Mac G5. Just in case you're not really a Mac man (or woman, of course), here's the skinny: it's the world's fastest PC (that's...

Sharp LC-22AA1.(The Pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc.'s newsletter)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Sharp has released a whole new range of its sexy Aquos televisions, all with a built-in 1-bit digital amp. The flagship 30 and 37-inch models claim a world's first by incorporating a digital high vision tuner, capable of a 1,366 x 768-dot...

Cube51 CPU PC.(The Pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc.'s newsletter)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... They're those funny looking Cube PCs, and they're wearing their summer colors. Ah, ain't that sweet? But, more accurately, the cube actually comes with seven different "face plates" which its owner can easily switch, as the mood takes him. Or...

HeavyMoon naviPod TT-NI-01/02.(The Pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc.'s newsletter)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... HeavyMoon has just come up with a wireless remote control unit for use with Apple iPods. We've been having a think about this and can only assume that a wireless remote control unit for a handheld, portable audio player might be necessary for...

Thirdwave NC602.(MP3 player)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Here's a couple of portable MP3 players and memory storage gadgets for your enjoyment--the Japanese seem to love 'em, that's for sure. This one here's a music player and (detachable) USB Flash RAM key drive, permitting the playback of MP3...

A crime for the ages.(digital shoplifting)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The Japan Magazine Publishers Association unveiled a campaign in early July to put an end to what it calls digimanbiki, or digital shoplifting. The publishers say people have been using their camera-phones to take pictures of magazine pages in...

If you build it, they will come: from bog to boomtown, Shiodome's excellent adventure is just beginning.(business, residential and commercial waterfront development on Tokyo Bay)
August 1, 2003... TAKE A WALK AROUND downtown Tokyo these days and "recession" isn't the first word that leaps to mind. Swanky European luxury goods boutiques seem to be raining down on the boulevards of Omotesando and Ginza, while groves of skyscrapers shoot...

Saving subsistence with cash and care: Alaska's far northern tribes trade oil--seal oil.
August 1, 2003... BUNNI NOONGWOOK SITS ACROSS from me in the twilit office of a wooden lodge in the center of Savoonga, one of two Native Alaskan villages on the north coast of St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. The early evening light--blue-gray and sere...

To brew or not to brew? Japanese tea cafes are the new rage in casual consumption--but they're not all the same.
August 1, 2003... HEALTHY, ANTIOXIDANT AND CANCER-preventive, Japanese green tea is also suddenly very hip. But while green tea shops and cafes are popping up one after another in Tokyo, Green Bird is unique. Unlike the chain-operated cafes, Green Bird was...

Japanese biotech: a plan for the future: why Japan has been slow to succeed--and how that may change.(Upfront)(Industry Overview)
August 1, 2003... THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HAS set an ambitious target of growing the biotech industry to [yen] 25 trillion and creating 1,000 new biotech companies by 2010. Considering the current status of the industry, the word "ambitious" is an...

Why do Cybirds suddenly appear? The migration path of a mobile Internet company.(Upfront)(Company Profile)
August 1, 2003... CYBIRD LISTED ON THE JASDAQ over-the-counter market in December 2000, just as the Internet bubble was deflating heavily in Japan. It was probably one of the last Internet startups to catch the wave before it crashed. It began life in the...

Playing by the rules: Business Rules Management Systems allow businesses to automate and streamline processes, improving global efficiency and reducing costs.(Sponsored Section)
August 1, 2003... NOT SO LONG AGO, when multi-tier computing architectures were first gaining momentum, the standard design consisted of three tiers: a client, an application server that ran the business logic and a database server. But many years after the...

Manga and the Matrix: Japan's cultural and linguistic influences on the Matrix series.(Upfront)
August 1, 2003... JAPANESE FANS OF THE first Matrix film became--how shall I put it?--animated by the much-anticipated general release of the sequel Matrix: Reloaded on June 7, three weeks after it debuted in the West. On June 15, more than a hundred dark-suited...

Toying with hearts and minds: with Christmas fast approaching, the race is on to work out what the kids want.(toymaker Bandai)
August 1, 2003... LIKE IT OR NOT, there are only 183 days until Christmas and the race is on to work out what the kids are going to be screaming for this year. The biggest clues are provided by the many international trade fairs that take place exactly...

The face that makes Fuji Rock: Masahiro Hidaka, the man who sold Japan on good music and good times.(Interview)
August 1, 2003... AMID A LINGERING RECESSION and a weary business climate in Japan, it's especially reassuring to see someone resting at ease within a volatile industry. This is my immediate impression of Masahiro Hidaka, the president and founder of the Smash...

Tigers, Tigers burning bright: can a Kansai institution convert pennants into pennies?(Hanshin Tigers baseball team)
August 1, 2003... TRADITIONALLY, OSAKAN MERCHANTS HAVE greeted each other with a gruff "Moukari-makka?" (You makin' any cash?) rather than the more common "O-genki desu ka?" (How are you?). Alas, in these depressing times, the answer has invariably been "no."...

Corporate Sam Spades: Japan's top private investigators take aim at corporate corruption.
August 1, 2003... "YOU CAN RUN, BUT you can't hide," runs the conventional wisdom. But you can always try to hide--especially when you've just lost your job in a tight economy and can't face your wife and children in the morning, or you've gone bankrupt and...

From classroom to boardroom: entrepreneurs from Japan's teaching programs lay stakes many miles from home.
August 1, 2003... EVERY YEAR, THOUSANDS OF young people from all over the world come to live in Japan as part of the many teaching and exchange schemes. Most arrive with only a smattering of Japanese, but eager to begin their new lives abroad. They expect to...

Market research in Japan: it's one of the world's biggest consumer markets, but when it comes to market research, Japan is way behind. Now two companies are changing all that for good.(Special Advertising Section)
August 1, 2003... WALK DOWN ANY STREET, jump on any train, open any magazine: When it comes to advertising, Japan is probably the world's most congested place. The explosion of marketing in Japan coincided exactly with the explosion of its economy. It got...

Risky biz: Pachinko is pervasive and profitable. And with Japan's politicians now pushing for casinos, it just might be a prototype.
August 1, 2003... THE MARUHAN PACHINKO TOWER must be one of the few places in Shibuya that is actually noisier inside than on the streets outside. The din of a zillion cascading steel balls assaults one ear and thumping dance music attacks the other; an hour in...

Peace of mind?(various aspects of Japan)
August 1, 2003... 1 EVERY SO OFTEN BLOWFISH hears one of those breathless reports wherein a nation's youth is made to look stupid. A standard favorite is the simple test of asking children to point out something important on a blank map of the world, and then...