Japan Inc. articles from June 2004

Japan Inc. archives from June 2004

Editor.
June 1, 2004... IF THERE is one guarantee in the media business, it's change. And true to our mission of bridging Japan to the outside world, we're morphing to meet the needs of the moment. IN NOVEMBER 1999, the needs were to help US VC investors enter the...

Public relations in Japan: a primer; Making news work for you in Japan.(Buzz)
June 1, 2004... THE key to success in PR in Japan is to have a good story. If you do not have one, you need to create one. Either way, you need something to give to the media. Relationships with reporters--whether you are in Tokyo, New York, or Mumbai--will...

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LC70.(G-Spot)
June 1, 2004... The DMC-LC70 from Panny is a 4-megapixel digital camera with a dry cell battery drive that allegedly uses 45 percent less power than its LC43 predecessor. The LC70 has a lovely Leica (DC Vario-Elmarit) lens, a 3X optical zoom and a new "Eco...

Evergreen EG-D700.(G-Spot)
June 1, 2004... The EG-D700 is a portable DVD player with a 7-inch widescreen TFT display. The battery will last for three hours, and the machine will happily play back DVDs, SVCDs, music CDs, video CDs and CD-R/RW discs. It's also compatible with MP3, WMA and...

Seagrand X-Bar.(G-Spot)
June 1, 2004... Seagrand's new little widget is a "USB-key"-style flash memory portable audio player nicknamed the "X-Bar." It plugs directly into a USB port on your PC or laptop, removing the need for annoying cables. You're looking at a frequency response of...

Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse.(G-Spot)
June 1, 2004... This boasts the new-fangled "tilt wheel" wizardry. The tilt technology apparently supplements your regular up-down scrolling action with new, side-to-side scrolling action--indispensable for accountants, apparently, or for viewing really wide...

Rwc ZVAV-100.(G-Spot)
June 1, 2004... The ZVAV-100 portable AV player is dubbed the "Arex PocketMX," and it's available next month for almost no money at all. The incredibly cheap ZVAV-100 has a 2.5-inch TFT screen and an SD memory card (or MMC) slot, uses USB 1.1 and plays back...

NHJ VTV-101.(G-Spot)
June 1, 2004... NHJ has just produced a TV in a watch. The VTV-101 has a 280 X 220-dot, 1.5-inch TFT screen, with dimensions of 45.7 X 18.2 X 49.4mm. The reflective TN LCD also shows the time, channel, battery power remaining and volume level in the upper...

Will your PC be a bot? Sony (and others) want robots to replace desktops.(Upfront)
June 1, 2004... THE folks at Sony have picked a new name for their SDR series of humanoid robots: Qrio, an abbreviation of "quest for curiosity." The robot's autumn debut last year was accompanied by a huge advertising push. But consumers are not yet able to...

Cramming Tokyo: urban renewal as economic catalyst.(Upfront)
June 1, 2004... LAND, or lack thereof, seems to be the explanation I have been provided when asking about all problems facing Japan. While this explanation has always struck me as over-simplistic, the fact is, land, specifically non-performing real estate...

Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie: is livedoor Japan's next Softbank?(Voice)
June 1, 2004... IN the first three months of 2004, a company that few people have heard of went on a spending spree, buying up the controlling shares in four companies for more than [yen]10 billion, effectively doubling its revenues. ********** THAT...

From jobs to inflation: between a rock and a hard place.(Investor Innsight)
June 1, 2004... DURING 2002 and 2003, the world's central banks--the US Federal Reserve in particular--laid the groundwork for significant inflation as they desperately tried to revive faltering economies and prevent the onset of deflation. But as the economic...

Reflections on rice.(Look!)
June 1, 2004... Japan's rice paddies are full of vigor. They will flourish in the humid monsoon weather of the tsuyu rainy season to follow. It's easy to forget that rice is native to tropical latitudes. Basing the sustenance of northeast Asia on rice is akin...

Spiderman: the Web wizard of Japanese search engine optimization.(Feature)(Cover Story)
June 1, 2004... WE don't normally focus on specific IT products, because, frankly, there's something "new" out every day. But occasionally a true breakthrough product comes along that we know our readers will want to use. ********** SOZON'S...

We hate hawking!(Blowfish)
June 1, 2004... GENTEEL POVERTY. Spa! questioned 100 salarymen in their 20s and 30s about which situations conjure up the image of poverty. First on the list, according to 86 percent, was having one's electric power, gas or water cut off due to nonpayment....