Japan Inc. articles from May 2008

Japan Inc. archives from May 2008

Message from the Publisher.
May 1, 2008... As many readers will know, apart from publishing this magazine, I also write a weekly column (48 times a year for the last 11 years) called Terrie's Take. Writing this column takes dedication and forbearance--the dedication not to do a 'couch...

Message from the Editor.(Editorial)
May 1, 2008... Dear Readers While some sectors remain cautiously quiet, real estate in Japan has remained dynamic and vibrant--particularly from the point of view of foreign investment. Last year Morgan Stanley bought 13 ANA hotels and most recently they...

Letters to the Editor.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... Dear Editor Joseph Greenberg's fine article on The Father of Invention erred in one point, in the first paragraph. That is, the ownership of the famous blue LED patent was not at issue. The issue was how much money Nakamura was entitled to...

Morpho.(Business Break)
May 1, 2008... Morpho exhibits a rare case of a Japanese tech company receiving attention from overseas investors. The Tokyo University spin-out received [yen]165m of funding from Nokia Growth Partners. This is the first deal for Nokia's Venture Capital fund...

BETA gizmoz[TM] animate yourself.(Business Break)
May 1, 2008... In a similar vein, Israel based Gizmoz announced that it has raised $US6.5 million in second round venture funding--NTT DoCoMo subsidiary DoCoMo Capital being the leading investor. GizMoz offers a service that allows users to upload their mug...

Kobe steel.(Business Break)
May 1, 2008... Monolithic steel maker Kobe Steel has shown that it can be as innovative as the next company with the announcement that they have developed a type of steel sheet that significantly reduces electromagnetic wave emissions. Tin-foil hat wearers...

Tata Motors.(IPO Watch)
May 1, 2008... Producer of the US$2,500 'People's car,' Tata Motors of India announced that it will tap into Japanese capital markets with a listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Although it is not clear how much the listing is intended to raise, according to...

Photohito.(Business Break)
May 1, 2008... Kakaku.com, a comparative shopping website that attracts more than 6 million users each month, has launched a photo sharing service 'PhotoHito.' Photohito.com differs in important respects to the myriad of other photo sharing sites on the web...

Seven-Eleven to sell Alcohol online.(IPO Watch)
May 1, 2008... The convenience store operator has announced that they will begin selling an enormous range of alcohol online from late June. The offerings will include 1,200 varieties of sake, 900 brands of shochu and 1,000 different wines. Despite the...

Trends in Japan.
May 1, 2008... When it comes to digital points of sale in Japan, the goal to increase efficiency and provide a better customer experience will always come first. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At the street level, many supermarkets are already integrating...

Measure for measure; J@pan Inc's hard information on selected economic sectors and industries.(Statistics & company information)
May 1, 2008... The Environment * Estimated tons of greenhouse gases emitted by Japanese firms in fiscal 2006: 640 million * Percentage of that total emitted by the steel industry: 32.6% * Tons emitted by JFE Holdings, the largest single emitter:...

Retail focus: QB House.
May 1, 2008... A trip to the barbershop that was inundated with loads of extra services and carried a price tag to match was the original motivation for Kuniyoshi Konishi, founder of QB Net Co Ltd, to develop the wildly successful QB House. This no-frills...

Exclusive interview: lan de stains OBE DipArb F.C.I.Arb.(British Chamber of Commerce)(Interview)
May 1, 2008... J@pan Inc talks to the Executive Director of the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan. How do Anglo-Japanese trade relations stand at present? The trade and investment flows are very strong. A little under 50% of Japan's investment into...

CEO interview: Masahiro Ito, YAPPA Japan.(Design & Technology)(Interview)(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... YAPPA was established in 2000 by Masahiro Ito, a 17-year-old high school student with an interest in design. After attempting to build a network to gather retail customer data using mobile phones and discovering that the mobile phone market at...

Sending the right signals: in the Japanese consumer market, without the right marketing, even the most brilliant products and original ideas can fall flat on their face. J@pan Inc spoke to Kiyofumi Someya about marketing in Japan, and specifically of the hurdles facing small-medium enterprises.(Marketing & Technology)(Industry overview)
May 1, 2008... Marketing in Japan Last summer, a very strange product stood in the fridges of convenience stores across Japan for a period of about one month--cucumber Pepsi. Bloggers and media picked up on this curious item and it quickly emerged in...

The long game; Graham Davis, director of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in Japan considers the conditions for foreign businesses in Japan based on EIU surveys and research.(Japanese Business Environment)
May 1, 2008... It is a marathon, not a sprint. And that might be just as well given the problems company heads seem to face in running their businesses in Japan. Whether foreign or domestic, the challenges of slowing sales, rising costs and turbulent hiring...

Under the media's skin.(PR in Japan)(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... This article is based on a series of conversations with several leading minds in Japan's public relations agency business about how the industry continues to evolve. The author is indebted to Toshiya Takata and Robert Magyar for their...

Safe from subprime?(Japanese Real Estate Market)
May 1, 2008... With the break of the subprime mortgage crisis in the summer of 2007 and the global scale of its spread, the parade of negative real estate related news has been relentless as financial institutions fall, central banks launch massive...

The capital of Asia: Capital Services Group talked to J@pan Inc about how their business has grown from Japan to the whole of the Asia region and about resetting the agenda in integrated loan servicing, real estate asset management and servicing technology solutions.(Capital Services Group)
May 1, 2008... Asia at the center Writing in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis in a paper published by the Harvard Institute for International Development, authors Jeffrey Sachs and Steven Radelet comment, "History, Nehru observed, is written...

The end of architecture?(Architecture)
May 1, 2008... A common perception about Japanese architecture is that there is a extraordinary mix of old and new styles--from temples dating back a thousand years to Odaiba's infamous sci-fi Fuji TV building, there exists a unique blend of ancient and...

Reinventing the wheel.(Marketing & Technology)
May 1, 2008... Inventing treasures Excellence in two areas of natural ability and an obsessive tcn-dency seem to be a regular formula for the personality of an inventor. A deep-rooted sense of mechanics on the one hand, combined with a burning creativity...

Inside out: business in Russia: J@pan Inc's column concerning business conditions in an emerging market.(Business in Russia)(Column)
May 1, 2008... When Toyota Vice President, Tokuichi Uranishi, addressed a press conference in Seoul, March 2008, his forecast noted that the rising prices of raw materials and a slump in demand from the US has led the company to emerging markets such as...

Difficulties and rewards of starting a business in Japan: By The Temple University Japan Student Charity Foundation: Adnan Huseyn, Helene Larocelle, Umar Ali Hyder Ali, Hadis Sarmadi Rad, Sasthri Rajaputra Sajeev (AJ).(Talent from Temple University)
May 1, 2008... Hardship and opportunity are rarely ever separated by such a fine line as they are when starting a business in Japan. With its unique traditions and distinctive culture supported by its age-long history, Japan offers great potential for those...

Discovering Kagawa.(Travel in Shikoku)
May 1, 2008... Stretchmg out on the deck of a ferry as it glides serenely across the Inland Sea, it seems as if spring has finally arrived. All around, the islands which the ferry passes on the way to its destination are blooming white and pink with plum and...

Lacking in style; Tim coghian reviews Japan Fashion Week and ponders its failure to establish Tokyo on a par with Paris or Milan.(Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo)
May 1, 2008... Japan Fashion Week (JFW) in Tokyo was held from March 10-15 in various locations around Tokyo. After attending . a fair portion of the 50 fashion shows held during JFW it was clear that it has a long way to go before it becomes truly...

Arrivals & Departures; In collaboration with Santa Fe relocation services Japan KK, the J@pan Inc Arrivals & Departures column takes a look at some of the key figures in Japan's expatriate business community who are either Just landing in Japan or flying off to new places.
May 1, 2008... Arrivals Lounge 01 Name: Denis O'Sullivan Nationality: Irish Family: Single (but accepting proposals) Personality: Motivated, open-minded, team player Company: Willis Japan Job Title: Chief Operating Officer ...

Back & forward; Back and forward is a regular column that takes a slightly irreverent look at some of Japan's biggest business stories.(Column)
May 1, 2008... Domestic mobile handsets just not worth it... Competition amongst mobile phone handset makers has started to take its toll, as Sanyo, Mitsubishi and Sony have all decided to stop developing new handsets for the Japanese market. With the...