Japan Inc. articles from November 2003

Japan Inc. archives from November 2003

From the editors.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... A friend phoned from New York to say that Japan had again become "the new fad." With three Japan-related films showing in the cinemas--Sofia Coppola's indie hit, Quentin Tarantino's ultra-violent homage to Samurai flicks and the forthcoming Tom...

To the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... Dear Mr. Kelts, I've never met you, but you're doing a brilliant job in picking interesting topics and putting together solid articles. J@pan Inc has to be one of the coolest, most unique publications anywhere. I feel a strong presence of...

The arcades are alright.(The Pulse 1)
November 1, 2003... JAPAN'S ARCADE INDUSTRY MAY be flagging a little, but you certainly wouldn't guess it from the Tokyo Amusement Machines Show. We went down to the massive trade fair in September and spent the day playing the latest arcade games and browsing the...

Japan's fruit filchers.(The Pulse 1)
November 1, 2003... ACROSS THE COUNTRY, JAPAN'S farmers are suddenly suffering a spate of nocturnal fruit thefts prompted by astronomical market prices. A recently released National Police Agency report reveals that thefts of farm produce and marine products...

Kyocera Finecam SL300R.(The Pulse 2)(digital camera)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... * The SL300R digital camera is, say the people at Kyocera, INCREDIBLY THIN! And at a svelte 15 mm, weighing a featherweight 125 g with dimensions of 100 x 15 x 62.5 mm, no one's going to be arguing with that. Boasting a swiveling lens like the...

Matsushita D-Snaps.(The Pulse 2)(Matsushita Audio Video Sdn. Bhd. unveils new gadgets)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... * Proudly punching out another couple gadgets that'll make you yell, "I want one!" even before you quite know what they actually are, Matsushita ("Panny" [Panasonic] to its fans) has announced the SV-AV35 (above) and SV-AV50 [below). Much...

Audio Technica AT-DSP300.(The Pulse 2)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... * The extremely chic AT-DSP300 package comprises 2-channel, wine-glass-style stereo speakers with a digital amp. Each 28-mm full-range wine-glass speakers houses a "reflector" located in the upper half of the units and angled at 45 degrees; it...

Pixela PIX-MPTV/U4W.(The Pulse 2)
November 1, 2003... * This is the smallest USB2.0-compatible TV capture unit in the world. Yes! In the world! With dimensions of 107 x 103 x 20 mm and weighing just 200 g, the dinky and, frankly, heartbreakingly lovely PIX-MPTV/U4W will sit quietly and cutely in...

Bandai "8" Portable Record Player.(The Pulse 2)
November 1, 2003... * One for those who rue the demise of vinyl and for the more fanatical factions of Ultraman aficionados, the "8" Portable Record Player from Bandai plays, rather unsurprisingly, retro Bandai tunes from classic cartoon shows. The wee 8 cm discs...

Song DCR-IP1K.(The Pulse 2)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... * The DCR-IP1K from Sony is the world's smallest and lightest MICROMV camcorder. And the MICROMV tape is--yes, you guessed it--the smallest camcorder tape in the world. With dimensions of 39 x 69 x 91 mm and weighing just 230 g, it makes the...

Touring Sakhalin's Japanese past: oil and a shared history bring Japanese tourists to Russia's Siberian isle.(Upfront)
November 1, 2003... AMID THE RACKET OF construction crews gutting and refurbishing the Sakhalin Tourist Hotel in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Marina Vasilievna explains that business at the hotel's travel agency was much better during Soviet times. Back then, the regional...

Japan's coffee kings and the Starbucks effect: how domestic roaster Doutor basks in Starbucks' success.(Upfront)(Starbucks Coffee Japan Ltd)
November 1, 2003... MODERN MYTHS ARE VASTLY more efficient than their ancient rivals. In the old days, a story had to be embellished and retold, generation after generaton, before a really good myth was lodged in the public consciousness. Today, all it takes is an...

Behold the Gray Panthers: Japan's "new" seniors drive consumption. Here's how and why.(Opinion)
November 1, 2003... JAPAN'S DEMOGRAPHIC PROBLEM CAN be described as long-term bad news, intermediate-term good news. It took Japan only 24 years to see the ratio of people over 65 in the overall population double from 7 to 14 percent, while it is estimated that it...

IT + AC/DC = TNT! At home in Hyogo with Japan's hardest rocking IT whiz.(Kansai)
November 1, 2003... "ROCK'N'ROLL SAVED MY LIFE!" insists Koji Tomita, the 35-year-old founder of TNT, his fast-growing computer services company in Hyogo. Tomita was raised in Hawaii in the 70s, well before Waikiki reinvented itself as a quasi-Japanese colony...

A Kerama kind of day.(Look)(Zamami)
November 1, 2003... THE SUNBURNED GAIJIN APPROACHED from down the street his long blond hair dancing in the gusts blowing across the bay. He wouldn't have captured my attention on the Shonan shoreline southwest o Tokyo, or on the surfing beaches of Chiba's Pacific...

And justice for all ... Nick Baker is imprisoned in Japan. Should he be? The Japanese justice system is in crisis. As with many of the country's darker problems, it has taken a foreigner to bring the rot to light.
November 1, 2003... THE DRUG SMUGGLING CASE of Nick Baker, a 32-year-old former sandwich-shop manager from the small British town of Cirencester, has many flaws deeply rooted in both Japanese legal procedure and police investigation. This July, Baker was...

Dating goes global: Tokyo dating agency Destina straddles the seas to link up the lonely.(Sponsored Section)
November 1, 2003... DATING AGENCIES ARE NOTHING new, but only a select handful have moved into the 21st Century. With all those matchmaking years to develop, why have so few agencies adapted to changing times? It takes much more than a clever piece of software...

Heavy weather: from the cutting edge of computing, the Earth Simulator is taking scientists to new frontiers: the planet's most powerful computer seems straight out of Stanley Kubrick's eerie classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yet the story the Earth Simulator is telling may be even more disturbing.
November 1, 2003... AKIRA KAGEYAMA IS STANDING at the center of the Earth. Around him, particles of light cascade, aquamarine vortices churn and arrows flow like schools of fish in a slow dance. This is Kageyama's conception of the engine behind our planet's...

Are the expats back?(Relocations)
November 1, 2003... Tokyo has long had a reputation for being one of the most expensive cities on the planet. But with the substantial increase in available accommodation and the meltdown of the global tech economy after the 9/11 disaster, the available options...

Helping the little guys to survive: BB net B2B portal ambitions showing results.(Sponsored Section)(Interview)
November 1, 2003... JAPAN IS A NATION of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which in the retail sector are typically family-owned businesses and shops. Over time the evolution of "category killer" supermarkets and mega-stores has meant that small businesses...

"Farewell, dear Isle!" The cost of demilitarizing Okinawa: Okinawans may soon get what many of them have long wanted: the departure of US troops and the return of their land. But be careful what you wish for.
November 1, 2003... BY THE BEGINNING OF the 19th century, the inhabitants of the Ryukyu Kingdom--including what are now the 159 islands of Okinawa Prefecture--were well aware that foreign ships occasionally prowled their waters. Among them were trading vessels...

Been caught stealing.(Blow Fish)
November 1, 2003... RESTRICTED AS I AM to the confines of my rather dull fishbowl, I rarely think about houses and how much they mean to you humans. But according to a new survey by Recruit, what most people look for in a new home is plenty of sunshine....