Japan Inc. articles from November 2007

Japan Inc. archives from November 2007

Message from the Publisher.
November 1, 2007... An interesting new trend is emerging in the wealth management sector in Japan. Not only are there around 7 million baby boomers retiring on fat retirement bonuses between this year and 2010, bringing an estimated [yen]40 trillion to [yen]50...

Message from the editor.(Editorial)
November 1, 2007... Dear Readers, J@pan Inc started life as an IT magazine, Computing Japan. After a couple of years it broadened focus to become the wider business publication that it is today. This issue sees us return to our IT roots in the IT special...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... Dear Editor, Recently, Nova has been in the press yet again for all the wrong reasons, and across the land schools have been closing, students have been issued with documentation promising reimbursement of their school fees at a later...

High tension suspension.(Spring manufacturing)(Company overview)
November 1, 2007... The coils of war Although necessity may be the mother of invention, sadly, war is often the catalyst for contraptions to grow from crude devices to precise, efficient, mass produced instruments. From the aerosol can to the computer, the...

Mr Ozawa's poisoned chalice.(Politics)
November 1, 2007... On the night of the Upper House elections, Ichiro Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and architect of his party's election strategy, was nowhere to be found. As the results came in, Naoto Kan, DPJ acting president, and...

Environmental-related stocks: opportunities and risks in the Japanese stockmarket.(Stock report)
November 1, 2007... The Kyoto Protocol obliges governments to cut greenhouse gases. With oil over US$70 a barrel, we are likely to see a replay of what happened after the 1970s oil shocks. Market forces are likely to lead to increasing use of more fuel-efficient...

The complexities of compliance.(IT solutions for J-SOX)(Cover story)
November 1, 2007... Protecting the consumer "It's not that I'm deliberately trying to shock people all the time. I'm just doing things that are obvious to me. It's because the public doesn't understand my way of thinking that they get surprised." These are...

Virtualization: an overview of the hottest technology that is changing the way we use computers.(Software innovation)
November 1, 2007... When virtualization leader VMware went public on August 14, it was the biggest IPO since Google listed in 2004. The company is valued at US$20 billion and the forecasted sales for this year alone are over US$1 billion. Their customers include...

IT services directory.(Directory)
November 1, 2007... Name Phone URL Accenture Japan 03-3588-3000 www.accenture.com Adobe 03-5740-2400 www.adobe.com/jp ADP Dealer Systems 03-5405-2061 www.adpdsi.com ...

How the Japanese IT industry destroys talent, Part II: my struggle at the frontline of Japanese enterprise IT.(IT industry)(Industry overview)
November 1, 2007... While troops of IT project managers and engineers are being sent to 'Death March'--a popular term to describe the brutal working conditions of extreme overtime work, tremendous customer pressure and poor office environments at the frontline of...

IT: what to watch out for.(IT trends)
November 1, 2007... Japanese consumers have been slow at catching onto IT trends, with a monopoly from big name brands like Yahoo!, Rakuten, Mixi and YouTube taking places in the top ten most visited sites in Japan. However, slowly but surely, smaller IT companies...

Natural born killers.(Cancer treatment innovation)
November 1, 2007... Cancer cells exist in all of our bodies. Thanks to the presence of Natural Killer (NK) cells that diligently patrol our system, these cells are prevented from mutating into dangerous cancerous growth. In light of this understanding, the world's...

Capital guarantees.(Investment)
November 1, 2007... In investing there is always a tension between the desire to maximize gain, and the wish to avoid loss. These are key parameters in the selection of financial instruments. You can shoot for the stars with micro-cap equities, most of which will,...

Inside out: the realities of virtual business; J@pan Inc's column concerning business possibilities outside of Japan.(Business in Second Life)(Column)
November 1, 2007... "Open a nightclub, sell jewelry, become a land speculator; the choice is yours to make." No, not the text of one of Donald Trump's entrepreneur seminars, but the opening invitation on the business page of virtual community Second Life's...

The rising tides of fashion populism.(Fashion trends)
November 1, 2007... The overwhelming percentage of Japanese women owning Louis Vuitton handbags--anywhere between 30% and 90%, depending on whom you ask--has transcended objective statistical measure and transformed into a powerful symbol for the insatiable...

Southern comfort: exploring Okinawa's Yaeyama Islands.(Travel)
November 1, 2007... Not fully incorporated into the modern Japanese polity until 1972, Japan's Okinawa prefecture was in the custody of the US from the end of WWII. Prior to that, despite owing allegiance first to China and then to Japan, it was a country in its...

Back & Forward.
November 1, 2007... Back and Forward is a regular column that takes a slightly irreverent look at some of Japan's biggest business stories. The iPod Touch has landed... On the otherwise lukewarm morning of October 7, Apple launched its new iPod Touch in...

Classic Crossword.
November 1, 2007... J@pan Inc is offering a prize of two free tickets to see Tokyo Sinfonia--Japan's finest chamber orchestra conducted by Robert Ryker--for the first completed crossword sent to us at: Crossword, J@pan Inc Communications, Minami Aoyama First...