Japan Inc. articles from October 2003

Japan Inc. archives from October 2003

From the editors.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
October 1, 2003... At the end of October, the Tokyo Motor Show gets underway in Makuhari. Even we have been drawn to the excitement of the event, but we decided to look at the whole of the Japanese auto industry. While the flashbulbs of the world's press will be...

To the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... Dear Mr. Kelts, I was pleased to see the article on the Japanese press in the September edition of J@pan Inc (Japan's Free Press Faces Punishment) because this is an issue that has not been picked up at all by the Japanese newspapers. As a...

Sailing across a sea of trouble.(The pulse 1: the word on the street from the heart of Tokyo.)
October 1, 2003... DISMISSED AS AN IRRELEVANCE by some, decried as a tool of the devil by others: Whatever else the dreaded Mangyongbong-92 may be, its voyages to Japan are unremittingly controversial. The late August docking of the Mangyongbong-92, a blocky...

Fuji FinePix S5000.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Fuji's new, SLR-style S5000 digicam has a 3,100,000-pixel CCD and is capable of producing images with a max resolution of 2,816 x 2,120 dots in JPEG or RAW formats. That equates to 6 million pixel photos after Fuji's imaging system has worked...

Panasonic SH-GB10-H.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 1, 2003... * We don't cover much games stuff here in J@pan Inc, but this one's a bit special because it could he the machine's last gasp. Against all the odds (all right, most of the odds), Nintendo has managed to repeat a feat of marketing that most...

Song DCR-PC300K.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 1, 2003... * Announcing a product that puts the pricing of I-O Data' Motion Pix AVMC211 into perspective. Sony brings us its new 3.1-million pixel DCR-PC300K miniDV digital camcorder. Boasting a 10-times optical (and up to 120-times digital) zoom, a focal...

Sharp LL-M17W1.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... * Sharp likes its LCD displays, that's for sure, and has just released a couple more, the LL-M17W1 and LL-M15X1. We'll concern ourselves with the 17-inch widescreen, WXGA LL-M17W1 model, because it's sexier and the M15X1 is just a puny...

Pentax Digibino DB200.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 1, 2003... * Pentax's new hybrid snapper is the latest in the "Digibino" series. The series links the focusing function with the binocular function so that what you see through the binos is what you can take a digital picture of. Um, got that? Hence...

IBM ThinkPad T40p.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
October 1, 2003... * This laptop beats my recently purchased desktop PC hands down (and you can hear my teeth grinding as I write this). If you consider yourself a power user and this digital behemoth isn't enough for you, you're not a power user, you're a...

The ETC system stalls at the (toll) gate: electronic toll systems are inching forward at a snail's pace in Japan.(Upfront)(Electric Toll Collection)
October 1, 2003... WHEN INTERNET RESEARCHERS Japan.Internet.Com and Info Plant asked 300 drivers in June if they knew what the ETC (Electric Toll Collection) system does, 95 percent of them answered that they recognize the name. Yet only a paltry 3 actually use...

China's rise lifts Japan: the latest figures show that a rising China is less threat than potential savior.(Upfront)
October 1, 2003... FOR MORE THAN A DECADE, pundits have been hopefully calling the bottom of the cycle and willing the world's second biggest economy to finally recover from the bursting of the 1980s bubble; they have been answered with over 10 years of...

The cost killer cometh: celebrity CEO Carlos Ghosn on his MO, the China challenge and his delicate future.(Upfront)(Interview)
October 1, 2003... CARLOS GHOSN IS THE intense and restless superstar CEO from France whose resuscitation of ailing carmaker Nissan is the stuff of capitalist legend. His appearance in Tokyo at the Economist Conferences' Third International Japan Automotive...

Rethinking telecommunications regulation: promoting a vibrant and competitive telecommunications sector in Japan.(Opinion)
October 1, 2003... THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HAS a duty to present its citizens with a transparent telecommunications policy rationale that addresses national goals. However, one recent regulatory decision suggests that the regulator, the Ministry of Public...

Southeast Asia's "tiger cubs" roar on: the latest IMD rankings show growth and fortitude in Southeast Asia.(Opinion)(Institute for Management Development )
October 1, 2003... THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF Management Development's (IMD) World Competitiveness Yearbook recently appeared, confirming the increasing and enduring competitiveness of the Southeast Asian economies compared to those in Europe. Malaysia in...

Kobe's quandary: robots versus revolution: Japan must welcome future foreigners--or face a fractious future.(Kansai)
October 1, 2003... JAPAN IS GETTING OLD--and fast. By the year 2020, the percentage of the nation's population over 60 is set to reach 30 percent, the highest in the world. Japan also lays claim to another dubious record: In the year 2007, Japan will be the first...

Future imperfect: Japan's immigration policies and the winds of change: for too long Japan has dodged the immigration debate. But its population is now dwindling and complacency is not an option. Can integration work? Take Toyohashi--please.(Cover Story)
October 1, 2003... TOYOHASHI IS A MEDIUM-SIZED city in the middle of Japan. Local residents will tell you that their home city has a population of about 400,000, makes some of Japan's most delicious chikuwa (fish cake) and has an excellent surfing beach. They...

A long and winding road: this time of uncertainty for the automotive industry--often described as "the backbone of Japan"--as it navigates the future in an ultra-competitive global marketplace.(Automotive Japan)
October 1, 2003... THE JAPANESE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY is one of the powerhouses of the world economy, employing one in 10 of the domestic workforce and earning vast amounts of foreign currency through exports and international operations. The industry was one of...

Banking on a tourist boom Japan's burgeoning hotels are big, brash--and mostly from abroad: if Prime Minister Koizumi's [yen] 20 billion initiative works, his targeted 10 million tourists are going to need a place to stay. Luxury hotels are descending fast.
October 1, 2003... TOKYO CURRENTLY HAS AROUND 35,000 hotel rooms, ranging from budget bunks to palatial suites, and Joens Lang LaSalle Hotels Asia Digest predicts another 3,000 rooms will be available in the luxury market by 2008. Compared to other major capitals...

Is Japan recovering? A global logistics company tells the real story: an interview with Scott Price, President and Representative Director of DHL Japan, Inc.(Sponsored Section)(Interview)
October 1, 2003... THE TURNAROUND OF DHL Japan's business over the last four years is an impressive one. A decision made to make a $250 million investment in the Japan market has paid off handsomely for the company, and it now enjoys the position of being the top...

Slick operators: Japan's upstream industry gets a crude awakening: from refining the world's most volatile commodity to refining the way it does business, Japan's upstream industry faces tough times in a deregulated world.
October 1, 2003... WITH HARDLY ANY 0IL of its own, Japan's relationship with the black stuff has always been a delicate balance. Its upstream industry has always hd to concentrate on research and development in some of the most sensitive spots around the world....

A school of fish?(Blow Fish)(food safety)
October 1, 2003... FAR BE IT FROM me, comfortably the world's most poisonous fish, to start flapping my fins about food scares. But numbers from last year really do make you wonder about standards of safety in Japan. If you tuck into a blowfish, you take your...