Japan Inc. articles from September 2003

Japan Inc. archives from September 2003

From the editor.(Editorial)
September 1, 2003... We were on the spot in July when the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, dropped in for a bite to eat in Tokyo. His visit was completely overshadowed by the unfolding drama of suicide, spying and the BBC, and few people really noticed the...

To the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Dear Mr. Kelts, Your August issue threw up an interesting juxtaposition of articles. It was fascinating to read first about pachinko relying on police turning a blind eye to crime, and then to read separately that Japan is planning to...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2003... On page 40 of our August issue, we mistakenly identified Caroline Pover as a former participant of the JET program. She came to Japan alone and struggled independently to earn her current status. We apologize for the innocent error. --The...

Young Japanese men pay big bucks for vanity.(The pulse: the word on the street from the heart of Tokyo)
September 1, 2003... UNTIL RECENTLY, WE REALLY didn't have a name for guys who seem unnaturally concerned about their clothing, hair and shoes. Too much fashion sense and style seemed, well, feminine and unmanly. Metrosexuals, straight guys who love their clothes...

Today's tourists sound off.(Upfront)
September 1, 2003... WHILE COUNTRIES SUCH AS France welcomed 75 million visitors in 2001, and the US receives almost 10 times more tourists than Japan, this nation, although rich in culture and diverse natural beauty, needs solutions--fast. Many foreign tourists...

Casio QV-R40.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... This is a digicam for the impatient. If you get into a rage waiting for the toast to pop up or think three minutes is too long to be boiling an egg, then this is the camera for you. Following on from the company's QV-R4, the R40 boasts the same...

NHJ Japan D'zign.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... NHJ's D'zign is an astonishingly cheap 1,920,000-pixel MPEG-4 digital camcorder. With an SD memory card slot and 4-times digital (yeuch!) zoom, the D'zign can take 640x480-dot movies at a faltering 15 frames per second, but if you want to get...

Maxell BDF120.1P.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Maxell has announced its own Blu-Ray disc, with the secret agent name of BDF120.1P. The disc, like Sony's recent effort, conforms to version 1.0 of the new Blu-Ray format, allowing for a 23GB capacity on one disc. That's 120 minutes of digital...

Maxell DP-101B.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Maxell's DP-101B is a Bluetooth "digital pen," which the company will start supplying on an OEM basis from August. When you use the pen to write on the special paper tablet supplied, the digital pen sensors track the movement over the minute...

Panasonic Let's Note W2.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The W2 from Panny is the world's lightest two-spindle PC notebook with a built-in optical drive. The W2 follows on from the earlier, 999g "Light T1" laptop from the same company that had an 866MHz Pentium III Mobile CPU, a 12.1-inch LCD screen...

Elecom USB cables.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Many things the Japanese make are ingenious simply because they're a marvel of miniaturization. And then some are ingenious because we'd never have thought of doing it ourselves. These new widgets from Elecom fall squarely in the second...

Tokyo needs TN-40RFMOS/B/G.(The pulse 2: the best of J@pan Inc's newsletters)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The TN-40RFMOS/B/G is a (two button with scroll wheel) optical wireless mouse designed for use with a laptop PC. It'll work with any personal computer on the market (so long as it's Windows) and the detachable USB receiver part cunningly fits...

Japan's free press faces punishment: the nation's first-ever privacy law is aimed at censoring Japan's muckraking weekly magazines.(Upfront)
September 1, 2003... THE JAPANESE RIGHT TO read about murderous religious cults, corrupt city governors and mercury-infested milk is on the ropes. The country's weekly news magazines, regarded by their millions of readers as the last bastion of serious...

It's bottoms up--way up--in Hokkaido: a California transplant and beer connoisseur believes Japan is ready to soak up the microbrew trend.(Upfront)
September 1, 2003... THIS GUY KNOWS HIS beer. He also knows his beards, but that's a subject for another day. Longtime Sapporo resident Phred Kaufman is founder and owner of Ezo Beer, as well as Beer Inn Mugishutei, where patrons order from a list of over 300...

Hello Kitty turns 30 and keeps on growing: the "Kitty craze" shows no signs of abating, explains Sanrio's Susumi Emori.(Upfront)
September 1, 2003... SEVENTEEN LINES. FOUR COLORS. No mouth. Multi-billion dollar global phenomenon. Is it possible that Hello Kitty is Japan's single greatest export? For many years Japan's industrial might has been judged by the world-beating strength of its...

Business is booming--at least in Kabukicho: in Japan's premier pleasure quarter, a poor economy has always meant profit.(Upfront)
September 1, 2003... WARM TYPHOON SQUALLS LASH the streets, forcing couples to dash into love hotels for shelter. Neon signs cast great pools of light, molten chrome and sheets of magnesium across the taxi roofs of Yasukuni-dori, turning pedestrians into a...

How the Philippines' rising IT sector can service Japan: the Philippines boast some of the finest IT workers in the world, argues Jessica Pabellon.(Opinion)
September 1, 2003... NINE TOP IT COMPANIES from the Philippines participated in the 12th Software Development Expo and Conference (SODEC) 2003, held this July at the Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. SODEC is Japan's largest software development exhibition, and this...

A more independent Japan: now is the time for Japan to break its ties with a corrupt and confused America, argues Yoneyuki Sugita.(Upfront)
September 1, 2003... TODAY, THE THREAT TO world peace comes not from Iraq, Iran or North Korea--but from the United States and its willingness to take unilateral military actions. It is necessary to contain America's behavior. Unfortunately, during the US attack...

Kansai airport: a beautiful loser: Kansai international airport is stunning--but sinking into debt and desolation. Care for a date?(Upfront)
September 1, 2003... AESTHETICALLY, THE MAIN TERMINAL building of Kansai International Airport (KIX) is one of the most appealing structures of its kind--not just in Japan, but anywhere in the world. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the four-story...

Japan wants you: all 10 million of you: foreigners are called "outsiders" in Japan, the Japanese government suddenly wants lots of them--targeting 10 million visitors by 2010.
September 1, 2003... THE FEMALE TOUR GUIDE holding court aboard a recent Hato Bus tour was unusually peppy and glib. Her ebullient gift for nonstop chitchat occasionally made one yearn for an automatic "idling stop" function on the banter instead of on the gas...

The "convenience-store traveler" is privy to some of Japan's best hotel deals.(Traveling The Convenient Way)
September 1, 2003... FAMILYMART IS MY FRIEND. On a recent trip to Tokyo, I started memorizing the locations of all the FamilyMart stores I found. I planned my day around them, making sure I would pass one of the stores with the blue and green signs in the morning...

Holy strollers: Shikoku's popular pilgrimages bridge the gap between Buddhism and tourism. But can the rest of the moribund tourism industry succeed in selling the spiritual?
September 1, 2003... THE DOMESTIC JAPANESE TOURISM industry might be experiencing some turbulence at the moment, but one particular sector is soaring smoothly. The famous Shikoku island pilgrimage is only one of hundreds of sacred routes on the archipelago....

Aeon vs. the trend of Japanese and world retailers: an insider's look at ERP and how it will help the Japanese retailers fight back.(Sponsored Section)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... WITH WAL-MART ON ITS way to owning a controlling share of Seiyu Ltd., big changes are on the horizon for Japan's retail industry. Still, one company is preparing itself to do battle on equal terms and that company is Aeon Co. This major...

Searching for the "perfect" manager: foreign companies in Japan need advanced technology, IP assets and, especially, solid employees: bilingual, bicultural and driven to succeed. But does such a "perfect" combination exist?(Recruitment)
September 1, 2003... DESPITE A SHORT POST-IRAQ war market recovery that saw the Nikkei stock index peak at 9,990 (closing level) in July this year, the rally has since faltered, and Japanese consumers continue to keep their purses closed and either pay down their...

Sexy and smart: one sector that won't be left behind: Japan's massive sex industry has shifted from bricks-and-mortar deflation to Internet elation.(Industry Overview)
September 1, 2003... LIKE IT OR LOATHE it, the sex industry in Japan is big business. And despite the rickety economy, it's getting bigger. A recent survey by Takashi Kadokura, an economist with Daiichi Life Research Institute Inc., found that the Japanese market...

Food for thought?(Blowfish)
September 1, 2003... THE MORE OBSERVANT OF you will have spotted that I'm rather rotund. The gentler of you will say that round is just the standard shape of a fulsome fugu. The more critical will mutter that I could probably do with losing a few piscine pounds....