Japan Inc. articles from September 2005

Japan Inc. archives from September 2005

Sony + Music = Entertainment: could a synergized Sony be set to stage a comeback?
September 22, 2005... It really has been quite a year for Sony. The company that brought the world the Walkman has seen Apple eat away at its share of the personal audio market and watched its brand's luster fade. A quick glance around a subway train in Tokyo shows...

Reality sushi 2001-2005.
September 22, 2005... Just what is the real Japan? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lafcadio Hearn, shortly after landing at Yokohama in 1890, described "wind-waves from the snowy cone of Fuji" and limned a reality where "everybody is small, and queer, and...

The top of the market gets even better: the continuing evolution of Tokyo's prime office districts.
September 22, 2005... Cities draw people, goods, money, and information. The world's most attractive cities are configured to foster the creativity that fuels innovation. Today the most highly qualified professionals are able to choose the city in which they will...

Global roaming: Japan opens up.
September 22, 2005... For a long time Japan has been a place where foreign business travelers and tourists could not use their mobile phones, on account of incompatible networks. This was because rather than adapt the GSM standard, the Japanese Government promoted...

Managing the Ubit equation content out, money in: how does an international mobile venture firm stay two years ahead of the competition?
September 22, 2005... Walking into the aged Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, head office of Ubiquitous Business Technology Inc. (Ubit) is like entering an otaku (geek) factory. Half the ceiling is ripped out, ready for restoration, the air conditioning isn't working too well, and...

The new Internet: the transition to a ubiquitous Internet society.
September 22, 2005... Heading home, your new broadband cell phone connects to a number of your appliances. It ensures your bath will be run by the time you get home, and tells the fridge to have those beers cooled to just above freezing. The fridge, in a panic over...

India IT Club: a journey to far reaches and riches.
September 22, 2005... Fifteen years ago, in 1990, I was visiting a friend at a major foreign bank in Tokyo. On the way to his cubicle I noticed a group of Indian engineers discussing a software problem-an unsual sight back then. The Japanese government had only...

Tongue-tied science? Scientifically speaking who wins and who loses if English becomes the language of the laboratory in Japan?
September 22, 2005... Three thousand Japanese scientists gathered in Yokohama for the annual meeting of the Japan Society of Neuroscience, held in the last week of July. The sessions took place in English. On the first day of the meeting I walked to work in Saitama...

High flying solutions for the air transport industry.
September 22, 2005... How can an industry continually strive to cut costs and still be expected to provide first-class service? This is the dilemma confronting the airline industry. While air travel is a large and growing industry itself, it is also central to world...

Alleged Russian outrage.(A roundup of Japanese news one hundred years ago)
September 22, 2005... According to the Hakodate correspondent of the Japan Advertiser, the Japanese sealing schooner "Toramaru," of Yokohama, was otter-hunting off Shamushiri Island when on July 1st she picked up a boat containing four men, part of the crew of the...

The old couple and their pets.(A roundup of Japanese news one hundred years ago)
September 22, 2005... A refreshing story in these sadly hackneyed days comes from Kumamoto prefecture. It is told by the Nippon.... Okamura Kumakichi, an old gentleman with some means, lives in amity with his wife Okamura Itsu, at Mefune-machi in Kumamoto....

Ardepro's win-win formula: the used housing meister's holistic approach earns top profits and leaves money in buyers' pockets.
September 22, 2005... The cliche that Japanese consumers prefer the new to the old no longer holds, not only at the level of consumables such as clothing and furniture stores, but also further up the food chain, in housing. According to the Japan Real Estate...

Midemnet.(OVERVIEW OF MIDEMNET 2005: HANDS ON THE FUTURE!)
September 22, 2005... Net chairman Ted Cohen welcomed a star-studded cast to the sixth annual music technology forum. Keynotes included MSN Marketplaces' general manager Mike Conte (photo) and Beggars Group chairman Martin Mills. "Even the most optimistic reckonings...

Midemnet mobile.(OVERVIEW OF MIDEMNET 2005: HANDS ON THE FUTURE!)
September 22, 2005... Mobile Music Forum keynote Guy Laurence (photo), Vodafone's global consumerMarketing director, openly told the music industry to get its act together. "The music industry needs to sort out the mess between publishers and labels and figure out...

"How do you do?" Close encounters of a humanoid kind: after visiting Aichi Expo 2005 our writer concludes robots play to Japan's strengths but will need to be more like us if we are to accept their help.
September 22, 2005... Journalists like robots. Robots intrigue. The stuff of science and industry, fiction and fantasy, they require no introduction. That may explain why the stars of Japan's big summer event, Aichi Expo 2005, were robots. Robots cleaned, greeted,...

Kanpai to the Japanese whisky industry!(Company Profile)(Industry Overview)
September 22, 2005... Ten years ago, try to order a Japanese single malt in almost any bar on the planet, and your best return would probably be a doubtful "Japanese whisky? From, uh Japan?" Not anymore, however. The world of whisky has been made anew. Just a...

The embodiment of Jean-Henri Fabre: boys hunt beetles ... and discover the poet of insects.
September 22, 2005... Descending the stairs to the bathroom in the stillness of night, I hear beetles tapping against the sides of the cages sitting in rows on a shelf above the toilet. I observe their burrowing and feasting on containers of a Jello-like aliment....

Business directory.(Directory)
September 22, 2005... BANKS CitiBank Akasaka Park Bldg. 5F, 5-2-20 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-6105 Tel: (03)3560-9276 www.citi.com Shinsei Bank 2-1-6, Yaesu, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0028 Tel: 0120-456-860 ...