Business Notes Japan

Business Notes Japan moves

2012-02-23T13:53:00.002+09:00

Business Notes Japan is now part of my long running The Liaison Interpreter blog. The Market Entry Japan Boutique logo is featured for each entry that pertains to the initiative. Please, go on reading there.

Business Notes Japan déménage sur mon blog bien plus ancien The Liaison Interpreter. Les articles concernant l'initiative Market Entry Japan Boutique figure le logo jaune et rouge, et sont offerts en anglais et en français. Merci de continuer à me lire là-bas.

Business development specialist?

2012-02-21T21:09:00.002+09:00

Someone over at another chanel is wishing from an international entity in Tokyo to provide a blog with Company/industry information, trends and corporate strategies, governmental actions and initiatives, and contacts. And he is listed as a business development specialist. (sigh).

Stop clipping, start dialoguing

2012-02-18T10:17:00.001+09:00

Paper.li is the equivalent of scissors, glue and pasting those clips of newspapers and magazines that blackened finger tips at a younger age. Only, the result looks pretty on screen and never turns yellow or fade away. As part of the arsenal of tools to blow up online presence by generating volumes of content you were brilliant enough to clip, it is the most impressive and vacuous way to pretend to be in charge and have opinions. It should be limited to school usage. It looks to gain traction with grownups, unfortunately. I keep thinking that the killer application is definitely to get in touch and develop a dynamic of dialog. Stop clipping, start engaging into professional dialogues.

Smaller gateways to Japan market: an offer

2012-02-17T17:06:00.002+09:00

It is great, great time for the nimble SMEs and smaller entities to board the videoconference speedboat. My own consultation offering on market entry support in Japan, at a time when the Yen is strong and oil doesn't get any cheap is to save you money. One key is good communication. One inefficient method is email. The time to go back to voice and add video is now. That your customers or prospects here do not use these means of communication doesn't matter. I bring the hardware to their meeting room so we start a triangular live exchange the sooner the better. Same for reporting: scheduled videoconferences first, followed by reports, not reports and a talk sometime in the future.

Second: fees sharing. You bring me another client and that splits the fees. I perfectly know that bringing another client might sound as a joke, and if it does, believe me, in a few years time, it won't.

I am actively looking to serve as liaison, delegated agent in Japan for those smaller sized SMEs in technology with something that may fit here. I already have clients. I want you as an additional client. Japan is on demand. Only, the conditions to come and go are not here. But the conditions to allow for efficient interaction are here already at close to no cost. Don't wait for this to happen in Japan anytime soon. Take the lead. Get in touch.

Glitch and punishment

2012-02-17T05:32:00.001+09:00

Tokyo Stock Exchange Atsushi Saito is punishes with a 30% slashing of his monthly salary for one month because of an IT glitch that stopped trading at the Tokyo bourse recently. That this punishment will not jeopardize the future of La maison Saito is understood, but what happened in Austria and Switzerland with similar glitches that generated their share of loss? Is this a standard way to deal with faulty responsibility and the sharing of it? The media is mute on this.

Regular patrons restrict sharing good spots, and it is good that way

2012-02-16T09:53:00.000+09:00

In about two hours time and granted the cold don't keep me inside the house in Tokyo, I will go to a sushi bar I won't share the address with you. No purpose to tease the reader though. There are lots and lots of well known excellent sushi bars in Tokyo listed in guide books, and the staggering number of food outlets in this city make a full listing impossible. But among these, there are outlets that dislike at advertisement, that do not great newcomers with open arms. These have special biotopes you would call closed, but this would not be true. I was introduce to that sushi bar by a regular patron, an "habitué", a "joorenkyaku", as you say here, and the "joorenkyaku" factor can be very strong. Regular patrons bring regular business and set the mood. You as a stranger will spoil it, unless you join slowly without making too much ripples on the surface. The bar will open at 11:30 am. It is located on a second floor. There is a simple small white board easy to miss that reads "Lunch, ¥1000". At 11:30, the door will not open, and you may stay waiting that as long as you wish. No external sign will tell that business is running. But if you get in, you may discover that one or two clients are already there as they may be daily. They do not respect time and they are allowed to. They are regular patrons. They ignore you coming, although they certainly listen. It will take a few visits or a lifetime to get into the loop (Circles in Google speech). You were lucky to be brought in by another regular patron and it took you a while to dare and come by yourself. Not that the place is a holy church. The chef is first class, both at slicing extra fresh fish and talking, with you too. In fact, he is a born actor funny to boot. But as he told me the other day, "I wait sometimes until 12:30 then I close the shop, that is, I only open it to customers who put a reservation for a full meal. For standard lunch, there are 10 servings, nothing more". I found a single online review of this sushi bar. Everything else is word of mouth and introduction base.

The "joorenkyaku" factor that determines the special flora of the space is a feature of oodles of shops parallel to the open to all standards. The semi-closed one do not necessarily fit into the plushy, costly category. There are down to earth canteen like that too for the cognoscenti. Nobody would like to mess with the tiny ecosystem. That is why there are things you don't want to share in public, and it is good that way, and universal.

What a great discovery! Or is it April Fool already?

2012-02-16T09:28:00.003+09:00

"DESPITE the idea that English is spoken in America, Chinese in China, and Russian in Russia, most of the world is far more diverse than the presence of big national languages suggests."

The good thing is that you don't have to pay The Economist to read that. Feeling enlightened?

Google+ Hangouts clash with culture

2012-02-16T08:55:00.000+09:00

Google+ Hangouts are videoconferences you and me can generate or join granted we use Google+. I do. One project already running and soon to expand has been related with language interpreting. You can see the public site here. Although language interpreting has been a minor professional engagement these days to me, the growing and unexpected traction from a personal project launched last year - The Interpreting Journal Club - and the consequential encounter with enthusiastic professionals fully open to horizontal professional dialog has allowed to engage into experimental videoconferencing usage for "serious stuff". The basic question is: what can we do with this? The basic approach to try and find answers is to use the tools. But why not in French, why not with French speakers, why not about other professional topics that personally matter even more (sorry to put this bluntly)? Because I hardly know anyone around willing to even think about it. My professional interests would call for circles focused on such topics as:

- Business development consulting for small and very small tech entreprises considering entering Japan

- Alternative tourism development in Japan

- Food related business

- Efficient remote consultation and business agency

and a slew of personal interests craving for discussions.

But it won't happen anytime soon, in French, and even less in Japanese. And if exchanging about such topics implies to use English, I will use English without shedding a tear. The will to communicate is stronger than matters of languages. But matters of languages are matters of culture, and here in Japan, Google+ will have a hard time to set in, to put it mildly.

Japan is made for Twitter with identity hidden behind a pet picture, not for showing off and talk with strangers. Although there are individual differences, there are also larger patterns of socialization that regulate how, and under which conditions, encounters may happen. These are narrow, and they surprisingly (no longer to me) resembles French patterns where hierarchy, class, casts, are strong factors.

In a sense, Japan has been made out of circles before anyone thought about Google+ Circles. These circles here are by definition closed or hard to get in. They don't mingle. And from a 3D perspective, they are conical circles, that is pyramidal as a result of the priority given to hierarchy that is making horizontal dialog extremely hard to happen, to put it even more mildly.

Power saving solutions in need

2012-02-16T07:49:00.000+09:00

TEPCO will raise rates both for households and the industry, meaning a 17% hike for so called large-lot clients. This acute increase calls for solutions to monitor and fine tune corporate consumption. One such usually inner city located hungry industry in Japan is the datacenters.

Peeping into the nuclear core

2012-02-15T16:06:00.001+09:00

An editorial article a few days ago in the Nikkei highlighted the urgency to develop technologies that will allow to peep into the crippled nuclear reactor cores and see inside. This has been prompted by the announcement of a worrisome increase of temperature at Fukushima reactor #2. "At this stage, however, it is not necessary to change the judgment that (the reactor is) in a state of cold shutdown.'' said Goshi Hosono, Japan’s Nuclear Disaster Minister said. But the problem is that there are no tangible reasons to trust or not the possibly faulty thermometer readings. The call for developing peeping technologies has been expressly highlighted as "worldwide". This sounds like a first clear invite for the international community to roll the sleeves up and help Japan, and more than Japan.

No need for videoconference in Japan

2012-02-15T14:42:00.003+09:00

If you live outside Japan, you may not be familiar with the Panasonic Let's Note laptop PC series because it is only available in Japan. The Let's Note is a familiar horse machine among businessmen here. It is sturdy but light and offers a very long battery charge life and practical keyboard. Panasonic would release new versions once in a while, and as a flagship laptop in real business life, new releases tell a story about what Japanese business people effectively use and care about. Comparing with other flashy and trendy pieces of equipment like the Sony models, the Let's Note are visually dull, thick, not sexy at all and screen definition is lagging behind. Panasonic will release a new series version next week. The most missing feature is embedded camera, because nobody in the business world cares about videoconferencing from a PC.

Glut of books is already killing bookshops

2012-02-14T20:41:00.000+09:00

Frantic publishing of books is killing bookshops in Japan, even before ebooks come of age here. And despite the Kindle being postponed, Amazon.jp has already eaten deep into the book shop territory. This is the opinion of serious readers, or readers of specialized book that have found in Amazon.jp not only the perfect database for more books than any bookshop can stock, but also for those books too confidential that are quickly wiped out from the stalls to make room for new stuff. Serious second hand bookshops, of the kind you can find in Jimbocho or around Takadanobaba in Tokyo, are - some of them - thriving on niches and sales through Amazon more than when they were snobing ecommerce..

Japan is paying cash

2012-02-14T19:53:00.000+09:00

There are basically two mega strands of news coverage about Japan, the gloomy economic perspective on one side, and the gawky bits that cater to geeks and Japamaniacs. But with the scarcity of foreign correspondants effectively covering Japan from Japan, and the reluctance of their chief editors far away to consider stories outside of these two mega-strands, "Japan news coverage" bloated by the hectic copy-pasters may not be an adequate naming.

News about stupid and useless robots conceived in Japan have been back these recent months, suggesting that business is as usual, which would be an exaggeration. But it is the first strand of news that has just started to reach tsunami level with the coming first anniversary of the 3.11 disaster, and key figures that show that Japan is indeed to be viewed as a no future land. I just read a piece of article about how trade deficit has sharply decreased, for a big chunk of it has been use to pay for more oil and gas to feed the conventional power stations now that Japan has close to nil nuclear power plants running. Being in no way qualified to talk about economics, I nonetheless had this flashy, and probably stupid idea that Japan trade deficit had allowed the country to pay cash additional fuel. Chances are that in your country, the same sudden requisite to massively import more petroleum and related commodities would be yet a deeper plunge into the red because of lack of cash.

Buzz from the Jazz Bar

2012-02-11T16:06:00.001+09:00

I sat at the small counter of BigBoy, a favorite jazz bar located in the favorite Jimbocho district. Good chat with my neighbor, a man from Honda. I asked about the impact of electricity restrictions last year following 3.11 and the perspective for the coming Summer. There were modification of day to night production and some forced day-offs but his opinion is that Summer will be fine, and that Japan can make do without nuclear juice. A bigger issue is the transfer back to Japan from Thailand following last year's floods. I already mentioned this but this mini industrial Marshall plan that has forced part of the essential manufacturing industry to reshuffle the cards and favor logistics continuity over costs is an epic story yet to be told. The foreign press is ultra focused on the first anniversary of the Fukushima disaster and missing a key narrative here.

Bigboy is located here. Closed late Saturday and Sunday, drop by for a sandwich and coffee with superb jazz BGM at lunch, or more clubish, more pricey booze and snack in the evening. No Englis, ou français, spoken, but who cares?

Vested interests shape business potential

2012-02-10T09:56:00.000+09:00

The following is so obvious. But the dynamics is not and deserve better analysis.

Media discourse is shaping the definition, the world view of others in tremendous fashion. This that I am writing does exactly the same, but at the level of a butterfly wing flapping.

Let's take the case of Japan. Unless you read Japanese, a huge majority of what you can read in your language about the country is the result of numerous layers of filtering, warping and terrible lack of perspective. And this is not limited to endemic copy-pasting kind of journalism. How many foreign correspondants have no access to their host's country language for sheer lack of workable knowledge? Yet, these and others are the shapers of a worldview called called outside here Japan. It probably, no, invariably happens in your country too.

Business opportunities dynamics and the access to these is also a worldview resulting from many stories where local vested interests shapes the definition. It has always been that way and modifying the stories by shuffling the storytellers, granted it were feasible, would do nothing but introduce a new set of storytellers, their stories and definitions, and their vested interests. In embassies around the world, it is well known that the person in charge of monitoring business development in local agriculture who was just appointed the day before and came from a 10 000 km away previous post is from day one the authority on that matter in a country where chances are he can't even order a cup of coffee. Historical knowledge assets, large and various business network and the valuable local assistants who know better will see that the nude prince look clad.

Take for instance the roles of foreign chamber of commerce in your country. As one of the first point of contact for a candidate to prospect the market, they are shapers of the dynamics that may develop, much more than the local business potential which is fluid dynamics more than lists. Is there something to be done? Not much, because worlds do not come into existence without stories. That guy Columbus wanted to sell the Americas as if the Indies.

One evolution though expands the potential, which is the growth of that local foreign community. The more there are players, the more there are stories, although many minutes and large fluid confused movements do not simply modified the basic stories and statuquo crystallized by these players having told their totemic stories time and again, and passed them along to their children as an heritage of vested interests.

Japan tourism is massively domestic

2012-02-09T09:58:00.004+09:00

Now Japan is back shooting figures into the future, and one is the 18 millions foreign visitors target by 2016. But the interesting morsel is this:

"Of the ¥30 trillion, the plan calls for ¥18 trillion spent by Japanese domestic travelers on overnight stays, ¥6.5 trillion spent by Japanese making day trips, and ¥3 trillion in spending by foreign tourists."

It should not come as a surprise that tourism in Japan is massively domestic. This is not South-Asia. But for once, these figures show a tangible forecast at where tourism sources will be, and are already, but at a current lesser level, located.

The second obvious but key information is that a majority of domestic trips for tourism in Japan by Japanese is a matter of one to two overnight stays.

This ushers in another seldom mentioned but obvious fact, that this average overnight stay pattern is shaping what touristic experience is, and why you will quickly get bored, and loose much cash, if you ever intend to spend let's say two weeks basking under the sun in Okinawa.

As for this snippet picked from The Japan Times:

"In an effort to regain the trust of potential foreign tourists, the plan calls for the launch of a public-private sector partnership to swiftly disseminate accurate information on natural and other disasters."

... both "swift" and "accurate information" have proved time and again to be problematic.

Wind Energy in Japan: something could change

2012-02-08T09:19:00.002+09:00

The daily Nikkei has run a long and detailed article about Birumen Kagoshima corporation in Kyushu, and the company developed and already on sale TWE series of wind power generators geared at single houses or condominiums. The key feature of the device is the "self-contained flywheel which stocks the unstable wind power as stable rotation energy." In short, it smoothen the ups and downs due to wind changes and deliver more stable electricity to the house or the grid. The company uncommonly opened an office in the Silicon Valley last year and is actively looking for sales partners. While the media has been blowing contradictory hot winds about Japanese actively saving energy on one side, and the warning of penury for the coming Summer, contradicted by the government itself, technology is moving maybe a little bit faster that the never coming decision to launch again the idle nuclear plants. It is a promising thing.

What a ¥500 coat tells as a story

2012-02-08T08:59:00.002+09:00

This is a beautiful and hardly worn, apparently vintage made in Japan coat. The workmanship is superb. We found it for ¥500 the other Saturday at the weekly thrift market. It tells a story of utter honesty and non-commercial instincts from the vendors who are for the majority average citizens. It also tells a story that a generation of businessmen are dopping the suits and going to retirement these days, and as a consequence, they shed their now useless garderobe. Bargains are a plenty but sorrow as well. You may have experienced that awkward feeling of giving your business card, and get back a sheepish look and a "sorry but I have no business card. I don't work anymore". A business card devoid of business status can't be fathomed by retirees when you have no more business.

A warning to tailors and importers. The second hand market is to be flooded with well tended suits and shirts at bargain prices. One recent retiree we talk with was offering still wrapped in the cleaner' s wrappings superlative bespoke Italian suits for less than the usual mass produced Chinese wares. And don't forget the vintage neckties and pins.

This is your market in Japan

2012-02-06T17:37:00.001+09:00

Are you still pondering Japan consumer market by reading the Japan Times, by trying and pretend to read Reimagining Japan - same as Japan Times' editorials and columns of pompous old hands in plushy useless tenures of "international communication studies" of some universities, but in hyper concentrated version, that is, telling with standard aplomb and a panoramic view from the Foreign Press Club (ha! that Vichyssoise soup!) what Japan "must" or "should" do?

Or are you reading Engadget and other live reporters from Akihabara and Harajuku to get the feel of "real Japan"? Sorry to tell you this way but you are wrong. The book you want to read, the book that must be urgently translated in English so that your local market entry consultant who can't read Japanese can bill you to give advices is this : "An Illustrated Book of Japanese Ojisan". Only the title is in English. You are asking why? Ask your consultant instead.

This book tells about your consumer market for some times and more in the future. The oyaji is a multifarious variety of men, usually stooped, dull, antihype, apparently boring - some are - that is a nightmare for translators. After all, the first thing you want to explain about an oyaji is that it means "old fart". But it is too much derogatory, and besides, chances are many old farts are what you are after: their money. As old farts, or oyaji are a category in fast growth mode (didn't you read the pavolovian repears about Japan getting older more tomorrow than today?), any marketer for consumer market wants to read this, and observe the illustrations, for they are incredibly real. And of course, it is a best seller. And of course, the first readers are oyaji themselves, and soon to be oyaji. Many young men are already behaving like oyajis. The very ecosystem of corporate Japan makes for a breeding machine of oyajis in urban environments.

One reason to pay your consultant to translate the book so that he can bill you to read it aloud is that the author, Rumi Nakamura, has two competitive advantages: she is a woman (I would not ask a man to ponder and do a postmortem analysis on oyaji), and she spent 4 years of deep study and observation in-situ to come up with a detailed - and respectful - description of the various categories of oyaji. You will not say you weren't warned. Read it, or at least, watch the drawings. amazon Japan is backorders from1 to 3 weeks but I saw hundreds in bookshops.

Population decline in Japan is no news

2012-01-31T07:42:00.005+09:00

Pavlovian links copy-pasters have avidly jumped into the primal task of telling the world what they just read, that the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, set up by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, released fresh figures that confirm this population here is dwindling down, shrinking, and as a result getting dominated by old people, and people being more than ever influenced by older people attitudes toward life. That the report has not been translated into English except the salient juicy morsels doesn't matter. We all know that Japan is slowly getting less crowded although week-ends in Shinjuku might suggest a different story. You don't have to go far to witness Japan in the coming decades. Just board a train from central Tokyo onto the Chuo line and go westword to the outskirts of these big city where province and the ultimate mountains that separate Tokyo from neighboring prefectures meet. Instead of cool robots, you will see elder citizens cruising around on electric wheelchairs, the wealthy still healthy men and especially women hyperactive in social and cultural activity clubs, the youngsters noticeably absent in the human landscape, except around key commercial centers where they sell smartphones. Go and visit Tachikawa station for instance to understand that when you live around there, there is no valid reason to go Eastward, to Shinjuku, or foreign like countries like Roppongi. Everything is there except the next Louvre museum world touring exhibition of impressionist paintings: the crowd, the shops and the essential horse race betting centers. That is where the markets potential are and where to observe graying Japan, not in the institutes reports.

Small enterprises, freelancers and the Google ecosystem

2012-01-27T11:49:00.002+09:00

With the addition of Google+, small to very small entreprises, as well as freelancers have access to a tremendously interesting ecosystem to set up public and private visibility and business management, granted they use it.

Most of my online assets are in the Google Big Brother ecosystem. From a financial viewpoint, putting all your eggs in the same basket is a bad move. I leave you with this belief.

Integration of various parts and tools you can find elsewhere makes for potential immense convenience inside Google, granted you use them.

For design laggars like me, Google Site is enough to set up a professional web site. I won't cover all the tools on hand but Google+ is adding a dimension of major interest, granted you and your partners use it. The video conferencing function alone is potentially brillant. It cries for action, and the definition of efficient rules of usage.

Independent agents especially in tech domains should persuade clients to get onboard and use it. Persuasion might be the hardest part though.

Dubai, not Sendai

2012-01-27T09:34:00.003+09:00

Toshiba, Hitachi to name a few have been drummed up in the news as active players in the somewhat vague but lucrative smart city market. The 3.11 catastrophe is highlighted as an accelerating factor to this trend. Both are planning some smart city features in the devastated part of the Northern Tohoku region, but the market if any is outside Japan, not in regions with ever thinner population as is the case with Japan's countryside. Expect small showroom like examples of what could be done elsewhere, like Dubai, not Sendai, where blanketing the landscape with solar panel may prove smarter.

In the rolling eighties, large construction corporations were churning out big concepts - a 3000 meters pyramid in the middle of Tokyo bay, etc. - to spend money on empty PR and deliver free of charge to foreign press correspondents (I was one) SF like beautiful drawings of Blade Runner like cities you would not wish to live in. Invariably, the foreign press would translate "concepts" as "projects" and ask when the pyramid was scheduled to be finished. Smart cities ooze to some extend of the same perfume.

If you want to see smart cities in action - devoid of eco consciousness besides lip service - come to central Tokyo, tour the Tokyo station development, visit the subway amenities you don't have at home. These are tangible facts, not concepts.

Incidentally, the recent news rash of big Japanese players scrambling to fill markets abroad and accelerate industrial hollowing out locally is not simply linked to domestic market shrinking and the high yen. For Toshiba at least, it may be a sign that the company has already concluded on the no future of nuclear. Time will tell.

Cool Suicide Japan

2012-01-25T08:20:00.000+09:00

Even the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun is frowning on page one about the choice of a catchphrase for the coming reinforced month to counter suicide in Japan. The idiotic civil servants and certainly a bunch of "descended from Heaven" oldies have had over the years a knack at choosing campaign characters - aka, famous young people of the moment - incarnate family values (she divorced quickly), or playing safe with various substances (he was found dead-drunk). To cheer up candidates for suicide (+30 000 are successful each year), the bright men have delivered the "GKB47 Manifesto", a leitmotiv not to turn a blind eye but a warm hand to people feeling the gloom of life around. There are plenty of reasons to feel it in Cool Japan.

GKB is no secret service acronym but stands for Gatekeeper Basics, whatever that means to 99% of average citizens. Pegged to the figure 47, it is meant to be a pun and cooing at the lolita group of 48 teenagers called AKB48. I had to consult with a specialist - my 15 y.o. son - to start and see the light. Even some specialists and government committee members have voiced over their sentiment that such serious issue deserves a toned down, compassionate and clear message, not an ad jingle for those who know.

I left the 47 for dessert on purpose. This one is the total number of administrative autonomous territories in Japan including prefectures and cities like Tokyo or Kyoto. But something else was ringing in the back of my mind making this figure itchy. Where did I read about 47 something? It suddenly popped up on the surface of irony: the 47 samurai who committed suicide and have been a symbol of loyalty, sacrifice and honor. The anonymous buzz online is buzzing, nay, ablaze with stinging criticisms and cynicism you never hear in public.

Dissimulation is strong in Japan

2012-01-24T19:36:00.001+09:00

Be it Olympus of government dealing of the 3.11 crisis, dissimulation is a matter of fact here. A redundant story. How do you measure national tendency to dissimulate? This I don't know.
As read over Reuters: "Japan's energy minister admitted on Tuesday that no records were kept of top level discussions in the critical early days on how to respond to the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years." This is standard, meaning that the degree of dissimulation here, the tendency to jump right away into dissimulation mode is ... a matter of fact. They teach fairness and truth telling at school, but kids quickly assimilate that this is propaganda. They quickly learn to keep quite, that is, safe.

Another matter of fact is that one day, sooner or later, it transpires through the media. Japanese media are notoriously playing chummy with authorities, public and private, not doing their investigative job. In fact, they don't consider this to be their job. They have everything to loose by playing the sleuth journalist. A leak, time, or both are needed for things to transpire. The Olympus affair was brought forward by a paid-registration only online and paper magazine named FACTA. Another source of investigative reporting and analysis is Videonews.com, a video weekly long debate format news accessible for a small fee over the Web, only in Japanese.

Japanese may be smarter than 17 millions smart meters

2012-01-23T16:39:00.001+09:00

Smart meters in the household. 17 millions, bid open to foreign providers. A smart meter will help households monitor and save consumption. Forgotten is the story that overall, many Japanese have proved smarter than smart meters in saving power during last Summer peak. Any story to forget about green energies is a good story these days it seems.

Branding Beans

2012-01-23T12:55:00.003+09:00

Since 3.11, foods matter more than ever in Japan, not for epicurean motives though. Thanks to the scrambling for safer food, South-West of Japan's agricultural productions are raising visibility as never. After all, the market is huge. The purpose is to feed Tokyo. But some producers are taking the capital market with a new slant: vegetable branding. In the standard supermarket where we usually buy food, this box could not have been missed. Clad in Bennetton like bright green, this shoebox like package carries close to two kilos of fava beans from Kagoshima at a standard price.

Online commerce of veggies and fruits from Southern Japan is also thriving, and some are moving, on catalogues at least, from the standard image of smiling growers in that Ol' Good Shabby Backward Countryside Flavor to a more gentleman grower mise en scène, with well clad farmers tending for their greens like winery owners in Burgundy. The green times, they're changing.

The only way to win back customers

2012-01-23T07:30:00.002+09:00

“No one trusts the national government’s safety standards,” said Ichio Muto, 59, who farms organic mushrooms in Nihonmatsu, 25 miles northwest of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. “The only way to win back customers is to tell them everything, so they can decide for themselves what to buy.”

Nothing comes closer to a revolution as the second sentence picked from a recent article in the New York Times. What a relief from the standard invite not to think, not worry and be happy. Trade and commerce at the B to C level is based on the anshin mantra, that is the feeling secure, the worry-free sentiment claimed at all levels of interaction, way before 3.11. The anshin mantra since then has crashed.

Santoku supermarkets has moved from keeping mute as a clam to deliver a message, bilingual. That domestic meat has been tested, and has passed the test and that it's safe. This anodine message is a communication revolution in the making. The blurb explicitly uses the word "radioactivity" which had been so far taboo in the precincts where food is transacted from B to C. It is just like claiming: no virus, no muck, no shit in there. Everything you don't want to talk or hear while dining. Now, you still have to believe the validity of government inspections, but consumers' trust toward Santoku is at stake and they have better play safe. They have at long last started to communicate. Will it stand in the long term. It is hard to bet on that one though.

Even in one of the two small bio chemicals free products shops we patronize in Tokyo, they have moved from silence to information with posters showing figures and conclusions for the fresh food offered. The other shop has yet to tell us everything.

Taxing rumors

2012-01-21T19:44:00.001+09:00

One unfortunate keyword of 2011 pushed into the limelights thanks to the 3.11 disaster was "fuhyohigai", that is damages caused by rumors. A rumor comes attached with a connotation of unfairness here, that it is possibly unfounded. Fukushima meat producers were victim of damages caused by rumors because some if not all the meat produced at one point in Fukushima later appeared to be tainted by nuclear byproducts. Same goes for a slew of other products, rice, milk, tea, the latest being crushed stones processed into concrete. Unfounded rumors to be found founded after some time are called facts. In this all victims, no culprits ballet, cynicism is not far away. Indemnities paid by TEPCO to businesses having been impacted by 3.11 shall be taxed as revenues. According to Akahata, the newspaper of the Japan Communist Party, it seems that the victims are not pleased with idea.

On a business trip, where not to stay in Tokyo

2012-01-21T16:17:00.003+09:00

A long time ago, even before the Internet, clients visiting Japan would often end up staying in one of the hotels located at Shinagawa, South of Tokyo. Meeting them there was a curse, and moving from there to meeting locations usually highly inconvenient. They had no choice, and no clue. The travel agency they depended on neither. What does convenience means when it comes to staying location? It is a mix of a good hotel with a good relaxing surrounding you don't have to look for in the distance.

If excluding specifics like your client to be met is located next door to that very hotel, and taking into consideration safety applies everywhere, my best of are rather focused on real rich surroundings I have endless pleasure to walk around. First the chaff. The following I invite you to stay away from:

- Shinagawa, far and deadly boring.
- Shiodome and Odaiba, unless you have to be next to the closest Yurikamome suspended train station to carry the heavy goods to the exhibition center at Tokyo Big Sight, stay away from the concrete gloom.
- Shinjuku West, far and away from what matters, that is the opposite side of Shinjuku. Right around the hotels, the gloom is guaranteed.
- Akasaka, the New Otani and surroundings are distant from where it feels good to stroll. If you stay in the hotel or don't care boarding taxi,s the location is convenient but the immediate surrounding is dead at night.
- Nihonbashi is ... well. Not a night city.

Where to stay then? According to taste and your circumstances, Shinbashi is the Southern limit. It is a walking distance to Ginza, Yurakucho and many other nooks that feels so good to cruise during after hours. Shimbashi, Yurakucho, Ginza makes for a territory that is plushy, geared at grown-ups and very satisfying.

More grainy downtown locations are good too. Ikebukuro is nice but avoid the Prince hotel and anything far from the station. Ueno is one of the grainiest popular location at night. Shibuya will fit most taste but it is grainy, non-plushy and very youthful. Kanda is a popular spot that doesn't come to mind when staying in Tokyo for business, but convenient to boot and a lively white collar downtown district at night. If your business territory is somewhere farther West of Shinjuku, be blessed at Kichijoji. If you want specific, minute suggestions, get in touch.

This is not Enron

2012-01-21T12:05:00.002+09:00

"The TSE said that although the falsification of financial statements continued for a long time, it was unlikely to have caused significant misunderstanding of the firm's profit and business performance trends, given the scale of Olympus."

TSE stands for Tokyo Stock Exchange, and it tells things clear: as long as a fraud does not cause misunderstanding to stakeholders of the profit and performance trends, it is not a big issue. For now, Olympus has been slapped on the face with a tiny ¥10 million penalty by TSE. "Given the scale of Olympus", it is a mosquito's bite.

This is not Enron, and fraud, the potential for it to happen, is an inherent, systemic factor in the whole corporate/social ecosystem, this time of no consequence, overall. The stock value is catching up already.

Another reading grid is needed to accurately probe local affairs.

The virtue of 'creative destruction' stops here

2012-01-21T11:36:00.003+09:00

If there is an embankment that has stood strong and sturdy in front of the unrelenting call for creative destruction, it is the shores of Japan. The Financial Times' short blog story you can read here is calling economic rampage, as do the usual Western paternalists cum journalists with a view on a Japan they can't read a single word about in the local press, Japan must sack, crush, put on the doll, inflate joblessness figures and voilà.

The example cited is JAL, the unlisted previous national air carrier, now refraining from giving salt and pepper in economy class, and feeling sorry about it. But is JAL an example? Cohesion comes top before pragmatism more than often here.

Dealing in creative destruction manner with the Olympus affair is not even the last resource. One motivation to go on for years keeping the dirt under the carpet has been nothing else but have the boat going on sailing. Ethics has nothing to do here.

The social safety net although poorly developed by the administration is being taken in charge, in non-systematic and unperfected manner, by the thousands of SMEs acting as social cohesion protectors, in poorly paid jobs, but better than no job. Keeping things as they are, including what virtue reproves and inefficiencies, is mission critical. Where do you see inefficiencies in daily life by the way?

There is an industry of consumption market still accessible for drastically financially impaired people. As I wrote already before, you can eat for cheap, clean and decent manner where in other rich countries, you are already below the service availability line. This doesn't stem out of humanism, but somewhere, keeping social cohesion at all cost, is seen as priority number one far above anything else.

Keeping consumers in a loop of consumption, even at dirt level bargain where margin is tiny, is a condition, where the overall population is not prompt to take the streets and complain, to keep things moving on. As one British politician I can't remember the name of commented once while visiting Japan about what he saw here, something in the line of "If this is what you call precarity, I want the same at home!"

I am not waxing Japan here though it may sound so. The grip I have is against media coverage and systemic pontification, paternalism, mixed at times with genuflection (the zen stuff you know?) that creates its own storyscape where inefficient reporting thrives. It is nothing new, has been going on for 160 years at least, but is hardly getting better. Japan is still a wondrous mystery thanks to incompetency at the storytelling elm. This blog may also contribute to this, I can't deny.

Sorry for the trouble

2012-01-20T17:17:00.002+09:00

Meiwaku is a fundamental word and element that informs and nurtures Japanese gravity in physical science sense, of daily life and business life. There is hardly any difference between the two when managing meiwaku, that is, the avoidance of it, is a daily concern. Meiwaku can be translated by "trouble" as in "I apologize deeply for the trouble I generated", a totemic sentence that comes together with deep bowing, whatever something happened that stirred and troubled the apparence of serenity of the surface of things.

A friend of mine can't get me through to the man who holds the key for an essential business introduction, but for once, I received a copy of the exchange he, my friend, Layer 2, had with his friend, Layer 1 about the Target. Layer 1 won't take the risk to introduce me to that Target, because of the fear to generate for meiwaku, for which he will have to apologize.

Apologizing is not an issue here as you do it casually on a daily basis. Sorry is not the hardest word. But the responsibility for my potential behaving as a jerk will strongly trouble the surface of his interface with the target. But even before that, Layer 1 won't inquire the Target because of his estimate that will bother the Target. Layer 1 notes that the Target has been inquired time and again for the same purpose.

They are all a terrible suspicious lot, except Level 1, my friend, who, although cautious with my recurrent requests, trust me in not being a jerk. Beside, he is your typical maverick Japanese living abroad, this explaining his somewhat unusual capacity to consider treading closer to the meiwaku zone where the irrate beat may unleash on you, with formulas and manner, at any time, and you loose trust as a consequence. I have looked but haven't found yet a serious analysis of meiwaku and what it means in terms of doing business here.

Olympus and the clash of cultures

2012-01-20T14:13:00.001+09:00

How can't you be fascinated by the Olympus affair if you are focusing on Japan? My original take, that ex-CEO Mr. Michael Woodford was a flagrant example that you can be 30 years in a Japanese corporation, climb the ladders to the top, yet ever green on multicultural management still stands strong. But it seems that a single anonymous Japanese shareholder is now suing the board from which Mr. Woodford was ejected for various reasons. The AFP report refers to that anonymous shareholder's lawyer as saying: ""I hear other shareholders, including foreign investors, are also interested in taking legal action. They could join us theoretically." Yes, but in practice, they won't. What if I am wrong? I owe you a drink in Tokyo to the first claimer. I am asking my friend T. who is Japanese and a seasoned businessman with international experience his take on what Mr. Woodford could have done besides blowing the whistle and staying mute. I will report back.

Tourists are coming back to Japan, and you?

2012-01-12T13:31:00.003+09:00

In dispersed order that is, with next door Taiwanese leading the nationalities' packs as seen on the latest figures. What is more scary? Radioactive Cesium or the high Yen? And it would be nice to have some elements of comparison with domestic tourists who are dwarfing the number of non-locals. Yet he press has been reporting continuous desultory results in that essential category. Cheering up campaigns to bring back the standard 1 to 2 nighters in the Northern region of Tohoku have drummed up the call for months now, and new initiatives are popping one after the other. If you are in Tokyo and want to feel the strategy, go the main hall of Ueno JR station and witness the launch of project Nomono. Ueno station is the historical gateway to the Northern regions by train.

Something is more important than transparency

2012-01-11T20:03:00.001+09:00

I am not defending opacity. I am not defending either the lamento of Western media sighing at the lack of transparency in corporate Japan in regards to the Olympus affair. Sighing is not reporting. It is lame. Reporting is to expose, decipher, analyse the inner machinery that explains why lack of reaction from Japanese stakeholders was not only predictable but inevitable. Analyzing the causes and motivations in the ethical West to sigh would neither be a loss of time, but readers would quit before that chapter.

The next Olympus look-alike affair will follow the same pattern, and be exposed in the end. Ex-CEO Mr. Woodford simply shares incompetence at understanding Japanese motivations (do I need to stress again that contrary to the Japanese language, "understanding" does NOT mean "agreeing" in the West, at least, linguistically speaking) with reporters in far, far away lands. He and they had no clue.

Leave claim management to those who can

2012-01-10T15:23:00.000+09:00

E. who went back to Paris ended up boarding an AF plane while she bought a JAL ticket. She told us how cash strapped JAL provides no amenities in economy class, nothing to read, leftover bread for a snack between meals devoid of even the poor pack of salt and pepper. But the "We are sorry" bowing are profusely delivered.

She went into trouble due to confusion of a return date and discovered that AF ground staff were nowhere to be seen in Tokyo Haneda airport during the week-end. Nobody could be reached at AF phone desk either. Her conclusion is that shared flights are a scam, and that JAL is used as a slave to deal with the petty matters and unexpected situations, including claims that are justified or not.

I think she is wrong. Despite flying planes on a shoe string, at least in eco class, JAL is still a beholder of a know-how probably missing at its sharing counterpart, including that of bowing and saying story, which is, according to that song "the hardest word". The company is still able of managing claims less the arrogance. Now back in Paris, her note on the flight stewardess was funny: both Japanese and French have messed up hair dress in much Parisian style, and both display minimalist makeup.

Back to the cream basics

2012-01-10T11:21:00.000+09:00

The Nikkei Business has been running a fascinating series in Japanese under the flag tag "Reversal Thinking" presenting each time an example of a Japanese company facing trouble and how it has changed to meet crisis and thrive again. It is apparently not translated in the English version of the magazine and it is too bad as it exhibit in practical terms exemples of Japanese approaches to meet risk of loosing ground. Not that the solutions are "typically" Japanese, but they expose many basic characteristics of a Japanese way to go against the crowd. The series is due by Mr. Ko Naito who is a specialist of service engineering. One example of a company at risk in the past is confectionary maker Hattendo of Hiroshima. Hattendo is a third generation corporation that diversified in many nooks and angles of confectionary before almost reaching bankrupcy. Hattendo came back to health by drastically reducing product offering and focusing on a single, well known standard item that is the cream filled soft bread. In practical and totally gimmick devoid style (contrary to so many media in the West), the writer lists up what approaches the company took that were non-trivial and unexpected. One was to stop launching hit products with short life but focus on simple standards that match long time lacking of consumers. One bit of information the reader gets is that contrary to perception, bread consumption in Japan, that includes all types of fancy breads, has been on the decline, and with the aging population, is certainly ment to further decrease.

The Japan Skyscrappers Index

2012-01-08T11:01:00.002+09:00

In the Myth of Japan's Failure published in the New York Times, author Eamonn Fingleton refers to a fact that "81 high-rise buildings taller than 500 feet have been constructed in Tokyo since the “lost decades” began. That compares with 64 in New York, 48 in Chicago, and 7 in Los Angeles." In the French online daily Mediapart, one is reminded (paid registration required) that defense spendings in the US are 20% of the overall budget. Is 81 high-rise buildings many? More are coming for sure.

Watching Tokyo is a sure tell even if not scientific. Here they pour concrete. In the US, they churn out and sell weapons, in the UEA, they spew and sell oil, in France, nuclear was it? Domestic market is sustained by construction, but look also at public transportation infrastructure as an outlet for concrete. The impressive and continuous upgrade of subway and train networks in and around Tokyo, the new slicker trains replacing the old one at a sustained rate, but also, the ever perfecting convenience store ecosystem ( and I don't patronize convenience stores), and my favorite but so seldom covered, the economy of precarity with clean, cheap (healthy?) food joints.

They all contribute to the blandness of urban landscape and choice, but at least, they don't kill right away, and they work in standard condition. This said, patronize your local single owner joints first.

What the Olympus case tells about the West

2012-01-08T06:24:00.001+09:00

This one is longer than 140 signs. No sorry.

Blame it to having lived in Japan for a while (just started my 27th year), but I am growing uneasy to state it mildly with the media discourse in the West about the Olympus affair, and the drama of Michael Woodford calling it quit in his chivalrous but failed quest at having the Good crush the Evil.

I was looking into Mr. Woodford's bio to check that he indeed had been working in Olympus for an impressive 30 years in a row, and asked myself: has this long career inside a Japanese fortress made him an "Japan's old hand"? The obvious answer is no. It's quite the reverse in fact, but Mr. Woodford has many factors not to be blamed for. He didn't work in Japan, he didn't live 30 years in a row in Japan, he was and still is a chivalrous hero of ethics to boot, and he will get the cash after the legal theater is closed behind the curtail.

Is there a single case of a big Japanese company where a foreigner has climbed the ladders in Japan, not in a subsidiary, to end up a CEO, or at least very close by the throne? If there is, and if Mr. Woodford had been such a rare gaijin case, he for sure would have stayed put and shut as a clam, or he may have dared to cautiously suggest that a problem in the house should be dealt with in calm, and especially confidential manner, for the utmost and mega priority not to make waves on the social surface. This would have already been cheeky enough though.

But if Mr. Woodford had been such an irregular case of a top white brass in a perfectly Japanese den, he would not have been named Woodford, Tanaka maybe.

From this simpleton point of view - I am choosing this word on purpose to mitigate chivalry in the mind of some readers - one can calmly and without judgement conclude that despite 30 years in a Japanese company, Mr. Woodford has shown how green he had been for so long. His righteous attitude inside Olympus, but outside Japan, call it loyalty to the company, is certainly behind his progressive promotion to the top platform. It also tells how wrong the Japanese board was in evaluating his competence at standing at the helm, the Japanese way. This is a perfect case study of reciprocal and absolute failure on both sides to measure and understand the other side.

Yet, I am sure that over such span of time spent inside Olympus, in that far away post called the UK, that is, far from the Tokyo corporate castle, he had been invited as a speaker in conferences and maybe universities to pontificate about Japan. There are many pseudo Japan old hands on paper and pretention telling Japan how to properly behave in articles The Japan Times is serving with regularity.

What then could have Mr. Woodford have done? Not react and enjoy the perks as so many businessmen of lesser statures here (it could apply in Russia, Africa, or your own land too), long timers or regular visitors have been used to. Or he could have quit Olympus, keeping vague during an intently brief and terse press conference about the reasons why, simply justifying his decision on personal ethics ground.

Yet, a large chunk of the Western media is still stuck in standard arrogance wrapped into theatrical disillusion (The Economist shines in this tone and manner), exhausted in faked acting, eyes closed blindly watching the sky above, that décidemment, Japan will never get it (that is, the unique Truth) and end up sinking like the Titanic, loaded with Cesium or not.

I am annoyed to have to add here as a caution to the scandalized that I am not suggesting that Olympus is right, and hidding the rot is the way to go. I am simply suggesting that descriptive and largely public discourse on Japan has not much advanced, at least on the surface, for a long, long time starting some 150 years ago. Many start here with automatic chivalry in hand, wanting to teach not only English or French, but life as a whole. I was one of them. No longer. Teaching Bennett's scale and the importance to reach step 4 as fast as possible - which basically means genuinely understand the meaning of step 1 to 3 - should be mandatory at school, among so many things they don't teach you there, neither do they here as well.

Idiotic "Fly to Japan" campaign stalls

2012-01-06T08:59:00.003+09:00

When words that the Agency of Tourism in Japan was considering last year to provide 10 000 free airplane tickets to allow foreigners to visit Japan and wax about about their cool experience, you could see over Tweeter, to name but a single example of SNS, a barrage of written missiles in Japanese fuming about those idiotic civil servants. The campaign has stalled and this is a good thing.

565,000 Euros for a fish and worlwide visibility? A bargain

2012-01-05T19:29:00.003+09:00

The media have it wrong. Sushi chain Sushizanmai in Japan didn't buy a single tuna for 565,000 euros. It invested that small amount of marketing budget to gain worldwide coverage and buzz. A very smart investment for a corporation buying fish and selling it cut with a margin.

News coverage about Japan as a Western syndrome

2012-01-05T09:17:00.002+09:00

The news that surfaced at the beginning of this new year that Fujitsu was developing on behalf of the Defense Ministry an antivirus to deactivate network viruses has, according to Google News, been reflected in Japanese written media about 5 times, followed later on by an equivalent of briefs highlighting how that buzz has boosted Fujitsu at the stock exchange. Now, take the same subject and check again over Google News for French, English, German or Spanish media cloning of the information. A quick search suggests that it has been shoveled in pavlovian fashion by the truckload, with Japanomaniac French a top contender with close to hundred "me too" copy-paste.

Now look at this short video coverage over Euronews about throngs of worshippers' fervor in Japan (the shrine is Kanda Myojin in Tokyo, a nice one) praying for good business. It leaves aside an essential piece of reality, that prayers are followed with a strong socializing ritual through booze and food, and especially the first item. What does this tell which has been no secret? That Japan is a source of selected marvel for a West especially starving for dreams. As one short news piece in Japanese only highlighted a few hours ago about the boost of Fujitsu's share as a consequence of the buzz, Japan is trying hard to catch up on that domain of computer virus counter attack. Why a catching up country is brought forward as a maverick in domain it notoriously has shown to be a failure? Are writers and readers anticipating the game version?

Take another source of dreams shattered by Fukushima. There has been a tremendous wave since December in the media focused on robotics and new advances in that notoriously dreamed domain by Japamaniacs. A robotics international show late last year in Tokyo is not enough an explanation. There is hardly a single day these days where you won't find any news where a robot is hiding inside. The Fukushima drama has revealed how the king was naked with humanoids playing violin.

This morning in the Nikkei on top page, there is an article on a new project of automatized crop management in the sea level lands around Sendai swamped by the mighty tsunami of last year. Robotized tractors are one among other pieces of new manless hardware to come to the show, when it shows. Less Japamaniacs (and the opposite as see in The Economic) in Japan coverage could bring some dose of reality to the subject but it may be hard to come anytime soon.

Your Eco Bag is welcome at Mitsukoshi

2012-01-04T20:17:00.001+09:00

An eco bag is what you would have called in that distant 20th century a reusable shopping bag, before the rampant vinyl bags supposedly put this antiquity back into the closet, if not the trash bin. Eco bags are a big business using up resources to churn out a huge variety of reusable shopping bags you consciously carry to the supermarket, where your effort to save the planet may be redeemed with various points and small incentives.

In the plushy basement of Mitsukoshi department store where food is more expensive than average, and yes, usually of better taste, you are very welcome to bring you ecologically conscious bag at the cash desk. The staff will gracefully pack in strategic order your purchases ... first enclosed in vinyl bags. At least, you save the planet of yet another disposable outer wrapping.

A State of Intoxication

2012-01-04T18:27:00.000+09:00

The transition from an old year to the next is greased with bouts of drinking among grown ups. These do not only take place at home or when work relations are temporarily severed for a few days spanning from December 31st to January 3rd. These libations started prior to official holidays with year-end company parties, and are now in full blossom with beginning of year's parties. It is as if thanks-god-it's Friday was on full swing for a full fortnight. The will to recreate normality after a terrible 2011 is formidable. Fukushima's windows of opportunity, that is for victims, not for businesses, is bound to shut fast.

Adjacent to the big tax free business of shrines cashing on well-wishers and worshippers visiting in throngs for a quick prayer and a coin tossed into the altar, are the the vendors or drinks and food to enjoy as in any other festival. Market forces and circumstances obliging, price tags are ridiculously high for liquids and solids as well, but nobody cares. Being swindled with a skewer of bits of chicken that is in effect pork, or buying a piroshky (yes, in Tokyo) overcooked to discover that it is filled with, no meat, but the cheaper potato, is part of the show. In that same shrine we crossed a few hours ago, groups of scary gentlemen, the higher ranks in perfect overcoats, the young servants in oversized Italian business gears are actors of the same ecosystem that includes the stalls' vendors.

Other groups are in same business and necktie gears, mostly male, already back to the office today, but allowed to get merry and confirm bonds by strolling the vendors alleys, having a drink here and a piece of grilled something there. Unemployed mothers are back to their business at home.

Some of these businessmen you will meet next week perfectly sober at the meetings are shouting and chasing each others down to the subway station. Few kids above 10 behave that way in standard days. But these are not standard days. Rather they are days of tradition and carnival. The men are not heavily drunk, but enough to permit even at around 5 pm what will be unimaginable in the coming days, until the cherries blossom early April in Tokyo.

Alcohol free and standard or faked beer commercials on TV are playing a massive attack. The alcohol free types must have the hardest time to sell. They don't allow to get merry unless you are a good actor, a good faker. The vendors at the entrance of the shrine where the crowd is now pretty thin due to the cold and the late hour are playing with a big chunk of ice they use in lieu of refrigerator to keep the can booze cool. They are merry and raucous, not drunk. It was a good business day.

Culture of thrift and eating well for less

2012-01-03T16:20:00.003+09:00

Japan Focus is offering access to a chapter of the book Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves by Sheldon Garon who is the Nissan Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University. It is a very interesting read for a book that goes transnational in analyzing the culture and politics of engaging citizens to save money, in Japan but also in China or Germany.

"Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, and Germans love to talk about thrift as a part of their distinctive “culture,” yet nations do not save simply because of indigenous traditions."

The Western press at least has been obsessively highlighting the buying sprees of Japanese, now Chinese, of luxury goods a gogo, but as the author brilliantly ends the sample chapter:

"The Economist still complains that Japanese consumers “rarely shift credit-card debts from one card to another.” We might do better to understand the historical forces that shaped how Japanese actually behave, and how the Japanese model of savings promotion—in its prime—became crucial to the rise of Asia’s other dynamic economies."

Thrift goes a long way into understanding the success of fast or assimilated food chains and convenience stores in Japan where eating well for less in a clean and respectful environment is an option to many, those that have money and those that have less. I am not ignoring basic issues of quality of food served that are laced with chemicals whose toll may be seen in the future. I just see a relationship here with the fact that consumers on the verge or in permanent state of precarity as well as salarymen touch elbows in the same joints, as a matter of fact, for a bowl of rice with some stirred meat topping for less than ¥300 a pop. The places are clean, efficient and as polite as in an uptown department store. Does this happen in your country?

Quite some years ago, the president of Nisshin Flour Milling in an interview stressed that Japan should be ready to feed people for around ¥300 as an urgent step to match a coming of age of thrift as a necessity. The next time you stroll through Ginza, remember that it is only but one part of the story. You must visit a 100 Yens outlet too to get the broader picture, and slurp a bowl of gyudon at Yoshinoya.

ATMs are down, but no virus involved

2012-01-03T13:54:00.003+09:00

It is this time of the year when you go to the ATM at any convenience store to discover, or rather, be reminded that you can't cash money. Same goes with Japan Post Bank which is not listed among the 4 mega banks of Japan, whose ATM are said to function but on a limited basis. Why is the Japan Post Bank not a mega bank is one among other mysteries, including why the ATM come to a standstill for three days in a row because of maintenance. The tiny people inside each box need to get a rest once a year, probably. Fujitsu has been developing a virus to counter computer viruses but they already know how to put down the system in orderly fashion, even in 2012.

Home thermal insulation

2012-01-02T22:39:00.003+09:00

It is one of these times of the year where newspapers here are heavily loaded with special and pompous ad copies where elderly men in cushy gold parachute are supposed to be behind the lofty articles highlighting great and bright future in various specific industrial domains. Lofty they are and as a consequence they need to be read with a serious pinch of salt. Yet, they do pinpoint at potential domains of business development. Take for instance this long waxing on the "Eco Dwellings" that lists high thermal insulation, security devices and solar panels as standards in the close future homes, what with devices that store energy in case of crisis.

For long time residents, "high" thermal insulation sounds like a tongue in cheek joke. Basic insulation besides thin walls would be welcome. That "high" sounds pompous and inadequate. I recently visited a brand new luxury apartment not far from Shibuya, fully geared with concierge like a high-end hotel. Despite double window panes, you could feel the cold when standing close by.

Obsession with security has been around for a while. I have yet to find any close acquaintance who has experience burglary but as "they told it's on the increase on TV", you must believe it's true. Let's skip solar panel that are not here on purpose to close in on energy storage devices. This sounds pregnant for clear enough reasons when you consider what happened in 2011. Some foreign SMEs should look better at Japan.

Who better than fraudsters know the Japanese mind?

2012-01-02T21:56:00.004+09:00

The answer to this question is : nobody. Japanese fraudsters are ace psychologists. They know and anticipate how people will usually react and build on top of this fine knowledge methods to milk away money from laypeople. The "ore ore sagi"(It's me! fraud) is a standard method to sacre out of wits your humble elderly man or woman, pretending through phone that you are - choose between son, daughter, or ad "grand" to these - and that you are in great trouble that asks to an immediate response, namely rushing to the closest ATM machine and pay money to some account number. More than one frail mind scared by panic and incompetent to think twice has run and paid, to later calm down and discover that everything was nothing a but a fraud.

Now comes the "4 clicks sagi", the four clicks fraud. As reported in the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun, you now have a variant of clever psychology understanding advantage where people accessing some adult web site are requested to perform 4 clicks, one to confirm their identity, one to agree on the site usage conditions, one to launch the hot video, and one to download it. What these poor net users download is a slick software that installs a large screen picture you don't want your mother or anyone around to peek at. And in order to get rid of the worm, you have to pay. Shame has been a powerful trigger to take action here, and the fraudsters know it too well.

Ebooks not here, yet

2011-12-30T10:53:00.002+09:00

Amazon has postponed the launch of Japanese ebooks delivery service here as a result of expected dragging negotiations with big publication companies. At stake is the right for Amazon to set prices. Ebooks when available aplenty should spread here more than elsewhere like wildfire thanks to the screen of any device starting with tiny mobile that has been around and played longer than elsewhere a mean for escaping social environment. Many other factors make Japan to be a prime target of technology and paradigm shift opposed here by an easy to understand reluctance of archi conservatory publishing houses and monopolistic distribution system. The magazine industry is already back at a historical low ebb that doesn't translate into ventures in serious e-magazines. Some are treading the water like mega Kinokuniya bookstore offering the multidevice free application Kinopy to access its virtual bookshop with a rather limited choice, and a clunky interface. If you want to tour today in Tokyo what could be in the future a luxury district of treasure trove books in that good old material they called "paper", visit the Jimbocho district until it lasts.

Building the Asian Grid

2011-12-29T18:46:00.002+09:00

The Asia-Oceania Super Grid concept has an eye on 2050 to link electricity national grids into a pan-asiatic wide delivery system. The first chunk of it, linking Japan with Korea is a shorter term vision with 2020 as a target. As the matter is to transport both ways electrons rather than people, it has a better chance than the recurrent but forgotten idea to hook the two countries through a deep sea tunnel to turn real. Or electrons running through copper cables may be an even hotter issue that allowing people to cross borders. The Japan Policy Council may start discussions with the closest neighbor country next year. 2020 sounds a bit optimistic.

Which are the best organizations in Japan?

2011-12-28T11:17:00.000+09:00

The big convenience stores chains in Japan will add a total of 3200 new shops nationwide next year. That is a net progress of 1800 shops if you exclude those outlets that will close. Growth is said to have benefited from the Tohoku crisis and a growing number of women shopping for what was no longer available in supermarkets. As the offer of goods in convenience stores is limited, especially for fresh food, it is more adequate to stress that female shoppers made do with what was in stock and benefited from the lean and tight logistics of convenience store chains supermarket can't replicate. Convenience store are already part of a private backbone of always open outlets where you can not only shop but pay the bills, send or receive parcels and packets. National parcels delivery corporations are top-players of perfect logistics and service. They are bound to play an ever stronger role in chaining society to a network of reduced but indispensable fares. And what about other best organisations? The antisocial groups - euphemism - have shown as usual to provide the Tohoku region starting with Fukushima with hordes of workers ready for anything that pays. Part of the local population lavished in the short term with compensation and insurance money, what with joblessness compensation, are reported to prefer stay idle at home and spend cash at pachinko parlors, another beneficiary of the unexpected situation.

Free wifi from the vending machine

2011-12-27T23:51:00.001+09:00

Asahi Beverage is to deploy within the next 5 years up to 10,000 vending machine units providing free wifi Internet access within a 50m radius. Hanging around clusters of vending machines with eyes locked on tiny screens shall turn into the next street fashion attitude. Other providers of add-based free net access will pop up and wage a war for pedestrians' attention with rebate digital coupons as incentives to buy a drink paid with the smartphone with location awareness function activated. A brave new urban world for small change.

Osteosynthesis that fits Japan

2011-12-25T11:11:00.001+09:00

Japan Medical Dynamics Marketing, a subsidiary of the Itochu Group, is to launch new osteosynthesis implantable devices designed to fit bone morphology of Japanese. The market for bone repairing is due to increase with an aging population, but what JMDM is looking after is to gain access to the Chinese market. The fit claim is based on bone shape and curvature data of Japanese people. One size doesn't fit all, and made or designed in Japan is a guarantee. Is the Asian greying market to be served by itself?

A Japan Thai Industrial Saga

2011-12-24T21:44:00.005+09:00

The floods in and around Bangkok have wreaked the international logistic of hundreds of Japanese part manufacturing production lines with a large part belonging to SMEs. The acuteness of the situation could be measured when the press announced that hundreds of Thai workers were already in Japan with speed delivered temporary working visas to help compensate for the loss, and "keep at all costs" the logistic alive. The Thai authorities, pressed by the Japanese government, are also in speed delivery mode, waiving custom taxes on machineries now being imported to Thailand to replace what was wreaked up. Visas for staff involved are delivered at full speed and for free. This event highlights several things, including the hyper tight interdependance between the two countries' industrial ecosystem, but the potential harm for the long term on the Thai side as planning for the next time may mean relocation of production lines outside Thailand. At the same time and while elements of comparison are lacking, the impression of speed and competence somewhat contrasts with the response to the Fukushima drama. The industrial saga under full development is a multidimensional story of industry, cross-dependance and international relations between globalizer and globalized, and between the private sector and the governments reduced to administrative staffs. We are waiting to read the future book.

Desktop 3D printer ranks up

2011-12-24T10:13:00.000+09:00

In the most read articles or 2011 in the Nikkei BP group magazine "Monozukuri & IT" (monozukuri stands for industrial craft), the fourth one is by far the most interesting and hinting at potential markets. The product is called iModela, it stands on your desk and allows to print in 3D pocketable collectibles like figurines. A promotional video is available here.

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En quatrième position du palmarès des articles les plus lus dans le magazine professionnel "Monozukuri & IT" du groupe d'édition NIkkei BP se trouve un objet qui en dit long sur la culture et le potentiel de marché de "l'artisanat industriel", traduction approximative de "monozukuri". Il s'agit d'une imprimante 3D, iModela, qui permet de produire des figurines et autres objets de collection au format poche à un prix abordable pour le passionnés. Une vidéo de démonstration est visible ici.

Moveable decontamination unit

2011-12-24T09:48:00.000+09:00

The Sarry-Aqua co-developed by Toshiba and IHI is a moveable water decontamination unit that fits into a 20 feet container. It is a reduced and transportable version of the fixed water decon production line installed at Fukushima Dai-Ichi for precipitating cesium and other radioactive substances. The keyword here is "moveable" as the market for water decontamination is not limited to the nuclear plant.

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Sarry-Aqua est la version mobile compacte de la ligne de traitement fixe de décontamination par précipitation installée au niveau de Fukushima-1. Cette version transportable en container de 20 pieds a été développée par Toshiba et IHI. Le mot-clé ici est "transportable", le marché de la décontamination nucléaire de l'eau ne se limitant pas à l'aire de la centrale uniquement.

Fukushima indoor market

2011-12-23T20:56:00.001+09:00

A new 1650 square meters indoor playground has open in Koriyama city in the Fukushima prefecture. Kids are not playing outside, what with the freezing winter now in full gears. Even if you don't understand Japanese, have a look at this news video until the link functions. The 5 years old know the word "radioactivity" just like air and water. Other indoor playgrounds are to open in the region and may be running for years to come. The market for indoor security and atmosphere control may not close any time soon.

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Un espace couvert de 1650 m2 permet aux enfants de la ville de Koriyama dans la préfecture de Fukushima de jouer avec un risque réduit de contamination. Jouer et se dépenser aussi pour réduire le stress a été l'une parmi les nombreuses préoccupations de parents dans la région depuis le 11 mars. Une vidéo - tant que le lien dure - montre dans un clip de journal télévisé qu'à 5 ans, on a le terme "radioactivité" en japonais parfaitement assimilé. La sécurité des personnes en milieu fermé et la qualité de l'air sont des vecteurs de commerce, d'autant plus que d'autres aires de jeux couvertes sont en projet ou en construction ailleurs.

Foreign Tech Small Business Strategies for Japan

2011-12-23T20:27:00.000+09:00

Until the late 70s, you would fly from the US or Europe to Japan via somewhere. That somewhere was either Anchorage or Moscow. Japan was still far away despite being Number One according to the bestselling literature. Japan has been a close spot on the radar more than ever. An average of 12 hours flight, et voilà. For the adventurous colonialist/businessmen of the early 70s up to the beginning of the 80s, the distance, what with the lack of the Internet was a curse, but also a boon. The client was kept far away and would not board easily the next flight to Tokyo for inspection. When he did, you always have on hand that final sentence explaining everything and more and some more: "Japan is a very difficult market, and very difficult to understand". The Underscript was: "Leave it to me and get out of here." Things have changed and are now changing more than ever. The high Yen, a somewhat negative view of Japan as passé, the rising cost of air flight, what with the sheer cost of staying or worse, moving around Tokyo and farther, has been draining resource and willingness of big corporations. What about the smallest corporations? Remote communication has never been technically so easy, and cheap. The will to communicate and do business remote is still not there though. The first thing to do is to understand what is feasible, including remote presentation with audio and video if needed, with the PowerPoint presentation beamed over the screen. The second point is to understand that this is, under the best conditions, feasible over accessible tools and services for a small cost. The third and potentially inhibiting factor is that your client or prospect in Japan may not be ready to board a more effective remote business process. This especially matters for small tech business trying and put or keep a virtual foot in Japan, in a modern, advanced way. I can help.

Stricter regulations on radioactive cesium in food

2011-12-22T08:57:00.001+09:00

Combine the title with the fact that it is unclear how many food makers in Japan are monitoring their products for radiation, and you get exposed two markets already thriving: monitoring and measuring devices, and, cesium (and other contaminant) removal systems. The health ministry here is to introduce new and stricter rules lowering authorized levels of cesium, putting food processing corporations under harsher pression. How monitoring is to impact logistic? How to monitor while keeping impact on logistic at a minimal level? The solutions will be in demand.

Age of remote

2011-12-21T21:13:00.001+09:00

C. Who is back for a short while from Paris states thibgs clearly: big and not some big Japanese companies have drastically shrunk down shop over recent years, when they have not closed altogether. But these movements have left room for contracts with independant contractors, or let call them liaison officiers. In Tokyo, foreign offices may have shrunk, or for those that still resist, business trips abroad have been drastically reduced, while usage of video conference is in and here to stay and develop. This is an opportuny for SMEs to create a new alphabet of remote contracting with Japan based on a systemic, not systematic use if remote live comminication at precisely scheduled and well prepared time, email being used priorily to confirm and check what has been discussed and decided live through voice or video based conferencing. The logistic of live remote communication based on efficiency in terms of time and schefule is to be developped for any enterprise big or small. Now, as international trade shows are still here to stay, how to you proceed when cash is short to be thete, even remote?

The market for Anshin

2011-12-21T15:02:00.001+09:00

Anshin is both safety and peace of mind. It is a core claim in Japan for products and services. Anshin was crushed by the 3.11 tragedy, but the society at large wants to go back to Anshin, but in some extent, an Anshin with some ground. You can count on the safety of our vegetable claims a small piece of paper pasted among greens at the Yamagata prefecture food promotion shop in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Call this a great stride forward and away from the standard muteness of the market for food. Although some are daring a coming out, I have to see examples of products wrapped and labelled with something like "our product are measured for radioactivity and showed that the product you have on hand is safe". That's why Fukushima is potentially a market to focus on Anshin revival.

Research delegation for small enterprises

2011-12-20T14:48:00.000+09:00

The problem is simple. You are a tech small enterprise looking to probe marketability in Japan, but you can't cope, budgetwise, but also timewise. I am trying to keep a promising client, promising in the sense that there are clear indications that there is a potential market that requires more time to break into, or quit. The solution is to split resources between complementary SMEs targeting adjacent needs. No competition, just synergies. There are two ways to find complementary enterprises, by myself, and by asking my current client to find one, or more. I am following both trails.

Investing in Japan presence for TSB

2011-12-19T14:31:00.000+09:00

Time and timing both cost money and are a core issue with introducing tech small business (TSB) that can't invest in being present in Japan. That is where a temporary liaison officer may fit the bill. How many get the wrong feeling once the mission is over that Japan is not for them? I am currently dealing with a client who came here as part of a national delegation with a super busy schedule cooked by the authorities. The meetings were very well planned but the target was wrong. A few months later, I was lucky enough to attack the issue with a different angle. After erring a while, we just bumped into the perfect potential client, the perfect strike, the one that was looking exactly for the solution we are peddling. It is now a case of deal or break. Whatever happen, I have carved an introduction channel to the construction industry, yes, huge, and various ramifications related to Fukushima. Fukushima is a tragedy, and a big market as a consequence. If you have technologies that may fit, get in touch.

Le temps requis et le timing sont autant de facteurs de coût difficilement gérable pour les PME et surtout les TPE technologiques qui ne peuvent investir dans l'immédiat dans une présence de prospection au Japon. C'est justement là que peut intervenir un agent de liaison temporaire d'affaires. Combien d'entreprises embarquées dans des missions de prospection partent avec la mauvaise impression, que le marché n'est pas pour eux? La mission était pourtant extrêmement bien planifiée, le programme dense, les meetings nombreux, mais ce n'était pas les bons chevaux. Je m'occupe depuis quelques mois du cas d'une TPE technologique à qui j'ai proposé un plan de suivi rapide qui a permis, hélas, de déterminer que tous les contacts pris lors du séjours n'étaient pas intéressés dès le début. Après un peu d'errance et quelques détours, nous venons de tomber dans les bras du prospect parfait, celui qui était à la recherche d'exactement la solution qui vous cherchez à vendre. Ça passera ou ça cassera. Quelle que soit l'issue, elle m'a permis de tracer un sillon relationnel riche dans l'industrie du bâtiment, avec des lignes directes vers Fukushima. Fukushima est un drame et un marché, au pluriel, à prendre. Si vous êtes une PME-TPE dans les technologies, entrons en contact.

Business presentation

2011-12-18T08:55:00.000+09:00

La présentation d'affaire à distance est loin d'être une évidence, au Japon non plus. Chez un client hier, j'ai pu encore le constater quand dans la conversation S. a dit que j'étais en mesure d'organiser une conference call là, très simplement. Le patron de l'entreprise, un groupe de PME, une longue histoire, domaine industriel, répond un peu déboussolé: "Mais on n'a jamais fait cela!". De l'autre côté non plus. Ce sera l'occasion d'engager un dialogue à trois à moindre frais.

Conference calling with Japan is far from obvious. Few are doing it, big tech companies included. Yesterday at a client's office in Tokyo, my introducer repeated what I told him, that a conference call with that small business far away from here would be easy to set up. To what the CEO of that group company involved in tech industry replied a little puzzled: "But we have never done this!". It will be a great opportunity to create a precedent.