accj journal may 2009

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Journal■ ACCJ Events■ Food Safety■ Jesper Koll ■ ACCJ Advocacy

ENTREPRENEURS ROUNDTABLEThree ACCJ business minds on making a successful SME.

LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

INVESTMENT, BANKING AND FINANCE

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May 2009 | The Journal | 1

CONTENTS Volume 46 | Issue 5 | May 2009

FEATURESCOVER STORY

14 Entrepreneurs RoundtableACCJ members discuss how friendly Japan is to entrepreneurs. Moderated by Geoff Botting

起業に関する円卓会議日本の起業環境についてACCJ会員企業が議論。司会／ジェフ・ボッティング

24 ACCJ EventStrengths-based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow. By Justin McCurry

ACCJイベント強みを生かしたリーダーシップ：優れたリーダー、優れたチーム、部下が自ずとついて来る理由とは。文／ジャスティン・マカリー

28 Food: Safety FirstWith strict safety laws and a growing organic market here, U.S. food importers are working hard to satisfy consumers and regulators. By Tony McNicol

食品：問われる食の安全食品安全法が厳格で、オーガニック食品市場が拡大している日本で、米国産食品輸入業者は消費者ニーズと規制当局への対応に懸命だ。文／トニー・マクニコル

32 ACCJ EventWhat Really Happens in Coaching: Executives Tell All. By Justin McCurry

ACCJイベントエグゼクティブ・コーチング最新事情：その後のエグゼクティブを見れば一目瞭然。文／ジャスティン・マカリー

14

ACCJ MissionFurther the development of commerce between the United States of America and Japan, promote the interests of U.S. companies and members, and improve the international business environment in Japan.

2 | The Journal | May 2009

DEPARTMENTS9 Note from the Editor

11 Reader Reaction. By Julian Ryall

13 President’s Message

21 Media Watch Sports sponsorship hit. Image salons. Hotels discount. Habits at home survey.

Big-ticket spenders. Prolific inventors.

26 On the Spot Renowned Japan strategist and business author Jesper Koll, President and CEO of

Tantallon Research Japan, is interviewed by Julian Ryall.

30 Opinion Leader Seiko Noda is Food Safety Minister of Consumer Affairs, Minister of State for Science

and Technology Policy, and Minister of Space Policy.オピニオンリーダー「野田聖子氏　内閣府特命担当大臣（科学技術政策・食品安全）、消費者行政推進担当大臣、宇宙開発担当大臣

36 Events Line-up ACCJ Chubu Walkathon and other business and leisure-related happenings in May.

By David Umeda

39 Out and About Speakers, members and guests photographed at recent ACCJ events.

45 FDI Portfolio Organic goods. Gift service. Airline-cuisine tie-up. Aircon deal. Luxury keitai. Hotel

purchase. By Nicole Fall

48 Business Profile Rick Weisburd operates an SME specializing in scientific editing and translating.

By Tony McNicol

51 Behind the Book The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008 by Paul Krugman is

reviewed by Tom Baker.

52 Advocacy Update ACCJ Viewpoints

54 In the Final Analysis By Samuel H. Kidder, ACCJ Executive Director

CONTENTS Volume 46 | Issue 5 | May 2009

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A world of opportunity requires a robust global infrastructure to identify, manage and drive

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World Trade Center Building, 31st Floor 2-4-1 Hamamatsu-cho, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-6131

ACCJ LeadersPresident

Thomas W. Whitson KPMG FAS Co., Ltd.

ChairmanAllan D. Smith AIG Companies, Japan and Korea

Vice PresidentsMichael J. Alfant Fusion Systems Japan Co., Ltd.Laurence W. Bates General Electric Japan, Ltd.

William R. Bishop, Jr. Nippon Becton Dickinson Co., Ltd.Michael D. Bobrove (Kansai) Nihon Medrad K.K.Kumi Sato Cosmo Public Relations Corporation

Mark F. Schwab United Airlines, Inc.Chris Zarodkiewicz (Chubu) Cezars International K.K.

TreasurerNasir Majid PricewaterhouseCoopersBrett Jensen (Kansai) Colliers Hallifax

Steve Burson (Chubu) H&R Consultants

ACCJ GovernorsAndrew Conrad Aflac International, Inc.

Christopher K. Ellis Chrysler Japan Company, Ltd.Bruce J. Ellsworth Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies

James Foster Microsoft JapanHarry Hill (Chubu) Oak Lawn Marketing, Inc.

Tad Johnson Pratt & Whitney Aftermarket Japan KKJohn Kakinuki GE Consumer Finance Co., Ltd.

Jiri Mestecky Kitahama Partners L.P.C.Patricia O’Keefe USC International Offices-Tokyo

Douglas L. Peterson Nikko Citi Holdings Inc.Nicole W. Piasecki Boeing Japan

Jay Ponazecki Morrison & Forester LLPMitsuyo Teramura Federal Express Corporation

Jim Weisser PBXL

ACCJ Executive StaffSamuel H. Kidder Executive Director

Aron Kremer Deputy Executive Director

ACCJ CommitteesAmerican Auto Industry Rick Brown

Architecture, Construction & Real Estate Kevyn Johnson/Michael P. KingAsia Business Philip C. Jones

B2B Sales Karl Hahne/Craig SaphinBanking and Finance Thomas Clark/Ernfred Olsen

Capital Markets Douglas HymasCharity Ball Barbara Hancock

Competition Policy Task Force Robert GrondineCorporate Social Responsibility Patricia Bader-Johnston

Direct Marketing Joseph PetersEnvironmental Naoki Arai

Financial Services Forum Charles D. Lake IIFood and Agriculture Collin Benson

Foreign Direct Investment Nicholas BenesGovernment Relations Ira Wolf

Healthcare Steve PlunkettHuman Resource Management Chris Lamatsch, Adam Kassab

Independent Business Doug JacksonInformation, Communications & Technology Darren McKellin, Ann Rollins

Insurance Nate Graddy/Jonathan MalamudIntellectual Property David Case

International Education Patrick NewellInternet Economy Task Force Yoshitaka Sugihara

Investment Management David MonroeLegal Services Arshad Karim/Eric Sedlak

Corporate Counsel Clair ChinoMarketing Programs Dominic Carter/Koichi Hama

Membership Relations Andrew SilbermanPrivatization Task Force David Hoover

Retail TBASoft Landing Task Force Adam Kassab/Mariko Nakazono

Special Events Barry BergmannYoung Professionals Group John Ghanotakis/Daniel Lintz

Taxation Jack Bird/Michael ShikumaToiletries, Cosmetics & Fragrances Yukiko Tsujimoto

Transportation and Logistics Jeff Bernier/Jeremy GoldstrichTravel Industry Kayoko Inoue/Vincent You

University Briefing Program Richard May/David Satterwhite

Kansai ChapterBusiness Programs Pabel Delgado

Community Service Kojiro DanExternal Affairs Kiran SethiLiving in Kansai Barry Louie

Membership Paul DupuisWomen in Business Mari Nogami

Chubu ChapterCommunity Service Steve Burson

Independent Business Chris Oostyen/Jason MorganLiving in Chubu Lowell Sheppard

Membership Relations Chris ZarodkiewiczPrograms Steve Brown

American Chamber of Commerce in JapanMasonic 39 MT Bldg. 10F, 2-4-5 Azabudai

Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 106-0041Tel: 03-3433-5381 Fax: 03-3433-8454

www.accj.or.jp / www.ecentral.jp

The ACCJ is an independent membership organization with no affiliation with any government or other chamber of commerce. The ACCJ is a member of the

Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers and values its relationships with Japanese, American and other nations’ business organizations.

Publisher Vickie Paradise [email protected]

Editor-in-Chief Simon [email protected]

Senior Editor David Umeda

Art Director Paddy O’ConnorGraphic Designer Akiko Mineshima

COLUMNISTSTom Baker, Nicole Fall, Mark Schreiber

CONTRIBUTORSAlana R. Bonzi, Geoff Botting, Martin Foster, Justin McCurry, Darren McKellin, Tony McNicol,

Anthony H. Rowley, Julian Ryall, Catherine Shaw, Richard Smith, Jeffrey Tanenhaus

PHOTOGRAPHERS / ILLUSTRATORS Tony McNicol, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, Darren Thompson, Mattias Westfalk

Published by Paradigm

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Published monthly in Tokyo, on the 25th of the month, since 1964.

Indexed in the PAIS BULLETIN. All rights reserved. The views and opinions expressed herein

(other than editorials from the ACCJ itself) are solely the opinions and views of their authors.

The ACCJ is not responsible or liable for any portions thereof.

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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

If a recession is the ideal time to go into business, as some pundits claim, this issue should be required reading for anyone considering starting up soon. Three

prominent foreign owners of SMEs in Japan share with us anecdotes, opinions and predictions in our Entrepreneurs Roundtable cover story, based on a combined half century of building up successful businesses here. Considering the state of the economy, especially in Japan, they remain encouragingly upbeat about the present and the future.

Perhaps the greatest Japan optimist of them all, though, is Jesper Koll. Fresh from presenting his annual ACCJ event, he shared with the Journal on page 26 what he believes Japan excels at—its strengths and advantages, and which contemporary markets here offer the most potential for investors and entrepreneurs.

Further proof that small-time entrepreneurs can still thrive despite hard times comes in Business Profi le on page 48. Rick Weisburd established his

science editing/translation company in 2005. Today, he not only employs fi ve staff, but also enjoys an enviable work-life balance working from his dream home an hour from central Tokyo and

set between rice paddies and a botanical garden, with nice domestic touches such as a dog and even a wine cellar.

We know that many ACCJ members endure very tight schedules that make it diffi cult to fi nd time to be interviewed by our writers, but it’s great to have such people featured in the Journal. As always, we welcome enquiries from members who feel they have a story to tell about themselves, or their company or industry.

Finally, sandwiched between two ACCJ Event reports on leadership and coaching, our feature on the food-import industry (page 28) is perfectly complemented by an Opinion Leader from the Food Safety Minister of Consumer Affairs. This comes just as the government said in late April that it would establish a new agency to oversee consumer affairs as early as this fall, amid food-labeling and other scandals that seriously undermined public confi dence. ■

Starting up

Simon Farrell [email protected]

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Multi-level BluesTo seek some extra income on the side, more housewives and others are using their personal networks to sell goods via multi-level marketing. But a number of such companies have been hit by claims.

Nikkan Gendai (Oct. 29) reports that over the past several years the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has issued desist orders to several such marketing firms, the most recent being Fukuoka-based Bio C Pulse in May 2008. Another firm on the receiving end of punitive measures in February 2008 was Yokohama-based Endways Japan, which had signed up some 490,000 members and posted sales of ¥60 billion.

A METI study in 2006 estimated that multi-level sales companies claimed a total of 21.9 million members, but Nikkan Gendai suggests the actual

figure may be higher. The marketing companies recruit new distributors at seminars that typically promise the potential for huge earnings, but the sad fact is only a tiny fraction make out well — the number of members earning over ¥100,000 a month is estimated at under 1%. Nonetheless, the system has become widespread, and many people find them-selves stuck with rooms full of unsold inventories.

“With the rapid increase in unemployment, multi-level marketing schemes have been growing,” attorney Masaki Kato tells Nikkan Gendai. “No amount of pleading seems to protect people from entrapment, and the only way to deal with them is to buttress the laws. The current penalties for viola-tions — up to two years imprisonment or fines up to ¥3 million — are too lenient.”

Demands for raising the punishment that can be leveled against unscrupulous compa-nies and distributors in the direct selling marketing sector miss the point, according to Gary Sumihiro, an

industry expert and frequent commen-tator on commercial regulations.

Responding to a Media Watch column item—a verbatim translation from the October 29 Nikkan Gendai that was reprinted in the December ACCJ Journal—Sumihiro expressed confi dence that the appropriate punitive measures are already in place. What is missing, he says, is the consistent and transparent applica-tion of the laws.

“Direct selling is a commercially signifi -cant sector in Japan and is already subject to a number of laws and regulations which are reinforced by penalties that are appro-priate for companies that fail to live up to their obligations,” says Sumihiro.

“Compliance is not an issue of increasing the penalties,” he adds.

“It’s primarily enforcement, and that is the responsibility of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry [METI].”

According to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, more than 2 million consumers in Japan contribute to this $20 billion industry. Worldwide, direct sales is estimated to reach 63 million people and generate $113 billion.

Multi-level marketing, or MLM, is a type of direct selling where distributors, typically independent contractors, can sponsor other individuals to become distributors. The sponsoring distribu-tors, in turn, earn bonuses on not only their own sales, but also the sales of their sponsored distributors. In recent years, METI has issued suspensions to a number of the estimated 700 to 800 multi-level marketing fi rms here. In May last year, for example, Fukuoka-based Bio C Pulse received a desist order, followed by one issued to Neways Japan, headquartered in Yokohama. More recently, Four Leaf was ordered to suspend its distributor spon-soring activities.

Broadly, there are three main violations of the law, says Sumihiro. One practice is

false claims about the properties of the product. Another violation is false claims about the income the individual will earn by becoming a distributor. The third illegal activity is individual sellers buying up massive amounts of inventory in order to earn a bonus.

Interviewed in the Nikkan Gendai, attorney Masaki Kato said that repeated warnings have failed to protect people succumbing to “entrapment” and that the only way to deal with the problem, which is likely to worsen as unemploy-ment grows and more people turn to multi-level marketing schemes, is to increase the current penalties—up to two years in prison, or fi nes rising to ¥3 million. These sanctions, Kato believes, are “too lenient.”

Sumihiro disagrees.“At the end of the day, the government

must enforce the law more consistently and in a transparent manner,” he says. “The recent suspensions are a step in the right direction.

“In addition, direct selling companies must themselves ensure each and every employee and distributor has greater education and training about the laws and ethical behavior,” says Sumihiro. “It is also the responsibility of the company to enforce the laws.”

METI has already announced a zero-tolerance policy. “What is needed now is for them to do what they say they will do,” he says.

“The rules and punish-ments for violations are already provided for,” says Sumihiro . “They just need to be applied consistently and transparently. That is the way the message will get out.” ■

Gary Sumihiro

Reader ReactionBy Julian Ryall

Seen something in the Journal you’d like to comment on? This is your page to have a say. This month, a veteran of the direct selling marketing industry speaks up after reading a Journal article.

Media Watch, ACCJ Journal, December 2008

Julian Ryall is The Daily Telegraph’s Tokyo correspondent.

To contribute to Reader Reaction, please contact Simon Farrell, ACCJ Journal Editor-in-Chief: [email protected] Tel: (03) 5478-7941


Thomas Whitson is ACCJ [email protected]

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

ACCJ Events, Trends, Happenings

You have read about the U.S. government stress tests of 19 major U.S. fi nancial institutions. The ACCJ was not picked by the feds in

this round, so I requested Business and Financial Affairs Advisory Council head Tad Johnson and ACCJ Treasurer Nasir Majid to work with the Chamber offi ce to do our own stress tests and come up with a set of possible actions now that we see more of what 2009 holds for our companies and our organization. A key problem is our decline in membership, as companies and individuals change their activities or leave Japan. We recently approved new incentives for member activities and for members to recruit new members. One of the new incentives is a free voucher for members who attend the most events during a given period. To some, this might seem like giving the winner of a hotdog-eating contest a voucher for free hotdogs. But I think that our events are so varied and interesting that the recipients should be pleased to win. A more important incentive is designed to motivate committees to identify and recruit their industry peers as a way to make the ACCJ a stronger and more effective organization.

The new American Medical Devices & Diagnostics Association (AMDD) was launched April 1, 2009. The ACCJ wishes the AMDD success, and looks forward to a strong and constructive working relationship with the new organization on issues of mutual interest, much like we enjoy with PhRMA.

Networking is one of the main reasons people join the ACCJ; and, in April, we held

a couple of our main networking events: the April 2 Meet & Greet at the Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo and the O-Hanami in Shiba Park. Many of our members used this Meet & Greet opportunity to showcase their goods and services. Lots of happy people went home with prizes.

The O-Hanami in Shiba Park was very dento-teki. The night was clear, the moon was full, the tarps were blue. Something like 110 people turned up, according to Young Professionals Group Co-Chair John Ghanotakis. I’m not sure that he was the organizer, but he was still standing when I arrived at about 9:30 p.m. and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Building on the wild success of rotating its Nomu-nication events among the Latin American embassies of Argentina, Peru and Mexico, this year’s Membership Relations Committee is focusing on Europe, with events planned with the French Chamber (Chambre de commerce et d’industrie française du Japon) on July

10 and another European Chamber in the fall. The March event was with the Italian Chamber.

The Internet Economy White Paper is out in draft for review. Since it affects Japan’s continued success as a leading global economy and the Internet affects each of our companies, I strongly urge you to obtain a copy and at least read a summary. Better yet, discuss it in your committee meetings.

The ACCJ’s Washington, D.C. Doorknock is scheduled for June 10-11 and includes a broad cross section of Chamber businesses including, for the fi rst time, the Accountants whose “mark-to-market” accounting many people blame for the entire economic crisis. If you have an issue (other than accounting) that we should bring up in Washington or a Washington contact we should see, please inform Ryan Armstrong at the Chamber offi ce. ■

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ACCJ leaders at the ACCJ 2009 Spring Meet and Greet—more pictures and details on page 39.


It’s a tough time all around, but how

are your own businesses doing?

Kevin McAuliffe: Business is good, better than a year ago. There are a lot of posi-tives out there for us. Our business has a recruiting aspect, and that’s going well. Also, several of our business programs tend to go opposite to the economy: food, basic essentials, cosmetics, and so on.

Andrew Silberman: For me, it’s the most challenging year so far, after 17 years.

But that’s because we had been working with so many investment banks. I’m not complaining because of the opportunities I have. This year is like a test—a separa-tion of the pretenders and the contenders.

Our business is professional devel-opment. In the past, this fi eld was an afterthought for many client companies, with many seeing it as part of their discretionary budget. But that doesn’t make sense, since you shouldn’t cut back on education even in times of recession.

In fact, now more than ever, companies are investing in their top performers.

Michael Alfant: Our business is steaming ahead. Still, our objective in September last year was to double in size in 2009; and, organically speaking, we’ll probably grow by 20% this year.

We’re responding to the recession by shifting sectors. We used to be heavily focused on capital markets and the fi nan-cial industry. Nowadays, we’re refocusing

Entrepreneurs

RoundtableModerated by Geoff Botting Photos by Tony McNicol

The global economic crisis, we’re told, is hurting nearly everyone. In the wake of the fi nancial meltdown and as the real economy continues to fl ounder, corporations have embarked on round after round of downsizing and cost cutting.

But for some entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including ones in Japan, the situation isn’t necessarily so bleak. Smaller companies tend to be nimbler, able to shift focus in response to turbulent economic times, as they seek out opportunities.

The ACCJ Journal talked with three Tokyo-based foreign entrepreneurs. Japan, they agree, is a great place to start your own business. Customer loyalty is high, solid infrastructure is in place to support SMEs, and—despite the recession—there’s still plenty of untapped opportunity out there.


ENTREPRENEURS ROUNDTABLE

toward life sciences, retail, industrial and consumer products, etc.

KM: The contrast of strategies among entrepreneurs is interesting. While Fusion is refocusing, we’re trying to return to our core strengths. We want to focus on the question, “What differentiates Newport from other companies in the same sector?” We’re thinking about what value-added services we bring to the equation, and then cutting activities that are a little outside of that.

MA: I hear you, but my philosophy is, “Always be aggressive; just go for it.” That’s why I’ll always look outside our core sweet spot for opportunities.

But I do agree that focusing on the core—the kernel of what makes you special—is always a good strategy.

KM: Our core strength is the ability to put a professional salesperson in front of a customer. This business works counter to the macro-economic situation. When business is good, it gets hard to recruit these professionals (due to the tighter job market). But in a down market, recruiting does well so we have more professionals in the fi eld.

AS: In our case, it’s a question of refo-cusing our mission, which continues to be “developing global thinkers.” I point out that this isn’t just “training.” Lots of companies now don’t think they have the money to pay for “training.” But you mention such things as “support for your global performers,” then they reply, “Oh, yeah, we really need that.”

Given the economic climate, these companies come to us because they’re keen to maintain employee retention, and—now, in particular—raising staff morale.

MA: I think it’s interesting the way small companies can refocus and adapt more quickly than large companies to these seismic shifts in economic conditions. The focus of many large companies, it seems, is just to cut costs. This would be a very different conversation today if it were among three CEOs of Fortune 50 companies.

To some extent, entrepreneurs thrive in times of dynamic economic change, while big companies benefi t from the status quo.

AS: Now look at Japan. Our Japanese clients, especially the conservative ones, have been the most stable. They’ve

vowed to stick with us. You might assume that having conservative Japa-nese clients would be a disadvantage—but it’s become an advantage for us. Connections you make with Japanese clients can last a lifetime.

MA: About 50% of our revenue comes from Japanese companies, and we fi nd a much longer sales cycle (compared with foreign companies) with them. Once we’re in with these clients, we tend to get much more repeat business and an easier sales cycle. However, getting in the door can be very, very diffi cult.

KM: I view Japan as a country of elephants—there’s a lot of space between the feet. And in a market the size of Japan, that means you can do business worth $100 million—and no one will notice.

In the United States, on the other hand, you would go against 20 competi-tors just to get a couple of million dollars worth of business.

MA: We call them dinosaurs. Our competitors in Japan are enormous—Hitachi, Panasonic, Fujitsu, Toshiba. They may not eat you, but they may step on you by accident. They’re so big, they don’t even notice you.

Kevin McAuliffe, President of Newport, Ltd.

Newport Ltd. Fields: Range of marketing services including customer acquisition, product sales and new customer promotions.No. of employees: 24Founded 1994www.newportjapan.com

Michael Alfant, Group Chairman and CEO of Fusion Systems

Fusion Systems Co., Ltd.Fields: IT solutions, software developmentNo. of employees: 175Founded 1992www.fusionsystems.org

Andrew Silberman, President and Chief Enthusiast of AMT Group

AMT Group KKField: Supporting managers to stabilize teams and reduce costs No. of employees: 14 (7 full-time, 7 freelance) Founded 1992www.amt-group.com

Participants:

Kioicho Building, 3-12, Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku

Tokyo 102-0094, Japan

Tel: 03-3288-7000

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Number of Lawyers: 331 (as of April 1, 2009)

Languages Spoken: Japanese, English, Chinese, French, German

Contact Person: (Ms) Yuko Tamai (Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association)

Areas of Practice:

Corporate/M&A

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Finance

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IP, IT and Entertainment

Tax Practice

Dispute Resolution

Real Estate and J-REITs

Antitrust Practice

Environmental Law Practice

Employment and Labor Practice

China Legal Practice


So our approach is to be really aggres-sive, and focus more on the client than on our competitors.

Is Japanese-language ability essential

for a foreign businessperson starting up

his or her own company?

MA: I don’t think it’s essential, because Andrew and I aren’t perfectly fl uent, although we can speak Japanese reason-ably well.

AS: I generally don’t use Japanese in my business apart from program launches.

KM: Japanese language has been essen-tial to our business. I think it depends on your staff and client base, but for me Japanese is necessary.

What about when you meet your

clients?

MA: I always bring along a native speaker from my company.

What was it like when you fi rst

started up?

MA: I learned more in the fi rst week of running my own business than in the previous 15 years of schooling and 10 years of business experience.

The cogent lesson is that there won’t be a paycheck at the end of the month. We are all conditioned to go to school, graduate, get a job. Then, while you’re at a big company, things can be quite abstract; but even so, payroll cuts a check for you at the end of the month, regard-less of what you did the previous month.

But after you start your business, there’s a big zero in your bank account at the end of the month, and you realize,

“Hang on, no one’s going to cut me a paycheck!” That really motivated me in the early days, gave me a sense of urgency I never had before.

AS: The big shock for me at the second stage, when I found it diffi cult to hire new managers as motivated as I and the other founders were. Now, I’ve got a really solid team. But this is with the understanding that the members will be motivated for their own reasons.

MA: You have to be an Alexander the Great-type of leader. You have to lead from the front, and understand that no one’s going to be more motivated than you are.

I’ve learned that most people don’t like making decisions and prefer to sit at their desks. That means you have to be the one making decisions.

So you need to be motivated and risk

accepting. Is the risk even greater

when you decide to start in Japan,

with its different business culture and

language?

MA: Not really. Japan’s a great place to be an entrepreneur. You’ve got a density of customer prospects here that don’t exist anywhere else in the world. Japan’s economy may be smaller than the U.S.’s, but it’s very clustered around Tokyo. 30-40% of Japan’s GDP is within a 30km radius of where we’re sitting now.

Also, as foreigners, we have unique opportunities here. You’re not tied in the Japanese social structure, so you can do things outside the box.



There’s also a positive cachet toward foreign products and technology that you can play on. In my case, it’s software, in which America is the world leader for development and innovation. A lot of Japanese clients want a piece of that.

KM: The other aspect is that Japan is full of small and medium-sized companies. So there’s an infrastructure to support that. The laws and regulations are straightfor-ward, so it doesn’t require a lot of work to set up a company here.

But the challenge for me, since all my company’s employees are Japanese, is developing them so that they have a desire to make decisions and be aggres-sive. Nothing in Japan’s educational system supports those tendencies.

How important is it for your company to

be perceived as Japanese?

KM: Our advantage is that we’re not Japa-nese, externally. Therefore, we’ve used the international aspect of our business in a positive way to recruit people and run our business.

MA: The internal-external balance is something we’ve grappled with. We’ve hired from among 25 nationalities and we want to have a multicultural environment internally. But we want to show a client a face they’re most comfortable with, not just an individual’s face, but also a corpo-rate engagement model that they’re most comfortable seeing.

AS: We don’t try to promote AMT Group as a Japanese domestic player, and we don’t want to compete with Japanese companies. We want clients to know that we don’t do kenshu (job training) where everyone sits passively and just takes notes.

KM: But now that the economy isn’t working, many Japanese companies are looking for new ideas. There are lots of Japanese mid-level managers who are pulling their hair out because they can’t do what they want in the current situation, and so they’re looking for new ideas.

I try to maintain a middle-way between the two cultures—because both business cultures have their positive aspects.

I discourage excessive after-hours’ socializing, for example, where staff go out drinking and recount all the little incidents that took place that day in the offi ce. Instead, I encourage the employees to have a life outside the offi ce.

After your company has grown and

continues to get bigger, how do you

maintain your entrepreneurial spirit?

MA: We’ve done it by continually creating subunits within the company, and giving those subunits a lot of discretion and authority, even to the extent that they’re on different fl oors of the building than I am, so that they see themselves as running their own autonomous units within the fi rm.

KM: I think the biggest danger is becoming isolated. You end up talking only to your top managers, who are fi ltering the information you’re getting. So it’s important to go out and talk to people throughout the organization.

MA: For me, it can get worse than that—you start getting all your information from spreadsheets. Also, once a day, I’ll try to schedule at least one customer meeting. So regardless of what’s on the spreadsheet, I want to hear directly from the customer.

AS: That’s where a lot of the networking events are useful. You can have two or three of your customers there in the same room.

Is it a good idea for a foreign

entrepreneur to enlist equity partners,

say, a senior Japanese person with lots of

experience in your fi eld?

MA: No, I don’t think so. My advice is to fi rst work for a big company. In my line of business, where I’m selling to the corpo-rates, if you don’t learn the engagement model that large corporations play with, you’ll never be able to sell to them. It’s much easier to learn from the inside than the outside.

KM: I basically advise against partners. The trouble with partners is that things change over time. You may do all the preparation, spend lots of time together discussing about what you both want, go through all the possible scenarios, etc.; but three years later, maybe one of you wants to return home, and then all these big issues suddenly emerge.

MA: That’s right. People change; when you go from good times to bad times, people can deviate. If you’re the consistent type, that can be really frustrating.

AS: I think there’s a better use for that talent—the Japanese managers who take the retirement package at age 55. In our case, we use them in role-playing for the

“I try to maintain a middle-way between the

two cultures—because both business cultures have their

positive aspects.”

Kevin McAuliffe


younger Japanese sales people who are selling to executives.

But I don’t want to rely on them to run my business because they’ve only worked in a Japanese corporate environment. They shouldn’t be the people advising you as an entrepreneur.

MA: Those people have never been entre-preneurs, so they don’t appreciate the kind of rapid decisions that entrepreneurs need to make. When you’re an entrepre-neur, time is your enemy. When you work in a large corporate environment, time can be your ally.

I’ve always believed that it’s better to do something than nothing. So the biggest problem I’ve had in relating to retired executives from large companies is convincing them of the urgency of doing something—now.

How do you drum up business? Through

conventional marketing approaches,

like advertising, or through formal

introductions?

AS: We get our business through reputa-tion, not through advertising or marketing.

KM: Coming through the back door has worked with us. We don’t have the connections or name value to come through the front door. They would just throw us out.

For instance, one of our biggest clients started with us when we did a great job and solved a problem with an offi ce in Akita, then the client company’s guy in charge of the Tohoku region gets word, and he then gets back to us and asks us to help out somewhere else, and that leads to an introduction with the guy in Tokyo, and then we eventually get in the front door.

MA: I fi nd introductions to be overrated. You spend a lot of your time and capital trying to engineer an introduction; but I think entrepreneurs would be better off delivering value to their clients, and thereby building their reputation.

If your reputation precedes you, people are usually willing to hear you out.

In your recruiting efforts, do you feel

you have access to the top talent this

country has to offer?

AS: If you’re talking about “the elite,” I

don’t think we’d want them anyway. In Japan, the elite track is to work at a ministry or other big organizations. We’re looking for motivated and talented people.

KM: “The system” here—education and employers, etc.—doesn’t train the kind of people we’re looking for.

What do you like best about being an

entrepreneur and running your own

company?

KM: When I worked for a big company, and was in my early forties, I looked up and saw a narrow funnel above me. There was this position, then this position, then director. Only a few people would make it up there.

So I thought about being 50 and maybe not being needed anymore because I was priced too high. Now I’m running my own business, and I fi nd it to be really creative and interesting.

AS: My company builds people’s energy and confi dence so that they can go out and achieve things. One of our clients recently told a prospective client, “AMT Group makes people better than they are.” We’ve also had employees of big Japanese corporations leave our sessions and say, “I feel like I can do anything!”

And I realized—not only was that what my company does, but also what a good entrepreneur does with his or her staff. That’s why my title is “chief enthusiast” rather than CEO.

MA: I dream about my business every night. I wake up in the morning, and I think about all the things I want to accomplish that day. That night, I go to bed thinking about what I’m going to do tomorrow. That’s what’s fun about entrepreneurship—you’re passionate about your business.

I truly believe that being an entrepreneur is the purest and most noble pursuit avail-able to us as individuals. ■


Geoff Botting is a freelance journalist based in Tokyo.

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Tel: 03-3214-2491 Fax: 03-3214-2494 www.tmhlo.jp

A combined history of nearly 60 years


MEDIA WATCH

Tired of what you see in the mirror? Perhaps it’s time for an ime-chen (image change). An overwhelming number of both males and females surveyed by DIMSDRIVE found that the thing most likely to undergo modifi cation is hairstyle, followed by wardrobe and then body shape (for males) and cosmetics (for

females). A separate survey by DoCoMo Premier Club found that 34% of males in their twenties prefer to have their hair styled at a beauty salon, with some traveling beyond their own neighborhoods for a treatment.

Overall, 39.2% of males said they visited a tonsorial parlor every other

month, followed by 26% monthly. For women, the most common frequency was once every three to four months, 37.3%, followed by every other month, 26.7%. Average outlay per visit came to 32.5% under ¥5,000 and 32.4% between ¥5,000 and ¥10,000. Another 20.2% paid ¥10,000 –15,000. (DIME)

New Image

Professional, semi-pro and amateur sports have really been taking it on the chin. On February 10, the Mainichi Shimbun reported that Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. had announced it would sus-pend sponsorship of sports teams, including its two baseball teams in Kanagawa and Fukuoka Prefectures, due to worsening business results. Nissan also announced plans to withdraw sponsorship of its 10-member table tennis team and 17-member track team at the end of March, with the athletes to be reassigned to the company’s sales and production divisions.

The same week of Nissan’s announcement, Shukan Economist (Feb. 17) ran articles over 10 pages on the “collapse” of sports-related business. Twelve teams were shut down and seven compa-nies withdrew sponsorship of golf and tennis tournaments. Nomura Holdings, Inc., meanwhile, announced suspension of sponsorship of the Japan Olympic Team.

Waseda University Prof. Munehiko Harada, an authority on the sports business, writes that Japan’s so-called GDSP (gross domestic sports product) was valued at over ¥11 trillion in 2002, but may actually be even larger since this fi gure does not include many intangibles. For instance, corporate-sponsored contribu-tions by sports to PR activity are not factored into the equation. Semi-pro athlete salaries are impossible to quantify since they are included with other employee wages on the corporate books. In fact, with the single exception of volleyball’s V League, gate

receipts from amateur sporting events are generally not publicized. When contrasted in terms of income from broadcast rights and

other revenue sources, professional sports here pale in comparison to the U.S. While ¥1.34 trillion is generated by the NFL, MLB and NBA, Japan’s baseball, soccer and sumo are valued at just ¥204.9 billion, one-seventh of the U.S. amount.

This 7:1 ratio of pro sports outlays to GDP per capita indicates there’s still room for expansion; moves may already be underway. Recently, amateur and semi-pro team sports have been morphing into the professional ranks. Baseball leagues centered in Shikoku-Kyushu and the Tohoku-Shinetsu region, and the Kansai Independent league comprise 16 teams in total, and will rival the existing Central and Pacifi c professional baseball leagues. A dozen basketball teams have been organized into the bj league. Annual revenues are believed to range from only ¥100–300 million per year, about the same take as a convenience store in central Tokyo; but these teams are expected to attract new fans and stimulate local economies.

Teenage golf pro Ryo Ishikawa’s appearance in the 2009 Master’s Tournament has already attracted ¥2.7 billion in corpo-rate backers (mainly YONEX, Panasonic Corp. and House Foods Corp.). Even the recession has yet to blunt the appeal of profes-sional sports here, and those with high media exposure can expect continued corporate sponsorship.

Sports Sponsorship Hit


When the 5-star Shangri-La Hotel, Tokyo (pictured left) opened in March 2009 in the Marunouchi Trust Tower of Mori Trust Co., Ltd., the question arose as to the profi le of guests staying in the lavishly appointed 202 rooms, with overnight rack rates starting at around ¥60,000.

In contrast, citing data compiled by yoyaQ.com, an online reser-vations site covering some 200 hotels mostly in Tokyo, the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 22) reports that the overnight charge for a single room averaged ¥14,912 in January 2009—the fi rst time to fall below the ¥15,000 level.

Occupancy rates last December for the Hyatt Regency Tokyo were reported at around 40%; the Imperial Hotel’s occupancy was report-edly 61.6%, a 7.3% year-on-year decline. Many hotels have taken to discounting. The Sankei reported the Sheraton Miyako Hotel Tokyo was offering overnight rates during February and March of ¥12,000, 69% off the standard charge; but another source was quoted as saying the discount ceiling for some plans might be as high as 75%.

Perhaps sensing new opportunity, the latest capsule hotel, which opened in Osaka’s Namba district on April 10, went upmarket. As reported in the Nikkei Marketing Journal (March 2), Tokyo-based First Cabin Inc. will be offering cubicles measuring 4.2m2—more than twice the size of the original capsules—for a very reasonable ¥4,800 over-night rate.

The 2m-high capsules are said to have taken their inspiration from the 1st Class cabins on wide-bodied aircraft, and include amenities such as a 32in fl at-screen TV and Internet access.

First Cabin’s new Namba facility, which can be rented by the hour, offers 99 cubicles for males and 12 for females. A Tokyo branch is planned for later this year, eventually expanding to other cities.

What is the fi rst thing you do when you walk into an uninhabited room? SkyPerfect JSAT Corp. posed this question to 1,040 adults in the Kansai area earlier this year. Of the total, 53.1% said they turn on the TV. This was followed by 35.9% who boot up their computer, 2.5% who listen to music and 0.1% who said they reach for the phone to ring up a friend or acquaintance.

Another interesting fi nding was that, among couples where at least one of the partners had reached retirement age, time spent watching TV together, 43%, remained unchanged, as opposed to 49.7% who said time watching TV had increased (ranging from appreciably to slightly). Of these respondents, 9.1%—and another 68.8%—said they felt that their marital relations had “become better.”

Hotels Discount

Home Habits

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MEDIA WATCH

Almost everyone has heard of Dr. Nakamats (real name: Yoshiro Nakamatsu), the inventor who claims credit for over 3,000 patents, including the fl oppy, CD and DVD disks; digital watch; and taxi-meter.

Japan is home to other prolifi c inventors. The 70-year-old Osakan Kenji Kihara has been referred to in a humorous light as the “Edison of Osaka.” Kihara has come up with 500 of his own, a few of which are introduced in Friday (March 13). One of Kihara’s more utilitarian brainstorms is a kushi-nuki sara, a ceramic plate with a groove at the end to remove grilled yakitori from the skewer by a gentle pull. A set of four can be purchased for ¥1,980.

Another Kihara contraption is made from half a PET bottle and a rubber suction cup joined together by a foot-

long section of washing machine hose. This is his anti-prank call device. If a pervert or other annoying caller should ring you up, just hold the suction cup over the telephone’s mouthpiece and squeeze the PET bottle. “The noise’ll blow his eardrum out,” chuckles Kihara.

Such items as joggingu seimai-ki—a container worn around the waist that polishes grains of rice while its wearer goes jogging—have failed to make it to the marketplace. In 2000, though, he was named recipient of the “Prince Higashikuni Prize” for his playful ring toss peg helmet. The bizarre gizmo, which features four wooden pegs for catching rope rings on its crown and several yoyos dangling from the brim, has been featured by numerous comic entertainers on television.

Osaka’s Edison

“Have you made any major outlays for purchases recently?” was the question posed in the Be Between survey appearing in the Asahi Shimbun (Feb. 21). Of the 10,521 respondents, roughly two-thirds gave negative replies. The most common reason voiced by 3,225 was “there’s nothing I want to buy.” This was followed by “don’t want to spend money” (1,716); “anxious over the future” (966); “salary has declined” (305); and “semi-annual bonus has decreased” (162).

Among the minority who replied they had made a big-ticket purchase, 1,901 said they had planned beforehand to make the purchase. Another 1,157 said they had no reason not to; 164 claimed they were talked into it by their family; and 22 simply couldn’t deny the recipient. The largest spending went

toward food (1,126), followed by domestic travel (1,037), medical outlays (709), education (693), a new TV set or DVD player (637), overseas travel (574), housing costs (564), celebratory or condolence gifts (469), apparel (428) and automobile-related items (369). (Asahi)

Big-ticket Spenders

Dr. Nakamats


Few would envy Tom Rath’s formidable working brief: in the words of his offi cial biography, to “help orga-nizations increase their growth rates while boosting employee engagement and well-being.”

Yet, as a Global Practice Leader at the Gallup Organization, Rath has at his disposal data and testimony spanning 30 years—and drawing on the experiences of 3 million people—to help him promote corporate leadership and employee satisfaction. Rath, the author of two international bestsellers on life in the workplace, devised StrengthsFinder—an instrument designed to foster leadership and strengthen teamwork—with leadership consultant Barry Conchie. An updated version appears in their new book, Strengths-Based Leadership, which examines the critical factors in building a stronger corporate team. The authors use more than 20,000

in-depth interviews and 1 million work teams to establish why certain leaders command high levels of respect and loyalty.

Rath, who leads Gallup’s workplace research and leadership consulting worldwide, explained at an ACCJ event on January 22 how it is possible to quantify the “social and economic capital” derived from human relationships in the workplace, and how it impacts productivity.

Rath divided employees into three groups: the actively engaged, the disengaged and the actively disengaged. Engaged workers, he said, are those who “are emotionally and psycho-logically committed to improving results in the workplace.

“People who are in that element of work who are truly in sync with the work they’re doing. They’re enjoying it and their companies are benefi ting from it. Some people really enjoy their jobs, but they’re not doing a lot.”

ACCJ EventSTRENGTHS-BASED LEADERSHIP: GREAT LEADERS, TEAMS, AND WHY PEOPLE FOLLOWText and photos by Justin McCurry


Gallup’s studies show that engage-ment—or the lack of it—remains a problematic fact of corporate life in Japan, since spending every waking hour at the offi ce, or laughing at your boss’s lame jokes over a beer, do not qualify as engagement.

Nevertheless, as Rath told his Tokyo audience, that sorry state of affairs is “an opportunity for everyone in this room.”

According to Gallup, just 7% of Japa-nese employees are actively engaged, while 70% are not engaged and 23% are actively disengaged. The data compare unfavorably with the U.S., where engage-ment stands at 30%.

That said, preventing complacency and unhappiness from turning into cynicism and disengagement in the workplace requires constant vigilance, regardless of a company’s nation-ality or location.

In large organizations, resistance from members who have been called the “grumpy camp” can be fi erce. “The biggest problem I hear from leaders is how to get people out of the actively disengaged group,” said Rath.

Gallup data prove that unhappy, discontented employees are not only unpleasant to work with, “they have a detrimental impact on customers and they affect recruiting. They create all kinds of problems that spread throughout the organization.” Companies that engage their employees, by contrast, experi-ence much higher levels of growth in their business.

To boost engagement, managers must listen to specifi c demands by their employees. The fi rst, according to Gallup, is that they be placed in the right job. “Some people are natural at empathizing with customers, while there are others who are not,” said Rath, “and they are the last person you want on the phone dealing with an irate customer.”

Employees also want their managers to possess certain qualities—to have clear expectations, recognize good work, encourage development, and ensure employees have the tools they need to do the job.

Unfortunately, as Rath pointed out, “There are a lot of bad managers at the workplace.” In extreme cases, working under a disliked, ineffective manager can have serious psychological and physiological consequences. “The quality of your manager may be more important to your physical health than the quality of your doctor,” he said.

The single quickest way to boost engaging employees is to recognize and then focus on their strengths, and avoid the natural human inclination to focus attention on areas that are going horribly wrong.

Doing the latter means “You often fi nd yourself spending more time with the people who are causing problems and are not as productive, and inadvertently not paying as much atten-tion to the stars,” said Rath. “But it’s with the stars that the real potential lies.”

That means providing someone who talks to each employee about his or her strengths on a daily basis. According to

surveys, about 80% of the managerial focus is still on employee weaknesses, and only 20% on strengths. “That’s the inverse of what it should be,” said Rath.

As anyone who has fallen out with a colleague can attest, rocky relationships at the workplace can affect concen-tration and productivity—and, if left unaddressed, lead to poor health and absenteeism.

“We spend more than half of our waking hours at work, so to not have those close relationships on the job is a major problem,” said Rath, adding that rules forbidding relationships between

staff outside the workplace, while understandable for legal reasons, were misguided.

“Essentially, these companies are looking at the downside,” he said, “and not weighing the upside in terms of productivity and well-being on the job, so there might be a need for more balance.”

Rath produced compelling evidence based on Gallup studies to back up his assertion that investing time and money into engaging employees, ensuring their well-being and fostering relationships contributed to healthier corporate bottom lines.

As the full extent of the global downturn becomes clear, managers who possess a vision for a brighter future are priceless.

Using the examples of Brad Anderson, the CEO of consumer electronics retailer Best Buy, and Mervyn Davies, former chairman of Standard Chartered bank (now the UK trade minister), Rath cited a quality not often attributed to great business leaders: compassion.

“Honesty and transparency are also very important,” he said. “You need to have tough conversations, yet help people to see how things might be quite a bit better when things turn around.”

Rath warned managers not to fall into the trap of gauging engagement by hours in the offi ce. “The reality is that once you get past 40 hours [a week], it’s detrimental to life satisfaction.

“If your well-being suffers, your engagement at work suffers. Being engaged can buffer longer hours; but if you clear 60 or 80 hours a week, it has a really bad impact, not only on [psycho-logical] well-being, but on health as well.”

That message has particular resonance in Japan, where overworking and old-fashioned attitudes toward unconditional corporate loyalty are blamed for a rise in stress-related illnesses. As the world’s second-biggest economy, Japan’s poor perfor-mance in the engagement stakes is a source of concern for Rath.

“Our studies in Japan have found that there’s not much difference here in the way people rate things, so the constructs are pretty stable,” he tells the Journal. “But the level of engagement is dramatically lower than in the UK and U.S. There is a huge disparity.” ■

ACCJ EVENT

Justin McCurry is The Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent

“The quality of your manager may be

more important to your physical health than the quality of

your doctor.” Tom Rath


You have been described as an eternal

optimist when it comes to the state of the

Japanese economy; is that still the case

and, if so, what gives you cause for such

optimism?

It’s quite simple. Right now, the economic crisis is focusing the attention of every country, company and worker on the basics. What are Japan’s strengths, its competitive advantages?

Well, Japan has no natural resources and its demographics are not good; but it has an incredible power base of intellectual property, while spending on research and development have never been cut back—meaning that Japan has the highest R&D expenditure of national income out of all the OECD countries, at 3.5% of GDP.

There is a relentless investment in the future that assumes companies will develop products, bring them to market and com-mercialize them. The last nine months have been absolutely horrible in terms of Japan’s cyclical performance; but the one good thing for corporations in Japan that is very different from in the United States is that

corporate managers here have not waited for the helping hand from the government. They have taken on restructuring the hard way and rediscovered their capitalist roots.

Do you have similar optimism for the

global economy?

The shock and severity of the crisis, in particular in the U.S., have been much more serious. We have debt overlaying asset defl ation and outright defl ation, and the challenges are huge.

This is a fi rst-in, fi rst-out situation. Japan was one of the fi rst into this recession and it will be one of the fi rst out. The whole challenge will be asset defl ation and excess inventory, which will ensure that the U.S. will go through much more pronounced

economic soul-searching than what we have in Japan.

Europe is different. The one thing that is needed is a coordinated policy; and, unfor-tunately, the confl icts of interest and the untangling of vested interests will be very challenging there. I would say that Europe faces the biggest challenges, both at the macro and micro levels.

Has the Japanese government reacted

appropriately to this crisis?

Absolutely. The fact that this nation has provided more than 8% of GDP in addi-tional government spending—unlike in the U.S., where President Obama can sign something into law within a couple of weeks—shows that Japan is a functioning democracy. It is wrong to say that the government has not been responsive; and in the next couple of quarters we will see those actions invigorating the economy.

What other measures could Japan have

taken, in your opinion?

The bigger problems for Japan are the

Jesper Koll is a renowned Japan strategist, business author, and respected commentator on domestic and global economies. The former chief economist at Merrill Lynch Japan has resided in Japan for the past 25 years.

Jesper Koll PRESIDENT AND CEO OF TANTALLON RESEARCH JAPANBy Julian Ryall Photos by Tony McNicol

SNAPSHOTTantallan Research Japan

Number of staff: Three ■

Date established: June 2007 ■

Location: Kawashima Building 6F, 3-10-19 ■

Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0061.Main business: Investment advisory ■

Web site: ■ http://www.tantalloncapital.com/


“Japan has no natural resources and its demographics are not good; but it has an incredible power base of intellectual property.”

under-funded pension system and the enormous fi scal defi cit. As far back as 25 years ago, they should have been imple-menting proper tax reforms—as Japan has one of the worst tax systems in the world in terms of effi ciency.

Through what is known as the tax multiplier system, if the economy grows by one unit, then tax income should also grow by one unit; and most systems deliver that. In Japan, it stands at 0.5 of a unit; and that makes it the worst tax system in the OECD. Proper tax reforms, including streamlining, would give the government a better chance of dealing with the public defi cit, as it can be fi xed through growth. Instead, we live in fear of tax increases.

What steps did Japan take that other gov-

ernments should emulate?

There were a couple of things in the 1990s that were effective. For example, the problem is that this is a balance-sheet recession, as people have too much debt relative to their income. Japan did very well in changing the gift tax laws so that now a gift to a child or grandchild is tax-deductible—as long as it is used

within six months of being received to put down a mortgage or to buy a new home. Everywhere in the world, we are seeing the baby-boomer generation coming up to retirement; and the question has been, how the money can be transferred from the older generation to young people.

Which “new markets” offer the best

opportunity for growth in Japan, and

why?

Number one is healthcare and providing services for the massive number of retirees who are coming through now. If I had the money, I’d like to set up the Louis Vuitton of retirement homes here in Japan.

There is a lot of other more standard stuff that you can see in President Obama’s inaugural address—such as the environ-ment and energy effi ciency—but those are exactly what Japan already excels in: lighter, smaller and cheaper. Solar technology, carbon technology, wind energy—these are areas where Japan is second-to-none when it comes to develop-ing and bringing them to market.

Personally, I am more interested in domestic opportunities; and part of that, at the moment, is the real estate sector. There are a lot of distressed sellers and some wonderful opportunities to build apartments that have live-in care for the older generation of people in their sixties to eighties who still want to have fun, but to also feel secure.

How soon will it be before the average

person in Japan can feel “comfortable”

again? And how far behind that date will

the rest of the world be?

They already feel very comfortable. That’s not because of high economic growth. We will see growth of between 1.5% and 2% over the next two years, which is nowhere near China or India. But this is already a mature, post-industrial economy, which is the whole point. The quality of life and standard of living here are second-to-none.

The “feel-good factor” is different. I think that will come as Japanese companies

transfer power to the younger generation and retire gracefully—although that is hard for the older generation. Lots of Japan’s problems stem from the old generation not being able to let go. There is an immense amount of youthful vigor out there; and if they can be empowered and trusted by the old generation, then that will be an enormous bonus to the feel-good factor. The old gen-eration can retire with grace, while the young can fi nally prove that they are also world-class in the business arena. ■

* Jesper Koll will write acolumn in the Journal everymonth starting in June.

BIOGRAPHYJesper Koll

Age: 48 ■

Born: Krefeld, Germany ■

Education: Masters degree from SAIS The ■

Johns Hopkins University, research fellow at Tokyo University and Kyoto University. A graduate of the Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacifi c.Married: To Kathy Matsui ■

Children: Daughter Pria, 8; and son Tycho, 12 ■

Languages: German, English, Japanese, ■

FrenchHobbies: Running marathons and ■ rakugo comic storytelling

CareerBefore joining Tantallon in June 2007, Koll was chief economist of Merrill Lynch Japan. Prior to that, he worked for the Tiger Fund and, between 1994 and 1998, was head of research for JPMorgan in Tokyo. His analyses and insights have earned him positions on several Japanese government advisory committees, and he is one of the very few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives.

ON THE SPOT

Julian Ryall is The Daily Telegraph’s Tokyo correspondent.


Judging by the crowds at the Inter-national Food and Beverage Exhibi-tion (FOODEX 2009) in March, the recession has done little to sate Japan’s appetite for fi ne eating

and drinking. Over a four-day run, 96,328 people came to savor food and drink at 3,641 booths representing 65 countries at one of the most popular—certainly the most fun—expos in Japan. U.S. companies were out in force, working hard to enter or consolidate their place in the vast Japanese food market.

“Japan has been extremely successful for the U.S.,” said attendee Michael Conlon, director of the U.S. Agricultural Trade Offi ce, at the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo. Yet, he added, “Japan has always been a very diffi -cult market to break into.”

As everyone living here knows, Japanese people take their food seriously and the quality is high. Meanwhile, tariffs remain a serious obstacle to imports, and food safety

regulations here make tough demands on importers. A series of packaging and processing scares has made the domestic food industry reluctant to deal with non-Japanese companies, despite Japanese companies also being implicated.

The almost universal assumption in Japan that domestic equals safe has been used by the authorities to help protect Japanese manufacturers, say critics.

Donald Nordeng, president of Ecocert-QAI Japan, which helps companies obtain government certifi cation to sell organic products in Japan, describes food safety issues here as “a structural barrier to trade.”

“MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) has perpetuated a myth and enforces regulations unevenly,” he says.

The food safety concerns have actu-ally helped the organic food business, presenting an opportunity for U.S. compa-nies. The Japanese organic food market, despite budding interest, is still tiny

compared to the U.S. or Europe. In Japan, just 0.1% of the food market is organic, according to Nordeng. The corresponding fi gure in the U.S. is 1%, and in Europe possibly as high as 10%.

The conditions for being allowed to display the Japanese “JAS” organic mark, however, are extremely strict. Further-more, the Japanese organic standards remain out of sync with others, despite efforts by the U.S. and Japanese govern-ments. “These licensing programs are very diffi cult to implement and maintain because they don’t correspond to the U.S. and EC systems,” said Nordeng.

Blue Ocean Co., Ltd. in Minato Ward has been importing and selling Jelly Belly confectionary from San Francisco for two decades. “Japanese customers are very fussy and they will demand organic prod-ucts,” said President Koji Osawa. “Whether they will actually buy them, though, is a different matter.” From February Blue

Food: Safety FirstORGANIC MAKING INROADS, DESPITE IMPORT BARRIERSText and photos by Tony McNicol


Ocean has introduced Jelly Belly “bean naturals,” which contain no artifi cial color-ings or fl avorings. The distributor hopes that the ¥190 price (compared to ¥130 for its regular jelly bean product) will not put off customers.

As the sole Japanese distributor for Lund-berg Family Farms, Fukuoka Nosan Co., Ltd. markets organic Californian rice as a health food. Based in the southern main island and with 27 employees, the company involves locally grown Kyushu rice in 90% of its total sales, the remainder having been imported from the U.S. and China. Tariffs result in the Californian rice selling at 20% more than regular Japanese rice—but still 20% cheaper than Japanese organic rice.

“Japanese customers really believe that Japanese rice is the best in the world,” said the company’s Kenichiro Nishiyori, “so we have diffi culty selling table rice.” Almost all the rice Fukuoka Nosan imports goes to make miso and vinegar.

One of the more unusual organizations at FOODEX was American Indian Foods, a project of the Intertribal Agriculture Council . The council, too, hopes to market its produce as health food. “Our products are organic foods in the truest sense,” stressed Program Director Nathan Notah. “That’s all Native Americans have ever eaten. You would think that most of the Native Ameri-cans were hunters, but in reality they were cultivators.”

Historically, Japan has been a premium market for food exporters. Yet, the previously weak yen and earlier high energy prices had forced many countries to pay as much as, or higher than, Japan. The current recession has reversed the situation yet again, providing profi t opportunities for U.S. companies. Generally speaking, processed “consumer-ready” products, in which the U.S. excels, tend to sell well as people dine out less.

In addressing how U.S. companies can

make their products attractive to Japan, Nordeng recommends “providing products specifi cally tailored to the Japanese market … get away from one universal product for every country, but maintain the American sense.”

At the beginning of this year, the U.S. Agricultural Trade Offi ce set up a Japanese-language Web site to promote that American sense: www.myfood.jp/. The fi rst monthly feature marked the inauguration of President Barack Obama by highlighting the food of his hometown, Chicago.

“We are trying to tell our story to the Japanese people, who are really fascinated with U.S. culture. We have the most dynamic food culture in the world,” said Conlon. “We are not just giant farms or McDonald’s.” ■

FOOD: SAFETY FIRST

Tony McNicol is a freelance journalist based in Tokyo.

Miami-based caviar exporter Mark Zaslavsky.

Jelly bean importer Koji Osawa, president of Blue Ocean Co., Ltd.


Several frightening scandals related to

consumer safety have occurred recently,

one of the most alarming being the

poisoned Chinese frozen-food affair.

Additionally, various other frauds—such

as falsifi ed earthquake-proof building

safety certifi cation, unethical traders

targeting elderly people, and intentional

misinformation on labels related to

product description, origin and date of

manufacture—have come to light.

In my view, a contributing factor is the

vertical government structure that helped

Japan develop rapidly, but has become

less relevant today. Since the Meiji Era,

the national government has been

focusing on fostering industry to achieve

economic growth and modernization.

Without a doubt, such an initiative

played a key role in pulling Japan out

of poverty.

Japan’s dramatically rapid

economic growth drew a

lot of attention around the

world. During that period, the

government mainly focused

on boosting the living stan-

dards of people through income

growth. Public expectations moved

in the same direction as well. The

government protected and incu-

bated various business sectors, and

consumer protection was a sideline

issue. Under such circumstances, what

has been most effective is a govern-

ment structure in which ministries

are set up vertically to take care of

their respective industries.

However, as fundamental

changes in technology, as well as

in society, take place, a govern-

ment with such a vertical structure

eventually fails to properly address

various consumer-related issues. Estab-

lishing a Consumer Affairs Agency will

provide a major breakthrough that places

a horizontal axis in the existing vertical

government structure.

In February 2008, former Prime Minister

Yasuo Fukuda set up the Council for

Promoting Consumer Policy to explore

the model of an ideal new agency that is

well integrated and has strong authority

to promote consumer policy. Based upon

the report issued by the Council, the fi rst

Fukuda Cabinet launched the Basic Plan for

Promoting Consumer Policy, at the end of

June 2008.

First, a Consumer Affairs Agency shall

be established in fi scal year 2009. This new

agency is expected to be a steering instru-

ment, or control tower, for the govern-

ment—serving consumers by monitoring

all government policies from the view-

point of consumers.

The Basic Plan provides three main

pillars for the agency.

The fi rst and most important is a

nationwide network of consumer-friendly

and reliable contact points to be set up,

along with the Consumer Affairs Agency.

Regional consumer affairs centers, located

all over Japan, are to be substantially rein-

forced and networked, so they can serve as

easily accessible contact points for every

citizen facing consumer problems. At the

same time, information on such consumer

issues is to be collected and swiftly trans-

mitted to the Consumer Affairs Agency

network. Finally, drastic measures should

be taken to enhance and improve adminis-

tration of the consumer in each region.

The second major pillar is maximizing

the agency’s function, which will be very

far-reaching and wide-ranging. The agency

will plan comprehensive consumer policy,

research and analyze consumer issues,

coordinate among ministries and request

Seiko NodaIMPROVING SAFETY TO PROTECT CONSUMERS.

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消費者保護にむけての安全性の向上近年、マンションの耐震偽装に始まり、相次ぐ食品

の不当表示事件、高齢者等を狙った悪徳商法の横

行、また、中国製冷凍加工食品による薬物中毒事案

など、国民の身近なところで大きな不安をもたらす消

費者問題が次々に生じています。こうした問題の背

景には、我が国の行政が明治時代以来、長く産業振

興を主目的として行われてきたことがあると考えて

います。確かに、そのような産業保護・育成中心の行

政は戦後の貧困からの脱却に際して大きな役割を果

たしており、その急速な経済発展は世界から注目を

集めました。当時の経済政策下においては主として

所得の拡大を通じて、生活水準を高めることが目指

されており、また、国民もそれを期待していました。

このように、これまで、消費者保護は、産業振興の補

完的な範囲内でのみ行われる、という体制だったの

です。こうした状況の下では、個別産業ごとに縦割り

された行政機構が最も効率的であったのです。

　しかしながら、現在の複雑・高度化した社会にお

いては、多種多様な消費者問題が発生しており、縦

割り行政では対処することが難しくなっております。

消費者庁の創設は、こうした縦割り行政を改め、府

省庁横断的な行政を実現する突破口となるもので

す。2008年２月には、福田前総理が、消費者行政を

統一的・一元的に推進するための強い権限を持つ新

組織のあり方を検討するため、「消費者行政推進会

議」を官邸に設置されました。そして、この消費者行

政推進会議の取りまとめを踏まえ、政府の基本方針

として「消費者行政推進基本計画」が同年６月末に

閣議決定されました。

　本基本計画は、消費者の視点で政策全般を監視

し、「消費者を主役とする政府の舵取り役」となる

消費者庁を2009年度から設置することを内容とす

るものです。基本計画には、三つの大きな柱があり

ます。まず、一つ目の大きな柱は、「消費者が頼れる

分かりやすい一元的な相談窓口を設置」することで

す。具体的には、地方の消費生活センター等を一元

的な消費者相談窓口と位置付け、全国ネットワーク

を構築することとしています。全国の消費者生活セ

ンターが、消費者にとってアクセスしやすい相談窓

口と位置づけられることになります。同時に、収集さ

れた消費者の苦情相談情報は、消費者庁に一元的

に集約されます。地方の消費者行政を抜本的に強化

し、特に当面、思い切った取組をしっかりと行ってい

くこととしています。

　次に、二つ目の大きな柱は、「消費者庁の機能の

十分な発揮」です。具体的には、消費者庁は、各府省

庁に対する総合的な調整機能、幅広い企画立案機能

や充実した調査・分析機能を担うこととしています。

必要な場合には、各省庁に対し司令塔として要求を

行うこともできます。また、消費者政策担当大臣を置

くこととしています。さらに、「表示」、「取引」、「安

全」に関する分野など、消費者に身近な問題を取り

扱う法律は、消費者庁が幅広く所管することとして

います。これらの分野において、消費者庁は、関係省

庁に措置要求するだけでなく、自ら法執行します。加

えて、消費者庁は、全国の消費生活センターのネット

ワークを通じて情報を一元的に集約し、その情報を

基に、適切な対応をします。そのため、地方公共団体

が設置している消費生活センターを法的に位置付け

ることとします。また、消費者庁が、所管する省庁の

ない、いわゆる「すき間事案」へも対応できるように

しています。

　そして、本基本計画の三つ目の大きな柱は、「消費

者庁の体制の在り方」についてです。具体的には、本

計画では、消費者庁は、総合的な調整等を担当する

企画部門、個別作用法に係る調査・執行までを担う

執行部門、緊急時の司令塔機能、情報収集・発信を

担当する部門を構築する必要があるとしています。さ

らに、有識者から成る消費者政策委員会を設置し、

消費者の声を政策に反映させることとしています。

内閣府特命担当大臣（科学技術政策・食品安全）

消費者行政推進担当大臣

宇宙開発担当大臣

野田聖子

OPINION LEADER

them to take necessary measures. To that

end, it shall become a legal requirement

to have a Cabinet minister for consumer

affairs oversee the agency.

Furthermore, the agency is to hold direct

jurisdiction over various consumer-related

laws regarding product labeling, consumer

transactions and consumer safety. In those

areas, the agency will not only make policy

recommendations to relevant ministries,

but also implement policy itself.

In addition, a new law will be intro-

duced to provide the manner by which the

agency will collect information through

the regional network of consumer centers,

and how the agency will take necessary

actions based on that information. To that

end, the new law will give legal status to

regional consumer centers. The legislation

also will make it possible for the Consumer

Affairs Agency proactively to address

urgent consumer problems that have fallen

into the cracks between different ministry

jurisdictions.

Finally, the third main pillar of the Basic

Plan is the structure of the Consumer

Affairs Agency. It is to be composed of a

policy division, a law-enforcement division,

and an intelligence publication division

that will serve as the central government’s

headquarters when a consumer affairs

emergency occurs.

Furthermore, a Consumer Policy

Committee is to be established under the

agency. The committee will be comprised

of consumer experts—including academics

and representatives of consumer organi-

zations—in order to have policy decisions

refl ect the voices of consumers.

Seiko Noda is Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, Food Safety Minister of Consumer Affairs, and Minister of Space Policy.


The days when it was enough simply to appoint “the right man for the job” are over. For executives to shine throughout their careers they need professional guidance and appraisal and—this may be the toughest challenge—the humility to ask

colleagues if they come up to scratch in the workplace.Like fi nely tuned sportsmen who want to stay at the top of

their game, they need a coach.As co-founder, and now chief executive, of the California-

based CoachSource, Brian Underhill knows better than anyone the benefi ts of a structured coaching framework—as opposed to sporadic, poorly planned pep talks that promise much, but deliver little.

Underhill, whose list of clients reads like a who’s who of global big business—AT&T Wireless Services, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Sony and Microsoft, to name a few—brought ACCJ members and their guests up to speed at an ACCJ event in January entitled “What Really Happens in Coaching: Executives Tell All” on the changing coaching environment around the world.

In a lively speech that occasionally poked fun at the performance perception gap between coaches and their executive tutees, Underhill explained how the coaching sector

can help fi rms get the best out of their senior employees and achieve positive, measurable and long-term change in leadership behavior.

The coaching phenomenon took hold about a decade ago when the U.S. computer giant Hewlett-Packard Corp. introduced coaching among employees at its spin-off fi rm Agilent Technologies.

At the time, Agilent had no proper coaching program because none was available. That is where CoachSource stepped in. Underhill’s fi rm had been performing thousands of one-hour coaching sessions over the telephone, but Agilent’s demands were different: a six- to 12-month course at its offi ces around the world.

The project was a success. “What I never knew at that time was how many other companies were going to call with the exact same request,” said Underhill.

By 2005 Underhill and his business partners had built up a considerable volume of research centered around interviews with executives and coaches—enough for a book, Executive Coaching for Results: The Defi nitive Guide to Developing Organizational Leaders (Berrett Koehler, 2007).

So what is executive coaching? At its simplest, said Underhill, it is the one-on-one development of an organizational leader.

ACCJ EventText and photos by Justin McCurry

WHAT REALLY HAPPENS IN COACHING: EXECUTIVES TELL ALL


“With globalization taking place, you have a lot of companies expanding who need a leader who can get into various parts of the world and grow their business. In the, U.S. demographics mean that lots of people are retiring and companies need new leaders to replace them.

“So how do you get the best people in the ‘war for talent?’” he asked.

Since its beginnings in California, executive coaching has grown into a $1-2 billion dollar industry, according to Underhill. More than 63% of fi rms expect to increase coaching facilities, while more than 90% of executives who have used coaching services say they would do so again.

Coaching comes in myriad forms, but its basic goals remain the same—to develop leaders; ensure smoother transitions, such as an expatriate assignment; retain high-potential employees; and, to a much lesser extent, fi x problems.

“In the past the attitude was that when you got a coach, you were in trouble and that your company was giving you a coach as one of the least things they were going to do,” said Underhill.

But attitudes have changed. Now, if a fi rm is going to spend money on coaches, they will send them to their best people to make them even better. “Don’t assign a coach to someone who you think is on the way out,” he said.

Coaching practices that have the full support of, and even participation by, senior executives—Michael Dell is a notable example—are far more likely to succeed and encourage other managerial staff to take part.

In addition, coach and executive must gel quickly and agree to a bespoke plan of action, subject to regular and rigorous assessment, said Underhill.

Any employee who has had to endure a non-communicative boss will not be surprised to learn that most coaching time focuses on listening skills.

“Holding people accountable is number two. Making sure people are delivering on their commitments,” Underhill told the Journal. “Number three is generally treating people with respect. You get the typical Type A leader who pushes and makes things happen, but treats people poorly in the process.”

Persuading intransigent executives to put new skills into practice can be problematic, he admitted, even after coach and charge have practiced newly learned behaviors through role-play, which is a very useful technique in coaching “because there is always this enormous difference between thinking through

how you’re going to do something, and how you actually do it,” said Underhill. “Practicing it is a whole different story.”

Following up is the only way a coach can check whether those new behaviors—better listening and delegation skills, time management and task execution—have really been implemented. The executive, for his or her part, must swallow pride and seek

360-degree feedback—evaluations from colleagues, including juniors.

“At fi rst it seems like a big deal, but it gets easier the more you do it,” said Underhill. “It’s not only about changing key behavior, but letting people know you are doing this and checking back to see if there’s been any change.”

What makes a good coach—an industry in which qualifi cations are not required, and even frowned upon? According to Underhill’s research, the most important quality executives desire is not a coach’s qualifi cations or low rates, but the ability to build a rapport with them, ideally based on previous experience in the business world.

The coach-client relationship should not end with the fi nal session, but rather develop into one that encourages follow-up activities so that the success, or otherwise, of the project can be measured. This is an area that, according to Underhill, is still under development.

“Surprisingly, we found a large number of organizations don’t do anything to measure coaching at all, even though they spend all this money,” he said. “That is quite scary.”

It might be reasonable to suppose that coaching will suffer in times of recession, as fi rms attempt to slash budgets. However, while acknowledging that the current fi nancial crisis will have an impact, Underhill believes coaching has a bright future ahead of it.

Globalization, for example, has spawned the growth of intercultural training for executives who are sent on overseas assignments. That and other factors, he believes, will help Japan’s corporations overcome their natural resistance to new ideas such as executive coaching.

“The multinationals are really embracing coaching, so they’re doing it here regularly,” he said. “Japanese coaches tell me it’s not as prevalent in Japanese companies, but that might change.

“When one does it,” said Underhill, “then all of them will want to do it once it’s seen as acceptable.” ■

ACCJ EVENT

Justin McCurry is The Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent

“We found a large number of

organizations don’t do anything to

measure coaching at all … that is quite scary.”

Brian Underhill


A Moving ExperienceC

ertainly in the best of times, effi ciency, state-of-the-art technology and a global network best serve the client. But during this

sustained global economic downturn, these three qualities found in the logistics industry here defi ne a great “rescue” package for all concerned.

As a corporate, you can expect your leaner budget still to cover quality service and delivery—which, in turn, demonstrates in real terms a steadfast commitment to the two greatest assets: your employees and your customers. As an executive on overseas assignment, you can provide your family a

caring support, an attention to detail, the timely appropriate transport of personal belongings—and explained in a language your spouse and children understand. As a customer,

you want your online purchases not only to be hassle free, but also arrive in a timely manner and be intact.

Experience doesn’t just offer the appropriate solutions; seasoned logistics professionals

anticipate what may be weighing

heaviest on your mind and provide a response that frees you to concentrate on more private matters during a relocation—such as seeing relatives, visiting with neighbors or purchasing last-minute items. What experience also provides is experts listening to your concerns and offering options that make sense to you.

The milestones realized in air, sea and land transportation improvements—in speed and range, packaging and storage, as well as in seamless tracking and delivery across continents and oceans—defi ne a logistics industry that has invested in its future. Yet, what truly stands out is the quality of professionals involved in the process. From multi-language ability and multi-cultural experience, to exceptional people skills and logistics know-how, the staff brings into play a wealth of capabilities for getting the job done under varying—sometimes unprecedented—circumstance.

The advocacy efforts by the ACCJ bring to light what needs to be addressed by entities involved in the business of moving people and goods. In particular, the Transportation and Logistics Committee monitors legislation and regulations that affect equal access and free competition in the logistics service industry.

David UmedaSenior Editor at Paradigm

LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT Special Advertising Section


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Yusen Air & Sea Service Co., Ltd.Tel: 03-3669-4381

Fax: 03-3669-8540

Web: www.yusen.co.jp

Yusen Air & Sea Service Co., Ltd. (YAS), a member of the NYK Group, is one of the

world’s leading international freight forwarders in supporting customers to

implement their logistics strategy effectively.

For over half a century, YAS has steadily grown into a premier international

total logistics business by providing fi ve-star quality services, integrating

transportation by air, sea and land for the ever-changing logistics needs of our

clients.

More than a 240-offi ce global network in 33 countries provides a speedy and

effective logistics solution for our customers’ various needs. This network, along

with our partnerships with overseas agents, covers most of the countries in the

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Full-range logistics services—such as air freight, ocean freight, land

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We are challenged to broaden and thoroughly implement accepted

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Section


Golden Week

May 3 (Sun), Constitution Day; May 4 (Mon), Greenery Day; May 5 (Tue), Chil-dren’s Day; and May 6 (Wed), additional national holiday in 2009.

Kanda MatsuriMay 7-15

Although observed annually, the larger affair takes place in the odd-numbered years (2009). Held at Kanda Myojin Shrine, it is one of Tokyo’s three traditional Grand Festivals. Tokugawa Ieyasu’s victory at the battle of Sekigahara resulted in the estab-lishment of power in Edo (present-day Tokyo). Taking place in the classic Shita-machi downtown district, on the fi nal day, 70 mikoshi portable shrines are paraded through the streets, carried by teams of men and women dressed in traditional festival happi coats, leggings and bandana.

NHK Mile CupMay 10http://japanracing.jp/course/

The Grade 1 fl at horse race for three-year-old and above thoroughbred fi llies and mares covers 1,600m at Tokyo Racecourse, 30 min from central Tokyo, Fuchu Keiba Seimon Mae Station, Keio Line

Grand Sumo TournamentMay 10-24www.sumo.or.jp/eng/

Though the matches start around 8:30 (doors open at 8:00), with the Juryo Divi-sion commencing at around 14:20, the upper Makuuchi Division ring-entering ceremony begins at approximately 16:00 and these matches run until 18:00.

Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Ryogoku Station, JR Sobu Line

IEEE ICRA 2009May 12-179:00-17:30 (last day: -17:00)www.icra2009.org/

The theme for the International Confer-ence on Robotics and Automation is ”Robotics and IRT [information and robot technology] for Livable Societies,” refl ecting ever-growing interests in the research, development and applica-tions of a most dynamic fi eld. Highlights include presentations of contributed papers, invited sessions on new topics or innovative applications, 1½-3-min videos illustrating new and exciting results, and half-day and full-day tutorials and work-shops, and exhibitions.

Kobe International Conference Center, Port Island, Shimin-Hiroba Station, Port Liner Line

1st GRIXMay 13-1510:00-18:00 (last day: -17:00)www.grix-expo.jp/en/

The Green IT Expo Japan is Asia’s largest, gathering all kinds of green IT solutions including power-saving servers and network equipment, and effi cient data center operation solutions. The expo attracts information systems managers and managing directors of leading compa-nies, and data center owners.

Tokyo Big Sight, Odaiba, Tokyo Water-front, Kokusai-tenjijo Station, Yurikamome

Kyoto Geisha FestivalMay 15-16

Chubu ACCJ/NIS 18th Annual Walkathon and International Charity FestivalMay 24, 10:00-16:00www.nagoyawalkathon.comTel: 052-229-1525

The largest annual international event in Nagoya is a great opportunity for inter-

national exchange, with lots of food, an exciting stage show, and a raffl e with great

prizes—all for a good cause. This memorable event brings together nearly 2,000

people to have fun while raising funds for local NPOs and charitable organizations.

The event will be held in Tsuruma Park for the fi rst time, as part of the park’s 100th

anniversary celebrations. Last year the ACCJ Walkathon Committee gave more than

¥8 million to support children and those in need in the Chubu Area—and this year’s

target is ¥10 million. Tickets cost ¥2,000 for adults and ¥1,000 for college and high

school students.

Tsurumai Park, Nagoya


EVENTS LINE-UP

The famous graceful dances by geisha from the Pontacho district are performed on the banks of the Kamogawa River—a tradition that began back in 1872.

Sanja Matsuri May 15 to 17

On the Asakusa Jinja Shrine grounds, it is one of the three major festivals in Tokyo, attracting 1.5 million spectators. Friday afternoon has a parade featuring tradi-tionally dressed musicians and dancers. The highlights of the weekend include the energetic carrying of mikoshi portable shrines, which starts on Saturday and progresses to the introduction and parade of the three large mikoshi on Sunday. The portable shrines are carried through 44 neighboring areas, 6:00-20:00.

14th ifi a Japan 20097th HFE Japan 2009May 20-2210:00-17:00www.ejkrause.com/ifi ajapan/

Over 350 exhibitors from around the world showcase their goods at Asia’s largest International Food Ingredients and Additives event. The concurrent Health Food Exposition & Conference, with about 100 exhibitors, remains the leading venue for manufacturers and suppliers in the health-conscious Japanese market. Some 33,000 buyers from across Japan attend these events. The Japanese market is over $10 billion.

Tokyo Big Sight, West 1 & 2, Conference Tower, Odaiba, Tokyo Waterfront, Kokusai-tenjijo Station, Yurikamome

Katy Perry Japan Tour 2009May 25, 26, 28 & 29www.katyperry.com/

California Grammy nominated singer-songwriter and musician who broke onto the music scene with her hit, “I Kissed a Girl” (2008), and later “Hot N Cold” and “Thinking of You,” from her album, One of the Boys.

Club Quattro Osaka (25th); Club Quattro Nagoya (26th); and Duo Music Exchange (Shibuya Dogenzaka, up the hill from 109 Bldg.), Tokyo (28th & 29th).

TBLI Conference Asia 2009May 27-28http://tbliconference.com/

The largest annual global networking and learning event on SRI (sustainable respon-sible investment) of Europe and Asia is being held this year in Japan. The world’s leaders in sustainability convene to network, exchange information and ideas on the latest developments in screening, auditing, reporting, SRI analysis, corporate citizenship, indexes and research.

Pacifi co Yokohama, Minatomirai 21, Minatomirai Station, Toyoko/Minatomirai Line; or Sakuragicho Station, JR Keihin-Tohoku, Negishi and Yokohama Lines

ICSDC 2009 ICESSE 2009May 27-29www.waset.org/wcset09/tokyo/icsdc/

The International Conference on Sustain-able Design and Construction—as well as the International Conference on Computer, Electrical, and Systems Science, and Engineering—aim to bring together researchers, scientists, engineers and scholar students to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas and research results about all aspects of their fi elds, and

discuss the practical challenges encoun-tered and the solutions adopted.

ANA InterContinental Tokyo, Tameike-sanno Station, Exit 13, Tokyo Metro Ginza and Namboku Lines

150th Anniversary Commemorative CeremonyMay 31www.city.yokohama.jp/

This year marks the 150th anniversary of when U.S. Commodore Perry and his black ships reopened the port of Yokohama. The ceremony—including original show by Amon Miyamoto, an exhibition and fi lm show on the premises related to the history and opening of the port—also will convey future aspects that the city can share as dreams and hopes for the next generation, the country and the world. Some 2,000 invited guests and another 2,000 attendees by applica-tion will attend.

Pacifi co Yokohama, Minatomirai 21, Minatomirai Station, Toyoko/Minatomirai Line; or Sakuragicho Station, JR Keihin-Tohoku, Negishi and Yokohama Lines

David Umeda is Senior Editor at Paradigm


OUT AND ABOUT

Left to right: ACCJ Vice President William Bishop, ACCJ Governor Christopher Ellis, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, ACCJ President Thomas Whitson and ACCJ Executive Director Samuel Kidder. The Diet Doorknock is the cover feature in the upcoming June issue of the ACCJ Journal.

Left to right: Akiko Suehiro, Eiichi Ishimaru (Oakwood Premier Tokyo Midtown), Andrew Stevens, Jason Altobelli, Glenn Chadderton and Richard Cayne

Servcorp Japan KK marketing team

ACCJ Event HighlightsACCJ 2009 Winter Diet DoorknockSeventy-two ACCJ leaders met with 58 Diet members and senior government offi cials to discuss the international business environment in Japan during the ACCJ 2009 Winter Diet Doorknock on February 17–19.

ACCJ 2009 Spring Meet & GreetAbout 200 members and guests joined the ACCJ 2009 Spring Meet & Greet on April 2 at the Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo that was organized by the ACCJ Tokyo Membership Relations Committee to welcome new ACCJ members. Attendees enjoyed several hours of networking, mingling, prize drawings, and hanami-themed bingo.

Photos by Aron Kremer


Tax Management during the Economic Downtown

Of the developed nations, Japan has suffered amongst the worst economic deterioration—the result of which the government has announced a total of $270 billion in three economic stimulus

packages since September 2008. The measures include government guarantees for company loans, incentives for eco-friendly products, and tax incentives. In the business sector, taxes are considered an even more critical tool in an economic downturn because an effective tax manage-ment strategy can contribute to sound cash fl ow management and effective risk control, especially for multinational companies. Below are some opportunities you may wish to consider for your business in Japan.

Effective use of losses/tax creditsIt is important for multinationals to effectively utilize tax losses, and take advantage of tax credits to generate additional cash fl ow. Not only compliance with basic requirements to carry forward losses up to seven years, for instance; but have you also considered tax consolidation oppor-tunities for effective use of losses within the group? There may be R&D tax credit opportunities, of up to 30% of a company’s annual corporation tax liability.

Cash tax managementGiven the current importance of liquidity, cash tax management becomes at least as, if not more, important than the book tax rate. Maximizing shareholder value is based upon paying the correct amount of tax no sooner than it is needed to be paid and taking advantage of all opportunities to accelerate receipt of cash refunds. For interim tax pay-ments, have you considered estimating mid-year installment payments based on actual results of the fi rst six months, as opposed to paying 50% of the prior year tax liability? This may well result in a lower payment. Regarding Japanese consumption tax, have you undertaken a review of the timing for reclaiming consumption tax to minimize cash outfl ow and the timing of fi ling returns to access tax refunds in a timely manner?

Optimization of deductionsBook-tax differences sometimes cause signifi cant funding problems; hence, it is essential for businesses to identify and obtain absolute tax

savings through adoption of appropriate techniques and planning struc-tures. It may be worthwhile to focus on the newly introduced guidelines to claim a Japanese tax deduction for the write-down of investments in securities, which may enable companies with heavy valuation losses to reduce their corporate tax burden, especially in the current diffi cult economic circumstances.

Cash repatriation optionsIt has become more diffi cult to access funding, particularly on a short-term basis; and, as such, tax departments are being challenged by management to quantify the tax cost of alternative techniques of extracting cash from foreign operations. Solutions include the use of tax-effi cient structures and tax-effi cient payments. For example, have you taken advantage of tax treaties between Japan and tax residents of your offshore operations in order to reduce withholding tax on interest, divi-dends and royalties within the group? Can you structure repatriations as capital redemptions? Alternatively, you may consider a Japan entity with excess cash making an upstream yen loan to an offshore affi liate, based on an arm’s length rate of interest, which may be considered relatively low in comparison to other developed nations.

Finally, taxes have become even more important in the economic downturn because tax departments can add value by improvements in cash fl ow, effi cient use of existing cash, and global minimization of tax. The companies that thrive in the current economic downturn will be the ones that make full use of their tax management toolbox.

Jonathan Stuart-SmithChartered Accountant (UK) Partner - International TaxTohmatsu Tax Co., a member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

INVESTMENT, BANKING AND FINANCE Special Advertising Section


AP OutsourcingTel: 03-5228-1820

Fax: 03-5228-1830

Web: www.APOutsourcing.jp

AP Outsourcing (APO) is an independent outsourcing provider of Accounting and Payroll with Big Four experience (Arthur Andersen and KPMG). It was separated from Azsa Audit Corporation (the audit group of KPMG Japan) in April 2004. AP Outsourcing provides bilingual staff with extensive experience and knowledge of fi nancial operations, payroll and tax, helping you compete better and accomplish your goals.

Start-up Support: APO provides business start-up support for new foreign corporations and venture companies, including legal registration, tax and social insurance applications.

Project Management: Effective and effi cient project management support for outsourcing migration.

Outsourcing Operations: Well-qualifi ed bilingual accountants, tax/social insurance specialists and system experts accurately and promptly provide outsourcing operations, focusing on the confi dentiality of accounting payroll/information.

Loan Staff: Accounting/payroll processes are facilitated by the placement of our own specialist staff in the clients’ offi ces for specifi c periods.

APO also offers other specifi c services and support on request. For more information on how we can help you to simplify your business processes, call AP Outsourcing at 03-5228-1820.

Atsumi & PartnersTel: 03-5501-1166 (Bonnie Dixon)

Fax: 03-5501-2211

Web: www.apap.gr.jp

Atsumi & Partners is one of Japan’s leading independent law fi rms and was the fi rst Japanese law fi rm to admit non-Japanese partners, Ms. Bonnie Dixon, a New York lawyer; and Daniel Hounslow, an English lawyer—both with more than 20 years’ experience; our foreign partners are supported by six foreign attorneys. We operate as a fully integrated international team, providing advice on complex domestic and cross-border matters to the standards the modern business community expects. Atsumi & Partners has for some years been widely regarded as Japan’s premier law fi rm in the fi elds of securitization and structured fi nance, and now offers its clients a full-service capability with international experience in fi nance, banking, real estate fi nance, private equity, investment funds, mergers and acquisitions, securities, syndicated loans, derivatives, public offerings, private placements, information technology, intellectual property, general corporate law, trust law, bankruptcy, insolvency, restructuring, due diligence, compliance, litigation and arbitration.

Ernst & Young Shinnihon Tax Tel: 03-3506-2411

Web: www.eytax.jp

Ernst & Young’s tax professionals in Japan provide you with deep technical knowledge, both global and local, combined with practical, commercial and industry experience. Our highly regarded tax and M&A advisory, compliance

and transfer pricing professionals, consistent methodologies as well as unwavering commitment to quality service help you to build the strong compliance and reporting foundations and sustainable tax strategies that help your business achieve its ambitions. It’s how Ernst & Young makes a difference.

If you would like further information regarding domestic or international tax matters, please contact Shinichi Tanimoto at 03-3506-2843 or [email protected], or John Kondos at 03-3506-2596 or [email protected].

The Haruki and Tokyo-Marunouchi Law Offi cesTel: 03-3214-2491

Fax: 03-3214-2494

Web: www.tmhlo.jp

The Haruki and Tokyo-Marunouchi Law Offi ces is one of Japan’s leading law fi rms, with a history of nearly 60 years. The fi rm was established in 2006 following the formation of a new partnership pairing the strengths of Haruki, Sawai & Inoue in international business, real estate securitization, project fi nance, mergers and acquisitions, and contracts with the experience of the Tokyo Marunouchi Law Offi ces in domestic business, bankruptcy and corporate rehabilitation, broadcasting, private fi nance initiatives and information technology. The combination of our practices has provided an extraordinary opportunity for the service we provide to our clients. Our fi rm’s international division includes attorneys admitted in Japan and the U.S., with several receiving their legal education in the U.S. and working in some of the largest U.S. law fi rms.

We provide advice to many prominent Japanese and foreign companies throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S. on a full range of corporate and transactional matters. Our fi rm also has a signifi cant litigation practice, having represented several Japanese and foreign companies in Japanese courts and international arbitration tribunals. Our fi rm also represents clients in disputes regarding intellectual property, international patents and employment matters.

For more information, please contact Noriko Sawai at [email protected] (Daini Tokyo Bar Association).

Houlihan LokeyTel: 03-4577-6000

Fax: 03-4577-6099

Web: www.HL.com/jp

Houlihan Lokey, an international investment bank, provides a wide range of services, including M&A, fi nancial opinions and advisory services, and fi nancial restructuring. The fi rm provides cross-border M&A advisory services, renders expert fairness opinions and is a leader in providing independent valuations for tax and fi nancial reporting purposes. Established in 1970, the fi rm has over 800 employees in 14 offi ces in Asia, the United States and Europe. Each year the fi rm serves more than 1,000 clients ranging from closely held companies to Global 500 corporations. For more information on Houlihan Lokey’s services in Japan, contact Ryuta Fujino, Managing Director, at [email protected]

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Nagashima Ohno & TsunematsuTel: 03-3288-7000

Fax: 03-5213-7800


Web: www.noandt.com

Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, established in 2000, is widely known as a leading law fi rm in Japan, and a foremost provider of international and commercial legal services. We represent domestic and foreign companies and organizations involved in every major industry sector and in every legal service area in Japan. We have successfully structured and negotiated many of Japan’s largest and most signifi cant corporate and fi nance transactions, and have deep litigation strength spanning key commercial areas, including intellectual property and taxation. As of April 1, 2009, we have 331 lawyers (inclusive of 12 foreign-licensed lawyers) capable of providing our clients with practical solutions to meet their business needs.

Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu has extensive experience and in-depth expertise in handling a wide variety of fi nancial transactions in both the domestic and international fi nancial markets, and in rendering advice and providing services regarding Japan’s fi nancial regulations. Our fi nance practice includes but not limited to: capital markets, banking, securitization, structured fi nance, trust, fi nancial regulations, fund management, insurance, acquisition fi nance, and project fi nance.

Contact: (Ms.) Yuko Tamai (Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association).

The National Australia Bank151 Years New!

Expat Yen Loans Build Financial SecurityJapan is an amazing place isn’t it! It has also been the catalyst for

creating many an expat fortune. Dream homes, holiday “weekenders” and substantial investment portfolios have been built by “switched on” expats, off the back of time spent here in Japan.

Borrowing in yen, at low interest rates, to fund property investments overseas is a defi nite winner. All you need are enough funds to put down the deposit, and the cash fl ow from your salary to make up the difference between the property’s rent and the payments for the loan. In some markets, the property could be cash fl ow positive, in which case the tenants are paying the loan off for you!

These days, you can easily view investment property over the Internet. By employing a reliable local building inspector and a reputable valuer, you can even buy the property without having to leave Japan.

The National Australia Bank, celebrating its 151st year, is the leader in Japan in providing yen loans for property purchases in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. For the details on how to make your time in Japan work for you, call “Mr. Real Estate” Richard Henderson at 3241-8923, or e-mail to [email protected]

Tohmatsu Tax Co.Tel: 03-6213-3800

Fax: 03-6213-3801


Web: www.deloitte.com/jp

Tohmatsu Tax Co. is a leading member fi rm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, an international association of accounting fi rms with over 165,000 profes-sionals in 140 countries worldwide. We are a global provider of high-quality professional tax services tailored to the specifi c needs of multinational investors focusing on Japanese business opportunities.

We provide a full range of tax services to our clients, which include many of the largest U.S.-based MNCs operating in Japan. In addition, we have assisted our clients as tax advisors on some of the largest M&A transac-tions in Japan across a wide range of industries, and provide guidance to a number of Japan’s largest corporations in structuring and organizing their international transactions and tax affairs. We have extensive experience in advising on all aspects of cross-border transactions, including transfer pric-ing and global employee rewards planning.

Our knowledge is more than theoretical; and with our wide-ranging prac-tical experience of all types of tax consulting and compliance, we will go the distance to model tax solutions to fi t the commercial needs of our clients. With this approach, we can help you to identify both issues and opportu-nities, to help you reach your goal of tax optimization in Japan. For more information, please contact Jonathan Stuart-Smith at 03- 6213-3742.

Towers Perrin JapanTel: 03-3581-6602

Web: www.towersperrin.com

Towers Perrin is a global professional services fi rm that helps organizations improve performance through effective people, risk and fi nancial manage-ment. The fi rm provides innovative solutions in the areas of human capital strategy, program design and management, and in the areas of risk and capital management, insurance and reinsurance intermediary services, and actuarial consulting. Towers Perrin has offi ces and alliance partners in major countries across Asia-Pacifi c, the Americas, and EMEA. More information is available at www.towersperrin.com.

Established in Japan 25 years ago, Towers Perrin employs 60 Tokyo-based professional staff providing a full spectrum of HR consulting services. These services range from HR implications of M&A transactions to retirement plans, executive compensation & rewards benchmarking and design to employee research, workforce communication and change implementation strategies.

We are a leading consulting fi rm advising Western and Japanese corpora-tions on realizing strategic business objectives through people. Bringing global best practices to bear while working with local country management and corporate executives to address key HR program design and governance issues, along with program fi nancial reporting and risk management. We also assist organizations to re-align organizational structures to match busi-ness plans relevant to recent economic conditions. Please contact Steve Allan at 03-3581-6602 or [email protected] with further questions.

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Spread the Word

Advocacy Networking

InformationIf anyone in your valued network is not an ACCJ member yet, help sign them up. Recommend a new member to connect the best in business.

Call us at 03-3433-7304 for more information.

American Chamber of Commerce in Japan

Bringing Businesses Together for 61 Years


Actively making a choice to buy naturally made products is creating a signifi cantly growing foreign market niche in Japan. In response, an English-language Web site was launched on February 14 to target consumers of all backgrounds. “This project was borne from my love for pure, natural products for health and skin, so establishing our Web site on Valentine’s Day was very fi tting,” explains August Hergesheimer, co-founder of Only Pure Products, a brand of Abios K.K. “My company targets foreigners who may have come from a stronger, more vibrant community back in their home cities. Many fi nd it diffi cult to fi nd similar products here in Tokyo because the Japanese market has

been slower to catch on to the global organic movement, so we wish to serve this niche.”

Items available online include handmade skincare items “so pure they can be literally eaten”; and Vege Power Plus, a powdered vegetable supplement priced at ¥9,240 for a two-month supply. “Most of our likely consumers are not price-sensitive when it comes to unique self-care products as ours,” he explains, promising a zero tolerance policy on the use of any chemical or artifi cial ingredients in the product line-up. Hergesheimer, who has a Ph.D. in nutritional sciences, teamed up with Tokyo-based Swedish chef Jan-Erik Stalsbo to form Only Pure Products.

Gift giving is an established art in Japan. Determining what and to whom usually requires a complex set of decisions. The local launch of global experience-based gift service Smartbox just made the process a whole lot easier. France-originated Smart & Co Group is currently available in 17 countries and generated sales worth $223 million in 2007. Over the past four years it has sold more than two million Smartbox globally, and has now turned its focus to Japan. Launched in December, this product is available at Maruzen bookstores to purchase, and offers consumers the opportunity to choose between 60 different “experience” plans collected from all over Japan.

Experiences are categorized into seven different concepts; and each gift box offers specifi c ideas such as Adventure—and, within

this category, vouchers and brochures for paragliding, sailing and rafting

experiences that have signed up as corporate partners are included. Other Smartbox entries include Wellness & Spa, Dining, Unusual Escapes, Charming Getaways, Delicious Retreats, and Dreams & Delights.

“Smartbox is not only aimed at those giving presents, but

this service can also be offered as a corporate incentive to company

employees,” explains Makiko Kim, marketing manager at Smart & Co Japan. “Additionally, this

product hopes to revitalize the traditional gift coupon market; and while Smartbox is aimed at mass market, it’s a product that also feels very premium.”

Healthy Choice

Gift Experience

FDI PORTFOLIO


A six-month collaboration, started from April, between chef Stéphane Raimbault of L’Oasis, a two Michelin-star restaurant located near Cannes, and Japanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) sees First Class passengers offered an authentic Mediterranean menu on long-haul international fl ights from Tokyo to Europe and North America.

Owner-chef Raimbault prepares Western and Eastern menus that refl ect his career, nine years of which were spent in Japan. “The service policy, style and nature of the owner and the restaurant match our customers’ demands for a ‘healthier and lighter fusion of oriental modern French’ and our First Class service concept,” explains Mika Hayama, who works in In-fl ight Services Planning and is responsible for menus on ANA’s transpacifi c fl ights. “That is why we

established a tie-up to renew our First Class menu.”

The opportunity to market a menu offering food produced by L’Oasis refl ects a growing trend for lighter cuisine, states Hayama. “Customers are increasingly looking for in-fl ight food that is more healthy and light in taste using selected high-quality ingredients with more options and varieties,” she says. “Customers are not looking for fi xed course-style menus, but à la carte. Especially for those who fl y in First Class and those who are frequent fl yers—quality, not volume, is what counts—less is more.”

Chef Raimbault is known in Japan after a stint working in a restaurant in Osaka called Le Rendez-Vous in 1982—and through capitalizing on this success by publishing a recipe collection that sold 12,000 copies locally.

Osaka’s Daikin Industries, Ltd. and Guangdong Province-based Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai established a joint venture, operational since March, to manufacture compressors and molds for air-conditioners.

Daikin’s prowess in energy effi ciency technology is fused with Gree’s expertise in production and procurement of raw materials and parts to manufacture economical, high-performance inverter-type air-conditioners.

The JV enables the two manufacturers to promote the use of energy-effi cient air-conditioners in regions of low market penetration. With Daikin holding the No. 1 position in the global inverter air-conditioning market and Gree the greatest share of the non-inverter market, the JV should improve cost competitiveness and enable a broader range of users for the product. The two parent companies are leading the global air-conditioning industry toward even greater environmental measures.

In-fl ight Food

Energy-effi cient Aircons


It’s not just fi ve-star luxury hotels making a splash in Tokyo. Targeting travelers watching their yen, German hotel group WORLDHOTELS has added the Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo to its collection of properties.

Located in the Ikebukuro district and adjacent to the station, the rebranded Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo features 815 guestrooms with high-speed Internet connections, and has a 24-hour business center plus comprehensive conference facilities—the biggest among the 15 meeting rooms accommodates up to 800 theater-style or banqueting for 450.

“We are delighted to welcome the Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo to our Japan portfolio. The hotel is superbly located in the heart of the city, offers fantastic value, and is ideal for both business and leisure travelers to Tokyo,” says Roland Jegge, vice president for Asia-Pacifi c, WORLDHOTELS.

“As we embark on a new era with our rebranding, we see WORLDHOTELS as a key partner in our global sales and marketing

efforts,” says Kenji Shiojima, GM of Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo. When the Steigenberger Reservation Service (SRS)—the

company that would later become WORLDHOTELS—was founded in 1970, it was based on a simple premise: establishing a network of likeminded unique hotels, making it easier for travelers to connect with otherwise inaccessible hotels on the other side of the world, and enabling members to share customers and help each other to secure business. Owner of the trendy Buddha Bar hotels and resorts franchise, WORLDHOTELS has 500 individual accommodation options in more than 300 destinations worldwide in three distinct Collections—Deluxe, First Class and Comfort. All the member hotels keep their own character and individuality, but benefi t from a centrally managed reservations system.

Luxury mobile phone manufacturer and retailer Vertu launched its 19th global store in Japan in February, opening its doors to an upscale three-story establishment in the heart of the Ginza, widely known for its luxury retailers and home of international designer brands. The UK-based mobile phone maker, a business unit of Finland’s Nokia Corp., began accepting advance orders for ritzy

handsets from a choice of 14 models. Each fl oor of the Vertu fl agship store is

dedicated to a specifi c product line, such as the Vertu Ascent, Vertu Signature and Vertu Ferrari. The latter is a phone that features the horse crest of Italian sports carmaker Ferrari, and prices for these hand-assembled mobiles range from ¥670,000 to ¥3.7 million.

For those still spending in the current downturn, pre-orders of handsets will be taken for delivery when Vertu Club is available. Those who simply cannot wait until the Vertu Club launch in the second quarter will be able to purchase SIM lock-free 3G handsets of Ascent Ti, Ascent Ti Ferrari or Signature models for voice calls.

Ginza customers will be able to see the whole Vertu collection and experience the craftsmanship of a phone that counts many celebrities and uber-rich among its clientele.

What Recession?

FDI PORTFOLIO

Contact Nicole Fall at nicole@fi vebyfi fty.com if you have ideas for this column.

Rebranded Hotel


One lunchtime, on a sunny

and crisp winter day, Rick Weisburd is running through graceful sword kata routines of the Kashima

Shinryu, a more than fi ve-centuries-old warrior tradition. None of the partici-pants at the Tsukuba University session are wearing any protective equipment; Weisburd barely blinks as a hefty wooden sword stops inches from his forehead.

Weisburd runs his science editing business with equal energy and focus. ELSS was incorporated in 2005 after 10 years as a sole proprietorship. Based in his Tsukuba home, the company includes three staff under Weisburd and his wife Nobuko, who looks after bookkeeping and personnel matters. The work itself is

subcontracted to professional scientifi c translators and editors positioned all over the world and who can meet Weisburd’s exacting quality standards.

When he arrived in Japan in 1990, “I fi gured I’d come for a year or two,” he says, “and I’ve never left.”

He researched the ecology of Kasumi-gaura, Japan’s second-largest lake, as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, from 1991-97. Weisburd next joined the University of Tsukuba, where he researched environmental policy and taught classes in biology, oceanography and research writing in English.

“I encouraged my students to think independently and debate,” says Weisburd. He concluded his academic

career as an associate professor of Biology in March 2006.

By then, his scientifi c editing and translation business was well

BIOGRAPHY

Rick WeisburdPresident, ELSS, Inc. ■

Age: 51 ■

Raised in: Port Washington, New York ■

Education: Ph.D. in Oceanography, ■

University of Hawaii; B.Sc. cum laude in Biological Sciences, State University of New York at AlbanyOther languages: Japanese, Hebrew ■

Hobbies and interests: Kashima-Shinryu ■

martial art, alpine skiingFamily: Married to Nobuko with one ■

daughter, Tamar Mai (14) Favorite saying or quotation (for bicycling): ■

“Helmets are hard, brains are soft: use both.”

PRESIDENT, ELSS, INC. EDITING AND TRANSLATION SERVICESText and photos by Tony McNicol

Rick Weisburd


BUSINESS PROFILE

established. Three years ago, the Weisburds built their present house with a dedicated offi ce. One hour by train or car from central Tokyo, they live and work between rice paddies and a botanical garden, and have space for a dog pen and small wine cellar. The house was designed for high-energy effi ciency—with good insulation and seal, a thermal solar-heating system on the roof, and tubular skylights that concentrate sunlight for indoor lighting.

ELSS is growing steadily, with no detectable effect from the current global recession, according to Weisburd. Their new Web site recently went live—allowing for online submission of assignments, letting them handle 20-30% more outsourced business without additional company staff.

“Within the next fi ve years, we are probably going to outgrow our existing offi ce space,” says Weisburd. However, they are committed to steady, relatively risk-free expansion. “We are trying to grow the company in a way that is fair to our staff, subcontractors, and customers,” he adds, “and makes a comfortable livelihood for ourselves.

“It’s good if you start working on the side before you blow off your day job,” he advises potential entrepreneurs.

“Keeping your day job gives you the security to get your feet wet with minimal risk. The big thing is to be open to opportunity.”

The localization of an entrepreneurial enterprise brings special challenges. One can be your Japanese client’s reluctance to complain. “You may not get suffi cient feedback to recognize when your customers are dissatisfi ed,” says Weisburd, in order to deliver a better product.

“We have had very little trouble getting snaked,” notes Weisburd. Customers have reneged on payments only three times over the last 13 years. He attributes this to most Japanese being fairly honest.

Last year, the company was audited for the fi rst time. “There were a couple of small things that we needed to fi x,” says Weisburd.

The biggest surprise was that the tax offi ce instructed ELSS to take withholding tax from the gross pay of its overseas translators. The Weisburds wrote a formal rebuttal, which the authorities accepted. He says the entrepreneur-taxman relationship in Japan tends to be far less adversarial than in the U.S. “I don’t feel the tax authorities here are looking to nickel and dime you to death,” he says.

Most mornings, Weisburd is up at 6 a.m. to prepare to walk the dog and accompany his 14-year-old daughter to the bus stop. By 8 a.m. he is at his desk. Work goes on until 7 p.m. most days, although he sometimes rises at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. to start earlier on the busiest days. Luckily, his bedroom is just down the corridor.

The Kashima Shinryu keeps Weisburd grounded and focused, even during the most hectic stretches. He has been practicing the martial art for about eight years, and is now at okuden, the fi fth of seven ranks. He practices about

once a week. “There’s nothing quite like a sword fl ying toward your head to grab your attention. Kashima Shinryu requires cultivation of your ki [spirit]. That has an effect on the rest of your life,” says Weisburd. “Self-confi dence, personal power and the way you interact with other people.” ■

SNAPSHOT

ELSS, Inc.Established: September 2005 ■

Mission: Facilitate improved quality and ■

quantity of Japanese research publications through teaching, consulting, and the provision of high-quality editing and translation services.Key clients: Academic and corporate ■

researchersIndustry served: Research ■

Number of staff: 5 ■

Tel: (029) 856-0713 ■

Email: ■ [email protected]://elss.co.jp/ ■

Tony McNicol is a freelance journalist based in Tokyo.

“There’s nothing quite like a sword fl ying

toward your head to grab your attention”

REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL JAPANRIJ

WE CAN HELP THEM REBUILD THEIR LIVES AND RESTORE HUMAN DIGNITY.

REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL JAPAN FUNDS PROJECTS THAT SUPPORT SOME OF THE MILLIONS WHO

HAVE LOST EVERYTHING AS A RESULT OF CONFLICT AROUND THE WORLD.

RIJは、世界中で起こる紛争のためにすべてを失った、何百万という人々の中の一部を支援するプロジェクトに、資金を提

供しています。皆様の支援のお陰で、彼らが人間としての尊厳を回復し、生活を立て直す手助けをすることができます。

TEL: 03-5500-3093 WWW.REFUGEESINTERNATIONALJAPAN.ORG


We are giving away 3 copies of The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008. Simply e-mail [email protected] by May 18. The winners will be picked at random. Winners of Billion-Dollar Lessons: Jeff Graves, Index Consulting, Inc.; Dr. Andreas F. Stange TÜV SÜD Japan Ltd.; Sarah Blaubaum, Trade Queensland Office Tokyo.

By Paul KrugmanW.W. Norton, 191 pp, $24.95Reviewed by Tom Baker

Since late last year, you’ve probably heard the following

comment more times than you could count: “We’re facing our

greatest fi nancial crisis since the Great Depression.”

Paul Krugman’s latest book, The Return of Depression

Economics and the Crisis of 2008, isn’t just another voice in the

chorus. He does call the current situation “reminiscent of the

1930s,” but he also compares the present-day U.S. economy to

that of Japan’s “Lost Decade” (another common comparison,

roughly the 1990s) and to less widely discussed past

crises such as the Panic of 1907.

There was no Federal Reserve in 1907,

but there were “national banks that were

subject to a modest degree of regulation.”

Alongside those fi nancial institutions,

there arose unregulated bank-like

entities called trusts. The trusts took

on greater risks and paid higher

returns—until the collapse of one led to

a run on the others that plunged the U.S.

economy into a deep recession.

Krugman writes that a similar

“shadow banking system” arose,

beginning in the 1980s, in the form

of devices such as auction-rate

securities, which are essentially also

similar in function. Like trusts, they

had come to hold a signifi cant fraction

of national wealth by the time they

collapsed. They “seemed to offer a better

deal because they were able to operate

outside the regulatory system … only

to become an epicenter of fi nancial

crisis.”

The Nobel Prize-winning econo-

mist and Princeton University

professor knows whereof he speaks. Krugman, as a lightning-

rod columnist for The New York Times, knows how to put things

in layman’s terms. This short but wide-ranging book, substan-

tially updated from a similar volume he penned 10 years ago

in response to the Asian currency crisis, is written in a mode

that keeps arcane jargon to a minimum and, instead, effectively

embraces folksy similes.

For example, he describes a recession in miniature through

the true story of a babysitting co-op in Washington, D.C.

that issued coupons that its members could redeem among

themselves for hours of childcare. Many of the young couples

decided instead to stay home and save their coupons for future

use, rather than going out on the town right away. However,

by refraining, they reduced the opportunities for other couples

in the co-op to earn babysitting coupons, leading to a greater

widespread reluctance to go out. There was “too little spending

on real goods [babysitting time] because people were trying to

accumulate cash [babysitting coupons] instead.”

Krugman returns to this example repeatedly. His discus-

sion of the Lost Decade indicates that weak demand failed to

keep up with the economy’s capacity. Even the

Bank of Japan’s drastic lowering of interest rates

couldn’t jump-start the economy—as if it were

the dead of winter, and couples didn’t want

to go out no matter how cheap babysitting

coupons became.

While the book endorses regulatory reform

and major stimulus spending as ways out of the

present mess, the author’s extended focus is on

how we got into it in the fi rst place. ■

Tom Baker is a staff writer at The Daily Yomiuri.

BEHIND THE BOOK

The Return of

Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008


Advocacy Update

ACCJ Viewpoints are the core products of ACCJ Advocacy. An ACCJ Viewpoint is a brief paper, generated by a committee, that expresses the Chamber’s offi cial position on a specifi c issue. Viewpoints are primarily used to express opinions on current policies, policies under consideration by the Japanese and/or U.S. governments, and policies under discussion in bilateral or multilateral forums. They are also used to raise new concerns about issues not currently on the Japanese government agenda.

Allow Initial Disclosure Requirements to be Satisfi ed Through the Delivery of Summary Prospectus

Investment Management Committee Valid Through November 2009

RecommendationThe American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) urges the Government of Japan and the Financial Services Agency (FSA) to implement reforms that would allow the initial disclosure delivery require-ment for investment trusts and investment companies (collectively known as “investment funds”) to be satis-fi ed through the delivery of a summary prospectus alone, with the full prospectus and upon-request pro-spectus available online or for delivery upon request.

Improve the Urban ParkingEnvironment for DistributionVehicles

Transportation and Logistics CommitteeValid Through November 2009

RecommendationThe American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) urges the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), the National Police Agency (NPA), police stations in major cities, and local autonomies including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to: (1) provide additional parking spaces for distribution vehi-cles in urban centers where enforcement of the parking regulations in the revised Road Traffi c Law that came into force in June 2006 has dramatically hampered the activities of distribution vehicles, and (2) until such time as there are adequate parking spaces for distribution vehicles, provide appropriate exemptions from parking regulations for distribution vehicles. (In this Viewpoint, distribution vehicles refer to vehicles used by commer-cial distribution fi rms, other businesses, and nonprofi t organizations (NPOs) for making pick-ups and deliver-ies, and “nisabaki” refers to pick-up, delivery, and loading-and-unloading activities in which the driver of the delivery vehicle leaves the vehicle for a short time.)

The MLIT has tried to improve urban distribution by increasing the number of nisabaki zones and by coordinating measures implemented by its various bureaus in its list of “Important Policies” issued on August 4, 2006; as well as by creating a consultation group. The consultation group issued a report called “A Comprehensive Plan for Urban Area Distribution” in March 2007. The ACCJ is pleased that the plan recognizes that it will take more than just modifying the way parking regulations are enforced to solve

parking problems and that the plan calls for other measures to be implemented in order to improve the situation. The ACCJ also supports the plan’s recom-mendation that police stations with responsibility for traffi c management establish parking enforce-ment guidelines that take into account the realities of distribution vehicle operations in urban areas.

However, the efforts described above are not enough. Parking problems continue to be a major impediment to the effi cient operation of distribution vehicles in urban areas. While the ACCJ strongly supports the NPA’s view, released in January 2007, which states “(the National Police Agency) has been reviewing parking regulations and has been approaching (concerned parties) to increase parking spaces in consultation with concerned organizations and local residents when more parking spacesare necessary, in relation to local and road environment and transportation conditions,” the ACCJ urges the implementation of the following specifi c measures:1. Increase the number of short-duration (30 minute) loading and unloading zones on major streets. These zones should be designated with easy-to-understand street markings and parking wardens should check frequently for unauthorized vehicles and for vehicles that exceed the time limit.2. Increase the number of off-street parking spaces available for distribution vehicles. These spaces must have adequate width and height for at least a standard two-ton delivery van (i.e., at least two meters wide, 6.1 meters long, and three meters high). 3. Modify the Parking Law and other relevant laws, orders, and regu-lations to require that most commercial buildings have dedicated parking spaces for distribution vehicles.4. Where appropriate, allow distribution vehicles to load and unload goods in restricted areas for brief periods (e.g., 20 minutes) as allowed in Sapporo.5. Establish a process whereby recommendations from distribution vehicle operators can be quickly incor-porated into the planning for parking spaces in urban areas.

Until enough parking spaces are provided for distri-bution vehicles, the ACCJ also urges that the NPA, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, police stations and local Public Safety Commissions be instructed to introduce an “observation period rule” under which parking enforcement personnel wait at least 10 min-utes before ticketing a distribution vehicle parked in a restricted zone. This would allow personnel to confi rm whether a vehicle is attended by a driver and whether loading or unloading activity is actually taking place. The United Kingdom is well known for its strict control of illegal parking, but its enforcement policy includes an “observation period rule” under which parking war-dens do not issue tickets immediately but instead wait to see if a parked vehicle is “attended” and if loading or unloading is actually taking place. As an example, the observation period in the Camden, Richmond, and Westminster sections of London is 20 minutes.

Tax Reform for EnhancedFinancial Competitiveness andSustainable Economic GrowthACCJ Financial Services ForumValid Through October 2009

RecommendationThe Government of Japan has committed to un-dertaking dramatic reform of Japan’s tax system, establishing, in its 2008 Basic Policies (Honebuto), a goal of reforming the tax system to best stimulate productivity and bolster economic growth. The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) strongly supports this objective. In this Viewpoint, the ACCJ has outlined specific tax reform measures based on global best practices that, if taken, would help achieve the government’s goal of strengthening Japan’s productivity and economic growth as well as promote innovation and new investment.

In addition, as the policy debate on reform of Japan’s tax system progresses, the ACCJ urges the government to ensure that the dialogue is open and transparent, providing meaningful opportunities for key stakeholders, including foreign businesses, to participate in the process. More specifically, the ACCJ calls on the Government of Japan to:• Lower the statutory corporate tax rate within a

couple of years to below 30%, targeting a level equivalent to that of Germany and the United Kingdom;

• Review the current policies regarding the Defined Contribution (DC) Pension Plan, including:

• Increasing the limits on tax deductible contributions;

• Allowing employee contributions;• Allowing withdrawals prior to age 60 under certain

conditions; and• Introducing a DC pension for public workers.• Extend the loss carry forward period to greater

than 10 years, targeting a length consistent with norms of other G7 countries such as the United States and Canada;

• Consider comprehensive market-based reforms of financial and securities tax systems with the aim of encouraging the shift from savings to invest-ments and enhancing the international competi-tiveness of Japan’s financial and capital markets;

• Amend its law to ensure that its consumption tax regime is consistent with global best practices identified by international economic organizations including the OECD and the IMF and implemented in leading countries such as the UK, Germany, and France;

• In particular, Japan’s consumption tax law and related regulations should be revised to ensure neutrality in the treatment of the sales of financial services offered through third-party sales agents and to allow VAT grouping for financial service providers that are wholly-owned affiliates.

• Abolish the documentary stamp tax.

Released ACCJ Viewpoints can be read in full in the Advocacy section of www.accj.or.jp


ACCJの「意見書」は、特定の問題に対してのACCJの公式見解を表明する委員会が作成した簡潔な提言書であり、提言活動の中核を成しています。現行の政策や、日本又は米国政府で検討中の政策、二国間もしくは多国間で協議中の政策についてだけでなく、新たな関心を高めるために現在日本政府の課題となっていない問題についても意見を述べています。

交付目論見書の更なる簡素化に向けて投資運用委員会

2009年11月まで有効英語正文

提言在日米国商工会議所（ACCJ）は、日本政府および金融庁に対して、次の改革実施を要請する。すなわち、投資信託および投資法人（両者をあわせて「投資ファンド」と呼ぶ）に関する当初開示交付要件は、要約目論見書のみの交付で充足されることとし、交付目論見書および請求目論見書についてはオンラインで入手可能にするもしくは要請に応じて交付することができるようにすること。

市街地における集配車両による作業の円滑化をトランスポーテーション・ロジスティックス委員会


提言在日米国商工会議所（ACCJ）は国土交通省、警察庁、主要都市における警察署、東京都を始めとする地方自治体に下記を要請する。（1）2006年6月の改正道路交通法による駐車規制の施行により大幅に集配作業が妨げられている市街地に集配車両用の駐車場インフラ施設を増設、そして（2）集配車両用の十分な駐車場の場所が確保されるまでの間、集配車両に対して適切な駐車規制の免除（この意見書では、集配車両とは集荷・配達を行う商業配送会社・その他の会社・非営利団体（NPOs）の車両を示す。また荷さばきの定義としては集荷、配達、荷の積込み、荷降ろし、一時的に運転手が集配車両を離れることを想定する）。国土交通省は、2006年8月4日に発表した重点施策

の中に、荷さばき場を増設し、また同省の関係各局により取られている対策を連携することを明記し、都市内物流の向上を図った。また都市内物流に関する研究会を設立し、2007年3月に都市内物流のトータルプランが策定された。ACCJは、そのプランでは「駐車取締り強化だけでなく、他の対策も組み合わせて駐車問題に取り組む必要」があり、「交通管理者である警察は、都市内物流

に関する実態を踏まえ、駐車取締りに関するガイドラインの策定等柔軟な運用が求められる」と提言されていることを称賛する。しかし、上記の提言だけでは十分と言えず、現在も依

然として、駐車問題は主要都市内において集配車両が効率的な作業を行う上での障害となっている。ACCJは、警察庁が2007年1月に、「地域・道路の環境や交通実態等を勘案して、駐車場所を確保することが必要と認められる場合には、関係機関や地域住民等と連携しつつ、駐車規制の見直しや駐車施設の整備の働き掛けを行っている」との見解を示したことを強く支持するとともに、下記の具体策を提言する。1. 短時間（30分）用の荷さばき場を主要道路に増設。集配車両用の路上荷さばき場は分かりやすい標示で示し、民間監視員は集配車両でない車両と時間制限を越えた車両を頻繁に取り締まる。2. 集配車両用の路上以外（路外）の駐車場の数を増やす。そのような駐車場は少なくとも、標準の集配用2トントラックが入る適当な幅と高さを持つスペースが必要である（すなわち、少なくとも2メートルの幅、6.1メートルの長さ、3メートルの高さが必要である。）3. ほとんどの商業ビルには集配車両のための駐車場インフラ施設が設けられるよう、駐車場法等関係法令、規則を改正する。4. 札幌で認められているように、適切な場所では全ての集配車両が駐車禁止区域で短時間（例えば20分）の荷さばきができるよう許可する。5. 事業者の意見が市街地での駐車スペース整備計画に迅速に反映されるフレームワークを策定する。またACCJは、集配車両のための必要な駐車スペースが確保されるまで、駐車監視員が駐車禁止区域に駐車している集配車両に駐車違反の標章を取り付ける前に、少なくとも10分間の猶予をもたせる「観察期間のルール」を取り入れるよう警察庁、警視庁、警察署、都道府県公安委員会に要請する。このような時間を設定することにより、対象車両が放置車両ではなく運転手がいるのか、荷さばき作業中なのかを確認することが可能になる。英国は駐車違反の取締りが厳しい国として知られているが、「観察期間のルール」も取り入れており、駐車監視員は集配車両に対して直ちに違反を確認するのではなく、駐車車両には運転手がいて、荷さばき中であるかを確認する。例として、カムデン、リッチモンド、ウェストミンスターなどのロンドン地区では20分の観察期間を設けている。

金融の競争力強化と持続可能な経済成長に向けた税制改革をACCJ金融サービスフォーラム


提言日本政府の「経済財政改革の基本方針（骨太の方針）2008」では、生産性向上を促し成長力を強化するため、政府が抜本的な税制改革に取り組むとしている。在日米国商工会議所（ACCJ）はこの政府の方針を強く支持し、この意見書では、グローバル・ベスト・プラクティスに基づいた具体的な税制改革施策を提示する。この施策が導入されれば、日本の生産性向上や経済成長だけでなくイノベーションや新たな投資を増進することになるであろう。さらにACCJは、日本政府に対して、税制改革に関す

る政策議論を進めるにあたり、外国企業を含む重要なステークホルダーに有意義な参加の機会を与えるなど、議論のプロセスを公開し、透明なものとすることを要請する。日本政府に対する具体的なACCJの提言は以下の通り。• 法定法人税率をドイツや英国並みの水準にすることを目標とし、2、3年以内に30%未満に引き下げる。

• 確定拠出年金に関する現行制度を以下の措置を通じて見直す。

• 非課税限度額を引き上げる。• 従業員による拠出を認める。• 一定条件下での、60歳前の積立金引出しを認める。• 公務員に対して確定拠出年金制度を導入する。• 米国やカナダ等のG７加盟国の基準に合わせ、欠損金の繰越期間を10年以上に延長する。

• 貯蓄から投資への移行促進と、日本の金融・資本市場の国際競争力強化を目指し、金融・証券税制に関する包括的かつ市場に立脚した改革を検討する。

• 経済協力開発機構（OECD）や国際通貨基金（IMF）に代表される国際機関が定義し、英国、ドイツ、フランスなどの主要国が導入しているグローバル・ベスト・プラクティスに整合するように、日本の消費税制度を法改正する。

• 特に、第三者代理店を通じた金融商品の販売において中立性を確保するために、また金融サービス会社が完全子会社である場合にグループ課税制度を導入すべく、日本の消費税法および関連規制を改正する。

• 印紙税を廃止する。

ACCJが公表した意見書の全文は、 www.accj.or.jp のアドボカシーセクションでご覧頂けます。

We can all feel the economic ground shaking beneath ACCJ members. But how is the three-legged stool of advocacy, informa-tion and networking holding up under these tough conditions? I think it is safe to say that we’re holding up well. We may have become a little more wobbly than we might like in the member-ship area—where we have seen a drop over the past several months that tracks with the pull back we see in other organiza-tions and institutions that focus on the foreign community in Japan. But our activity level remains as high as ever, thanks to outstanding leadership and tireless dedication at the committee level. Since networking, information and advocacy all fl ow together in the way ACCJ provides value to members, it is often hard to know which leg of the stool we are talking about.

For example, events are both networking and information gathering activities and sometimes have an advocacy compo-nent. Rather than slowing down along with the economy, the number of events ACCJ has put on continues at record levels. We ended a record year in 2008 with 529 events and a total of 18,933 attendees. November and December, already well into the economic downturn, were record months in both metrics and the trend continued through January of this year. In February and March we seem to have begun to see a new pattern emerging; and by the end of the fi rst quarter the total number of events was up 21%, but attendance had fallen 2% below last year. In talking to members, it appears that committees are very eager to create opportunities to get members together, and there is a wide variety of topics and activities that fulfi ll the hunger for information. Coupled with the smaller overall attendance, we see a real trend to more, but more focused, events.

Our advocacy activities are as vigorous as ever. In Japan’s current uncertain political environment, there has been a proliferation of politicians’ comments that make us worried about the direction of Japanese government policies. At least at the level of rhetoric, the atmosphere is much less congenial. And policy positions are being aired that could be quite damaging to American business interests. The need for a strong advocacy presence is greater than ever. We know that; and I think are responding well. At the committee and staff level, we have stepped up our efforts to monitor policy developments. One direct result of this is that in the fi rst quarter of the calendar year ACCJ had already issued 11 public comments. This compares to the 18 we issued all of last year. And once we got to the execution stage, our Diet Doorknock improved well beyond our planned scope.

None of us expects the coming months to be easy for the Chamber and many of its member companies. But by all measures we have, it is clear that the ACCJ’s value proposition has not fallen along with so many other economic indicators. ■

Three-legged Stool Holding up Well

IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS

Samuel H. Kidder is ACCJ Executive Director.

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accj journal may 2009

Documents

accj missionfurther

recent accj events

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friendly japan

food importers

tax obligations