Article looks at how poor utilization of credit cards and the arcane infrastructure in place to support them are hurting online sales in Japan.
Source: BusinessWeek / Ken Belson | Subject: Business / Economy
Atlantic Monthly article argues that behind Japan’s economic woes is a worse social crisis; discusses the idea of ethno-economics.
Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Business / Economy
Web entrepreneurs are out to win on a global scale–and bring profound change to Japan’s business culture.
Source: BusinessWeek / Irene M. Kunii | Subject: Business / Economy
This essay talks about need for business model innovation to stay competitve, gives a few examples, sites some references of value and offers three broad ways to benchark your thinking to others who have innovated successfully
Editor’s Note: I include this article because it makes brief mention of the Japanese Hoshin system of focusing breakthroughs on two pieces of the business while incrementally improving all … [ Read more ]
Source: EIA Trendscope | Subject: Business / Economy
JICS provides services to foreign-based companies entering and doing business in the Japanese market. This site also offers some useful information for free. Major site headings include: Market Research (info about the Japanese online market); Localization (multiple case studies focused on key issues regarding doing business and communicating with the Japanese); Advertising (offers overview of 7 different methods); Multimedia; and eBusiness (look for the downloadable … [ Read more ]
Source: JICS | Subject: Business / Economy
Hiroshi Mikitani’s Rakuten cybermall is growing at Net speed.
Source: BusinessWeek / Irene M. Kunii | Subject: Business / Economy
This article examines the new M&A wave involving foreign investors in Japan. Makes some interesting predictions and offers some useful statistics and analysis. We’ll see how it unfolds going forward.
Source: BusinessWeek / Robert Neff | Subject: Business / Economy
Article discusses Toshifumi Suzuki, CEO of Seven-Eleven Japan, and his plan to turn his ubiquitous stores into a center for all kinds of commerce. Also offers some interesting background info and statistics.
Source: BusinessWeek / Irene M. Kunii | Subject: Business / Economy