Japan is in need of a stimulus to bring visitors back and stimulate economies in devastated regions. Source: Japan Probe Blog

The Japanese government seems to give lip service (at least) to the proposition that they want to increase tourism.  Many individual cities and prefectures have taken over their local promotions from large travel agencies, hoping that the local touch will make the travel experience to their region more pleasurable and perhaps more reasonably priced.

Here’s what the Japanese National Tourist Organization says about traveling in Japan (and I agree):

The Japanese islands stretch over 3,000 km with a rich variety of scenery in climates ranging from sub-artic in the north to sub-tropical in the south. Volcanic mountain ranges teem with hot spring resorts, while a history going back thousands of years gives each region a distinct cultural character. In short, Japan is a tourist paradise. On these pages we suggest some examples of incentive tours or excursions centered on major cities.

There is a company called Live Quality Check in Austria that arranges tours based on a pay-what-it’s worth price tag.  This system can lure locals and visitors from overseas to the more remote, out-of-the-way villages and regions.  The idea is to get a bunch of local  merchants to collaborate in offering a wide array of choices of hotels, golf courses, restaurants, outdoor activities, etc.

Before the patron decides on the price they are willing to pay, they fill out a survey reviewing their tourist experience.  This helps local  tourist bureaus streamline their list of quality merchants and thus increase the chance that visitors will be satisfied, recommend the area to friends  and associates, and return themselves in the future.

With more and more local tourist bureaus taking over marketing campaigns from tour agencies, no doubt many of them would be receptive to this idea.

The pay-what-you-want idea has caught on worldwide, and if you can cut a deal with regional businesses then the profit potential could be exponential.  You could even start a pay-what-it’s-worth network of merchants regionally or nationally in Japan.

Source:  United Nations University

Japan is an energy-dependent nation which, for better or worse, was crippled in its last and hopefully final war more than a half-century ago.

Since that time, its technological progress has enabled it to deal with energy concerns more dynamically than any other nation.  Those advances were seriously challenged a year ago when the devastating earthquake and tsunami seriously damaged the Tohoku Region and had a ripple effect into the Kanto Region.  Twenty-three of 27 nuclear power plants were shutdown as a precaution after the event, and remain offline.

In Japan, the small-scaled mini- and micro-hydroelectric power plants have been regarded for a considerable time as being suitable for creating electricity in mountainous regions, but they have through refinement come to be regarded as excellent for Japanese cities as well. Kawasaki City Waterworks, Japan Natural Energy Company, and Tokyo Electric Power Company have all been involved in the development of small-scale hydroelectric power plants within Japanese cities.

How can this technology benefit your community or even corporation.  Pay attention to these developments.

  Source: 21 Blue Jaggers Blog

Women’s working conditions are worsening for working women of the part-time variety, according to panelists at a recent Tokyo forum.  The low wages for women mean that a single mom would have to work 3600 hours a year at 900 yen per hour (the going rate) to squeak by with two school-age children.

In the last ten years or so, the number of people earning less than 2 million yen per year has increased from nearly 8 million to well over 10 million.  Of those workers, seventy percent are women and thirty percent of those women earn less than 2 million yen.

While this may seem appalling to westernized women and men, in Japan this has been and probably always will be the norm.  Nix the idea that corporations and government officials will ever change their bias ways in a meaningful fashion, even as the population decreases and the number of elderly needing support increases.

The panelist concluded that J(Just)O(Over)B(Broke) training is the answer, but that is totally wishful thinking.  While Japanese women may work on the cheap, India’s and Vietnam’s masses command even cheaper wages  to Japanese corporate interests.

The plight of Japanese women is as much the fault of women as it is men.  Women often choose home-body marriages when and if their husbands can afford to carry the financial load.  The men still expect or subtly pressure women to quit when their motherly duties conflict with their workload, and a large majority of women still eventually relent.

Moreover, I have taught close to a thousand Japanese women English in my 31 years here, and all but maybe a dozen have zero curiosity about careers or entrepreneurship.

The time is ripe to teach all women self-sufficiency, not just single moms.  There are scattered NGOs and other support groups in Japan doing just that, but mindsets of both gender are rigid still.

A series of regional high school after-school programs for women desiring to live independently and become entrepreneurial-minded would be a winner.

Once women graduate from high school, the education system and society as a whole sets low expectation for the fair sex, so at adult age they are locked into stereotypical roles.   With few exceptions, they will seek out an up-and-coming hubby rather than the grind to success.

They must develop the self-confidence in their formative years.  Many prep schools (jukus) face a rapidly-declining youth market.  Many of them would be all  ears about women entrepreneurial programs.

A good reference point for the aspiring women entrepreneurs can be found in the video below:

Female Entrepreneurship and Institutional Change in Japan from CAPI on Vimeo.

I was astounded the first time I saw a perfectly square persimmon in Japan.  But farmers are getting more and more innovative.  Above, witness the pyramid and the heart-shaped watermelon.  Shaping fruit could well become an outstanding niche opportunity inside or outside of Japan.

It could also branch off into fruit and vegetable art, something I think the Japanese would literally eat up…

Here’s a video of many more great food art ideas to chew on for Japan…

Sometime ago I read an article about McDonald’s titled: “Going Down-Market in Nutrition.”  McDonald’s reclaimed its position as the top selling fast food “restaurant” chain in Japan. The company has sales well exceeding 500 billion yen, becoming the first in Japan to exceed 500 billion yen.

In recent years the Japanese consumer has started to accept cheap, not-so-wholesome food, clothing and services without a blink.  There was a time when nobody who was anybody would buy damaged fruit and vegetables at the supermarket.  It was one of those “We are all middle class” thingies which stigmatized the purchase of used or expiring goods and services.  Those days have passed.

Nowadays, thrift is in and I believe it is here to stay.  The trend means that wholesalers and retailers want to unload perishables and other stuff costly to stock or warehouse before it expires, spoils or perishes.

The need to track and make available perishables, damaged package goods and unsold inventory at heavily discounted prices is a challenge which will be addressed more efficiently in the coming years.

If you go to many supermarkets in Japan in the early evening, for example, the stock clerks are often discounting foods 10~50% at that time.  Other goods are kept in a refrigeration unit at all times of the day with things such a tofu, milk, luncheon meats, etc. whose expiration date is nearing expiration.

The challenge is to coordinate a database – for example, at 500 yen a month for consumers and 2000 yen a month for shops – that tells you which stores offer what discounts at that moment.

It can even get more efficient than that.  A particular challenge: How do you keep perishables in stock and on the shelves without having them spoil? Researchers at Agrotechnology & Food Innovations (A&F), an applied research institute at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, are using radio frequency identification technology to find the answer.

However the identification of damaged or perishable goods which will be trashed can be made, a community database feeding into a nationwide database system can  drastically cut waste, save consumers boatloads’ of money, and increase the bottom line of most wholesalers and retailers

Can you create or have you created such an ingenious system?  Japan – known in the past for its convoluted distribution system – is ready to embrace it.

Undeniably, many Japanese companies have weathered the economic doldrums for the last two decades without ever resorting to social media tactics.  Many stores and businesses have basically clung onto the leaden tactics of newspaper blurbs, paid advertisements in local papers and shopper weeklies, or just simple word-of-mouth tactics.

But in a world of choice with many online shopping portals and auction sites blooming, the days of social media indifference are numbered.  Just this past month, LinkedIn became localized in Japan and, with ongoing education in the virtual grapevine, it will in the next few tears crush the long-held custom of annual recruiting.

The same is true of Facebook, with its varied ways of building rapport with your customer or client base. Companies in the modern world must be prepared to go the extra mile using social media networks to spread the word about their products and services, address customer complaints or concerns, and educate their potential buyers about the reasons to choose their company over others.

Being social and sociable are not optional anymore, but many companies are becoming interested or concerned about how to reach customers where they hang out online.

Significantly, there is anew start-up called the Japan Social Media Manager Association which is trying to catch the social media wave.  They plan to launch a social media manager course early next year in Japan.  The trainees passing the course will be issued a certification certificate.

Social media in Japan is not a fad.  It’s a fact of life.  Main Street businesses -with proper education and training – can draw many more customers ready and willing to spend money NOW by using stealthy social media strategies, including cellphone apps with daily promotions.

The golden era social media is dawning.  If you are a great talent in social media, I may be able to help you establish your credentials in Japan.  Contact me at administrator@successinjapan.com.

Gluttony is one of the 7 deadly sins and, unfortunately, Japan and the Japanese are not immune from it.

Human beings are often gluttons in one way or another. Americans have a tradition of gorging on high-fat, low-nutrition foods on a regular basis and have the guts to prove it. Japanese, on the other hand, have their oral fixation satisfied by cigarettes and obsessive use or abuse of the modern pacifier called a cellphone. We human beings are flawed.  One point in the Japanese lifestyle that is definitely superior is that the natives (as a group) eat slower and subsequently less than Americans do.  An American can easily vacuum up a large French Fries at McDonald’s in a New-York-minute.  The Japanese will be eating fry by fry at 15- or 30-second intervals. Some may think that the DNA of Japanese makes them much thinner than their American counterparts.  Yes, they are smaller by and large than Americans and they do have eating habits which foster optimum health passed on from older generations.   But that inbred advantage is quickly fading as American fast-food culture invades.

Although bigger is becoming better in miniature Japan, I implore marketers to be responsible and market quality products in Japan in proportion to the size of this nation and its people. Gluttony sells well because it unmasks the base desire of all human beings to grab more than is needed, just in case the good times stop rolling. I believe it is time to revive the feeling that small is beautiful… and what better nation to export this self-sustaining virtue than Japan?

“True goodbyes are the ones never said or explained.”  ~ Anon~

Japanese people can be be extremely warm and accommodating to a stranger who becomes their sensei (teacher), or any other authority figure foisted upon them through proper channels.

You can teach them, boss them, and share feasts for years with them, but one day they decide that you are disposable and they disappear from your landscape like a thief in the night.

From their perspective, they are avoiding confrontation, explanation, and the uncomfortable feelings associated with parting ways.  To many westerners, however, this Japanese approach to difficult separations is feeble and insulting.

What you must learn the hard way if you live in Japan any length of time is that you are either in the group and protected or outside the group and easily disposed of on a whim.

Ironically and quite surprisingly, the Japanese are just as cold and calculating with their own tribe.  The myth that Japanese companies offer lifetime employment and a family-like setting has been a boldfaced lie for a long time.

Most corporations used to carry dead-wood employees until 62 or so.  Many now strip parasites (perhaps rightfully) of their titles in their mid fifties, then slightly to drastically reduce their wages, and finally offer a somewhat generous -though deceivingly not optional – early retirement buyout.

Most of those targeted quietly retire early rather than face humiliation in the workplace.  They may have significant savings, if their company is doing well, but they have lost their self-confidence to be somebody other than a lapel-pin loyalist to a corporate slave master.

The good news is that more Japanese are waking up to the painful reality that lifetime employment is a Faustian choice they needn’t make.

There are alternatives to being a blind follower of a bankrupt, outdated, unworkable system that will leave many poor and disillusioned in the years to come.

We must believe in ourselves – our skills and ability to find and exploit opportunities – without depending on a crumbling, socialized corporate structure.

That awareness in our self-worth will be the key to our survival and prosperity in the next generation.

Smoke and mirrors.  The entire Japanese miracle was just that.  For fifty-plus years of one-party rule in a democracy (of sorts), business as usual meant biting the bullet when economic trends were in a tailspin and taking a few crumbs more when indicators skyrocketed.

Even the bubble “keizai” era – when making money was as easy for some as watching stocks and real estate shoot through the roof – risk-aversive, disciplined and highly-controlled Japanese – a majority of folks here – watched from the sideline as the rich and the reckless got richer and richer.

Then, when the bubble burst a majority of these gamblers and their assets went south and the conservative, play-it-safe majority and pundits who sat out the boom sneered at these fleetingly rich bums suddenly turned poor fools with taunts of “I told you so (fool)!”

So now we have the first post-war changing of the political guard, just as unemployment figures also reach post-war highs.  By western standards, of course, the less than six percent unemployment rate seems quite enviable.

But did you know that the squeaky-clean figures for unemployment do not include people who work even one hour per week, nor women (relegated to the kitchen or PTAs for good reasons or not) and who have never participated in the work village?

Obviously the number of unemployed by overseas standards would hover at between 15 and 20 percent.  That is why so many young people choose or are forced to stay at home until their mid thirties or beyond.

More and more, you see people worried that the lifetime  system has collapsed and that the prospect for gainful employment in Japan is lessening by the breath.

The collective dignity of the Japanese is shot.  Jobs are disappearing, salaries are leveling off, and outsourcing and temp working are surging.

In other words, we are at the dawn of the entrepreneurial boom.  Sayonara to salary man drudgery.  Hello innovation.  In the worst of times, the best will arise.

“There is nothing more galling to angry people than the coolness of those on whom they wish to vent their spleen.“                ~Alexandre Dumas~

Many short-fuse foreigners in Japan believe that being assertive and obnoxious – the Ugly American Syndrome – in Japan will insure action in this docile country.

In my nearly 31 years here, such rudeness and overbearing, Ugly-American manner scantly brings a positive result.

One case in my very first year in Japan should have taught me a lesson about living here, but unfortunately it didn’t.  A Japanese junior high teacher whom I worked with had an extra phone line which she was willing to transfer to me.

We went to the telephone monopoly, NTT, and I could tell by the hissing between teeth that something was awry from the start.  He explained to my benefactor that my signature would not be adequate.  “I needed a hanko (personal stamp),” he stated while pointing with smug confidence to the affirming regulation.

I left their office grumbling about red tape and whatnot, but we went to a hanko shop and found a stamp with Hoshina – though my name is Posner (poh-zu-na).

We then marched back into the office ready for the transfer of the phone, but the same bureaucratic office worker said it must be Posner in katakana.

Seething, I got defiant and said “Why can’t I sign like I do at the bank?”  He took out his regs again and espoused the technicality.  Then he said, “Please make the personal stamp in English with Richard Alan Posner carved into the stamp.  I went into a tizzy and was spitting venom at a guy who was just smiling plastically and saying, “Sumimasen” (I’m so sorry), with a long, shallow bow.

The phone was never meant to be mine, I guess.  Especially because my hostility was met with calm efficiency or indifference.  Many other similar cases have occurred in my years here, and more often than not these days I just shrug my shoulders and get over it.

My mother once taught me about anger.  She said, “If you want to say or write something mean or angry in tone to another, write it down, put it in a drawer for one full day, take it out again, decide if it would be wise to write or say to the say impulsively, and if you still harbor any doubt you should go ahead with the ordeal, put it back into the drawer for two more days.  Eventually, you will note that the anger is 99 percent of the time out of proportion to the alleged act against you because your ego reigns and needs to be right and dominate in everyday behavior.

To survive in Japan, if you are a foreigner, you must heed my mother’s advice.  If you don’t, your life or business with the Japanese will seldom come to a good end.