Here’s some good material focusing mainly on the challenges and characteristics of the Japanese market compared to the US and UK, for those considering business there. Note that this ends in a promotional piece for Eurotechnology, but the rest of the information does not seem promotional in any way.

First steps are taken toward the privatization to begin October 2007. Via Crisscross News.

For those who aren’t yet sick of all the Livedoor news, the International Herald Tribune has an analysis of the situation. As per usual, they go beyond the day-to-day events to look at the clash of between Livedoor president Horie’s approach and that of Japan’s business establishment.

Update: Daily Yomiuri has another interesting piece focusing on Horie’s influence on students. His success seems to have inspired some to pursue their enterpreneurial dreams, a drive that Japan’s business environment has not traditionally encouraged.

Update 2: For anyone who just can’t get enough of this stuff, here’s a Newsweek piece with a similar approach to the International Herald Tribune article.

According to a J@pan Inc newsletter, Japanese companies flooded the World Trade Center in Boston to recruit students this October. The newsletter notes that due to economic recovery and Japan’s declining birth rate, as well as increased globalization, firms have been driven overseas to find new talent.

If there’s any doubt that the Japanese are overworked, this gallery should do the trick.

I just discovered how-to-bow.com, a highly amusing and informative site that has so much more to offer than its namesake suggests. It takes you through the whole Japanese business ritual (and many other tangential cultural bits) with a combination of flash animations and text explanations of what is going on. Worth a look even if you don’t plan on doing business in Japan any time soon.

First Happoshu, legally falling outside the beer category due to low malt content, was introduced to dodge beer taxes. Taxes were increased on Happoshu, and its exploding popularity quickly tapered off. Brewers fought back with “third beer,” made with no malt content at all. This, too, followed suit with explosive sales growth, but once again it looks like the government will put an end to the party with tax reforms. Brewers are attempting to fight the proposal, but if this goes through it seems they won’t have any other loophole for pseudo-beer on the cheap. Just-drinks.com has the story.

Japanese retailer Seiyu will become a subsidiary of Wal-Mart on December 21. As part of the deal, Ed Kolodzieski, former senior vice president and COO of Wal-Mart International, became CEO of Seiyu on Thursday. Both Mainichi and Reuters have full reports.

I cannot do better than the first sentence of this Financial Times report to summarize the whole story:

Winter bonuses at Japanese companies are rising at the fastest pace since 1991, providing further evidence that corporate profits are finally feeding through into wages.

Women have been taking up stock trading, traditionally dominated by men, in increasing numbers in recent years, according to a Reuters report, with Internet trading and the market’s strong performance credited for the trend.