JapanStrategy. news & events.

  • Despite being the world’s third largest market, many businesses struggle to break into Japan. The “Growing your Business in Japan” free webinar, organized by the SCI’s Science and Enterprise Group and powered by LabLinks, will provide valuable insights into the challenges of growing a chemistry-facing business in the Japanese market, and how they can be overcome.  …

    Growing your business in Japan
  • Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ): March 12, 2018 While many Japanese corporations are still admired around the world, too many have for years suffered sluggish growth and low profitability. A string of corporate scandals and failures have shocked the pubic and corroded confidence in Japanese business. The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has…

    Gerhard Fasol: Corporate Governance Reforms in Japan
  • Japan’s economy grows five quarters in a row, and Japan Post books losses of YEN 400.33 billion (US$ 3.6 billion) for an acquisition in Australia by Gerhard Fasol Japan GDP growth first quarter 2017, growth of 2%/year. Still, Japan’s economy is the same size as in 2000, while countries like France, Germany, UK today are…

    Japan GDP growth first quarter 2017 – Gerhard Fasol interviewed by Rico Hizon on BBC TV
  • Bill Emmott and Gerhard Fasol about the future of Japan and the power of Japanese women Bill Emmott is an independent writer and consultant on international affairs, board director, and from 1993 until 2006 was editor of The Economist. http://www.billemmott.com Gerhard Fasol is physicist, board director, entrepreneur, M&A advisor in Tokyo. http://fasol.com/ women determine Japan’s…

    Women determine Japan’s future – Bill Emmott and Gerhard Fasol discuss Japan’s future
  • Japan’s companies are key to Japan’s growth by Gerhard Fasol Economic growth: Almost everyone agrees that economic growth is preferred over stagnation and decline. Fiscal policy and printing money unfortunately can’t deliver growth. Building fresh new successful companies, returning stagnating or failed established companies back to growth (see: “Speed is like fresh food” by JVC-Kenwood…

    Economic growth for Japan in 2016?
  • “Mr Suzuki didn’t want to be a VW employee” (Prof. Dudenhoeffer via Bloomberg) Partnerships in Japan without meeting of minds, trust, and communication don’t work by Gerhard Fasol, All Rights Reserved. 18 September 2015 On 9 December 2009, Volkswagen-CEO Mr Martin Winterkorn and Suzuki-CEO Mr Osamu Suzuki at a press conference in Tokyo announced a…

    Volkswagen Suzuki divorce – lessons for partnership strategies in Japan
  • Hulu ends direct operations in Japan be Gerhard Fasol Continues licensing relationship with Nippon Television Network Corporation Hulu started Japan operations on August 31, 2011, and less than three years later, CEO Mike Hopkins announced in his blog the sale of Japan operations to Nippon Television Network Corporation (日本テレビ放送網株式会社). During this time, Hulu Japan had…

    Hulu Japan operations sold to Nippon Television
  • by Gerhard Fasol, All Rights Reserved. 18 August 2015 Burberry goes direct in the world’s most important luxury market: why did Burberry not decide on less disruptive options? – Sanyo-Shokai pivots from Burberry to Mackintosh and continues the valuable Black Label and Blue Label lines Burberry Japan – the start of a relationship: Sanyo Shokai…

  • Top grossing apps (Feb. 18, 2015) Google play apps Japan ranking in Japan by gross revenues AppAnnie showed that in terms of combined iOS AppStore + Google play apps Japan revenues, Japan is No. 1 globally, spending more than the USA. Therefore Japan is naturally the No. 1 target globally for many mobile game companies!…

    Google Play apps Japan: which android apps show highest revenues?
  • Top grossing app ranking (Feb. 10, 2015) by Gerhard Fasol AppAnnie showed that in terms of combined iOS AppStore + Google Play revenues, Japan is No. 1 globally, spending more than the USA. Therefore Japan is naturally the No. 1 target globally for many mobile game companies, and quite a few of the top grossing…

    Japan apps: which are the top grossing apps in Japan’s iPhone app store?
  • Masamoto Yashiro: Japan leader and Chairman emeritus of Esso, Exxon, Citibank, Shinsei Bank Masamoto Yashiro at brainstorming by President of Tokyo University Masamoto Yashiro’s talk notes by Gerhard Fasol and with permission and reviewed by Masamoto Yashiro Masamoto Yashiro is a legend in Japan’s banking and energy industry. He built Shinsei Bank from the ashes…

    Japanese management – why is it not global? What should we do? asks Masamoto Yashiro
  • Sir Stephen Gomersall: former British Ambassador to Japan and Chairman of Hitachi Europe Sir Stephen Gomersall on UK-Japan business and globalization: Globalization and the art of tea Hitachi – Japan’s most iconic corporation – under the leadership of Chairman & CEO, Hiroaki Nakanishi embarked on the “Smart Transformation Project” to globalize, to face a world…

    Sir Stephen Gomersall on UK-Japan business and globalization
  • Fidelity: Japan market entry the patient and careful way Fidelity’s Colt to acquire KVH for YEN 18.595 billion (€ 130.3 million = US$ 160 million) Both Colt and KVH were founded with investments by Fidelity Investments and associated companies, Colt in London in 1992, and KVH in 1999 in Tokyo, as telecommunications service providers for…

    Fidelity Japan market entry into Japan’s cloud and data center markets via KVH
  • What can we learn from Vodafone’s failure in Japan? by Gerhard Fasol Had Vodafone been successful in Japan, Vodafone’s Japan business could be worth € 40 billion (US$ 50 billion) today In a separate blog post “EU-Japan Management: What is the value of good management?” we analyze what the value of Vodafone’s Japan business might…

    Vodafone Japan could have been a business worth US$ 50 billion today! Why did Vodafone Japan fail and sell to SoftBank?
  • Japan energy policy: interview for The Economist on YouTube by Gerhard Fasol Japan energy policy – interview outline: Japan energy policy Question: Is the new energy policy of Japan’s Government an appropriate response to the situation or a missed opportunity Answer summary:The Government in its new strategy summarizes Japan’s energy situation and proposes a cocktail…

    Japan new energy policy creates opportunities for renewables, smart grid and more – interview by The Economist
  • NASDAQ and London Stock Exchange both hope to build stock markets in Japan. And both failed for similar reasons and with similar end results by Gerhard Fasol NASDA and LSE: in both cases the stock markets NASDAQ and LSE created are still continuing business in Japan after there departure Initially, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo…

    NASDAQ quit Japan in 2002, and London Stock Exchange quit Japan in 2012 for similar reasons. Read why.
  • Professor Takeo Hoshi, Professor of Economics at Stanford, about Abenomics success probability Abenomics success probability is 12%, 88% probability of failure Takeo Hoshi, Professor at Stanford University, who devotes his life to work on Japan’s economy at US Universities, gave a talk at the Swedish Embassy organized by the Stockholm School of Economics on Monday,…

    Abenomics – and – Why did Japan stop growing?
  • Japan Galapagos effect: Dr. Gerhard Fasol dissects the history behind Japan’s unique international market separation By Hugh Ashton Originally posted by ACCJ Journal on January 15, 2011 in “Chamber Events”based on a talk given by Dr. Gerhard Fasol to the Members of the American Chamber of Commerce (ACCJ) on July 12, 2010, at the Westin…

    Japan Galapagos effect
  • Japan energy – myths versus reality. A lecture for the Stockholm School of Economics presented at the Embassy of Sweden Japan energy – myths versus reality – outline of the lecture: Energy and DNA Energy and Physics, why you need to understand physics to understand energy Ludwig Boltzmann’s tools and laws to work with energy…

    Japan energy – myths versus reality. Japan’s energy situation from the view point of physics
  • European Institute of Japanese Studies Academy Seminars presents: “Japan’s Energy – Myths vs Reality” Speaker: Dr. Gerhard Fasol, President, Eurotechnology Japan K.K. Wednesday, June 19th, 2013, 18:30 – 21:00 Embassy of Sweden, Alfred Nobel Auditorium Stockholm School of Economics, European Institute of Japanese Studies for details and registration click here Announcement on the webpage of…

    Japan’s energy – myths versus reality
  • Diseno Textile SA (ZARA) entered Japan’s market earlier than H&M and can now collect some fruits from timing advantage: Diseno succeeded to obtain a license for Sanrio’s Hello Kitty character, and plans to market Hello Kitty branded goods. Will be interesting to see if H&M will do quid-pro-quo and seek to license other famous Japanese…

    Sanrio licenses "Hello Kitty" to Diseno Textil SA (ZARA)
  • It’s not all doom and gloom here in Japan. Nintendo’s sales and operating profits are rising 8.8% year-on-year. KDDI saw its net profits increasing 59% year on year. Yahoo Japan increases dividends by 22%-25% for 2008. Who are today’s winners in Japan’s IT industry? Gerhard Fasol will show us how and why some great Japanese…

    Investor Club: What crisis? Meet some booming Japanese companies
  • Interview with Arthur Mitchell about M&A in Japan Opportunities in Japan Many see the current financial crisis as a period of unique opportunities. Several foreign companies are currently entering or seeking to expand business in Japan. At the same time, there is a wave of Japanese acquisitions abroad. Arthur Mitchell is a lawyer who has…

    Mergers and Acquisitions in Japan
  • NOKIA’s Japan subsidiary was founded on April 3, 1989 – almost 20 years ago. On November 27, 2008 NOKIA announced to terminate selling mobile phones to Japan’s mobile operators, effectively withdrawing from Japan (except for purchasing, R&D and VERTU). NOKIA’s sales figures in Japan were a well kept secret until last week when several Japanese…

  • Opaqueness of Japan’s SNS was a point of discussion at the Next Context Conference. When you use Japan’s social network systems, instead of portrait photographs and real names in Western SNS, in Japan you’ll find that most people use phantasy names and pictures of churches, cats, airplanes, clowns and cartoons instead of passport photographs. Japanese…

  • A few days ago the New Context Conference was held here in Tokyo, mainly about social network systems (SNS), top executives including CEO of LinkedIn, Facebook, and some exciting new photo, video conference and e-learning companies discussed market entry to Japan. Takeshi Natsuno, one of the three key DoCoMo managers who together started i-Mode and…

  • The Israeli company Iscar has completed the acquisition of Japanese competitor Tungaloy Corporation. Iscar acquired more than 90% of outstanding shares for around US$ 1 billion from Nomura Principal Finance Co. Iscar is the world’s second largest maker of tungsten carbide cutting tools, and competitor Tungaloy is the world’s fifth largest. Iscar is controlled by…

  • H&M Japan entry – H&M opened the first store in Japan in Ginza on September 13, 2008: by Gerhard Fasol Long queues on opening day: 8000 people/day visit the store in the first few days H&M entered Japan’s fashion market initially using a green field strategy, opening stores. On September 13, 2008, H&M opened the…

    H&M Japan entry: green field market entry to Japan
  • Three years after market entry XBOX has achieved 0.2% sales market share in Japan Will XBOX price cut help? Microsoft introduced the original XBOX game console in the USA on November 15, 2001, in Japan on February 22, 2002, and in Europe on March 14, 2002. During the period January-June 2005, three years after introduction…

    XBOX Japan market entry strategy
  • Presentation at the Lunch meeting of the Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Japan (FCCJ) on March 16, 2007 at the Westin Hotel, Tokyo. Find the summary and photos of the meeting here Download the presentation here From the Announcement: In his presentation, Dr. Fasol will explain the essentials of Japan’s mobile phone market, why and…