So far, not a big deal, right? Nothing that can't be fixed. Wrong, at least potentially.

Here is the "Japanese cultural angle". Now that Napaj has decided to go into Japan strategically, there are some problems, real and potential.

See the problem? Don't do Japan opportunistically. One of Triangle's roles is to help companies postpone the decision to enter the market if they are not ready, or the market is not good. We don't want to lose money either...

Good luck

Dan

***TRIANGLE TECHNOLOGIES NEWS***

Only negotiations and enormous load of business trips (both Japanese in Israel and vice-versa).

***ISRAEL-JAPAN NEWS***

+ISRAELI HIGH-TECH CONFERNCE IN TOKYO

The Israeli VC Association will make its annual conference in Tokyo this year. This event will be hosted by senior Japanese executives as well as by the Israeli Vice Prime Minister. It is a great platform for Israeli companies to establish and expand their business in Japan. More information is in www.oscar4b.com/japan

***BUSINESS NEWS***

+SARAKIN LOANS HIT JPY34.83BN

(nikkei.co.jp, Feb 3) for a large number of people the economic situation is getting worse. Although loan sharks are lenders of last resort, the amount of money involved in illegal lending rose 8% in 2004, to JPY34.83bn ($340m) according to the National Police Agency. In terms of numbers, about 279,000 people took out such loans, with an average value of JPY125,000. According to police, the new trend is the targeting of SME business owners rather than private individuals.

+GRADUATES HAVE MORE CHANCES TO FIND WORK

(Kyodo, Feb 11) More than 73% of high school students looking to start work this spring had found a job as of the end of December, up 5.4 percentage points from a year earlier, according to a survey released Thursday by the education ministry. The figure, 73.4%, topped the 70% line for the first time in four years, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said.

***TECHNOLOGY NEWS***

U.S. TO DEVELOP MISSILE INTERCEPTOR WITH JAPAN

(Kyodo News, WASHINGTON, January 10th) The U.S. Defense Department has decided to embark on the development of an interceptor missile and will seek to begin talks with Japan this year to move the joint research of the missile defense system to the development phase, Pentagon officials said Monday. The updated missile system is under a joint research program between Japan and the United States. A Pentagon official said it will probably take at least three to five years to move the advanced missile to the production and deployment stage.

+KAGAWA UNIV TEAM TO LAUNCH MICROSATELLITES IN 2 YEARS

(Kyodo News, Feb 12) A team of scientists at Kagawa University is planning to launch a pair of microsatellites in about two years that may one day pave the way for operating a robot in the space. The team has been developing microsatellites under the STARS-1 project, the first undertaking of its kind among Shikoku-based universities.

+EPSON DEVELOPS INNOVATIVE FLEXIBLE 8-BIT MICROPROCESSOR

(JCNN, Feb 10) - Seiko Epson has developed the world's first flexible 8-bit asynchronous microprocessor using low-temperature polysilicon thin-film transistors (LTPS-TFTs) on a plastic substrate. With energy consumption reduced by 70% compared to the synchronous microprocessors now in everyday use.

+RENESAS PHONE PROCESSOR SUPPORTS TERRESTRIAL

(NE Asia Online, Feb 11) Renesas Technology Corp has developed a mobile phone application processor, the SH-Mobile3A, that decodes H.264/MPEG4- AVC (H.264) video data. Sample shipments are starting in April 2005. The SH-Mobile3A supports terrestrial digital broadcasting for mobile phones (so-called 1 segment broadcasting), which will be implemented at the end of 2005, and integrates an interface for direct connection to a 5 Megapixel-class camera module, an equivalent-class image processing capability and a JPEG-codec hardware accelerator. The company expects the processor to be used in high-end mobile phone handsets.

***LIFE SCIENCES AND ENVIROMENT NEWS***

+MEGA-MERGER IN THE JAPANESE PHARMACEUTICS INDUSTRY

(Forbes, Feb 25) A consolidation wave is washing over Japan's drug firms. If the new, bigger firms grab toeholds in the lucrative U.S. market, they might eventually challenge the American and European titans that currently rule the pharmaceutical industry. Today, Tokyo-based Sankyo announced plans to buy smaller rival Daiichi Pharmaceutical in a stock-swap valued at $7.8 billion, creating Japan's second-largest drug firm. That's only part of a wave of consolidation that could keep American drug makers from buying their way into Japan and make it easier for the Japanese firms to introduce products in the U.S., where they have until now had only a small presence. Actos, a top-selling diabetes drug, is made by Takeda, the largest Japanese drug firm, but co-promoted in the U.S. by Eli Lilly. Abilify, a schizophrenia drug sold by Bristol in the U.S., was invented by Japan's Otsuka. If Japanese firms sold all these drugs on the U.S. market, they would be far bigger. (Right now, Takeda ranks No. 11 in terms of global sales)

+AMMONIA-KILLING DEODORIZER

(nikkei.co.jp, Feb 4) Toilet maker Toto, has developed a new chemical compound which restricts the activity of urease, the bacterial enzyme which causes ammonia release -- the major source of toilet odor. Normal deodorizers mask smells, where as the new compound actually works on the source and eliminates it.

+ NEW SOYBEAN FERMENTED FOOD TEMPEH TO HIT MARKET

(JCNN, Feb 10) Kume Quality Products, a Japanese major natto (fermented soybeans) manufacturer, has announced that it will launch Tempeh Delicious Type, a new soybean fermented product. Tempeh, which originated in Indonesia, is a fermented food made of cooked soybeans with a tempeh mold, a kind of mildew. Compared to Japanese traditional fermented food natto, Tempeh is free from unique odor and stickiness and has wide applications; it can be served raw, boiled, baked or fried.

+VEGETABLES LIKE COLOR

(nikkei.co.jp, Feb 17)Hydroponics company Cosmo Plant has announced that it has developed a new light-source regime for growing healthier leafy vegetables. Although the use of red light sources, in Cosmo's case, LEDs, is common and is known to help plants grow up to 4 times faster, Cosmo has found that both blue and green sources are necessary to grow particular types of vegetables.