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A monthly review of the latest developments in Japan’s IT, telecom, and life sciences sectors

March 2005 - Volume VIII, Issue III

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Triangle Technologies is the leading Japan Israel business development and investment advisory firm
www.triangletech.com

Dan's Desk

From Triangle's CEO

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

I don't know if you are aware of it but Triangle Technologies has been expanding its activity. Danny Alexander joined Triangle Technologies in Boston to serve the greater 128/495 high tech community, and we just hired Kohzoh Nishimura in our Tokyo office. Both have extensive IT experience in Japan. Danny has been working with US and Canadian enterprise software companies in Japan for the past 10 years, and Kohzoh Nishimura has been a marketing executive at IBM Japan for 24 years, then for approximately 12 years worked at 2 Japanese SI's, including as general manager of IT marketing and operations at Nippon Systemware, with experience marketing software solutions, industrial digital video solutions, design software, multimedia, and other products.

I been in the US the past 3 months interacting with VC's, entrepreneurs, and teaching entrepreneurship at HBS. In the coming Dan's Desk mini-series I will put together some of my observations about entrepreneurship, East-West (and middle-East). Each entry in the mini-series will be bite-sized, 1-2 para's long, so you will read it.

Today's opener - what is entrepreneurship? A probably apocryphal statement by George W. to Tony B.: "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur." Entrepreneur is indeed a French word, which 200 years ago was translated into English first as undertaker (this term was quickly taken under, for obvious reasons), and then translated as adventurer. Not satisfactory, so the French term has been adopted, although I have been told that in French it is used to denote "contractor", as in building contractor.

Some heavy duty economists have placed entrepreneurship front and center in economic thought and practice: Jean-Baptiste Say (early 1800's), Josef Schumpeter (1900~1950), Frank Knight (1930+), and Israel Kirzner (1960+). A kind of composite picture: the entrepreneur exploits a perceived gap between supply and demand, present or future, emerging or conditional (in other words, the gap will appear only if I create it, e.g. invent a cure for.). "Exploiting" means getting together the resources, usually by paying or guaranteeing them something (e.g. salaries, rent), and then bringing the new product or service to market. The guarantees are paid off, and what is left over is "entrepreneurial gain." The gain is not great on the average, but because it is really huge from time to time, confident people are sucked into the entrepreneurial process. As you can see, it involves risk - certain guaranteed costs for uncertain gains.

Well, enough for now - if I write too much you wont read it, so next time I will continue, relating entrepreneurship to Japan, Israel, and the US.

Good luck

Dan

***TRIANGLE TECHNOLOGIES NEWS***

+SONY SELECTS RADIOSCAPE'S STATE OF THE ART DIGITAL RADIO MODULE DESIGN

Triangle is proud of that Sony Corporation has chosen our British client’s RadioScape’s RS350A™ DAB module design as the basis for its upcoming automotive DAB radios. This unique Software Defined Digital Radio solution provides the flexibility for customers, such as Sony, to customise the module to create products that meet their specific requirements.

***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

+NEW ISRAELI AND JEWISH RESTAURANT IN DOWNTOWN TOKYO

For those of you who wish to relax over a tasty Hummus, Couscus, Tsulent and variety of other dishes, not to forget Macabee & Goldstar ; or for those who wish to give your Japanese partner a taste of Israel – a new restaurant was opened this month in Tokyo, take a look at www.davidsdeli.co.jp/Engindex.html phone is 5441-1211

***BUSINESS NEWS***

+FULL-TIME WORKERS INCREASE

(nikkei.co.jp, Mar 8) For the first time in 7 years, the number of full-time workers in Japan has increased. There are now 32,105,000 people working at companies of 5 or more. The firming of the number of permanent employees coincides with a marked slow-down in the growth of part-time and temporary workers, which rose just 0.8% in January this year. Experts say that the changed figures reflect an end to corporate restructuring and a renewed faith by employers of the improving economy. The total number of full- and part-time workers in January was 42,884,000 people. The Labor Ministry also said that take home pay, including overtime, bonuses, etc., now averages JPY284,934 per month.

+MORE SELF-EMPLOYED

(nikkei.co.jp, Mar 25)The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced that the number of people newly starting their own businesses increased by 260,000 this last year, the biggest increase since 1979. The Ministry reckons that not only older people, but also young people encouraged by the business performances of LiveDoor and Rakuten, are the reason for the dramatic increase. The Ministry says that 110,000 businesses were started by people aged 55-64, and 80,000 by younger people aged 25-34.

+NO. OF JAPANESE BILLIONAIRES RISES TO 24

(Kyodo , Mar 11) Forbes magazine's annual issue of the world's billionaires released Thursday shows a return of two Japanese billionaires and the addition of another, bringing the list of Japanese billionaires to 24 this year. Suntory Ltd President Nobutada Saji retained his reign as Japan's richest billionaire for the second year running with $5.8 billion.

+CANON PRESIDENT RULES OUT CAPITAL TIE-UP WITH HP

(Kyodo , Mar 11) Canon Inc President Fujio Mitarai ruled out a capital tie-up between the printer maker and Hewlett-Packard Co of the United States. "The present relationship between the two companies is close enough, so I am not considering a capital tie-up," Mitarai told reporters. Canon supplies its laser printers for sale under the HP brand.

+RAKUTEN TO BUY CREDIT CARD COMPANY KOKUNAI SHINPAN

(Kyodo, Mar 10) Internet mall operator Rakuten Inc will acquire midsize credit card company Kokunai Shinpan Co for 12 billion yen and is planning to issue its own credit card and boost revenue from commissions from online credit card payments. Rakuten aims to enhance its financial operations as one of its group's main business pillars as about 40% of its sales at the virtual mall Rakuten Ichiba are paid for by credit card.

***TECHNOLOGY NEWS***

+NINTENDO TO LAUNCH GAME CONSOLE FOR WIRELESS INTERNET GAMING

(Kyodo, Mar 11) Nintendo Co plans to enable users of its next-generation GameCube home video-game console to play with someone elsewhere through high-speed wireless Internet, the company's president Satoru Iwata said. The game console, tentatively named Revolution, will work with the wi-fi standard of high-speed wireless Internet communication.

+KYOCERA INTRODUCES TILE-STYLE RESIDENTIAL SOLAR PV SYSTEMS

(JCNN, Mar 4) Kyocera Corporation has announced the forthcoming release of the building-integrated photovoltaic (PV) systems in the Japanese and U.S. markets in March 2005. Mainly targeting newly-built houses, the systems are compatible with flat roof tiles. Flat tiles are one of the roof materials that are increasingly being employed in the Japanese and U.S. newly-built housing markets. The new systems consist of two modules of different sizes (long and short) to produce "stylish" and "powerful" features.

+TOSHIBA'S SMALLEST DIRECT METHANOL FUEL CELL

(JCNN, Mar 5) Toshiba has announced that Guinness World Records has officially certified the company's highly compact direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) as the world smallest DMFC. About the size of a thumb, the DMFC measures 22x56x4.5mm. The size advantage offers greater design freedom to the developers of handheld electronic devices, without any compromises in performance. The DMFC can generate power high enough to operate an MP3 music player for as long as 20 hours from 2cc methanol and using an output power of 100mW. Toshiba plans to release samples for small handheld devices in 2005.

+FIRST FACE RECOGNITION BIOMETRIC FOR MOBILE PHONES

(JCN Newswire, Feb 28) OMRON Corporation, has announced "OKAO Vision Face Recognition Sensor", a world first* in face recognition technology which can be implemented in PDAs, mobile phones or other mobile devices with a camera function. The ability to recognize and verify the authenticity of the user through face recognition is meant to contribute to greater security and safety for mobile devices, and the information they contain, in the future.

***LIFE SCIENCES AND ENVIROMENT NEWS***

+KAO DEVELOPS EPIDERMAL CELL TIGHTENING INGREDIENT FOR REDUCING APPARENT CHEEK PORES

(JCNN, Mar 10) Leading Japanese cosmetics manufacturer Kao announced the results of its latest research on pores on the cheek. According to the research, pores on the cheek expand and stand out due to the irregularity of the epidermal basal layer, which occurs more frequently with age. Based on this finding, Kao has developed Skin Force Activator, an ingredient that tightens epidermal cells and helps normalize the epidermal structure.

+SANGI DEVELOPS BIOGASOLINE SYNTHESIS TECHNOLOGY USING BIOMASS ETHANOL AND HYDROXYAPATITE

(JCNN, Mar 3) Sangi, a Japanese manufacturer famous for its toothpaste products, announced that it has developed an innovative technology for producing raw chemical materials as well as an alternate fuel. The new technology uses biomass ethanol derived from rice straw or sugarcane and hydroxyapatite (HAP) as a catalyst to synthesize 1-butanol, 3-butadiene and biogasoline. Advocating its own environmentally-friendly concept "Zero Emission Cycle" as the synthesis process is eco-friendly, the company aims to create a new ethanol chemical industry called the "Green Ethanol Chemistry" industry.

+SANKYO IMPLEMENTS SAS SOLUTION FOR DRUG DEVELOPMENT

(JCNN, March 9) - SAS Institute Japan announced that Sankyo, one of Japan's leading pharmaceuticals, is the first Japanese company to adopt SAS Drug Development (SDD), SAS's proprietary solution designed for the pharmaceutical industry which helps streamline the entire drug development process. Aiming for a substantial reduction in its R&D process as well as improved productivity.