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

November 2005 - Volume VIII, Issue XI

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

Dan's Desk

From Triangle's CEO

Im ein ani li, mi li? (Biblical saying, "If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am for myself alone, then who am I? If not now, when?")

I ran across an unusually insightful book, "Different Games, Different Rules: Why Americans and Japanese Misunderstand Each Other," by Dr. Haru Yamada, Oxford University Press, 1997. Dr. Yamada is a sociolinguist who moved back and forth between the US and Japan as a child, and who has spent her professional life analyzing the social interactions of Japanese and Americans, and how these are impacted by language. Her insights are remarkable. Here are a few, although abstraction certainly does not do justice:

1. Fundamentally, the premise of the Japanese culture is that people are interdependent, and to be dependent is GOOD. It is "sweet" (amae) to rely on other people. The fundamental premise of American culture is the individual - "if I am not for myself, then who is for me?"

2. One implication of the "reliance on interdependence", is the off-cited reliance on verbal agreements to bind two parties contractually. Among other things, this forces the parties to exploit their interdependence to resolve issues or conflicts in ways that take into account the others' desires and needs.

3. Talk about talk - Dr. Yamada describes a phenomenon observed in discussions in which Japanese will spend a fair amount of time discussing the fact that they will be discussing this topic or that. These preludes give the participants the chance to gauge each others' positions, feelings, priorities, and so on, and make slight adjustments or accommodations if necessary to preserve harmony and interdependence.

4. Silent shifters - Dr. Yamada has actually analyzed tape recorded meetings of Japanese and Americans. In one study she found that the longest silence in the Japanese meeting was 8.2 seconds, whereas in the American meeting it was 4.6 seconds, and the averages were 5.15 seconds and .74 seconds, respectively. Again, she relates these "silent shifters" to an opportunity to reinforce the interdependence, because no one owns the silence - it is everyone's. By the way, look at your watch and count 8 seconds. It is a long time!

5. And one last thing - Dr. Yamada also reports how Japanese speakers close conversations - or don't, as the case may be. The comment, "and to conclude," often does not signal conclusion, but rather the need to make additional, new inputs. "Mo hitotsu-wa" - " one more" - is a frequently heard phrase in business meetings, and is used as a shifter, not as a closer.

There are many other tidbits in Dr. Yamada's book - if you have a chance and a slightly academic bent, pick it up. It is a great, serious, and scholarly-yet-accessible work.

Good luck,

Dan

***TRIANGLE TECHNOLOGIES NEWS***

No official news this time.

ISRAEL-JAPAN NEWS

Rumours about intentions of Mr. Koizumi to visit Israel.
Let’s wait patiently.

***BUSINESS NEWS***

+DOCOMO TO ENTER MUSIC DISTRIBUTION

(Eurotechnology/Nikkei, November 6) DoCoMo will use a total investment of around YEN 10 Billion (approx US$ 100 million) to acquire 40% of Tower Records Japan's shares from Nikko Principal Investments Japan Ltd, and additional shares in a third party allotment taking it's stake to around 40%. Tower Records Japan plans an IPO, and DoCoMo apparently intents to keep a 33.4% controlling stake even after the IPO. Tower Records Japan was founded by the US-company Tower Records in August 1979 and became independent in 2002. This investment is the latest in a string of steps taken by DoCoMo both to expand it's business foundation beyond the ever shrinking traffic related ARPU and to accelerate take-up of mobile FeliCa wallet phones.

+POLICE MAKE 1ST ARREST IN SPYWARE-RELATED BANK FRAUD

(www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/, Nov 6)The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department made its first arrest for bank fraud perpetrated using spyware. This guy sent CD-ROM to on-line banking users as if it is the security SW delivered by the Bank.

+DAIMLERCHRYSLER SELLS MMC STAKE

(Reuters, Nov 11) - DaimlerChrysler AG has sold its entire 12.42 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (MMC) to a unit of Goldman Sachs, MMC said, making the brokerage a top shareholder in the Japanese auto maker. The fate of DaimlerChrysler's reduced ownership of Japan's only unprofitable car maker had been a subject of speculation after the German-U.S. auto giant refused its former affiliate further financial assistance in April last year. Daimler, which still has some close operational tie-ups with MMC such as the joint development of engines and vehicle platform sharing, had repeatedly said it would hold on to its former partner's stake.

+SALES OF 3G CELL PHONES JUMP 40%

(Kyodo, November 16) — Shipments of "third-generation" cell phones with video-viewing and other high-speed data functions jumped 40.7% in the first six months of fiscal 2005 from a year earlier to 15.22 million units. In stark contrast, shipments of "second-generation" handsets with only Internet and email functions dropped 45.5% to 5.93 million units, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said.

+ONLINE TRAVEL MARKET HEATS UP

(nikkei.co.jp, Nov 19)- Japan's largest travel agency, JTB, clearly senses danger from Rakuten's incursions into the travel market through its online sales. Rakuten Travel recently concluded a deal with 6,800 hotels nationally to receive an automatic 6-10% allocation of rooms, so that the marketer can ensure availability to its customers. Although only 5% of the overall hospitality industry bookings were done online last year, the online travel reservations market is now worth JPY661bn (US$5.7bn) and it grew an impressive 39% last year. JTB has countered Rakuten by coming up with a service which discounts room rates at ryokan nationally. Likewise, Yahoo has started a reverse auction site for users to bid on unused hotel rooms.

***TECHNOLOGY NEWS***

+TOYOTA’S ONE-SEAT CAR

(Kyodo News, November 14) Toyota Motor Corp said that Time magazine has named its "i-unit" four-wheel, one-seat electric car one of the "coolest inventions" of 2005 as part of the magazine's "The Most Amazing Inventions" issue. The leaf-shaped lithium-ion battery-powered car can reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. The i-unit — measuring 1.1 meters long and 1.8 meters high when it is moving in a low-speed upright mode — can also run in a high-speed reclining position. When a driver shifts the car to the high-speed mode, the car's shape and wheel base change to measure 1.8 meters long and 1.25 meters high. But its width remains 1.04 meters.

+IC TAG CHILD PROTECTION SERVICE DEVELOPED

(www.japantoday.com, November 16) - NTT Data Corp, Nissan Motor Co Ltd, Tokyu Security Co Ltd and TRENDY Corp announced that they have developed an expanded IC tag i-safety service that is expected to help reduce traffic accidents involving children. The service, which is still in the experimental stage, alerts drivers to the presence of children in the vicinity via a voice recording from an electronic information device in the car that warns: "Children nearby. Please be careful."
Signals from the child's IC tag and the driver's IC tag are picked up by "lookout spots" on the street, such as electricity poles and schoolyard gates, which are affixed with receivers. The information is then transmitted back to the car, triggering the voice recording.

+ JAPAN'S LARGEST SUPERCOMPUTER

(www.azom.com, Nov 22) - AMD and Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced that the Tokyo Institute of Technology is creating Japan's largest supercomputer on a foundation of Sun. The grid-based supercomputer plans to expand to more than 100 teraFLOPS by its operation in Spring 2006 and is expected to be one of the five largest supercomputers in the world.

***LIFE SCIENCES AND ENVIRONMENT NEWS***

+OMRON DEVELOPS BACTERIA REDUCING INDUCTIVE SENSOR

(JCN, Nov 2) - OMRON introduced the first inductive proximity sensor with a special anti-bacterial housing, helping food and pharmaceuticals processors in their efforts to reduce the risk of contamination. The innovative housing has been developed in cooperation with performance plastics specialist Ensinger, and actively reduces the number of bacteria and germs on its housing through an FDA approved additive.