The easy part of networking as a foreigner in Japan is getting together with people of similar backgrounds and cultures, and mixing for social reasons as much as business. Many of us do this without thinking, and without realizing that we're missing the best part of being in Japan - and that is the chance to mix with our Japanese colleagues. After all, associations and clubs are THE glue that holds Japanese business together and which allows CEOs and others to find new opportunities in this face-to-face culture.

Bid-rigging or 'dango' apparently takes places in the majority of public works projects in Japan. However, in an exclusive interview with Dr. Hiroshi Ohashi, Associate Professor of Economics at Tokyo University, we learned that as a result of the activities of the Japan Fair Trade Commission, and declining government budgets, the days of bid-rigging are numbered. Read Now

"It's not what you know, it's who you know," is an old refrain that works well in Japan for job hunting. As I've written before, employers will often take on someone who is not ideally suited for a position but who appears to have the right temperament and basic skills - so long as they can get to know them first and feel comfortable about taking the extra risk. The problem for the job hunter then, is how do you meet these employers?

Talking to a local economist at the beginning of this year, he said that if no serious downturn occurred in the US markets by mid-year, then he reckoned that Japan would have a good chance of seeing its growth continue for the rest of 2007. It looks like the US has had a soft landing and escaped the possible fall-out of low-end forced mortgagee sales, and thus the economies of both nations are doing well.