As I described last week, the lifestyle costs for expats is a different universe to most of us. I was once told by a major American IT firm that bringing a 35-45 year old expat boss on a JPY20M salary and his family to Japan costs them between JPY40M and JPY50M a year. This is clearly why most foreign firms have very few expat employees, and those that do have foreigners try to hire them locally.

This week we look at how cheaper petrol taxes are at the center of a political power struggle in the Diet. Join the dots between political factionalism, voter priorities, the construction industry and the levy on gas Read Terrie's Take Now

This week's Gadget Watch takes a look at the effect of the Japanese brand 'National' changing over to become know as 'Panasonic,' Brule's new release of Ultra mobile PCs and Panasonic's two new digital high definition video camcorders.