By Peter Harris -- With three new foreign law firms entering the market, J@pan Inc looks at the changing dynamics of the legal industry in Japan. -- On April 1 1987, the Japanese government started to allow foreign lawyers to practice in Japan, provided that their business was limited to advising on law from different jurisdictions and international law. Immediately, major firms such as Morrison Forrester and White & Case opened Tokyo offices and by 1994, 48 foreign firms had opened in Japan. As the economy went through more turbulent times, some of the firms left the market, for example, Brown & Platt in 1995 and Macfarlanes in 1997. Recently however, the number of new openings appears to be on the up with three firms, Quinn Emanuel, Norton Rose and Ropes & Gray having been granted licenses by the Ministry of Justice within the last 12 months. Off the record, some other firms have also told us that they have plans to open a Tokyo office in the near future.

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By Greg Lane -- It’s electric, stupid -- In the same way that hybrids stole the limelight from purely electric vehicles a few years ago, ‘plug-in’ electrics look like they are about to steal the thunder from hydrogen ... -- Waseda opens ‘campus’ in Second Life -- Private university Waseda has shown that it is ‘down with the kids’ by opening a ‘virtual campus’ in Second Life. -- High Speed Wireless at High Speed -- JR Tokai, operator of the Tokaido Shinkansen which runs between Tokyo and Osaka, has announced that high speed wireless internet will be introduced on its N700 series trains from March, 2009. -- Sharp and Kepco build PV farm -- On his blog ‘On the Inside looking In,’ venture capitalist Shin Fukushige reports on the plans by Sharp and Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) to begin constructing a 28MW photo-valtaic (PV) solar cell farm mostly on the roof of Sharp’s Sakai 10G LCD/thin film PV plant -- Artificial DNA created in Toyama -- Researchers at the University of Toyama are reported to have developed a completely new class of DNA composed entirely of artificial nucleosides.

Dr Greg StoryBy Peter Harris -- J@pan Inc talks to the Chairman of the Australian New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan -- The Australian Chamber was founded in 1972 but then, in around 1990, the New Zealand (NZ) embassy approached the Chamber and suggested a tie-up with the NZ business community. In the spirit of ANZAC, this idea was embraced and seemed to make sense on a number of cooperative levels. The Chamber is fully independent although it enjoys the support of both the embassies; for example, they help bring us leading politicians as speakers and help out with providing venues.