If someone asked you to guess which company in Japan sells the most software in this country, most people would probably think Microsoft, Softbank, or Symantec. But the fact is that the seller of the most packages in this country for at least the last 2 years is a company that you've probably never heard of -- SourceNext, a firm located at Roppongi Hills...

Japanese children are admonished not to point at a passing hearse, since to do so would bring their parents' demise. There are regional variations on this admonition. For example, in Sapporo children are taught to conceal a thumb ("oya-yubi") as a precaution against their parents ("oya") dying...

English-teaching school, Gaba, is to IPO on Mothers on December 1st. The company will be offering 14,200 shares at JPY265,000, giving the company a market cap of JPY11.39bn (US$97.4m). The company in its current form was created as recently as June 1994, through a management buy-out...

This week we were going to comment on the pending IPO by the Gaba English school, and the sorry financial and moral state of English schools in Japan in general. However, given that this is issue Number 400 of Terrie's Take, we thought it might be better to take some time out and toot our own horn. Gaba won't list until December 1st, so plenty of time for them next week...