Last Thursday, Japan’s largest independent distributor of foreign books and magazines, Yohan Inc., went bankrupt. The company has shutdown completely, firing all of its staff, closing the office, and leaving a reported ￥6.5billion of debt. We take a look at what possibly went wrong and what could’ve been done better.

This week's Wireless Watch covers the paid search and how US firm MCN are try to capitalize on their experience in the field in Japan.

For many people in the IT sector, life is a flurry of activity from morning to evening. There is an acknowledged shortage of IT engineers in Japan, and an even bigger shortage of bilingual ones. So it’s not that unusual for bilingual IT people in Japan to have to work long hours and get few holidays. Today’s reader letter is from just such an engineer.

This week's Gadget Watch mirrors the past few days of the Japanese gadget scene: no big announcements calling for long write-ups, but plenty of interesting short items - a super-thin TV phone, a super-high-res pocket camera, yet another strange mouse, and more.