Did anybody else notice that just as Sony did their JPY50bn buy-in to Olympus, they quietly sold off their chemicals business to the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) at the same time?

With one of our sister companies in the market entry business, we have noticed in the last 3 months a gradual increase in the number of foreign firms investigating setting up an operation in Japan.

The company owes about JPY2.5trn (US$31bn) to the banks and other bond holders, a crushing debt burden, with shares slipping from around JPY800 this time last year to just JPY198 on Friday.

Nomura Securities reckons that eAccess' fixed-line ADSL business is declining -- not hard to imagine, as indicated by the fall in subscribers to the service.