Tetsuya Bessho, founder of the Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia, talks about the changing face of film.

So here we are in Japan. A relatively few miles across the ocean we have Mad Uncle Ernie (aka Kim Jong-Il) who sits out on the porch with a half-empty whiskey bottle beside him and his loaded shotgun across his knees. Occasionally he swigs from the bottle and raises the shotgun to his shoulder, pointing it meaningfully at anyone whom he thinks might refill the bottle. The other day he fired it in a pretty random direction.

Fight night at the Budokan, industry regulated ring size, judges take their seats, ring ladies and coaches ringside, announcer grabs the microphone to announce the fighters...

Is the mild improvement a true fundamental return to consumer spending?

I am a survivor of the Japanese bear market. Twelve (or twenty - depending on your school of thought) long years of it. Call it "Financial Gitmo". The lessons of this incarceration were varied, and the experience invaluable - indelibly etched upon my brain for ease of retrieval when required in the future...

While the White House has not made the announcement official, the Nelson Report said that the Obama administration will be sending John Roos, Silicon Valley lawyer and major Obama fundraiser, to Tokyo as U.S. ambassador...

This article is the first in a series of proposals detailing how the Japanese government could launch projects that would result in massive fiscal stimulus as well as boosted corporate and consumer spending. It is important to keep in mind that the proposals put forth in this series are essentially insane, but would lead to government, corporate and personal spending on a massive scale.

Last week, I dropped in on the rock festival of investment conferences, the Las Vegas Money Show, at the posh and cavernous Mandalay Bay Hotel. A mild 95 degrees outside, I mingled with the Hawaiian shirt and cargo short wearing masses, with a sharp eye out for the next big investment themes...

So why don't the commentators know why?

For salespeople selling in these days, we need to make a small but important mentality shift, here goes...