By Kenneth Arbour -- Relocation Services in Japan -- Kenneth Arbour, President of Century 21 SKY Realty and Tokyo Orientations, has spent over 20 years in the real estate and relocation business in Tokyo.

This is the third of four articles, in which Ken covers trends in the real estate market in Tokyo and Japan. With his feet firmly on the ground, and with more than a little humor, in this article Ken covers the relocations market and the services his company provides corporations and expatriates.

By James Mok -- Part III: My struggle at the frontline of Japanese Enterprise IT -- The ancient religion of Shinto regards all natural objects and exceptional creatures as kami or “Gods.” Visitors to Japan can easily sample a taste of kami-sama treatment by indulging themselves in the high level of customer service in tasteful restaurants, cozy ryokans or in engaging with the eye-dazzling selection of consumer goods. However, the same ‘Customer-is-kamisama’ attitude in the IT services industry has worked adversely by accounting for more inefficiency than hospitality. Vendors and IT departments, by solely focusing on indisputably meeting users’ requests, have not only engaged themselves in the costly pursuit of excessive perfection and overly riskadverse decision-making, but have also inhibited their ability to innovate beyond what is being told.

By Brad Frischkorn -- The future of stock exchange technology in Japan -- Almost since its inception in 1878, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has been synonymous with trading in the Japanese financial markets. Other regional bourses do exist to serve investors, but after careful merging and consolidation over the decades, the TSE remains the unquestioned benchmark.

Shigeru IshibaBy Adam P Liff -- Shigeru Ishiba is something of an anomaly in the Japanese political world. His soft-spoken and reserved manner belies his high level of competence. Experts credit his ability to boil down complicated defense and foreign policy issues into an easily digestible form as one of the main enablers of Japan’s rapidly transforming security policy. His relative youth, coupled with a formidable support base in his hometown all but guarantee that he will remain a prominent figure in Japanese politics for years to come.

CreditBy Chris Cleary-- “The recent stock market woes have dented my investing confidence, so I’m sitting on the sidelines right now. I’m scared markets will go down more...if they don’t I’ll curse myself!” -- When is a good time to invest? Obviously at market lows. And to disinvest? Obviously at market highs. The dictum buy low/sell high is perfectly rational. However, market conditions are always uncertain. Fluctuation is the mechanism of price discovery. Markets fluctuate perpetually: whether they are moving sideways, upwards or downwards

VenezuelaBy Anna Kitanaka & Peter Harris -- Venezuela is one of the most resource-rich nations in the world yet it is also one of the most politically risky countries today. Doing business there is not something that investors or enterprises do without careful consideration. Western media doesn’t do the country any favors with its portrayal of President Hugo Chávez as a US-hating communist intent on nationalizing every major industry in the country. And, they are not simply making this up—Chávez has been on a nationalization streak and doesn’t hide his contempt for Washington. However, probing a bit deeper, Fox News’ report of his “thievery,” “immorality” and “leading his people down a pathway to hell” is a little misleading. That is not to say that there isn’t a good deal of risk involved in doing business in Venezuela, but a look at the profits that some are managing to make there gives a fuller picture than the Western media’s reactionary hyperbole.

Junichi FujimotoBy Hugh Ashton -- Smaller devices incorporating wireless networking are proliferating—not just computers, but phones, PDAs and hand-held gaming machines are using the Internet to send and receive data at high speed. Areas of dense population, such as Japanese cities, would seem ideal for these networks which have limitations on the area covered by each base station, but on the other hand, setting up the infrastructure for such ubiquitous coverage would seem to be a prohibitively expensive operation.

Kijuro KawakitaBy Joseph Greenberg -- The business of invention -- Kijuro Kawakita, patent attorney and inventor, tells his students when he visits schools and colleges to teach young entrepreneurs and inventors how to make inventions and protect any success they might have with them, “Many people have inventive capability but they don’t know about the patent system—it is vital for young people and inventors to protect their inventions otherwise they will never be able to compete with big companies.” Kawakita is evangelical about the benefits of thinking through the IP angles early on: “It’s important to think about ways in which the invention could be used in the future.

Sanzo OkadaBy Simon Shiida -- How the Japanese cedar tree found new life -- World War II caused tremendous environmental damage to Japan, the majority of the country being forested land. During the post-war reforestation projects, Japan was implanted with an influx of Japanese cedar trees, (Cryptomeria Japonica) as they were easy to plant and would grow quickly. During this post-war restoration period and the expansion years afterwards, timber from Japan’s forestlands made up a substantial contribution to Japan’s economic expansion.

By Matthew Heath -- For the expat resident Japan has a lot going for it; within a couple hours in winter there’s skiing, in summer the beach and a variety of interesting weekend excursions, whatever may tickle one’s fancy. What may be less obvious is skydiving in Japan. There around only 500 active skydivers here so it is still very much a minority sport. In under an hour from Asakusa one can be at Fujioka Station in Tochigi Prefecture and five minutes from the drop-zone.