September 2003 Issue

On the cover: The old and the new face of Japan. Tradition and elegance will play a key part in a new scheme to bring tourists to Japan. Photograph courtesy Japan National Tourist Organization. "Japan excels at exporting SUVs, flat-screen TVs and video games, but has always fumbled when it comes to selling itself." -- page 34

September 2003
No. 47

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September 2003 Issue

Upfront
	Kansai Airport: A Beautiful Loser Dominic Al-Badri profiles a favorite Kansai calamity.

	A More Independent Japan Yoneyuki Sugita says now is the time for Japan to cut the cord with America.

	How the Philippines' Rising IT Sector Can Service Japan The Philippines boast some of the world's finest IT workers -- and they're headed here.

	Business is Booming -- At Least in Kabukicho Japan's premier pleasure quarter is always profitable.

	Hello Kitty Turns 30 and Keeps on Growing Hello Kitty hits her third decade as a global superstar.

	It's Bottoms Up -- Way Up -- In Hokkaido But is Japan really ready for microbrews?

	Japan's Free Press Faces Punishment Japan's first privacy law seeks to censor the weeklies.

	The Pulse 2 Technology and Finance News

	The Pulse Young Japanese Men Pay Big Bucks for Vanity

	Contributors The Editor's page

	To the Editor The Editor's page

	From the Editor The Editor's page

Features
	Japan Wants You: All 10 Million of You This year marks the start of "Visit Japan," a national campaign aimed at doubling Japan's inbound visitors by 2010. But as journalist Lucille Craft reveals in the first of our two-part feature, that may not be so easy.

	Holy Strollers Tony McNicol shuttles off to Shikoku to survey one successful sector of the tourism industry -- religious tourism. The island's 88-temple pilgrimage is doing brisk business with both the very old and the very young.

	Traveling the Convenient Way The "convenience-store traveler" is privy to some of Japan's best hotel deals.

	Sexy and Smart: One Sector that Won't be Left Behind A bad economy means booming business for Japan's pornographers. David McNeill crunches the numbers in his in-depth probe and shows how the meeting of sex and tech results in cutting-edge innovations -- and a cornucopia of sexual services. Plus: profiles of the entrepreneurs (and one striking performer) who make and market what's hot.

	The Ray Kroc of Adult Video How Ganari Takahashi plans to turn Soft on Demand into the "McDonald's" of adult entertainment.

	The One-Man Show Rio Yasuda is what they call a hamedori, or a one-man porn director, one of hundreds that supply the voracious porn industry with material.

	The Star of the Show Maria Yumeno, one of Japan's highest-earning adult actresses and probably its most famous (until she retired a few months ago), on sex and Japan

People
	Aeon vs. Trend of Japanese and world retailers An insider's look at ERP and how it will help the Japanese Retailers fight back

Blowfish
	Food for thought? Our favorite fulsome fugu takes a look at gluttony, lust and crime.