For foreign tourists coming to Japan for the first time, the experience must be surreal, almost like visiting a Disneyland. You get interesting stories, colorful costumes, safety and orderliness, ...
The World Economic Forum (WEF), based in Davos Switzerland, published its annual global gender gap report. This year Japan's ranking fell from 101st out of 145 countries to 111th out of 144 countries.
Fujifilm bought 10% shares in Australian company Cynata, who sublicences its core technology from the University of Wisconsin, USA, which allows it to induce massive amounts of iPS stem cells.
Problems that McKinsey ignores: entrenched bureaucratic thinking in government organizations JTA and JNTO, and the fact that currently the Japanese Inbound Tourism sector is pretty much controlled by foreign entities.
The one thing with all types of visitors is the problem which I call "nexus point real estate", meaning the availability of accommodation in key tourist locations around the country.
One way to cope with start-up recruiting is to become more diverse in your selection pool. Looking at the Japanese labor market we can carve it up into roughly seven segments.
I'd forgotten how much we take good inflight entertainment for granted these days, and how frustrating and "vacant" the traveling experience used to be. I guess we had books back then... :-)
UK-based Transferwise solves a number of problems with PayPal and could possibly become THE money transfer solution for foreigners in Japan over the next couple of years.