Even if you live permanently in Japan, own property, have chidren at Japanese schools, own a company and pay taxes to the Japanese government, changes to immigration procedures at Narita airport will require you to go through new rigourous checks and balances including eye-scanning and finger printing. Aside from the inconvenice, what messages is the Japanese government sending to potential foreign investors and business people? Read Terrie's Take Now

The sexual dimension to Japan's crisis of demography has prompted opinions from politicians, economists and anthropologists on how to solve the problem. Terrie takes a critical look at what Japan is doing to deal with the dearth of births. Read Now

A look at Japan's financial relations with the economies of Southeast Asia and how this affects the dynamics of regional business. Includes news summaries with the latest on Nova, Japan Post, tuna fishing and the winter weather. Read Now

Terrie takes a look at the market for condiminiums and discusses the residential real estate market in general. Has it reached its peak? Read Now

With Japan's richest holding billions of yen in savings, what is happening to the gap between rich and poor? Terrie compares the wealth divide in Japan with that in the US and breaks down the totem pole of Japanese affluence. Read Now

Terrie takes a look at what the government is doing to encourage young enterprises to start businesses in Japan and considers an exciting opportunity for foreign entrepreneurs: Japan Market Expansion Competition (JMEC). Plus, foreign residents to join the regular foreigner visitors' line at immigration. Read Terrie's Take Now

Starting life as Tokyo Classifieds when it was launched by Mark and Mary Devlin back in 1994, Metropolis magazine has grown to become Japan's largest periodical both in terms of distribution volume and advertising revenue. Last week Metropolis was acquired by another publishing group. To find out who and why Read Terrie's Take Now

In the last week of August, a private equity firm that few had heard of, MBK Partners, won an auction to buy the accounting software firm Yayoi from Livedoor Holdings for an estimated JPY71bn (US$617m). Was this figure worth it? What does this say about M&A culture in Japan? Read Terrie's Take Now

This week focuses on the tobacco industry in Japan. As the local market becomes increasingly difficult how has Japan Tobacco managed to keep its profits up? What lies ahead for smoking policy in Japanese localities? Read Terrie's Take Now

Will the rise in M&A numbers continue? While the subprime mess in the USA appears to be drying up the type of leveraged financing needed for M&As overseas, it is our view that the trend to buy companies here, and especially buying on credit (LBOs) will not only continue but in fact increase. Read Terrie's Take Now