There is one inland gem, though, and that is Kakunodate, home to one of the best preserved samurai residential districts in the country. Kakunodate is an oasis of tranquility and beauty.

Linked In isn't popular because: a) when Japanese business people first establish a personal relationship, they do it with a face-to-face meeting, and b) because laying out your resume publicly is seen as "boasting".

As we continue the countdown to implementation of the new Minpaku Law (the Airbnb law as we like to call it), investors, sociologists, and little old ladies alike are all expecting the sector to become a major contributor to the economy.

Honestbee is a food and shopping delivery company that makes it even easier, as long as you have a working credit card. Their main differentiator is that they have personal shoppers located in or near their merchant partners.

Destination marketing organizations can help remote regions to improve their infrastructure and attractiveness, and thus help those areas bring home some tourist dollars.

One of Japan's Big 3 telcos, KDDI, announced that it would buy out a Japanese start-up company active in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, named Soracom, for an estimated JPY20bn.

With this latest intercontinental ballistic missile test, Kim Jong-Un is going from being an irrelevant annoyance to the U.S. who was only capable of hitting parts of Japan, to now being a major strategic threat.

Jean was nothing if not dedicated to helping others and during her more than 40 years in Japan, 36 of them were spent writing regular, meaning weekly, reader advice columns (1964-2000) for the Japan Times.

Let's just remind ourselves that the top activity foreign tourists want to do before coming to Japan is to try some particular type of food.

We heard a story a few years ago about just how autocratic and strict the management methods of Mr. Funai were, which in the beginning no doubt contributed significantly to his success.