By Hiroyuki Arie, General Manager, Business Stream Systems at TÜV Rheinland Japan Fire, typhoon and earthquake resistance of buildings has long been of paramount importance in Japan. This is partly because for a long period of time, the majority of structures were lightly made of wood. If a house caught fire in the Edo period (1603–1868), firefighters often chose […]
On the eve of the G20 summit in Hamburg, the European Union and Japan reached a political understanding about a new comprehensive free trade agreement. During the EU-Japan Summit, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, hailed the agreement as “the birth of the world’s largest, free, industrialized economic zone.” EU officials proclaimed it “the most important bilateral trade agreement ever concluded […]
This is the fourth in a series of columns about Japan Inc.’s ultimate global challenge: marketing (if you came here from somewhere else, read this, this and this first). There is a lack of understanding (or training) in marketing basics within many companies. How can you execute Marketing 4.0 if you never learned Marketing 1.0? Consider the military… Anyone who […]
Japanese investors are now setting their eyes on developing countries, particularly India, for fledgling tech startups that have potential for growth. Currently, India’s economy is the seventh largest in the world measured by nominal GDP, and the third largest by purchasing power parity. Asuka Corporation, REAPRA Ventures, GREE Ventures, Mistletoe Capital, and Incubate Fund are just some of the Japan-based […]
This is the third in a series of columns about Japan Inc.’s ultimate global challenge: marketing (if you came here from somewhere else, read this and this first). Marketing is the process involved to sell a product and brand. It addresses how a product or brand should be perceived by the customer to be more desirable (positioning); where and how […]
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has recently become a buzzword around the globe. The processing power of microchips is now strong enough for machines to do very complex tasks. In 2015, Google’s AlphaGo defeated the best human players in the board game Go, which was considered the last bastion of human advantage. It did not use pure computing power, but deep […]
By Hiroyuki Arie, General Manager, Business Stream Systems at TÜV Rheinland Japan Twenty years have passed since the 1996 establishment of ISO 14001, the standard for environmental management systems (EMSs). By now, there are over 25,000 ISO 14001-certified organizations in Japan. This is second only to the number in China, and demonstrates that the concept of the environmental management […]
Continuing from my first article, this is the second in a series of columns about Japan Inc.’s ultimate global challenge: marketing. Following are the six reasons I believe Japanese companies struggle with marketing. 1. Language In the Japanese language, there is no direct translation for the word or concept of Marketing. It is spelled phonetically via five katakana characters (separate […]
How are things going with your project and job in Japan? Maybe you are like me; you may have too many meetings, you may sometimes not be clear about the true agenda, and often feel that you do not get quick or best results? Perhaps you think that maybe some things have already been covered prior to the meeting, but […]
This is the first in a series of columns about Japan Inc.’s ultimate global challenge: marketing. Japan is the world’s third largest economy; it is an influential country and will continue to be a valuable contributor to the global economy. In the 1950s, Japan competed largely on low prices, low wages and selling cheap imitations of western goods. Recognizing the […]
“I am sorry.” You will have experienced this at least once if you spend some time with Japanese people: The first word coming out of someone’s mouth is often a word of apology. This is not only the case on an individual level, but also in the business context. We often come across situations where the management of a Japanese […]
By Hiroyuki Arie, General Manager, Business Stream Systems at TÜV Rheinland Japan On Nov. 28, I was working on this article about cybersecurity in Japan, when shocking news spread quickly across the nation. Major news media, including Kyodo News, simultaneously reported that the Ministry of Defense (MOD) had suffered a cyberattack. Ministry sources announced that a hacker had penetrated […]
In my home country Germany, freedom of science is guaranteed by the Basic Law, as the constitution is called. When the Academic Freedom Act came into force in 2012, it increased self-governance of non-university research institutes in addition to universities. In contrast, the science sector in Japan has traditionally been strongly controlled by the ministries. Recently however, there is a […]
by Kazushi Arima, General Manager, Mobility at TÜV Rheinland Japan With their large output and long service life, lithium ion batteries power a broad variety of products from smartphones to electric vehicles. At the same time, there are frequent reports of safety problems that come with these batteries. Just recently, a South Korean smartphone manufacturer has garnered much unwanted […]
By Ramesh Nadarajah, Vice President Industrial Services Asia-Pacific at TÜV Rheinland Asia-Pacific Renewable energy is one of the most important factors in the transformation of Japan’s energy mix by 2030. This article provides a closer look into what has happened in the area of wind energy, one of the most promising renewable energy sources, and tries to identify some of […]
