JIN-403 -- No Comfort From the US Lower House

[jin at mailman.japaninc.com]

-----------------------------------------------------------
J at pan Inc Magazine Presents:
JAPAN INC NEWSLETTER
Commentary on Japan's culture, economy and society
Issue No. 403
Wednesday February 21, 2007 TOKYO

Join 29,642 subscribers of JIN for FREE:
http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/free_sign_up

-----------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------
Start a Company in Japan

Entrepreneur's Handbook Seminar 24th of Feb, 2007

If you have been considering setting up your own company,
find out what it takes to make it successful.
Terrie Lloyd, founder of over 13 start-up companies in Japan,
will be giving an English-language seminar and Q and A on
starting up a company in Japan.
This is an ideal opportunity to find out what is involved,
and to ask specific questions that are not normally answered
in business books.
All materials are in English and are Japan-focused.

For more details: http://japaninc.com/terrie_lloyd/
-----------------------------------------------------------

*** So Fast Group Offers a Rare Glimpse into Japan's Logistics
and Telemarketing Business ***

Tour 1: Seeing is Believing!
The So Fast Logistics Warehouse Tour

Do you have parcels going missing?
Do your products keep getting damaged? Packaging not suitable?
Then check out So Fast's cutting edge packaging machinery and
logistics solutions.
Remove the mystery from distribution in Japan.
See for yourself how it is done and rest easy in the knowledge
that your products will receive the treatment your customers
deserve.

Tour 2: See Japan's Largest Database in Action
with the So Fast Group Call Center

So Fast Group company, Landscape Corp, operates one of
Japan's most comprehensive call centers, with its database
of more than 95 million individuals and 7.5 million companies.
Does Japan know about your product?
Need to let Japan know about your product launch?

Come have a look and see how your message can be delivered
politely and efficiently. Landscape takes telemarketing
to a new level with its 30-strong calling staff,
backed up by the largest consumer database in Japan.

Please visit http://www.japaninc.com/sofast for more details.

***********************************************************

-- Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo - Tuesday, March 6th --

Speaker: Bruce Livingstone, Founder and CEO of iStockphoto
and Sean Mooney, Representative Director of Getty Images (Japan)

Presentation Title: 'Creating Opportunities for Crowdsourcing'

Don't miss this opportunity to hear from Canadian serial
entrepreneur, Bruce Livingstone, who last year sold his
company, iStockphoto to Getty Images for $50 million US.
Bruce will be joined by local advertising expert, author
and representative director of Getty Images (Japan),
Seam Mooney.

Date/Time: Tuesday, March 6, 7:00 pm
Location: City Club of Tokyo - Maple Room
(Canadian Embassy Complex)
Language: English
Website: http://www.ea-tokyo.com
Email: info at ea-tokyo.com
-----------------------------------------------------------


-----------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS:
@@ VIEWPOINT: No Comfort From the US Lower House

Got up this morning and was struck by a headline in the
paper: 'Diet Adopts Resolution Calling for US Apology
for Enslavement of Blacks.' I nearly spilled my coffee.
Nevertheless, I plunged into the article: 'On February
20 the Diet adopted a resolution calling for the US
President to make an official apology to America's
35 million blacks for violation of their ancestors'
human rights by the system of slavery.'

No, I didn't read such an article; it does not exist. And
the person who spilled his morning coffee was perhaps
Foreign Minister Taro Aso when he read of the submission in
the U.S. House of Representatives of a resolution
condemning Japan for sexual enslavement of women
during World War II. Commented Aso, 'It is extremely
regrettable and definitely not based on facts.'

And inconvenient. Shinzo Abe is scheduled to make
his first visit as Prime Minister to Washington at the end
of April. He certainly doesn't want the issue of the 'comfort
women,' as the prostitutes for Imperial Army troops'
gratification are euphemistically know, to shadow him
during his US debut.

Just what are the facts? Well, they are in dispute. The Abe
Administration supports the statement issued in 1993 by
Yohei Kono, then Chief Cabinet Secretary, which
acknowledged and apologized for the Imperial Army's
sexual enslavement of Asian women. Subsequently, in 1995,
the government established the Asian Women's Fund from 'an
acute sense of moral responsibility for those made 'comfort
women.''

Some lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party, the ruling
conservative party, are working to disavow the Kono
statement, having established the 'Group of Lawmakers for
Considering Japan's Prospects and History Education,'
chaired by Nariaki Nakayama, the Minister of Education and
Science in the second Koizumi cabinet. The group is due to
propose a revision of the Kono statement as early as this
month. The more conservative LDP lawmakers have been
dissatisfied with Abe's support of the Kono statement.

In dispute is not the fact that Asian women provided sex
for Japanese soldiers, but the backdrop of their arrival
in the brothels and the nature of government involvement.
Foreign Minister Taro, the lawmaker group, 'Yomiuri
Shimbun' editorialists and other elements of the conservative
spectrum contend that the women were not rounded up by
the Japanese government but rather employed by private
brothel owners.

The Japanese blogosphere is awash in theories explaining
the submission of a resolution seemingly irrelevant to the
the US in 2007. Prominent is the theory that the resolution
is the fruit of Chinese and Korean efforts to whip up
anti-Japanese sentiment. Bloggers exorcise the Abe
Administration for not correcting what they view as
a widespread l calumny of Japan based on faulty history.

The administration may be listening. The Japanese Embassy in
Washington issued a statement: '[The resolution] includes
inappropriate comments such as a renewed call for
actions Japan has already taken.' Meanwhile, the government
dispatched to the US on February 19 Hiroshige Seko,
assistant to the prime minister, to explain Japanese policy to
the American media and to meet with relevant lawmakers to
explore the background of the resolution.

The Japanese are, admittedly, inept propagandists, and
they are now paying the price for not having earlier reminded
the world of amends they've made for the sins of war.

The resolution now before the House of Representatives
reminds me of a visit to Japan by Jesse Jackson many years
ago. The civil rights leader had barely unbuckled his seatbelt
when he was saying free the 'burakumin,' a subject
of  historical and political complexity not amenable to sound
bytes or briefing papers.

The Americans have a bad habit of letting their admirable
democratic impulses lead them into areas of which they are
woefully ignorant. So they are caught in the crosshairs of
sectarian militants in the Middle East and debating a
resolution that can only alienate their closest ally in Asia.

The Japanese are bad publicists, but leastwise they do no
harm from ignorance. You won't be reading about their
lawmakers asking President Bush to apologize to the sons
and daughters of slaves.

  -- Burritt Sabin
-----------------------------------------------------------

---------- Wake up to Clear Vision Without Glasses! -------

Minamiaoyama Eye Clinic was established in 1997 as the first
refractive surgery center in Japan operated by board-certified
ophthalmologists.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary in June, and are proud to
have performed over 43,000 refractive procedures to date.
We use the most advanced techniques available in corrective
surgery to achieve optimum vision.
All physicians are board-certified ophthalmologists.

Let us help you obtain the best quality of vision.
Standard LASIK surgery costs JPY 504,000 for both eyes,
and we have a flexible payment method:
credit card, bank transfer or loan.

Contact us for an appointment by telephone or e-mail to
schedule your examination and consultation.

Promotion for Newsletter readers:
Just mention you read about us in this newsletter, and
we will offer you a LASIK consultation and full eye
exam for JPY 2,500 (normally JPY 5,000.).

Minamiaoyama Eye Clinic
Tel: 0120-89-3810 (Tokyo) 045-682-4411 (Yokohama)
092-283-5555 (Fukuoka)

Email: info at minamiaoyama.or.jp
URL: http://www.minamiaoyama.or.jp/en/english.html

-----------------------------------------------------------
** Japan vending machine market cracked open! *************

Japan is home to the highest density of vending machines
in the world, with about 5.6m machines, or one for every 23
people. You can buy almost anything, and the Japanese do,
with about JPY6.67trn (US$56bn) being spent every year.
Yet, apart from the obvious players such as major soft
drinks companies, there have been no foreign owners of this
massive direct sales medium - until now.

Market Pioneer Japan is proud to announce that as of
December, 2006, it has built a network of 1,500 vending
machines placed nationwide, selling stickers and print
logos. We invite owners of licensable content to contact
us with a view to distributing your IP assets into the
Japanese market.

Web: http://www.marketpioneerjapan.com
Email: info at marketpioneerjapan.com
***********************************************************

-----------------------------------------------------------
SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE TO JAPAN INC NEWSLETTER:
http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/free_sign_up
CHECK OUT OUR OTHER JAPAN-SPECIFIC NEWSLETTERS
http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters_main_page
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
To advertise in this newsletter, contact:
ads at japaninc.com
GET THE MAGAZINE
http://www.japaninc.com/mgz_subscriptions
FEEDBACK AND PROBLEMS
We welcome your viewpoint:
editors at japaninc.com
(NB Please do not reply to this newsletter --
it's outgoing only, so we won't get it!)
TECHNICAL PROBLEMS: webmaster at japaninc.com
(C) Copyright 2007 Japan Inc Communications KK.
All Rights Reserved.