* * * * * * * * * T E R R I E 'S T A K E * * * * * * *<br>A weekly roundup of news & information from Terrie Lloyd.<br>(<a href="http://www.terrie.com">http://www.terrie.com</a>)<br><br>General Edition Sunday, November 14, 2010, Issue No. 590<br>
<br>+++ INDEX<br><br>- What's New<br>- Short Takes<br>- News<br>- Candidate Roundup/Vacancies<br>- Upcoming Events<br>- Corrections/Feedback<br>- News Credits<br><br>SUBSCRIBE to, UNSUBSCRIBE from Terrie's Take at:<br>
<a href="http://mailman.japaninc.com/mailman/listinfo/terrie">http://mailman.japaninc.com/mailman/listinfo/terrie</a><br><br>BACK ISSUES<br><a href="http://www.japaninc.com/terries_take">http://www.japaninc.com/terries_take</a>, or,<br>
<a href="http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/">http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/</a><br><br><br>----------------- PBXL WILL BUY YOUR PBX ------------------<br><br>Is your PBX vendor requiring you to purchase a new PBX <br>
because THE VENDOR decided would not support YOU, THE <br>CUSTOMER, any more?<br><br>PBXL has the solution for you! For any new CUSTOMER, PBXL <br>will purchase and dispose of your old, unsupported PBX and <br>provide you with state of the art Cisco telephony in both <br>
cloud and managed services offerings.<br><br>Give us a call at 03-4550-2557, shoot us an email at<br><a href="mailto:terriestake@pbxl.jp">terriestake@pbxl.jp</a> or visit <br><a href="http://en.pbxl.jp/sell-your-pbx.php">http://en.pbxl.jp/sell-your-pbx.php</a><br>
<br>Offer expires 15 Dec 2010.<br><br>------------ PBXL is BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS --------------<br><br><br>+++ WHAT'S NEW<br><br>This last week, Japan's largest advertising company, <br>Dentsu, announced that it would be launching a new company <br>
in conjunction with 13 terrestrial radio broadcasters, to <br>start transmitting station content over the Internet. <br>Significantly, one of the participants will be the nation's<br>own broadcaster, NHK. Dentsu will head up the new business,<br>
and their business model will be online ads -- no talk of <br>subscriptions yet.<br><br>Online radio stations may not sound like a momentous event,<br>given that there are thousands of such stations active <br>abroad. However, here in Japan, it seems that radio <br>
stations, like print publishers, have shied away from <br>putting their content on the Internet. Partly this has been<br>because they can't figure out how to efficiently monetize <br>their audience once on the Internet. <br>
<br>Basically radio, being a one-way medium, allows the<br>broadcasters to "fudge" the size of their audience. <br>They take a vague set of audience responses and extrapolate<br>that out over the entire in-range population, thus <br>
arriving at a theoretical number of listeners. <br><br>Advertisers have traditionally accepted these make-believe <br>numbers, and paid their money down in the hope of getting <br>results. Before the Internet, probably there actually were the <br>
alleged number of listeners, and therefore a radio campaign<br>really could get results for the advertiser. However, over <br>the last five years or so, advertising on radio has been <br>largely an act of faith, with ever diminishing returns from<br>
money invested.<br><br>The Internet of course offers much more pinpoint <br>identification of just who is listening and for how long --<br>which means that advertisers have more power in negotiating<br>just how much they are going to pay the broadcaster. In <br>
addition, thanks to lower-grade (in terms of content quality)<br>audience-generated website content that is nonetheless <br>compelling, there are now enough sites with such massive <br>page view numbers that they swamp and dilute the ability of <br>
more conventional content sites to charge for that content. <br>Thus, broadcasters cannot earn enough online to pay their <br>bills, and so they stay wedded to their terrestrial model in<br>the hope they can last a few more years.<br>
<br>[Continued below...]<br><br>--------------- Standardizing Your Website ----------------<br><br>Do you have a sophisticated website or Intranet site that <br>is hard to maintain and needs an engineer every time you <br>
want to make a change? Maybe you should standardize on an <br>open source Content Management System -- one which is <br>widely known and supported, and which lets your staff do <br>most of the updates themselves -- thus reducing your <br>
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backed by a solid fully-bilingual team<br>with strong credentials and a desire to please. <br><br>Contact: nana.yamaguchi at <a href="http://lincmedia.co.jp">lincmedia.co.jp</a> for details.<br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>[...Article continues]<br><br>But time has now caught up with the radio stations, and with<br>advertisers are staying away in droves no one is making <br>money any more, no matter how many staff and services they <br>
cut. Thus, it is, we believe, that Dentsu has been able to <br>gather a bunch of them together for what could be radio's <br>last stand. In reality, we wouldn't be surprised if many of<br>these radio stations, once associated with this project, <br>
will be forced over the coming years to merge together, <br>leaving Dentsu with not just a strong Internet content <br>channel but also potentially some spare terrestrial <br>broadcasting licences. What it will do with these we're <br>
not quite sure. Use them for low-cost Internet data <br>distribution channels perhaps?<br><br>The problem of course is that many people don't use radio <br>any more. They don't have cars, so no drive-time hot hits, <br>
and they either watch TV or surf the web while they are at <br>home. So the issue for the radio stations isn't just <br>getting on line but also staying relevant. Luckily <br>consumers still love music, so the way forward seems to be <br>
that the radio stations, whether on Internet or not, are <br>going to have to give up their one-to-many broadcasting <br>model and instead become on-demand and personalized music <br>serving businesses. Not quite Youtube.com, since radio <br>
stations will always have someone in the background <br>knitting the entertainment together and helping the <br>audience find new music that they would have otherwise <br>missed. Further they can handle copyrighted content.<br>
<br>The challenge is that once the audience starts requesting <br>specific sets of tunes and on demand, the radio stations <br>have to invest in large multi-serving and multi-session <br>tracking systems that will look more like Akamai and less <br>
like a radio station. This means that the royalty folks at <br>the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and <br>Publishers (JASRAC) will start wanting cash for each song <br>served and things will get very complicated very quickly. <br>
Radio was popular because it offered (essentially) a <br>flat-rate royalty, ad enhanced, free-to-audience content <br>model, much as most of the web does today, and it is hard <br>to imagine how it can serve up content online in a useful way <br>
for the same low/no price. Maybe Dentsu has worked a special <br>deal with JASRAC for volume licencing? We'll see in due <br>course.<br><br>In the meantime, there is a way for the Dentsu group of <br>radio stations to survive, and that is by working directly <br>
with artists and not through JASRAC at all. The idea of <br>more flexible royalty arrangements for online radio <br>stations, including concepts such as: i) fixed fees per <br>month paid by the broadcaster to the publisher, and <br>
connected to station's ad revenue (but no limit to <br>downloads or streams). Or, ii) a micropayment per <br>download/stream basis through a user's Suica or <br>PayPal account. Then there is iii) conventional <br>
all-you-can-eat user subscriptions. All are possibilities. <br><br>These types of services will require broadcasters and<br>their Music Publisher partners, to have direct relationships <br>with the artists and thus contracts with a high degree of <br>
flexibility that JASRAC just doesn't seem capable of. Go to<br>JASRAC's website and see the pages and pages of billing <br>methods to see what we mean. In contrast to JASRAC, we know<br>of some companies doing direct-to-artist contracting and <br>
royalties handling in the USA, such as <a href="http://www.audiosocket.com">www.audiosocket.com</a>.<br><br>These companies actively recruit hundreds of acts a year, <br>and AudioSocket already has over 1,400 artists and 35,000 <br>
tunes on its list -- none from Japan yet. All these artists are<br>willing to get paid less and offer more flexibility so as to allow <br>AudioSocket to supply web partners on the new pricing<br>paradigm. The company is quite innovative and is<br>
already supplying licenced audio content to social media<br>websites (such as home video sites), on a micropayment<br>basis -- something that Dentsu and its radio station <br>partners could well be doing. <br><br>AudioSocket also sorts its tunes database according to act, <br>
genre, price, and a bunch of other parameters, that could <br>let an radio station producer could easily figure out how <br>to use his/her budget effectively. This level of detail and <br>partner empowerment is the wave of the future and is <br>
where Dentsu needs to be taking its flock of radio<br>stations.<br><br><br>...The information janitors/<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br><br><br>+++ SHORT TAKES<br><br>We recommend products and services that you might find <br>
interesting or useful while living in Japan.<br><br>=> 1. HAYFEVER AND HORSERADISH<br><br>With the onset of winter, it won't be long before hayfever<br>season is on us again. There are not many efficacious <br>natural remedies, and those that are on the market require<br>
some time to work -- so the time to prepare for hayfever is<br>probably now. Different people respond to different <br>remedies, but one that works for many is a mixture of anti-<br>histamine-rich herbs that almost always include good old <br>
Japanese-style Daikon (Horse Radish) and garlic. Here is <br>one such mix -- which you should supplement with garlic<br>separately.<br><br><a href="http://www.iherb.com/Eclectic-Institute-Nasal-Support-310-mg-45-Veggie-Caps/2935?at=0">http://www.iherb.com/Eclectic-Institute-Nasal-Support-310-mg-45-Veggie-Caps/2935?at=0</a><br>
* <a href="http://iherb.com">iherb.com</a> referral code -- LOY499<br>* Pays us a small commission at no extra cost to you.<br><br>=> 2. HOTEL/AIRLINE TICKET PRIZES FOR MMC<br>Becoming a Metropolis Member is as simple as going to the<br>
website and signing up for the weekly newsletter. No other<br>obligations required. <a href="http://blogs.metropolis.co.jp/club/">http://blogs.metropolis.co.jp/club/</a><br><br>Next week's prize in the Metropolis Members Club is a one<br>
night stay at the Okinawa Resort and Spa, courtesy of<br>the Marriott Resort & Spa.<br><br>Last week's we had two prizes to give away. The first was<br>a romantic dinner for two courtesy of 148 Hiroo. Our <br>congratulations to Claire Davis. The second was our monthly<br>
award of a return ticket for two anywhere in the USA or <br>Asia courtesy of United Airlines. The winner of this very<br>desirable prize was Katherine Bramley.<br>* 40 prizes scheduled in the next 40 weeks. <br>* No charge to enter.<br>
* Simply receive the MMC newsletter to stay in the draw.<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br><br>--------- BIOS - Bilingual IT Systems and Support ---------<br><br>BiOS full-service IT solutions has a new service.<br>
<br>Working with our fully licenced temporary dispatch group,<br>we are now able to provide Japan in-country workers<br>for companies not yet registered in Japan.<br><br>This innovative service is available for companies needing<br>
to hire staff for Japanese customers, but who are unable<br>to commit to the expense and infrastructure of maintaining<br>an office in Japan. We take care of all aspects of the<br>employment, contracting, and dispatch -- including <br>
management of the employee.<br><br>For more information on this and other SI and IT services,<br>in English or Japanese:<br><br>Phone: 03-5773-3090, Email: <a href="mailto:solutions@biosjp.com">solutions@biosjp.com</a><br>
Web: <a href="http://www.biosjp.com">www.biosjp.com</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br><br>+++ NEWS<br><br>- Avatar rock star makes it big<br>- Exam for foreign nurses to be revised?<br>
- Walmart looking for Japan acquisitions<br>- Save-and-search software co. has big hit<br>- Cigarette sales plummet 70%<br><br><br><br>-> Avatar rock star makes it big<br><br>Ever heard of Miku Hatsune? Nope, neither had we, maybe<br>
we're just getting old, because apparently there are <br>thousands who do know and love her. Which is weird, <br>because as they stream to concert halls to see her perform, <br>they are watching nothing more than a laser hologram of a <br>
anime style pop princess. Apparently Miku, <br>who was created by a digital production company called <br>Crypton Future Media, is a big hit and is about to go <br>international. ***Ed: You need to see the video referred to<br>
in this article...** (Source: TT commentary from <br><a href="http://latimes.com">latimes.com</a>, Nov 10, 2010)<br><br><a href="http://tinyurl.com/397v66f">http://tinyurl.com/397v66f</a><br><br>-> Exam for foreign nurses to be revised?<br>
<br>A philippine newspaper, the Inquirer, is reporting that the <br>Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) may be <br>considering changing the rules about requiring Filipino <br>nurses to pass their exams in Japanese, where they have<br>
to start the first exam only six months after arriving in <br>Japan and where they only get three opportunities to sit <br>before being required to leave Japan. The new thinking is <br>that the nurses will be allowed longer periods to acquire their <br>
language skills, and possibly allowed to take the exam more<br>often. ***Ed: Maybe they should set up special <br>English-speaking hospital zones in Japan and let those <br>Japanese who want quicker, cheaper care to go to the zones <br>
and be cared for in English?** (Source: TT commentary from <br><a href="http://inquirer.net">inquirer.net</a>, Nov 14, 2010)<br><br><a href="http://tinyurl.com/2vd2mlz">http://tinyurl.com/2vd2mlz</a><br><br>-> Walmart looking for Japan acquisitions<br>
<br>While industry watchers look at the disappointing results <br>of Seiyu, Walmart's main presence in Japan, and many even <br>actively speculate if the retailing giant will pull out of <br>Japan, in fact Walmart is giving the exact opposite story <br>
to the press. The company's CEO and President of Walmart <br>Asia said that he is looking for larger scale operations in<br>Japan and is actively looking for acquisitions to bump the <br>business upwards. Currently Walmart operates 414 stores in <br>
Japan. (Source: TT commentary from <a href="http://upi.com">upi.com</a>, Nov 13, 2010)<br><br><a href="http://tinyurl.com/2vdkuev">http://tinyurl.com/2vdkuev</a><br><br>-> Save-and-search software co. has big hit<br><br>
A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company called Evernote has <br>been having significant success with its notes and data <br>storage software. The company has made Japan its second <br>largest market, after the USA, with about 1m users and <br>
revenues of approximately JPY500/user/month. The firm just <br>scored a deal with DoCoMo to supply Evernote bundled with <br>DoCoMo's Android phones and tablet PCs. (Source: TT <br>commentary from <a href="http://forbes.com">forbes.com</a>, Nov 13, 2010)<br>
<br><a href="http://tinyurl.com/2vfe69w">http://tinyurl.com/2vfe69w</a><br><br>-> Cigarette sales plummet 70%<br><br>Who says higher taxes are a negative event? In the case of <br>cigarette taxes, we'd be happy if they went up another 40% <br>
every year. As a result of the latest price rises, shipment<br>volumes of tobacco products within Japan have fallen 69.9% <br>year -on-year, to 6.1bn packets. Sales value has also <br>fallen dramatically. Observers say that this is typical of <br>
previous tax increases, where volumes would drop up to 50% <br>in the following weeks but recover to virtually the same <br>levels of consumption within a couple of months. This time <br>around, pundits are betting the disincentive factor will <br>
last about 3 months. ***Ed: Addiction is a powerful <br>thing.** (Source: TT commentary from <a href="http://e.nikkei.com">e.nikkei.com</a>, Nov 13, <br>2010)<br><br><a href="http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20101113D12JFA07.htm">http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20101113D12JFA07.htm</a><br>
<br><br>NOTE: Broken links<br>Many online news sources remove their articles after just a<br>few days of posting them, thus breaking our links -- we<br>apologize for the inconvenience.<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br>
<br>+++ CANDIDATE ROUND UP/VACANCIES<br><br>=> BiOS, a Division of the LINC Media group, is actively <br>marketing the following positions for customers setting up <br>or expanding in Japan, as well as other employers of <br>
bilinguals.<br><br>** HIGHLIGHTED POSITION(S)<br><br>BiOS is now urgently looking for experienced Network <br>Engineers with experience supporting investment bank <br>infrastructure to work with a client’s network operations <br>
out of a location in the Shin Kiba area. This role <br>predominantly involves maintenance and configuration of <br>Cisco network products, in particular Switches and Routers,<br>but will also involve a deeper level of work depending on <br>
your technical capabilities. Additionally, you can earn <br>extra money for project implementations and emergency <br>requests.<br><br>Due to the technical nature and high pressure environment, <br>someone with solid experience from the finance industry, <br>
and relevant qualifications (such as CCNA and CCNP) would <br>be best suited to this role. In addition, due to the work <br>involving some out of hours support and potential weekend <br>projects, a flexible individual with a positive can-do <br>
attitude, even under pressure, is essential. Finally, as <br>this role will also involve vendor interactions on <br>occasion, your Japanese ability will need to be at a solid <br>business level to function effectively.<br>
<br>Remuneration is JPY8m – JPY10m depending on your experience<br>and level.<br><br>** POSITIONS VACANT<br><br>- Client Engineer, BiOS, JPY4m – JPY6m<br>- Various Helpdesk and Deskside Support, JPY3m – JPY5m<br>- Snr and Jnr PM, LCD Manf JPY3.5m – JPY4m<br>
- Web Director, online shopping, JPY10m – JPY15m<br>- Okinawa IT Manager, Investment bankJPY5m – JPY6m<br><br>Interested individuals may e-mail resumes to:<br><a href="mailto:stuart.gibson@biosjp.com">stuart.gibson@biosjp.com</a><br>
<br>** BiOS Job Mail<br><br>Every 2 weeks BiOS sends out a regular communication to its<br>job seeking candidates, called BiOS Job Mail. Every edition<br>carries a list of BiOS's current and most up-to-date<br>vacancies, with each entry featuring a short job<br>
description and a direct link to the main entry on the BiOS<br>home page. Regardless of whether you are unemployed and<br>searching, thinking about a career change, or just curious<br>to know if there is something out there that might suit you<br>
better, the BiOS Job Mail newsletter is an easy and<br>convenient way for you to stay informed. If you would like<br>to register for the BiOS Job Mail, or to find out more,<br>please email <a href="mailto:stuart.gibson@biosjp.com">stuart.gibson@biosjp.com</a>.<br>
<br>Interested individuals may e-mail resumes to:<br><a href="mailto:stuart.gibson@biosjp.com">stuart.gibson@biosjp.com</a><br><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br>
<br>+++ UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS<br><br>------------------- CCH HR Seminar ------------------------<br><br>CCH Japan presents 'HR Seminar 2010'<br><br>Redundancy under The Current Economic Crisis<br>-Redundancy of Expatriate and Early retirement program-<br>
<br>Speaker: Hideki Kano: Partner of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune<br><br>Date:Friday, 19th November 1:30pm-5:00pm<br>Venue: Happo-en 5F Room 'Linden'<br>Number of Seats: 50seats<br>Language:English<br>Fees: JPY21,000 (Tax included)-->JPY18,900 (Tax included)<br>
We offer a special 10% Discount for readers!!<br><br>Register at: <a href="https://www.cch-japan.jp/contents/register/form">https://www.cch-japan.jp/contents/register/form</a><br>For more details, please contact us at: <a href="mailto:support@cch.co.jp">support@cch.co.jp</a>,<br>
or 03-6234-3980.<br><br><a href="http://www.cch-japan.jp">www.cch-japan.jp</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br>---------------- ICA Event - November 18 ------------------<br><br>Speaker: Garr Reynolds, Associate Professor of Business and<br>
Communication, Kansai Gaidai University, Osaka<br><br>Title: 'Presenting Naked with Visuals: Thinking Like a <br>Designer'<br><br>Details: Complete event details at <a href="http://www.icajapan.jp/">http://www.icajapan.jp/</a><br>
(RSVP Required)<br><br>Date: Thursday, November 18, 2010<br>Time: 6:30 Doors open, Buffet Dinner included and cash bar<br>Cost: 4,000 yen (members), 6,000 yen (non-members)<br>Open to all, at The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan<br>
<br><a href="http://www.fccj.or.jp/aboutus/map">http://www.fccj.or.jp/aboutus/map</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br>------------- Meet World Champion Sommelier ---------------<br><br>
Kaiseki, Barossa wine, and World Champion Sommelier Andreas<br>Larsson come together for a diner's dream at Kyoto Tsuruya <br>in the Peninsula Hotel, Tokyo.<br><br>Highly decorated, patiently cellared vintages from Peter <br>
Lehmann, 3 Michelin stars, and wine service from a man <br>admired in Europe, the USA, Asia, and Japan. Serious stuff.<br><br>JPY 28,000 per person, service and tax included.<br>Sat 20th, November 7PM.<br>Enquiries to <a href="mailto:wine@village-cellars.co.jp">wine@village-cellars.co.jp</a>.<br>
<br>More details:<br><a href="http://www.winebuzz.co.jp/SP/event_calendar1010_e.pdf">http://www.winebuzz.co.jp/SP/event_calendar1010_e.pdf</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br>
<br>+++ CORRECTIONS/FEEDBACK<br><br>In this section we run comments and corrections submitted<br>by readers. We encourage you to spot our mistakes and<br>amplify our points, by email, to <a href="mailto:editors@terrie.com">editors@terrie.com</a>.<br>
<br>*** No comments or feedback this week.<br><br>***********************************************************<br>END<br><br>SUBSCRIBERS: 8,805 members as of November 14, 2010<br>(We purge our list regularly.)<br><br>+++ ABOUT US<br>
<br>STAFF<br>Written by: Terrie Lloyd (<a href="mailto:terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com">terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com</a>)<br><br>HELP: E-mail <a href="mailto:Terrie-request@mailman.japaninc.com">Terrie-request@mailman.japaninc.com</a><br>
with the word 'help' in the subject or body (don't include<br>the quotes), and you will get back a message with<br>instructions.<br><br>FEEDBACK<br>Send letters (Feedback, Inquiries & Information) to the<br>
editor to <a href="mailto:terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com">terrie.lloyd@japaninc.com</a>.<br><br>ADVERTISING INFORMATION<br>For more information on advertising in this newsletter,<br>Contact <a href="mailto:ads@japaninc.com">ads@japaninc.com</a>.<br>
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or, <a href="http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/">http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/</a><br><br>Copyright 2010 Japan Inc. Communications Inc.<br><br>----------------- Japan Inc opens up Japan ----------------<br>
<br>J@pan Inc is Japan's only independently published English-<br>language business website. Authoritatively chronicling <br>online the business trends in Japan, each posting brings <br>you in-depth analysis of business, people and technology in<br>
the world's second largest economy. <br><br>Visit <a href="http://www.japaninc.com">www.japaninc.com</a> for the best business insight on<br>Japan available.<br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br>
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