* * * * * * * * * 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, October 28, 2012, Issue No. 684<br>
<br>+++ INDEX<br><br>- What's New -- Making Hospitals More Commercially Viable<br>- News -- 24% of companies re-evaluate China<br>- Upcoming Events<br>- Corrections/Feedback<br>- Travel Picks -- Utena Beach, Ehime & cormorants in Aichi<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 Managed Cisco Services-=-=-=-=-=-=--=<br><br>After delivering the first hosted Cisco PBX offering in <br>
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PBXL Managed Cisco Voice--because PBXL is Business <br>Communications<br>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-<br><br>+++ WHAT'S NEW<br><br>In August, the government announced that it was going to <br>
help stimulate the medical sector by creating new <br>guidelines to encourage Real Estate Investment Trusts <br>(REITs) to invest in hospitals, clinics, and similar <br>medical facilities. To date there are no health care REITs <br>
in Japan, and we imagine that's because the high risks <br>involved, specifically that there is no recourse for the <br>REIT if a hospital gets into financial trouble and can't <br>pay its bills. This is so because by law hospitals can only<br>
be owned and operated by a licenced doctor, meaning that <br>the REIT is hamstrung if the doctor decides he/she doesn't<br>want to play ball.<br><br>The government says that its new guidelines will clarify <br>the relationship between a potential REIT and the hospital <br>
owner/management. The guidelines are not yet published, but<br>according to the Nikkei they will go some way to balancing<br>rent and security deposit protections for the hospital <br>operator against the needs of the investing REIT to take<br>
action if the hospital gets into financial trouble. We <br>imagine this will include the ability for the REIT to bring<br>in a temporary facility manager, who would be tasked with <br>turning things around financially, and the ability to sell <br>
the facility to a suitably licenced third-party. <br><br>Both arrangements would require the REIT to be more than <br>just a property investor, which will still hold back many, <br>but given the amount of investment needed by Japan for aged<br>
care facilities over the next 20 years, there is some <br>serious money to be made in the sector for the REIT willing<br>to learn some new skills. Accordingly, we think there will<br>be a boom in this sector if the guidelines are done right.<br>
<br>Let's see if the Land and Infrastructure and Health and <br>Welfare Ministries are really serious about helping <br>cash-strapped doctor-owners to lease instead of buy their <br>facilities.<br><br>[Continued below...]<br>
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<br>Our services start with a high-grade Japanese Journal <br>that goes out to more than 5,000 CEO-class decision <br>makers. Then we also create Japanese websites, conduct web <br>surveys on our database of 600,000 consumers, and execute<br>
blog campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. <br><br>If you would like some innovative thinking for your next <br>marketing campaign, but without the high cost of an <br>internatioal "brand-name" ad company, email us today for <br>
more details. <br><br><a href="mailto:sales@japaninc.com">sales@japaninc.com</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br><br>[...Article continues]<br><br>Unfortunately, the declining quality of hospitals around <br>
Japan is not just a function of lack of cash and <br>imaginative ways to return a facility back into the black. <br>Rather, the sector itself is falling behind <br>international quality standards, which makes it more <br>
difficult to bring new technologies and treatments to <br>Japan and therefore new, better-paying customers. Right <br>now most people avoid hospitals and don't see them as being<br>worth the investment, instead preferring to suffer in <br>
silence at home. Furthermore, if Japanese hospitals were to<br>become more internationally competitive, they would be able<br>to solicit more foreign patients looking to receive <br>advanced surgery -- something the government has been <br>
trying to promote as medical tourism, but without much <br>success. Instead, while there is a lot of talk about <br>looking after foreign patients, the reality is that <br>Japanese hospitals are woefully unprepared to look after <br>
non-Japanese speakers. Instead, if you're wealthy and want <br>the best care and handling, Thailand and Malaysia are the <br>better places to go. They have the multilingual doctors, <br>the leading edge treatment options, and the international <br>
certifications.<br><br>But that situation is starting to change, because a number <br>of more commercially advanced hospitals in Japan appear to <br>be breaking away from the pack. <br><br>We recently heard from John Wocher, a senior manager in the<br>
Kameda Medical Center in Chiba. John told us that in 2009,<br>Kameda became the first hospital in Japan to be accredited <br>by the Joint Commission International (JCI), a US-based <br>non-profit accreditation agency. Following Kameda, in 2010,<br>
the NTT Higashi Kanto Medical Center was successfully <br>accredited, then St. Luke's International Hospital in July <br>of 2012, and just recently a long term care facility in <br>Yokohama. Next will be the Shonan Kamakura hospital, and <br>
in 2013 the Aizawa Hospital in Matsumoto City and Seirei <br>Hamamatsu Hospital in Hamamatsu. <br><br>In case you didn't notice, and thanks to the accreditations,<br>this is a short-list of hospitals with proven procedures<br>
and facilities, and are places that international patients <br>can have confidence in...<br><br>Indeed, the JCI testing covers more more than 300 <br>standards, comprising over 1,100 separate scored measures <br>of compliance. In Kameda's case, JIC had three <br>
international surveyors in the hospital for five full <br>days, spending about 120 hours looking into every nook and <br>cranny of the hospital and evaluating patient quality and <br>safety from every possible aspect. The testing is <br>
sufficiently tough that St. Luke's in Tsukiji did not pass <br>the first time around and needed to be re-surveyed to <br>ensure compliance. But it did eventually pass, which is <br>saying more than what most Japanese hospitals could.<br>
<br>Wocher told us that getting a JCI accreditation is a kind <br>of "Michelin" ranking for hospitals. As such, JCI focuses <br>on only the top 1% to 2% of hospitals worldwide -- <br>obviously important if you're trying to attract wealthy <br>
businesspeople and dignitaries from other nations to come <br>and get treated here. Interestingly, however, for all the<br>talk in Japan of medical tourism, the Japan Council on <br>Quality Health Care (JCQHC), which is a voluntary <br>
accreditation organization that has evaluated and passed <br>just over 30% of Japanese hospitals (yes, 70% of hospitals <br>have not passed testing or have not been tested), does NOT <br>plan to collaborate with JCI. Most likely this is because <br>
MOST of the hospitals in Japan would fail the JCI survey, <br>which would be embarrassing to all concerned. <br><br>... And not particularly confidence inspiring in those of<br>us living here, either.<br><br><br><br>...The information janitors/<br>
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<br>+++ NEWS<br><br>- Zynga pulling out of Japan<br>- Mizuho is now top dog in M&A<br>- 24% of companies re-evaluate China<br>- LCCs stimulating competition and more tourism<br>- Terumo subsidiary makes patent claim in USA<br>
<br><br>=> Zynga pulling out of Japan<br><br>Facebook-based games company Zynga has announced that it <br>is closing its Zynga Japan subsidiary, to reduce costs <br>while it tries to recover from recent earnings and stock <br>
market set backs. The back story is that Zynga failed to <br>capitalize on a US$150m investment that Softbank made in <br>the company back in 2010. As the article we're linking to <br>states, Zynga could have used Softbank's considerable <br>
mobile content delivery know-how to win a place in the <br>mobile market. Instead, they left Softbank out in the cold <br>and now it's not clear whether Softbank even remains as an <br>investor or not. ***Ed: Our guess is that Softbank is still<br>
in Zynga shares, since they are in no need to hurry out of <br>an investment that might earn a lot more for them in the <br>long run.** (Source: TT commentary from <a href="http://sfgate.com">sfgate.com</a>, Oct 26,<br>2012)<br>
<br><a href="http://bit.ly/TNzJOQ">http://bit.ly/TNzJOQ</a><br><br>=> Mizuho is now top dog in M&A<br><br>Mizuho Financial Group has overtaken Nomura Holdings as the<br>top advisor/manager for M&A in Japan, after winning a role <br>
in Softbank's US$20bn bid for Sprint in the USA. Prior to <br>this deal, Nomura had been top of the advisor tables for <br>four consecutive years. Bloomberg puts the ranking change <br>down to clients shying away from the company after the <br>
insider trading scandal came to public attention earlier <br>this year. Overall, Nomura's profit fell 90% in Q1 as news <br>of the scandal started to surface. (Source: TT commentary <br>from <a href="http://japantimes.co.jp">japantimes.co.jp</a>, Oct 27, 2012)<br>
<br><a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20121027n3.html">http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20121027n3.html</a><br><br>=> 24% of companies re-evaluate China<br><br>A Reuters corporate survey of 400 companies has found that <br>
24% of Japanese manufacturers in China are re-evaluating <br>their positions in the country, with 18% looking to <br>possibly move their production facilities elsewhere. <br>Further, about 50% of the companies polled said that they <br>
expect lower sales in China. Reuters says that altogether <br>20,000 Japanese companies have invested about US$trn into <br>China in the last 22 years, and employ more than 1.6m <br>people. ***Ed: China was never a "safe" option, and the <br>
Senkaku's spat is one more point of proof that it is fast <br>becoming a high risk option.** (Source: TT commentary from <br><a href="http://taipeitimes.com">taipeitimes.com</a>, Oct 28, 2012)<br><br><a href="http://bit.ly/SOykJc">http://bit.ly/SOykJc</a><br>
<br>=> LCCs stimulating competition and more tourism<br><br>Apparently the arrival of JetStar, Peach, and AirAsia in <br>Japan has had a galvanizing effect on both travel costs and<br>travel numbers in the last few months. The Nikkei reports <br>
that Skymark is offering a one-way trip to Naha, Okinawa <br>from November for just JPY10,000, in competition to two LCC<br>airlines with similar prices. Further, JR West is offering <br>an JPY18,000 round trip tick from Shin-Osaka to Hakata <br>
(Kyushu), about 2/3 the normal price. JTB reports that it <br>has sold 20% more trips with JetStar than originally <br>planned for this Q2 period mainly because the trips are up <br>to 50% less than charged by conventional airlines. (Source:<br>
TT commentary from <a href="http://e.nikkei.com">e.nikkei.com</a>, Oct 27, 2012)<br><br><a href="http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20121027D2610A07.htm">http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20121027D2610A07.htm</a><br><br>=> Terumo subsidiary makes patent claim in USA<br>
<br>As a sign that Japanese companies are getting more <br>sophisticated about patents and protecting them, medical <br>devices maker Terumo's US subsdiary, called Harvest <br>Technology, is suing the ThermoGenesis Corporation of <br>
California for patent infringement concerning cell <br>generation technology used to produce high-density platelet<br>rich plasma and other products. (Source: TT commentary from<br>press release from <a href="http://www.harvesttech.com">www.harvesttech.com</a>)<br>
<br><a href="http://www.harvesttech.com">http://www.harvesttech.com</a><br><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>------------- Japanese Travel Writers wanted -------------<br><br>Do you know someone who can write native-level Japanese and<br>
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<br>While professional writers are welcome, the JapanTourist.jp<br>project is a writer community set up for talented amateurs <br>to have a forum to test their skills. Therefore, we welcome<br>housewives, retired people, and Japanese living overseas<br>
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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>
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for other jobs: <a href="http://www.biosjp.com/positions.php">http://www.biosjp.com/positions.php</a><br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br>
<br>+++ UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS<br><br>=> No events this week.<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 corrections this week<br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br>
<br>+++ TRAVEL DESTINATIONS PICKS<br><br>=> <br>Utena Bathing Resort, Omishima<br>One of the loveliest beaches in Ehime<br><br>The Seto Inland Sea separates the island of Shikoku from <br>Honshu, the main island of Japan. A chain of islands dots <br>
the sea between Imabari in Ehime, and Onomichi in <br>Hiroshima, and this route is linked by the Shimanami Kaido,<br>an expressway with spectacular suspension bridges over the <br>sea passages.<br><br>The last major island on the Ehime side is Omishima. The <br>
island has a rugged coastline with many bays and sandy <br>coves. One of these beaches rejoices in the grandiose name <br>Utena Bathing Resort. I confess that as I drove around the <br>narrow coast road through tiny hamlets and pine scrub, I <br>
snorted with laughter when I came upon the blue sign <br>pointing to the “resort”. I took the turning and the road <br>became even narrower. In a few seconds, I was in the car <br>park, which has space for about 20 cars.<br>
<br>As I walked up to the sea wall to the beautiful circular <br>inlet, a big bird of prey swooped down from one the pines <br>on the other side and dived on a fish with a loud splash. <br>Welcome to the Utena Bathing Resort!<br>
<br><a href="http://japantourist.jp/view/utena-bathing-resort-omishima">http://japantourist.jp/view/utena-bathing-resort-omishima</a><br><br> <br>=> Ukai at Inuyama, Aichi<br>Fishing with the birds<br><br>The sun had long gone down, the steep mountains surrounding<br>
the inky river only heightened the blackness. On one of the<br>hilltops overlooking the wide, lazy river was a castle. <br>Below it long, narrow boats made their way from upstream <br>towards the fortress. Surely those in the castle could see <br>
the large steel baskets of fire hanging from the front of <br>the boats? Indeed they could, and they were no doubt <br>enjoying the spectacle!<br><br>For over 1300 years, the traditional art of Ukai, or <br>cormorant fishing has been practiced on the rivers of <br>
Japan. Today the practice can only be seen in 5 places <br>across the nation, and one of the better known is on the <br>Kiso River, just upstream from the National Treasure listed <br>Inuyama Castle in Aichi Prefecture, about 30 minutes north <br>
of Nagoya City.<br><br>Watching Ukai was a popular pastime amongst feudal lords <br>and the rich from the 8th to the 19th Centuries. The <br>practice later gained special support from the Emperor. <br>These days there are very few people authorized to perform <br>
the traditional fishing practice, and the rarer the art <br>becomes, the more popular it has become amongst tourists. <br>Laying claim to have seen Ukai puts one in a class of their<br>own amongst the Japanese, who look with envy and awe at <br>
anyone having enjoyed the ancient discipline.<br><br><a href="http://japantourist.jp/view/fishing-with-the-birds-ukai-at-inuyama">http://japantourist.jp/view/fishing-with-the-birds-ukai-at-inuyama</a><br><br>***------------------------****-------------------------***<br>
<br>***********************************************************<br>END<br><br>SUBSCRIBERS: 7,810 members as of October 28, 2012<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><br>SUBSCRIBE<br>Get Terrie's Take by giving your name and email address at<br><a href="http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/free_sign_up">http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/free_sign_up</a>, or go<br>
straight to Mailman 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><br>
or, <a href="http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/">http://mailman.japaninc.com/pipermail/terrie/</a><br><br>Copyright 2012 Japan Inc. Communications Inc.<br><br>----------------- Japan Inc opens up Japan ----------------<br>
<br>J@pan Inc authoritatively chronicles business trends in <br>Japan. Each posting brings you in-depth analysis of <br>business, people and technology in the world's third <br>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><br><br><br><br><br>