I live in japan now since a couple of years and can agree with the article to some extent but get the impression that this is not the full picture and there is

I live in japan now since a couple of years and can agree with the article to some extent but get the impression that this is not the full picture and there is a lot missing. Recently, I also attended a presentation from a "The Economist Intelligence Unit [2]" which painted a similar picture. In a nutshell, japan has now a strong position but will decline economically if the current government doesn't take serious steps to reduce and avoid, e.g. bureaucracy overhead. Some interesting points from my notes: - The case of Apple vs. Sony is for instance only a software issue not hardware. Sony doesn't encourage collaboration. - Apple iPod production is a very interesting case anyway in respect that it is partly made in japan [1] - Growth in regional differences (e.g. fukoaka prefecture has invested heavily in education and infrastructure. Has now strong ties with Busan area in Korea.) will be strong drivers for future markets. - Too many "big basket" companies in japan - Very competitive market (e.g. accepted ROI in japan is 4-5% while internationally it is more like 10-15%) - Privatisation in japan started in 2005 (!). It takes very long to get products into the market - Successful companies managed to roll their own efficient distribution chain (e.g. Uniqlo, Ikea, 7eleven) - It takes at least twice as long to get the ROI than anywhere else. International companies are too short sighted - Japanese consumers are very demanding and less forgiving. To get it right here is very difficult. Startup wise there is also a growing environment, especially in seed funding for new ideas University wise. I attended another presentation from UTEC [3] where the growth rates they had were very impressive. Current outlook for japan is not good, but that is mostly because they are too immobile and have too much bureaucracy. We are going back to 1840 standards where the global economy is dominated by China and India anyway. Reference: [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/business/worldbusiness/28scene.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/28/business/worldbusiness/28s... [2] http://www.eiu.com/ http://www.eiu.com/ [3] http://www.ut-ec.co.jp http://www.ut-ec.co.jp EDIT: Formatting