Magazine No 69 images

On the cover: The Platform for What's Cool in Japan.

Autumn 2006
(September 2006)
No. 69

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On May 1st, 2006, one of the biggest revisions in the last 50 years of the Japanese commercial code, the "Sho-ho," was enacted. The new code not only significantly reduces the investment needed to set up a company, but also completely revamps the government's thinking about what companies are for, how they should be used, and whether foreigners should be allowed to get in on the action.

Visit So Fast and you realize you have arrived at no ordinary logistics company. The place bursts with animation as staff in white polo shirts rush about the outer office. The beaming receptionist sounds his sonorous greeting and presents you with a hairnet and slippers. You don these and shuffle from reception office to warehouse proper, hesitating to glance down, for fear the sheen of the buffed green linoleum might hold the reflection of a man in suit and hairnet.

Quick, what is the most widely used software product in the world today? Hint: it's not from Microsoft. The answer: Adobe's Flash Player, which is on 97.7% of all PCs globally.

On May 1st, 2006, one of the biggest revisions in the last 50 years of the Japanese commercial code, the "Sho-ho," was enacted. The new code not only significantly reduces the investment needed to set up a company, but also completely revamps the government's thinking about what companies are for, how they should be used, and whether foreigners should be allowed to get in on the action.

Sudoku number puzzles are booming. Major dailies and in-flight magazines carry them. Kiosks and bookshops purvey a bewildering array of titles. Don't know how to do Sudoku? Now you can pick up Sudoku for Dummies. Sudoku are published in over 70 countries, and puzzlers number around 80 million.

It's only natural that in light of the high level of consumption in the developed world in the last 100 years, something was going to have to give. Now, in an increasingly unstable world, where developing nations are quickly developing and developed nations are quietly panicking, governments are beginning to take the idea of resource security very seriously indeed.

The Japanese domestic market for the digital still camera (DSC) will soon reach saturation. Market growth is slowing down and the drop in prices is changing the landscape of digital photography. This presents a challenge for many Japanese companies as they decide where to invest from now.

I still have vague Kodachrome memories of playing my first video game. The "game" was one of those early refrigerator-sized Space Invader machines, which probably dates the event to the mid-70s. The beast suddenly appeared in a corner of the local burger bar one day - and that was about it for a while - everyone seemed afraid to take it on. I guess the whole thing was just a bit too Star Trek for small town New Zealand.

The first time I saw the phrase "drinkable oxygen" on a bottle next to Volvic in Lawson's, I laughed. I racked my brain to remember what I learned in Physiology 101. What benefit could drinking oxygen have on my cardio or neurological function? If I remembered correctly - none. Oxygen enters the body through the lungs. In fact, gases in the digestive system usually have embarrassing outcomes. But I must have missed something.