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On the cover: Legal Special

Jury System
Arbitration
Legal Awards

Intellectual Property in Japan

Sept/Oct 2007
No. 73

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As a young girl, Ms Kimata’s father used to tell her: “You should grow up to take care of other people’s problems, not to have other people take care of you.” Taking the advice to heart, Ms Kimata graduated from the Faculty of Medicine (Public Health) at Tokyo University before becoming one of Japan’s first elite bureaucrats for the Ministry of Labor.

“I was the first woman bureaucrat to be assigned to the Vocational Training Bureau. For good or bad, the time had come for Japan to be categorized as a developed nation and was, therefore, required to do something good for developing countries in Asia, to begin with, then Africa and South and Middle America,” she explains.

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Kumi Sato has been a pioneer in her field of strategic communications. As President of the COSMO Public R e l a t i o n s Corporation, a position she has held for the last 20 years, she has presided over a company that has helped numerous foreign companies enter the notoriously difficult Japanese market.

In 2002, COSMO was named the “Consultancy of the Year” by PR Week Asia, while Ms Sato herself, since 1998, has been honored many times, including being named one of the “Stars of Asia—50 Leaders at the Forefront of Change” by BusinessWeek, and one of the “Hundred Global Leaders for Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum at Davos. She has sat on numerous boards and committees in the US and Japan, including her more recent appointment as Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ).

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Jane Best is of the opinion that it is an exciting time in Japan right now for nongovernmental organizations— and she would know. After 22 years of living in Japan, and a history in voluntary work that saw her awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2001, she is now President and CEO of Refugees International Japan (RIJ).

Ms Best agrees that there are special challenges and opportunities for NPOs and NGOs in Japan today. “The challenge is in understanding what charity is about. Why should anybody be concerned about anything beyond the shore? However, if you talk to people and create discussion about the issues, they become more and more interested, particularly young people.”

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Hiroko Tatebe may well have her ranking in her family to thank for her independence. “I wanted to try what it’s like being ‘Hiroko,’ rather than being the ‘6th daughter of the Tatabe family’,” she says. Her plans met a lot of resistance from her very traditional parents. That is, until her father passed away when she was 16.

“He was president of a small savings and loan company at the time he passed away,” explains Tatebe. “My mother actually became director, which was very unusual at that time, because she was already 52 years old—and that was 40 years ago!”

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Japan’s first hamburger

Contact details

The Hamburger Inn

CEO: Teruhisa Oikawa
3-18-30 Jingumae,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-001
Tel: +81-3-3408-0331
Fax: +81-3-3408-0612

No.1 Tokyo Hamburger
Barbizon Building
2-25-23 Nishiazabu,
Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel: +81-3-5468-3506
Fax: +81-3-5468-3605
Email: teruhisa@thehamburgerinn.com
Web: www.thehamburgerinn.com

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Japan’s first hamburger

The Taste

The Hamburger Inn burger is unique and superior from bun to patty. The buns, baked at a specialist bread shop, are made with yeast used in the brewing of sake (kouji) that gives them a distinct doughy flavor, and a height and fluffiness that makes them tower over the offerings by stores such as R-Burger or Freshness Burger. The beef in the standard burger is from New Zealand and has a tenderness and taste that put the burger firmly in the gourmet category. In the luxury version, for another JPY1,000, the meat is premium Japanese beef originating from the same butcher that supplies Robert De Niro’s Tokyo gastro-dome Nobu. The author can testify that biting into a Hamburger Inn burger satisfies on all the necessary levels: taste, juiciness and texture.

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Japan’s first hamburger

The Price

Whilst most gourmet hamburger places start their prices from around JPY1,000, The Hamburger Inn offers a burger for JPY800; versions with cheese, bacon, chili or avocado are available for JPY900. Critically, The Hamburger Inn offers the high-end burger at middle-end prices, something Mr Oikawa sees as key to growing the franchise. The JPY800 not only undercuts other chains but also renders the place highly competitive for the lunchtime market..

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Japan’s first hamburger

The Brand Heritage

Well known and well liked among a large group of influential people on the Tokyo scene, The Hamburger Inn attracts nostalgic rockers who now account for a large and growing percentage of the country’s population. More than that however, the 57-year-old brand name has an appeal for the younger crowd who search for justification and precedent in their current tastes for Western food and fashion. With his fashion experience and awareness of brand power, Oikawa has been quick to introduce an already popular range of Hamburger Inn merchandise including a wide selection of T-shirts, baseballs hats, mugs and badges.

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