Welcome to the first issue of Terrie's Take for 2007. The signs are that the first half of the year at least is going to be a good one, certainly the mandarins at the Bank of Japan and our leaders in government and big business are saying so...

2006 has been an eventful and productive year for business in Japan. This was the year that we marked the longest period of business expansion since War II, longer even, than the Izanagi boom in the mid-1960's. Being immersed in the noise and bustle which is Tokyo...

According to Tom Sato, what's hot right now is the cell phone site Mobage Town, from mobile content developer Dena. "Moba-ge" is a contraction of mobile games, and is a cross between a Social Network System (SNS) and a games portal. Essentially it serves up loads of games and provides rewards that the players can collect and trade. The kicker is that because it is SNS based, it has experienced a humungous word-of-mouth growth over the last 9 months...

If someone asked you to guess which company in Japan sells the most software in this country, most people would probably think Microsoft, Softbank, or Symantec. But the fact is that the seller of the most packages in this country for at least the last 2 years is a company that you've probably never heard of -- SourceNext, a firm located at Roppongi Hills...

English-teaching school, Gaba, is to IPO on Mothers on December 1st. The company will be offering 14,200 shares at JPY265,000, giving the company a market cap of JPY11.39bn (US$97.4m). The company in its current form was created as recently as June 1994, through a management buy-out...

This week we were going to comment on the pending IPO by the Gaba English school, and the sorry financial and moral state of English schools in Japan in general. However, given that this is issue Number 400 of Terrie's Take, we thought it might be better to take some time out and toot our own horn. Gaba won't list until December 1st, so plenty of time for them next week...

Earlier on this month, the Yomiuri newspaper carried an article about an auto parts manufacturer in Akitakata, Hiroshima, which is being investigated for hiring more foreign "trainees" than allowed by the rules.

On June 22nd a rather unique if small outsourcing company, called Japan Third Party (JTP), listed on the JASDAQ. Although at first glance the business looks like a pretty standard operation, the company is special in that a full 95% of its business comes from foreign technology firms (not end users).

About five years ago, we wrote about the phenomenon of Japanese bedrock manufacturing companies firing thousands of people. One after another, companies such as Matsushita, Nissan and others broke the bad news to employees aged 50 or over that their days were numbered. Among many others, we were stunned to witness that apparent death of a unique corporate culture that saw protecting the welfare of employees as being more important than making profits.

Prime Minister Abe may be embarking on an interesting new (for Japan) tax strategy, especially if you're a company shareholder. It appears that he is putting into place the building blocks needed...