I recently ran into an old friend of mine, a successful Japanese businessman, who introduced me to an attractive lady he was working with and from his body language whom he was obviously comfortable with. He introduced her as the CEO of one of his group companies and I couldn't help wondering how that relationship got started. In any case, she in turn introduced herself, giving her name, then shyly nodded towards my friend and said, "By the way, I'm his wife."

Can Japan cope? An increasing demand for smarter consumer electronics products and services infrastructure has caused major personnel headaches in a country where there is already a shortage of IT engineers. In the struggle to keep up many companies are turning to off-shoring, but what are the pitfalls of this approach?　Read Terrie's Take Now

This time Frugal Watch looks at the concept of "Freeganism" and how recycling products can help the frugally-minded foreigner living in Japan. Read Now