TT-913 (Tourism Edition) -- A Little Place You've Probably Never Heard Of - Senboku, Akita

There is one inland gem, though, and that is Kakunodate, home to one of the best preserved samurai residential districts in the country. Kakunodate is an oasis of tranquility and beauty.

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TT-912 -- The Good and Bad of Using Linked-In Within Japan, e-biz news from Japan

Linked In isn't popular because: a) when Japanese business people first establish a personal relationship, they do it with a face-to-face meeting, and b) because laying out your resume publicly is seen as "boasting".

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TT-911 (Tourism Edition) -- Spin-off Benefits of Airbnb and Minpaku

As we continue the countdown to implementation of the new Minpaku Law (the Airbnb law as we like to call it), investors, sociologists, and little old ladies alike are all expecting the sector to become a major contributor to the economy.

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TT-910 -- Food Delivery Wars in Japan - Who Will Win? E-biz news in Japan.

Honestbee is a food and shopping delivery company that makes it even easier, as long as you have a working credit card. Their main differentiator is that they have personal shoppers located in or near their merchant partners.

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TT-909 (Tourism Edition) - DMOs, Action, and Authenticity -- A Tourism Recipe for Remote Prefectures

Destination marketing organizations can help remote regions to improve their infrastructure and attractiveness, and thus help those areas bring home some tourist dollars.

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TT-908 -- Soracom M&A - 3 years old and worth US$180 million, e-biz news from Japan

One of Japan's Big 3 telcos, KDDI, announced that it would buy out a Japanese start-up company active in the Internet of Things (IoT) space, named Soracom, for an estimated JPY20bn.

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TT-907 (Tourism Edition) -- Using Missiles, Will Kim Jong-Un Gatecrash the Tokyo Olympics?

With this latest intercontinental ballistic missile test, Kim Jong-Un is going from being an irrelevant annoyance to the U.S. who was only capable of hitting parts of Japan, to now being a major strategic threat.

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TT-906 -- Something You Never Knew About Jean Pearce (1921-2017)

Jean was nothing if not dedicated to helping others and during her more than 40 years in Japan, 36 of them were spent writing regular, meaning weekly, reader advice columns (1964-2000) for the Japan Times.

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TT-905 (Tourism Edition) -- Japan's Biggest Tourist Magnet - Food and the Bloggers that Follow

Let's just remind ourselves that the top activity foreign tourists want to do before coming to Japan is to try some particular type of food.

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TT-904 -- Old Man Funai and the Weakness of One-man Shacho Companies

We heard a story a few years ago about just how autocratic and strict the management methods of Mr. Funai were, which in the beginning no doubt contributed significantly to his success.

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