Japan's Highly Skilled Foreign Professional visa introduced in July last year targets technology immigrants and offers on a new points system a very easy 5-year work visa with all the trimmings.

The percentage of non-regular to full-time workers is now a record 28.75%, almost 18m people (there are 62m in the workforce), and this is not just a temporary trend.

Among various incidents which prompted Dreamliner aircraft to be grounded have been the incineration of the auxiliary power unit on an empty JAL aircraft and later a forced landing of an ANA jet with another major electrical problem.

As is our custom, we are going to kick off the year by making some predictions about where we think Japan, her people, and companies are headed this year.