While it may be counter-intuitive, we still believe that now is a good time to start a firm, especially in a market as large and diverse as Japan's.

Apart from the size, what made this demo unusual is that it wasn't organized by a specific political group. You had moms with babies, salarymen, senior citizens, Buddhist priests, and people from all walks of life.

"showrooming" -- web-savvy consumers check out products in physical show rooms, only to turn to their favorite shopping and price comparison websites to see if they can buy the same product cheaper elsewhere.

As much as we don't like DPJ politician Ichiro Ozawa and his money-tainted politics, we have to agree with him on one thing, that raising the consumption tax in Japan could be harmful.