With one of our sister companies in the market entry business, we have noticed in the last 3 months a gradual increase in the number of foreign firms investigating setting up an operation in Japan.

The company owes about JPY2.5trn (US$31bn) to the banks and other bond holders, a crushing debt burden, with shares slipping from around JPY800 this time last year to just JPY198 on Friday.

Nomura Securities reckons that eAccess' fixed-line ADSL business is declining -- not hard to imagine, as indicated by the fall in subscribers to the service.

Dentsu is paying a huge 48% premium over the last closing price for the object of its desire -- marketing group Aegis, making the takeover deal worth about US$5bn.

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.

Now that the rise in Consumption Tax is all but assured, we think there are some very interesting changes in store for how the Japanese Government and Japanese companies think about making money.

"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.

Already Amazon.com, iherb.com, and other foreign exporters are enjoying consumption tax-free exports to Japan, so it is only natural for Japanese firms to want to do the same.

We traveled out to Hidaka town in Saitama at the foothills of the Okuchichibu mountain range, to join dozens of others to celebrate Alishan's 2012 Food Festival, at their wonderful riverside warehouse/home/cafe.

To our surprise, the number of companies being started up in 2009 and 2010 in fact exceeded the number shutting down by a substantial margin.