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My brother Daniel has been doing business in Japan for the better part of two decades and he's getting to know Tokyo pretty well. In his recent newsletter, Dan reports

When I have a rare free evening or weekend in Japan, I crawl around back alleys looking for some good music . . . the Blue Note in Tokyo [has] some great shows, not cheap . . . [and I drown] in smoke in a dozen other less respectable dives (e.g. Manhattan in Asagaya) . . . [Local jazz fans] are starting to relax.  Although it is still not the norm to see feet tapping and head nodding and other far out (hah) forms of exhibitionism, for the first time in my experience there was not a person sitting at the normally straight-laced Blue Note - Big Chief Bo Dillis and the Wild Magnolias had everyone on their feet (including yours truly of course) . . . [Despite Japan's devotion to planning] there is some great improvisation.  I heard the local jazz group Sleepwalker twice, once at the high end JZBrat, and the other at the low end Room - at the Room they improvised for at least 2 hours, and no one could sit still.   Most of the time they played one piece (as far as I could tell) that went on and on. But the Room is that kind of place . . .

So what does this say about doing business in Japan? . . . Well, for one, it is possible to have fun too.  For another, Japan is not only what it seems to be.   There are strong underground currents, that move in different directions.  There are lots of contradictions. There are huge differences between Japan at night and Japan at day. Japan can be as raucus and rambunctious in the dark hours as it can be laced up and up tight in the light.  And for a third, Japan is constantly changing, absorbing foreign culture while continually inventing and disseminating its own. (remember: Japan is a huge exporter of culture).

The current newsletter is chock full of intriguing tidbits like

As of 30-Aug-2004, Japan had 1,601,432 FTTH lines in service, according to the country's Ministry of Home Management, Public Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, up from 960,926 FTTH users at the start of 2004 . . . DSL users in Japan numbered 12,549.066.

and

Visible light communications . . . for the transmission of information using light that is visible to the human eye is rapidly approaching the practical application stage thanks to the increasingly higher performances and expanding applications of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This Japan-original technology will be unveiled at CEATEC JAPAN 2004.

and

DoCoMo Inc said it will offer a roaming service to enable airborne passengers to access its Mzone wireless local-area-network service in a tie-up with Connexion by Boeing, an Internet access service unit of U.S. aircraft maker Boeing Co, starting on Oct 22.

Trust, but verify. Dan's small print says:

Triangle Technologies Ltd. makes no claims concerning the validity or exactness of the information provided herein, and will not be held liable for any use, interpretation, or other implementation of said information.

In this blog, the above goes without saying.

If you want to know more, email newsletter at triangletech dot com. Because Dan's my brother I am a bit biased. But I ignore that -- when his newsletter hits my inbox I read it anyway.