To hear Daniel Mansukhani speak of it, the population of Sakhalin is salivating. At the thought of liberating the mother lode of oil there? Well yes, at that too, but more at the prospect of a decent restaurant opening on this Russian island north of Hokkaido.
"There are almost no good restaurants in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk," says Mr. Mansukhani, recalling his trip last year to the administrative center of Sakhalin Island. Although the city does have a sprinkling of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian eateries, the Sapporo-based restaurateur remembers the dining opportunities as few, expensive and, well…unmemorable.
Mr. Mansukhani hopes to change that by opening an Indian restaurant this spring at the Natalya Hotel in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. He is targeting well-heeled oil expats and locals enriched by the nascent petro-boom. "Every expat who comes from overseas will be hiring seven to ten local people," he says.
The Indian-born Mr. Mansukhani came to Sapporo in 1972 for the Winter Olympics. He was so impressed with the quality of life that he later moved here permanently from Tokyo to raise his children. Although he has lived in places as varied as India, Hong Kong and Germany, he feels a fondness for Sapporo.
"If you say you have a problem in Sapporo, you get help," he says. "Hokkaido people will do their best for you."
Opening in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk promises to be a greater challenge. The population is one-tenth that of Sapporo, and the business environment is more insular. But "where there is no difficulty, there's no money," Mr. Mansukhani says philosophically.
He also believes there's money to be made on Sakhalin in export-import.
"The department stores and supermarkets have empty shelves. I'm interested in exporting from Hokkaido."
Mr. Mansukhani has ample experience in both restaurant management and import-export, as the president of The Taj Mahal Group. The company runs three restaurants, two different curry franchises and a trading concern, all in Sapporo. The Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk opening will be the fourth Taj Mahal restaurant.
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk today is not unlike Sapporo when he first visited in 1972, according to Mr. Mansukhani. Sapporo didn't have many foreign restaurants then, and the city was much smaller. Over the years, Sapporo has grown larger and more sophisticated, just as he expects will happen to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
The sophistication of Sapporo parallels the evolution of the Taj Mahal menu. The first cooks, who were recruited from Delhi, were told to make the food mild. The fieriest offerings were labeled "hot." As customers became accustomed to Indian food, the menu escalated to "very hot" and then "very very hot." Now, dishes like chili chicken and chili prawn only come very hot. Although Indian food is known to be spicy, at its best it balances heat with flavor. Mr. Mansukhani says the curries at Taj Mahal are made with a blend of at least twenty spices and seasonings.
In addition to expanding northward, the Taj Mahal Group is growing within Sapporo. It has introduced a new curry franchise called Namasute, fighting Japan's recession with an eat-in / takeout menu that starts from 380 yen for curry and rice. Namasute shops will differ from the Taj Mahal restaurants. Namasute will serve only curry and rice, rather than the full restaurant menu of curries, pilafs, meat dishes and Indian bread. Entrepreneurs take note: the Taj Mahal Group expects to open thirty shops in Hokkaido and is looking for franchisees.
It is significant that Taj Mahal will be among the first Sapporo-based ventures in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. After all, Mr. Mansukhani was the first foreigner to gain admission to the Sapporo Junior Chamber of Commerce and he is an Honorary Consul of Tourism from India to Hokkaido. What better diplomat to wave the banner for Hokkaido on Sakhalin?

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to those who are lucky enough to have a few days off. Those of us who are broke can't afford to take any, and as for you part-timers out there, holidays are just days when companies are closed and you can't work even if you want to. Well, 'tis the season to get off your asses and look for a new 9-to-5er.
In Japan, most businesses and schools do much of their hiring for the spring, so that means now is the time to check out what's available for spring 2003.
Xene has put together a list of Web sites that offer information about jobs in Hokkaido and throughout Japan. So forget what I said before, and get ON your asses -- in front of your computers -- and see if there isn't something that grabs you from one of the following sites.
Happy hunting!

< Hokkaido >

Hokkaido Insider
An e-mail service providing news about jobs, events, interesting Internet sites.

< All Japan >

Work in Japan.com
The latest information on jobs and hints for living in Japan.

Job Seek Japan
Posting of job openings and resumes. Also, information on working and living in Japan.

Gaijinpot.com
Featuring the latest job information for non-Japanese and bilingual Japanese. Information on careers, living and working in Japan.

Japan@Online! Japan Employment Center
Job and resume postings.

Japan Zone
Tips and links for living and working in Japan.

Jobs in Japan
Listings of ESL and other teaching, IT, bilingual, entertainment, modeling/acting and other general jobs in Japan.

Japan-guide.com
Links to Web sites that have information on working in Japan.

EscapeArtist.com
Listings for teaching, sales, IT, entertainment and others.

Teaching English in Japan
Tips for teaching and living in Japan, and links to other sites in teaching and the like.

Scads of people have ideas for making money in Japan but don't really know how to get started or feel they won't know how to wade through local red tape on taxation and other procedures. Or - and this is a big one - there just might be a problem of financing at the outset of an endeavor. So they give up before they begin.
Well, good news!
Xene has put together a list of Web pages that are designed for those who fall into any of the above problem areas. There is a lot of money out there in the form of business grants for non-Japanese, grants for various projects including saving the environment and promoting cross-cultural relations, and many, many more.
Looking to organize an event? Check out the Japan Foundation Center's Web site, for example, to get information on how to go about things and maybe even get a subsidy.
So, before giving up on your ideas, why not see if there isn't just something available to help you out on the Web? You never know.

Web information for setting up your own business
(E) = English Web site

･･･ Grants, Subsidies and Support Information ･･･

< Sapporo >

Chusho Kigyo Shien Center
札幌市中小企業支援センター
Grants, seminars, free advice and related information for small and medium-sized businesses.

Sapporo City Sangyo Shinko Center
札幌市産業振興センター
Seminars and events on business startup.

< Hokkaido >

MITI Hokkaido
北海道経済産業局 (E)
Grants, subsidies and information.

Industrial Promotion Division of Hokkaido Government
北海道産業振興課
Grants and event information.

Hokkaido Small Business Support Center
北海道中小企業総合支援センター
Grants, links to resources and companies, and small-business data.

< All Japan >

Venture Support provided by Telecommunications Advancement Organization of Japan
情報通信ベンチャー支援センター
Information on establishing a company, grants, seminars and other resources for the IT and telecommunications businesses.

Jabira.net
じゃびら総合研究所
Lots of hints and advice on setting up a company, networks for SOHOs and small-business owners.

Venture business support network
ベンチャー企業等支援ネットワーク
Database of grants, loans, seminars, events, and consulting and networking groups.

Japan Small- and Medium-Enterprise Corporation
中小企業総合事業団 (E)
Subsidies and advice for ventures, and for hosting events and seminars.

National Federation of Small Business Associations
全国中小企業団体中央会 (E)
A variety of information on taxes, grants, insurance, research data and events.

NPOWEB
News about NPO-related issues, information on grants, seminars and research, and other support.

Japan Foundation Center
財団法人助成財団センター(E)
Database of about 900 grant programs and links to grant-making foundations in Japan.

･･･ Business Association ･･･

HIBA (Hokkaido International Business Association) (E)
An active international business association organized by mostly non-Japanese business people.

Turkey's recent number-three placing in the FIFA World Cup pleased Yakup Oktay Sumen no end. Reminders of the World Cup and Turkish flags proudly adorn his Turkish restaurant, Aycha, in Shiroishi. Aycha means "crescent," the symbol that accompanies a white star to make up the foreground of the country's flag. One wouldn't expect to find a Turkish restaurant in Sapporo, where the Turk community boasts about seven members. However, Yakup decided to open the restaurant after a Canadian friend, yearning for a good doner kebab, urged him to do so. Nearly four years later, the Canuck has moved on, but the Turkish restaurant still stands, and Yakup displays his mate's parting gift on the wall: a Canadian flag, of course.
Aycha is a log cabin situated in a former car park, and it offers a selection of traditional Turkish foods cooked by Yakup himself. The ingredients are fresh, and he gets many of the more distinctive ones from Turkey or from importers in Tokyo. The biggest difference between Turkish food and Japanese food is the use of sauces. Turkish meat is not served with sauce. Instead, it is marinated or seasoned, and the essential ingredients are actually salt and pepper.
Highly recommended is atana, grilled, minced, seasoned lamb; chicken shish kebab, large cubes of marinated chicken and vegetables grilled on a skewer like an enormous yakitori; and of course doner kebab, layers of chicken, beef and lamb wrapped around a huge skewer, and grilled on a vertical rotisserie. When the outer layers are cooked and crispy, they are thinly sliced and served on a rice pilaf or in pita bread with salad. Doner kebab is as delicious as it sounds and is the most popular dish on the menu. Aycha is a carnivore's heaven, but vegetarians needn't despair. Salads, soups and dips such as hummus, made from ground chickpeas, are readily available.
Drinks-wise, try Efes beer (pilsner or dark), brewed in the famous town of Ephesus. Follow with a glass of Raki, an anise-based liquor, drunk with water, and known as "lion's milk" because it is strong and looks like milk. And by the way, if you happen to bump into one of the other six Turks out in Sapporo, you can impress them by raising your glass and saying serefe ("cheers").
Yakup is from Denezli in southwestern Turkey, a short distance from Pumakkale, a natural formation of ancient limestone-encrusted hot spring basins on the side of a one-hundred-meter hillside. Their white appearance gave the area its name, Pumakkale meaning "Cotton Castle." About two thousand years ago, the Roman occupiers came to bathe in the therapeutic waters, and nearby there are many Roman ruins. It was close to this World Heritage site that Yakup used to run a pension. Working in the kitchen, he honed his cooking skills, while outside of mealtimes he perfected his English by chatting to the many international tourists. Nowadays he's added Japanese to his list of languages.
Yakup believes that Turks are characterized by their friendliness and hospitality, and he welcomes his customers in a relaxed and warm manner. Turks also like music, and every so often he organizes a soiree at Aycha with a party plan and professional belly dancer. Anyone can join in the festivities, so why not pick up a rhinestone for your navel and go along to the next one?

Aycha (Tel: 011-865-6756) is at Hongodori 5, Minami 3-13, a five-to ten-minute walk from Nango-nana-chome Subway Station (Tozai Line). It is open from 5PM on weekdays, and 2 PM on weekends. It is closed on Wednesdays.

The Japan Group
http://www.thejapangroup.com
In Sapporo: Contact Glenn Burns (burns@thejapangroup.com)
Kita 16-jo, Higashi 16-chome, Higashi-ku
Tel.: 780-4907 Fax: 780-4908
In the U.S.: Contact Randal Irwin (irwin@thejapangroup.com)
2922 SW 153rd Dr. Beaverton OR 97006 USA
Tel.: +1 503 803-1808 Fax: +1 503 644-8850

Nestled snugly between the recent Winter Olympics and the upcoming FIFA World Cup is the Japan Cup. You may not have heard of it, since the other two events have an unfair stranglehold on the media. But let it be known that powerhouse Russia will come in May to play the inaugural match on Japanese soil in that most international of sports, cricket.
Now I know the North Americans out there are saying, "What the hell's a cricket?" But I have been assured that this sport has been around for dozens of years and is played and followed vehemently in countries that never win anything in the Olympics (except Australia, somehow).
If the truth be told, the Russian team is actually an international group of mainly oil- and service-industry expats up in Sakhalin who have formed the recreational Sakhalin Cricket Club (SCC).
I spoke with PJ Singh, the number-one ringer on the SCC, and asked him what they were expecting in their visit to Sapporo.
"The SCC is looking forward to making history in this first ever international cricket match in Hokkaido," he told me. "We feel that we can field a strong enough team to take on the Hokkaido side, but playing cricket is not the only reason for our visit. Very few of us have been to Sapporo and so we will be exploring the city when not...scoring runs!"
There is a reason why such confidence about the match is being expressed on the SCC side. In a chat with Simon Jackson, who chairs the Hokkaido International Business Association (HIBA) and manages the Japan team, I learned some of the history surrounding the event.
"This whole thing came about as a drunken wager when I was up in Sakhalin on business," he says. "I learned that they had a team, so I challenged them to a match...and was taken up on it! So we formed a ragtag team and went up to Sakhalin last year not knowing what to expect."
I asked Simon how they had fared against the Sakhalin side.
"We came in second," he jested.
Well let's hope they do at least as well on their home turf in Hokkaido.
And who are the Japanese players? The team includes cricketers of twelve nationalities (although a cricket team has only eleven players) associated with HIBA from the Sapporo area.
"From a business perspective there are really two main reasons for the matches," Simon explained. "Cricket is a very social game with a lot of time between the action to chat with the other team members. Who knows what business might be discussed at such times? And, of course, when the Sakhalin side comes to Hokkaido for the match and a bit of R&R in and around Sapporo, we feel certain that they will return with a good impression. The Japanese experience that the SCC will relate to their friends and families back in Sakhalin will create a positive curiosity for the area. This could mean that many of the fourteen- to eighteen-thousand expats and their spouses in Sakhalin will want to come to Sapporo again and again to shop, stay at hotels, take onsens, go to restaurants, ski, etc., etc. It's only a two-hour trip from Sakhalin."
The Sakhalin team will be here from May 10 to 12, with the Japan Cup cricket match being played on May 11 in Ishikari.
Says Simon, "This will be a continuing annual event, with home and away matches between Hokkaido and Sakhalin for dozens of years to come."

"Give a little more than what's expected."
This business philosophy might seem unheard of in the current business climate, where most companies are trying to cut corners wherever they can, but for Frank Young, co-founder of F&K International, this idea goes hand-in-hand with being competitive. I talked with Mr. Young and learned how his company is able to be successful and at the same time help the international community in many fields here in Hokkaido.

Q. You seem quite diversified. You're involved in language services, real estate and database development.
Young: F&K International started out doing language services, our bread and butter, about seven years ago, so let me start there. We offer interpretation, translation, proofreading, and narration. Of these, translation represents most of our revenue. Working in English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian, we deal with a lot of general business materials - newsletters, trade show materials, annual reports and so forth - as well as specialty subjects that tie closely to Hokkaido, such as shipping, concrete, and tourism.

Q: You mentioned narration. Where does that come in?
Young: Well narration is often done in conjunction with translation. For example, when a client has a specific need for something multilingual, as was the case recently with a promotional video for Hokkaido Prefecture, we provide script translations into multiple languages and arrange for narrators that can do voiceovers on the video.

Q: That sounds like a lot of work.
Young: Well, these larger projects are rewarding. They allow us to use all of our language-related faculties.

Q: So how are you involved in real estate?
Young: As landlords. This came about when my wife, Kumiko, and I were looking for suitable and reasonable property to build on. In the interests of our budget, we began researching the foreclosure market and as we were doing so we gradually came to realize there was a niche in Sapporo's real estate market that was not being met. Foreign residents were having trouble finding suitable apartments to rent. So, basically we started looking for convenient, good quality properties in the downtown area that would be attractive to the foreign community.

Q: What do you mean by trouble?
Young: Firstly, I mean language problems. Some people are not comfortable speaking or reading Japanese, so we provide English contracts if needed. Beyond that, we try to help with anything else that may cause anxiety. Finding parking, and getting utilities started are typical examples. Being approachable is what a good landlord should be, so that's what we try to do. We act upon any reasonable request that our tenants might have in the hopes of quickly solving problems and at the same time providing an agreeable place to live. We are, in fact, proud of having tenants from Korea, Australia and Japan staying with us currently.

Q: I've asked about language services and real estate, so now the third: database development.
Young: Ah yes, this is something that I am excited about and hope to do more of in the future. It all came from tracking properties, as I described earlier, that were being sold through the court. A colleague of mine in the IT industry saw what I was doing and suggested a collaboration with a client he had that required sales management, too. From there it has continued to grow. Companies need to track inventory, sales, accounts and a lot of other information to run a company smoothly these days, and all of that comes down to databases. We've helped a beer company improve its operations recently and would love to talk to any company that needs to become more efficient.
Frank Young's enthusiasm for his business and his philosophy of "giving more than what's required" feel like a breath of fresh air and may just be something that we could all benefit from.

WeCan Homes has shown a 12-fold increase in business over last year and is one business that isn't showing any ill affects from the economy. WeCan truly can.

The Russian writer Anton Chekhov said "I've been to Ceylon and I've seen heaven and I've been to Sakhalin and I've seen hell". Mention Sakhalin in Japan and the locals are likely to report a similar impression.
Overlooking these views, members of Hokkaido International Business Association (HIBA) recently went on a business/friendship and international cricket mission to Sakhalin from August 31st to September 6th, and found out the reality. Our group all came back with very different but positive impressions.
After arriving in Yuzhno-Sahkalinsk we went for a pleasant summer evening walk around the city. Sakhalin is directly north of Hokkaido, but due to the Russians' fiendishly clever ability to adjust to time zones, summer time is 2 hours ahead of us, and it doesn't get dark until 8:30 or 9 p.m. Pre-dinner drinks were imbibed at the Pacific Caf� (an expat hangout) and among the hubbub we could pick out a variety of English accents, from Public School English to Texan drawls. Dinner was a choice of Korean, Russian, Japanese or Western style. We chose Korean and ate such deliciously named dishes as "the taste you can't imagine" and "heaver's delight". It seems that English translators in Russia also have a warped sense of humour.
Saturday was the day of the cricket match. For those of you who don't know much about cricket, it is a sporting divide that separates civilised countries from the others who just play baseball. The match was played at the Zima highlands, a sort of club/resort occupied by Sakhalin Energy - 100 apartments, bar, restaurant, sports gym, tennis courts and sports fields all built for the bargain basement price of US$100 million.
After clearing security, our ragtag team met the opposition. Ragtag is an overestimation. Only 6 of the 11 players needed made the trip. Three of these hadn't touched a cricket ball until the previous weekend. Our gear consisted of a bat and ball kindly donated by the Hilton Otaru and wickets made from a broom handle. Irrespective of experience, our team did well with newcomers Wayne Rutherford, Shawn Clankie and Jerry Halvorsen all taking wickets against some very good players, Xene's Sonoyo Ishikawa excelling at fielding and being one of the few batters not to go out, and Daniel Mansukhani looking very much the part in his cricket whites and blazer.
Our opposition were an entirely different kettle of fish. The Indian sub-continent was well represented - with one Mr. PJ Singh reputed to have played for Delhi (akin to being on Moses's Red Sea Powerwalking team). The game was sponsored by all the major players in the oil industry on Sakhalin: Exxon Neftegas Ltd., Sakhalin Energy (Shell), CIS Technology, Schlumberger, Deutag UK Ltd. Sakhalin, Panalpina, BP, Dalsatcom, ST Mobile (Cable & Wireless) and Universal Sodexho. Players and officials were from England, Scotland, South Africa, the U.S., Canada, India, Pakistan, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Japan and Russia. The weekend's play and socialising (the hosts arranged transport, lunches, BBQ, drinks, band, afternoon tea and the Wallabies vs. All Blacks to be shown live) was extremely successful from a sporting, social and business point of view. Several members of the mission have come back with ongoing business and others are in the process (stay tuned for the Yuzno branch of the Taj Mahal restaurant.) Everyone made new friends and we were able to advertise Hokkaido as a place for business, education and R&R.
The score. What happens on Sakhalin stays on Sakhalin!
All I can say is that cricket is about losing with dignity, and the HIBA team showed we were very very very dignified. We did however make cricket history for taking part in the first Japan-Russia cricket match.
The rest of the week was spent in meeting government and business representatives, studying the correct method of drinking vodka, more socialising, investigating restaurants, bars, casinos, nightlife (and early morning life), banyas (Russian sauna's complete with wet birch leaves whippings), Russian massage (masseur: "No cry -- big man, no little baby da"), and fishing ﾐ the salmon were running and were in unbelievable numbers.
All in all, the HIBA mission to Sakhalin was a great success. Things must have changed since Chekov's days.

These are trying times for beer in Japan. Microbreweries are struggling to maintain quality control and gain a market. Consumers are moving to cheaper products. The big breweries' offerings all taste alike. Beer is dead, declares Brian Dishman.
Dishman is the brewmaster at Otaru Beer, a division of Aleph Inc., which also operates the Bikkuri Donkey restaurant chain. His company is hoping to breath new life into Japanese beer by fighting these three trends.
Otaru Beer is keen to distinguish itself from jibiiru (microbrews) by positioning itself instead as a "regional brewery."
"Jibiiru has a fairly bad image in most people's minds here," says Dishman. The quality is uneven, and the beer is associated with the tourist industry, he explains. "You go to a certain city, you drink the jibiiru, and that's it. What we want to be is a product that people drink on a daily basis."
Unlike brewers who are dumbing down their product lines by offering cut-rate additive-laden happoshu (low-malt liquor), Otaru Beer is producing premium beers according to the Reinheitsgebot, a 500-year-old German law that specifies strict natural brewing practices.
"We're not required by law to produce beer according to the Reinheitsgebot, but we do," Dishman says. To ensure freshness, the beer is distributed only within a 100-kilometer radius of their brewery in the Zenibako district of Otaru City.
The countertrend most obvious to drinkers is the battle against bland uniformity. The company makes three quite distinct beers: a pilsner that showcases hop aromas and bitterness, a heavier dunkel that highlights malt and natural caramel, and a weiss (wheat) beer that delivers a yeasty taste.
Dishman confesses that he knew little about beer when his company dispatched him to Germany. He learned.
"To become a brewmaster, you have to study biochemistry, chemical Engineering and microbiology," he says.
Given the mature nature of the market in Japan, the next step was gaining distribution.
"We decided to look at the market and think, 'Where's the hole?' " he says. "There are still lots of areas of town where you're not close to a convenience store. So I thought of transporting the beer to the customer and, better yet, trying to get it there within an hour of their phone call."
Otaru Beer's delivery service has helped put the company in the black when many breweries are teetering on the vurge of bankruptcy.
For companies wishing to succeed in Hokkaido, Dishman quotes Apple Computers' ad slogan.
"Think different. That's what we do. When we produced our first beers…every microbrewery in Japan was filtering their beer. People drink filtered beer? We produced unfiltered beer. People drink mostly very light pale lagers? We produced dark lagers - and the pilsner, but it's totally different from the big makers'. The home delivery is the same thing. How do all the big makers sell beer? We do it as home delivery.
"I've watched lots of companies when they bring a foreign product from America or Europe and they say that they have to 'Japanize' it. Then they never sell it. If they 'Japanize' it, it means they're trying to make it like all the other things. If that's the case, then why sell it?"
To see how it's done, beer connoisseurs can take a brewery tour that was launched in May.

Brian Dishman came to Japan from Oklahoma, U.S.A., as an exchange student in high school and university. After graduating from the Japanese program at Oklahoma University, he took a job at Alefe Inc., which is headquartered in Sapporo. In 1994, the company decided to open a brewery and dispatched Dishman to Germany and, later, Scotland where he earned his brewmaster's license at the prestigious Herriot Watt. He lives in Sapporo with his wife and daughter.

Although infotec companies "can succeed anywhere - or, from anywhere," says Randal Irwin, success takes more than good ideas. The former Executive Managing Director of Voicenet International Corporation, a Sapporo-based Internet consulting firm, recently returned to the U.S. after nine years in Hokkaido and reflected on his time here.
According to Irwin, "The key to success is going to be an environment that promotes and encourages ideas - and their implementation, that's the most important part." For all of the great ideas he has heard, he has found lack of will to put them into practice.
"In any country it's easy to throw up ideas. It's another thing to do research and find ideas that make sense. People doing things 'for Hokkaido' or 'for our town'? That vague emotionalism" is not productive. "And accountability is a critical issue." This means accountability within companies and government administrations. "The longer I stay here the more I find that accountability is lacking to a shocking degree.
"There's a ton of [public financing] money out there and it's almost no strings attached. There should be some level of accountability." He adds that the measures to ensure accountability make no sense, citing the example of red tape from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) regarding a Geographic Information System (G.I.S.), a sophisticated computer mapping and database system.
"MITI wanted 40 centimeters of documentation on a G.I.S. venture," he says. The 40 centimeters refers not to the page length of the document, but the stack of paper required. This was not an average amount, it was their stated requirement: For each $10,000 of financing, Irwin says, they needed one centimeter of documentation.
"The U.S. partner said 'We're outta here.' To avoid losing face, the Japanese side hired part-timers to make up the 40 centimeters of paper. A Russian graduate of the Russian Academy of Sciences said he thought he'd escaped this," he says.
Another obstacle is the telecommunications system in Japan.
"NTT is the most arrogant bunch of swine and bandits," he says. "I tell every NTT person I come into contact with this same thing. It's that and only that" which is keeping Japan from getting wired up. "There are other excuses like the difficulty of integrating kanji and the Internet. But China and Korea seen to have no problem."
A positive change is how foreign entrepreneurs have moved from being token outsiders to more respected contributors to the business community. Irwin cites the case of a Japanese businessman who approached Hokkaido International Business Association (HIBA) about how to bypass the byzantine Japanese distribution network and import a waiting shipload of fish. A HIBA member managed to bring in the cargo by circumventing the usual costly and inefficient channels, benefiting both the Japanese company and the foreign intermediary.
Irwin tries not to give the impression that Hokkaido has been a disappointment. He says he has found Japanese businesspeople more open to learning than their arrogant Western counterparts. For all this receptiveness, however, it is tough to change the system.
"The future of Hokkaido - of anyplace - depends on the success of the citizens and private enterprise," he says. "People in small to medium-sized companies are the hope of Hokkaido. Bureaucracies should clear the way for business.
"I came here nine years ago. I realized soon that some things wouldn't be possible. This situation has caused me to grow in ways I wouldn't have in a more comfortable environment. It has made me think about what a company is, what a client is. I'm actively looking for a reason to come back after I leave. But after nine years I can't find one. There's a helplessness to the salaryman's situation. You see people and they aren't happy. It makes me sad. Here, a company is not about pleasing the employees, its about pleasing the company."
He still believes his experience here will serve him well back in the U.S. "I'm ready to put to practice what I've learned, in a more Darwinian environment."

by Carey Paterson

Randal Irwin was a raw recruit at a computer company in Sapporo when he had his first brush with the future.
"They told me about this thing called a modem, how computers could talk to each other over the telephone," says Irwin of his early '90s awakening. "After one day of using it, I knew this was it." His enthusiasm was anything but contagious, however. The company, Hokkaido Institute of Technology, asked Irwin why he was logging so much modem time.
"They chose not to pursue the technology," he says, and the rest was a history of lost opportunities - until he co-founded Voice International Corporation in 1996 as its Executive Managing Director.
Irwin says he did not want to be just another Internet access provider. According to the charismatic 39-year-old, Voice International provides Internet consulting services that address the real competitive needs of businesses.
"There's nothing more boring and stupid on the planet than having a roomful of machines offering Internet access. We want the Net to have value. When I go to a client's office, I don't use the word 'Internet'. I say, 'What do you do? What keeps you up at night? What would shore up your bottom line?' From there we begin talking about whether Internet services or databases, for example, would help."
Irwin came to Sapporo in his third year at Portland State University, on an internship program sponsored by a Sapporo business group. His six-month internship was split between Akiyama Aiseikan Co., Ltd., a pharmaceuticals concern, and its subsidiary, Hokkaido Institute of Technology Co. Ltd. (H.I.T.). After graduating from Portland State in Asian Studies, he returned to the planning department of H.I.T., where his work included software and systems development. But his job description was intentionally undefined, and Irwin took the opportunity to canvass Sapporo companies about their business.
He says he benefited from the gaijin kouka (foreigner effect), whereby his foreignness gave him entr仔 to high-ranking company officers and the license to ask frank questions. His excellent Japanese didn't hurt, either.
"I would ask, 'What does your company do here? What are the necks - the bottlenecks - to success? What would you do differently? The kind of things a foreigner could get away with. When I reported back, [my managers] couldn't believe what I was asking."
But his biggest surprise was the backwardness of his workplace.
"As an intern, it was a shock," he says. "I was coming from college, where I had my own office, computer, desk. I had this image of Japan as the high-tech capital of the planet. It wasn't. People were working at small dented desks, carrying floppy discs everywhere. I saw people negotiating for slots at the computer. And this was at a computer company! The president didn't want to update because the clients didn't want to update. The company suffered because of that."
Rather than seeing this as a business opportunity to pull its clients ahead, the company joined them in lagging behind. "It has probably cost the owner his business," Irwin says. "When the shakeout comes, the companies who didn't branch out beyond this artificial environment will suffer."
"Artificial environment" is a term Irwin returns to again and again. He is concerned about what will happen to local companies when they start to see more competition from within Japan and overseas. Akiyama Aiseikan no longer exists, he notes: It has been taken over by a Honshu-based company.
After nine years in Sapporo, Irwin is returning to the U.S. in January 2001 with mixed feelings about the opportunities missed by companies here. In the Feburary issue of Xene, he talks more about Sapporo's "artificial environment" and gives advice for kick-starting the economy.

by William Kennedy

There may seem to be little connection between South Pacific seafood and North Pacific oil, but the two are points on a winding path that local businessman Simon Jackson hopes will lead to Hokkaido's economic resurrection.
Jackson, who is also the chairman of the Hokkaido International Business Association (HIBA), is involved in Northpoint Network, a new local consortium whose plans include expanding into the North Pacific region and capitalizing. With Hokkaido serving as a service and infrastructure base for Sakhalin, he feels the region's vast potential offers opportunities for local companies.
"What comes out of there (Sakhalin) will be just incredible," he says.
Jackson, who was born in Tasmania and educated in New Zealand, arrived in Hokkaido some eight years ago. His first entrepreneurial effort in Japan was as a seafood importer. Though known for seafood, Japan imports about 70 percent of the seafood it consumes. He moved on to such esoteric products as crocodile and kangaroo. Jackson says with a smile that he was once Japan's leading importer of crocodile meat.
He was also exposed to the trials of being a small businessman in Japan, where the system functions to meet the needs of larger interests. The greatest difficulties came in dealing with banks and getting financing, the lifeblood of a small business.
"That's where you strike 'Japan, Inc.'," he says.
Japanese banks, says Jackson, are reluctant to support smaller businesses because they don't want to run the risk of bankrollling a potential failure. This goes double for a company that does business overseas. Instead, a bank will withhold its support until a given company demonstrates that it really doesn't need help. "They wait until a company is successful and they throw money at them," he says.
His particular problem involved the Japanese payment system of tegata, which are promissory notes companies use to pay one another for goods and services. These can take up to 90 days to appear in a company's coffers. In Australia, however, Jackson was expected to pay cash for the seafood he purchased, leaving him short until the tegata from his Japanese customers came through. He attempted to get around this by getting a letter of credit, a common business practice in which a bank issues a guarantee of payment on behalf of a client. The head of the bank's international division did not even know how such a letter worked.
The weakening of the yen in the late '90s forced him to change, and Jackson shifted to exporting cars, tires and machinery parts. He also became more active in HIBA, and it was as the association's chairman that he was invited to join a trade delegation to Sakhalin sponsored by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Jackson was struck by the wealth of opportunities in Sakhalin, which he calls an economy in transition. The region's offshore oil reserves, he says, could eventually yield as much as 200,000 barrels a day. Already, some US$30 to 40 billion has been slated for in the project, but that amount pales next to the potential dividends.
Larger interests such as Marui and Marubeni are already involved, but Jackson says there are niches for companies of all sizes. Hokkaido, with its stable infrastructure and warehousing facilities can play a key role. He cites the example of a bolt that could take a month to arrive from Seattle but could be supplied locally in two days.
Whatever success he and other local businesspeople may enjoy in Sakhalin, Jackson is quick to point out that a great deal of credit must go to HIBA. The benefits of membership range from the support a small businessperson needs in Japan to simple experience and expertise. He also thinks you don't need to own your own company to profit from HIBA. "I think they should call it the Hokkaido International Business and Professional Association," he says.
Jackson says HIBA offers something for everyone. A recent presentation offered tips on how to save money on Japan's rigorous shaken (car inspection) system. "You don't have to be a businessman to want to save money on your car," he says.
Those interested in learning more about HIBA can contact the association's vice-chairman, Graeme Glen, at 090-3777-8012 or 011-615-3707.