| Saying
Yes to Japan: How Outsiders Are Reviving a Trillion
Dollar Services Market examines the history and future of
Japan’s service sector. Revealing analyses of the real estate,
finance, health care, and information technology industries are
coupled with up-close profiles of entrepreneurs from around the
world who use their “outsider” perspectives to successfully
identify basic customer needs, such as:
— Steven
Gan, a trained CPA from Chicago who went from managing his family
accounts to running a debt collection business with 700 Japanese
clients, using American methodologies.
— Song Wen Zhou, a software engineer from China
who became the first foreigner to list his company, Softbrain,
on the Japanese stock exchange, and whose software earned 700
million yen in five years.
— Neeraj Jhanji, a
graduate student from India, who created Imahima, an avatar-based
broadband chat space business. Parts of its technology were sold
to NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading mobile carrier, as well as
AOL, bringing Jhanji annual revenue of just under $2 million.
Tim Clark writes the Japan Entrepreneur Report
(www.japanentrepreneur.com) and serves as Senior Fellow for
SunBridge, a Tokyo-based venture capital firm.He teaches at the
Portland State University School of Business.
Carl Kay has been founding, running, buying and
selling service businesses in Japan and North America for over
two decades. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard’s
East Asian Department and lives in Tokyo.
Visit the authors'
website!
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“From
financial services to funeral services, Clark and Kay provide
a fascinating tour of important developments in Japan’s
service economy. The opportunities for “outsiders,”
both Japanese and foreign, are enormous. Those interested in these
opportunities would do well to study the cases Saying Yes
provides.”
–Shinsei Bank Vice Chairman Thierry
Porté
“At
last, a book that systematically debunks the myth that Japan’s
economy is a well-oiled machine. Clark and Kay provide a roadmap
for other entrepreneurs in search of a challenge in Japan.”
–New York Times business
writer Ken Belson, co-author of Hello Kitty: The Remarkable
Story of Sanrio and the Billion Dollar Feline Phenomenon
“Japan
hasn’t merely overcome her lost decade, she’s on track
toward a new golden age. No, it's not about blue-chip exporters
like Toyota and Canon; their global dominance was never in doubt.
The real revolution is in domestic services. This book is a must
read for anyone who wants to understand and profit from inside
opportunities in the world's largest creditor nation.”
–Merrill Lynch Japan Chief Economist
Jesper Koll
“A
highly enlightening read, full of ideas about how outsiders can
make money in the Japanese market in spite of, or perhaps because
of, its unique and remarkably closed nature.”
–China Economic Review
"As
a Japan specialist, I commend the insightful analysis. As an author,
I admire the writing's clarity. And as a foreigner who has lived
and worked in Japan, I can testify to the accuracy of the problem
descriptions and to the power of the 'outsider' solutions."
–International Herald Tribune
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