General Edition Sunday, March 26, 2006 Issue No. 368
+++ INDEX
- What's new
- Services lineup
- News
- Candidate roundup
- Upcoming events
- News credits
BiOS is Recruiting
Due to continuing expansion of our systems integration and outsourcing businesses, BiOS is actively recruiting BILINGUAL engineers and IT trainees. Wide range of positions open, with competitive salaries and working conditions. Join our team of more than 50 engineers and get the BiOS stamp of quality on your resume. For more info: [email protected]. |
| +++ WHAT'S NEW |
It has always been difficult to raise seed money for a venture company in Japan. Being risk averse, VC partners are obsessed with past financial performance and trend lines -- which of course a new company doesn't have. The fact is that most companies don't get funded until they are in their third or fourth year, and have had a solid track record -- hardly qualifying for the title "venture business" by that time.
However, now the froth in the private equity and public
markets appears to be washing up even on the barren shores
of the VC sector. In the last 6 months, a number of new
funds have been created and these are actively investing.
One such entity is a JPY4bn fund set up late last year
between Cyber Agent and Japan Asia Investment, which
targets internet firms and is making investments of between
JPY500m and JPY1bn. Several others are from JAFCO and
Softbank Investment and are capitalized with amounts of
JPY98.5bn and JPY30bn respectively. Perhaps most
interesting about these latter two funds is that 10%-20% of
their monies are coming from conservative pension
investment funds that traditionally only invest in
AAA-grade listed securities.
While this is good news to Japan's venture businesses, we
are finding that most of the money is still going into
firms whose CEO has personal connections with the operators
of such funds. Those regional companies with no social
network here in Tokyo, or those with unusual or
unconventional businesses are still finding it a pretty
hard slog. And you can be certain that very little if any
of this new cash is going to foreign firms coming to Japan.
AND YET, we're hearing of more and more foreign firms
getting funded in Japan under the current economic boom.
How they are doing it? Rather than going to the VC funds,
foreign firms are going direct to regular larger companies
that would have a strategic advantage by investing in and
picking up the Japan rights for a new technology or
service. These Japanese heavy weights have been left behind
in the latest venture boom by JAFCOs, NIF, and others, who
are soaking up all the best local VC talent with high
valuations and even higher promises. So instead, while
initially considering foreigners as second best, they are
now putting money into all kinds of foreign (ad)ventures.
It's worth noting that the amounts of money being invested
by these strategic investors is quite a bit smaller than
what a domestic venture might receive from a VC --
generally not much more than JPY100-200m max. However, on
the upside, because such investments are strategic, the
valuations are often a lot higher.
For some reason, and maybe it's just the circles we move
in, we've noticed that Australian start-ups are doing well
raising money in Japan. We know of a number which have done
so, including players in software, education, and biotech.
Of these, the biotech venture is particularly interesting:
possessing a new "hyper" process for growing sprouts in
concentrated spaces. This is an important and profitable
capability in growing producing base raw material for
nutriceuticals. The company's name is Biosecurity of
Brisbane, Queensland.
Actually, we visited this company late last year and were
impressed to see just how many equivalent acres of sprouts
they could grow in their small multi-level chambers -- a
perfect technology for space-starved Japan. Their hit
product at the moment is broccoli sprout powder, which
apparently contains high levels of an element believed to
inhibit cancer of various types. The overall consumer-level
health and nutrition market in Japan is enormous, being
worth around JPY3.5trn. Of this, the specialist Aojiru
(nutraceutical vegetable juices and powders) market that
Biosecurity addresses is worth about JPY70bn and is growing
rapidly.
Because of the current increased awareness in health and
nutrition (LOHAS anyone?), when Biosecurity first arrived in
Japan looking for a partner and funds, the allocation and a
sole distributor arrangement were quickly snapped up by a
consortium of 6 Japanese partners, all of whom are in the
health food distribution business. The 7 firms (i.e.,
including Biosecurity) are jointly forming a new company in
Tokyo, to be called the Sprout Company Limited, which will
licence Biosecurity's growing technology and bring it to
Japan.
We find it interesting that with all their capabilities in
hydroponics, these Japanese partners have seen fit to
invest in Biosecurity's high-density growing system.
Clearly there are niches everywhere in the current market.
Anyone interested in hearing more about Biosecurity can
contact them through the team here at [email protected].
...The Information Janitors/
| +++ SERVICES LINE-UP |
Contact [email protected] if you want your company here.
- Personal International Investor -- a convenient source of ideas and information on how to invest profitably as an expat in Japan. Every Thursday, 48 weeks of the year. Completely free.
http://japaninc.typepad.com/personal_intl_investor/
- Advertise with Japan Inc newsletters. JIN and Terrie's Take cost just 2 yen per person to reach 51,000 people. Great for last minute offers and event advertising.
[email protected].
- Get a low-cost office in Tokyo, at the Venture Gas Station incubator. Just JPY80,000/month, in Minami-Aoyama. Spaces closing fast -- enquire now.
[email protected]
- J@pan Inc. magazine has gone quarterly. Subscriptions now just JPY3,600 a year. Sign up at
http://www.japaninc.com/mag/subs.html
- Find new bilingual sales staff -- a specialty for DaiJob.com,
[email protected]
- Anyone can buy a .JP domain...online...real-time...in English! Register now at:
http://www.JapanRegistry.com
MAGAZINE INTERNSHIP The J@pan Inc magazine currently has an internship opening for a web programmer. |
| +++ NEWS |
- Property prices up
- Individual investors becoming bulls
- New herbal hair-growth compound
- Tax cuts to boost birth rate?
- Biglobe spin-off?
-> Property prices up
Although the resurgence in property prices hasn't reached
the provinces yet, the recovery in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka
is well under way. According to statistics from the
Ministry of Land, in the last 12 months the average price of
commercial land in all three major cities rose 1%, while
land prices elsewhere fell by the smallest percentage, 2.7%,
since 1991. Most of the demand is being created by real
estate funds (REITs) and property developers, purchasing
property for office buildings and condominiums. The greatest
increase nationwide was 28% for land in front of Nagoya
Station, followed by increases of 26%-29% in Aoyama. ***Ed:
To give some idea of the amount of deflation Japan has been
through and what the USA might possibly experience from next
year, residential land prices in Tokyo are now back to where
they were in 1985, and commercial land prices are similar to
those in 1975!** (Source: TT commentary from bloomberg.com,
Mar 23, 2006)
http://tinyurl.com/q4omo
-> Individual investors becoming bulls
It seems that stock market fever is taking hold once more,
according to a Reuters Japan survey last week. The survey
found that interest by individual investors in domestic
stocks has strengthened dramatically in the last month.
Apparently the number of people positive about stocks more
than doubled between February and March, despite the
LiveDoor scandal. Of those already investing, 36% said they
will increase their investments, 59% will hold, and only 5%
are planning to decrease. (Source: TT commentary from
nikkei.co.jp, Mar 24, 2006)
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20060324D23JKN11.htm
-> New herbal hair-growth compound
Mitsui Chemicals says it has successfully synthesized a
hair-growth compound derived from the Mediterranean Ruta
(or rue) plant. Mitsui says that in tests it found that
mice showed an average 15-20% acceleration of hair growth
when the compound was applied to shaven areas of their
bodies. Apparently cultured human hair samples show similar
response to the compound. (Source: TT commentary from
nikkei.co.jp, Mar 24, 2006)
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20060323D23JFA09.htm
-> Tax cuts to boost birth rate?
Kyodo news says that the government is considering
introducing deeper tax cuts for families having children,
as a means to get the birth rate back up again. The fact
that in 2005 the population shrank for the first time since
WWII has sent a big wake-up signal to politicians. The
minimum birthrate needed to keep the population at status
quo is 2.1, while the average number of kids per couple
nationwide is just 1.29 and in Tokyo is a much lower 0.9.
There are no indications of what the tax cuts will look
like, but the tax council's recommendation is expected to
be sent to the PM for consideration in June. ***Ed: Should
be interesting once the details come out...** (Source: TT
commentary from reuters.com, Mar 23, 2006)
http://tinyurl.com/m398q
-> Biglobe spin-off?
NEC has confirmed that it is now seeking partners to assist
in spinning off its ISP business, Biglobe -- the fourth
largest ISP in Japan. NEC is apparently planning to let go
of 30% of the company and is currently approaching group
firms such as Sumitomo, Daiwa Securities, and 3 others.
Biglobe has 4.4m subscribers. (Source: TT commentary from
forbes.com, Mar 24, 2006)
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/03/24/afx2618998.html
NOTE: Broken links
Many online news sources are now removing their articles after just a few days of posting them, thus breaking our links -- we apologize for the inconvenience.
BiOS IT Support Services Introduce some discipline and control to your IT infrastructure by getting a quotation from BiOS for J-E bilingual support and engineering. With 50+ engineers, we have the size and experience to look after most sites and projects. Whether you have one person or one hundred, we welcome all customers. |
| +++ CANDIDATE ROUND UP |
DaiJob, Inc's executive placement team, AMBITION Consulting
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DaiJob has great candidates. Contact Alex Burr at
[email protected], or Ph: 03-3499-3040 for details.
-> Account Executive (IT)
Male, 27, completely multilingual and multicultural
- Japanese (Near Native), English (Fluent), French (native)
Experience:
- 2.5 years Business Development & Sales & Marketing
- High-performance achiever
- Multicultural & trilingual European
- High rate of daily, targeted and persuasive cold-calls
- Rigorous training for cold calling and coordinating meetings, travel, etc.
- Excellent presentation and negotiation skills
- High ability to close deals
- Passion for sales and understanding of customer needs
- Masters Degree, Science in Management.
* Looking for JPY8M. Available 2-4 weeks notice.
--------------------------------------------
-> Director/Executive Manager
Male, 44, native Japanese, fluent English.
Experience:
- Board Director, Executive Manager of HR Unit
- Managed 62 people (20% international employees)
- Established HR consulting firm in Japan, and achieved sales of US$15M in first year
- Sold executive assessment program for 1200 people
- Developed unique assessment tool for global companies' HR activities in cooperation with Cambridge, Cornell Univ.
- Established Shanghai Office
- Developed worldwide network through alliances with international companies in US, Germany, etc.
* Looking for JPY17M. Available 1 months notice.
--------------------------------------------
-> Network/Security Pre-sales or Consulting
Male, Late-20s, Malaysian, fluent Japanese, bus. English
Experience:
- 4.5 years as network/security engineer in Japanese SI'er
- Strong in internet protocol specification - such as HTTP, SMTP, POP, Proxy, LDAP
- Enterprise solutions incl. survey of network security products, implementation and support
- Cutting-edge enterprise level security knowledge
- Network/Security specialist with strong customer interaction and responsibility
* Looking for JPY6M+. Available beginning of April.
| +++ UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS |
No events announcements this week.
IT events announcements are priced at JPY50,000 per week. |
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END
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| +++ ABOUT US |
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