International Car Show

Tokyo Journal checked out California’s 2013-Model Orange County International Auto Show at Anaheim Convention Center to see the hottest new cars and trucks, exotics, and tricked-out rides. Highlights included:

See the latest tricked-out cars including Industrial Light & Magic (Lucasfilm Division)'s "Vader's Ride", Will.i.am's '59 Corvette, "American Pride", the "Tekken" Ferrari, a Transformers Sports Car, and the lowest low riders around! Photos taken at the October 6, 2012 Orange County International Auto Show in California.

See TJ's top recommended places to stay in Seoul - a hot spot for foreign travelers, and a superior stay in Seoul!

A Superior Stay in Seoul

The Westin Chosun

The Westin Chosun Seoul is Korea’s first international hotel. This classic hotel was built in 1914 with the first running water, elevator and ice cream in the country, attracting celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Bob Hope. Rebuilt in the 1960s and fully renovated since then, The Westin Chosun is within walking distance of the headquarters of major international banks, local government offices, historic landmarks and thriving shopping districts.

The hotel has 462 guest rooms and 40 suites with the Westin Heavenly Bed, anti-allergy carpets, self-serve espresso coffee machines, mobile phones and high-speed Internet access. Guests can access a business center with state-of-the-art conference rooms and a drug store, barbershop, beauty salon and souvenir shop as well as the City Athletic Club, a Pilates studio, a swimming pool, steam and dry saunas and whirlpools. For corporate events and weddings, there is the Grand Banquet Hall, six mid-sized banquet halls and conference rooms.

Sophisticated yet trendy, simplistic yet vibrant... no matter how you describe it, Tokyo chic is so cool its appeal is spreading to the west

Simplicity and Sophistication

Japan Takes the Best of the World and Makes it Her Own

The 1992 movie “Mr. Baseball” starring Tom Selleck didn’t earn any Oscars, but a quote from the movie says a lot about Japan and especially it’s style. In the movie, Hiroko, the love interest of Tom Selleck’s character, tells him, “Japan takes the best of the world and makes it her own.” This can be seen in the sophisticated and chic interior designs of bars, cafes, and restaurants throughout the gargantuan metropolis of Tokyo. There is something very Japan-esque about the designs and yet very European at the same time, just like Hiroko says. Japanese modern interiors are designed with a perfect chemistry for Italian and European modern furniture, combining utility with beauty while maximizing the usage of space. Simple. Clean. Elegant.

Monocle Cafe

Let’s take a look at Monocle Cafe in the Hankyu Men’s Tokyo department store in the business district of Yurakucho. The cafe is owned by British global affairs magazine Monocle, and the understated interior design is very Japanese chic while retaining the company’s modern image and branding. The interior design uses Vitsoe shelving, Bolichwerke lampshades by Germany’s Manufactum and natural wood materials featuring furniture from the Maruni Collection created in collaboration with Japanese product designer Naoto Fukasawa. According to Fukasawa, the furniture collection seeks to convey a highly detailed and clean image while retaining a sense of human warmth.

Accessible only by floatplane, a luxurious floating lodge operates for four months a year in the heart of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest, one of the last untouched corners of Canada and the world.

King Pacific Lodge

Sustainable Luxury

How do you build a five-star hotel in one of the last untouched corners of the world without hurting the environment or building roads? Make it float. The King Pacific Lodge does just that. Owned by Hideo “Joe” Morita, son of the late Sony founder Akio Morita, the lodge operates for four months of the year from June to September. It is towed to and from its docking location 380 km north of Vancouver at the beginning and end of each season, and guests arrive by floatplane.

Tokyo’s Harajuku District, a fashion paradise where the catwalk got its claws, rivals L.A.’s Venice Beach for uniqueness. So why then does the Harajuku/Omotesando district trump what Venice Beach has to offer?

Harajuku Girls, you've got that wicked style

Street Fashion meets the Concrete Catwalk

A fashion center of the world, Tokyo’s Harajuku District has long been renowned for its unique street fashion. Ranging from Gothic Lolita to Visual Kei, Decora, Mori Girl (Forest Girl) and Dolly Kei, Harajuku has been a haven for pop culture trendsetters, helping to launch prominent designers and fashion ideas on the international scene. While not strictly fashion, cosplay (costume play) also emerged from the district to gain world attention. In her 2004 hit song “Harajuku Girls,” American singer Gwen Stefani helped popularize the concept of Harajuku in the Western world and described why she is such a huge fan: “You’re looking so distinctive like D.N.A., like nothing I’ve ever seen in the U.S.A.”

Japan’s leading entrepreneurial companies, Rakuten and Uniqlo, are taking a no-nonsense approach toward going global by adopting English as the official workplace language.

Speaking the Global Language of Business

Drastic times call for drastic measures

Two of Japan’s top entrepreneurial companies have adopted English as the official language of their workplace. This is in a country with companies known for avoiding risk whenever possible. So why would Rakuten and Uniqlo take such atypical measures at a time when English-language proficiency is low in the country? TOEFL (Test Of English as a Foreign Language) score data from 2004 to 2005 placed Japan second to last in Asia in terms of English language skills with 191 points, only one point higher than North Korea. Not helping, the collapse of two of Japan’s largest English language school chains, Nova and GEOS, over the past six years has reduced the number of opportunities for adults to study English at private language schools. So this ‘sink or swim’ approach by Rakuten and Uniqlo to speak English in the workplace is a bold but strategic maneuver at a time when they are expanding to compete in the global marketplace where the official language of business is English.

Asia’s Korean band fad is going global with top Western entertainment venues hosting performances by Korean dancers and musical artists.

K-Pop Goes the World

Surprising Attendance in California

The lights go on. The pounding dance beat starts. And 12,000 screaming fans rise to their feet in the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Acclaimed record producer Quincy Jones watches from his suite. Is this Beyonce? Rhianna? Lady Gaga? Nope. It’s an all-star concert featuring the likes of Girls Generation, Super Junior, BoA, TVXQ, f(x), EXO and SHINee. How can bands not played on American Top 40 radio fill a U.S. arena? Well, these are Korea’s top pop bands, and they played S.M. Entertainment’s third world tour on May 20, 2012. SME, a Seoul-based independent record producer, has held previous world tours with stops in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei. Yeah, but was Anaheim’s Honda Center filled with 12,000 Koreans and Korean Americans? Nope. Around two thirds of the fans were non- Korean, a sign of the spreading popularity of Korean pop.

Vol. 31, Issue #270's Feature Story identifies Japan's 7 most influential international trailblazers, many of whom have been overlooked by the Japanese public.

Japan's Most Influential Trailblazers

Japan has produced many outstanding individuals throughout its very long history, which dates back to 660 B.C. Visionaries and innovators have throughout history forwarded the efforts of this tiny island nation and due to these contributions, Japan has played a significant role in the region for many centuries. Pioneers such as Takatoshi Mitsui (1622-1694), advanced the way Japan did business through innovation after innovation in the textile sales industry. In the late 1800s, it was the first President of Mitsui & Co., Takashi Masuda, who sought out a global vision for exporting Japanese rice and other goods to Europe.

It is the efforts of global visionaries and innovators of post-World War II Japan that have made Japan a major contributor to the world in the fields of business, technology, film, animation, engineering, architecture, philosophy, art, music, and even athletics. The brand “Made in Japan” has become synonymous with quality, and in this article “Japan’s Seven International Samurai”, we identify Japan’s seven most influential, international trailblazers. These modern day samurai have set themselves apart from the crowd through their global influence and have helped to change the way the world perceives Japan.

It will not go unnoticed that many of Japan’ss leading business figures and domestic heroes were left off the list. This is because they did not meet all of the criteria. The seven that were chosen were selected for their courage to enter unchartered waters, their desire to compete on an international scale, and their ability to be one of the best in the world at what they do.

日本は、紀元前660 年にまでさかのぼ る長い歴史において、多くの傑出した 人物を輩出してきた。先見の明のある パイオニアたちが小さな島国の歩みを牽引し、 そのおかげで日本は何百年にもわたり地域的に も重要な役割を果たしてきた。呉服業界におい て革新的な戦略を打ち出した三井高利(1622- 1694)や、1800年代末に日本の米を始めてヨー ロッパに輸出することに成功した三井物産初代 社長の益田孝といった先駆者たちが、日本のビ ジネスの礎を築いてきたのである。

第二次世界大戦後の日本を、ビジネス、技術、 映画、アニメ、エンジニアリング、建築、哲学、 芸術、音楽、スポーツの各分野で世界レベルに 押し上げたのも、グローバルビジョンを備えた 革新者らの功績である。「メイド・イン・ジャ パン」ブランドは、クオリティと同義語となっ た。「世界を舞台に活躍する日本の７人の侍」 のページでは、絶大な影響力を持つ世界の第一 人者である日本人７人を紹介する。現代の侍は、 国際的に大きな注目を集め、世界の日本観を変 える役割を担ってきた。

日本の多くの財界人や国民的ヒーローが取り 上げられていないことは事実だが、それは彼ら が基準の全てを満たしていないからである。こ こに取り上げる７人は、前例のない道に踏み込 む勇気、世界レベルで勝負したいと望む熱意、 専門領域で世界のトップクラスにある能力とい ういずれの点でも傑出しているのだ。

Samurai #7: Ichiro Suzuki

Samurai #6: Seiji Ozawa

Samurai #5: Osamu Tezuka

Samurai #4: Kisho Kurokawa

Samurai #3: Soichiro Honda

Samurai #2: Akira Kurosawa

Samurai #1: Akio Morita

This story appeared in Issue 270 of the Tokyo Journal.

To order Issue 270, click here.

This Archived Feature Article is taken from the Autumn 2003 Issue #248 which was a best-selling issue that featured a number of Japan's foremost business leaders 

Carlos Ghosn, the ambassador of change, the icebreaker, le cost killer, the troubleshooter, or however you wish to refer to him, is Japan’s hero that has provided a glimmer of hope to leaders of thousands of ailing corporations who are desperately seeking solutions to their problems. Ghosn boldly entered Japan’s business arena with a passion and determination that had not been seen by the Japanese since Akio Morita and Sony took the US electronics market by storm. Since arriving in Japan in 1999, Ghosn took Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy to a profit-making entity in just two years.