I recently had the pleasure of attending a seminar by Jesper Koll, former head of equity research at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo. If you ever have the opportunity to listen to Jesper, I highly recommend you attend. His presentation, "The Case For Japan" was one of the best I've seen in Japan. Like most great presenters Jesper presents the big picture, and then weaves together, facts figures, and some humor to bring together a solid case for his opinions. One of the main points of Jesper's talk was that R&D in Japan and the resulting intellectual property is amoung the highest in the world. Of course, as an IP professional, I was delighted to hear that. But Jesper's insights went far beyond just IP.
"1/3 of all arable land in Japan is unused." Typically when we think of Japan, we imagine Shibuya crossing, the cityscapes, subways, and all the infrastructure that goes with a mega-metropolis. But in fact, most of Japan is extraordinarily beautiful countryside, and mountainous (around 70%). Given the amount of unused arable land currently available, and the land that will eventually become available, there is real potential for Japan to become the "bread basket" of Asia, producing some of the finest quality crops available.
Some other very interesting points that Jesper made during his talk:
"It's cheaper to operate a Star Bucks franchise in Tokyo than in New York, or Shanghai."
"Japan creates more non-farm jobs per year than the U.S."
And the list goes on and on,,, Jesper's deep experience in Japan and his world-view, make for a very informative presentation!