24Th Anniversary and Shinnenkai Reception on Friday, January 31, 2014

American-Japanese Interaction at the Working Level Honoring Mr. Nobuyuki Idei Founder and CEO of Quantum Leaps Corp and Former Chairman and CEO of Sony Keizai Society 24th Anniversary and Shinnenkai Reception on Friday, January 31, 2014

By Greg Tsutaoka Please join us in celebrating Mr. Idei currently serves as his tenure as top management Keizai Society’s 24th anniversary director of Accenture (since at Sony, as president from at our Shinnenkai on Friday, February 2006), Baidu (since 1995 to 2000 and as chairman January 30th at 6:00pm at the June 2007), Freebit Co., Ltd. and Group CEO from 2000 to Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country (since June 2007), Lenovo 2005, he created new IT and Club. We will be honoring Mr. Group (since September 2011), networked businesses, such Nobuyuki Idei with a Lifetime and Monex Group (since June as the VAIO computer, mobile Achievement Award for his 2013). products with Ericsson, Internet contributions to US-Japan service businesses leveraging Mr. Idei joined Sony relations. Sony’s entertainment contents, Corporation in 1960. After and others, to transform Sony Mr. Idei is founder and CEO of devoting himself to establishing into a unique networked “AVIT” Quantum Leaps Corporation, overseas operations in company. a management consultancy Switzerland and France, he | January 254 | Issue No. 2014 BUSINESS FORUM KEIZAI SOCIETY US-JAPAN company established in 2006. took on leading positions of We will also be performing our He is also president of Asia the audio and video businesses traditional Kagamiwari (sake Innovators’ Initiative, a non-profit before being appointed a barrel “breaking”) ceremony. 1 organization registered in Japan. board director in 1989. During The Consul General of Japan, continued on page 3 From the President event. Another memorable day transformational year for US-Japan was our August partnership with relations and business. our sponsor Sunbridge to host the To kick off the year, we have lined ever-popular summer networking up a smashing Shinnenkai on Friday, in the park. This event combined January 31, 2014. Our featured family fun with important networking speaker and Lifetime Achievement opportunities for all attendees. Award recipient will be Mr. Nobuyuki Our bi-monthly forums were also Idei, who led Sony Corp in the late quite impressive in 2013. One that 90’s and early 2000’s. Mr. Idei was comes especially to mind was the at the epicenter of the turbulent “Hidden Superstars: Japan’s New Japanese business environment Leaders in Global Business”, held in of those days. After retiring from May. This event focused on Japan’s Sony, Mr. Idei has been focusing on strengths, particularly how advanced developing young entrepreneurs Japanese components are being used and helping Japanese businesses worldwide in many industries, and revive and find new strengths, such Happy New Year to all our Keizai how this can be leveraged to revive as collaboration with other Asian Society friends! I want to extend Japan’s economy. my sincere wishes for a healthy and countries and new innovations. This prosperous 2014. The Keizai Society staff has Shinnenkai will be a perfect kick-off to deliberated on our direction for the Keizai Society’s theme for 2014. I am happy to report that all Keizai coming year, and we have arrived at Finally, I would like to offer my sincere Society forums and events were a theme: “2014: A Turning Point gratitude to the entire Keizai Society highly successful in 2013. Looking for US – Japanese Business?” From volunteer staff, who have contributed back on the year brings back many the promising (albeit evolving) countless hours during the past year. fond memories. We started off with impact of “Abenomics”, to the world’s We are all looking forward to seeing the 2013 Shinnenkai, where we were choice of Tokyo as the venue for you at the Shinnenkai! proud to host Norman Mineta as the 2020 Olympics, to the benefits our featured speaker and Lifetime that may accrue to Japan – U.S. Best wishes, Achievement award winner. This partnerships by jointly developing Shinnenkai recorded the highest high-growth emerging markets, 2014 Chimmy Shioya attendance ever at a Keizai Society will be a fascinating and perhaps President, Keizai Society

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Gold Corp Member: Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP SunBridge Corp. Union Bank Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Silver Corp Member: Fukuoka Center For Overseas Commerce From The The | January 2014 President | From BUSINESS FORUM KEIZAI SOCIETY US-JAPAN in America (FCOCA) NEC Networks and System Integration Corporation (NESIC) Tazan International Teraoka & Partners LLP ZL Technologies Bronze Corp Member: Intrax Ito En 2 continued from page 1 Mr. Masato Watanabe is expected to lead this tradition. Shinnenkai Master of Ceremonies Mike Inouye, NBC Bay Area Traffic Anchor The Keizai Society’s theme for this year is “2014: A Turning Point for US - Japanese Business?” The next twelve Date & Time months may prove a watershed moment in the progress Friday, January 31, 2014 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM of both Japanese and Japanese-US commerce. From D etails the promising (albeit evolving) impact of “Abenomics” Location to the world’s choice of Tokyo as the venue for the 2020 Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club Olympics to the benefits that may accrue to Japan - 3000 Alexis Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94304 U.S. partnerships by jointly developing high-growth Registration & Fees emerging markets, 2014 will be a fascinating and perhaps Early Bird Discount for first 60 — $40 transformational year for US-Japan relations and business. By Friday, January 10 (11:00 pm) Please join the Keizai Society as it presents programs

SHI NN E N KAI Regular Registration — $50 throughout 2014 designed not only to help us keep our By Monday, January 27 (11:00pm) finger on the pulse of events but to contribute to those events as well. Late Registration — $75 By Thursday, January 30 (Noon)

Start off 2014 by strengthening your existing business o m i ng relationships and forging new ones. Bring lots of business Walk-ins — $100 Subject to room capacity / cash or check only cards to exchange, including one to enter the drawing for the exciting door prizes. We look forward to celebrating Upc Registration Website 2014 with you at our 24th anniversary Shinnenkai. www.keizai.org Due to the anticipated number of attendees, Food early registration online (www.keizai.org) is highly Sushi, hors d’oeuvres will be served recommended. We cannot guarantee that there will be Attire room for walk-ins. ❀ Business casual

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3 The Rise of Incompatibility ! By Joe Quinlan The Keizai Society is looking for highly motivated and talented individuals to join Ever noticed how the US and Japan have become less our volunteer executive team. Working compatible in the area of entertainment electronics? with our team and board directors is Our featured speaker at the Shinnenkai will be Nobuyuki a great opportunity to create exciting Idei, former CEO of Sony Corp. Sony has seen mixed forums for the US/ Japan business times since its glory days of the 70’s and 80’s, but at the community in Silicon Valley. same time I notice the entertainment media market itself has changed, and not necessarily for the better. There We have multiple positions available in

has been a disturbing trend toward lack of compatibility H iri ng I s K eizai between the US and Japan in entertainment media. many areas including Program Managers. Back in the 80’s, citizens of both countries had NTSC TV’s with VHS or Beta recorders. Tapes for these machines Japanese language skills are not required. were easily playable in both countries. A VHS movie For more details, please email contact@ purchased in the US could be played in Japan, and vice keizai.org with a subject line “Keizai versa. The videotape motion picture market of both Positions” to discuss these opportunities. countries was open to each other’s citizens. On the music side, records, cassettes, and CD’s were equally playable on devices in both Japan and the US. And both We hope you’ll join the Keizai Team! countries had about eight TV channels in each major city. The media markets were highly similar. Fast forward to today. DVD’s are region coded, so that movies bought in one country cannot be played in the other. American fans of classic Japanese films have difficulty getting the DVD’s. Region-free DVD players exist, but they are non-standard. As for streaming technologies, US products like Roku are not available for the Japanese market. In the US, you can purchase from popular streaming providers like Netflix and Hulu and play it on Roku, but not in Japan. The broadcast market itself has diverged, with hundreds of channels available in the US, but only a select number of “BS” channels in Japan. On the music side, Apple has created a separate Connecting Businesses and Cultures iTunes store for each country. A US credit card cannot Learn more about hosting be used to purchase from the Japanese iTunes store, an international intern effectively locking out US consumers from the majority

of J-pop tunes. In the social media sphere, for many Intrax Career Development 600 California Street 10th Floor San Francisco, CA 94108 Haj Matsukata Phone: 415-434-5669 years Mixi prohibited members joining from outside Director, Business Internship Program

US-JAPAN BUSINESS FORUM | January BUSINESS FORUM ArticleKEIZAI SOCIETY | January 2014 US-JAPAN Toll Free: 888-224-0450 [email protected] Fax: 415-434-5421 Japan, even overseas Japanese nationals. You had to (415) 434-5685 have a Japanese cell phone in order to join Mixi. www.intraxintern.com Technology has certainly taken many steps forward over the past 30 years, but in some areas it seems to have taken some steps backwards. For a long-term perspective on the electronics and entertainment industry, join us at our January Shinnenkai to hear Nobuyuki Idei give his thoughts. It is bound to be an interesting evening. ❀ The Way of Tea 4 Payments, Commerce, are becoming accustomed to paying for transactions by simply placing their cell and Mobile in 2014 phone near a sensor, this technology may Converging Trends and not be coming to the US soon, in part because of the lack of infrastructure (i.e. Opportunities the sensors). The roll-out of Google Wallet, which included this functionality for Near By Joe Quinlan Field Communication (NFC) enabled smart On November 13th, Keizai Society phones, has not been as popular as hoped. welcomed Andrew Radlow of Citibank, Citibank’s Andy Radlow mentioned that Jason Gardner of Marqeta, Pascal Callion of new e-Commerce solutions must pay close Corfire, and Yumi Hosaka Clark of Intuit to attention to compliance issues, because in our forum on “Payments, Commerce, and the wake of the financial crisis, Wall Street is Mobile in 2014”. This forum was moderated becoming very strict on compliance. by Keizai Society’s own Andrew Barnes. The panel mentioned Square as a Yumi Hosaka Clark led off the discussion particularly interesting innovator in with an explanation of five areas of e-commerce. Square has achieved quite innovation in payments, and how they a lot, while working with a customer base might fare in the future – areas such as where the potential for fraud is higher synthetic currency and point-of-need than with some other areas like prepaid credit extension. Andy Radlow followed cards. Square takes a thin margin on all with an explanation of Citibank’s activities transactions, so the challenge going forward in eCommerce, including prepaid cards will be for Square to increase the volume to and a mobile wallet project in Hong Kong. a level where the business is profitable. Citibank has the ability to provide business Finally, there was some intriguing discussion customers with as-needed credit extensions by the panel about the virtual currency to finance their prepaid cards. Pascal Caillon Bitcoin. The panel expressed a certain spoke of how his company provides the amount of skepticism as to whether it would infrastructure for a number of eCommerce ever go mainstream. Although popular, systems, including both prepaid and mobile there might be copycat technologies from payment solutions. In particular, east coast mainstream players who would crowd out convenience chain Cumberland Farms has Bitcoin. As an example, frequent flyer miles enabled truck drivers to pay for gasoline could be considered a type of currency, as with their mobile phones, creating much the methods of earning and spending of greater efficiency. Jason Gardner spoke of miles becomes more numerous. Marqeta’s goal to expand the success of the Starbucks loyalty program to all merchants. All in all, this evening was a tour through He spoke of the concept of offering extra a fascinating topic, and the event well- monetary value on prepaid cards, because represented Keizai Society’s slate of leading- of their ability to direct a customer to those edge forum topics from 2013 into 2014. ❀ merchants. In Jason’s words, “Customers will flow to where their dollars are.” Jason also talked about how his company has helped Facebook disrupt the gifting market. When November Event Review | January Event 2014 | November BUSINESS FORUM KEIZAI SOCIETY US-JAPAN a birthday of a friend pops up on Facebook, users are offered the ability to send that person a prepaid gift card. The discussion section of the evening focused on a number of important issues. First of all, although the Japanese

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7 Keizai Society All-Volunteer Team Chimmy Shioya President [email protected] Erny Arifin Newsletter/Media Manager [email protected] Andrew Barnes Program Manager [email protected] Chris Daft Project Manager [email protected] KEIZAI SOCIETY Andre Davis Program Manager [email protected] U.S.-JAPAN May Kao Program Manager [email protected] BUSINESS FORUM Phil Keys Program Manager [email protected] Keizai Society Akemi Koda Program Manager [email protected] 3964 Rivermark Plaza, Yoshi Manabe Corporate Sponsorship Manager [email protected] Suite 216 Atsushi Mizushima Program Manager [email protected] Santa Clara, CA 95054 Hiromi Motojima Photographer [email protected] [email protected] Sanae Nakamura Treasurer [email protected] http://www.keizai.org Yuji Nakamura Videographer [email protected] Danny Ooi Program Manager [email protected] Joe Quinlan Contents Manager [email protected] Gordon Sasamori IT Manager [email protected] Sachi Sawamura Marketing/Event Manager [email protected] Danny Tsung Asst. Webmaster [email protected] Greg Tsutaoka Program Manager [email protected] Shinka Umesaki Assistant Webmaster [email protected] Yas Watanabe Japanese Alliance manager [email protected] Dean Yonenaga Alliance Manager [email protected] Jun Zhang Event/Office Manager [email protected]

Keizai Society Linkedin Group Discussion and Job Posting Please join the Linkedin Keizai Society Group and participate in group discussions. You can also share and discuss jobs with the members by clicking the Jobs tab after creating a Keizai Society Group account. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]. | January and Contacts | Keizai Staffs BUSINESS FORUM 2014 KEIZAI SOCIETY US-JAPAN http://www.linkedin.com/