What are the challenges and opportunities facing Japanese HR departments, whether the firms in question be domestic (国内) or foreign-capitalized (外資系)?

Today we'll talk with Jun Kabigting, a Tokyo-based Japan HR expert.

• Is Japan HR unique? 
  
• If so, what makes Japan HR unique?
  
• What makes it different or unique compared to the US and say Western practices?
  
• What about the ability to reduce a workforce or realign personnel, are there legal considerations?  
  
• How difficult is it to terminate an employee, even for "cause" or "performance issues"?
• What are the direct and indirect costs of a mishire in Japan?
• What are the biggest challenges now? -- For HR professionals and for organizations? 
  
• What challenges and also opportunities do you see on the horizon? -- For HR professionals and for organizations? 

• How exactly does Japanese patent litigation work?
  
• What is the deposition process?
  
• What role do translators and interpreters play?
  
• How do you evaluate and select a translator or interpreter?
  
• What are the risks?
  

 
In a nutshell, how does one overcome the deep and inherent cultural and linguistic informational asymmetries in this domain?

Well, today we'll hear from William "Bill" Lise, a Tokyo-based expert, and
arguably the foremost authority on the field of Japanese patent translations and patent litigation interpretation.   

Don't miss out!

By Kirk Spitzer, Special for USA TODAY

Some top hotels and high-end department stores admitted serving cheaper alternatives instead of the pricey items ordered from menus.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Some restaurants admit mislabeling menu items
• Prized Shiba prawns from Tokyo Bay were just shrimp from India
• Some companies have received the ultimate penalty in Japan: public shaming

TOKYO — This is a city where people spend hours in line for the trendiest bowl of ramen, drop $100 on a gift box of fruit or entertain clients several nights a week at chic restaurants.

So the news that prestigious restaurants have been swapping cheap substitutes for pricey menu items has created a major scandal that threatens to taint Japan's coveted worldwide reputation for exquisite cuisine.

"This is a foodie nation," says Jeff Kingston, professor of Asian Studies at Temple University's campus in Tokyo.

"People are proud of all the Michelin stars, and they generally eat very well, so the scandal has provoked outrage," he says. "People believe that this is simply a scam to improve the bottom line by selling cheap food as expensive cuisine."

Some of Japan's top hotels and high-end department stores in Tokyo, Sapporo and elsewhere admitted to a shocking transgression of ethics. The bait-and-switch was accidental, malefactors say, but at some spots it's alleged to have gone on for years.

People who ordered prized Shiba prawns, a rare and expensive delicacy from Tokyo Bay, were sometimes served bulk shrimp caught off India.

Wagyu beef refers to a special breed of cattle in Japan that is sometimes massaged by hand and fed beer to give its meat a highly marbled look and fattier content.

Some who ordered it got Australian beef. Organic vegetables from small Japanese specialty farms were actually shipped in from China.

The scandal has riled Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency, which says it will prosecute any business that intentionally misled diners. The agency said it will head off damage to Japan's reputation by proposing tougher penalties for food labeling violations, perhaps even jail time.

Japan's luxury Okura hotel chain executives bow their heads at a news conference Nov. 7 in Tokyo to apologize after the hotel served meals made with ingredients falsely labeled as being of top-end quality, such as Pacific white shrimp advertised as the much pricier Shiba variety.(Photo: Getty Images)


Some have received the ultimate penalty in Japan: public shaming.
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In this ranging expert interview, Damion Way, Chief Operating Officer, Experis Legal Futures discusses:

1. His background and why he left his law career to found and launch a legal recruiting firm.

2. Thoughts on why the US has 1.2 million active attorneys and Japan only has 30,000.

3. The structure and environment of the Japanese legal system and industry.

4. The trends and market opportunities for foreign legal firms in Japan and abroad.


And much more!

When foreign law firms in Japan were finally allowed to directly hire locally qualified lawyers, or bengoshi, in 2005, many leaped at the chance.

“I think a lot of the firms, particularly United Kingdom firms, had a model to be as local as possible,” says Piyasena Perera, a former Allen & Overy partner who worked in the firm’s Tokyo office between 2004 and 2011. “It’s a big asset for saying you’re a one-stop shop.”

Perera, who is now a senior foreign counsel at Japanese firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, was on hand when Allen & Overy launched its bengoshi practice in 2006. Linklaters plucked two of the name partners in Japanese firm Mitsui, Yasuda, Wani & Maeda to start its own a year before.

At its height four years ago, Allen & Overy’s Tokyo office counted around 30 bengoshi; now it has five. Linklaters’s office in the Japanese capital is now down to 40 lawyers, from 60 in 2005. U.S. firms Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Paul Hastings have also substantially reduced their bengoshi practices.

Read more: http://www.americanlawyer.com/PubArticleAL.jsp?id=1202610878523&Foreign_Firms_Stumble_Going_Local_in_Japan#ixzz2bwX8KuZg