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? 

Seasoned Japan-hands know that there are huge cultural and informational asymmetries in regards to recruiting and talent acquisition in Japan vs US and what is found in most other countries.

In this episode we discuss and consider the key differences, obstacles and opportunities of recruiting and talent acquisition in the US and Japan.

• A Comparison of industry models
  
• Client viewpoints
  
• Japan vs USA candidate pools
  
• Recruiting firms' business models
  
• Client vs Candidate Focus
  
• Differences Between Candidates in US and Japan
  
• Seniority Systems, Heirarchies, Gender Considerations
  
• Japanese Outlooks on Risk vs Rewards
  
• Japanese Lifespans and Workspans
  
• Candidate Talent Pools & Fit Requirements
  
• Recruiting Fees and Terms
  
• Factors driving this fee structure include
  
• Active vs Passive Candidates
  
• Tapping into Alternative Labor Pools
  

Join us as we talk with Tom Furlong, the Managing Director of Harvard Group International. Tom has extensive front-line experience in the life sciences industry including a 13-year career at Ciba Vision / Novartis in the US as well having deep recruiting experience in both the US and Japan where he focused his recruiting efforts on the life sciences industry.

• What happening the Japan Fashion Industry?
  
• What are the biggest trends?
  
• What is shifts are seen in luxury goods versus fast fashion & the middle brands?
  
• What does the Japanese domestic market look like?
  
• Who are the major players?
  
• What are the opportunities for market entry and new company stores?
  
• How difficult is it to find talent, what are the options?
  
• How to select a recruiter/recruiting firm for your hiring needs in this industry?
  
• What about talent pools, pipelines and community?
  

Join us as we talk with Fashion Industry Cecil John Howell who counts many of the world's top brands including LVMH, Gap, Gucci Group, Amazon, Jimmy Choo's, Forever 21, Zara , Walmart and others among his many clients.

FirstPoint Japan is pleased to announce the Japan Market Entry experts, Incredible Consulting, is now a sponsor of FirstPoint Japan. 

Incredible Consulting provides strategic consultation services in the areas of Market Entry, Partnership & Joint Ventures, Sales & Marketing, and Executive Search.

FirstPoint Japan's new introduction video is now out. To further help foreign businesses succeed in the Japanese market, we'll be releasing a series of powerful business acceleration programs that have never before been seen in this market and which will allow us together to explore and explode the Myths and Memes of Japan that humble, hobble or annihilate so many foreign businesses' efforts to enter or grow in the Japanese market.

Asia Biz Blog (Howard Lim) interviews SiliconEdge's James Santagata on the critical importance of communication, talent acquisition and i18n / L10N software development for success in Japan and Asia.

Full article: 
http://asianbizblog.com/video-interview-3-tokyo-career-success-coach-james-santagata/

If you've been attention lately you may have noticed that we've been in the process of completely rebooting FirstPoint Japan.

We expect the full reboot to be completed by October 1st.

Now, many have asked, "Why are you rebooting FirstPoint Japan and in what direction are you taking it?"

The answer is this: FirstPoint Japan is being taken back to its original direction which was and is to serve as the first and only English-language portal that helps you Accelerate Your Japanese Business With Expert Advice™. 

Ultimately, FirstPoint Japan™ is to be the place Where Japanese Business Begins™.

Specifically this means several things:
1. We will focus only on business related themes. Very rarely will consumer themes (e.g., what's the "hottest bar" or "best night spot") or "hey, isn't Japan weird?" themes be discussed unless such information is very relevant and would be of interest to our readers whereby they could better understand the Japan marketplace or cultural expectations.

2. The core readership for FirstPoint Japan is primarily Gaishikei (foreign firms) either entering the Japanese market, building out existing operations, accelerating growth, maintaining themselves in a sustaining phase or rebooting.

3. An additional target readership is (primarily) Japanese-language bilinguals (i.e., people of any nationality or ethnicity who are bilingual with one of their business level languages being Japanese) who are working for or would like to work for a gaishikei firm in Japan.

4. Given that Japanese firms are moving overseas and investing again in such operations again, another target readership is foreign individuals (non-Japanese or overseas Japanese) who are interested in working for a Japanese firm in a local market. For instance, such as a local person working for or interested in working for a Japanese firm like Honda in Vietnam.

5. The hottest topics previously as well as now include market entry and company build-outs. This centers much attention on issues such as hiring and the use of third party agency recruiters. Previously we maintained a large reviews database of "good eggs", "neutrals" and "bad eggs" recruiting agencies.

However, since the industry is so opaque and "rough and tumble" (to put it mildly) we found ourselves spending an inordinate amount of time maintaining reviews that, for the most part, were just "bad egg" recruiting firms which was just a waste of everyone's time.

We are now reversing the model. 

This means that now everything is considered and deemed suspect unless it is on FirstPoint Japan. We will be talking to, reviewing and placing on our site recruiting firms and other vendors with whom there is some level of trust, ethics and professionalism.


By the same token, any vendor that isn't on this site you can approach at your own risk since we'll consider them "radioactive". 


The list will start out small, it may even remain small, but rest assured we do the best we can to vet the lists and collect feedback on the firms listed.

6. The vendor directory will include recruiting firms, training and coaching firms, paralegals and lawyers (incorporation paperwork, IP issues, visa issues and so on), accountants and CPA's, HR consultants, translators, interpreters and so on.

We have a lot planned so we hope that you'll check back in frequently or if you'd like get the FirstPoint Japan Newsletter delivered straight to your inbox click on the button below.

Sincerely yours,

Publisher
FirstPoint Japan

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