Reimagining India: Two of McKinsey’s India directors examine the success of companies seeking to expand internationally and recommend how to turn domestic strength into a global presence

Reimagining India: A conversation with Alok Kshirsagar and Gautam Kumra

Two of McKinsey’s India directors examine the success of companies seeking to expand internationally and recommend how to turn domestic strength into a global presence.

December 2013

India has no shortage of world-class domestic companies. In this video interview, McKinsey directors Alok Kshirsagar and Gautam Kumra discuss how successful many have been at expanding internationally, laying out a four-point approach that Indian companies can adopt to improve their odds of winning on the global stage. What follows is an edited transcript of their remarks. Read more of this post

Hello Kitty Embraced by Western Pop Stars Seeking Japan Sales

Hello Kitty Embraced by Western Pop Stars Seeking Japan Sales

By Brian Bremner and Mariko Yasu December 12, 2013

In late November, Lady Gaga showed up at the Tokyo TV studio of the Music Station program in a tricked out, cutie-pie outfit featuring a big cartoonish wig, pink bow, and anime-inspired eyes painted on her eyelids. As part of a marketing blitz for her new album Artpop, the star also did a photo shoot to promote a Lady Gaga-inspired Hello Kitty doll with long blond hair and a seashell bra.

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Jafco Sees Surge in IPO Gains on Japan’s Listing Boom

Jafco Sees Surge in IPO Gains on Japan’s Listing Boom

Japan’s world-beating stock rally is sending Jafco Co., the country’s biggest venture-capital firm, to the best gains on initial public offerings since the technology bubble at the turn of the century. Companies taken public from April to September gave Jafco an average return of 24 times its investment when they started trading, the biggest since 2000, according to Hiroaki Matsuda, a corporate officer at the firm. Start-ups it backs that will list shares in the second half of the fiscal year, from October through March, are likely to quadruple to about 16 from four in the first, he said. Read more of this post

Japan’s Top Voice: High, Polite and on the Phone; The annual All-Japan Phone-Answering Competition for office workers is a closely watched contest that some say reiterates the stereotype of women in clerical positions

December 14, 2013

Japan’s Top Voice: High, Polite and on the Phone

By HIROKO TABUCHI

SENDAI, Japan — The contestants roll their shoulders and lick their lips. The audience holds its breath. At the center of attention on stage at an expansive convention hall: a single telephone. Read more of this post

Rich Japanese Investors Shift Stock Before Tax Increase

Rich Japanese Investors Shift Stock Before Tax Increase

Wealthy investors in Japan are selling or transferring shares before the capital-gains tax doubles in two weeks, according to Mizuho Financial Group Inc., which has seen a surge in such transactions. Read more of this post

Samsung: Uneasy in the Lead; While the Korean industrial group dominates some electronics categories, its chairman, Lee Kun-hee, warns employees against complacency

December 14, 2013

Samsung: Uneasy in the Lead

By ERIC PFANNER and BRIAN X. CHEN

Lee Kun-hee, the man who built the most successful, most admired and most feared business in Asia — a $288 billion behemoth that is among the most profitable in the world — had a message for his employees this year: You must do better. Read more of this post

In Korea, mortgage-backed securities that triggered the global financial crisis in 2008 are being touted as a way of preventing defaults on household debt

Mortgage Debt Pushed as Crisis Remedy Not Disease: Korea Markets

In Korea, mortgage-backed securities that triggered the global financial crisis in 2008 are being touted as a way of preventing defaults on household debt.

Korea Housing Finance Corp., which provides mortgages to low- to middle-income families, issued 22.7 trillion won ($21.4 billion) of such debt this year, 12 percent more than in 2012 and the most since its establishment in 2004, spurred by government efforts to promote fixed-rate, long-term home loans. Investors are also keen on the notes because they pay an average yield 30 basis points higher than government debt. Read more of this post

Money Managers Use Weaker Yen to Fund Asian Bets

Dec 18, 2013

Money Managers Use Weaker Yen to Fund Asian Bets

By Fiona Law

The weakening Japanese yen is gaining allure among top money managers as the funding currency of choice for investing in Asian assets. Shorter-term Asian bonds are among their investment picks, because they are less vulnerable to a rise in interest rates that would result as the U.S. Federal Reserve scales back its easy money policy. In Asia, bonds denominated in Korean won and Chinese yuan are favored because of the countries’ strong domestic economies and firmer currencies. Read more of this post

Why Abenomics is bound to disappoint Japan

Why Abenomics is bound to disappoint Japan

Martin Wolf

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 21:56

The predominant concern of Shinzo Abe

, Japan’s prime minister, is with the decline of his country’s economy relative to China’s. This explains “Abenomics”, which is aimed at economic revitalisation. Can it succeed? Yes – but only in part. It should be possible to end deflation. But a big upsurge in economic growth is unlikely. Read more of this post

Abenomics scorecard: ‘A’ for early initiative, ‘C’ for follow-through

Abenomics scorecard: ‘A’ for early initiative, ‘C’ for follow-through

Sun, Dec 15 2013

By Tomasz Janowski and Yoko Kubota

TOKYO/DAITO, Japan, Dec 16 (Reuters) – One year into Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic revival plan the message from Japan’s industrial heartland and economists is clear: he has yet to act on his pledge to stage the nation’s comeback as a global economic dynamo. Read more of this post

Abe labor reforms may boost Japan’s ‘disposable’ workers, crimp wages

Abe labor reforms may boost Japan’s ‘disposable’ workers, crimp wages

4:21pm EST

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) – Yumiko Kajiwara is a cheerful 46-year-old who has had several part-time jobs, including sorting clothes, cosmetics and cellphone parts at a Tokyo warehouse. She also represents a challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Read more of this post