By ChinaRetailNews.com Editor – According to reports in the Financial Times, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, plans to launch e-commerce businesses in China and Japan, and it is currently establishing the technology platform.

The reports say that Wal-Mart’s recent job advertisement for a “product localization manager” for Japan and China lists responsibilities that cover preparing for the launch of an e-commerce business.

So far, Wal-Mart has opened 282 physical stores in China, but has no direct online sales. The company is reportedly setting up related systems for its new centralized network technology platform to coordinate with its business in China and Japan. Wal-Mart has been developing this platform over the past two years. – read more at ChinaRetailNews.com…

Drumming up business: A geisha teaches a tourist how to beat a "taiko" drum in the hot-spring resort city of Arawa, Fukui Prefecture, on Jan. 30. KYODO PHOTO

By KEIGO MATSUSHITA, Kyodo News – FUKUI — Thirty years ago, the hot-spring resort city of Awara in Fukui Prefecture, along the Sea of Japan coast, prided itself on having about 250 geisha entertainers.

Now there are only 15. So the 130-year-old spa city is offering vacationers the chance at a hands-on geisha experience, to help keep alive the world of the traditional entertainers.

In Kyoto’s popular Gion entertainment district, as well, geisha hold mock tea ceremonies for ¥500 per person, while those in other parts of the country have organized events to attract visitors hoping to receive a firsthand look at the geisha system, which some say dates back to the second half of the 1600s.

Geisha have traditionally been regarded as entertainers skilled in singing, dancing, playing musical instruments and conversation, and patronized by wealthy people and politicians.

But the number of geisha has been on the decline due to deterioration of the economy and reduced opportunities for them to demonstrate their talents. Traditional inns are also steadily disappearing.

The geisha in Awara give guests a chance to meet them for ¥3,000 in a season-limited program. The meeting includes “janken” rock-paper-scissors play equivalent to tossing a coin to decide the winner in a game held in a dance training room of the “kemban,” or control office.

Men take off their jackets behind a folding screen set up as a partition and step into the room to the accompaniment of a shamisen played by geisha. Geisha and guests then play the roles of a mother, a tiger or other characters as part of the program.

The low fee compares with the going rate of ¥60,000 clients pay for service provided by a group of four geisha over a two-hour period.

The visitors get a rare opportunity to look at the backstage of the kemban, which also sends geisha to teahouses and restaurants. Normally, the place is off-limits to visitors. – read more at The Japan Times Online…

Japanese tourists in Myeongdong look at a Japanese-language guidebook on Korea.

Song Woong-ki, The Korea Herald, 3/26/2010 – Two days ago, Motoko Watanabe and her husband arrived in Seoul from their hometown in Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Since hearing of close friends’ pleasant experiences in Seoul, they figured the short trip to Korea would give them the most bang for their buck.

But what was supposed to be an affordable three days of sightseeing and shopping around the popular shopping districts Myeong-dong and Namdaemun, turned into a budget buster the middle-class newlyweds did not anticipate.

Did they go overboard gorging on sumptuous hanwoo while impulsively buying Yonsama socks and Louis Vuitton handbags?

Hardly.

According to Motoko, the couple spent a third of their travel budget on taxis. “We don’t know our way around so it feels as though we’ve been wasting money and spending more than necessary on taxis,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like we’re going in circles when we’re in cabs.”

She’s not alone in her gripes about taxis.

A recent survey conducted by the Korea Tourism Organisation shows that the number of calls made by disgruntled tourists in 2009 saw a 13.4 per cent increase from the previous year.

Of the complaints, difficulties while shopping and disputing costs of taxi fares topped the list with 32.5 per cent and 17.5 per cent of the total 468 complaints filed.

“Our experience was pleasant up until we walked out of the key attractions around the city,” Watanabe said. “It was when we hopped into a taxi and began getting around town that our trip became unpleasant. We really feel as though we spent twice the amount of our travel budget, and I hate it. In their defense, the drivers just say they don’t understand what we’re saying, but I find it personally inconvenient. It’s made me disdainful of the drivers here.”

When asked about taxi scams, Baek Ki-chun, 62, a taxi driver, was quick to defend his profession.

“That was only during the old days when you saw drivers hanging around the airport looking for people to rip off,” he said. “Nowadays, we don’t do stuff like that to tourists, because we care very much about giving the best impression possible of our country to foreign guests when they visit.”

Baek, a 15-year veteran, conceded later that there might be some who take advantage of tourists. “Look, in countries like Japan, you don’t see drivers committing such shameful acts because their drivers get all the proper employee benefits and a respectable salary, regardless of how many passengers they get per day,” he said.

“Here in Korea, they tried to implement something similar when DJ (former President Kim Dae-jung) was around, but it never happened because people started saying drivers would just slack off without making their rounds, so the government decided to scrap the whole idea.

“The only thing we have to rely on is getting as many passengers in a day as possible in order to meet our quota. So I can understand when some drivers get desperate enough to commit disgraceful acts like that.” – read more at Asia News Network…

Forward looking: Yoshiharu Fukuhara makes a point during the recent interview he gave The Japan Times at the head office of Shiseido in Tokyo's central Ginza district. The world-famous cosmetics and toiletries company was founded by his grandfather in 1872, and Fukuhara now serves as its Honorary Chairman, while also running the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. YOSHIAKI MIURA PHOTO

Yoshiharu Fukuhara not only headed the iconic company his grandfather started, but there’s his orchids and cameras — and a museum to run, too…

By EDAN CORKILL, Staff writer, The Japan Times – In July 1942, seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor that started the Pacific War, Tokyo hosted one of the most ambitious exhibitions of art the world had ever seen. “Leonardo da Vinci,” staged in an exhibition hall in the central district of Ueno, featured 600 exhibits by and related to the Italian master whose life, from 1452 to 1519, and works in both the arts and sciences, place him at the very pinnacle of the European Renaissance.

Among the many thousands of visitors who crammed in for some wartime distraction was an 11-year-old boy named Yoshiharu Fukuhara. Gazing at da Vinci’s paintings, drawings and designs for such machines as helicopters and water pumps, the young Fukuhara was astonished that a single person could embody such diverse interests and expertise.

It’s not surprising that da Vinci struck a chord with Fukuhara. His own family boasted several modern-day Renaissance men. The pattern for their lives was to combine artistic activities with careers at the business that Fukuhara’s grandfather, Arinobu, had founded in 1872: the cosmetics and toiletries-maker Shiseido. As Fukuhara explained recently to The Japan Times, it was a pattern he followed himself.

By the time Fukuhara was born, in 1931, Shiseido — whose name derives from a passage in the “I Ching” calling for “the virtues of the Earth” to be praised — had established a thousands-strong network of stores throughout Japan, where it profitably sold its toothpaste, perfumes, facial powders, vanishing creams and soaps.

The company was then under the leadership of Fukuhara’s uncle, Shinzo, a multitalented man who had not only steered the business through expansion and incorporation, in 1927, but had also established himself as one of Japan’s leading art photographers. In 1919, he was also responsible for creating what is now Japan’s oldest existing art gallery, the Shiseido Gallery in Tokyo.

Fukuhara’s father, Nobuyoshi, also shared his brother Shinzo’s twin interests of business and photography. When he wasn’t keeping tabs on the Shiseido books as the firm’s accountant, he was snapping flowers in his carefully kept garden.

The young Fukuhara followed his forebears into Shiseido in 1953 — a move he puts down to a series of coincidences rather than familial grooming. Nevertheless, his commitment to the company, and the respect he was accorded within it, led to him being named the president of its then-new U.S. subsidiary, Shiseido Cosmetics America, in 1966. Just over two decades later, in 1987, he took over the presidency of the entire operation.

Fukuhara oversaw massive expansion of the Japanese brand, playing a direct role in its metamorphosis into an international, or, as he says, a “stateless” icon. Shiseido now has annual net sales of over ¥690 billion, with more than a third coming from abroad. Top products such as its Tsubaki shampoos and the Shiseido makeup line have seen it become a household name not just in Japan but in Asia and elsewhere around the world.

Nevertheless, Fukuhara never forgot the lesson he learned from da Vinci and his own family members, and the horizons of his interests have always extended far beyond the Shiseido domain. His two greatest passions are orchid cultivation and photography, both of which he has pursued since his student days.

But he has done more than that. For the last two decades, in particular, Fukuhara, now 78, has become a self-made champion of the arts, lobbying high-flyers in the public and private sectors to improve their support for the arts. – read more at The Japan Times Online…

Chinese Luxury Shoppers Outspend Japanese 2-To-1 At South Korean Malls: Wealthy Chinese Travelers In Korea Favor Cosmetics, Children’s Supplies, Ginseng And Healthcare Products, Luxury Watches – This week, more news about free-spending mainland Chinese tourists came out of South Korea. As more Chinese tourists have headed outward, most of them staying relatively close to home, the Korean media has consistently framed news about tourist behavior as a sort of rivalry between China and Japan — a phenomenon Jing Daily discussed last fall. (’Tourist Profile: Japanese vs. Chinese‘) According to Tencent (via Yonhap), after a year in which the number (and profligacy) of Chinese tourists increased at Korean luxury malls, shoppers from mainland China now account for twice as many sales per capita as Japanese tourists.

Hummer price soars in Shanghai: Although Tengzhong failed in buying Hummer, the Hummer dealers are overjoyed, taking the opportunity to raise the price. On February 25, the reporter learned from Hummer dealers in Shanghai that after hearing the acquisition of Hummer failed, dealers immediately raised the price of Hummer, among which Hummer H3X produced in 2009 rose by 20,000 yuan, and Hummer H2 is planning to rise by 100,000 yuan. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Calvin Klein To Focus On Chinese Market In 2010: American fashion brand Calvin Klein has announced plans to open 60 new chain stores in Asia in 2010, mainly targeting its expansion in the Chinese market.
According to reports from Singapore’s Channel News Asia, Calvin Klein’s current revenues from the Asian areas account for 15% of its income worldwide. (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

Toyota chief’s testimony closely watched in Japan: Japan appeared largely relieved Thursday that much-anticipated testimony by Toyota’s chief executive before U.S. lawmakers was finally over, though analysts said the company’s recall woes are no closer to being solved. Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda’s appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was closely watched in Japan, where the company his grandfather founded is a national icon. It was the top item on local morning news programs. At least one channel briefly broadcast his testimony live, where it took place Wednesday in Washington. (AP) (Via News On Japan.)

Singapore Witnesses Record Number of Travelers in January: January of 2010 managed to see the highest ever recorded number of travels to Singapore for the month. Figures shared by the Singapore Tourism Board have revealed that as many as 908,000 travelers visited Singapore over the past month, which is a hike of nearly 17.5% compared to January of 2009. The top 5 markets for the month which generated visitors for Singapore were Indonesia with 173,000 visitors, China with 99,000 travelers, Australia with 90,000 travelers, 68,000 came in from Malaysia and 57,000 travelers were from India. (Via TopNews Singapore.)

Hong Kong clothing retailers threaten to quit Taiwan over tax issue: Taipei – Four Hong Kong clothing retailers are threatening to quit Taiwan over a tax dispute with Taiwan authorities, a press report said Monday. The four Hong Kong retailers – Hang Ten, Giordano, Bossini and BaLeNo – made the threat in a petition to President Ma Ying-jeou, demanding that their names be cleared, or they might withdraw from Taiwan, the United Daily News quoted Lai Shih-pao as saying. (Via China News.)

Hainan to curb ‘whopping housing price’: As of the phenomena that the ‘whopping prices’ for living in hotels in Hainan Province ‘bluff off’ the tourists during the Spring Festival, the government would takes efforts to regulate the market, Wu Kunxiong, deputy director general of the tourism department of Hainan Province said Saturday. The government will strictly crack down on the house speculators and formulate tourism standards to cope with the high prices, according to Wu. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Revenue From Beijing’s Five-star Hotels Beijing Down 16.9% In 2009: According to data provided by Bureau of Statistics of Beijing, the revenue of star-grade hotels in the city decreased by 9.7% year-on-year in 2009. During the entire year of 2009, star hotels in Beijing made total revenues of CNY21.94 billion, including CNY9.98 billion from guest rooms. (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

APEC seeking pathways to Asia-Pacific free trade area: Senior officials from Pacific Rim economies accelerated their efforts Monday to seek ”possible pathways” to a region-wide free trade zone, but fell short of reaching any consensus except to continue necessary work. After a meeting in Hiroshima, where Japan formally took up its chairmanship of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum for 2010, a Japanese official said, ”We already have very sensible analytical studies but also have lots of issues that require further discussions.” (Via Kyodo News (Business).)

Asia leads global march away from easy credit: (HONG KONG) The US Federal Reserve has just kick- started its cautious exit from unprecedented emergency lending measures – but the process has been going on for months in the Asia-Pacific region, underscoring the two-speed path of the global recovery. (Via Business Times Online – All The Headlines.)

50% of sneak preview tickets for Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa casino & theme park snapped up: SINGAPORE: Fifty per cent of the sneak preview tickets to check out Singapore’s first casino and theme park were snapped up when they went on sale on Friday, despite the fact that none of the 20 rides and shows at Universal Studios will be ready. (Via Channel NewsAsia Singapore News.)

McDonald’s To Open Hamburger University In Shanghai: As a celebration of the 20th anniversary of McDonald’s entry into the Chinese market, the international fast food giant has announced plans to launch a new hamburger university in Shanghai, the company’s seventh worldwide, making the city a new human resources training base for McDonald’s in Asia Pacific.(Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

Shanghai Watch Looks To Join Ranks Of Elite Brands: Although most of the world’s top watchmakers remain cozily ensconced within the borders of Switzerland, as with most luxury industries ‘the Chinese are coming’…in this case, to reinvent a brand better known for gracing the wrists of Mao Zedong and Zhou En’lai than Donald Trump or Warren Buffett. (Though the latter might be more open to it than we might assume.) This brand, Shanghai Watch (上海手表厂), started producing watches in the mid-1950s, amid a flurry of activity in the Shanghai wristwatch industry, and quickly established itself as the country’s top watchmaker. (Via Jing Daily :.)

Toyota president to testify before U.S. congressional panels: Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda would testify before U.S. congressional committees on massive recalls of Toyota vehicles if he is formally asked to do so, Toyota officials said Friday. The automaker is hoping that if Toyoda appears in person at congressional hearings, it would help to revive trust in Toyota’s vehicles amid growing criticism of the automaker in the United States, they said. (Via Kyodo News (Business).)

Chinese snapping up real estate in Japan: Japan’s real estate market may be in a slump, but that is not deterring the Chinese from scooping up properties. Chinese money – that is, from ethnic Chinese living in Japan – is making its presence felt in a big way. A growing number of Chinese residents are turning to real estate investments in major cities as well as rural areas. (AsiaOne) (Via News On Japan.)

China’s Goojje ‘will not change’: Goojje, the Chinese knockoff of Google Inc, ‘will not change’ its design despite a threat from the US Internet company to sue it over copyright infringement, Huang Jiongxuan, the website’s founder, said yesterday. Goojje’s logo resembles the logo of Google Inc and also bears a paw print sign like that of Baidu Inc, the biggest Internet search engine in China and Google Inc’s archrival in the country. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Saudi Arabia, Angola, Iran remain top 3 oil suppliers to China: Saudi Arabia, Angola and Iran remained the three largest oil sources for China in 2009, with the three supplying 47.7 percent of China’s total imports, according data released Wednesday by the General Administration of Customs (GAC). GAC figures showed that China’s oil imports from the three nations last year stood at 41.86 million tonnes, 32.17 million tonnes and 23.15 million tonnes, respectively. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Shangri-La Announces New Multipurpose Complex In Chongqing: Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has signed an agreement with Chongqing Guest House Company to manage a hotel in Chongqing that is scheduled to open in late 2011. The 469-room Shangri-La hotel will occupy the first 28 floors of a new 58-story landmark building, a multi-purpose complex incorporating office space and retail outlets. (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

McDonald’s to close hundreds of outlets in Japan: McDonald’s Corp. is closing 430 restaurants in Japan, the latest sign of the faltering economy in the Asian country. A 50% owned affiliate will shutter the locations over the next 12 to 18 months in conjunction with the strategic review of the company’s real estate portfolio. The world’s largest restaurant chain plans to take charges of $40 million to $50 million in the first half of the year. McDonald’s Holdings Co. (Japan) has 3,700 stores. McDonald’s also is opening 90 new restaurants and refurbishing 200 in Japan. (Daily Finance) (Via News On Japan.)

Singapore's state investor Temasek sets up new investment company: Singapore – Singapore’s state investment company Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd said Wednesday that it has set up a separate investment company, Seatown Holdings. “Temasek has recently set up Seatown Holdings as a wholly owned global investment company,” Temasek said in a statement without providing details of the new company’s precise mission. (Via Singapore News.)

Hyundai, Kia stocks accelerate on fallout from Toyota debacle: Shares of Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors continue to thrive despite the recent erosion of global stock markets, fueled by strong financial performance and turmoil at rival Toyota. (Via South Korea News.)

Expert: China’s space technology close to moon landing capability: After years of development, China’s space technology is close to moon landing capability, said Fu Yiqing, space expert and consultant to the Shanghai Institute of Space Propulsion (SISP). Fu, also a senior member of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), said this during an interview with reporters from China News Service. New generations of Chinese taikonauts are studying moon landing technology. (Via China – People’s Daily Online.)

China seizes leading hacker training website: Police in central China’s Hubei Province have seized the country’s biggest hacker training website and arrested three suspects, the local public security department said. The three, who ran the Black Hawk Safety Net, were suspected of offering online hacker tools, a crime that was newly listed in China’s Criminal Law last year. Police have also frozen more than 1.7 million yuan (250,000 U.S. dollars) in assets and confiscated nine web servers, five computers and a Honda Accord. (Via China – People’s Daily Online.)

China Unicom Opens First 3G Mobile Phone Flagship Store In Beijing: Chinese telecom operator China Unicom has announced that its first flagship store under the company’s 3G brand ‘Wo’ has been opened in Beijing. Located in the southern hall of China Unicom’s headquarters building in Financial Street, the three-floor Wo flagship store covers a total area of about 800 square meters. (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

JAL to keep American Airlines link: Japanese media say Japan Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy last month, has decided to keep its current tie-up with American Airlines – the Oneworld Alliance. There had been widespread reports that it might defect to SkyTeam under Delta Air Lines. The carrier feared that the switch would confuse its passengers and that it could loose its antitrust immunity from US authorities because it would dominate the trans-Pacific market. (Via RTHK On Internet – Finance News.)

Godiva, Others Hope For More Chinese Chocolate Consumption: Perhaps looking to cash in on the propensity of more cosmopolitan, urban Chinese to give expensive or boutique chocolate as gifts (and, increasingly, to eat for themselves), Belgian chocolate giant Godiva has aggressively sought expansion in the Chinese market. Having entered Hong Kong in 1998, Godiva decided to test the waters in the mainland last September, opening a store in Shanghai’s Grand Gateway Mall. Apparently satisfied with that store’s popularity, the company has announced that it plans to open two new flagship stores in Shanghai’s swish Xintiandi area and at the Shanghai International Financial Center (IFC). (Via Jing Daily.)

Singaporean Tycoon Ng Teng Fong dies: SINGAPORE—Ng Teng Fong, one of Asia’s richest tycoons and the founder and chairman of Singapore’s largest unlisted property group, Far East Organization, died Tuesday aged 82, the developer said. Far East said in a statement that Mr. Ng had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on Jan. 23. Forbes Asia magazine in 2009 listed Mr. Ng as the richest person in Singapore, with a net worth of more than US$8 billion. (Via WSJ.com: What’s News Asia.)

Singapore opens world’s first A380 MRO hangar: Singapore’s SIA Engineering on Wednesday opens the first Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) hangar in the world to offer commercial maintenance services for the Airbus A380 aircraft here. At the opening of the A380 hangar, Singapore’s Minister in Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Transport, Lim Hwee Hua said that as a gateway to Asia, Singapore is well- positioned to ride the wave of aviation expansion. (Via Business – People’s Daily Online.)

Wal-Mart Sells World Expo Products In Shanghai: As the cooperative partner of USA Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Wal-Mart has started to sell World Expo related licensed products in its Nanpu Bridge store in Shanghai. To promote the Shanghai World Expo and to meet consumers’ demands for World Expo licensed products, the American retail giant Wal-Mart was formally selected as the franchised retailer of World Expo licensed products in January 2010. (Via ChinaRetailNews.com.)

Japanese men miss out on Valentine’s chocolate as women treat themselves: Japan’s unique Valentine’s Day tradition of women giving chocolate to men is melting away as more women show a preference for pampering each other instead of their boyfriends and spouses. The practice of giving tomo choco (friendship chocolate) has been highlighted as a new trend in a recent survey that found 74 percent of women plan to give a Valentine’s gift to a female friend but only 32 percent intended to buy something for a boyfriend. The popularity of tomo choco has been attributed to the way that the custom offers women an excuse to have a girls’ night out – something pertinent at a time when so much social interaction is going digital. (Japan Times) (Via News On Japan.)