Saturday, December 29, 2007

A New Interactive Website- Japan Info Swap!!




I am proud to announce that the H&R Consultants Group has just launched a new website for the Expatriate Community of Japan. Called Japan Info Swap, the site has been designed for the Expat Community to interact with each other and trade information.

The site will be initially launched with 3 basic categories;

1. An Information Blog

This will provide useful information on both Japan-wide and local topics of interest. Basically think of it as an on-going newsletter. Naturally, comments can be posted against any entries and an interactive forum is encouraged.

2. A Question and Answer Corner

The most interactive part of this new community site is this Q&A section, which will allow members of the Expat community in Japan to share information and obtain good answers to unknown questions from other reliable and experienced members of the community. This will be a great place to find out things you have always been wanting to know from others in your community!

3. Classifieds Component

This section is aimed at assisting the Expat community to make recommendations and trade information, ideas and items. These classifieds will be ideal for Expats soon to arrive or leave Japan, as they will enable them to trade not only useful information on their communities, but also items such as furniture and appliances. For those of you who have left Japan before, you know how difficult it is to get rid of things, and for those of you who have arrived in Japan for the first time, you know how expensive it is to buy everything! We are looking to unite such like people! The classifieds section will also be a great place to make and verify recommendations on anything from restaurants to hospitals and doctors.

In summary, here is what we are aiming to do through this new site;

To provide a platform for foreigners in Japan to exchange information and share experiences both with each other and with those who are about to embark on their Japanese experience. To stimulate interaction between like members of the foreign community, and enhance the experience of everyone’s time in Japan.

Please go take a look! We are launching things in January and are looking forward to providing everyone with a network to have fun on! Naturally, we will continue to add further content and components in line with everyone's feedback!

WISHING EVERYONE A WONDERFUL 2008!

Steve Burson
H&R Consultants
The Japan Real Estate and Relocation Company

Monday, September 17, 2007

Counters for Length and Area: Shaku and Tsubo

Japan has its own unique system for measuring area and space, which is called “Shakkan-ho”. Made up of “Shaku” a measurement of length and “Kan” a measurement of mass.

One shaku is equal to approximately “one foot” or more accurately 30.3 centimeters, and all other units of measurement in the system are fractions or multiples of the “shaku”. The shaku was derived from nature and is described to be the average distance between nodes on bamboo. Shaku is still used in construction in Japan; for example plywood is commonly manufactured in 182 x 91 cm sheets, known as “Saburokuhan” or literally “3 x 6” shaku. Saburokuhan is effectively the same size as a Tatami Mat that are measured in “–JO” (please see my entry of September 12th), and therefore shows how the different measurement types all relate to the “Shaku”.

Another very common measurement counter in Japan is the “Tsubo”, which is how area is expressed in Japanese society. 1 Tsubo = 2 tatami mats or 2-JO. Tsubo is still commonly used in the Real Estate Industry in Japan not only for land, but also for describing floor-space in both offices and houses. A typical plot of land used for the building of a Japanese home is 40- 50 tsubo that equates to approximately 130- 150 square meters, or slightly over 1,000 square feet. It is very common for office space to be quoted in yen per tsubo. In Nagoya for example, the market for office space in the downtown area fluctuates anywhere between 10,000 yen per tsubo (approximately 3,000 yen per square meter) through to 30,000 yen per tsubo (or 10,000 yen per square meter), which is what you would pay to have an office in the new Toyota Midland Square Building. Naturally, 30,000 yen per tsubo is the starting point for offices in many locations in Tokyo. One tsubo = approximately 3.3 square meters, or 35.58 square feet.

Hopefully this helps you to work out what the hell your Japanese acquaintances are talking about when they throw the tsubo measurement in your face!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Japanese Tatami

Some of us have been brought up on feet and inches, while the younger of us know only meters, centimeters and millimeters. However, if you live in Japan, you need to develop a “third sense” when it comes to measuring area. Japan has its own unique measuring system brought down from ancient times.

This starts with the Tatami Mat. Anyone who has been in Japan for a period of time knows about tatami (woven straw mats), and probably know that it is how Japanese people communicate space (or lack of it) in a house or an apartment. A 6-mat room or “roku-jo no heya” in Japanese, is the standard sized room; 4.5 mats would be considered small or slightly cramped, where as an 8-mat or 10-mat room is generally considered to be quite a large room. Contrastingly, an 8-10 mat room would probably the standard size of a bedroom in a western-style home. The tatami mat and its “counter” – jo, are not used only for bedrooms however, but for each individual room including the living / dining / kitchen (known as LDK). A 20-jo LDK would be considered very spacious in a Japanese apartment, where as the standard would probably be 10-15-jo.

You can easily see the use of tatami mats as a counter of room area by taking a look at the floor plans displayed at local real estate agents such as “Mini-Mini”, Apaman-shop, Nissho, etc. Quite often they are referenced by a “J” for the counter “-jo”. For example, the LDK might read 13.0J and the bedrooms 5.5J and 6.0J respectively.

So, how big is a one-jo (ichi-jo in correct Japanese!). Well, it depends where you live in Japan! The standard is close to 1.8 meters x 0.9 meters in a good part of Japan, but due to space constraints in cities such as Tokyo, often tatami are slightly smaller (and this is not an advertised fact- owners are very cunning in populate cities!). Standard Tatami sizes in Tokyo are 1.76 meters x 0.88 meters.

While tatami are used as the “size indicator” of rooms in Japan, it is not so typical to express the overall size of a particular apartment or house in “so-many tatami”. ie. It is not common to add up the tatami count of all the rooms to express the total size. Total size is expressed in either square meters or “tsubo”. Where does Tsubo come from you ask? Well, historically 2-jo = 1 tsubo. I will cover tsubo in my next entry!

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Remote Relocations

In this ever increasingly international society , more and more companies are needing to become global to survive, or at least have a global presence. No longer is it just the large corporations, but now small to medium sized organizations are needing to become "multi-national". As this global phenomenum pulls in smaller companies to the international market, in the relocation industry we are seeing that this is driving the destination of transferees from the highly populated "financial" and "manufacturing" centers of the world to more remote locations. Transferees that used to be located in the Tokyos of the world, are now often being asked to spend their assignment amongst rice paddies.

We are seeing an increasing wide range of Japanese companies (especially in manufacturing in the Chubu Region) who are developing partnerships with overseas vendors / distributors. Often, as these Japanese businesses begin to succeed and grow in both the foreign and domestic market due to these relationships, it is necessary for the overseas entity to have someone on the ground here in Japan. Read on if you are one of these foreign companies!

This creates the perfect receipe for disaster, as different expectations from the Japanese side and the overseas side immediately create and build conflict. A classic example is the housing contract of the overseas employee. The overseas employee and often his superiors assume that the Japan side company will assist to coordinate the contract and even sign it. Anyone who knows Japan well already knows that not many companies in Japan, let along the individuals in the company, are going to be willing to act as a signing party or guarantor. This is just the start, however, as the Japanese "receiving" company will probably not have worked with an "on-the-ground" overseas coordinator before and will therefore be unsure of how to help, even if they want to. Likewise, the overseas coordinator is not likely to have lived in Japan before, and will therefore rely on the Japanese partner for guidance. Bad mistake, as the guidance is unlikely to be correct or clear, and before everyone even starts working together they are totally frustrated with each other.

In these cases, you really want our organization H&R Consultants to be in the middle of things. We have experienced Japanese staff to work with Japan side company to help them handle the typical issues and understand where the foreign party is coming from. We then have foreign consultants to work with the foreign dispatchee; helping to manage their expectations and educate them on all the differences here in Japan and all of the processes that have to be followed.

So, back to "Remote Relocations". What we are seeing is that a number of foregin employees are increasingly being dispatched to very rural areas of Japan. This obviously increases the burden, as there is just not the infra-structure or language ability in the remote relocation like there is in a large city. Just in the last week, we have worked with people in locations such as Ise, Okayama, Okazaki and Utsunomiya, all cities with small populations.

Housing in remote Japanese areas are usually much more inferior than the larger cities. In fact you just can't easily find options that are even "Semi-Western Style". However, the overseas entity will assume the "Western Option" exists. Then the Japanese entity will usually assume that what does exist will be sufficient. Naturally, this creates huge gap that needs to be closed!

Once you have closed this gap, there are many more gaps waiting. The overseas entity will assume that an English contract is available and that they can sign it. Wrong! It will definately be a Japanese contract only! Think about it! Would you expect a Japanese contract to be available in rural Texas?! Owners in rural areas are unlikely to be used to having foreign tenants, and are likely to be very conservative. This is when you need the help of your Japanese business partner, but if they aren't expecting to help, you have big problems!

So, what is the message here. Well, if you thought a relocation to the main center of a Asian Country was difficult, then you have twice the difficulty if you are sending someone to a remote relocation. Twice as much planning is required, and you must do the work up-front in terms of making sure you have the support and understanding of your Japanese partner. Unless you have someone in your company that is a veteran of Japan, you are not going to be able to do this without help of real estate and relocation professionals. Don't ruin your relationship with your Japanese partner or branch office before you start working together. Get help from relocation professionals first and make sure you
- Don't assume anything
- Collect as much information on the destination as possible
- Visit the destination in advance and confirm things
- Start early!

Nobody can work properly if they are not effectively housed and cared for. Think about it!

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Driving In Japan- Are you properly licensed?


Did you know that you need a Japanese Driver's License to drive in Japan? You do!

If you are here 12-months or longer, a International License will not suffice. You need a Japanese one! By law!

If you are from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand or South Korea it is a relatively easy process.

If you are from anywhere in the world, it is not so easy and you are going to need http://www.japandriverslicense.com/. Take a look now at how we can help you through this bureacracy.

YOU MUST GET A JAPANESE LICENSE!
But, why.......(I hear you all say)
1. Japanese Law says so.
2. Not having a Japanese license is the same as not being qualified to drive
3. Your insurance company is unlikely to cover you in an accident
4. It acts as a good form of ID when you lose your Gaijin Card...

Good reasons....? So, get your Japanese License!

So, why this topic today?

Well, the truth is I wrote this while in a 2-hour "Driving Seminar" that is required when you renew your Japanese License (the 2-hour seminar is for people who have offended.....parking tickets, speeding tickets, etc). This reminded me to remind you about being "legally licensed".
So what did I learn today? Well, not so much, as I was writing the above, but here are the main points.

a. Aichi Prefecture has the worst driving record in the whole country. The most deaths occur in Aichi.
b. Tokyo has a high death rate this year and is right up there with Aichi in 2007.
c. Using mobile phones while driving is illegal and causes many accidents. Don't do it! Even holding your phone in the car is illegal, so please use hand free devices.
d. Beware of procedures for earthquakes.

EARTHQUAKE PROCEDURE FOR DRIVING
If you are in your car when an earthquake strikes, what do you do?
* Without breaking or swirving suddenly, safely slow down and stop on the lefthand side of the road.
* Once stopped, use your car radio to determine earthquake and traffic information, and act accordingly.
* If you are to evacuate leaving your car behind, do your best to park the car off the road. If this is not possible, park to the far left of the road, turn off the engine, leave the key in the car, wind up all windows and leave the car unlocked.
* When parking your car, consider disaster rescue activities and evacuation of others. Don't leave your car in places that could hinder rescue operations.
Drive safely with a license!

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Real Estate In Nagoya; Have Investment Trusts Gone Mad?

The last 18-months have been really interesting in terms of real estate investment in Nagoya. We have seen activity that has never been seen before in Japan's 4th largest city. It went mad, it died off, and now it is back on again.

In the last 12-18 months, Nagoya has been influxed with visitors from Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs); mainly Japanese ones that are known as J-REITs. From early until late 2006, these trust "funds" have come into Nagoya and bought up a good percentage of the large developments in the city like nothing else ever seen before.

So, why Nagoya?
Well, due to increasing land and construction prices, the return on investment (ROI) that is available to investors in Tokyo has dwindled below 5%. So, as this as happened, investors have begun to look else where; Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka being the main targets. Having been seen to be more "genki" than Osaka and Fukuoka economically, Nagoya was the initial target of REIT eyes looking outside the capital, and with ROIs of 6-8%, in came the vultures to buy everything up. And they did. Most of the large development projects or "A-Grade" projects that have been completed in Nagoya in the last 18-months, have had REIT involvement. Their investment makes up only about 5% of the total building investments in Nagoya, but from virtually no presence in Nagoya, REITs are now involved in more than 30 large-scale developments in the city (data from JonesLangLasalle).

So what has this done for Nagoya?
Well, basically two things.
Firstly, you may have heard that the area in front of Nagoya Station has had the highest valuating land prices in Japan for 2 years in row. REIT investment activity has been the main driver. Nagoya has a shortage of "A-Grade" office buildings, so the REITs coming to the city have driven up the demand for sites that are feasible for "A-Grade" projects. As a result, land prices have valuated sharply in prime "A-Grade" locations, which has in turn driven up the general land prices in the down town Nagoya area. This has also triggered valuations in other areas of Nagoya City, and this "effect" has also slowly dispersed out to areas such as Kariya and Anjo Cities, who are also recording record land values.
Secondly, higher land prices and increasingly expensive construction costs have driven up project fees to a level where Nagoya is now not a bargain compared to Tokyo or other locations. ROIs are falling, and word in the market now is you are doing well to calculate 5% returns.
As a result, the REITs began moving out of Nagoya in late 2006 to find greener fields elsewhere.

So, where are the REITs now?
Funnily enough, they are back. As mentioned in my introduction, it went mad, it died off and now it is starting again.

But, didn't you say ROIs were falling? What are they doing back?
As mentioned above, the REITs were only every interested in "A-Grade" opportunities. These were the large-scale properties for which a signifcant amount of land in a down town location was required. Such opportunities were limited, and the laws of supply and demand soon turned the ROIs sour. However, while general land prices were rising, smaller blocks of land were not affected as much by supply and demand forces, as they were not feasible for what the REITs wanted to invest in.
So, what are they doing now? Well, the "A-Grade" opportunities have pretty much been eaten up, so now they are back buying up "medium-scale" opportunities in 3s and 4s. In other words, they can't get projects large enough, so they are buying into 3 or 4 projects at a time, and treating them as one large project. Yes, this is how the activity is taking off again!

If only the Nagoya market can sustain the need for all these new developments. I am skeptical that it can........Once again, the winners will be those who have thought about their investments (developments) and those that have a marketing plan in place. From where I sit, Nagoya is not growing quick enough to sustain the supply that this activity is bringing. Time will tell!

Monday, June 18, 2007

New Toyota Building and Relocation to Nagoya

The new Toyota Building in front of Nagoya Station is complete. In true Toyota style they have done it so right, and "Midland Square" has immediately become Nagoya's new landmark. The basement is full of new shops and restaurants, and standing beside Nagoya's Twin Towers that were completed earlier this century, this new complex sets the stage for Nagoya's transition from a small city to something much more impressive.

Just to the north of Midland Square is the new Lucent Building. A similar monstrosity, the Lucent Building is probably as stylish as Toyota's effort, if not better. It also has all the shops and restaurants and its own underground walkway from Nagoya Station.

However, waht the Lucent Building doesn't have is the "talk" of Midland Square. Midland Square has had people talking in Nagoya for years. What will the new building bring? Who will it bring? What Toyota functions will move from Tokyo? Who will have offices there? Will there be multitudes more foreigners in Nagoya due to it? How many Japanese employees will relocate? What will the building do for the housing market in Nagoya?

Once again, in true Toyota fashion, nobody really knew the answers to those questions, and Toyota kept as much under its hat as possible.

So, the result? Well, not much has changed. What we have seen is Toyota moving a few people internally. Alot of them, surprisingly, within Nagoya itself from other Toyota Offices. A few people have transferred from Tokyo, while others choose to keep their residences in the capital city, and just be in Nagoya during the week.

New developments in the downtown area of Nagoya have shot up all over the place in the last 12- 24 months. Those developers who have thought about their investment and have considered the local characterisitics and tendancies have done well. However, the majority of the developments have not been well considered, and have just gone up in a rush to meet the same completion period as Midland Square. With the smaller then expected impact of the new Toyota Office, there are now many hurting developers out there wondering where all the people are.

So where are the people and are they coming? Well, they are not here yet maybe, but I am confident they are coming. The trend in Nagoya is for a slow but steady increase in economic growth. With Toyota around, this is unlikely to change. However, we are not going to wake up tomorrow and see the next New York developed in our back yard. Much like the increase in the foreign population and foreign company presence in Nagoya, growth is slow but steady and it will take time. With Toyota now sitting in front of Nagoya Station, slowly but surely, many companies will be reminded that they need to be close by. Slowly but surely, many companies overseas that are involved in Toyota Sales and After Service are going to see the need to be in Nagoya; just like many of their counterparts in the supply chain of Toyota who know they need to be on the ground near Toyota City to enhance their ability to maintain and increase their business with the world's number one vehicle manufacturer.

The factor that will really shape Nagoya's future is financial markets. It is a dynamic of the Nagoya economy that is tough to believe now, but if Toyota can bring financial markets to Nagoya then waking up with New York in our back yard mayn't be so far away as we all think......

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Corporate Social Responsibility in Nagoya


We have just come off a wonderful event in Nagoya. Every year the foreign community of Nagoya comes together to arrange a "Walkathon" to raise money for local charities and the not so lucky of our community. In 2006, the Walkathon raised 6.5 million for local orphanages, facilities that support the mentally and physically challenged, etc. This years event was blessed by great weather and a record attendance of close to 2,500 people. In 2007, we should able to give more than 7 million back to local Nagoya Charities.


Corporate social responsibility or CSR is a term that we have only started hearing in the last few years, but the Nagoya foreign community's social responsibility has been going for much longer. This year was our 16th Walkathon.


As a company that provides housing, relocation and leasing services to the Expatriate Community in Japan, CSR and giving back to the community that both we and our clients live in, is a very important agenda for our group. Much has been talked about in the area of "internationalization" in Japan, but our operations as a company and the lives of our clients in Japan are the real grass roots of Japan becoming more "global" and understanding other cultures other than their own. The Walkathon is all about bringing Japanese and Foreigners together to learn the grass roots of giving to charity and volunteering time for the benefit of others. It is not artificial "internationalization" like that of events held by cities and prefectures across Japan such as cooking classes in a local kominkan. Our Walkathon and our clients out living in Japanese communities are the real thing, and they are the real way forward to Japan warmly accepting all people regardless of race, color or background. However, it is a two-way street and we must never forget what the community does for us foreigners in Japan. The Walkathon is one way to thank everyone around us in for their support by giving back to those in the community who need it.


Hopefully in coming years we will see many more Japanese companies learn more about CSR and especially the different ways companies can give back to their community, while having their employees benefit from the partnership and relationships that are built by being involved in such activities. It is not all about how much money companies give, it is also about the time you can give, and the extent of involvement you have in giving financial support to charities. Any company can throw some money to a charity and call it CSR, but smart companies get involved in the giving and have their people learn about CSR through interacting with others outside their own organizations. The Walkathon teaches this in Nagoya, and H&R Consultants is glad to be able learn from it too.


I hope you can help us give back to Chubu again in May 2008 at the 17th Walkathon!


Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Why is Relocation to Japan Different? Difficult?


Relocating anywhere is a difficult business. Who likes moving house? Would you move 3 times a year?
Most people would cringe at the thought of moving even 3 times in 10 years.
So add to that an international move, to a country that speaks a different language (which is incidentally spoken nowhere else in the world), to a land of people who have a different approach to many things in life. That's the difference!
So what make's it difficult? Well, that is easy...... People make it difficult! People make everything difficult! Why? Because we all come from different backgrounds, have different perspectives on things, have different expectations that typically are built on our past experiences, and we all think that we are the correct about everything (well, alot of the time anyway!).
So, what do we do to assist in the relocation of people to Japan and finding them a comfortable home? We try to understand them. We try to put our feet in their shoes. And, we try to never forget that the people we work with are human, and therefore require a human touch.
We have a long way to go in perfecting our real estate, relocation and leasing services, but we are going to go there, because we know what is required. We know that however quickly technology changes, people are always going to be difficult, and people are always going to required a human touch. If it were not for people, this world would long ago have been perfected. However, we all know how far away from perfection the world is, and therefore I know that H&R Consultants, ReloJapan and Lease Japan have a long time to live in Japan yet!