Monday, May 31, 2010

Walkathon Rocks in the Wet!

Nagoya was struck by a rouge day of wetness for the Walkathon this year, but the rain certainly didn’t dampen the hearts of the more than 2,000 people that walked through green Tsuruma Park to help the needy of the Chubu area. The smiles in the photographs say it all; foreigners, Japanese, school kids, corporate employees, senior citizens and all walks of life, getting together to give back to the community we live and work in.

This was the 19th Annual Walkathon, and while attendance levels did suffer in the rain, we set a record for the largest volunteer attendance yet; more than 250 people that volunteered their time on the day to make the event a success (volunteers are in the yellow T.Shirts).

Participants were encouraged to walk for charity by completing 4 x 1.25 km laps of Tsuruma Park, while receiving different colored wrist bands for each lap. Proceeds taken from the 2,000 yen tickets for walking, from which you receive the famous “Walkathon T. Shirt”, go to local organizations including orphanages, the homeless, victims of child abuse, service dogs, the physically and mentally challenged and many other needy people. Fourteen of the recipient charities also participated in the event this year, and helped us to educate the Chubu Community about charity work and its importance.

This year’s special addition was IBM Japan’s “IBM on Demand Community” that enabled kids to enjoy science in the park, and as per tradition, Boeing Japan had the boys and girls making paper planes and “fizzing” rocket launches.

Further kids activities were available in terms of a stamp rally amongst the charities, face painting, a beads corner, Bingo in English, animal balloons and generally just a bunch of fun for all.

This is not to mention the stage that was packed action from start to finish; with the best musicians and performers in Nagoya and then with 3 raffles that drew in the audience for their chance to win return air tickets overseas.



What a truly fantastic day. Great people, in Greater Nagoya, supporting great causes and great smiles….. all day long. The result should be 6-7 million yen in contributions to local Chubu Charities and we are all lining up to be involved again next year for the 20th Nagoya Walkathon!



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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Last 10 Percent

I just read this quote from Seth Godin. It sums up what is necessary in the real estate and relocation industry in Japan in order to be the best;

In most fields, there's an awful lot of work put into the last ten percent of quality.

Getting your golf score from 77 to 70 is far more difficult than getting it from 120 to 113 or even from 84 to 77. Answering the phone on the first ring costs twice as much as letting it go into the queue. Making pastries the way they do at a fancy restaurant is a lot more work than making brownies at home. Laying out the design of a page or a flyer so it looks like a pro did it takes about ten times as much work as merely using the template Microsoft builds in for free, and the message is almost the same...........Except it's not. Of course not. The message is not the same.

The last ten percent is the signal we look for, the way we communicate care and expertise and professionalism. If all you're doing is the standard amount, all you're going to get is the standard compensation. The hard part is the last ten percent, sure, or even the last one percent, but it's the hard part because everyone is busy doing the easy part already.

The secret is to seek out the work that most people believe isn't worth the effort. That's what you get paid for.

What a fantastic message!

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Saturday, May 8, 2010

Relocation Outlook- Shrinking Japan Market

I have seen some surveys recently that indicate that 2010 is potentially going to be much more healthy than 2009.


In AIRINC's recent survey, they reported that 47% of respondents that their expat populations would decrease in 2009, but in 2010 88% of respondents are confident that numbers will remain the same or increase this year. This result is shown in the below graph.

The above is encouraging for the industry, but will it hold true in Japan?

Much of the increase in assignments will probably be attributed to the growth in China and India, which are the destinations for huge volumes of exaptriates even now.

What is interesting however, is that India and China are also considered to be 2 of the most challenging destinations for administrators, and also 2 of the locations that see the most assignment failures.


A Brookfield survey indicates that on average 6% of assignments fail (it is higher in China and India) as a result of spouse / partner dissatisifaction, inability to adapt, other family concerns and poor candidate selection.


For Japan, I would say that the risk of assignment failure is considerably less that the average, and that our destination is probably becoming one of the least challenging locations, unless you are perhaps living outside of Tokyo.


From a relocation company perspective, this is not good news for us in relocation in Japan, as relocation companies actually thrive on locations being very challenging. I envy our partners in India and China who have many problems to solve. Here in Japan are problems are less, and the Japanese economy is on a decline. Our market is certain to shrink over the coming years.


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