But while demand for Japanese products overseas improved, domestic demand for goods made outside Japan remained weak, falling by 35.6% in October.
In lieu of the traditional keynote livestream, Nintendo will be releasing Nintendo Direct streams to deliver region specific news to Japanese and overseas fans.
As one sign that foreign investors are cooling to Japan's markets, the finance ministry reported Thursday a sharp drop in purchases of Japanese stocks by overseas investors.
Japanese executives working overseas rarely immerse themselves in local cultures and often display a tin ear when attempting to strike notes that resonate with their target geographic markets.
One could argue that the seeming anomaly of the relatively strong yen might reflect a seasonal effect: the repatriation of funds by Japanese firms' overseas operations near the end of the financial year.
The yen has lost about 20% of its value against the US dollar since October, helping Japanese firms to convert overseas profits back into yen at a more favourable rate.
After so many overseas deals, Japanese drug companies are beginning to resemble foreign ones.
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Its Union Bank of California subsidiary is the largest overseas franchise of any Japanese financial institution.
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It is the latest overseas acquisition by a Japanese company in a bumper year for such deals.
"There is considerable evidence to suggest that Japanese consumers substituted domestic purchases for overseas travel in the wake of the terrorist attacks, " said Ron Bevacqua, chief economist at Commerzbank Securities.
The optimism is based not on an expectation of rapid or large increases in domestic sales, but rather on confidence in the continued strength of overseas market demand for Japanese products.
And in recent years the strengthening yen has given Japanese companies the upper hand at snaring overseas companies cheaply.
To be sure, there is EXCELLENT US produced beef, some has appealed to me more than some Japanese Kobe beef I have had (overseas, and in Japan, of course).
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At least 500, 000 Japanese small businesses, and many more overseas (Shigeta already has entered China, Hong Kong and Korea), are potential clients, says Merrill Lynch Japan Vice President Mahendra Negi.
Japanese-Koreans have used remittances from relatives overseas as start-up capital for new trading businesses.
In late October Union Bank of Switzerland was lead manager for Nichiei in the largest pure overseas share issue ever by a Japanese firm.
"There aren't any good reasons for Japanese life insurance firms to rush to invest overseas, given the recent rise in domestic government bond yields, " Mr. Noji added.
His early purchases smacked of the sort of overseas trophy-buying that caused many Japanese trouble.
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In 1993, when I took a trip to Italy, people mistook me for Japanese, as there were very few Chinese traveling overseas then.
Third, the manufacturers designed products around home-grown technical standards and special features that are not used elsewhere. (Most foreign visitors to Japan grumble upon discovering that their phones are incompatible with the country's wireless networks.) So the Japanese makers can only build phones tailored to the overseas market at a high cost and lower margins, making it an unattractive business to enter.
Thailand is an attractive destination for overseas investment, and foreign companies, particularly Japanese ones fleeing a strong yen, have been badly disrupted.
Salvation lies abroad: among Japanese manufacturers, only 14% of sales come from overseas production facilities, compared with 32% for American companies, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Professor Taniuchi says plainly that the idea of simply raising taxes to fund ever-increasing expenditures is self-defeating, sapping initiative of Japanese workers while pushing companies to relocate production and jobs overseas, causing growth and revenues to slow further.
Behind the hiring is increased optimism toward the Japanese market and consequent demand for buy-side equity research from overseas institutional investors.
Japanese firms are flush with cash and the yen is strong, making overseas assets relatively cheap.
That is because they should be among the biggest beneficiaries: A weaker yen makes Japanese-made cars and trucks less expensive around the world and helps increase overseas earnings when they are repatriated into yen.
Japanese exporters have also been hit by a strong yen which makes their products more expensive overseas.
The factories mainly supply the Japanese market, but they are also a source of engines and parts for assembly plants overseas as well as some vehicles that are made only in Japan.
Nonetheless, Weill will from January fold Salomon Smith Barney's 400- person Japanese unit and all of Nikko's nearly 500-person corporate division, domestic and overseas, into newly formed Nikko Salomon Smith Barney.
The Democrats who now run congress have historically been friendlier to Japanese carmakers that invest in factories in the U.S. rather than export vehicles from overseas, because it means American factory jobs.
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