presented by
Mr Fabrice Lelouvier, commercial attache, French Embassy, Tokyo and
Mr Christophe Grignon, commercial consul, French Consulate, Osaka

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DATE & TIME:  Monday 15 May 2000, from 14h00 to 16h30,
LOCATION (tentative): 小ホール, Osaka International House, Osaka
2-6 Uehommachi, 8-chome, Tenno-ji-ku, Osaka 543-0001 JAPAN
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On-line MAP available at:   http://www.ih-osaka.or.jp/map/map.html
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Participation to the seminar is free of charge and registration is necessary
(registration at the bottom).


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Seminar: Japan.Com: between Myth and Reality


Outline
According to the Financial Times in its edition of March 3rd (retranscript)
signs of Japan.Com are everywhere: subway trains filled with
cyber-advertising, “Shibuya girls” typing E-mails at light speed on their
pocket boards, or the frantic success of mobile internet access services
such as Imode, EZweb,... On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance has just
published a proposal that considers taxing internet transactions in Japan,
launching vehement protests from free-internet zealots and smiles from
professionals who know the difficulty of implementing such a taxation
measure. Old Japan is looking at New Japan, in other terms: Japan.Inc is
watching Japan.Com.　It is difficult to foresee the outcome of this
confrontation, but sooner or later, the Internet will reshape some aspects
of the retail service in
Japan.

Any company doing business here will have to keep an eye on the potential of
the internet in order to grab a piece of the cake. As in so many other
fields, e-commerce does not develop in the same way in Japan as it does in
Western countries. Taking a close look at the experience of European
e-companies in Japan as well as "hot" Japanese web-sites is therefore
interesting and definitely a pre-requisite for all would-be e-merchants.

The seminar presentation will be divided in two parts. First, we will
present the latest developments of the internet industry in Japan. Second,
we will look more specifically at the various ways European Businesses based
in Japan can leverage the internet in order to boost (or at least secure)
their
market penetration.


the Speakers:


Mr Fabrice LELOUVIER currently works as Commercial Attache at the French
Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, and specializes in the fields of IT and Electronics
industries. He holds a mechanic engineering degree from the National
Institute for Applied Sciences (INSA, Lyon). Mr Lelouvier speaks 4 european
languages and will enter the 2000/2001 MBA program of the Theseus
Institute.

Mr Christophe GRIGNON works as Commercial Consul, in charge of the French
Trade Commission for Western Japan, based in Osaka. He holds an MBA in
Finance (EM Lyon), an M.Sc. in Economics (Paris Univ.) and an M.A. in
Japanese Language (Paris Univ.). Before joining the French Trade Commission
he worked as a senior analyst at Fuji Bank's Paris Branch, specializing in
industrial and services-related operations.


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Participation is free of charge. The seminar will be conducted in English
only. An acknowledgment of registration (maps upon request!) will be sent to
registered participants.
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