Understanding...

everywhere, you can see optimism and vibrancy, particularly since next year, Japan will be hosting the Summer Olympics.

In the last few years, Japan has almost quadrupled its tourist arrivals. From a few million just a few years ago, they are now targeting more than 20 million next year.

This tourism boom comes because of certain things that they did, the most important of all is its very developed infrastructure.

They also liberalized their visa requirements, and it is much easier to get one now. They offer a lot of incentives for tourists–from duty-free shopping (tourists immediately get a rebate of eight percent of the sales tax right in the store by presenting their passports), free Wifi in major public areas, and much lower charges on train rides.

It was in 1964 when Tokyo first hosted the Olympics, and it was the start of their post-war boom for the next 20 years. Significant during that time was the introduction of Japan’s bullet train to the world (the Shinkansen), which was seen as a major factor in growing the economy of Japan for the next 30 years.

This time, Japan is pulling all the stops to introduce the new bullet train (which can travel more than 400 kph), as well as driverless taxis in time for the Olympics.

However, we don’t have to wait till the Olympics to experience technology in Japan.

Just one example: we were in Uniqlo and GU (the famous Japan’s clothing stores that is now worldwide). When you go in, you are given a big basket, where you put items you want to buy. When it is time to pay, you can choose to have self-checkout. Just put the whole basket into a container that looks like a washing machine and it will just read the tags and show you what you have purchased and how much. If you are okay, then you just pay (either in cash or with a card). After that, you can pack the clothes yourself!

I’m sure the technology is not that difficult nowadays, but the reason it works for them, and maybe not in some cultures, is whether you can trust the people to be honest. In their case, they can, and that’s why they can do it.

Udenna Group denies links with Smartmaticbusinessman Dennis Uy’s Udenna Group flatly denied that it has invested into a consortium that provided the vote counting machines for the recently concluded mid-term elections.

The company said it does not have any links with the joint venture of multinational firm Smartmatic and its local partner Total Information Management (TIM).

“There is absolutely no truth to the allegations that the Udenna Group or its Chairman, Mr. Dennis Uy, purchased a local IT company called TIM,” Udenna Group spokesperson Adel Tamano said in a disclosure to the stock exchange, amid claims on social media that the company had bought TIM to manipulate the results of the elections.

Udenna has instructed its security and legal teams to investigate the persons linking the company to Smartmatictim, he added.

“We are considering filing civil and/or criminal cases, if necessary, to protect the reputation of Mr. Dennis Uy and the Udenna Group,” Tamano said.

Smartmatic is a Venezuelan-based technology firm, which has expertise in providing electronic vote counting machines in various countries worldwide.

Meanwhile, TIM is a company based in Makati City, which provides technology solutions to such sectors as banking, media, retail, IT services, telco, among others./pna