To non-Japanese eyes, the fact that sokaiyya, gangsters, are an accepted part of the business landscape, many are instantly recognizable by a regrettable deficiency of digits on their hands – usually just a little finger is missing – their headquarters buildings are clearly marked, yet the authorities do nothing about them is totally bemusing but tomorrow, no fewer than 2,000 companies are holding their annual meetings, on the herd concept that even if there are lions about, the larger the herd, the better each individual’s chances of survival, because there are only about 1,000 sokaiyya in the business of disrupting annual meetings if they are not (illegally) paid off, but it turns out that there is an alternative. Sokaiyya either don’t like giving up their weekends, or are inhibited about indulging in threatening behaviour when there are women and children about, but according to the Associated Press, games developer Square Co Ltd managed to avoid their malign attentions by holdi ng its annual meeting on a Sunday and invited shareholders to bring their children, who got to play the new games.
When it comes to South-East Asia, it’s important to distinguish be-tween tigers and dragons: according to Chua TockLing, senior vice-president and general manager of Computer Associates Asia Inc, the four dragons are Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, and all the rest are tigers, although from this distance, Malaysia and Thailand look to be fast metamorphosing out of the tiger phase and begin to look distinctly dragonish.
Irish computer services company Reflex Ltd is to open its first in a chain of Internet cafes, thanks to shareholder approval raising 1m British pounds to fund the venture. Reflex is to pay 150,000 pounds for Hands On Ltd, a British company that has tried to develop the chain. Hands On has yet to trade and its only assets are a nominal cash holding and its business plan for the development of the cafe chain. Hands On has already identified four sites for its cafes and hopes to open its first outlet in London in the coming weeks.
