Japan is also very protectionistic country. Not easy to penetrate.

if you think japan consists of schoolgirl knickers vending machines you are going to fail quicker than you can say boo. Never seen one in the 8 years I've been here.

Doing business in Japan is about being open minded, using local knowledge (listening to expats that have been here a while) and being adaptive. If you go to Japan with a one size fits all corporate mantra you are going to be in the "lets bleed the naive foreigner before he hightails out" category.

Here's a suggestion for Nokia. Let me explain.

Why does Japan reject products from other countries that the rest of the world loves? On the other hand, why does the rest of the world love what Japan exports to them (i.e. Toyotas, Wiis, etc.)? Simple. Japan may be producing products that it doesn't like and exporting it to the rest of the world, knowing that they have a different kind of taste. 

Following the same (stupid) logic, other countries should make something they personally reject and sell it in Japan.

Now is that a great suggestion or what?