Letters to the editor.

Dear Editor,

I enjoyed reading the wide-ranging subject matter of the last J@pan Inc, particularly the article on Vietnam: a country which has fascinated me for the past two decades. For me, it is one of the most interesting countries in the Asian region, in terms of its history, culture and significant market potential.

During my time with Canon, I visited the massive printer factory in the Thang Long industrial zone near Hanoi and which, since its establishment in 2001, has been accounting for an ever-growing share of Canon's global printer production. Canon now has almost 5,000 employees in Vietnam and it is a very important part of Canon's cost-optimization strategy.

Although one or two steps behind the other Asian Tigers, Vietnam is indeed an attractive proposition vis-a-vis its Asian neighbors and, as the article mentioned, it is really only a matter of 'when' rather than 'if regarding Vietnam's emergence as a well-recognized and more prosperous Asian market.

Gordon Jones

Tokyo

Dear Editor,

I was interested to read your article on Japanese healthcare services in the January/February issue. While I have heard similar stories of difficulty to those interviewed in the article, my own experiences have been very good. I lived in Japan six years ago when my husband was working there. Our first child was born in a hospital in Tokyo and we were treated extremely well; I was impressed at the cleanliness of the hospital.

Some things were different to hospitals back home (the US) but on the whole, I think the experience was better because of the genuine care taken of us by the staff. I wonder if some foreigners mistake 'different' for worse or whether we were just lucky in that our child was born healthy, without complications. Either way, I wanted to put my good experience down for the record.

Sandra Haggistone

Boston, US