The start-up culture found in Tel Aviv boasts Barack Obama among its admirers. Indeed, the Israeli city's entrepreneurial spirit and hi-tech expertise has had multinational companies from all over the world sitting up and taking notice, as John West discovers. 

Fashion brand Uniqlo, part of Fast Retailing, the world's fourth largest retail holding company, has expanded rapidly in recent decades, both at home and abroad. It is a success story – with highs as well as lows – that CEO Tadashi Yanai is urging the Japanese government to learn from.  

From humble beginnings, SoftBank has evolved into Japan’s leading telecommunications and internet corporation. John West looks at how the company’s chairman and CEO, Masayoshi Son, is now looking to make this success global.

Japan has a long history of investing in Canada, a trend that is showing no sign of slowing thanks in no small part to recent activity from companies such as Honda, Japan Petroleum Exploration and Muji.

As Japan embarks upon the task of bringing its corporate governance structure up to international standards, John West reports on the pressures that caused the country's government to finally tackle this historic problem, and looks at the likelihood of the proposed reforms coming into fruition.

While the political relationship between China and Japan remains tense, Chinese FDI into Japan has been picking up pace, with investors keen to take advantage of economic synergies between the two countries.

Prime minister Shinzo Abe says he wants to double the level of FDI into Japan, but for now the country remains the ‘most closed investment market in the developed world’, according to one former EU trade commissioner. How can Japan boost its inbound investment appeal?