Bike for Japan
URL:http://bikesforjapan.org

We now moved to a nice and cozy building with a patio, full of ivy and flowers. Please kindly change your contact information of our Tokyo Office to the following address and numbers. 308 Hanawa Building, 1-17-11 Otowa, Bunkyo, Tokyo 112-0013
TEL: 81-3-5981-9271, FAX: 81-3-5981-9276,

Alba Partners is aligned with Arc Media Inc., a New York based global consulting firm. Alba helps Arc's marketing in Japan along with providing on-going client relations to ensure client's satisfaction and deliverables. Arc Media is not a typical consulting firm. It bridges challenges that clients face over international business matters and its solutions. Arc Media provides local marketing insights by bringing in its global network of experts, Power MBA (R) Global network. The company's services include opinion leader interviews (Experts on Demand), in-depth strategic &market research and entry consulting. Arc Media has worked various projects in the countries including Japan, China, Russia, India, South East Asia, EU, Eastern Europe, Middle East and the United States. URL:http://www.arcmedia.net/ Please contact us for research samples.

I am pleased to announce that effective June 1, 2009, Nihon Equity Research (NER) was merged into Alba Partners. NER's managing partners, Chako Ando and Bob Schneider, join us as Principal and Advisor, respectively. Ms. Ando has over 10 years of investment banking and capital markets experience. She was a VP in the M&A department of Daiwa America; manager of a venture capital investment fund for the Industrial Bank of Japan; and a VP of credit control with Sumitomo Bank Capital Markets. At both Daiwa and Sumitomo, she advised and analyzed companies in a wide variety of industries, including IT, health services, food, consumer goods, manufacturing, materials, and financial services. A Tokyo native, Ms. Ando is a CFA charterholder and holds an MBA from Stanford with a concentration in finance. Mr. Schneider has over 25 years' experience as a business writer. He was Senior Editor and Supervisory Analyst at Morgan Stanley Japan and a Senior Writer for the Tokyo-based IR firm AIA. He is currently editor of Data Interactive, the Hitachi XBRL blog. Mr. Schneider is an (inactive) CPA in the State of New York and holds an MBA from Columbia with a major in accounting. Chako's analytical talent and Bob's writing skills will be valuable assets as we work to provide clients with top-quality research that's easy to absorb. I am delighted they are joining our firm, and I look forward to working with them. Aska Takeuchi Founder and CEO