Japanese pop culture as a business

It's not every day that an interview subject for the FinanceAsia Japan Supplement turns up wearing a cute blue and white maid's outfit. The hemline is easily high enough to reveal a pair of long, stocking-clad legs. As I greet Jane Fong, CEO and founder of GIJane, in the UDX Building of the Akihabara district, I notice that there are plenty of other maids about. And if Fong has her way, maids could be displaying their charms in cities from Taipei to San Francisco, as well as in their Tokyo heartland. However, Fong explains that what she represents is not just about maids -- it's about the whole gamut of the extraordinarily...