Doing business in Japan used to be about hiding your emotions. But almost overnight a substantial economy has grown up around tutoring executive Japan to perfect flawless deal closing grins.

‘Smiling schools’ have begun training executives on how to make their grins as convincing as possible and a book on the careful use of smiling has become a bestseller. This corporate obsession with smiling has fuelled the development of a new generation of digital cameras. Both Sony and Olympus are releasing models with smile recognising and enhancing software. Furthermore Omron, a medical devices company is developing a face scanning technology called ‘Okao Vision’ to measure not just the physical extent of a smile, but its perceived quality. The project’s supervisor Yoshi Kadokawa explains the demand for this technology. Shops, hotels and restaurants are all keen to acquire it, so as to train their staff in improving the quality of their smiles. But can a fake smile ever be a winning one?

(Via The Times)