Isamu Nitta, a former Japanese diplomat in Sri Lanka and the United States, clearly enjoys setting out a map of the world and pointing out where Japanese strategic interests lie.
"This is a sea lane," he says, pointing from Saudi Arabia, around Sri Lanka, through Indonesia and to Japan. In his younger days, part of Nitta's job was to protect this oil route through solely diplomatic channels. "We cannot protect this route militarily. Diplomatic methods are the only way we are allowed."
Now, from his office on the 32nd floor of the Toshiba skyscraper in Tokyo's Minato Ward, Nitta is protecting Japan's interests again, but this time it's in software, not oil.