Fresh & hot from Japan, 25 Feb. to 2 Mar. 2016

Please enjoy fresh & hot news from Japan with comments by Europe-Japan Dynamics.

25 Feb. Passed patents of  “The 3rd generation” Organic Light Emitting Diode, Univ. of Kyushu to venture 

University of Kyushu announced that it passed a set of over 50 patents related to Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) developed by the University to Kyulux, a venture company in Fukuoka city. This will trigger the development of OLED for practical use, as all the patents are held by a commercial company, passed from the University that focuses on the basic research. Kulux aims at launching products using the “third generation” OLED, such as display of smart phones, in 2018.

Comment: The OLED developed by the University of Kyushu is innovative as its development costs would be less than 10% of the existing (the 2nd generation) OLED. It’s a  successful case of cooperation between a university and a company of innovative products.

26 Feb. Mazak building a new factory in Mie, catching an opportunity for a machine tool builder in the aerospace sector

Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, a leading Japanese machine tool builder known as Mazak outside Japan, announced that the company is building a new factors in Inabe-city, Mie-prefecture. Investing 20 billion Yen, the company is creating a production base for large machine tools to be used mainly in the aerospace sector. The new factory, the first one in the past ten years for Mazak, will be in operation in 2018. The aerospace sector is expected to grow rapidly in the Chubu Region (where Mie-prefecture is located), following the automobile sector. Muzak’s plan demonstrates that consequences of the development of the aerospace sector is being spilled over to the supporting industries.

Comment: There may be new opportunities for Swiss companies in the newly growing aerospace sector in the Chubu Region.

29 Feb.  Production index of manufacturing sector of January, up by 3.7% from the last month 

The preliminary figure of the production index of the manufacturing sector (2010 = 100, after seasonal adjustment) of January that Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced on 29th was 99.8 , that exceeded  the index of the last months by 3.7%. METI said, “It was still fluctuating”, regarding the overall assessment of the production.

Comment: The economic recovery still remains to be seen in Japan.

1 Mar.  “Taxi without driver”, field experiment started, to be put int practice by Tokyo Olympic

Field experiment of “Automatic driving taxi” started on the real road in Fujisawa-city, Kanazawa ken, for the first time in Japan. The automatic driving system is expected to provide means of transportation to the public with reduced mobility, against background of the aging of population and reduced services of public transport due to the population decrease. It is aimed to put the “Taxi without driver” into practice by 2020, the year of Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic.

Comments: It’s surprising!

2 Mar. “Wish to attend the delivery”, absence of chairman approved, Ustunomiya city

Mr. Kazuo Kumamoto (41 years old) , Liberal Democratic Party and the chairperson of the assembly of representatives of Utsunomiya city reported at the meeting of governing board of the assembly that he’d be absent from a plenary session on 4 March, due to the delivery of his wife. All the board members approved it. The board also concluded that they will change the present rules of the assembly to include “attendance to the delivery” in the same category as “the delivery”.  The present rules take “attendance to the delivery” as “the accident”.

Comment: It is still unusual to regard husbands’ attendance to the delivery as an official reason of absence from work in Japan. I hope more and more practices like this case will come and change the perception that men work outside home and don’t take care of family.

  • All the news items are picked up from “Asahi Digital”, and summarized and translated by Europe-Japan Dynamics. The articles are not an official translation by the Asahi Newspaper.

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