Fresh & Hot from Japan, 10 to 14 October 2016

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

10 Oct. Abe Administration positive to the Osaka World Exposition, as an economic measure after the Tokyo Olympic Games

The Abe Administration began examination with a positive spirit possibility of an international exposition that Osaka Prefecture aims at organizing in 2025. The Administration expects economic effects of a large event after the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. The prefecture is going to show the basic design of the international exposition to the government at the end of October. There are many problems are left to be resolved, such as a large expense needed for the exposition.

Comments: Why does Japanese government always think of physical construction projects as economic incentives? There are many other essential problems to attack in the economy.

11 Oct. Decline of explosive buying, surplus of Japan’s travel balance declined

According to the international trade balance (breaking news) of August released by the Ministry of Finance on the 11th. of October,  “the current account balance” indicating income and expenditures arising from trade and the investment became the black of 2,000,800 million yen. The black figure increased by 375,900 million yen from the same month in the previous year. The amount of black figure of the travel balance, that increased since the beginning of the second Abe Administration reduced for the first time in the past 43 months.

Comments: This is due to reduced shopping by Chinese tourists.

12 Oct. Toyota and Suzuki, started discussion on a possible business cooperation

Toyota Motor Corporation and SUZUKI Motor Corporation announced that they had started examination of the business cooperation in those areas as environment and safety, information technology, etc.

Comments: The news is worth following as the dialogue may lead to an M&A of a significant consequences on the Japanese automotive industry.

13 Oct. Sharp to enter factory efficiency business, while not selling the office appliance business

Sharp has announced that the company will enter the business of “a smart factory” business, that would improve production efficiency by using the IoT technologies. For this business, Sharp plans to use its own technologies of multifunctional office equipment and know-how of Foxconn Technology Group (Taiwan), its new parent company. The company also plans to examine a plan to produce monitoring robots or a conveyance apparatus to export to the overseas markets led by China.

Comments: New business developments have started under a new management of Foxconn Technology Group.

14 Oct. CEO of GLM originated from the Univ. of Kyoto, “We’ll be known to professionals”

GLM, a venture company specialized in EV sorts vehicles born in the University of Kyoto, extended its world by its first exhibition in Paris Motor Show.

Comments: EV is giving birth to small automobile companies addressing to specialized markets. The technology may change the automobile industry structure in the near future.

glm-ev-sports-car
GLM – “Astounding pleasure”

 

  • 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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