Month: May 2017

Fresh & hot from Japan, from 20 to 26 May 2017

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20 May　Shogi Maestro Amahiko SATO defeated by AI

The Shoji Maestro Amahiko SATO was defeated by PONANZA,  artificial intelligence (AI) of Shogi, at the second match between the human Shogi maestro and AI held in  Himeji-jo Castle of Himeji-shi, Hyogo. This win has became the two successive victories of PONANZA, which marked the defeat of the human maestro who was the top of the Shogi world.

Comments: It is endless in what AI could do.

23 May Japanese LCC, Peach Aviation to introduce bit coins, aiming at more passengers visiting Japan

A Japanese Low Cost Carrier (LCC) Peach Aviation will enable purchasing airline tickets by a virtual currency bit coin  within this year. While an increasing number of retail stores and restaurants have begun introducing it as a means of payment in Japan, this is the first case among major means of transportation. Peach Aviation is expecting the use by overseas visitors to Japan by facilitating the payment.

Comments: It’s a marketing strategy to use bit coins to facilitate visitors from China.  Market volume counts.

24 May Pushing market development of pharmaceutical companies in the newly developing economies, a new organization to be established on the basis of public and private sectors partnership

The Japanese Government is establishing an organization in cooperation with the private sectors to push forward the Japanese pharmaceutical companies in the rising economies. The organization may build a factory in host countries so that participating companies may use it. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who till be the general manager of the organization is going to announce the plan in the strategic promotion office of the health and medical sectors to be open in June.

Comments: Would the pharmaceutical sector need that much hands-on support by the Government?

25 May Discovered possible therapeutic drug of the intractable disease ALS, Univ. of Kyoto by using induced pluripotent stem cells

A research team of Professor Haruhisa Inoue (neurology) of University of Kyoto discovered the compound that may be a candidate of the therapeutic drug using the induced pluripotent stem cells made from the skin of a patient of the intractable disease “amyotrophic lateral sclerosis” (ALS) that causes symptoms of muscle weakness.  It was confirmed by experiment using mice that the compound works to suppress the progress of illness.

Comments: Good news!

26 May Orix to sell an electricity subsidiary, Kansai Electric Power tenders a bid for sale

Prix is selling is subsidiary, Orix Electricity (Tokyo) that undertakes a mass sales of the electricity apartments. Prix is going to decide the sale by a bid from June to August.  Electricity majors, such as  Kansai Electric Power, and city gas majors are examining participation.

Comments: Does this indicate a failure of liberalization of the power supply?

  • 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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Fresh & hot from Japan, from 18 to 19 May 2017

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18 May How about a cup of coffee before taking Hankyu train? Nestlé Japan to install more coffee stands in railway stations

Nestlé Japan and Hanky Railway Corp. will build more “Nescafé stand”, which they originally built in the five stations of Hankyu line, including Tsukaguchi station, last year. The “Nescafé stand” sold more than 500,000 cups of coffee in the past five months, that had been expectations. The companies will build the stand in seven more stations from the end of May onwards.

Comments: Why there were not many coffee stand in the commuter railway stations? It is a good marketing!

ネスレ駅ナカショップ

19 May Costs of Tokyo Olympic Games and Paralympics to be paid by Tokyo Metropolitan, estimated to be max. 900 billion yen

Concerning the costs of Tokyo Olympic Games and Paralympics in 2020, it was revealed that Tokyo Metropolitan experimentally calculated the expense to be maximum 900 Billion yen out of the estimated total costs of  1,600  to 1,800 Billion yen. Tokyo Metropolitan expects in this calculation those local governments which do not have Olympic venues to bear 40 Billion yen as costs for guarding, etc.

Comments: Who pays what is still controversial.

  • 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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Fresh & hot from Japan, from 8 to 12 May 2017

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8 May LIXIL returned the best sales performance, thanks to a solid shower toilet selling well in China

The net income of the settlement of accounts (international accounting standards) of a house equipment major, LIXIL Group, recorded the highest gain of 42,500 million yen for March, 2017 period (cf. a deficit of 25,600 million yen in 2016).  This was due to results of cost cutting and good sales performance of overseas restroom business including China.

Comments: This news indicates consumer interests in China have turned to the improvement of living conditions.

9 May You may be a sales person even above 70 years old, Daiwa Securities to lift the age limit of reemployment

Securities major Daiwa Securities Group Inc. decided to lift the age limit of the reemployment of the sales job, which presently is 70 years old. It is intended to reinforce sales force by utilizing abundant experience of the veteran work force.

Comments: Good not to eliminate resources because of the age, but what will be their payment? A major problem of the present Japanese reemployment after the legal retirement age is a sharp decrease of wages even for the same job.

10 May　Film for tablets that may not be broken, invented by RIKEN TECHNOS Corp.

A plastic film maker, RIKEN TECHNOS CORPORATION, returned a record high operating income of 5,800 million yen for March 2017, up by 15.3% from the previous year.  While the main product was a vinyl  chloride material for automobiles, the company developed a plastic film which was hard to be broken for the screens of tablet terminals, anticipating that the number of cars produced in Japan may not grow any more.

Comments: From core-competence, taking into account the digital markets, innovation is born.

12 May Search by a smartphone application of strolling person due to dementia, the first field trial in Aichi-ken

A trial to look for an elderly person strolling around because of dementia using an application of smartphone started. Those who look for such person may send some information of the missing person such as his/her characteristics to  the smartphones of the cooperators, thus expand a search network to the entire region. The first field experiment in Japan took place in Kasuga-shi, Aichi-ken in April.

Comments: A key to success may be to have a large number of people who install and pay attention to such an application, or social awareness raiding.

  • 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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Fresh & hot from Japan, from 1 to 5 May, 2017

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1 May On May day, workers demonstrated advocating prevention of long working hours and the death from overwork

A number of meetings and the demonstrations of workers were held in Osaka-shi on 1st of the May Day. Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO) organised a meeting, in which 37,000 people participated in the Osaka Castle Park, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, and appealed to the public,  “Stop long working hours” or “Stop the death from overwork”. 

Comments: Too much work that may lead to the death is a major problem for workers in Japan, rather than a job itself, inlike many other countries suffering from economic downturn.

2 May 93% said “Uneasy” on national security, according to opinion polls by The Asahi Shimbun

The latest public opinion poll (by post mail) of the Asahi Shimbun (a Japanese major news paper) asked opinions on national security in connection with the constitution of Japan. With regard to the level of uneasiness in recent security environment around Japan, the sum of those who responded “very much” and “To some extent” added up to 93%. Regarding the overseas activity of the Self-Defense Forces, the majority responded “Good”,  thus the status quo was preferred.

Comments: The present feeling of the Japanese is “uneasy” looking at security status around the country.

5 May Ginza now a fierce battle field of watches,  “I’ve come to Japan to visit here” said a foreign visitor

Japanese major watch makes are opening their own shops for direct sale one after another in Ginza, the high-street in Tokyo. This is because Ginza has become a fierce battle field of watches incomparable in the world as a consequence of concentration in a small area of shops of international high quality watch makers.

According to a watch specialist, “Ginza is a crossroads of major watch brands of the world. Famous brands gather within a radius of 1 kilometer and one can look around every brand in a short time. The time efficiency is the number one in the world.”

Comments: Japanese shops has largely been inward looking, not expecting to handle foreign currencies or discussing with customers in English, let alone other languages. Hope this change in Ginza and many other similar ones in major cities in Japan will make the retail business outward looking.

銀座wako02

  • 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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