Fresh & hot from Japan, from 6 to 10 February, 2016

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

6 Feb. Children caught by the Internet for a long time tend to be irritated, while the confidence in studying decreasing

Those children who spend hours over the Internet via smart phones, etc. tend to be irritated all the time while their level of confidence in studying decreasing —  found by a survey by Kinki block of Association of Parents and Teachers (PTA) and researchers. A researcher involved said, “The situation is too serious to ignore. The adults must be well aware of the net-dependency of children.”

Comments: it is serious and the same may be true to the adults, including ourselves.

7 Feb. Memory is up after ten minutes’ exercise? Maybe thanks to activation of the brain function

Soon after having an exercise for ten minutes of the level of jogging, one’s short-term memory improves, according to a report of a study undertaken by a team of Tsukuba University, Japan, and the University of California, the US. The team found that results were better for those who had dome some exercise then whose who rested, in an experiment of the correctness of memory of an object seen in advance. The study team says that the function of the brain might be activated by the exercise.

Comments: Good news for joggers and those who regularly do some exercise.

8 Feb. Heart rate measurable just by wearing it, the experiment start a Tank-top model 

Fujita Health University, Toray, NTT, NTT DOCOMO announced that they will start a demonstration experiment of “hitoe”, the cloth by  which one could measure a heart rate merely by wearing it like the underwear. The cloth will be used to monitor a heart rate and various activities of a patient in a hospital. It is intended to allow efficient rehabilitation exercise to enable the early recovery, and also to utilize the cloth in the remote monitoring service after leaving the hospital. An expected timing of market release is after three years.

Comments: Innovation take place where formerly completely different sectors and technologies meet. Thus another proof that diversity gives rise to innovation.

hitoe_toray

9 Feb. Where is an empty toilet room? You find it over the net, no need to hurry in vain

Arriving at the office in the morning to find all the toilet rooms occupied! Dash to another floor to food them occupied again — To resolve such a problem development of the systems  which allows us to check  toilet rooms by  PCs is making progress. A by-product of such system is that the collected data may be used for health check. This may signal the arrival of “The IoT (Internet of Toilet)”.

Comments: Use of the data collected from the usage status of toilets is potentially interesting, though if and how much a company may collect employee’s health data is debatable.

10 Feb. Over ten thousand applications for the refugee status in Japan in 2016, while only 28 were admitted

The number of applications for the recognition of refugee status in Japan was 10,901 in 2016 (3,315 increase compared to the previous year) , exceeding  10,000  for the first time, according to the preliminary figure released by the Ministry of Justice. On the other hand, only 28 people were recognized as refugees  (one increase as compared to the number in 2015). In addition, the Ministry admitted the resident status to 97 people  (increase by 18 year-on-year) because of “humanitarian consideration”. The government continues a severe attitude for recognition of refugee status.

Comments: Severeness of the Japanese Government to the allocations of the refugee status has been one of the areas where Japan is behind the rich countries.

  • 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.

Fresh & Hot from Japan, 16 to 20 January 2017

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16 Jan. JAXA failed to launch a small size rocket, causes to be investigated

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on the 15th that it had failed launching of the small rocket which is the world’s smallest of the class created upon improvement of the rocket for atmospheric observation. JAXA said that it had canceled the ignition of the second rocket planned 180 seconds later of the launch, because JAXA couldn’t receive the data from the rocket after the launch from the Uchinoura outer space observatory locates in Kimotsuki-cho, Kagoshima-ken. The cause of the failure is not known at present and the agency will investigate it in detail.

Comments: Failure is always a means of leaning.

17 Jan. Slight increase of rate of women general managers to be 4.1% of government officials

The Cabinet Office announced the ratio of woman administrator of public and private sectors. Regarding the national government officials,  23.9% of the section manager of the Ministries, 9.4% of the assistant manager of the Ministries and general manager of local organizations, 4.1% of  department managers of the Ministries and 3.5% of those higher than deliberation official grade were women. <these figures were lower by 1.5-6.1 points compared to the aimed figure of 2020.

Comments: Japan is still behind of the world in utilizing resources of women workforce.

18 Jan. Relaying on robots for the care of the aged?, due to a serious labour shortage in the aged persons’ home

What kind of town is good if I spend the old age? The nature is rich, and convenient for shopping and above all a good medical and care services must be available — It was Kitakyushu-shi that shined in the first place in “the ranking of local cities where people  wanted to live after 50 years old”, according to a magazine for the senior published in summer last year.

Comments: Care requires emotional energy. Could robot replace human beings for that?

19 Jan. Supporting IT talented people, a foundation of Masayoshi Son started recruiting

“The Masayoshi Son endowment foundation” which President Masayoshi Son of the SOFTBANK group established by his own fund started recruitment of people whom the foundtati9on will support as the leaders of the next generation. Those eligible must be under  25 years old, may  in studying or returning benefits as a corporate manager. The foundation would support max. 100 people for their research, and study abroad and interchanging of each other.

Comments: Supporting one hundred people? wWhat a big idea it is!

20 Jan. Kirin to withdraw from Brazil, planning to sell its local subsidiary

A Japanese beer major Kirin Holdings Co., Ltdexamining the sale of the Brazilian subsidiary. An anticipated buyer is a Netherlands’ beer major Heineken. Kirin acquired a local major beer company six years agobut a deficit continues due to intensifying competition in local markets. Kirin is a withdrawing from Brazil.

Comments: Kirin will focus on Asia.

  • 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, 4 to 8 July 2016

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

4 Jul. Heat of 36.1 degrees hit Wakayama, “Be careful!” said Meteorological Agency

It became severely hot mainly on the Pacific side of Japan on the 4th, and temperature rose rapidly. The temperature rose above 35 degrees in several cities already in the morning. At noon, it recorded 36.1 degrees in in Shingu-shi, Wakayama, 35.9 degrees in Kawanehon-cho, Shizuoka, 35.4 degrees in Kamikitayama-mura, Nara, 34.5 degrees.  The tempereture rose to 34.3 degrees in Ozu-shi, Ehime, and 34.5 degrees in Hirakata-shi, Osaka.

Comments: Such an extraordinarily high temperature is scarcely. It may signal some disorder happening in our planet.

5 Jul. Glico ice cream extremely popular in Thailand, developing its ice-cream business in  Southeast Asia 

A major confectionery, Ezaki Glico (Osaka-shi) place emphasis on ice cream business in Southeast Asia. The company started selling its ice cream for the first time in Thailand for its overseas business in January and is beginning the sale and production within this year in Indonesia. Having the Glico brand popular abroad, the company will develop business in growing markets in Asia.

Comments: The Japanese food industry is also developing in Southeast Asia.

6 Jul. The 18 years old, getting the right to vote from the forthcoming election, the high school newspapers assert importance of continued interests

Newspaper clubs of high schools takes up as a subject of an article “the right to vote for the 18 years old”. Some reports results of a questionnaire survey to ask if one would go for a vote, and others analyses “political neutrality” for the school. Teachers expect those papers raise interests in the election of students of 18 years old, as high school papers are familiar media for them.

Comments: The high school papers provide good opportunities for the youngest voters to think of what is the voting bring for them.

7 Jul. Japanese Astronaut Onishi left for space trip for 4 months, space spaceship Soyuz placed on the orbit

The Russian spaceship Soyuz which Japanese Astronaut Takuya Onishi (40) and others boarded was launched at 7:36 a.m. on 7th July (Japan time 10:36 a.m.), from Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan. Onishi stays in the International Space Station (ISS) for approximately four months and undertake scientific experiments. He is the sixth Japanese astronaut who stays in the ISS for a long time and it is the seventh time for the Japanese to join in the ISS.

Comments: It is great that the space technologies are used for the advancement of the science.

8 Jul. Meiji Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Co. to extend retirement age to 65 years old, the first time among major life insurance companies

Meiji Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Co. decided to extend the retirement age of all full-time employees to 65 years old from 60 years old. The purpose is to utilize the resources of the expert staff. The company will implement the plan from April, 2019, after a labor and management discussion. This is the first case for major life insurance companies tto extend the retirement age of all full-time employees to 65 years old.

Comments: A number of other companies may follow this case, as companies must utilize resources of the employees with experience when population of younger generation is decreasing.

  • 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.