Europe-Japan Dynamics by Yoshiko Kurisaki

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

25 Mar. Fossile of pithecanthropus discovered for the first time in the east of Great Rift Valley, from the stratum of 3,5 million years old

An international research team, including scientists from Kyoto University, announced that they discovered the fossile of pithecanthropus for the first time in the stratum of 3,5 million years old in the from the huge valley, or so-called “Great Rift Valley“, that ran through the East Africa from the north to south.  It has been confirmed that the pithecanthropus lived in an area larger than it had been thought.

Comments: History has full of opportunities of innovative discoveries.

28 Mar. Artificial intelligence (AI) called “White Jack” supports medical diagnosis, announced Jichi Medical University

Jichi Medical University (Shimotsuke-shi, Tochigi-Ken) and five companies including the medical equipment vendors, such as Toshiba Medical Systems, announced that they developed a system that supports Doctors’ diagnosis using artificial intelligence (AI). With input of symptoms of a patient, the AI calculates and concludes names of possible diseases and their probability. The University plans to operate the system for examination from the coming fiscal new year that will start in April.

Comment: The system may help further development of online remote diagnosis.

29 Mar.  Remarkable rise by 30% of the price of “Table salt” for home use for the first time in the past 24 years, due to price increase of the raw materials and wrapping materials

The price of “Table salt” and “Cooking salt” for home use will be raised by about 30%  from the shipment of 1 April. It is the first rise since 1992. This is due to the increase of the procurement cost of the raw material imported from Mexico and remarkable rise of the product wrapping.

Comment: Doesn’t sound good as the salt is the basic food indispensable for everyday life.

30 Mar. Toshiba agreed with Midea Group (Chinese vendor) to sell its “White goods” branch at 53,700 million yen

Toshiba has agreed with Midea Group, a major Chinese household appliance vendor, to sell 80.1% of the stocks of the Toshiba lifestyle (Toshiba LS), a subsidiary of Toshiba that produces and sells so-called the “White Goods”, i.e. large household electrical appliances. The sale is at 53,700 million yen. Midea Group will take over employees and production sites of Toshiba LS, and continue the production using the Toshiba brand.

Comment: It appears that Toshiba is in the process of shaping up of its group management as a whole.

31 Mar. Enforcement of the law on the promotion of alleviation of discrimination on the grounds of disability to start on 1 April, 700 people marched in Hibiya Park, Tokyo

People with disabilities and their supporters marched in Tokyo in order to make it widely known that the law on the promotion of alleviation of discrimination on the grounds of disability will be enforced from 1 April.

Comment: The law is a significant step forward for awareness raising and alleviation of one of the major discriminations, that still deeply lasts in society.

• 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.

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

17 Mar. “What’s your dream after the 3.11?”, asked a 24 years old to the victims of the East Japan Earthquake and published it in Kyoto

“What is your dream that started after the great earthquake disaster?” — A publishing company, I Ro Ha Publishing in Kyoto, has published a book that pulled together the answers of this question by 30 people, that included men and women of 6 to 87 year-old, titled “Dream arisen from 3.11” (1,900 yen, tax-excluded). Ms HIkari Suenaga, 24 years old, who did interviews and authored the book said that she had become to think, during the interviews that lasted for two years, of the true values of the project.

Comment: The dream has power to make us sad up again and keep moving on.

18 Mar. 365 suicide last year due to troubles of fatigue caused by care of the elders and children, reported by Cabinet Office

The Cabinet Office announced the result of the analysis of suicide last year. While the number of the suicide was less than 25,000, which was the lowest in the past 18 years, there were changes in the reasons. Among the reasons, the number of “health problems” greatly decreased from the last year, whereas the number of “school issues” increased, and the number of “family issues” remained the same. It is remarkable that 365 cases in “the issue of family” were “fatigue caused by care or nursing of family” and “a trouble of child care”.

Comment: The number of the “fatigue caused by care or nursing of family” might increase as the aging of the population progresses.

21 Mar. The cherry blossom bloomed in Tokyo, five days earlier than usual, said the Meteorological Agency

The Meteorological Agency announced the blooming of the cherry blossom in Tokyo today. It is five days earlier than average date of 26 March, and two days earlier than last year.

Comment: The spring has come for the Japanese! It is worrisome that the dates are earlier and earlier, thou. Is it due to global warming?

22 Mar.　Agency for Cultural Affairs to move to Kyoto in a few years, according to a plan by the Government 

The Headquarter for Overcoming Populatiton Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan, organised by the Japanese Government, has completed the basic policy regarding the move of the government offices to the regions outside Tokyo. The entire Agency for Cultural Affairs will mov to Kyoto on a few years. The Headquarter will verify feasibility by the end of August plans to move the Consumer Affairs Agency to Tokushima, and the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, to Wakayama. The Headquarter will also determined a full-scale or partial move of 50 organizations of the 23 agencies for training and research. Stronger coordination with local governments are also included in the policy.

Comments: It is a drastic plan if fully implemented. A key factor for success is to distribute the power of decision-making supported by budget to those government agencies and organizations so that they do not have to heavily rely on Tokyo for their management and activities.

23 Mar. First breakthrough of Kansai Airport, over 1 million foreign passengers in February

New Kansai International Airport Company, Ltd. announced that the number of foreign passengers of the airport increased to be 1.03 million in February, 1.5 times increase on year-to-year. It was the first time for the airport to have more than 1 million foreign passengers in one month, exceeding the highest monthly number of 0.98 million recorded in August 2015. The airport company thinks it because of the increase of visitors to Japan during the Lunar New Years holidays (the Lunar New Year was 8 February this year).

Comment: An ever increasing volume of Chinese tourist is an engine of the present development of the tourism in Japan.

24 Mar. International exhibition of the drone participated by 118 vendors, Makuhari Messe

“Japan drone 2016″,  Japan’s 1st InternationalCommercial UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) exhibition started at Makuhari Messe of Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi on 24 March. There are 118 vendors. They announced the new products and utilization examples. The exhibition will be held until 26th.

Comment: There are a wide variety of usage of drones for useful purposes. Let’s us the prosperous technology for citizens’ benefits.

• 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.

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

10 Mar. Toyota to promote men’s child-care leave

The labour union and management of Toyota Motor Corporation agreed to examine the concrete measures by the next spring to facilitate male employees to take a child-care leave. The rate of employees taking the child-care leave is lower in the manufacturing industry than other industries. A ripple effect by Toyota’s action is expected over other companies in the manufacturing sector.

Comments: Creating rules for the child-care leave by men employees would create favorable environment for employees to take the leave. It must be seen how much the number of men employees taking the leave will increase in practice. I’d expect the measures would change perception of male managers and employees on men’s child-care leave.

11 Mar.　Mourning and praying in disaster areas, the Fifth Anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake

There were the search of the missing person and a memorial event in areas on the Pacific coast of the Tohoku Region (North-East region of Japan) affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Many people visited memorial monuments and graveyards for the mourning of the dead families, friends and colleagues.

Comment: The Japanese may not forget the 11 March.

14 Mar. Sony, shown to the public wearable device under development, an unusual trial to collect ideas of usage

Sony has shown to the public wearable device under development at “South by Southwest” (SXSW) being held in Austin, Texas, the US. It is the first trial for the company to collect voice from consumers as inputs to the ongoing development by releasing the device at its early stage of development.

Comments: This action by Sony is a good example for a company to benefit from collective thinking process in the development of new products.

15 Mar. From the wind, hydrogen to a fuel cell, experiment by Toyota, etc. to cut CO2

Toyota Motor Corporation, Kanagawa Prefecture, etc. announced that they will undertake  a demonstration experiment to move a fuel cell forklift in warehouses powered by the electricity generated by hydrogen created by the wind-generated electricity. The system is expected to cut the carbon dioxide (CO2) generated in all the steps by a conventional engine by 80% in comparison to existing forklift.

Comments: If successfully developed, this system may become an excellent alternative to the energy generated by the fossil fuel.

16 Mar. Air cleaner that catch mosquitoes, washing machine that does not damage Sally … “Made in Japan” adjusting to local needs

An increasing number of Japanese companies are developing localized products in Asian markets, which respond to unique customs and needs. Background of this move is a strong competition with Korea and other countries over growing and prosperous Asian economies. These products signal a major change in market strategy of Japanese companies to catch consumer needs in Asia, switching from the appeal of the high quality of “Made in Japan” brand.

Comments: These products are the proof that a company can produce products welcomed by consumers if they feed consumer needs into product development.

• 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.

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

3 Mar.  Is your account all right? Illegal remittance via Internet banking about 3’000 million yen last year

The National Police Agency (NPA) announced that in 2015 the amount of damage of illegal money transfer by Internet banking increased by approximately 163 million yen to reach approximately 3,073 million yen, the worst-ever. The number of cases decreased by 381 to be 1,495 cases from the last year. The NPA said that the basic security measures, such as changing password at every use, were not taken for 70% of the cases.

Comments: One must be careful not to be cheated by stealers in a cypher system.

4 Mar. Identifying the position of horse mackerel by analyzing its DNA in the seawater, Maizuru Bay

A group of researchers of Kobe University or Hokkaido University, etc. successfully estimated the volume of the horse mackerel by analyzing its DNA in the seawater, in the Maizuru Bay, Kyoto. This method allows to identify the distributions of the fish easier than by capturing it. Its application to fishery is also expected. One of the features of this method is to identify the fish class, which the fish finder cannot do.

Comments: What a power of science! I didn’t know that the fish DNA is in the seawater.

7 Mar.  School to become a sushi chef is popular, people aiming at working abroad

The course of a cooking school which trains a sushi chef is popular. Sushi booming worldwide, many people want to work abroad as a sushi chef or change profession to be a sushi chef. One may graduate from the course to be the chef in two months in a short course.  An information session of a new Osaka branch of “Tokyo Sushi Academy” to be open in May was attended by fourteen interested people, aged from the 20th to 50th. A half of them wanted to work abroad, and asked questions regarding a job abroad, such as good countries to work as a sushi chef.

It is has been tradition in Japan that one is trained by an experienced sushi craftsman to be a sushi chef. Could a cooking school be a new place for personnel training?

Comments: A school program to train sushi chefs may signal a beginning of a new and maybe democratic method to grow sushi-making people.  An increasing demand for sushi worldwide is providing new ways to become a sushi chef, which has traditionally been limited.

8 Mar.  Upward revision of real GDP in Japan,  1.1 % decrease in the fourth-quarter 2015

According to the second breaking news announced by the Cabinet Office, a real growth rate of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the fourth-quarter excluding influence of the fluctuation of commodity price decreased by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2015 (October to December) from the previous quarter. This figure is equivalent of the annual GDP decrease by 1.1 %, which is an upward revision of the first breaking news released in February, that predicted the decrease by 1.4 %. This figure however does not change the negative economic growth for the first time in two quarters, confirming standstill of the economy.

Comments: The Japanese economy is still struggling.

9 Mar. Visualizing “Eyes” of 950 millions of witnesses, utilization of SNS for disaster prevention making progress

An increasing number of attempts are being made to utilize “the big data” and information exchanged by causal network systems (SNS) for disaster prevention. For example, “Weather news”, a company specialised in the weather information, released “Typhoon watcher” (http://typhoon.mapping.jp), which immediately collects, synthesis and visualize the information on what is going on on the ground because of a typhoon provided by the Weather watcher members.

Comment: It is a smart use of information to collect thousands of thousands of pieces of information to build a global landscape to help people in disaster risks.

• 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.

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.

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

18 Feb.  No more loss of food, Yahoo Auction Japan to sell leftover food at discount price

Yahoo Japan announced that the company will start selling the food close to the limit of the date of the sale or out of the season, using its auction site “Yahuoku!”. The company will sell the food at the discount price by 30 to 90% , thus contributing to reduce the volume of the loss of food. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries estimates the annual food loss would be five to eight million tons in Japan.

Comment: This business is possible thanks to very efficient delivery systems all over Japan. Otherwise, it could be a risky business, as Yahoo can’t deliver the food that has gone over the limit of the sales date.

19 Feb.   Daytime flights between Haneda and NYC will start, while reduced services from Narita anticipated

The Governments of Japan and the US agreed to increase the flights from Haneda to the US on 18 February. The agreement included permission of daytime flights (departing and arriving between 6:00 and 23:00) . Consequently, it is expected that daytime flights between Haneda and the East Coast of the US, namely NYC, will start from the autumn. While this will improve convenience of business passengers, decrease of services from Narita, another major international airport serving to Tokyo, is anticipated.

Comment: It is natural that demand to improve convenience of Haneda Airport is high, due to  a good access to downtown Tokyo. Airports are in competition with each other, domestically and internationally. Narita airport needs strategy to improve its importance in the airport systems in all over East Asia.

22 Feb.  Learning English at Elementary School, during the break or summer holidays?, according to MEXT

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT) released examples to include English in the school calendar. This is to demonstrate possible ways for elementary schools to include two school hours of English (one school hour is 45 minutes) every week. English will become compulsory for the 5th and 6th grade schoolchildren from 2020.

Comment: While it’s good to start learning English from the elementary school, a major problem is that school calendar is already full due to other compulsory subjects. Revisiting of the necessity of present volume of  existing subjects may be needed.

23 Feb.  Spike for prosthetic legs developed by a manufacturer jointly with Mizuno, the first Made in Japan

Imasen Engineering Corporation (http://www.imasengiken.co.jp/en/index.html), a manufacturer specialised in prosthetic legs (Kakamigahara-shi, Gifu), has developed spikes that may be attached to prosthetic legs, jointly with Mizuno Corporation (sports equipment and sportswear company, of Osaka). The spikes may be attached to the prosthetic legs manufacturer by other companies. Imagine also developed a special cover for the spike so that the athletes may not be obliged to remove the spike to walk in areas where spikes are prohibited, such as toilets in arenas. The company aims that the spikes will be adopted at the forthcoming Paralympic in Rio de Janeiro.

The spike has been developed upon advice by Mr. Atsuhi Yamamoto, a silver medalist of the long jump at Beijing Paralympic in 2008.

Comment: The core competence of Imasen is mechatronics to support human beings. For example, its group company produces various device for automobile seats. It is an excellent example that a good technology helps the handicapped, when user’s experience is fully taken into account.

24 Feb.　The US, UK and French Ministers of Foreign Affairs, visiting the Peace Memorial Park, Hiroshima

The ministers of Foreign Affairs of the countries that own nuclear weapons, the US, the UK and France, would be visiting the Peace Memorial Park located in Hiroshima city. They are visiting Hiroshima to attend the meeting for Ministers of Foreign Affairs to be held prior to the G7 Ise Shima Summit. If the plan comes true, it will be the first visit by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the countries that own nuclear weapons.

Comment: It is always good for anyone to see in reality the consequences of the nuclear weapons on people and the city.

• 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.

Interested in what’s inside Japan?

Want to know more about Japan?

Want to know more than a traveler?

Wish to understand the values behind the polite behavior of people and beauty of the arts in Japan?

Want to understand the Japanese customers?

If you say, “YES” to one of the questions above, the course is for you!

Let’s go into Japan with interesting videos, exercise of Origami and discussion with a senior Japanese expert!

Who should attend?

• People who said “YES!” to any one of the questions above.

Your benefits 

• To learn much about the Japanese society and way of thinking with fun!
• To have deeper insights of Japanese culture, while enjoying interaction with other participants and a senior Japanese expert
• To better manage business with the Japanese
• To drive knowledge acquired at the course to action, adjusted to individual work and issues with Japan.

Course contents

• Ice breaking exercise
• Japanese values
• Let’s experience — Origami exercise
• Five clues of Japanese communication
• From Knowledge to practice

Date & Time: Two sessions from 18:30 to 20:00

• April course: Wed. 20 and 27 April, 2016
• June course: Wed. 15 and 22, June, 2016

Fee CHF 120 (If one session only, CHF 80)

BER’s students will enjoy 10% discount.

Course language —  English with French translation

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