TOKYO (Nikkei)--National and local authorities in Japan are ratcheting up testing designed to detect radioactive material in farm products and seafood, which continue to face restrictions abroad as the Fukushima nuclear crisis drags on.
About 40 of Japan's trading partners, including China, the European Union, the U.S. and South Korea, have blocked imports of some or all foods from Japan or are requiring proof of radiation tests. Targeted products include spinach and other vegetables, as well as milk and animal feed. Expanding testing has become crucial to dispelling misconceptions about the safety of Japanese products, particularly those from areas around the radiation-leaking Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Miyagi Prefecture plans to buy testing equipment and do its own radiation screenings of export-bound farm and fisheries products.
The city of Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, will commission a rigorous screening this month of apples and other local produce that may have picked up radioactive material. Aomori produced 90% of the 2009 crop of apple exports.
At the national level, the first supplementary budget for the current fiscal year includes subsidies for local authorities to buy testing equipment. The Fisheries Agency will widen the scope of its testing for radioactive material in seafood beyond the coast to offshore fisheries starting this summer as migratory fish like bonito and Pacific saury enter their peak season.
The Agriculture Ministry has set a target of 1 trillion yen for farm and fisheries exports in 2017, up from 492 billion yen in 2010. A major challenge in getting there will be erasing the stigma from the nuclear meltdown.
Source:The Nikkei June 4,2011
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Politicians must stop wasting time feuding and roll up their sleeves to solve quake-inflicted problems that could prompt businesses to leave Japan. More than two months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, companies are gradually gearing up to steam forward to make up for operational delays.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, right, and Cabinet members bow after surviving a no-confidence vote in the lower house on June 2.Renesas Electronics Corp. (6723) partially restarted its quake-hit chip plant Wednesday. Automakers are poised to get output back to normal levels. And overseas mergers and acquisitions by Japanese firms grew nearly sevenfold on a value basis during the two and a half months after the quake, according to Thomson Reuters Corp.
But while industry has moved on, lawmakers spent too much time feuding in the days leading up to the unsuccessful no-confidence motion against the Cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan. U.S. ratings agencies have noted that Japan's political system is not functioning well, and have assigned a negative outlook to their ratings of the nation's sovereign debt.
The government has a myriad of measures to take. These include reviewing energy policy, formulating reconstruction laws, reforming the tax system, stemming the yen's rise, and negotiating free trade agreements. Lawmakers know what they need to do, but they have been unable to make progress.
Preventing exodus
The problem clearly lies with Kan. Or more specifically, his inability to lead. But his rivals also appear unaware that this is not the time for playing politics. Ichiro Ozawa, a former leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, is plotting to oust Kan; and opposition parties are trying to split the ruling DPJ.
If politicians continue to delay the reconstruction drive and fail to take measures to spur economic growth, some companies may seek greener pastures abroad. Foreign governments -- central and local -- in places such as Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea and China are offering incentives to woo Japanese businesses, hoping they will transfer technology. Some Japanese trading houses and investment firms are playing a part in such efforts.
At a press conference to announce fiscal 2010 results, Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) Executive Vice President Satoshi Ozawa said he felt like telling President Akio Toyoda that maintaining plants in Japan has grown so difficult that a company is incapable of doing this alone. The comment carries great weight because it is normally difficult for an executive of Japan's largest exporter to talk about shifting production overseas.
Innovation
Toray Industries Inc. (3402) announced in January it will launch a plant in South Korea to mass-produce carbon fiber. Production of carbon fiber requires a large volume of electricity, so lower power bills in South Korea attracted the company, as well as increasing demand there. Aluminum makers moved plants overseas to tap cheaper electricity in the wake of the oil crises of the 1970s. Japan must not allow any of its industries to take the same step. Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer urged Japan to overcome its problems through innovation on a visit to Tokyo last month.
Japanese companies could make fabulous discoveries in their search for solutions to such questions as: What kind of technology can fill the role of nuclear energy? or what types of product or service
can be more attractive than Apple Inc.'s iPhone or popular social networking sites? Politicians should not impede businesses' drives to find such solutions. Nor should they discourage such companies from staying in Japan.
Source:The Nikkei Business Daily June 3,2011
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The government committee charged with coming up with plans for rebuilding areas hit by the Great Japan Earthquake will call for a tax hike to finance relief and reconstruction in its first set of policy proposals to be finalized at the end of June.
The Reconstruction Design Council will also recommend promoting renewable energies such as solar power to create employment and rehabilitate industry in quake-hit areas. Makoto IokibeThe government is expected to put the cost of rebuilding at 10-15 trillion yen, not including the cost of dealing with the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It has decided the tax hike is needed because issuing bonds to finance reconstruction could undermine international confidence in Japan's financial system.
The council will propose that major sources of revenue such as the consumption tax and income tax be used to pay for part of the rebuilding effort, but it will not say which levies should rise in its initial proposals. The group will ask the government to review its plan to build at least 14 new nuclear plants by 2030, and recommend the Diet move quickly to draw up legislation requiring power companies to buy renewable energy. The council, chaired by Makoto Iokibe, expects to submit its first set of recommendations to the prime minister at the end of June, which are to be incorporated into a second supplementary budget.
Source:The Nikkei June 5,2011
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Business investment is set to rise 15.5% in fiscal 2011, with notable increases in spending that targets digital device materials and emerging-market demand, a Nikkei Inc. survey shows. At the same time, efforts by firms to recover from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami are pushing up investment overall.
The interim survey asked companies about their initial plans as of April 30 for capital spending in fiscal 2011. The 1,396 firms whose responses were used are planning a total of 17.32 trillion yen in fixed investments. With many companies' investment planning delayed by the disaster, the survey covered about 5% fewer firms than the one at this time last year. A final survey is scheduled for this summer, when Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), Panasonic Corp. (6752) and other big names will release their capital spending plans.
Last fiscal year, initial spending plans marked an 11% increase from actual spending the year before -- the first rise in three years. Fiscal 2011 looks likely to bring another increase. So far, planned capital spending is up 22.5% to 7.6 trillion yen in manufacturing, with a 10.6% rise to 9.71 trillion yen in nonmanufacturing, according to the interim survey. The materials sector is driving up manufacturing investment overall with an increase of 32.1% to 2.67 trillion yen. Most of Sumitomo Chemical Co.'s (4005) planned increase in capital spending will go toward materials for electronics. Asahi Glass Co. (5201) plans to boost production capacity for glass used in smartphones.
Firms are also investing actively in response to rising emerging-market demand. Canon Inc. (7751) has begun work on a toner cartridge parts factory in Oita Prefecture. Aeon Co. (8267) is planning a 210% increase in investment in China and Southeast Asia.
Planned overseas investments are up 35.4% from fiscal 2010 spending to 1.62 trillion yen at 791 companies. "Amid weak demand at home, investment in emerging markets, which have prospects for economic growth, is going to increase," Daiwa Institute of Research chief economist Mitsumaru Kumagai says.
Source:The Nikkei June 6,2011
TOKYO (Nikkei)--After shifting into neutral after the March 11 earthquake, Japanese firms are once again pushing into foreign markets through mergers and acquisitions. Overseas M&A deals by Japanese firms increased 21% to 120 from March 12 to May 27, compared with the same period last year, according to Thomson Reuters. On a value basis, M&A activity grew nearly sevenfold to 1.84 trillion yen, owing largely to Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.'s pending buyout of Swiss drugmaker Nycomed.
Takeda President Yasuchika Hasegawa announces the firm's pending buyout of Swiss drugmaker Nycomed in Tokyo on May 19. Foreign M&As grew 49% to a record 530 in 2010 and kept up a brisk pace early on this year. After the disaster, however, damage assessment and recovery became the immediate priority, and cost concerns drove a number of companies to put nascent deals on hold. The three weeks after the quake saw just 26 M&A deals, a decrease of more than 20% from the same period last year.
M&A deal-making picked up again the following month as the turmoil from the disaster began to subside. A total of 94 deals for April and May marked a 40% increase from a year earlier. Japanese companies find themselves in the same business environment as before the quake, with a shrinking domestic market and rising global competition.
"If anything, the heightened sense of crisis from the disaster has made firms begin to get serious about M&As," according to an M&A adviser at a foreign brokerage. Many are targeting emerging markets. With its roughly 1.11 trillion yen acquisition of Nycomed, Takeda will gain an earnings base that extends to Eastern Europe and Latin America. NTT Data Corp. will buy an Italian information systems firm with branches in Brazil and Turkey.
The finance industry is also getting in on the M&A game. MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc. subsidiary Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. will take a 50% stake in an Indonesian life insurer, seeking to make inroads in that country's high-end market. Monex Group Inc. is in the midst of a tender offer for a U.S. online brokerage with strength in systems development.
Besides gaining customers in the U.S. and Europe, Monex is looking to "improve services in Japan to grab customers from our rivals," according to President Oki Matsumoto. Toshiba Corp. (6502) and Gree Inc. (3632) have set their sights on two areas of technology with prospects for growth: smart grids and smartphone gaming, respectively.
M&As between Japanese firms fell 36% to 307 from March 12 to May 27, indicating that corporate appetite for investment has yet to make a full recovery. But with listed firms sitting on record-high cash holdings at the end of March and the yen strong against foreign currencies, conditions are favorable for overseas buying. And the disaster itself may provide another impetus.
"M&As aimed at dispersing production facilities overseas may accelerate in response to the earthquake," says Koichiro Doi, an M&A specialist at JPMorgan Securities Japan Co.
Source:The Nikkei May 31,2011
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Store sales at the leading 100 restaurant operators dipped 0.1% on the year to 5.31 trillion yen in fiscal 2010, according to a Nikkei Inc. survey, the first decline since such records began being kept in 1974.
Restaurant sales at 49 firms fell. Around half of the 100 have March book-closings. Although not all declines in restaurant sales can be blamed on the earthquake, some businesses were hurt by the disaster. At Japanese-style pubs, "There were virtually no customers for the first two weeks after the quake and even small gatherings were canceled," says Dynac Corp. (2675) President Kazumasa Wakasugi. Sales shrank at eight of the 10 pub and bar operators with March book-closings.
Meanwhile, Japanese fast-food chain operators saw store sales increase 13.1% and revolving-sushi restaurant firms enjoyed a 5.1% gain. But store sales tanked 9.6% at grilled-meat restaurant operators and dropped 4.4% at meal delivery firms. Sales last logged double-digit growth back in fiscal 1990 and had been rising by single digits. Fiscal 2009 showed just a 0.3% gain.
Source:The Nikkei June 1,2011
SEOUL (Nikkei)--Japan, South Korea and China are forging closer air transport links, with more flights between major cities in the three countries. Air Busan will become the first South Korean discount carrier to fly to Narita, offering one daily flight to and from Tokyo's main international airport and Busan airport starting June 23. Busan is the second-largest city in South Korea. Airfares will start at 24,900 yen, about 30-50% less than discount tickets sold by major carriers. Eastar Jet, another South Korean low-cost carrier, will begin service between Incheon and Narita airports on July 1.
Meanwhile, a new route between Gimpo airport, near Seoul, and Beijing is set to open. Four South Korean and Chinese airlines, including Korean Air and Air China, will each offer once-daily service in July. Gimpo airport, which serves mainly domestic routes, is closer to downtown Seoul. "The time needed for trips to and from the airport will be shortened by about one hour," according to a South Korean government official. The new route makes it easier to take a day trip between the two countries.
Currently, there are 12 flights each way between Haneda and Gimpo. There has been service between Haneda and Beijing since October 2009. The new route between Gimpo and Beijing will make travel between the three cities more convenient, and that is expected to boost the number of business and leisure passengers in the three countries, helping to strengthen economic ties in Northeast Asia.
Source:The Nikkei June 1,2011
BEIJING (Nikkei)--Mitsubishi Corp. (8058) has teamed up with local governments in China on the environment, energy conservation and related areas. The trading house plans to invest a total of more than 800 million dollars, or roughly 65 billion yen, to take stakes in local firms and build facilities through 2015. Mitsubishi's investments in China totaled 800 million dollars at the end of 2010.
Under a comprehensive agreement with Shandong Province, the Mitsubishi group is to offer a proposal for a planned large-scale project that will combine wind power and other alternative energy with smart grids and other green technologies. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (7011), Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (6503), Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Kirin Brewery Co. and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ are among the 14 group firms slated to participate in the Shandong project. Mitsubishi group units in South Korea and Taiwan will cooperate since many South Korean and Taiwanese corporations operate in Shandong Province. Mitsubishi also signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with Sichuan Province. It will work with major local retailers and others now that the Chinese government's investment in the interior of the country has boosted spending power in the province.
Source:The Nikkei June 3,2011
As Japan cuts down on air conditioning, residents and businesses alike are searching for ways to bring relief to their homes and offices when the summer starts to really sizzle. A lot of these searches are ending in natural solutions - plants, water and breezes.
Goya bitter gourd, cucumber, morning glory and other vine seedlings don't cost much. And they can grow up into natural curtains that help to keep hot sun rays out of the house. They also allow those who tend to them the satisfaction that comes with caring for plants. The post-quake, nuclear crisis-wracked power supply situation has presented the nursery industry with a golden opportunity to increase the number of amateur gardeners. And the industry is greeting its opportunity with sales and promotional campaigns.
Tutoring novices
"Let's get through the hot summer with a green curtain!" suggests a poster at Garden Center Yokohama, a nursery run by Sakata Seed Corp. The poster explains the specific energy-saving effects of growing vines by a window. Not only can vines provide shade, they can help to reduce surrounding temperatures through transpiration.
Vine coverings have become more common in recent years. Still, because they require string trellises by windows and because their energy-saving effects can be difficult to discern, novice home botanists have been reluctant to stretch their green thumbs and give them a try. But after Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) in late March projected electricity shortages for this summer due to its crippled nuclear plant, the Yokohama nursery saw a surge in inquiries about natural coverings.
"We had never seen so many consumers (who are not gardening aficionados) interested in green curtains," a Sakata Seed official said. So the company immediately decided to launch a promotional campaign linking vine shading with energy saving. First, Sakata Seed printed more than 70,000 posters that tutor novices on the energy-saving effects of vines, how to set up a net trellis and on related matters. The posters were shipped to 560 nurseries. Sakata Seed also posted a special page on vine coverings on its shopping Web site.
Water decorations
Retailers are also jumping on the vine shade wagon. Mitsukoshi Ltd.'s flagship department store, in the Nihombashi district of Tokyo, plans to cover its rooftop area, where it operates a nursery, with vines. "An actual display will let even novice gardeners see what vines are and how they work," an Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd. official said. The nursery will also increase its vine offerings by 50%.
Tokyu Department Store Co.'s flagship store is also installing vine shading outside a 1.5-meter wide window of its rooftop gardening center. The store reports an increase in customers seeking plants for energy-saving and other practical purposes. Takashimaya Co.'s department store in Tokyo's Chuo Ward has started selling a beginner's kit - planter box, culture soil, seedlings and a net for use as a trellis - for 4,725 yen ($57). So it can target shoppers who do not visit its nursery, Takashimaya is selling the kit in its interior decoration department for the time being.
Other retailers are leveraging the increased interest in vine coverings as a marketing tool. Aeon Co. gave away one free goya seedling per household at 125 shopping centers on May 4, a national holiday called Greenery Day. The event marked the first time Aeon engaged in that kind of a groupwide marketing activity. "We hope this provided an opportunity for people to think about what they can do to save energy," an Aeon official said.
According to Sakata Seed, orders for vine seedlings for promotional use have been up 50% from their usual levels since the March 11 disaster. Another way of mitigating the summer heat is the smart use of water-based decorations. A Takashimaya location in Tokyo's Chuo Ward started selling tsukubai stone basins in its traditional furniture department on May 5, about one month earlier than usual.
"With companies introducing the Cool Biz summer dress code a month sooner than usual, consumers are already highly interested in how to cope with the scorching days of summer," a Takashimaya public relations officer said. The department store offers a motorized tsukubai for 39,900 yen and a nonmotorized type for 13,650 yen.
Industrial-strength blinds
If you're going to rely on aesthetics to cool an indoor space, you might also want to think about frozen water. Tokyo-based Asahi hyougyou Inc. reports that it began receiving inquiries about its ice pillars sooner than usual this year. The number of inquiries is also more than usual. These sculptures do not significantly lower room temperature but do have a visual effect. They are often set up in the reception halls of office buildings. A roughly 45kg pillar can last a day. Asahi hyougyou expects sales to double this season.
An effective way to make the inside of a house feel cooler is to open the doors and let the breeze flow through. But a lot of front doors in Japan lack screen doors. Now accessory screens are becoming popular. Lixil Corp. offers an accordion screen that can be attached to the front or back door to let in fresh air while keeping mosquitoes and other insects at bay. The screen, which goes for 32,025 yen to 79,275 yen, can be opened or closed like a curtain and, when not in use, folded to a size of roughly 10cm. Removal is easy as well. "You can collapse it when you are not using it, so it doesn't ruin the appearance of a room," said a man who visited Lixil's Tokyo showroom. "I also like the fact that you can remove it after the season."
Demand is also growing for functional window blinds. Nihon Green Packs Co. is getting about three times as many orders than usual for its high-performance window blind. The product features a commercial material used in greenhouses to prevent farmers working inside from getting sunstroke. Nihon Green Packs says the blind can block about 80% of the sun's rays. With 5% of its area being openings between slats, the blind can let breezes in while blocking heat. The product is currently sold only online or through catalogs issued by cooperatives. A 90cm-wide, 185cm-long window blind costs 6,090 yen. That is four-to-five times more than a standard blind made of bamboo or other natural material.
Nihon Green Packs did not launch a particularly aggressive marketing campaign, though a co-op catalog does mention the blind's energy-saving effect. Still, Internet sales are up "at least 20 times" from usual levels this season, the company said.
Source:The Nikkei Weekly May 30, 2011
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Fitness clubs in Japan are going gray, with young people, especially women, shying away from them. The average age of gym-goers is around 50, with the proportion of members in their 30s or younger falling to around the 30% mark.
Gyms have been offering various facilities, such as pools, training machines and hot baths, but they seem to have miscalculated their market because many women in their 20s and 30s are opting instead to practice a single exercise, such as yoga.
Twenty-somethings used to be the largest group of members of Central Sports Co. (4801) gyms. But at the end of fiscal 2010, they accounted for only 11.4% of the total membership. People in their 30s made up 17.8% of the membership. The figures were down 5.2 and 5.5 percentage points, respectively, from four years previous.
Renaissance Inc. (2378) saw the share of members aged 39 or younger fall 6 points to 38% in the period. Megalos Co. (2165) saw an even bigger drop. Members in their 30s or younger accounted for 37% at the end of fiscal 2010, down 11% from four years ago. The sharp drop was particularly noteworthy among women, a group that once accounted for up to 70% of membership, but whose share has shrunk to nearly 50% now. Central Sports President Tadaharu Goto says that people in their 20s and 30s accounted for more than 70% of its members in 1980s when an aerobics boom swept the nation.
Focused exercise
The industry has struggled to attract new members over the past few years, with members numbering around 2.7-2.8 million. The slump in membership among the young is partly due to the aging population and declining birthrate, but also stems from customers' gripes about facilities. Some grumble that the wide variety of workout machines make it difficult to know which to use, with others complaining they are unable to go to gyms often enough to justify paying membership fees.
"I used to be a member of a fitness club, but I quit because the money I paid for membership seemed to be a waste because there were so many machines I never used," a Tokyo woman in her late 20s said. "If I want to swim, it's cheaper to go to a municipal pool. I'm happy just doing yoga, so I started going to a (yoga) studio about two years ago."
Jogging and hiking are also becoming popular. And a Megalos official says, "People are paying closer attention to the effectiveness of their exercise because disposable incomes are falling." Yoga and pilates classes are attracting young people looking for more efficient exercises. One million people practiced yoga nationwide in the fall of 2010, five times as many as in 2003 and 2004, according to industry estimates.
Lohas International Inc., which operates 15 Studio Yoggy yoga studios, mainly in central Tokyo, saw the number of new members in their 20s and 30s rise about 10% in April from a year before. That age bracket accounts for 80% of its total membership. The monthly fee is 9,500 yen, which is more costly than the average gym membership fee of 8,500.
A 26-year-old member says it is worth paying. "It's easier to see your improvement if you focus on one type of exercise," she said. "I don't think the monthly fee is expensive." Meanwhile, fitness clubs have continued to attract people in their 40s or older. At the end of fiscal 2010, the number of Central Sports' members in their 50s or older had increased 11% from four years prior. Gym operators are now upgrading services for elderly people, such as offering one-on-one stretching classes.
Source:The Nikkei June 3,2011
The Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, Japan
Source : http://www.depthai.go.th