TOKYO (Kyodo)--The government instructed Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato Thursday to ban shipments of rice harvested this year in the Onami area of Fukushima city as rice with excessive levels of radioactive cesium was detected there, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said. This is the first time the central government has banned shipments of rice following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant in the prefecture, severely damaged by a series of explosions soon after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The government's top spokesman said rice containing cesium above the state's allowable limit had not been put on the market so far, and the central government has called on Sato to strengthen the inspection of rice grown in the Onami area and its vicinity.
"I can tell you that you don't have to worry at all about rice that has been already shipped," Fujimura said at a press conference.
Vowing to make efforts to prevent the spread of unfounded rumors about Japanese products being contaminated by radioactive substances, Fujimura said the government will continue to appeal to the public that rice produced in Fukushima is "safe."
Excessive levels of radioactive cesium were found Wednesday in rice harvested in the Onami area, the first time such levels of the isotope have been detected in the national staple since the nuclear emergency.
The cesium in the rice samples taken at a farm in the city measured 630 becquerels per kilogram, against the provisional 500-becquerel limit set by the central government, according to the local government.
After testing rice samples from all the 48 cities, towns and villages in the prefecture where rice has been grown this year, including the Onami area, the Fukushima governor declared last month that the crop produced in the prefecture was safe.
(The Nikkei Nov.17 edition)
BOGOTA (Dow Jones)--Colombia's government said it will launch free-trade negotiations with Japan later this week, one month after finalizing a long-delayed agreement with the U.S., its top trading partner.
In a statement, President Juan Manuel Santos also said free-trade talks with South Korea will wrap up soon, and said that by June 2012 a trade deal with the European Union will be approved. Colombia imports about $800 million worth of products from Japan, including cars and car parts. It exports to Japan about $400 million a year of products such as coffee and flowers.
In addition to Colombia's free-trade deal with the U.S., the South American nation also has agreements with Canada and Switzerland.
Free-trade deals seek to eliminate tariffs on the importation of most products between the countries. Santos said Colombia also hopes to soon start trade talks with neighboring Venezuela.
(The Nikkei November 16 edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The nation's consumption tax will likely be increased to 8% in April 2014 as part of a two-step process to raise it to 10% by 2015, according to plans agreed on Monday between the government and the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
The two-stage hike of the 5% consumption tax rate will be included in a blueprint for a comprehensive overhaul of social security and taxes that the government plans to draw up by year-end.
A government panel will convene as early as this month to start the debate in hopes of meeting the Dec. 31 deadline.
The consumption tax "will be raised to 7-8% some time after October 2013, and the remaining increase of 2-3 percentage points will take place either in April or October of 2015," said Senior Vice Finance Minister Fumihiko Igarashi in a speech Monday.
Igarashi noted that a 7% tax "would be difficult to calculate," hinting that the tax rate will be first jacked up to 8%.
Many are arguing for the first hike in April 2014, at the beginning of the fiscal year. But a tough political fight looms ahead, given that opposition to a higher tax is still strong within the DPJ. Electoral calculations, too, will enter into the equation since lower house members have to face re-election before their terms expire in August 2013.
The consumption tax, which imposes a proportionately greater burden on low-income earners, is considered regressive. To ease the pain on the poor, the government and the DPJ are weighing such steps as cash payouts and tax refunds to those earning less than the minimum taxable threshold.
Refundable tax credits, which combine cash payouts with tax deductions, are also being discussed on the assumption that a tax identification number system will be introduced in 2015.
However, for the time being, the government and DPJ do not plan to consider lower tax rates on food and other necessities. The process of singling out products for reduced taxes is expected to be politically fraught and time-consuming. Hirohisa Fujii, chairman of the DPJ's tax commission, said Monday that he is opposed to such a program.
Tax revenue for the central and local governments grows by about 2.5 trillion yen for each percentage point that the consumption tax rate is increased.
(The Nikkei Nov. 22 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Japan's own math shows hardly any economic benefits to be had from joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and yet proponents of the trade pact depict it as a boon for manufacturers, writes Waseda University's Yukio Noguchi in this piece for The Nikkei Veritas:
The Cabinet Office released estimates on Oct. 25 of the economic boost from the TPP. Real gross domestic product would go up 0.54%, or by 2.7 trillion yen, according to the projections. But that is the expected increase over the next decade or so, which means a yearly average of just 0.05%, or 269.5 billion yen. In other words, the TPP's potential for growing Japan's exports and expanding its economy is so small as to be negligible.
That conclusion should come as no surprise. First, U.S. import tariffs are low enough already. The tariff on passenger cars, for example, is 2.5%. Compared with the impact from exchange rates, the effect of tariffs might as well be within the margin of error. Second, apart from the U.S., prospective TPP members have small economies. Given their paltry shares of Japan's overall exports, a move to zero tariffs would have next to no impact on the total value of Japanese exports.
Free trade agreements are meaningful when another country maintains high tariffs, especially if it is an emerging economy. That being said, the effects are not always favorable and are often disruptive. A textbook example is the impact on the choice of location for overseas investment.
Given Thailand's numerous FTAs, Japanese firms have shifted production there, with the goal of using it as a base for making and exporting products. As a result, they have been focusing unilaterally on Thailand. The recent flooding there has done such extraordinary damage to Japanese companies because their overseas production is not sufficiently dispersed.
Japan's biggest export market is China, which makes that nation's response to the TPP an important element in Japan's economic fate. Some say that if Japan joins the TPP, China will seek membership as well. That is not going to happen for two reasons.
First, China itself can expect little export growth from joining the TPP, putting it in the same boat as Japan. In China's case, however, there is also the fact that its U.S.-bound exports will continue to grow even if it does not enter the trade pact.
The second reason China would not join is the investor-state dispute settlement provision. This is an agreement that lets companies sue member countries for damages caused as a result of national polices.
To understand why the ISD clause is such a big problem for China, just think about Beijing's clash with Google Inc. If China loses in a dispute involving its censorship, for example, it would have a devastating impact that could threaten the very foundation of the country.
So, should Japan take part in the TPP while aiming for an FTA with China? That would be impossible. The TPP is an element of the U.S. strategy in Asia, which seeks to hold back China's expansion. America is unlikely to tolerate Japan signing both the TPP and an FTA with China. There is no way to know for sure how China would respond to the TPP. But Beijing clearly is not going to welcome a policy that seeks to exclude the country.
China could very well react by moving toward economic partnerships that do not include Japan, such as pursuing an FTA with the European Union. Because the EU maintains higher import tariffs than the U.S., China has an incentive to sign such an agreement. For the EU, particularly Germany, China is a major market, making a China-EU FTA perfectly plausible. Should that happen, there is a danger that Germany could sweep the Chinese market, bringing ruin to Japanese manufacturing.
Of course, some aspects of the TPP would have desirable effects for Japan. Lower tariffs on farm imports would be good news for Japanese consumers. Domestic food prices are strikingly high from a global perspective. And among industrialized countries, Japanese have a considerably high Engel's coefficient, meaning that they spend a high proportion of their income on food. Lowering food prices is an urgent matter. That being said, Japan can lower agricultural tariffs on its own, and there is no need to sign on to the TPP for that purpose.
The TPP is a policy that will sacrifice manufacturing to realize benefits for consumers. It is truly odd, then, that the pact is being talked about as though manufacturers would profit from it. --Translated from a column by Yukio Noguchi at Waseda University's Graduate School of Finance, Accounting and Law
(The Nikkei Veritas Nov. 13 edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The ruling Democratic Party of Japan's tax policy committee is seeking a continuation of tax incentives for fuel-efficient cars and an expansion of a tax exemption on cash gifts for homebuyers.
The committee compiled a set of first-draft proposals Tuesday for changes to the tax code in fiscal 2012.
The so-called eco-car tax reductions are set to expire at the end of April. Car buyers now enjoy reduced automobile acquisition and tonnage taxes on qualifying models.
"The impact on domestic auto sales (of allowing these incentives to expire) would be huge," says a senior committee member.
A previously discussed idea of eliminating the automobile acquisition tax altogether next fiscal year has been put on hold to coincide with a planned increase in the consumption tax.
The committee is also proposing extensions to special tax breaks on housing and land purchases. Another housing-related recommendation on the table is raising the cap on gift-tax exemptions for financial assistance homebuyers receive from family members. The committee will consider hiking the cap to 15 million yen, up from 10 million yen, as well as extending the exemption.
Other headline recommendations include exemptions on light-oil delivery taxes for shipbuilders and steelmakers and extended tax breaks for Okinawa-made alcoholic beverages. The committee has put off consideration of a tobacco tax hike for a later, more far-reaching tax reform effort. The relatively low profile of these proposals reflects maneuvering for the coming political battle over raising the consumption tax.
The proposals will serve as a springboard for a deeper debate in the DPJ. The committee aims to have a broad blueprint for fiscal 2012 tax code revisions completed next month.
(The Nikkei Nov. 16 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--A number of Japanese companies have established a solid presence in rapidly growing Asia, and the secret seems to be finding good partners that know their local markets inside out.
Iwatsuka's technologies are used to make many of the rice crackers sold in China.
Relief materials delivered to flood victims in Thailand almost always included packages of Mama Japanese-style instant noodles. Mama noodles are a marquee product of Thai President Foods Public Co., a unit of Saha group, a major Thai conglomerate that controls more than 200 companies making such items as foods, cosmetics, clothing, detergent and toilet products. The group marked sharp growth after World War II by importing huge volumes of products from Japan.
Saha has formed joint ventures with many Japanese companies since the 1960s, including women's underwear manufacturer Wacoal Holdings Corp. (3591) and daily goods maker Lion Corp. (4912). In September, it agreed to set up a joint venture with drugstore chain operator Tsuruha Holdings Inc. (3391).
In October 2010, Tsuruha President Tatsuru Tsuruha flew to Bangkok, where Saha is headquartered. Having seen a competitor forced to withdraw in just a year after entering the Chinese market on its own, he was convinced that he had to find a partner that fully understands the local market. He met with Saha's chairman, who is fluent in Japanese, and the two agreed to set up Japanese-style drugstores in Thailand, signing a partnership agreement on the spot. Their first drugstore is expected to open in a shopping mall Saha plans to build by the end of 2012 in the south.
Convenience stores are growing rapidly in Indonesia, whose population of more than 200 million makes it the largest country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. PT Modern Internasional Tbk has been operating Seven-Eleven convenience stores there since 2009 under a deal with Seven & i Holdings Co. (3382).
Seven-Eleven locations have lit up Jakarta's previously dark streets, drawing young people who hang out at the stores until the wee hours of the morning. There are 42 locations today, and plans call for building a network of 1,000 stores in 10 years.
Modern Internasional became a sales agent of Fujifilm Holdings Corp.'s (4901) predecessor in 1971 and launched Fuji Image Plaza film development services in 1988. It has diversified operations by becoming a distributor for Ricoh Co. (7752) copiers and Shimadzu Corp. (7701) medical equipment. Japanese-style snacks have also gained traction in the Chinese market.
Iwatsuka Confectionery Co. (2221) owns a stake in Taiwanese firm Want Want China Holdings Ltd., which controls more than 70% of the mainland's rice cracker market. Want Want's products can be found at stores in even remote villages, and the firm has some 350 directly run shops. The firm intends to build an Indonesian factory next year and has set its sights on constructing an Indian plant in three to five years, according to a senior official.
The relationship between the two companies began in 1981, when the 24-year-old chairman of Want Want, a member of the founding family, asked the founder of Iwatsuka for technological assistance. The Japanese firm's technologies are used to make many of the rice crackers now sold in China, and Iwatsuka would benefit from Want Want's expansion through dividends and payments for its technologies.
(The Nikkei Veritas Nov. 13 edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Agricultural industry groups are steadfastly against Japan's participation in the envisaged Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact, arguing that it would devastate the sector by creating a flood of low-price imports.
Osamu Tamaki, left, president of Niigata Tamaki Farm, sees a bright future in rice exports.
But there is a strong argument for the notion that opening Japan's markets through the TPP will offer opportunities to convert the nation's weaknesses into strengths.
Take, for example, the case of Niigata Tamaki Farm Co., an agricultural corporation in Niigata Prefecture. In January, the company will begin producing rice in Taiwan by outsourcing the cultivation of a total of 100 hectares of land to local farmers, some 100 times larger than acreage cultivated by the average Japanese rice grower. The move was prompted by the popularity in Taiwan of rice the company began exporting there from Niigata in 2005. It will produce middle-grade rice in Taiwan while limiting production in Niigata to high-grade rice.
"We also plan to export rice (from Taiwan) to Hong Kong and the U.S.," said Osamu Tamaki, 32, the firm's president.
The number of young Japanese agricultural entrepreneurs like Tamaki is still small, however. Break down the wall
Japan has maintained a high tariff barrier against rice imports and held price competition in check through a rice paddy reduction program. At the same time, new entries to the agricultural business, such as those by joint stock companies, have been held down due to various restrictions, even as the amount of abandoned farmland has continued to expand.
In Tsukubamirai, Ibaraki Prefecture, the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization has launched a program to develop a new variety of rice with a 20-30% better yield than the popular Koshihikari variety.
Since the 1970s, when the government introduced the policy of scaling back rice production, studies to boost output have been stagnant for fear of price falls, contributing to high costs among Japanese growers. As such, the development program by the organization runs somewhat counter to this "taboo" against greater productivity.
The government may be keeping rice prices artificially high, but demand for low-price rice is growing in the restaurant industry. It costs seven times more to produce rice in Japan than in the U.S., but Japanese rice can be made more resistant to imports if the cost gap is narrowed. A greater abundance of Japanese rice would also help meet demand among domestic consumers for safe, inexpensive, high-quality farm products.
Of course, merely narrowing the cost gap is not enough to enable Japanese rice to compete squarely with imports. Shinichi Shogenji, a professor and agriculture expert at Nagoya University, says the competitiveness of domestic rice must be enhanced "as much as possible," and that any price gaps that cannot be filled by efforts to boost productivity should be covered by government spending. Unsustainable support
The government already provides subsidies to farmers in the form of income-support allowances. But the program pays the same amount to all growers, whether they are doing the work full-time or just on the side. Japan cannot improve the competitiveness of its agriculture through such a bloated spending policy.
The government plans to consolidate farmland with an eye toward achieving a tenfold increase in the average area of cultivation per farming household. Because such an increase would reduce rice-production costs by more than 30%, the income support program would need to be revised. When Japan lifted its import ban on cherries from the U.S. in 1977, domestic growers opposed it, claiming they would be forced out of business. But Yamagata Prefecture, for example, has increased cherry production by 30% since then.
The 66-year-old owner of a fruit farm in Higashine, Yamagata, shifted from focusing on selling fresh cherries to those grown for cans when the import ban was removed. His products have since become known for their high quality, enabling him to expand his farmland from 2 to 8 hectares. Increased competition with imports also prompted him to create new sales routes.
Healthcare concerns
Fears of the impact of the TPP are also strong in the medical services sector.
The Japan Medical Association warns that the current health-insurance system covering all citizens would collapse under the free-trade deal. It argues that people in the low-income bracket would be unable to receive quality treatment because the country would be forced to adopt a system under which some healthcare services were covered by insurance and some required out-of-pocket payments.
Some doctors also warn that the TPP would open the way for profit-oriented companies to enter the hospital business.
But Japan already has areas where medical services are on the verge of collapse due to a shortage of doctors. In addition, medical bills are rising inexorably.
The agricultural and medical services sectors have resisted change by closing themselves off to the outside world, leading to the creation of vested interests and blocking necessary reforms. Joining the TPP could shatter outdated systems and breathe new life into these industries.
(The Nikkei Nov. 17 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--The nation's three top hoteliers and the hotel businesses of two railway operators are expected to see earnings sour on an operating basis this fiscal year as demand from overseas visitors remains sluggish in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Fujita Kanko Inc. (9722) is likely to see its group operating profit sink 86% to 300 million yen in 2011. Despite guest numbers in the January-September period rebounding to the year-earlier level, average sales per customer fell 8% after it cut rates to woo visitors.
Operating profit at Imperial Hotel Ltd. (9708) is seen slumping 33% to 1.2 billion yen for the year ending next March. The company has been working to lure domestic travelers since "the slump in tourists and other visitors from abroad will be protracted," says Senior Managing Executive Officer Yoichi Usuda. But this has not offset the earnings drop-off.
Also driving down profits are declines in sales per customer stemming from a rise in tour groups, which pay lower rates than business travelers.
Royal Hotel Ltd. (9713) is expected to slip into the red with an operating loss of 700 million yen due to falling sales per customer and ballooning amortization expenses.
Hotels affiliated with railway operators have also seen guest numbers drop since the March disaster. The operating loss for Tokyu Corp.'s (9005) hotel business is estimated surging to 2.5 billion yen, while the loss for Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc.'s (9042) is set to widen to 1 billion yen.
Despite improving by 200 million yen from the previous year, the hotel division of Odakyu Electric Railway Co. (9007) is seen stuck with an operating loss of 3.3 billion yen.
(The Nikkei Nov. 18 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Sales of domestically produced beef remain sluggish, primarily due to lingering concerns over radioactive contamination from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Inageya Co. (8182), which operates a chain of supermarkets in the Tokyo metropolitan area, said its sales of beef from domestically raised cattle have fallen by 20-40% on the year since July, although demand has gradually started to recover since bottoming out in August. "But it will likely take a considerable amount of time (for sales) to return to last year's levels," an Inageya official said.
According to Agriculture & Livestock Industries Corp., the consumption of domestic beef in Japan reached an estimated 165,000 tons in the six months through September, representing a 6% decline from a year earlier.
Consumption plunged 17% on the year in August, largely due to reports that beef shipped from farmers in Fukushima and adjacent prefectures contained higher levels of radioactive cesium than what the government considers to be safe for consumption.
Wholesale prices have also been sliding. In mid-November, top-grade Japanese "wagyu" beef sold for roughly 1,500 yen per kilogram at the Tokyo Meat Market, or about 20% cheaper than a year earlier. Fukushima-produced beef costs only half the benchmark beef price.
Top-selling domestic beef retails for an average of 400-900 yen per gram in stores, or roughly the same as last year. Supermarkets buy beef from wholesalers under long-term contracts, so it is unusual for prices to fluctuate significantly.
The ban on shipments of beef from four prefectures, including Fukushima and Miyagi, has been lifted, following the establishment of a system in August to inspect all cows transported from these prefectures. Later in the same month, supermarkets started labeling beef with inspection stickers at their stores to reassure customers, but many shoppers continue to shy away from beef originating from the four prefectures.
(The Nikkei Nov. 17 evening edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Exports by the four major steelmakers fell as a percentage of the value of their total production in the July-September quarter, as the strong yen apparently cut into their price competitiveness.
The ratio of exports at JFE Steel Corp. dropped 5 points from 49.4% in the April-June period. The figures for Nippon Steel Corp. (5401) and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. (5405) also slipped for the first time in four quarters. Kobe Steel Ltd.'s (5406) ratio sank from almost 32% to just below 27%.
In Asia, steel is traded in U.S. dollars. Amid the strong yen, Japanese steelmakers have to charge higher prices than those offered by South Korea's Posco and Chinese rivals in order to secure profits. But lowering prices to shore up sales volume would mean losing money, so "shipments became more selective and exports dropped," says a senior Nippon Steel official.
Japanese steelmakers fared relatively well in high-quality automotive steel, but they lost orders from the construction sector, for which Japanese steel is no better than that made by South Korean and Chinese rivals.
With exports expected to remain sluggish, Nippon Steel has downgraded its shipment plans for the second half by 1 million tons.
Yoshio Ishikawa, an executive vice president at the JFE Holdings Inc. (5411) unit, says the export ratio will eventually exceed 50%. But the strong yen is making the outlook cloudy.
(The Nikkei Nov. 22 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Even though they were hit hard by the severe flooding in Thailand, Japanese manufacturers appear determined to maintain the country's status as a key export base.
Thailand remains an important country for Japanese firms, which are expanding production abroad to deal with a strong yen and diversify locations in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Part of Thailand's appeal is that more materials and parts suppliers are concentrated there than in any other country in the region. In fact, Toyota Motor Corp.'s (7203) Thai factory is among the fastest of the firm's 50 or so automobile assembly plants worldwide, able to roll out a vehicle in 56 seconds. Domestic automakers transferred production of 1-ton pickup trucks from Japan to Thailand. Pickup trucks made in Thailand are now shipped to markets around the world.
"We have no intention of shifting production to another country," said President Osamu Masuko of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211), which resumed operations at its Thai plant after a one-month suspension. "We'll prepare for natural disasters by increasing the percentage of parts procured from neighboring countries."
(The Nikkei Nov. 16 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Apparel manufacturer s1o Inc. is moving its headquarters to Singapore to be closer to its major customer base.
The company runs the satisfaction guaranteed, or sg label, which has the second-most fans among domestic companies on the Facebook social networking site. Some 97% of those fans are young people in Southeast Asia.
s1o's major operations are an online ad agency and clothing business, the latter of which will be transferred to Satisfaction Guaranteed Pte. Ltd., a new subsidiary in Singapore. Designer and President Shunsuke Sato will relocate along with the apparel business.
To prepare for its expansion in Asia, the new unit will seek to raise 245 million yen by issuing new shares Wednesday to a venture capital firm affiliated with Itochu Corp. (8001) and others. This will enable it to open stores in 30 locations, including Singapore and Indonesia, next year. The company will also increase the number of stores in Japan to 30 from two at present.
(The Nikkei Nov. 16 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--More retailers and restaurant groups are adding locations at a faster pace overseas than in Japan, revealing a clear trend toward foreign expansion in two traditionally domestic industries.
Among leading domestic convenience store chains, net growth in stores abroad will exceed expansion in Japan by 50% this fiscal year. Fast Retailing Co. (9983), the parent of clothing retailer Uniqlo, will open more new stores in foreign markets than in Japan for the first time. Restaurant group Watami Co. (7522) is also breaking new ground abroad.
The focus of the overseas expansion of Japanese retail and dining firms has been the Asia-Pacific region. Japan's participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership or other free trade initiatives in East Asia could provide a tailwind for this movement, helping boost farm exports as well.
The five leading domestic convenience store operators will have a total net growth of about 1,600 stores in Japan this fiscal year. That compares with a net growth of about 2,500 stores overseas for the four of the five with a presence abroad: Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Lawson Inc. (2651), FamilyMart Co. (8028) and Ministop Co. (9946). The overseas count only covers stores managed by local units with capital ties with Japanese parents.
Ministop plans to add a net 257 stores abroad this fiscal year, compared with 57 in Japan. Its overseas store count will overtake the domestic total as early as the first half of next year. Ministop already has locations in South Korea and aims to move into three Southeast Asian countries within two to three years, according to President Nobuyuki Abe. It expects to have 5,000 stores overseas and 3,000 in Japan by the end of fiscal 2015.
Fast Retailing will open 108 Uniqlo stores abroad in the year ending next August, the most ever. It launched a flagship store in New York last month and one in Seoul this month.
"To be the world's top casual clothing store, we have to step out into growing Asia," says President and Chairman Tadashi Yanai.
Watami plans to have 26 more restaurants overseas in 2011 than it did last year. It started its first-ever overseas franchise chain in Malaysia in August and plans to expand in South Korea and Thailand. The company is looking to open about 200 restaurants abroad by 2016.
Beef bowl chain Yoshinoya Holdings Co. (9861) plans to add more than 1,000 restaurants in foreign markets by the year ending February 2016, compared with the addition of about 800 in Japan. Domestic retailers and restaurant operators face shrinking markets at home. Retail sales in 2010 totaled about 135 trillion yen, down 7% from a peak in 1996, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The dining-out market shrank about 20% from 1997 to 2010, according to the Food Service Industry Research Center. By contrast, Asian markets are growing on the back of a rising middle class.
(The Nikkei Nov. 21 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--JTB Corp. and other major travel agencies have started to offer tours to Bangkok that had been canceled earlier due to the severe flooding in Thailand.
These moves have been prompted in part by the Foreign Ministry's downgrading of its travel warning for central Bangkok last Wednesday.
JTB will resume package tours with stays in the Thai capital starting with departures on Friday. It had earlier planned to call off tours through departures on Nov. 30.
Hankyu Travel International Co. and ANA Sales Co. have decided to offer Bangkok tours again starting with departures on Dec. 1.
However, the travel agencies will continue to cancel tours to the heavily flooded Ayutthaya region. An official at Hankyu Travel said trips that include sightseeing in Ayutthaya will be sold by revising the itineraries.
(The Nikkei Nov. 22 morning edition)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Manufacturers of household appliances are working to develop and market "smart" home appliances that adjust to their environment to achieve optimum performance.
iRobot's Roomba vacuuming robot is a hit with people who have little time for housework.
Toshiba Home Appliances Corp. has created an air conditioner whose thermostat can be raised or lowered using voice commands. A refrigerator from Hitachi Appliances Inc. maintains the ideal temperature, sensing whether there are vegetables inside by monitoring carbon dioxide levels.
The popularity of U.S. venture firm iRobot Corp.'s Roomba, a vacuuming robot, has encouraged Japanese appliance makers to come out with smart products of their own. Now makers of white goods compete by showing their wares have the best "brains," industry analysts say.
I know what you're thinking
Toshiba's new air conditioner can respond to words like "cold" and "hot" using a desktop remote control with a built-in microphone that converts spoken commands into electrical signals that are transmitted to the air conditioner via infrared. The product can understand 26 verbal instructions including "start" and "stop." The air conditioner is especially easy for elderly people or children to use, said a company official.
Hitachi's refrigerator is equipped with a carbon dioxide sensor in the vacuum-chilled compartment that is designed to slow the oxidation of food. When vegetables are stored in the compartment, the temperature is kept at 1 C, the best temperature to preserve vegetables, if meats and other foods are inside, rather than vegetables, the temperature is lowered to minus 1 C.
Panasonic uses its Econavi sensor technology in its air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and other appliances.
Panasonic Corp. (6752) uses its Econavi sensor technology in its air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and other appliances. Its air conditioners can detect the movement of people in a room and adjust airflow accordingly. Its NA-VX7100L washer-dryer, which went on sale in late September, adjusts the final spin cycle time depending on how much the clothes' weight has changed between the start of the wash cycle and the first spin cycle.
Get smart
The trail in smart home appliances was blazed by iRobot's Roomba, a robot that sweeps floors automatically and can navigate around furniture and other obstacles. The U.S. company has sold of 5 million of the vacuums in 50 countries since the Roomba's release in 2002. Japan is the second biggest-market, after the U.S., said Colin Angle, iRobot's CEO.
Toshiba introduced its own robotic vacuum, the Sumarbo, in October and is seeing brisk sales.
The performance of smart appliances depends on the quality of their sensors. The more sensitive and capable the sensors are, the better the appliances perform. The Sumarbo has 38.
The sensors in smart appliances are mostly made by Japanese electronic component makers such as Omron Corp. (6645), Panasonic and Asahi Kasei Corp. (3407). These companies have poured manpower and money into developing their sensor technologies, which are comparable those of ST Microelectronics NV of Switzerland and other top Western manufacturers. The main battleground is now shifting to tiny electromechanical systems that can squeeze more sensors into a smaller space.
Japan's major home appliance makers are focused on automatic control and sensor technologies that were born out of two particularly vexing problems for Japan. One is the power shortages brought on by the major earthquake and tsunami on March 11. They have made Japanese consumers more aware of the need to save electricity and sparked demand for more efficient home appliances.
The other is the rapidly population and falling birth rate. With more women working and a growing number of single-person households, people have less time for housekeeping, hence popularity of vacuuming robots.
In the coming years, manufacturers will battle for a slice of the smart house market, in which appliances are networked to the electricity grid to maximize efficiency, industry watchers say. -- Translated from an article by Nikkei staff writers Yohei Ichishima and Hiroshi Sagimori.
(The Nikkei Business Daily Nov. 17 edition)
The Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo, Japan
Source : http://www.depthai.go.th