Japan Economy Forum

[CountStrike]

Nagoya, Aichi prefecture to host 2026 Asian Games

• Posted 25 Sep 2016 14:35
  

REUTERS: Japan will host the Asian Games for the third time in 2026 after Aichi prefecture and its capital Nagoya were confirmed as the venue for the multi-sport event by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Sunday.

The Japanese bid was the only one put forward to host the continental gathering, which will be staged in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia in 2018 and the Chinese city of Hangzhou in 2022.

Japan, hosts of the 2017 Asian Winter Games, 2019 Rugby World Cup and 2020 Summer Olympics, also staged the AsianGames in Tokyo in 1958 and Hiroshima in 1994.

"The road map of our main event is very stable," OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah said after the decision of the general assembly in Danang, Vietnam.

"Together with our three Asian Games in 2018, 2022 and 2026, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the next two Winter Olympics in Korea and China..., the sports calendar of Asia will be very busy with continental and international events."

Organisers said in a presentation to the OCA assembly on Sunday that the Games would cost US$842 million.

The bid only received the green light from the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) earlier this month after the provision of detailed cost estimates.

In those estimates, some 30 percent of those costs are expected to be covered by sponsorship and other revenue, while Aichi prefecture and Nagoya will split the remaining costs on a 70:30 basis.

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by John O'Brien)

- Reuters

 

[ohmrlobalobayeh]

Ya but

There is one Korean owned private EPZ in Chittagong:
KEPZ Bangladesh.

Friday, 06 June 2014, 10:59:33 PM

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KEPZ- at a glance
Fast and easy access to first world markets
√ Excellent Strategic location
√ Air & Sea Connection
√ Investor Friendly Policies
√ Attractive incentives

Low production cost with consequential high competiveness
√ Low cost labour
√ Skilled Professionals
√ Efficient management

Industrial friendly and congenial work environment
√ Largest EPZ in Bangladesh
√ 500 hec. industrial land
√ Environment Management
√ Essential civic amenities

Professional one-stop service by KEPZ-management team
√ Easy licensing
√ Import/Export permits
√ Simplified labour law
√ KEPZ’s full support

• History of KEPZ
• Location of KEPZ
• Management
• YOUNGONE'S INDUSTRIAL TRACK RECORD

Youngone Corporation, incorporated in Korea in 1974, operates in 12 countries of the world, namely USA, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, El-Salvador, Korea, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Bangladesh. This Corporation is a leading manufacturer of Outerwear, Sportswear, Backpack, Woven fabric, Non-woven polyester products, Dyeing and Finishing synthetic fabrics, Sport Shoes, & shoe accessories, besides being resin and poly bags retailer and exporter.

This Corporation established its first overseas operation in Chittagong city, Bangladesh in 1980 and moved its operation into the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) in 1988. Today the company employs more than 40000 local workforce in its 17 factories in the EPZs of Dhaka (DEPZ) and Chittagong (CEPZ). and supplies world class brand products all over the world.

Youngone Corporation is headed by its Chairman & CEO Mr. Kihak Sung.

@Chinese-Dragon we welcome investment from China as well in these EPZ's, to develop new EPZ's and to develop our infrastructure.

Ya but aPparently, chinese-invested projects were blocked by your government

 

[CountStrike]

Honda plans to produce 80 business jets annually by March 2019

A man is silhouetted against a logo of Honda Motor at the company's showroom in Tokyo, Japan, May 13, 2016.REUTERS/Toru Hanai - RTX2E4NU

expects to ramp up production of business jets as part of its plan to expand in the growing industry, the head of the Japanese automaker's aircraft operations said in the United S" data-share-img="http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resource...78&w=1200&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=LYNXMPECAC039" data-share="twitter,facebook,linkedin,mailArticle" data-share-id="USKBN13802Y" style="margin-bottom: 22px;">

Honda Motor Co (7267.T) expects to ramp up production of business jets as part of its plan to expand in the growing industry, the head of the Japanese automaker's aircraft operations said in the United States.

The firm hoped to produce 80 business jets annually by March 2019, from up to 36 currently, Honda Aircraft Company CEO Michimasa Fujino told reporters at its plant in Greensboro, North Carolina.

"By the end of the 2018 financial year (in March 2019), we'd like to be near full production of around 80 units," he said.

The company began deliveries of its $4.5 million jets in December and says it has received around 100 orders so far, mainly from customers in North America and Europe.

Honda is Japan's first automaker to develop and market aircraft globally. Its luxury jets seat up to seven people and have engines mounted above the wings, enabling roomier cabins, reduced noise and higher fuel efficiency.

The jet competes with similar-sized aircraft produced by Cessna (TXT.N), Bombardier Inc (BBDb.TO) and Embraer SA (EMBR3.SA).

Honda Aero Inc, which jointly developed the jet's HF 120 engine with General Electric Co (GE.N), currently procures all of its parts from outside suppliers, but company President Atsukuni Waragai said it would begin producing a number of parts in-house from next March.



(Reporting by Maki Shiraki, writing by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Stephen Coates)

 

[neolithic]

The Innovative Way That Japan Is Saving Its Small Rural Towns

 

[neolithic]

Historical Essays on Japanese Technology

 

[terranMarine]

| Thu Mar 30, 2017 | 12:20pm EDT
Toshiba gets go-ahead for chip unit sale at angry shareholder meeting
By Makiko Yamazaki | CHIBA, JAPAN

Toshiba Corp shareholders agreed to split off its prized NAND flash memory unit on Thursday, paving the way for a sale to raise at least $9 billion to cover U.S. nuclear unit charges that threaten the conglomerate's future.

Coming a day after Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy, the extraordinary general meeting saw angry shareholders vent at CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa, with one noting that managers had only last year described the chip and nuclear businesses as core units at the conglomerate.

"How can something that was supposed to be a pillar turn into a hole," said the shareholder, asking Tsunakawa about the company's nuclear business.

"Toshiba has become a laughingstock around the world. You have no clue what's going on," shouted another.

Toshiba, which expects to book an annual net loss of 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) for this business year on a writedown at Westinghouse, has said it is selling most or even all of a unit that is the world's second-biggest producer of NAND chips.

Initial bids for the sale closed on Wednesday.

A source with knowledge of the planned sale said that about 10 potential bidders are interested. Those suitors include Western Digital Corp which operates a chip plant with Toshiba in Japan, Micron Technology Inc, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc and financial investors.

The government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, and Development Bank of Japan are expected to enter later bidding rounds as part of a consortium, sources have said, declining to be identified as they were not authorized to speak on the matter publicly.

A separate source said that Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, is expected to place an offer which is likely to be the highest bid. Other sources have said the Japanese government is likely to block a sale to Foxconn due to its deep ties with China.

While the vote, which won the backing of more than two-thirds of shareholders, and the bankruptcy filing by Westinghouse are steps forward in Toshiba's struggle to stay in business, it woes are far from over.

Toshiba, which bought Westinghouse in 2006 for $5.4 billion now faces months of complex negotiations over the fate of its U.S. nuclear business, a discussion that could embroil the U.S. and Japanese governments.

The U.S. government has guaranteed loans of $8.3 billion loan to help finance some the construction of four reactors in the United States.

Putting American taxpayers on the hook for any losses related to Westinghouse's failure would be an embarrassment for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, particularly if the debacle sparks criticism from President Donald Trump of Japanese corporations in the United States.

During talks in Washington this month Japan's Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko agreed to share information on developments with his U.S. counterparts Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Senior officials from both countries will get a chance to discuss Toshiba further in April when Vice President Mike Pence visit for bilateral economic talks. Ross will travel with Pence, according to a Japanese government official with direct knowledge of preparations.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting-idUSKBN1710D3

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Toshiba Corp shareholders agreed to split off its prized NAND flash memory unit on Thursday, paving the way for a sale to raise at least $9 billion to cover U.S. nuclear unit charges that threaten the conglomerate's future.

Coming a day after Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy, the extraordinary general meeting saw angry shareholders vent at CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa, with one noting that managers had only last year described the chip and nuclear businesses as core units at the conglomerate.

"How can something that was supposed to be a pillar turn into a hole," said the shareholder, asking Tsunakawa about the company's nuclear business.

"Toshiba has become a laughingstock around the world. You have no clue what's going on," shouted another.

Toshiba, which expects to book an annual net loss of 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) for this business year on a writedown at Westinghouse, has said it is selling most or even all of a unit that is the world's second-biggest producer of NAND chips.

Initial bids for the sale closed on Wednesday.

A source with knowledge of the planned sale said that about 10 potential bidders are interested. Those suitors include Western Digital Corp which operates a chip plant with Toshiba in Japan, Micron Technology Inc, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc and financial investors.

The government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, and Development Bank of Japan are expected to enter later bidding rounds as part of a consortium, sources have said, declining to be identified as they were not authorized to speak on the matter publicly.

A separate source said that Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, is expected to place an offer which is likely to be the highest bid. Other sources have said the Japanese government is likely to block a sale to Foxconn due to its deep ties with China.

While the vote, which won the backing of more than two-thirds of shareholders, and the bankruptcy filing by Westinghouse are steps forward in Toshiba's struggle to stay in business, it woes are far from over.

Toshiba, which bought Westinghouse in 2006 for $5.4 billion now faces months of complex negotiations over the fate of its U.S. nuclear business, a discussion that could embroil the U.S. and Japanese governments.

The U.S. government has guaranteed loans of $8.3 billion loan to help finance some the construction of four reactors in the United States.

Putting American taxpayers on the hook for any losses related to Westinghouse's failure would be an embarrassment for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, particularly if the debacle sparks criticism from President Donald Trump of Japanese corporations in the United States.

During talks in Washington this month Japan's Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko agreed to share information on developments with his U.S. counterparts Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Senior officials from both countries will get a chance to discuss Toshiba further in April when Vice President Mike Pence visit for bilateral economic talks. Ross will travel with Pence, according to a Japanese government official with direct knowledge of preparations.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-toshiba-accounting-idUSKBN1710D3

Well, I would say that NAND business of Toshiba is actually world class. It is actually the nuclear business that is suffering, largely due to delays and cost over-runs.

And this is the magic of a market based company.

The shareholders keep the management to account. And the company responds to market situations. I know many Chinese SOEs, that survive only because of either loans and funding that they are given by State banks; or because of stimulus programmes that are undertaken to keep these companies afloat.

 

[terranMarine]

Apple, Google, Amazon, Western Digital, Hon Hai, Broadcom, SK hynix and a few more companies are bidding for Toshiba's NAND unit.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/17...dders-for-toshibas-nand-flash-memory-business

 

[dingyibvs]

If Toshiba sells its NAND business, what valuable business does it still have left?

 

[Keel]

February 14, 2017
Nikon Suffers Huge Losses and Cancels Cameras, Crashing Stock
http://nofilmschool.com/2017/02/nikon-cancels-cameras-reports-losses-and-crashes-stock

Venerable still camera manufacturer Nikon, which has failed to gain traction in the motion market, has pulled back its product offerings and laid off staff.

"Are you Nikon or Canon?" It was a long-time question among photographers. Most serious photographers had a commitment in some form to at least one or the other brand, which was a difficult hurdle for latecomers like Sony moving into the market.

Filmmakers, however, have mostly avoided Nikon, while buying Canon in droves (we have more than twice as many articles tagged "Canon" than "Nikon," for instance), with filmmakers gravitating towards either the 5D/7D line or the newer C line. Of course, Canon is usually cross-shopped against offerings from Sony or Panasonic, but Nikon failed to occupy much space in the motion market.

After releasing a "notice of extraordinary loss" yesterday indicating that the company had hemorrhaged roughly $260 million in the last three quarters of 2016, Nikon announced the cancellation of the DL camera series. The announcement triggered a one-day stock drop of 14.6%, which cost the company around $1 billion in market capitalization. To be fair to the camera department, most of last year's reported losses were related to restructuring in the semiconductor lithography business, but the effects will certainly be felt in the cinema world.

This ultimately means less competition and fewer choices for filmmakers.

This comes in addition to the announcement last November that Nikon would cut more than 1,000 jobs through early retirement.

Nikon DL 25-85Credit: Nikon


Most immediate is the loss of the DL line, which was only announced last February and was intended to be a competitor to the RX100, with internal 4K recording and a choice of three different integrated lenses, depending on the model you chose. While professional filmmakers tend to prefer interchangeable lenses, integrated lenses can be a great choice for the beginner, both in terms of keeping overall package price down and offering a good zoom range for the money. In addition, the line offered other attractive features, like 1200fps slow motion, clean HDMI out for external recorder, and a price under $1,000. Those features would have made it a great C camera on a multi-camera shoot. Alas, now the camera will never be released.

To recover from the losses, Nikon is apparently going to refocus its camera business more directly on profits and worry less about revenue. This is great from a business perspective, although it's possible Nikon will focus on its core business (mid-to-high-end still photography) and pull back from integrating video features (Hasselblad and Leica, which dominate the high end, are notoriously slow with video features, releasing cameras in 2016 with only HD video mode).

This ultimately means less competition and fewer choices for filmmakers.

 

[Keel]

Fujitsu UK workers strike to protest job losses, attacks on pay and pensions
By Robert Stevens
24 March 2017

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/03/24/fuji-m24.html

Information technology workers employed at Fujitsu UK are striking today for 24 hours, in opposition to plans by the firm to carry out up to 1,800 redundancies.

The Unite union called the strike, with a further 24-hour stoppage set for March 27.

The job losses in the UK and Ireland—to be staggered over the next 12 to 18 months—are part of 3,300 redundancies planned throughout Europe in a restructuring operation. In 2013, Fujitsu already announced 5,000 job losses globally, with 3,000 of these in Japan. Last September, the firm said 400 jobs would go at its Finland operations. Then in November Fujitsu wrote to 2,500 of its UK staff telling them their jobs were at risk.

The Japanese-based transnational provides a range of services—from operating IT systems and supplying servers for public sector and private corporations, to providing air conditioning units. It employs 14,000 workers in Britain, with the redundancies representing around 15 percent of the workforce. Fujitsu has sites throughout the UK, including in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Wakefield, Edinburgh and Belfast. The UK redundancies would allow the firm “to streamline operations in order to remain competitive in the market,” said Fujitsu.

The development of cloud-based data storage facilities has hit the major IT conglomerates, with many clients shifting their data storage from big mainframe systems supplied by firms such as Fujitsu to remote servers. TheFinancial Times noted, “Fujitsu is facing competition from nimble start-ups and Amazon Web Services, which host data in giant centres far from company premises, as well as suffering a shift from desktop to mobile devices. A Fujitsu company spokesman said that prices for services were dropping and barriers to entry lowering.”

Fujitsu—the world’s fifth-largest IT services provider with more than 150,000 employees across five continents supporting customers in 100 countries—is constantly rationalising its global operations. It is considering the sale of its PC and laptop arm to China’s Lenovo—the world’s biggest PC manufacturer.

Amid this devastating offensive on jobs, the main concern of the union bureaucracy is Fujitsu’s removal of its UK employee consultation committee, Fujitsu Voice, in favour of a centralised European works council. Fujitsu Voice had been chaired by a representative of Unite. With the termination of Fujitsu Voice, the company has also ended its associated redundancy agreement.

At present Fujitsu only allows trade union representation at its Manchester site, which employs over 600 people. Over the last several months, Unite’s Manchester members have been involved in a dispute over possible job losses, pay issues, a retrospective cut in pensions of up to 15 percent for staff who are over 60 years old, and the attempted removal from her job of a Unite rep. After 12 days of strikes, the dispute ended in February after Unite cancelled any further industrial action in January to push the deal via the government conciliatory service, Acas.

Unite did not oppose job losses in the Manchester dispute, only compulsory redundancies. It urged voluntary redundancies and more favourable redundancy terms, with the result that job losses will go ahead.

The chair of the combined Fujitsu UK and Unite committee is Ian Allinson, a former member of the pseudo-left Socialist Workers Party. Allinson is standing as the “grassroots socialist” candidate in the upcoming election for Unite general secretary against incumbent Len McCluskey and right-winger Gerard Coyne.

A January 12 Register article reported that at “Fujitsu’s Manchester branch, where Unite is recognised, the union made an agreement which gives staff a slight buffer, meaning layoffs will be delayed, Allinson told us.” It added, “Allinson said the union does not expect to halt the jobs cuts but to slow the process and negotiate better pay settlements. Fujitsu has yet to offer staff voluntary redundancy.”

Under the January 19 Fujitsu/Unite agreement ending the Manchester dispute, staff received a pay increase of just 1.42 percent—in reality a pay cut, with inflation already at 1.8 percent in January and reaching 2.3 percent this week. The published deal does not reference the issue of the pensions dispute.

Following a consultative ballot that reflected increasing anger at Fujitsu’s attacks, Unite called the national strike, which began March 17. Unite declared the dispute to be over “Job security—including the Agenda 2020 current and future job cuts,” union recognition and for Fujitsu to become “an accredited Living Wage employer, tackling pay inequality, and the retrospective cuts to the pensions of over-60s.”

The truth is that no genuine fight is being carried out by Unite. All that is being demanded is “adequate consultation periods, higher redundancy pay, the right to replace compulsory redundancies with volunteers, and honouring agreements including using the Fujitsu Voice redundancy framework nationally and Annex 1 for Manchester.”

Annex 1 in fact “provides definitions, a framework and processes to help manage changes in patterns of employment effectively.”

Unite makes no appeal for unity with workers threatened with the sack throughout Fujitsu’s global operations.

Rather, in its Q&A on the dispute, Unite boasts, “Fujitsu makes more profit in the UK than it does in either EMEIA [in Europe, the Middle East and Africa] or globally.”

Unite regional officer Sharon Hutchinson emphasised that Fujitsu’s “UK subsidiary” made “£85.6m profit last year” and that the 1,800 job losses are “not good news for the UK economy as the company says that it intends to offshore many of these jobs, with increased automation also responsible for job losses.”

In reality, whatever profit Fujitsu extracts from its UK workforce—with the assistance of Unite—can never be enough. Last November, Michael Keegan, Fujitsu’s UK and Ireland chair, told the Register, “The truth is that the IT market is massively being transformed. We are moving to new skills and new business while old business is in decline.” He added, “What we know about Fujitsu is our return to shareholders is approximately half of the rate of our competitors so we are not as profitable as other companies we benchmark ourselves against and we need to transform ourselves.”

Workers cannot oppose the attacks being made on their jobs, terms and conditions on the basis of Unite’s nationalist, pro-capitalist strategy. In a globalised economy, Fujitsu—as with all transnationals—is able to shift production to any part of the world in order to constantly shore up profitability.

Fujitsu employees in the UK can only win if they link their fight with that of their co-workers throughout the company’s massive global operations.

In 2005 Fujitsu Services, which serves markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa, shifted its entire IT Helpdesk from the UK to South Africa, making a 20 percent reduction on its UK operational costs and achieving “significant staff reductions.” Fujitsu said the IT Helpdesk supported “the hardware and software used by thousands of customer staff in over 50 countries.”

Guy Storer, Fujitsu’s then offshore operations manager , stated, “[W]e can help our customers to realise the same benefits. We can cost-effectively replicate the service in any country that they choose, whatever the size or complexity of their operations.”

 

[neolithic]

Why Tokyo is the land of rising home construction but not prices
The city had more housing starts in 2014 than the whole of England. Can Japan’s capital offer lessons to other world cities?

 

[lcloo]

The prices of houses in Tokyo reached their heights many decades ago, and it was not uncommon for three generations in a family under one roof to continue working hard to pay for bank instalments of their house.

If the prices of houses were to increase like other capital cities, no Tokyo residents will want to buy any houses in the city.

They would rather stay outside the city and travel to work everyday by bullet trains, which actually is quite common for many decades now.

 

[Piotr]

Japanese Faulty Airbag Maker Takata Files for Bankruptcy Protection
18:51 26.06.2017(updated 18:54 26.06.2017)

Takata Corp has filed for bankruptcy protection on June 26 with US$9 billion in liabilities. Takata's US subsidiary also had to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the same time having between US$10 to US$50 billion in liabilities according to court documents.

Takata Corporation is an automotive parts company based in Japan. The company was founded in 1933, producing lifelines for parachutes and later on, car seat belts and associated products.

At the height of the Takata's success, the company had production facilities on four continents, with its European headquarters located in Germany with nine production facilities.

Key Safety Systems (KSS), which is based in Michigan and owned by Chinese supplier Ningbo Joyson, said that it had reached a deal with Takata to purchase nearly all of its assets for about US$1.57 billion, after the airbag maker filed for bankruptcy in the United States and Japan.

"Takata has deep management talent, a dedicated work force and a long history of exceptional customer service."

"Although Takata has been impacted by the global airbag recall, the underlying strength of its skilled employee base, geographic reach, and exceptional steering wheels, seat belts and other safety products have not diminished. We look forward to finalizing definitive agreements with Takata in the coming weeks, completing the transaction and serving both our new and long-standing customers while investing in the next phase of growth for the new KSS," Jason Luo, President and CEO of KSS said in a recent interview.

Takata's problems began in 2008 when it was forced to recall 100 million airbag inflators around the world, which were being used by major car manufacturers such as Honda, Ford, Volkswagen and BMW.

It was found that the airbag inflators could explode if the car were to get into a collision, and it would spray metal fragments towards drivers as well as passengers.

There were more than 16 deaths and more than 180 injuries linked to the defects globally.

Around US$1 billion from the sale to KSS is expected to be directed at settling criminal charges in the US. Takata have agreed to plead guilty to wrongdoing, and pay a US$25 million fine to resolve the US Department of Justice investigation.

On top of this, the company agreed to pay US$125 million to a victims' compensation fund.

"KSS is the ideal sponsor as we address the costs related to airbag inflator recalls, and an optimal partner to the company's customers, suppliers and employees. The combined business would be well positioned for long-term success in the global automotive industry. Throughout this process, our top priorities have been providing a steady supply of products to our valued customers, including replacement parts for recalls, and a stable home for our exceptional employees. This agreement would allow that to continue," Shigehisa Takada, Chairman & CEO of Takata said.
Source: https://sputniknews.com/business/201706261054984466-japan-takata-airbag-bankruptcy/

 

[neolithic]

A Re-Examination of Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan (1868-1912)