Nov 30th - Sumitomo To Invest In French Solar Power Project

Sumitomo Corp. plans to take a stake in photovoltaic facilities now under construction in southern France and slated to come onstream next spring.

This is the first time that a Japanese company participates in a French solar power project.

Eco Delta Developpement, a French energy resources firm based in Marseilles, is building 30,000kw of solar plant facilities for roughly 14 billion yen in Les Mees, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.

Sumitomo will obtain a 49.9% stake in the management company already established to oversee the plant operations. The Japanese trading house will also shoulder half of the project's costs. The facilities will supply power to a French power utility for 20 years, ensuring stable earnings, according to Sumitomo.

The French government plans to increase its domestic solar power generation capacity from roughly 130,000kw to 5.4 million kilowatts in 2020. With France and other European countries expected to pursue solar power projects, Sumitomo aims to accelerate its investment in the region.

Nov 30th - Sumitomo Chemical Co. to build a Singaporean factory to produce synthetic rubber for fuel-saving tires.

Sumitomo Chem Picks Singapore For New Tire Rubber Plant

The investment will come to about 10 billion yen. The facility is expected to go onstream in the October-December quarter of 2013 and have an annual output capacity of 40,000 tons.

With stricter fuel economy standards in the U.S. and Europe driving growth in demand for fuel-saving tires, Sumitomo Chemical initially considered boosting production capacity for styrene-butadiene rubber at a Chiba Prefecture plant. But butadiene -- a raw material -- can be procured more steadily in Singapore and preferential tax treatment there will likely make the rubber more cost-competitive.

Sumitomo Chemical's output capacity for the high-performance rubber now stands at 10,000 tons in Japan -- a figure that will quintuple when the Singaporean plant begins operation.

Nov 30th - Mazda and Sumitomo to spend 30-40 billion yen to build a Mexican plant

Mazda To Make Cars In Mexico With Sumitomo

-Mazda Motor Corp. and trading house Sumitomo Corp. will spend 30-40 billion yen to build a Mexican plant that will start rolling out passenger cars as early as 2013.

With an initial output of 100,000 cars a year, this plant will serve as the automaker's production base for Central and South America.

For Mazda, which has just seen longtime top shareholder Ford Motor Co. slash its investment, the move marks a new departure in overseas production and sales -- two areas where it had relied on its American partner.

The Mexican plant will be Mazda's fourth factory outside Japan. The others, in the U.S., China and Thailand, have all been run in cooperation with Ford. Although Sumitomo will join in managing the new factory, Mazda will hold a majority stake in the operating company -- something it has never done before.

Mazda and Sumitomo are considering several sites for the factory. They are expected to decide on a location in early 2011, with construction to begin later that year.

The automaker plans to build its mainstay Mazda2 and Mazda3 models, sold as the Demio and the Axela in Japan, at the Mexican factory, which will be its first new overseas production base since the Thai plant opened in 1998. These vehicles will be sold in Mexico and exported to Brazil as well as other Central and South American markets. Mazda will also consider making engines at the plant.

Mazda sold a little over 50,000 cars in the region last year, just 4.5% of its global total. It aims to sell 1.7 million worldwide in fiscal 2015, up 30% from its target for this fiscal year, and eventually around 2 million through expanded sales in South America.

Mexico has an economic partnership with Mercosur, a common market including Brazil and Argentina. Locating the new plant in Mexico will lower customs barriers to these countries, giving Mazda an edge in price competition.

Tariffs on exports of autoparts from Japan to Mexico are scheduled to disappear in 2014 under a bilateral economic partnership agreement. This will make it easier for Mazda to procure supplies from affiliated manufacturers in Japan. Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. all have factories in Mexico.

Ford lowered its stake in Mazda from 11% to 3.5% on Thursday, ending its 31-year run as top shareholder. One of the existing shareholders agreeing to buy up a portion of Ford's stake was Sumitomo, which has a track record in autoparts manufacturing in Mexico and is looking to expand its auto businesses. It will help Mazda find new sales channels, as will Itochu Corp, another Mazda shareholder that increased its stake with shares from Ford.

Mazda's move into Mexico provides the latest indication of Japanese automakers' shift in production to emerging markets. The industry has held off on major investments in Japan since the 2008 financial crisis. A number of companies are planning to raise output in China. Suzuki Motor Corp. is building a factory in India, while Nissan will invest in AvtoVaz, Russia's biggest automaker.

Nov 23rd -Eisai Co. will start manufacturing drugs in the UK in early 2011

Eisai To Make Aricept Tablets At U.K. Plant

Eisai will produce Aricept tablets in the U.K.

Eisai Co. will use its facility in the U.K. to manufacture the finished tablet formulation of its blockbuster Alzheimer's drug Aricept beginning in early 2011.

To better control production costs after the European patents on Aricept expire in 2012, Eisai will stop outsourcing production and start making the tablets at its strategic European base the firm set up in the U.K. in 2009.

The U.K. location has a manufacturing plant capable of formulating 400 million tablets a year, and it will make Aricept tablets from the bulk active ingredients imported from Eisai's plant in Ibaraki Prefecture.

In the future, Eisai will also use its U.K. base to manufacture other finished drugs as a means of controlling costs.

Nov 16th - Itochu, Kajima To Buy Mazda Shares From Ford

Trading house Itochu Corp. and general contractor Kajima Corp. are among the roughly 10 firms that have agreed to buy Mazda Motor Corp. shares from U.S. carmaker Ford Motor Co.

Ford had concluded talks with potential buyers as of Tuesday. In addition to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. which had been seen as likely buyers, the roster grew to about 10 companies in the end, including Itochu and Kajima.

Itochu and Sumitomo will each buy a 3% stake in the Japanese automaker from Ford, with the acquisition price estimated at about 10 billion yen.

SMBC, Mazda's main lender, which already holds a 2.9% interest in the carmaker, will also buy additional shares. The rest will go to companies that do business with Mazda, such as materials and parts suppliers.

Ford has been Mazda's top shareholder for 31 years, but will no longer be so when it sells a large portion of its 11% stake. The U.S. carmaker intends to continue to hold a stake of around 3%.

Mazda will strengthen capital and business ties with financial institutions and business partners.

Ford and Mazda will this week make an official announcement about the post-sale makeup of Mazda shareholders.

Nov 16th - Fuji Heavy Industries Planning Hybrid Vehicle For U.S. In 2012

The company unveiled the Subaru Hybrid Tourer concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show in October last year.

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru cars, is planning to launch a hybrid vehicle in the U.S. in 2012.

The automaker will develop the hybrid with the help of leading shareholder Toyota Motor Corp. The move is intended to expand Fuji Heavy's sales in the southern U.S. and California, where its market shares have been low but interest in environment friendly cars is strong.

Details have not been disclosed, but it is understood that Fuji Heavy will not launch a dedicated hybrid vehicle like Toyota's Prius, instead adding a hybrid version to one of its mainstay midsize cars. The company plans to adapt Toyota's hybrid vehicle technology to work with Fuji Heavy's unique horizontally opposed engines.

Once completed, the hybrid will first be released in Japan in 2012, where demand for such vehicles is high. It will then be modified slightly for the U.S. market for release by the end of that year. For now, plans are to build it at Fuji Heavy's plant in Ota, Gunma Prefecture, for export to America, the company's largest market that accounts for nearly 40% of its global sales. The vehicle could be introduced in other overseas markets if U.S. sales take off.

In 2010, Fuji Heavy's U.S. sales are projected to rise 15.4% to 250,000 units, but most of that is coming from the snowy northern regions where customers tend to favor four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Nov 12th - Kyocera, others to invest up to $370 mln in JAL

Kyocera, Nomura, Daiwa in final talks to invest in JAL·      

Japanese electronics firm Kyocera Corp and brokerages Nomura Securities and Daiwa Securities are in the final stage of talks to invest 20-30 billion yen ($247-370 million) in Japan Airlines, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The investment would be part of a planned capital increase for JAL as the bankrupt carrier, aiming to turn around its business, seeks to bolster its financial base, the report said without citing sources.

JAL filed for bankruptcy in January with $25 billion in debt and is carrying out drastic restructuring to help rebuild its business under court-managed rehabilitation.

JAL's chairman Kazuo Inamori, also the founder and honorary chairman of Kyocera, told reporters last month that the carrier plans to boost its capital by another 50 billion yen in addition to a planned 350 billion yen investment by the government-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp.

Asked what kind of investors JAL is seeking, Inamori said at the time that the carrier was considering various options. He did not rule out foreign investment.

Kyocera has not received any official request from JAL for investment, Kyocera spokesman Kenji Sugiuchi said on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Nomura Securities, a unit of Nomura Holdings, said nothing concrete has been decided, while a Daiwa spokeswoman said it had no comment.

Kyocera shares rose 0.9 percent to 8,640 by midday. Nomura Holdings gained 4.2 percent to 446 yen and Daiwa advanced 3.5 percent to 357 yen while the benchmark Nikkei 225 average gained 1.2 percent. ($1=81.09 Yen).

Nov 9th - Toppan Printing Boosting Solar Cell Protective Sheet Capacity

Toppan Printing Co. plans to raise production capacity for protective sheets used in solar cell panels to 2.5 times current levels next spring.

The company will invest some 5 billion yen to construct a new building at its plant in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture, to increase production of protective sheets, which are attached to the back surface of solar panels to keep out dust and moisture and extend panel life. The new facility will expand the plant's floor space to 28,000 sq. meters from 8,000 sq. meters.

Once the expansion is completed in March, the plant will be able to produce enough protective sheets for 5 gigawatts of solar panels each year, compared with 2 gigawatts at present.

Toppan's Fukuya Plant is expected to be at full capacity in the spring.

The Fukaya plant currently makes enough protective sheets for just under 1 gigawatt of panels annually, but demand is climbing rapidly. The company decided to beef up capacity because existing facilities are expected to be at full production next spring.

Toppan Printing is cultivating demand from foreign manufacturers in China and Taiwan, as well as from Sharp Corp. and other domestic manufacturers. It aims to increase its overseas sales ratio for protective sheets to 60-70%, up from around 40% at present.

Nov 7th - DoCoMo's Next-Gen LTE Service To Compete On Price

-NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to offer competitive pricing for the high-speed cellular phone service it is rolling out Dec. 24, The Nikkei learned Sunday.

Many industry insiders speculated that monthly charges for the service, which will employ the Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology, will come to around 10,000 yen. But the leading Japanese cell phone carrier has decided to set the effective monthly fee at 6,510 yen, just 9% higher than what it charges for its existing service.

That amount is expected to cover up to 5 gigabytes of data transmissions, which is sufficient for listening to 1,250 4-minute songs or watching normal-quality online videos for 23 hours. DoCoMo believes that the 5GB threshold will be enough for 99% of its customers. For the small number of heavy users, each additional 2,625 yen will buy them an extra 2GB of data volume.

DoCoMo's LTE service coverage will be limited to major cities until April 2012. During this initial period, customers signing up for two-year contracts will receive an even better deal of 4,935 yen per month.

The LTE service is expected to offer data transmission speeds that are 5-10 times faster than DoCoMo's existing service, or comparable to speeds delivered by fixed-line broadband services.

Major cellular phone carriers around the world are expected to begin offering LTE services in the coming years.

In Japan, Softbank Mobile Corp. and KDDI Corp. are working toward launching their LTE services in 2012 or later.

In Europe, LTE services are already being offered in Stockholm and some areas of Germany, but their charges amount to more than 7,000 yen per month.

Nov 7th - Panasonic Tops FY09 Patent Ranking

Panasonic Corp. racked up the most valuable patents in the year ended March 2010, according to a ranking by Tokyo research firm Patent Result Co.

Panasonic secured the top spot because it registered the highest number of patents with the Japan Patent Office in fiscal 2009, including some valuable ones, such as a patent related to an electrode material for lithium ion secondary batteries.

Toyota Motor Corp. ranked second, thanks partly to patents on a high-precision car-navigation system and a vehicle structure for electric automobiles.

Despite registering the smallest number of patents among the top 10 firms, Sharp Corp. (6753) came in fifth. This is because the company secured highly valuable patents, including one for an online payment settlement system that is expected to help make e-books popular.

Denso Corp. was the biggest gainer among the top 10 firms, climbing from ninth in fiscal 2008 to seventh. The company's rise was helped by a patent on air conditioning systems for hybrid vehicles.

Nov 5th - Sharp to Acquire Recurrent Energy as Wholly-owned Subsidiary U.S. Developer of Distributed Solar Projects for 305M USD

Sharp Corporation announces the completion of acquisition procedures for Recurrent Energy, LLC (hereinafter “Recurrent Energy”), a U.S. developer of distributed solar projects, making Recurrent Energy a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sharp as of November 4 (U.S. local time). The purchase price is 305 million U.S. dollars. Since the two companies reached the acquisition agreement on September 21 (U.S. local time), Sharp has been taking necessary procedures to make Recurrent Energy a wholly-owned subsidiary, while obtaining approvals from relevant authorities. Demand in the North American photovoltaic market is expected to expand greatly, due to an increase in the number of projects for power companies. In this field, the role of a solar power developer is significant. Recurrent Energy, a leading solar project developer and generating company in the U.S., develops and markets solar power generation plants by collaborating with power companies. Recurrent Energy holds an approx. 2 GW project pipeline of solar power generation plants located in the U.S. and Canada, and is also developing business in other areas, including Europe. Sharp will be able to function as a developer in the photovoltaic field through this acquisition, and further expand its business in this area. With Recurrent Energy’s know-how as a developer, Sharp aims to become a total-solution company in the photovoltaic field, extending from developing and producing solar cells and modules to developing and marketing power generation plants. Overview of Recurrent Energy Company Name: Recurrent Energy, LLC Location: San Francisco, California Establishment: 2006 Field of Business: Development of solar power generation plants

5th Nov - Kineo CAM the leading software components provider for collision detection and automatic path planning establishes an office in Kyoto, Japan.

The French software editor incorporated in 2000 as a spin-off company of the national public research laboratory LAAS-CNRS has chosen to open its first foreign office in Japan. Kineo CAM is a Small-Medium Enterprise recognized as a specialist in software for motion planning and collision avoidance; the company delivers its solutions on a worldwide basis and in Japan since 2006.

Since then, a dozen of large Japanese organizations have been using Kineo CAM’s software technology for which the local demand is growing. By opening this office, the company intends to come closer to its current customers while intensifying its penetration in the proven market of manufacturing robotics as well as in the emerging servicing robotics market.

“We are happy to see that Kineo has come closer to us geographically; it could help in distributing more rapidly and broadly their software” says Dr. Eng. Yutaka Hirano, Chief Technologist, Project General Manager at Future Project Division of Toyota Motor Corporation.

In operation since last July, Kineo CAM in Japan has already signed a prospect in a new sector – special robots in the semi-conductor market; who has just invested in automatic path planning software to avoid collisions for its equipments.

“Our mission in Japan consists in supporting our local partners, mainly in automotive and aerospace markets but also to increase the number of software integrations with software developers, original robot manufacturers and Japanese research labs in robotics”explains Sébastien Malbranche, VP Sales and Marketing.
Sébastien Malbranche returns to Japan where he spent almost three years in Tokyo, Osaka and Sendai as a visiting researcher then as a humanoid robotics specialist in the early 2000s.

“I’m delighted with this decision as it has been our wish for the past one or two years; it will ease our business and technical relationships” expresses Dr. Eng. Eiichi Yoshida, Co-Director of the Japanese – French Joint Robotics Laboratory, CNRS-AIST UMI3218/CRT established in 2008.

4th Nov - Ajinomoto Earmarks Y24bn To Build New Plants In Thailand

-Ajinomoto Co.  will spend around 24 billion yen through 2013 to build new plants in Thailand to help it tap demand in Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East.

Demand for flavor-enhancing seasonings is growing in Asia.

The seasonings firm has earmarked roughly 15 billion yen to construct a new plant for its trademark Aji-No-Moto monosodium glutamate powder in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya. Work will start next month, with production to begin in March 2013. This will be the firm's first Aji-No-Moto plant in Thailand in 15 years.

Able to churn out 60,000 tons a year, the new plant will raise Aji-No-Moto output capacity by 10% when operating at full capacity. Currently, the company produces just over 600,000 tons a year, mostly in Thailand and Brazil. Output will be sold primarily to Southeast Asian nations in the vicinity, as well as to India and the Middle East, where the company's presence has been weak.

Aji-No-Moto is used as a flavor-enhancing seasoning and as an ingredient for adding zest to soup stock. Amid population growth and improving standards of living in Asia, demand for monosodium glutamate is ballooning. Ajinomoto anticipates increased demand from retailers and restaurants.

Also, the company will invest 9.3 billion yen in Thailand to ramp up production of nucleic acids, another ingredient for savory seasonings. Although it makes 10,000 tons a year in Thailand and Japan, production will be boosted to over 15,000 tons by autumn 2013. Seasonings using the additional nucleic acid produced will be sold throughout Asia. Nucleic acid is the key ingredient for Ajinomoto's Hon-Dashi flavor seasoning and its Knorr instant soup.

The 24 billion yen investment in Thailand will be the firm's biggest overseas spending spree. By accelerating its development of Asian markets, Ajinomoto seeks to lift food sales to consumers in the region to 200 billion yen by fiscal 2016, up from last fiscal year's roughly 130 billion yen.

4th Nov - Panasonic To Invest In Tesla, Jointly Develop EV Battery Tech

A Tesla sportscar on display in a Tokyo showroom   

Panasonic Corp. will acquire a small stake in Tesla Motors Inc. and jointly develop electric-vehicle batteries with the U.S. EV maker. The Japanese electronics giant's share purchase will likely be smaller than Toyota Motor Corp.'s 50 million dollar investment in Tesla, resulting in a several percent interest in the U.S. firm.

Panasonic signed an agreement in January to supply lithium ion batteries for Tesla's electric cars. Strengthening its ties with the U.S. partner further, Panasonic aims to work with Tesla to develop battery systems for next-generation EVs.

Along with Sanyo Electric Co. the Panasonic group is the world's No. 1 lithium ion battery maker, commanding a global market share of around 30%.

Sanyo is a major player in the field of large batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles developed by the major automakers. By contrast, Panasonic is focusing on vehicle systems using small general-purpose batteries.

Panasonic and Tesla will likely work together to develop technologies for utilizing such battery systems efficiently, since Tesla's electric cars are powered by several thousand cylindrical-shaped lithium ion batteries, which are typically found in personal computers.

The U.S. EV specialist has already been selling its Roadster and other vehicles in Japan. The company and Toyota are currently developing a new EV based on a sport utility vehicle.

Panasonic will likely announce the capital tie-up with Tesla as early as Thursday.

4th Nov - Softbank Mobile To Offer 3-D Cell Phones

Softbank Mobile Corp. said Thursday it will release 24 new cell phone models, including the Galapagos 003SH, a smartphone that can offer 3-D images without special glasses.

All the smartphones to be launched will run the latest version of Google Inc.'s Android operating system. New Galapagos models, made by Sharp Corp, will have such capabilities unique to Japanese mobile gadgets as "one-seg" digital TV broadcasting and e-wallet functions.

Facing competition from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and KDDI Corp, Softbank Mobile aims to further expand its market share, which it has built on the popularity of Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The Softbank Corp. unit is the exclusive Japanese service provider for the Apple smartphone.

4th Nov - Keane Buyout Raises NTT Data's Global Profile

NTT Data Corp, with its purchase of U.S. IT consulting and outsourcing firm Keane Inc., has begun a serious push to meet the needs of its increasingly globalized clients.

NTT Data President Toru Yamashita discusses his firm's globalization strategy at a press conference on Tuesday.

NTT Data, a unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. bought Keane for 110 billion yen late last month. NTT Data expects Keane to give it a bigger presence in the world's largest IT services market.

At a press conference Tuesday announcing the company's earnings, NTT Data President Toru Yamashita promised more overseas acquisitions in the coming years. The firm's global expansion drive is being fueled by growing demand for international services among its customers, and a shift in its parent's strategic focus. "Unless we expand internationally, we will lose share in the Japanese market as well," Yamashita said.

Many of NTT Data's corporate clients, which include such household names as Panasonic Corp.(6752) and Honda Motor Co, are shifting more of their IT investments overseas. NTT Data fears losing important Japanese clients, which are racing to globalize their operations, if it remains focused on Japan.

NTT Data's overseas sales in the year through March 2010 amounted to some 70 billion yen, just 6% of its total revenue.

Click to enlarge

"We are considered incapable of dealing with overseas projects," said a senior executive at the firm. The trends bear these concerns out. NTT Data is losing more and more contracts to overseas rivals, creating a sense of crisis within the company. "If we keep losing here, we will eventually become irrelevant," Yamashita said.

Let's make a deal

NTT Data first approached Keane with a buyout offer in the summer of 2009, shortly after it announced an overseas sales target of 300 billion yen for the year ending March 2013. Keane and its major shareholders were cool to the idea at first, saying they had no intention to sell.

But NTT Data kept courting the U.S. company, and its efforts eventually paid off. Earlier this year, Keane's management and shareholders softened their resistance and told NTT Data that they would reconsider the offer.

Acquiring Keane is vital to NTT Data's globalization strategy. While its business in Europe has grown to annual sales of around 50 billion yen, thanks in part to its purchase of itelligence AG of Germany, NTT Data's operations in the U.S. have been stagnant for years, with annual sales languishing at around 15 billion yen.

Boston-based Keane racks up nearly 90% of its sales in the U.S. and boasts a broad and well-balanced customer base of government agencies, manufacturers, financial institutions, health care providers and others.

Like NTT Data, Keane's forte is development of information systems from the ground up. The U.S. company is ideally equipped to serve as the core of NTT Data's operations there.

Talks on the deal entered the last lap in early October, when the Citigroup Inc. unit that owned half of Keane proposed exclusive negotiations. A deal was struck in late October.

A move by the NTT group holding company also spurred NTT Data's efforts to scoop up Keane. In July, NTT announced an agreement to buy Dimension Data Holdings Plc, a South African information system services provider, for 2.1 billion pounds, or 286 billion yen.

NTT caused a stir at NTT Data by giving Dimension the same status within the group as NTT Data, which had been the group's key information system services unit. The move sent a message to NTT Data that it would not be given sole responsibility for globalizing the group's operations. Concerns about being sidelined prodded NTT Data to clinch the deal with Keane.

But the acquisition is just the start of NTT Data's globalization. The company is aiming for annual sales of 100 billion yen in each of the three key regions -- North America, Europe and Asia.

To achieve that goal, NTT Data needs to expand its business sharply in all these markets, especially in Asia, where it is grossing only about 5 billion yen annually.

3rd Nov - KDDI, Softbank Mobile and SK Telecom to introduce NFC standard services in Japan and Korea

The three mobile network operators are to move away from the non-NFC mobile contactless technologies they currently support in favour of an NFC standard solution.

Korean mobile network operator SK Telecom and Japanese operatorsKDDI and Softbank Mobile have signed a memorandum of understanding that will see the three companies working together to switch from their existing non-NFC standard mobile contactless services to an NFC standard approach.

Japan and Korea are the current world leaders when it comes to providing consumers with mobile contactless payments services. KDDI and Softbank Mobile currently participate in the widely used Osaifu-Keitai service, developed by rival operator NTT DoCoMo and based on Sony's FeliCa technology. SK Telecom currently has 3.28 million users of its mobile payments service, developed in-house.

Both technologies enable consumers to use their mobile phone to make payments in stores and on public transport but are incompatible with each other and do not include tag reading functionality — a key driver of the three operators' decision to move to NFC.

Now the three carriers plan to use NFC technology to develop a range of compatible mobile payments, customer loyalty and promotions services that can be used by customers of all three operators in both Japan and Korea.

"Customers will be able to enjoy easy and convenient payment and additional services such as coupon benefits seamlessly without the need of renting and changing phones when visiting each other's country," says SK Telecom. "When the NFC- based payment system roll-out is completed, NFC phone users in Korea and Japan will be able to make mobile transactions after a simple downloading of a mobile payment application to their phones."

"Various services — mobile coupons, membership discounts and mobile gift vouchers — already in use in Korean and Japanese markets will also be available via NFC handsets," the operator adds. "Customers will be able to seamlessly use the convenient payment service as well as additional mobile services without any service interruptions or geographical limitations."

While Korea already has an installed base of 25,000 contactless card terminals that are compatible with NFC phones, the switch to NFC in Japan will require retailers to install new payments terminals that meet NFC and contactless card standards.  And the key to the success of that is likely to lie with how NTT DoCoMo reacts to the news that KDDI and Softbank are to defect from Osaifu-Keitai. The operator has already developed an NFC standard service offering, which it has been demonstrating at industry events for several years, but is yet to announce any move towards introducing NFC services commercially in Japan.

KDDI announced a major NFC trial in April, with an impressive list of partners including Toyota, All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL), Hitachi, various card issuers — and NTT Data.

SK Telecom, meanwhile, introduced a next generation service called T Smart Pay in March. The new service enables customers to store up to eight credit cards in their mobile phones, as well as up to 30 membership/point/mileage cards and 50 coupons and is expected to form the foundation of the new NFC services offered by KDDI, Softbank and SK Telecom.

"It is encouraging that mobile carriers of Korea and Japan have joined hands to promote mobile payment business," says Hong Sung Chul, executive vice president and head of service division of SK Telecom. "We hope this cooperation can become a strong springboard for boosting the overseas growth of SK Telecom's comprehensive mobile payment service, T Smart Pay, starting with the Japan market."

Nov 2nd - Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation - "Production of Electrolyte for Li-ion Batteries to Start in the UK and the US"

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation ("MCC"; Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Yoshimitsu Kobayashi) has decided to establish new companies to manufacture and sell electrolyte for Li-ion batteries (LiBs) in the UK and the US. Both new operations will be located on the premises of production sites of Lucite International Group Limited (Head office: Southampton, the UK; CEO: Ian R. Lambert) that is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Rayon Co., Ltd. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Masanao Kambara). MCC, as the only company in the world to provide all four key LiB materials - electrolyte, anode, cathode, and separator, will further develop the LiB materials business by offering optimal material solutions meeting customer needs and being committed to consistent quality and global supply. 1. Outline of the New Company in the UK   • Name TBD   • Location Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, the UK   • Capital 8.3 million GBP (Approx. 1.1 billion JPY) - MCC 100% -   • Production Capacity 10,000 MT/Year   • Capital Expenditure Approx. 2.5 billion JPY (Under examination)   • Commercial Operation Scheduled to begin in the autumn of 2011 2. Outline of the New Company in the US   • Name TBD   • Location Memphis, Tennessee, the US   • Capital 13.1 million USD (Approx. 1.1 billion JPY) - MCC 100% -   • Production Capacity 10,000 MT/Year   • Capital Expenditure Approx. 2.5 billion JPY (Under examination)   • Commercial Operation Scheduled to begin in the summer of 2012 3. MCC's Capacity Expansion Plan of the Four Key LiB Materials (Unit: "m2/Year" for separator, "MT/Year" for the others)   Production Capacity, Location Capacity Expansion Plan, Location, Commencement of Commercial Operation Target Capacity in 2015 Expansion Area Electrolyte 8,500, Yokkaichi +5,000, Yokkaichi, Feb. 2012 +10,000, the UK, Autumn 2011 +10,000, the US, Summer 2012 50,000 Japan and Overseas Anode 3,000 Sakaide +2,000, Sakaide, Dec. 2010 +2,000, Sakaide, May 2011 +4,000, China, Mar. 2012 35,000 Japan and Overseas Cathode 600 Mizushima +1,600, Mizushima, Oct. 2010 15,000 Japan Separator 12 million, Nagahama, Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc.   72 million Japan   Expected Sales of Four Materials in Fiscal 2010: 17 billion JPY   Expected Sales of Four Materials in Fiscal 2015: 80 billion JPY Locations of the New Companies   Lucite, the UK   Lucite, the US