Solar Powered Apartments

Sekisui House says it will start selling apartments fitted with solar cell systems from next month. The firm is planning to piggyback on changing government legislation, which will require power companies to pay JPY48 per kW/hr for sustainable micro power generators (i.e., home-based solar cell and wind turbine owners) feeding to the national grid, from November. Right now, the utilities pay just JPY8per kW/hr. According to Sekisui, the new power systems will add about JPY5.6MM to the price of a typical four-room apartment, but amortized, this works out to just JPY5,000/month.

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. make acquisition

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd.Tokyo, Japan Group of companies that develop and market innovative, high-quality products for storing, moving, and using digital content Acquired Freecom B.V.Rijswijk, Netherlands Data storage and multimedia solutions provider

Global market for solar cells to hit JPY10trn

Research firm Fuji Keizai has issued a report saying thatthe global market for photovoltaic cells will hit JPY10trn (US$106bn) in the next ten years, through to 2020 -- a 500% increase over current demand. The global market size in 2008 was JPY2.11trn (US$22.44bn), and although the growth rate for this year has slowed because of the economic slowdown, Fuji Keizai is predicting a strong recovery in 2010. (Source: TT commentary from nikkei.co.jp,Aug 28, 2009)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd will invest about 30 billion yen in mass production of lithium-ion batteries.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd will invest about 30 billion yen in mass production of lithium-ion batteries. [NIKKEI, ASAHI, YOMIURI]

Expertise in Electric Vehicle technology sought ......

Prof. Shimizu of Keio University established a company called SIM-Drive in an effort to spread electric vehicles through cooperation between industry and universities. [TOKYO, SANKEI, ASAHI, MAINICHI]

NEC and Mitsubishi Denki target LED business

NEC and Mitsubishi Denki will enter the LED bulb business from September this year. [NIKKEI]

Lawson and Matsumoto Kiyoshi form business alliance

Lawson, the major convenience store chain and Matsumoto Kiyoshi, the major pharmacy chain, will form a business alliance. They will jointly establish a company within this year to open a new type of store from next spring. [NIKKEI]

Japanese utilities to start purchase of consumers' solar power

A Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) program designed to subsidize home owner's costs of installing solar power panels will kick off later this year. The plan allows home owners to sell power back to grid power operators at a fixed (high) price, thus allowing them to off-set their solar investments -- a cost-recovery process that takes about 10-15 years. The power companies will inturn get their money back by passing on the higher costs to general consumers. The power companies will payJPY48 per kw/hr for such solar-produced domestic power,about double the current rate of power.

UKTI are organising a stand at SEECAT 2009

Japan - Special Equipment Exhibition & Conference for Anti-Terrorism (SEECAT) 2009Special Equipment Exhibition & Conference for Anti-Terrorism (SEECAT) specialising in Anti-Terrorism, is holding its 3rd show this year between 21 -23 October 2009. UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Tokyo and UKTI Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) are organising a UK information stand at SEECAT 2009 to help market the strength of UK’s products and technologies in the security and defence sectors. SEECAT is concurrently held with RISCON - Risk Control exhibition.

Sanyo Denki will increase production of solar batteries to meet increasing domestic demand.

Sanyo Denki will increase production of solar batteries to meet increasing domestic demand. [NIKKEI]

Green economy and beer sales; growth sectors ....

Kirin Holdings post record-high sales between January and June 2009.[ASAHI, MAINICHI, YOMIURI]

Keio and Isuzu Universities to produce electric vehicles

Isuzu and KeioUniversity will jointly develop an electric bus. An experimental car will be completed by autumn next year. [TOKYO, SANKEI]

McDonald’s Holdings Japan posts record sales.

Some companies continue to prosper in these tough economic times ....... [TOKYO, SANKEI, NIKKEI, ASAHI]

Toyota to produce fuel cell powered vehicle in US by 2015

The President of Toyota who is now visiting the US delivered a speech at a seminar in Michigan and expressed strong expectation towards recovery of the US market. He also said Toyota would start producing fuel cell-powered vehicle in the US by 2015. [TOKYO, SANKEI, NIKKEI, ASAHI]

Will the 'Green Economy' drive us out of recession?

Toyota trimmed its loss forecast for the current business year due to increasing demand for the Prius hybrid car. [TOKYO, NIKKEI, ASAHI, MAINICHI, YOMIURI)

Make Up Lounge Cafe's ..... a new business idea

I noticed this new shop in Yokohama Station; it is basically a coffee and cake shop, but tucked away at the back is a door to a private room containing an 'Aladins cave' of make up accessories. So the busy commuter, (or someone with time to kill) can pop in, have a coffee and try new make up ......

Electric cars are becoming a reality in Japan .....

Lawson, a major convenience store chain, purchased ten electric cars produced by Mitsubishi Motors. It has also installed battery chargers for electric cars at seven stores. [TOKYO, MAINICHI]

Waseda University will provide each student who studies at either Cambridge or Oxford University with a 1.5 million-yen scholarship fund

Amazing news from Asahi Newspaper in Japan today .....

Visit to Nintendo HQ

Last week I visited Ninteno's HQ just outside Kyoto. The guys there are generally positive, (as you would expect from such a dominant company), however the strong Yen is hurting them;


Nintendo profit down 60.6 percent in April-June
TOKYO (AP) -- Nintendo Co. reports that its net profit tumbled 60.6 percent in the April-June quarter from last year, hurt by a stronger yen and fewer blockbuster games. The Kyoto-based maker of Pokemon and Super Mario games posted net profit of 42.3 billion yen ($445.2 million), down from 107.3 billion yen during the same period a year earlier. Sales declined 40 percent to 253.5 billion yen, while operating profit - a measure of its core business - fell 66 percent to 40.4 billion yen. It left its forecasts unchanged for the full year through March 2010. It continues to expects net profit of 300 billion yen on 1.8 trillion yen in sales.

FDI Into Japan Reaches Record High for Second Straight Year in 2008

Net FDI into Japan (balance of payment basis) reached a record high for the second consecutive year in 2008, reaching US$24.5 billion, up 10.7% from US$22.1 billion recorded the previous year. This is on a gross capital inflow of US$73.2 billion, a record, and a gross capital outflow of US$48.6 billion, which is not far behind the US$52.5 billion recorded in 2006. The high inflow was led by additional investments made by financial institutions and companies seeking to boost the capital of their Japanese subsidiaries, while deteriorating economic conditions in industrialized nations may have played a factor in the high outflow figure.