6th Oct - CEATEC Japan features smart grid power network, 3-D technology

The CEATEC Japan 2010 information technology and electronics fair opened Tuesday in Chiba, featuring displays of a next-generation smart grid power transmission network and a wide lineup of products using 3-D technologies.

A total of 616 companies and groups, of which 196 are from overseas, have registered to exhibit their products and technologies in 2,255 booths, organizers said. The five-day fair is being held at Chiba's Makuhari Messe convention center.

The organizers said they expect the fair to draw some 200,000 visitors, compared with last year's 150,000.

One of the highlights this year is a 3-D theater where the audience can experience a simulation of a near-future city. The city features an IT-driven smart grid that optimizes the balance between demand and supply of electricity to achieve a low-carbon society.

Smart grids are efficient power transmission networks that are also expected to encourage the use of renewable energy because they provide stability even if fluctuating natural power sources such as solar and wind are used.

"Smart grids are the ultimate way of monitoring and providing services to customers," said Mitsuhiko Yamashita, executive vice president of Nissan Motor Co., which developed the smart grid presentation jointly with Namco Bandai Games Inc.

By finding out how people are using their utilities, it becomes possible to provide electricity, water and gas more effectively, Yamashita said in a speech.

Among the presentations of products using 3-D technologies, Toshiba Corp. is showcasing 3-D televisions that can be watched without special glasses. Toshiba plans to become the world's first company to release such a product when it markets the TVs in late December in Japan.

Toshiba unveiled 12- and 20-inch liquid crystal display 3-D Regza TVs, while a 56-inch model is also on display.

Among other high-profile exhibits, Hitachi Displays Ltd. is demonstrating a new type of energy-saving compact display it has developed jointly with Pixtronix Inc. of the United States.

The display, intended for portable devices such as smart phones and tablets, consumes only about half the electricity of an LCD, allowing people to read electronic books longer without having to recharge their device, the Hitachi group company said. Hitachi Displays plans to begin mass-producing the display possibly in late 2011.

The organizers of the trade show will also open a space for business-to-business communications from Wednesday through Friday aimed at increasing business opportunities for vendors and users.

CEATEC, which stands for Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, has been held every year since 2000 as a venue where business professionals and consumers can view the latest developments in the electronics industry ahead of the yearend shopping season.

6th Oct - Toyota goes extra mile on brake safety

Toyota Motor Corp. will equip all new vehicles for sale in Japan, Europe and North America with an override system that can stop a vehicle when the accelerator and brake pedals are pressed simultaneously, company officials said Tuesday.

In Japan, the Ractis compact to be released in late November will be the first vehicle in which the advanced safety system will be installed as standard equipment, the officials said.

The carmaker will also make it a standard feature in Europe starting with cars built this year and will install the system in its 2011 model-year vehicles for sale in North America.

Toyota is moving to enhance safety features in the wake of a series of complaints from U.S. drivers about sudden unintended acceleration and subsequent massive recalls.

The company will also equip its entire lineup of vehicles in Japan and the U.S. with event data recorders, which can log data before and after a collision to shed light on how a vehicle was being driven and the functioning of various components.

The event recorders, or black boxes, have already been introduced in all Toyota vehicles, except for commercial vehicles, in Japan, but the automaker has decided to make them a standard feature for all new commercial vehicles.

Black boxes are often used by investigators to piece together the cause of an accident. Toyota is adding these safety features as the U.S. Congress considers legislation requiring them in cars.

Toyota also said it has repaired 3.7 million of the 5.6 million cars and trucks recalled in the U.S. for sticky gas pedals and floor mats that can trap accelerators. Those problems have been implicated in unintended acceleration incidents.

The company said it has fixed 86 percent of the 148,000 Prius and Lexus hybrids recalled due to a problem with the antilock brakes.

Toyota said it was receiving about 800 phone calls a week in April about unintended acceleration complaints, but its consumer hotline now receives about 150 calls per week. Toyota officials said they did not find any link to electronic problems — a possible culprit raised by lawyers and safety advocates — after reviewing 4,200 vehicles in which owners alleged problems with unwanted acceleration.

Still, the company's sales in the U.S. have suffered this year. Sales are up just 1 percent through September, according to Autodata Corp., compared with an industrywide sales increase of 10 percent. It has lost more than a percentage point of market share.

"I have a direct line to Akio Toyoda on safety issues and I believe we demonstrated in recent months that we have the authority to act quickly to address any safety issues that emerge," said Steve St. Angelo, Toyota's chief quality officer for North America.

Toyota officials said they have not received an update on the progress of the investigation run by engineers from NASA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Dentsu expanding into Europe

Dentsu Sets Up Body For Europe And Americas Ops

Dentsu Inc. on Friday set up a new body to oversee its advertising operations in Europe and the Americas.

"Dentsu Network West" will be managed by the presidents of Dentsu's affiliates in Europe, North and South America.

The head office in Japan will give the body the authority to decide on which projects to invest in, to facilitate decision-making at the local level and improve the working environment for locally recruited staff.

The organization aims to create management structures more in tune with Western business practices. Clients in Europe and the U.S, for example, often demand quick decisions from sales representatives.

Dentsu is expanding in Europe and the U.S. by acquiring local firms. Sales from these regions stood about 46 billion yen in fiscal 2009. With the Japanese market shrinking, Dentsu is looking to expand its overseas sales.

Sony To Farm Out Image Sensor Production To Fujitsu

Sony Corp. will subcontract the manufacture of CMOS image sensors to Fujitsu Ltd. in an arrangement aimed at lowering production costs without revealing proprietary technologies to overseas foundries.

CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors are used widely in digital cameras and camera phones. With the market growing rapidly, price competition with foreign rivals is heating up.

Sony ranks sixth in the world in terms of CMOS sensor shipments, with its current output capacity standing at the equivalent of 16,000 silicon wafers a month.

CMOS sensors are used in cell phones and digital cameras, including Sony's NEX-5 camera.

The subcontracting will begin as early as this fiscal year at a pace of several thousand silicon wafer equivalents a month. Sony will monitor the savings generated and consider boosting the scale of the deal depending on the results.

Fujitsu will handle orders from Sony at Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd.'s flagship plant for system chips in Mie Prefecture. Because CMOS sensors and system chips share many manufacturing processes, the factory should be able to lower production costs through economies of scale.

Sony will farm out the highly generic portion of the production process, which accounts for 80-90% of the work. The remaining steps will be handled internally at Sony, which will turn semi-finished CMOS sensors into finished products while guarding its proprietary technologies.

The electronics giant spent about 60 billion yen over the three years since fiscal 2007 to beef up CMOS sensor production at Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corp.'s Kumamoto Technology Center.

It plans to invest an additional 40 billion yen to lift its CMOS sensor output capacity 40% by the end of fiscal 2011.

By leveraging the capacity hike resulting from the subcontracting deal, Sony aims to maintain its price competitiveness against chip foundries in Taiwan, China and the U.S. Teaming up with a domestic nonrival will also enable the firm to prevent its cutting-edge technologies from falling into the hands of foreign competitors.

Mitsui, Jianlong To Form Car Battery Tie-Up

Mitsui & Co. will form a car battery partnership with Jianlong Group, spending some 4 billion yen (47.8 million dollars) to acquire an over 20% stake in the Chinese company's lithium-ion battery subsidiary.

Established in 1999, Jianlong Group -- officially Beijing Jianlong Heavy Industry Group Co. -- is China's biggest player in the shipbuilding and steel industries. It generated about 38 billion yuan (5.7 billion dollars) in sales in 2009.

Mitsui and Jianlong representatives are expected to sign the deal in China Thursday. It will be the first case of a Japanese company investing in a Chinese car battery manufacturer.

The deal will involve Mitsui helping Tianjin EV Energies Co. sell its batteries to Japanese automakers. The trading house will consider linking the firm with Japanese companies -- battery makers, for instance -- for a technological tie-up.

Tianjin EV Energies, set up in 2009, is building a factory that will be able to produce batteries for tens of thousands of vehicles per year.

China, the world's largest automobile market, is likely to become one of the world's biggest electric vehicle markets as well. This is because Beijing is considering spending 100 billion yuan by 2020 to boost the number of vehicles powered by new sources of energy -- chiefly, electric vehicles -- to 5 million to better protect the environment and nurture related businesses.

Panasonic Develops Hair-Washing Robot For Hospitals

Panasonic Corp. said Friday that it has developed a hair-washing robot for hospitals and nursing-care facilities.

The machine, which was designed to make life easier for both caregivers and patients, consists of a main unit and a reclining chair.

Washing hair with 16 fingers.

The main unit's wash sink is equipped with a pressure sensor for scanning the shape of the head in 3-D. Once the scan data is recorded, the machine sprays shampoo and warm water, washing the hair with 16 fingers while also giving a head massage. Washing times can be adjusted to between three and eight minutes.

Panasonic aims to commercialize the product around 2012. The price has yet to be decided.

The company sees welfare and nursing-care robots as a pillar of its new businesses. It aims to earn 100 billion yen in annual sales from such robots by fiscal 2015.

Dentsu, Nihon Unisys To Develop Japanese AI With MIT

-Dentsu Inc. and Nihon Unisys Ltd, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S., will develop artificial intelligence (AI) centering on the Japanese language.

Commonsense knowledge of words unique to Japanese will be programmed into a database to create conversation interfaces that appear natural. The database will make such inferences as "summer equals hot" and "a summer night equals muggy so it is hard to sleep."

The database will hold more than 1 million combinations. The partners will complete the database in two years. It will then be incorporated into AI technology.

Using the database, the technology will help supplement the machine's "understanding" of the intentions behind people's words. It is expected to be used for many applications, such as telephone answering systems.

MIT Media Laboratory, which develops cutting-edge information technology, will undertake the project.

GS Yuasa Eyes Future Expansion Of Elec-Car Battery Output

GS Yuasa Corp.  has decided to buy 4.4 hectares of land adjacent to the electric-vehicle lithium ion battery plant it will build in Ritto, Shiga Prefecture, in anticipation of expanding the facility.

GS Yuasa is gearing up for increased demand for electric-vehicle lithium ion batteries.

The GS Yuasa, Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. joint venture Lithium Energy Japan will break ground on the plant Wednesday. To be built on land once planned to be used for a Shinkansen bullet train station, the plant will be built on a 5.6-hectare lot.

GS Yuasa decided to go solo in buying the adjacent land. Although the company has yet to decide how to use the extra land, it is expected to expand the plant, ramping up output of lithium ion batteries, depending on market trends.

The Lithium Energy Japan facility is due to begin output at the start of fiscal 2012, churning out enough cells for 50,000 cars. Expansions to the plant could double production volume.

Besides the Ritto plant, GS Yuasa will form a joint venture with Mitsubishi and global autoparts maker Magna International Inc. to build an electric-vehicle lithium ion battery plant in Europe.

KDDI Launches Bubble Motion's BubbleBlog -- Introduces Japan's First Voice-Blogging Service

Named "Koe-Now™" (meaning 'human-voice now'), Japan's only voice-blogging service makes it easy and fun for fans to follow their favorite celebrity voices through their phone.

Mobile audio social networking pioneer Bubble Motion is today announcing KDDI as its latest operator partner to deploy its industry-leading BubbleBlog voice-blogging platform. Deployed by systems integrator NEC, KDDI's "Koe-Now™" service launches today and is Japan's first consumer service in the explosive voice-blogging space.

Bubble Motion's BubbleBlog platform delivers a voice-blogging phone service so that people can share status updates in their own voice with fans and followers. These 'bubblers' just record their voice update into their phone, and instantly their followers everywhere are notified by SMS and prompted to click and listen. BubbleBlog, already hugely popular in India with more than 2-million users, has been described as a voice-based Twitter.

How It Works
Japanese stars such as actors, musicians, comedians and other celebrities have agreed to use the service as a unique and innovative way to connect with fans and followers. It's simple and fun for celebrity voice-bloggers to use; they simply dial a code, record their update and hang up their phone - and all of their fans and followers will get notified to listen to their update.

Canon To Build 2nd Inkjet Printer Plant In Thailand

Canon Inc. plans to spend about 15 billion yen to build a new inkjet printer plant in Thailand amid soaring demand in China and the rest of Asia.

Canon's share of the global inkjet printer market came to 23% last year.

Canon's second Thai inkjet printer factory will be located in Nakhon Ratchasima, 170km northeast of the existing facility in Bangkok, and employ some 5,000 workers. It is due to come online in October 2011. Churning out mostly low-priced products, it will have an annual production capacity of 5.5 million units, pushing up Canon's total inkjet printer output 40% to 27 million units a year.

Canon currently makes inkjet printers in Thailand and Vietnam. It produces 6 million middle- and top-of-the-line models in Thailand, with two Vietnamese factories churning out 13.5 million affordable offerings.

Although output is unlikely to keep up with demand for low-priced printers, personnel are growing scarce in Vietnam. The company opted for Thailand because of an abundance of workers and a concentration of parts manufacturers nearby. Expansions at the Bangkok facility will hike production there to 8 million units a year, up from 6 million.

The new Thai facility has room for another building and assembly line. So if demand for inkjet printers continues to grow, a second line could begin operating around 2016.

Canon was the No. 2 inkjet printer maker worldwide last year with a market share of 23%, according to U.S. research firm IDC. Driven by the booming Chinese and Southeast Asian economies, global demand is expected to hit almost 91 million units in 2013, swelling 18% from 2009.

Japan Rail Firms Laying Tracks Toward European Markets

BERLIN - Japanese railway-related manufacturers are rushing to cultivate foreign markets by establishing sales outposts in Europe and forming manufacturing tie-ups in China.

French and German manufacturers pitch their cutting-edge trains at a rail car fair in Berlin Tuesday.

Global demand for railway-related equipment is growing, but competition is intensifying, particularly with European rivals.

Toshiba Corp, which makes motors for railroad cars, will staff a U.K. subsidiary with dedicated marketing personnel next month.

And Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has established a U.K. sales force to promote its rail car information systems and air conditioning equipment. The company also plans to add maintenance engineers for air conditioning systems.

Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric will use their U.K. operations to cover Europe. Toshiba aims to double its railway-related sales to more than 200 billion yen by 2015, while Mitsubishi Electric seeks to lift its by 50% to 230 billion yen over the same period.

Kinki Sharyo Co. will try to crack the U.K. market, where German and French rail car manufacturers have a relatively small presence, by bidding on two contracts to supply light rail vehicles. The bids are expected to take place as early as this fiscal year.

Kinki Sharyo has already signed collaboration agreements with local railway consulting and engineering firms.

Nabtesco Corp. has developed a door operating system tailored to the European market and will launch sales this fall. In China, the company has decided to establish a joint manufacturing venture with a local firm by the end of March.

Fuji Electric Holdings Co, which makes drive equipment and door systems, will enter China by licensing technology to local firms. It will also place sales personnel focusing on the railway business in the U.S. by the end of March.

Kyosan Electric Manufacturing Co has developed a wireless signal control system, a mainstream technology overseas, for sale mainly in emerging nations.

The Japanese market for rail cars is not expected to expand beyond 200-300 billion yen a year, but overseas growth has been steady.

Major Japanese rail car manufacturers Hitachi Ltd and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. are also pushing global expansions.

Ito-Yokado Opens Japan's Largest LED-Lit Shopping Center

Ito-Yokado Co. opened the doors on a new large shopping center Friday that is equipped with 13,000 LED lights providing some 70% of the total illumination.

The Ario Hashimoto shopping center is equipped with 13,000 LED lights.

The Ario Hashimoto in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, is fitted with more LED lights than any other shopping center in Japan and consumes around half of the electricity it would consume if the facility were illuminated by regular lighting instead. Over the course of a year that will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 554 tons.

The Ario Hashimoto is equipped with 1,178 solar panels, which is the most of any shopping center operated by Ito-Yokado. It also has a charger for electric cars.

Haier Group to aggressively target Japanese market

White goods maker, the Haier Group, based in Qingdao, China, has announced that it plans to significantly expand its business in Japan, focusing on high end washer/dryers and refrigerators. To date, Haier has sold lower end products, and in 2009 recorded sales of JPY7.5bn (US$87.8m), to chip out a market share of just 3%. However, the firm has decided to create products specifically designed and made for Japan, starting with a washer/dryer that can take a full 10kg load -- enough to wash a futon. Pricing, however,will be the main competitive point, set at about 20% less than comparable Japanese products.

Toyota To Launch 6 New Hybrids By 2012

Toyota Motor Corp. will introduce six new hybrid, gasoline-electric vehicles by 2012 on a global basis, the company's chief engineer said Monday in a presentation in Detroit.

The auto maker also will show off its new RAV4 electric sport-utility vehicle developed in conjunction with Tesla Motors Inc., said Takeshi Uchiyamada, Toyota's global chief of engineering and product development. Toyota expects pure electric cars to be a small portion of its overall fleet - and concentrated on very small, shorter-range vehicles and motor scooters.

Toyota plans two new Lexus models and four Toyota models with hybrids. There will be some that are only hybrid models - like the Prius - and some that have a gasoline-engine variant. All of the hybrids will be new, and not next-generation versions of existing hybrid models, Mr. Uchiyamada said.

"Based on the current battery technology, it is not feasible to have all-electric vehicles" for the entire fleet, Mr. Uchiyamada said. "As battery technology gets better, that transition will lead to more pure electronic vehicles. Liquid fuels are still a superior fuel because of their energy density."

Toyota will begin selling the plug-in Prius, which isn't included in the six new models, in the spring of 2012. The Prius will get 13 miles on a full charge of electricity before the gasoline engine kicks on. Later models may offer the option of paying more for a longer range on the battery charge, he said.

Mr. Uchiyamada is considered the "father" of the hybrid-electric vehicle by Toyota, leading the first Prius program. He also is leading the company's efforts to integrate Tesla Motors technology into the new RAV4 electric vehicle, which will be shown at the Los Angeles auto show in November and is due out in 2012.

The auto maker also is working on a hydrogen fuel-cell-powered electric vehicle that would go on sale in 2015. Mr. Uchiyamada said the company intends to reduce production costs of the hydrogen vehicle dramatically.

In July, Mr. Uchiyamada announced changes at Toyota to lengthen product-development times by at least a month to do extra inspections on vehicles. He also oversaw the move of 1,000 engineers into a product quality division and is trying to limit the use of outside contract engineers. The auto maker has been plagued by safety recalls in the past year for unintended acceleration, engine, steering and brake problems. More than nine million vehicles in total have been affected by the recalls.

Toyota's sales in the U.S. have been hurt as a result. The Toyota brand market share in the U.S., excluding Lexus, has fallen this year to 13.3% through August, compared with 14.7% in the same period a year earlier.

New Japanese Coca-Cola Vending Machines Come With Green Roofs

Coca-Cola (Japan) Co. has unveiled a new vending machine topped with a mixture of artificial turf and moss to help the machine stay cool.

A sheet of artificial turf with sunagoke, which can tolerate a dry environment and is easy to maintain, is fixed onto the top of the machine. This mechanism works in the same way that a garden rooftop keeps a building cooler during hot spells.

An internal test has shown that the green roof improves the cooling efficiency of the machine, with the cooling device that refrigerates beverages inside using less electricity than a conventional machine. The new machine's higher cost can be recovered in five years in the form of lower electricity bills, says the company.

Two machines have been installed in Tokyo's Jiyugaoka area. A portion of proceeds will be donated to a local environmental foundation.

GS Yuasa Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation and Magna International Inc. will jointly manufacture lithium-ion batteries for EVs. The factory will be built in either Spain or Austria.

GS Yuasa Corp. Mitsubishi Corp. and No. 1 North American autoparts manufacturer Magna International Inc. are planning joint European production of lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Negotiations are under way to set up a joint venture as early as this year, with GS Yuasa seen taking a majority stake. Magna will likely have a stake of 20-40% and Mitsubishi the rest.

Costing 40 billion yen or so, their factory will likely be one of the largest electric-vehicle lithium ion battery plants in Europe and is to be built in Spain or Austria. Construction will likely begin early next year, with the plant operational as early as 2012. Output capacity is to be hiked gradually to roughly 50,000 vehicles. The trio could also build a similar plant in North America.

The lithium ion batteries will likely be used for a new electric vehicle that French firm PSA Peugeot Citroen Group plans to produce in Spain. The three companies also aim to provide them to such Magna customers as Ford Motor Co. and German firm BMW AG.

As part of a joint venture with Mitsubishi and Mitsubishi Motors Corp, GS Yuasa has been making lithium ion batteries in Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture, since last year for Mitsubishi Motors' i-MiEV electric car. Mitsubishi Motors will not participate in the European joint venture.

Denso Corporation will invest about 3 billion yen in the establishment of a technical development base in India in late 2011.

Asahi

Eurus Energy Japan will build a solar power generation plant in Osaka.

Nikkei

Toyota Motor Corp., Hitachi Ltd and Panasonic Electric Works Co. will join hands with Japan Wind Development Co. to launch smart grid demonstration tests in Aomori Prefecture this week.

 [NIKKEI]

Toyota Tsusho Corp. acquired an equity stake of 30% in an Indian stainless steel tube manufacturer