“43% of Japanese consumers are unsatisfied with the value of digital subscription services and will need convincing before they sign"
Source: Tuesday December 15th, 2015 MIS Asia, Web, Capitalizing on Asia’s growing appetite for digital content.
2
“Job Ad - Seek.com.au Australia...Japanese Customer service support analyst - 12 month Contract - view to extend job, Melbourne - Call Centre ...opportunity to join global GIANT for Customer focused candidates with knowledge of IT"
Source: Seek.com.au, web, Monday December 14th, 2015.
3
“The Seikasu Club Consumers Co-operative Union (SCCCU) of Japan , teamed up with the Centre for Food Safety in Washington to oppose (GM Salmon)"
Source: December 10th , 2015, Interfish.com, Japanese consumer union opposes GM Salmon
4
“has kept unemployment low, real wage growth has been stagnant, giving Japanese consumers little reason to increase their spending either"
Source: Fortune, December the 9th, 2015, Why Japan’s economic troubles should worry the US.
5
“They looked slightly larger than those familiar to Japanese Consumers” "Most imported avacados are of the Haas variety" Source: December 8th, 2015, Chicago Tribune, In Japan 7 years of labor bare fruit with avocado crop.
● “Japan is likely to win a multi-billion-dollar contract to build India’s first hogh speed railway, a 500 km high-speed railway link between Mumbai and Ahmedabad…valued at about AUS $20.4 billion”
Source: Japan nears India bullet train train deal by Mitsuru Obe and Rajesh Roy, The Wall Street Journal, The Australian Newspaper, Thursday 10th December, 2015, page 24.
● “The president of Nippon Life Insurance says his company will allow policy holders to list same-sex partners as beneficiaries”
Source” The Small Print, December 10th 2015, by Steve Trautlein, Metropolisjapan.com
● “Where does Australia invest?
Rank Country AUS $Billions % of total
4. Japan 69.6 3.6
Source: Based on ABS catalogue 5352.0 September 2015”
Source: Turnbull throws down gauntlet, by Glenda Korporal, The Australian, Friday December 11th, 2015, page 37.
● “Worlds top five by revenue
For Games Mobile Games
China $US 22.2 billion China $US 6.5 billion
US $US 22 billion Japan $US 6.2 billion
Japan $US 12.3 billion US $US 6 billion
S Korea $US 4 billion S Korea $US 1.9 billion”
Source: Tencent looks abroad for games domination, by Juro Osawa, WSJ, The Australian Newspaper, Tuesday 8th December, 2015, page 25.
● “the most inspiring virtual reality VR came from Sony. Its VR headset for PlayStation 4 lets you explore a 3D, virtual environment, you can walk around it and, using move controllers, you can even pick up objects”
Source: Years top personal tech innovations on the money, by Chris Griffith, The Australian Newspaper, Tuesday December 8th, 2015, page 28.
● “Australia and Japan have agreed to significantly increase defence co-operation with more joint military exercises and a closer trilateral relationship with the US”
Source: Defence ties with Japan to deepen by Brendan Nicholson, The Australian, Monday 23rd November, 2015, page 6.
● “The population of Japanese in their 20’s - who use love hotels to escape from small and crowded family homes - fell from 18 million in 2000 to 13 million in 2013”
Source: Japan dumps ‘love hotels’ for backpacker hostels by Robin Harding, Financial Times, Australian Financial Review, Monday 23rd November, 2015, page 19.
● “According to the National Police Association, the number of love hotels is declining by 2 per cent a year , from 6,259 in 2010 to 5,940 in 2013”
Source: Japan dumps ‘love hotels’ for backpacker hostels by Robin Harding, Financial Times, Australian Financial Review, Monday 23rd November, 2015, page 19.
● “How they rate % Student Class
Country Teachers Change time at teaching
Salaries 2010 – 2013 school time
(hrs/year) (hrs/year)
Australia $78,305 6.10 1010 879
South Korea $71,736 4 648 667
Germany $87,902 3.9 683 800
Japan $67,498 0.8 762 736
USA $82,558 6.3 967 n/a
Source: OECD”
Source: Longer hours, but Aussie teachers among best paid, by Natasha Bita, The Australian, Wednesday November 25th, 2015, p2.
● “Japanese stand-up comedienne Yuriko Kotani won this year’s BBC Radio New Comedy Award for aspiring comics last Friday, beating five other finalists at the Comedy Store in London with a five-minute act blending humour and sarcasm.”
● “Japan’s new super-fast trains – capable of travelling in excess of 600 km/h and which are directed underground as much as possible – have arrived at the centre of high-speed rail debate in Australia”
Source: Superfast trains “can turbocharge regions’ by Dennis Shanahan, The Australian, Thursday November 26th 2015, page 5.
● “Tiwi Islanders have finally succeeded in a 30 year battle to bring the first shipment of woodchip grown in plantation on their homeland north of Darwin to market, with about 38,000 tonnes due to depart for Japanese owned paper mills this weekend…Under a five year deal with Japanese conglomerate Mitsui to supply up to 400,000 tonnes of chips or eight to ten shiploads annually, the plantation project could generate $150
million”
Source: Tiwi woodchips will fetch millions in Japan, by Amos Aikan, The Australian, Thursday November 26th, 2015, page 6.
● “The national average of Japan’s minimum wage was 780 yen (AUS $8.80) per hour last fiscal year, so a 3 per cent increase (18 yen) would still not buy more than a bowl of ramen noodles….Mr.Abe told cabinet ministers he eventually wants to raise the weighted national minimum wage to 1000 yen per hour”
Source: Japan to raise minimum wage, by Stanley White, Reuters, AFR, Friday 27th November, 2015, page 31.
● “Most Memorable Overseas Dining
“This would be the 11-course meal I had at Saami, a traditional Japanese restaurant set in a 15th-century building in the hills overlooking the beautiful city of Kyoto. The attention to detail and presentation were like nothing I have seen before” Melanie Cochrane, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Merchant Services, Japan and Asia Pacific, American Express
Source: Traveller, Life & Leisure, Australian Financial Review, Weekend, Friday November 27th - 29th, 2015, LI2.
● “An Actors Revenge (114 minutes) Rated M in Australia Japanese director Kon Ichikawa is best-known in the west for this theatrical, gender-bending melodrama about a kabuki actor (Kazuo Hasegawa) bent on avenging the deaths of his parents. The stylised wide-screen imagery often approaches delirium – especially the use of colour against a dark background, with much of the skulduggery occurring at night.”
● “Japan grows more slowly than other countries at the best of times, largely because its work force is shrinking, so even small setbacks can easily send it into reverse. The latest recession was its fifth since the global financial crisis of 2008, though by some measures, including unemployment, the picture looks less dire” Source: Japan Economy Contracts 0.8%, Returning to Recession, By Jonathon Soble, New York Times, November 15th, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/16/business/international/japan-economy-contracts-0-8-returning-to-recession.html?ref=asia
● “(Most popular boys name in 2015 was) the kanji for “harbor/port” (and three different ways to read it) takes the number one spot this year. Perhaps it’s the parents’ desire for their child to travel the world? …. (Girls names) The most popular names are Sakura (“cherry blossom”) and Riko (“lavender child” in this instance). These weren’t even on the list in 2013….Sakura appears again at number five with a kanji (the top-slot one, you’ll notice, forgoes Chinese characters altogether and is instead written in phonetic hiragana script) shows just how popular the name is.”
(Japanese parents not only pick out a name they like for their child, but, in the majority of cases, kanji characters they like as well.) Japanese Baby Names 2015
● “The number of Chinese travellers to Japan in October helped push the total number of foreign visitors during the month to 1.83 million, the second – highest on record for a single month. That brought the total for the first 10 months of the year to 16.3 million…Chinese tourists accounted for nearly half of the Y1 trillion ($AUS 11.3 billion) that foreign visitors spent in the country from July through to September ( The Japan Tourism Agency)”
Source: Middle-class Chinese beef up Japan’s tourism push, by Jun Hongo, The Wall Street Journal, The Australian, Friday November 20th, 2015, page 25.
● “The sales goal set by Toshiba for its Internet of things – related business by 2010 estimated Y300 billion” Source: The Small Print, November 19th 2015, by Steve Trautlein, Metropolis Japan, www.metropolisjapan.com
● “According to Euromonitor data, Japanese people eat about 96 kilograms of vegetables and 34 kilograms of fruits per person per year. The cut vegetables and fruits market has been one of the significant booms in Japan, worth around US$750 million, due to the growing number of single-person households and ageing population, as well as strong demand for convenience foods”
Source: JAEPA opens opportunities for Australian vegetable exporters, Australian Trade Commission, Wednesday 4th November, 2015, Export Update, November 2015 edition
● “Self-sufficiency of food production in Japan also remains relatively low. The rate on a calorific basis in 2014 was 39 per cent – the same rate since 2010.”
Source: JAEPA opens opportunities for Australian vegetable exporters, Australian Trade Commission, Wednesday 4th November, 2015, Export Update, November 2015 edition
● “Japan retains impressive power resources. It is a democracy that has been at peace for 70 years, with a stable government and a high standard of living. Its per capita income is five times that of China”
Source: Japan sold short but Abe must push beyond comfort zone, By Joseph. S. Nye, Jr., The Australian, Wednesday 4th November, 2015, page 10.
● “Japan Post Bank controls more than Y200 trillion (AUS$2.3 trillion) in assets. Making it one of the worlds largest asset managers. Its main profit comes from what it earns on those assets. About half the money is in Japanese government bonds”
Source: Japan Post prepares to deliver $12 billion IPO, by Atsuko Fukase, The Wall Street Journal, The Australian, Wednesday 4th November, 2015, page 24.
● “The kotatsu is a table with an electric heater underneath and a heavy blanket on top. You’ll never need to leave your bed again with this Japanese innovation. It combines your bed, lounge seating and table into one incredibly cosy piece of furniture.”
● “The listing of Japan Post Holdings and its banking and insurance units is the world's biggest IPO this year and Japan's biggest since 1998. More than 80 per cent of the shares are being sold to individuals as the government hopes the $US12 billion privatisation will spur households to put more of the country's enormous pool of household savings in to the stock market….The offering put 11 per cent of each company in private hands. The government plans to eventually sell all of the bank and the insurer through additional offerings and retain a third of the parent. Some of the proceeds will be used to rebuild areas in the northeast that were damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami”
● “Compared with seven years ago, people in Japan sent three billion fewer letters, packages and postcards in the year ending in March, according to Bloomberg. Japan Post is focusing on freight transport and expanding abroad. It bought Australian logistics company Toll Holdings this year for $6.5 billion (US$4.6 billion), its biggest acquisition.”
● “Eighteen months after opening its first store in Australia, Uniqlo has unveiled plans to open stores in Indooropilly next month and in Brisbane and Chatswood early next year, taking the number of stores to 10… Uniqlo generated sales of $33 million in the first five months after opening its first store in Melbourne's Emporium in April last year, according to ASIC filings, but sales for 2015 have not been released”
● “Toyota, Nissan and Honda, all hope to bring a car to market about 2020 that the driver can switch to autopilot mode and want to use the Tokyo Olympics as a platform to unveil their cars of the future…. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will also ease regulations to allow small drones to deliver packages in three years, which could encourage innovation in another field that Japan has lagged behind in recent years”
● “Hiroko Masuhara and Koyuki Higashi arrived at city hall in the trendy Shibuya district early in the morning to collect the certificate that will allow them to rent an apartment, visit each other in hospital and gain a variety of other benefits as a couple…The certificate is not equivalent to a marriage certificate but does recognise the pair as a couple for benefits and hospital visitation purposes. Shibuya and Setagaya, considered the wealthiest of Tokyo's 23 wards, began issuing the certificates on Thursday..”
● “Australians consume 300kg of dairy product per person every year, while the Japanese are up to 80 kg each, China is still at 30 kg a head: the opportunity for growth is huge”
Charlie McEhone, International Trade Manager, Dairy Australia
Source: Big-cheese ambition is a feta accompli, by Sue Neales, The Australian, Monday 26th October, 2015, page 2.
● “Sony is likely to strengthen its image sensor business by acquiring a competing arm from Toshiba sources say. Sensors are a core component of digital cameras…Analysts say market for sensors is likely to grow, in part because of smartphone demand”
Source: Sony pursues Toshiba sensor unit as camera focus intensifies, Wall Street Journal, The Australian, Monday 26th October, 2015, page 22.
● “Japanese newspaper Yomiuri reported that Nippon Life was set to acquire 80 per cent of National Australia Bank’s (NAB) life insurance unit for Y220 billion (AUS$1.2 billion)”
Source: NAB set for $2bn sale of life unit, by Michael Bennet, The Australian, Wednesday October 28th, 2015, page 19.
● “Top export destinations (for Australian dairy products)
Thailand $200 million
Japan $400 million
China $600 million
Source: Dairy Australia “
Source: Milk it for all its worth: farmers urged to expand and meet Asian demand, by Sue Neales, The Australian, Wednesday October 28th, 2015, page 19.
● “Japanese companies selling in China have benefited from bargains created by the cheaper yen. Shares of Okamoto Industries, Japan’s dominant condom maker hit a record high this month and have jumped 183 per cent this year. AT Japanese duty-free, store Laox, $US 800 (AUS$1100) rice cookers and $US500 toilet seats are selling briskly”
Source: ‘New China’ firms going strong in a weak economy, by Wei Gu, The Wall Street Journal, The Australian, Wednesday October 28th, 2015, page 24.
● “Nintendo said yesterday that its first mobile application would be called Miitomo … (making) the leap to smart phones…Nintendo could generate Y6billion (AUS$70 million) in operating profit a year from one smart phone game” said Osamu Kamada an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities”
Source: Nintendo puts its game face on, by Mayumi Negishi and Takashi Mochizuki, The Wall Street Journal, The Australian, Friday October 30th, 2015, page 24.
● “One of the most daunting cities for foreign visitors, Tokyo is a manic, hyperactive assault on the senses…Japanese addresses are often confusing”
Source: Everything is better in the East, by Ingrid Williams, Australian Financial Review, 30th October – 1st November, 2015, L17, Life & Leisure.
● “Investment from Japan into Australia is growing at 11 per cent a year”
Source: Japan tops Asia travel queue, by Rick Wallace, The Australian, Tuesday 20th October, 2015, page 2.
● “Japan’s most profitable high-speed rail operator, JR Tokai, is building a maglev system between Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka without government subsidies. The system relies on superconducting magnets to lift, stabilise and propel trains at 500km/h within a guide-way”
Source: We will get better cities if we have more of them, by Brian Toohey, Australian Financial Review, Tuesday 20th October, 2015, page 55.
● “Japan …Three companies disclosed internal malfeasance in the space of 24 hours last week…Toyo Tire and Rubber...Asahi Kasei and Matsumoto Kiyoshi …optimists see it as a positive sign that companies are publicly admitting to problems; pessimists say companies are engaging in more bad behaviour without consequence” Source: Japanese corporate scandals erupt like Whack-a-mole’, by Chris Cooper, Bloomberg, Australian Financial Review, Wednesday 21st October, 2015, page 12.
● “LNG made from coal seam gas (CSG)…low energy value (gas)…the low calorific value LNG….many Japanese importers could only accept gas with a higher energy value…market perceptions of CSG based LNG has changed markedly….and the Japanese are adapting to the new norm”
Source: ‘Girly Gas’ opens new LNG export markets, by Angela Macdonald- Smith, Australian Financial Review, Friday 23rd October, 2015, page 24.
● “More than 50% of Japanese hotels and ryokans nationwide bar entry…by guests with tattoos according to a survey by the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA)”
● “Asia investment into Australia 24 months (Q3/2013 - Q2/2015)
Origin (US$M)
Singapore 6849
China 6263
Malaysia 1371
Hong Kong 1183
South Korea 306
Japan 241
Taiwan 60
Brunei 10
Source: Knight Frank”
Source: Wave of Asia cash floods market, by Samantha Hutchinson, The Australian, Thursday October 31st, 2015, page 31.
● “Japan’s manufacturing and exports sectors, for example, have borne the brunt of emerging markets slow down…BOJ…”The slow down in emerging economies” was weighing on the nations exports and production”
Shares of exports to emerging markets (2014)
US 46.6%
Japan 45%
Eurozone 24.6%
UK 20.2%
Canada 10.4%
Source: Wall Street Journal
Source: China slump hits rich countries by Anjani Trivedi, The Wall Street Journal, The Australian, Friday 16th October, 2015, page 25.
● “Toyota..has focused on hybrids..Toyota’s Mirai fuel-cell car can run 500km with a full tank of hydrogen, based on US testing standards. Rival Nissan’s Leaf electric car has an average range of 135 km with a fully charged battery” Source: End of the road for petrol, diesel: Toyota, The Wall Street Journal, The Australia, Friday October 16th, 2015, page 25.
● “(Japan Post IPO)..Pricing at the top end of the range would raise roughly 1.4 trillion yen (AUS $16.2 billion) making the floatation the biggest in the world this year”
Source: Retail orders fuel surprising demand for Japan Post IPO’s by Leo Lewis, Financial Times, Australian Financial review, Friday October 16th, 2015, page 25.
● “Nikkei’s flagship financial newspaper has more than 3 million print and digital subscribers”
Source: Nikkei’s survival tied to US$1.3b, Financial Times deal by Tony Boyd, Australian Financial review, Friday October 16th, 2015, page 29.
● “Japan’s capacity to influence regional events is limited by the struggles of “Abenomics” to restore economic health” Source: US asserts Asia-Pacific shift by Rowan Callick, The Australian, Monday 12th October, 2015, page 9.
● “About 49% per cent of retailers (in the USA) now offer free return shipping according to a study by the National Retail Federation…Many surveys have shown that consumers will often judge a company on its return policy”
Source: Retailers count costs of free return shipping by Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal, The Australian, Tuesday October 13th, 2015, page 25.
● “Japan contributed (AUS$42 million) to UNESCO in 2014. UNESCO’s budget for the two year 2014 - 2015 period is (AUS$892 million)”
Source: Japan threat to cut funds to UNESCO, The Australian, Wednesday October 14th, 2015, page 8.
● “(Australian) Lion group which is owned by Japanese food and beverages giant Kirin…has a significant presecence (in) the Asian dairy sector with more than 20 per cent of the Hong Kong premium dairy segment and 19 per cent of the premium segment in Malaysia”
Source: Lion in China web, distributor alliance, by Damon Kitney, The Australian, Wednesday 14th October, 2015, page 21.