According to The Asahi Shimbun, demand for units in new residential complexes in certain urban areas is so great that the server for a website handling requests for condominium showings crashed due to high traffic.
For another massive housing project, the reservation slots for tours were filled within minutes.
Driving demand are the growing number of consumers seeking valuable assets at relatively affordable rates, according to experts.
On Feb. 26, an email was sent to prospective buyers of homes in the Toyomi Tower Marine and Sky complex in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward.
The email expressed an “apology over our booking form server’s crash.”
The high-rise complex, with 2,046 condominiums, is being constructed under a redevelopment program by such entities as Mitsui Fudosan Residential Co.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15383430

According to The Australian Financial Review, unit owners nationwide are holding on to their property longer than average in response to weak capital gains and sharp increases in transaction costs, data from CoreLogic shows.
Those who bought apartments and units are now staying put for 8.6 years, which is six months longer since interest rates started rising two years ago and 12 months more than the 10-year average.
By comparison, the hold period for houses shrank by around three months to 9.1 years, as owners cashed in on the rapid price increases since the pandemic.
The shift towards longer hold period for units defies earlier trends when owners tended to resell them within a shorter period of time.
CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said units’ broader underperformance in recent years could be dissuading some owners from selling.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/unit-owners-hold-tight-as-values-weaken-and-transaction-costs-rise-20240903-p5k7ed

According to The Jiji News, Tobu Railway Co. said that it will expand its payments and identity verification service utilizing biometric identification technology.
In cooperation with Hitachi Ltd., Tobu Railway aims to introduce the service at more than 100 outlets, such as supermarkets, consumer electronics stores, hotels and convenience stores, by the end of fiscal 2026, hoping to spread it in a wide range of industries.

https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/35275

According to The Jiji News, Japanese personal mobility vehicle maker Whill Inc. launched a four-wheeled sidewalk motor scooter for the elderly.
The Whill Model R scooter can make a pivot turn to help users move easily in a crowded or narrow place as its front wheels are able to turn approximately 90 degrees.

https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/35278#goog_rewarded

According to The Australian Financial Review, every Australian lithium mine is losing money at today’s prices except for Western Australia’s famously low-cost Greenbushes, which could withstand a deeper commodity price rout, according to broker Citi.
Greenbushes is a joint venture 49 per cent-owned by US-listed Albemarle, and 51 per cent by ASX-listed IGO and China’s Tianqi.
The world’s biggest hard rock lithium mine is the only one of Australia’s seven producing lithium projects to be profitable, the broker argued, based on its analysis of their running costs at spot prices.
UBS warns the lithium sector will face a wave of mine closures as prices for the battery material struggle despite some companies putting projects on ice to sit out the bear market.
Prices for the lithium ore typical of Australia have collapsed more than 23 per cent over the past 45 days, fetching $US720 a tonne ($1066) on September 2, according to S&P Global’s Platts. That ore, which is spodumene concentrate with 6 per cent lithium content, was fetching more than $US8000 a tonne in 2022.

https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/the-only-profitable-lithium-mine-in-australia-revealed-20240903-p5k7gh
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, a leading tire maker in Japan developed an innovative all-season product designed to conquer ice as well as snow.
Conventional all-season tires are not recommended for driving on ice-covered areas.
The new tyre line, unveiled by Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd, uses a novel technology that adjusts the rubber covering’s function depending on the road wetness and temperature levels.
The tyre option, Synchro Weather, performs safely under all weather conditions, irrespective of the state of the streets, according to Sumitomo Rubber.
“Falling into a novel genre marked by totally different technology, the product has come to fruition not through improvement but invention,” the company’s president, Satoru Yamamoto, told a news conference held that day. “We believe it will dramatically change the concept of automobile tires from now on.”
Starting from 1st Oct, Sumitomo Rubber is looking to pitch Synchro Weather as the next-generation tyre under the Dunlop brand. The company produces Dunlop items for sale within Japan.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15373680

According to The Australian Financial Review, fresh home listings in some of the more expensive Sydney suburbs have more than doubled in the past four weeks as sellers scramble to beat the spring selling rush, data from CoreLogic shows.
New stock is also piling up in Melbourne’s more affluent areas despite falling prices.
Separate data from Ray White shows stock levels are poised to surge even higher in the coming weeks as more properties hit the market.
Eliza Owen, CoreLogic’s head of research said the earlier-than-normal groundswell was likely fuelled by expectations of weaker house price growth, prompting some sellers to get ahead of the competition.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/number-of-homes-for-sale-soar-ahead-of-spring-20240827-p5k5o3

According to The Asahi Shimbun, Nissan Motor Co. said it has developed a new type of paint that significantly reduces the temperature inside vehicles parked in direct sunlight.
The surface of a car coated with the innovative material remains up to 12 degrees cooler than that of a vehicle with standard paint, tests showed.
The company said the coating material can help rein in the temperature rise not only on the car's body but also in the vehicle when exposed to direct sunlight.
This is because the substance artificially reproduces a process known as radiative cooling on the painted surface. A typical example of radiative cooling is a phenomenon where the ground releases heat to cool off.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15379952

According to The Jiji News, Fujitsu Ltd. said that it will begin a service for automatically creating clinical trial documents as part of efforts to accelerate digitalization in the area.
The Japanese technology firm expects to secure 20 billion yen in revenue from the service in fiscal 2030, which ends in March 2031.

https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/35075#goog_rewarded
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, BHP has vowed to grow iron ore export volumes in the face of declining demand from China and has warned higher-cost competitors will be “driven out of the market” as the commodity price softens.
BHP sold 287.7 million tonnes of Australian iron ore last year and plans to grow exports to 305 million tonnes in the “medium term” through low-cost initiatives.
BHP continues to study more expensive and longer-dated options to grow Australian iron ore exports to 330 million tonnes annually, but Mr Henry stressed the miner would consider the impact of those extra volumes on iron ore prices before investing in such an expansion.
BHP believes Chinese iron ore demand has peaked and will remain near current levels for several years before starting to decline. Sliding demand will coincide with increased supply from the likes of BHP and Rio Tinto’s Simandou project in Guinea.
“Should [iron ore supply] surpluses persist as we forecast, we would expect some high-cost suppliers to be driven out of the market over time,” said BHP in a market filing.

https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/bhp-cuts-dividend-to-fund-growth-splurge-20240826-p5k5ij