According to The Australian Financial Review, coffee, oatmeal and instant beverages have joined the list of Australian products most desired by Chinese consumers, the latest research by China e-commerce giant Alibaba's business-to-consumer platform Tmall Global and Chinese research firm CBNData shows.
Health and nutrition supplements from Swisse and Blackmores continue to be popular with Chinese buyers as is milk powder despite the recent importation changes by Chinese authorities. "Australia ranked as the fifth highest country selling cross-border in to China on Tmall Global in 2016. Its leading brands included Swisse, Chemist Warehouse, Blackmores and Devondale," the report also said. The four other countries are the US, Japan, Korea and Germany. Chinese buyers like beauty products, diapers, strollers and baby products from Japan. Other top performing brands from Australia include NaturesWay and even Woolworths. Chemist Warehouse continues to be the darling of the Australian retailers on TMall, selling $25 million worth of products in just over an hour on Chinese trading day Singles Day in November last year. Tmall said online sales have grown 30 per cent in 2016 compared to the year before and buyers are becoming more "quality aware". The number of categories of goods doubled to 3700, sourced from 63 countries. The biggest spenders come from Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in China and 50 per cent of the buyers are younger customers born after 1988. Ref:http://www.afr.com/business/retail/aussie-coffee-oatmeal-and-instant-beverages-a-hit-with-chinese-online-buyers-20170116-gts30w If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link: http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/7102503 Difficult parking a breeze through remote-operated app system developed by Japanese companies16/1/2017
According to The Australian Financial Review today, in the Sydney suburb of Willoughby, one developer, the Hyecorp Property Group, is building apartments for which the incoming tenants will pay 20 per cent less than market rent. In Melbourne, developer Canopi Homes sells its new products at or below the median in the surrounding suburbs.
It is possible. And necessary. The crisis in housing affordability is now a first-order issue for all Australian governments. Just as it is for all those involved in the housing sector – consumers, developers, builders and financiers. But we need to understand exactly what we mean by affordable housing. And we need governments to stop adding prohibitive costs to new projects. Canopi Homes in Melbourne has consistently sold new townhouses in Melbourne at prices below those of nearby homes. When existing homes in East Keilor sold near the $650,000 mark, Canopi was selling townhouses at nearby Canopi Valley Lake from $475,000 for two bedrooms and from $575,000 for three bedrooms. "We offer something smaller but of high quality," says director Cameron Alderson. "The buyers are generally couples on $100,000-105,000 with one or two kids who have outgrown an apartment." The buyers are making a decision that more and more Australians will make. They are forgoing the big home on the big block for a smaller home close to amenities like shops, parks – Alderson stresses the importance of parks – transport and grandparents. For Alderson, the keys include good design to make the best use of the space, flexibility for the occupants, and innovation to constantly trim costs. Canopi townhouses have an open-plan ground floor, spilling to a courtyard, with two or three bedrooms upstairs, two bathrooms, on-site parking, though not necessarily a garage, and some storage. In Sydney's Willoughby, Hyecorp is developing a block of 74 apartments, 43 of which will be leased out, through a community housing provider at a 20 per cent discount to the market rent for the next 10 years. Private investors have bought half the community housing stock, and Hyecorp will hold the rest, at a reduced market price, and at an initial yield of about 5 per cent. There is no fancy financing here. Government provided a simple planning incentive. Hyecorp gained an uplift in floor space ratio, and therefore the number of apartments on the site, because the site was suitable for the application of the NSW government's Affordable Rental Housing State Environmental Planning Policy. Ref: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/define-affordable-housing-before-solving-the-crisis-20170111-gtpvm1 If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link: http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/5406059
According to The Nikkei Asian Review, five major private-sector nursing-care providers including Gakken group and Tsukui will take in a total of more than 300 trainees from outside the country when Japan broadens an on-the-job training program for foreigners this year.
Senior-care workers from abroad previously came only via economic partnership agreements with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Just 2,777 people participated in these programs over nearly nine years through October 2016. A separate program, which aims to transfer skills to developing countries by inviting trainees to Japan, will add nursing care as an eligible field by the fall. The program, launched in 1993, currently covers 74 fields including agriculture and construction. Around 210,000 foreigners had participated by June 2016. Gakken Cocofump, part of Gakken Holdings, plans to receive about 120 trainees from Myanmar, China, the Philippines and elsewhere by 2020 and assign them to assisted-living facilities and day-service providers. The company is preparing to open a nursing-care site in Myanmar this year, and hopes to tap the returnees in the Southeast Asian country as staffers. Benesse Style Care, which operates around 300 for-profit nursing homes across Japan, will accept about 10 foreign trainees in fiscal 2017 to help elderly residents with tasks such as meals and baths. Major day-service provider Tsukui will accept about 150 trainees from Vietnam starting around autumn, with plans to assign them initially to senior homes. Group home operator Medical Care Service will take dozens of foreign trainees in fiscal 2017. Solasto plans to invite around 20 trainees from Vietnam, the Philippines, China and elsewhere as a first step, assigning them to the company's day services and nursing homes. The company already has started Japanese-language and technical training for students, care providers and nurses in Vietnam. Nichiigakkan, insurer Sompo Holdings and other big players are considering similar moves. Japan's rapidly aging population could spur a nursing-care shortage of an estimated 380,000 workers in fiscal 2025. The industry has a much higher effective ratio of job openings to applications than Japan's overall labor market. Ref: http://asia.nikkei.com/print/article/229281 If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link: http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/-300-5
According to The Australian Financial Review, the spot market was the place to be for coal miners in 2016, but with prices for the bulk commodity sliding rapidly, 2017 looks set to favour those selling on traditional quarterly contracts.
Those selling Australian coal at prices agreed in quarterly contracts, like Glencore and Anglo American, were left behind when coking coal prices skyrocketed last year, with the spot price more than $US120 higher than the contract price at one stage in September. But the roles have quickly reversed on a 35 per cent slide in coking coal spot prices over the past 40 days; those selling at contract prices will receive $US285 for each tonne until March 31, and are already enjoying a 30 per cent premium over coal sold on the spot market, which is fetching about $US201 per tonne. The rapid slide in the spot price has followed China's decision to overturn many of the supply interruptions that caused the coal price to rally in 2016 . If, as expected, contract prices are stronger than spot prices during 2017, it will be the fourth year in five that contract prices have averaged higher than the spot price. Credit Suisse has forecast coking coal will average $US194 a tonne in fiscal 2017, then fall to $US145 in 2018 and $US125 in 2019. Shaw and Partners analyst Peter O'Connor believes spot prices for coking coal will be around $US120 or $US100 a tonne by the December quarter of 2017. The steep falls in the spot price will eventually drag contract prices lower, with Mr O'Connor suggesting the contract price for the three months to June 30, 2017, will be significantly lower than the present quarterly price of $US285 a tonne. Ref: http://www.afr.com/business/mining/coking-coal-price-retreat-favours-contract-sellers-20170108-gto0xq If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link: http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/9017678
According to The Asahi Shimbun, improved diabetes treatment could be on the way after Japanese researchers lowered blood glucose levels in mice with the disease by injecting them with gene-controlling molecules known as microRNAs, leading to a finding described as “a groundbreaking achievement.”
Comprising scientists from Tohoku University, the team said its research confirmed that injections of microRNAs resulted in the reproduction of pancreatic cells that secrete insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar levels. Most patients develop diabetes when pancreatic beta cells decline in number, making it impossible to secrete a sufficient amount of insulin. It has been said that it is difficult to raise the number of reduced beta cells again. Inspired by reports that said bone marrow transplants in leukemia and other cases led to easing diabetes symptoms, Tetsuya Yamada, an associate professor of diabetes internal medicine at the university, and his colleagues examined about 40 types of microRNAs whose blood levels increase after bone marrow transplantation and identified two microRNAs that help reproduce beta cells. “We need to see if reproduced beta cells will decline in number over time,” said Yamada. “As microRNAs can be chemically synthesized and do not require huge costs, I want to start a clinical trial in the near future.” In its research, the team killed beta cells in six mice with a drug to cause them to contract diabetes. Then the scientists injected the two kinds of microRNAs into veins in the tails of the mice on the fifth day, eighth day and 11th day of the experiment. On the 20th day, the team found the mice’s fasting blood glucose levels had been lowered 40 to 50 percent compared with untreated mice. Their improved glucose levels were just 1.2 times higher than those for healthy mice. The scientists discovered the amount of insulin in the blood for the microRNAs-injected mice was double that for untreated mice. They confirmed through microscopy that the number of beta cells rose in the treated mice. The team also added the microRNAs to beta cells cultivated in vitro and found they had the same effects outside the bodies of mice. In a healthy animal’s pancreas, the proliferation of beta cells is regulated by a gene that controls cell proliferation. Beta cell proliferation was promoted in the experiment, likely because the activity of the gene was inhibited by the injected microRNAs, according to the researchers. No serious side effects have been reported in bone marrow transplants, so the new diabetes treatment is expected to pose no major problems in terms of safety. “The new method appears to be relatively simple as the technique just requires administration of microRNAs and gene modifications, and other complex procedures are not necessary,” said Shoen Kume, a stem cell biology professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. “Clinical applications of the technique will be easier, so I believe their finding is a groundbreaking achievement. I will watch closely to see if all reported treatment effects can be attributed to the proliferation of beta cells alone.” Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201701090006.html If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link: http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/4135591
Want a second home in Japan? You can get one in the ancient capital city of Kyoto in Japan for under $400,000, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Japan isn't on the list of top destinations Australians dream about buying property in, but that may change. Osaka-based architect Luke Hayward last year completed a home he purchased for a Brisbane couple at a cost of about $5000 per sq m. The couple, in their 50s, had visited Japan every year for the past decade and wanted a base they could use for future visits. Hayward purchased the site, designed a renovation for the double-storey post-war house in the suburb of Ichijoji – about 10 minutes from the centre of town by car – and then oversaw the house's redevelopment. At 55 sq m, the house with one-bedroom and living area that can be closed off to form a second bedroom, is equivalent to a small apartment, but the small size of Japanese plots combined with the stagnation of prices since Japan's 1980s bubble burst, makes it an affordable market for foreigners willing to renovate, Hayward says. A renovation costs up to about 30 million yen ($356,000) before tax and consultants' fees. "To think you can come to Japan and pick up something that is pretty run down, but is a home, spend a bit of money to have some quite good work done on it in terms of craftsmanship and end up with a nice outcome, it's pretty exciting," he says. Ref: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/buying-overseas-a-growing-yen-for-japan-20161227-gtilp1 If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link: http://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/4223879 |
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