According to The Asahi Shimbun today, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Japan Ltd. is raising the bar by putting alcoholic drinks on sale at its Takadanobaba outlet in Tokyo.
The fast-food joint in Shinjuku Ward will open its doors April 1 after renovation to turn it from a conventional-style outlet into a bar serving drinks in the evening.
The beverage menu includes “Colonel High,” a highball developed jointly with Suntory Liquors Ltd., which will be sold for a tax-inclusive 460 yen (US$4.10). KFC says it's the ideal drink to wash down fried chicken and will be dispensed from a golden tap.
KFC Takadanobaba will sell about 40 kinds of alcoholic drinks including craft beer and wine. The outlet will open at 7 am and turn into a bar at 5 pm. About 30 kinds of special meals will still be served during the evening including smoked chicken, and of course, its trademark fried chicken.
KFC hopes to open similar outlets across Japan in the hopes of attracting customers during the evening.
The fast-food chain has served alcoholic drinks in the past, but the plan failed to take off as most customers opted for takeout.

Ref: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/business/AJ201603300060
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According to The Asahi Shimbun today, doctors will soon be assisted by artificial intelligence and a cute white robot to help prevent them from overlooking rare or more serious illnesses when diagnosing a patient.
The AI, called "White Jack," will provide a list of diseases that a patient may have contracted in order of probability as well as offer treatment advice.
Jichi Medical University and five companies, including medical device makers, announced the development of the system on 28 March.
The operational testing will start at Jichi Medical as early as fiscal 2016, which begins in April, the consortium said.
AI has been involved in efforts to find the correct treatment of a particular disease but an AI system, which presents multiple potential diseases based on a patient’s symptoms, is rare, according to Jichi Medical.
The system consists chiefly of a talking humanoid robot with a screen fitted into its chest; a medical data bank that includes large amounts of data on medical examinations stored in electronic health records; and AI that prepares a list of potential diseases for each patient using the data.
To create a medical interview sheet, the patient holds an ID card over a card reader during an examination and enters symptoms that he or she is suffering on the screen at the instruction of the robot.
The entered information is then displayed on the patient’s electronic health record along with previous examination results. Doctors add more symptoms the patient is experiencing to the record through questioning the person.
Based on this information, the AI identifies possible diseases, their probabilities, and the kind of medical tests necessary to determine the diagnosis.
If a doctor adds more detailed symptoms, the AI updates the list of potential diseases and recalculates the probabilities.
The AI system also tells a doctor the type and amount of medication that specialists have prescribed to combat the potential disease.
The doctor will make a final diagnosis after taking into account all this information.
A massive data bank that contains 80 million items of information such as the results of patients' medical examinations, medical tests they have undergone and the drugs they have been prescribed has already been constructed.
The consortium involved in the project also includes LSI Medience Corp., a firm that assists in the development of new drugs, and medical device maker Toshiba Medical Systems Corp. It said it will garner further information for the data bank by cooperating with medical institutions across Japan.
“AI will play a major role in assisting doctors in preventing them from accidentally overlooking signs of a disease by listing names of potential illnesses,” said Shizukiyo Ishikawa, a professor of general practice at Jichi Medical.

Ref: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/sci_tech/medical/AJ201603290083
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, the state-of-the-art plant recently started operations in this central Japan city, which has a thriving paper industry thanks to Mount Fuji’s bountiful spring water. The plant is capable of processing “all sorts of paper,” such as wastepaper including plastic or metal components.
It has the capacity to process 200 tons of wastepaper and to output 1.3 million rolls of toilet paper and 150,000 boxes of tissue paper per day. It can process, for example, paper packs of alcoholic beverages with aluminum lining and tissue paper boxes with a plastic film around the opening.
These items are melted as a whole, and their metal and plastic components can be separated during the process. The metal parts are sold to dealers, whereas plastic components are used as fuel at the company’s own plants.
Corelex Shin-ei Mfg. Co., which built the plant, prides itself on its achievement of “zero emission” waste there.
The facility is drawing attention for the way it makes full use of all available resources at a time when the volume of wastepaper, being collected for recycling, has flattened off, as newspaper and magazine circulations are shrinking and documents are going paperless. The factory has also contributed to reducing the volume of wastepaper that is thrown away.
“The volume of wastepaper that can be used as raw material for recycled paper is shrinking, as documents are going paperless with the spread of personal and tablet computers,” said Hitoshi Sano, who heads the president’s office at Corelex Shin-ei. “We have decided to invest in the plant so we can make the most efficient use of all available resources, given that our country does not abound in natural resources.”
Corelex Shin-ei built the plant, which entered full operation in October, under an industry ministry subsidy and spent 12 billion yen (US$106 million) on building it. The company is Japan’s leading manufacturer of recycled-content toilet paper and is based in Fuji. It is a subsidiary of Japan Pulp and Paper Co., a major Tokyo-based trading house, which specializes in paper.
The facility “is Japan’s leading, state-of-the-art plant, which can recycle wastepaper of poor quality,” said an official with the industry ministry’s Paper Industry, Consumer and Recreational Goods Division. “Everything, including plastic components, can be recycled there into resources. And the plant has high production efficiency.”
Corelex Shin-ei has also been in the business of processing confidential documents for around 20 years.
Government and corporate offices typically send their confidential documents to incinerators when they reach their expiration date, because outsiders are not allowed to open the paper storage boxes to eliminate foreign substances of plastic or metal that are mixed among the documents.
Corelex Shin-ei has introduced technology for melting confidential documents as they remain in the storage boxes so they can be used as raw material for recycled paper. That technology has provided the basis for the operation of the new plant, company officials said.

Ref: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/business/AJ201603280022
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According to The Australian Financial Review today, approvals for medium density-housing, including units, townhouses and semi-detached houses have overtaken those for free-standing houses for the first time, according to a Bankwest analysis.
In the year to October 2015, there were 117,552 building approvals for medium density housing compared with 115,634 for standalone homes.
The Bankwest analysis of approvals underlines the momentum toward medium or higher density, as Australians change the way they live.
"That 12 month period to October was a record breaker," said Bankwest's  general manager, for private banking, Greg Caust.
"I have no doubt medium density approvals will shortly exceed approvals for stand-alone homes – not just occasionally, but on an on-going basis."
Half the approvals in the 12 months to November 2015 were for medium density housing, up from 43.1 per cent the previous year. That proportion is well ahead of the average 34.4 per cent over the past 20 years.
The increase in medium density housing approvals is centred on the capital cities, with rising prices driving buyers toward more affordable options.
Canberra had the highest proportion of medium-density housing at 74.2 per cent, followed by Sydney on 69.4 per cent. In Brisbane the proportion was 64.5 per cent and in Melbourne it was 57.9 per cent.
"Higher density housing trends may be developing due to affordability issues, however they also mean society is moving toward more sustainable living," Mr Caust said.
"If urban sprawl is contained, populations will be closer to infrastructure, including health and education services and public transport networks. These services then can be better patronised and more efficient."

Ref: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/australians-are-choosing-mediumdensity-housing-over-fresstanding-houses-20160323-gnq0hv

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According to The Nikkei Asian Review today, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells will soon find their way out of laboratories and into hospital rooms for treatment of an array of ailments, said the Japanese scientist who discovered this potent tool in regenerative medicine.
The cell research is "entering the second stage," said professor Shinya Yamanaka, the head of Kyoto University's Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application, or CiRA. Speaking to The Nikkei Wednesday during a conference marking the 10-year anniversary of his ground breaking discovery, the Nobel laureate said he expects iPS research to be used to treat Parkinson's disease, as well as ailments affecting blood and cartilage, in the near future.
His aim is to quickly establish a method to transplant nerve tissue created from iPS cells into patients. Kyoto University plans to test the treatment on Parkinson's patients as soon as this year or next. Regenerative medicine for blood platelets and cartilage is nearing the application stage.
The cells were first put to medical use in 2014 when a patient suffering from age-related macular degeneration of the eyes received retinal tissue produced from iPS cells. Clinical research focusing on liver diseases is expected to start between 2019 and 2020, while similar research for kidney diseases will likely begin as early as 2025, according to the science ministry.
Funds are crucial to accelerating the medical application of iPS research. In pursuing research that requires government approval [for medical applications], Yamanaka will "partner with companies to raise research funds," he said. CiRA currently receives roughly 4 billion yen (US$35 million) from the government and about 500 million yen a year in donations.
CiRA entered into joint research collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical at the end of last year, with the latter providing 20 billion yen in research assistance over 10 years. Reportedly, the partnership is already bearing fruit. The centre also joined hands with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma on Parkinson's research and Kyowa Hakko Kirin, another drug maker, on cancer immunotherapy studies.
The research centre plans to tackle cancer and infectious diseases next. "I want to pursue new life-science research using iPS cells," said Yamanaka. He looks to open up a new department within the premises and utilize existing methods to research "next-generation techniques" that will turn cancer cells back into normal cells.
"I also want to do research looking into infectious diseases like the Zika virus," said Yamanaka. Cells formed by iPS cells can be used to find out the workings of transmitted diseases, leading to cures, he said. "My dream is that a young person will come upon ideas I haven't thought of and win the Nobel Prize," he added.

Ref: http://asia.nikkei.com/Tech-Science/Science/iPS-based-medical-research-entering-new-stage-says-scientist
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According to The Australian Financial Review, having the power to move and monitor animals from a smartphone might soon be a reality for farmers.
Virtual fences are a potential game-changing technology for farmers, giving them the ability to move and contain cattle digitally without the use of a physical fence.
The technology was first developed by the CSIRO more than 10 years ago but it is only now, with the cost of component parts now relatively affordable, that it looks tantalisingly close to commercialisation.
Dr David Henry, principal research scientist at the CSIRO who first started working on developing the technology in 2005 said "The early research showed that we could technically keep animals out of environmentally sensitive areas, we could keep them confined to particular parts of the paddock for optimising pasture, we could keep bulls apart to stop them fighting, and we showed that we can also move them from point A to point B using these autonomous collars."
Back then, the collars were too costly to bring to market but now the technology has finally caught up, he says. The advent of smart phone technology combined with more efficient batteries and storage – has now made it possible to manufacture at a price that is attractive, he says.
"Farmers can't put collars and ear tags on their cattle for $1000 each, they have to be more like $50 each and that is now a reality," he says.
CSIRO has licensed the commercial patents with ag-tech start-up Agersens who will start testing the first commercial "fenceless farming" prototypes in the next four weeks, according to managing director, Ian Reilly.
 "The growth in mobile device technology and the internet of things has really made this possible," says Reilly. "The company hopes to launch the first product to market in the next 12 months, pending a $2 million capital raising and a crowdfunding drive on Indiegogo.
"No one else in the world has done this yet but we think the time is right."
He predicts that every one of the country's 28 million-head cattle herd may one day be fitted with ear tags to remotely map and control their grazing behaviour.
Electronically controlling the movement of cattle could drastically improve pasture management by reducing the areas that are either overgrazed or undergrazed within the one paddock, agronomist Michael Moodie says.
"As we found this year, if we had this technology we could make an extra $4000 profit from one 200-acre paddock. These farms that we're dealing with are more like 10,000 acres. Not every one of those paddocks will be grazed every year but even if it were 10 per cent of the farm – you get an idea we're talking significant dollars."

Ref: http://www.afr.com/news/special-reports/sheep-and-cattle-could-be-enclosed-by-virtual-fences-20160307-gnch4a

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According to The Nikkei Asian Review today, Japan's Ministry of the Environment is set to launch a series of new programs aimed at drawing more overseas tourists to the country's national parks, including hosting sports events in scenic locations and making areas such as marshlands more accessible.
Tourism is one of the growth strategies being promoted by the Japanese government. The ministry will seek to balance promoting tourism with the protection of natural environments. The aim is to more than double the number of foreign tourists to Japan's national parks to 10 million by 2020.
This summer, about five national parks will be selected for the project. On Monday, Environment Minister Tamayo Marukawa and Akihiko Tamura, commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency, visited Akan National Park in the remote eastern corner of Hokkaido, one of the locations being touted as a candidate for the program, to consult with the local population.
The ministry will also set up a panel of experts to discuss measures, starting in April, to promote tourism at national parks.
The project envisages using the scenic beauty of Japan's national parks as the backdrop to cycling and parasailing events as well as music concerts and movie festivals. The ministry will work in partnership with travel agencies to organize tours combining cultural experiences with the chance to experience the country's natural beauty.
Japan's national parks have traditionally been managed with environmental protection as the main focus. Faced with criticism over failing to make the best use of the country's many areas of natural beauty, the ministry will now shift priority to include the promotion of tourism.
As part of the new strategy, some of the country's most protected areas will be made more accessible to visitors. Until now, many of Japan's virgin forests and marshlands have been closed to the public in order to protect fragile ecosystems, but will soon be open to a limited number of visitors on accompanied tours.
The project will also involve a series of other measures, including raising the number of tour guides, publishing foreign-language brochures and providing Wi-Fi access at the 55 visitor centres under government management.
Lastly, the government will enlist the help of hotels inside national parks.
Commercial facilities can be built inside national parks provided they meet certain legal requirements. For example, there are a number of hotels and other facilities within Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, which lies southwest of the capital and is home to perhaps the country's most iconic landmark in Mount Fuji.
The ministry allows businesses to operate inside national parks in accordance with its strategy. But as there are not yet any specific standards for conference rooms and halls in hotels as well as restaurants and other commercial facilities, the ministry will begin setting out a framework to encourage commercial services within national parks.
The number of foreign visitors to Japan's 32 national parks has increased significantly in recent years, totalling 4.3 million in 2015, according to the ministry.
In many ways it appears that Japan has taken its lead from the U.S., which has successfully attracted more visitors to places such as Yellowstone National Park while maintaining a strong focus on environmental protection.
Based on data compiled by the tourism agency, the ministry estimates that an increase in the number of foreign visitors to Japan's national parks to 10 million a year will be worth approximately 1 trillion yen (US$8.93 billion) to the country's economy.

Ref: http://asia.nikkei.com/Japan-Update/Japan-national-parks-to-draw-foreign-tourists

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According to The Asahi Shimbun, leading agricultural machinery maker Kubota Corp. is planning to get its hands dirty and harvest more technical know-how on cultivating crops, to boost the sales of its farming machinery and the quality of customer service.
Kubota will set up an additional 11 directly managed farms across Japan for hands-on research on the kind of equipment its customers need, to help resuscitate the nation's agricultural industry.
While Kubota currently operates four farms throughout Japan, it plans to raise the number to 15 within five years, as the scale of agriculture changes after the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact was agreed to by member nations.
Kubota currently operates a farm in Yabu, Hyogo Prefecture, which has been designated a National Strategic Special Zone for agriculture, in addition to Niigata and elsewhere.
Last year, Kubota released its “Kubota Farm” strategy, which states the company will expand its number of directly managed farms across the country.
Kubota has begun preparations for new farming facilities in Fukushima, Toyama, Aichi, Kagawa and Okinawa prefectures. It will grow different crops in various ways at each of its farms, which are planned to cover around 1,000 hectares of area in total.
Kubota will not only cultivate crops but produce processed foods from agricultural products.
On 3rd March, Nakakyusyu-Kubota Corp., a Kubota group firm, unveiled its recently installed brown rice paste plant in Kumamoto Prefecture to the media. The new factory will mash 100 tons of brown rice annually to make paste and sell it to bakeries and other parties.
Kubota is considering setting up a similar processing facility in Niigata Prefecture as well.
According to the 2015 Census of Agriculture and Forestry, 1.77 million people--20 percent less than in 2005--make their living from agriculture.
While the number of farmers who manage less than 1 hectare of farmland declined by 20 percent from 2010 in all prefectures except Hokkaido, Japan's most northerly prefecture, the number of farmers who manage 10 or more hectares of land rose by more than 20 percent during the same period.

Ref: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/business/AJ201603210021

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According to The Australian Financial Review today, the health of Australia's housing market again proved resilient on the weekend with clearance rates holding strong despite record numbers of home auctions in Melbourne and Brisbane.
In Sydney where there were 911 listed auctions, clearance rates remained steady at 75 per cent according to APM PriceFinder, marginally down on last week but generating some big sales, including a seven bedroom house at Strathfield in Sydney's inner west which sold for $5.7 million or about $1.2 million over its reserve.
However in Sydney's outer west, where there have been concerns about house prices falling, the clearance rate was dismal. At 42 per cent of houses being sold at auction, the market is yet to recover from an exodus of investors that began in about Spring last year.
Domain chief economist Andrew Wilson said the inconsistency in the Sydney market was something to watch.
"The lower northern beaches saw a huge clearance rate of 92 per cent, but western Sydney is the other end of the pineapple with clearance rates still at 40 per cent."
In stark contrast, Mr Wilson said Melbourne had shown superb consistency with only 10 per cent difference in clearance rates between the highest and lowest priced homes for sale.
Melbourne had 1600 auctions over the weekend – its second highest level in history – due to the timing of holidays.
The clearance rates achieved a very healthy 74 per cent, down from 76 per cent last week.
Brisbane is a steady market. The city has never had a strong auction culture and usually has a clearance rate of about 50 per cent.
Brisbane has a much higher degree of relative affordability than Sydney and Melbourne – that is the value difference compared to the income of the city's resident.

Ref: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/record-home-auctions-in-melbourne-and-brisbane-but-clearance-rates-hold-strong-20160319-gnmgtc
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, the worldwide sushi boom has led to a growing trend for aspiring sushi chefs from Japan and overseas to enroll in culinary schools instead of serving apprenticeships.
The traditional route to becoming a sushi chef is to train as an apprentice under a master. However, sushi chef schools are growing in popularity with their short training courses for people who want to become sushi chefs overseas, or to take a new career path within the restaurant industry.
Sachiko Goto, principal of the Shinjuku flagship branch of Tokyo Sushi Academy (TSA), expects that the institution’s new Osaka school, opening in May, will nurture students who will go on to work abroad as sushi chefs.
“The current reality is a shortage of chefs due to the sushi boom,” she said. “We want to send out fresh fish as well as sushi chefs from Kansai International Airport (in Osaka Prefecture) to Asia with knowledge of the culture behind sushi.”
A briefing session on TSA’s new Osaka branch took place in a building near Osaka Municipal Central Wholesale Market here on March 5.
Fourteen people aged from their 20s to 50s attended the session where they asked a range of questions such as, “Which foreign country should I aim for to find employment?” About half of the attendees said they hoped to work overseas.
TSA opened in Tokyo in 2002. Around 3,000 people have graduated from the school, from middle-aged men who quit company jobs to set up their own businesses, to housewives, former Italian chefs and bartenders. Of those, around half found jobs at sushi and Japanese restaurants in 50 or so countries in the United States, Europe and Asia, a TSA official said.
The Osaka branch is the TSA’s fourth school, following openings in Tsukiji, Singapore and the Shinjuku flagship branch.
A subsidiary of a wholesale company based in Osaka Municipal Central Wholesale Market will lead the management of the school, and veteran sushi chefs will provide training for students. The two-month course has a quota of 10 students.
For five days a week, students are expected to learn the basics of preparing fish, such as how to clean it, and studying Japanese food culture. The other class under consideration for the course includes teaching students how to make “oshizushi” (pressed sushi), which is believed to have originated in Osaka Prefecture.
A woman in her 20s who participated in the March 5 session said her dream is to open her own restaurant and become a chef who can explain sushi culture to foreigners.
“Although I am working as an apprentice at a sushi restaurant, the only thing I can do to become a full-fledged chef is to steal techniques from the masters,” she said.
“I want to ask teachers at the school whatever questions that come to mind.”
The classroom for the “sushi meister” course of Inshokujin College’s is also located near Osaka Municipal Central Wholesale Market. The three-month intensive program was set up in 2014. The school year is divided into four terms and the quota of 50 or so students are each almost filled to capacity.
The college’s Tokyo branch was set up in 2015, and a Nagoya branch is set to open in April. The school is also expected to open in South Korea in the near future. The sushi meister course puts much weight in “practical lessons,” such as watching auctions at the market and preparing fish bought there in large quantities.
Tokyo College of Sushi & Washoku, which will open in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward in April, is the first licensed vocational school specializing in sushi and Japanese cuisine in Japan. The school is chiefly operated by an incorporated educational institution, which fosters shoemakers and other artisans.
The school accepts foreigners on student visas, and one-third of the 50-student quota is filled by foreign students mainly from Asia, an official with Tokyo College of Sushi & Washoku said. The students will obtain a cooking license, a national qualification, when they graduate from the school.
“We want to make use of the artisanal know-how developed through craftwork for the nurturing of sushi chefs,” said the official.
“The sushi boom will spread further ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, so we want to play a part in providing human resources for it.”

Ref: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/business/AJ201603170005
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