According to The Australian Financial Review, despite fears of a tech-led job apocalypse, the ongoing rise of digital transformation across Australian organisations will lead to the creation of 35,000 jobs in 2019, according to a comprehensive Australian study.
The study, titled "Beyond Disruption: Australian organisations race to digital transformation success”, found almost one in five organisations intend to create new roles to meet the growth of digital transformation this year.
Almost half said they expected to see humans and artificial intelligence working closely together and 57 per cent said more jobs would be created than removed by digital transformation.
Despite the positive tone of the research, it found urgent improvements are still needed in the top executive levels of many organisations, with 30 to 40 per cent of CEOs not considered digitally literate across various industry sectors.

https://www.afr.com/technology/enterprise-it/digital-transformation-push-to-create-35-000-jobs-in-2019-20190504-p51k0a
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If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/201935000

According to The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese printing company has developed a technology for giving plastic surfaces a luxurious, metal-like finish.
The Metal Face technology can adjust how much light can pass through plastic materials, allowing characters to emerge on smartphones, smartwatches and other products that have the appearance of metal.
Gikodo Co., a company with about 40 employees based in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward, started working on the printing technology three years ago to produce metal-looking nameplates because the metal processing industry was suffering from a shortage of craftsmen.
Unlike metal products, plastics allow light and electric waves to pass through them.
Gikodo offers specialized printing services, such as those for plastic remote controller buttons.
When the company exhibited prototype Metal Face products at a trade show in Osaka in May, major electronics manufacturers showed great interest.
“We believe this technology can be applied not only to smartphones, but also to smart home appliances and automotive instrumental panels,” said Hidenori Sato, chief of Gikodo’s sales division.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201906230007.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/2148152
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A research team in Japan announced on June 20 that it found an ingredient that keeps hair in place, braves humidity, and even curbs shine, which is currently a no-no among younger hair styling product users.
The researchers from Mandom Corp., an Osaka-based cosmetics manufacturer, and Kyoto University, who teamed up to develop humidity-resistant hair products, also said it ensures hair still looks natural after the hair agent has been applied to it.
“It has been the eternal challenge to realize both (a perfect hold for hair and a natural appearance), and we wanted to develop the ideal hair agent,” said Shun Urabe, a supervisor at the Technical Development Center of Mandom.
Conventional hair products, such as wax, is designed to fix hair in place by coating its exterior. One effect of using it is that the more users apply, the shinier their hair gets.
But recently, consumers, especially young people, tend to prefer hair products that can restrict shine.
The team sought to find an ingredient that could blend into hair to strengthen the structure inside it. They discovered that alpha-ketoglutaric acid, which is used as moisturizing ingredient overseas, could keep hairstyles in place even in conditions of 80 percent humidity and still give users a natural appearance.
The Institute for Chemical Research of Kyoto University has confirmed the mechanism of how the ingredient blends into hair.
The safety of the hair ingredient has been confirmed by the team. It can be removed by washing one's hair.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201906210084.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/3274620 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, A bacterium that gorges on PET bottles has spurred a global research race to harness its powers in the battle against plastics pollution in the world's oceans.
The bacterium was given the name Ideonella sakaiensis in 2005, as it was found in soil samples at a plastic bottle processing plant in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.
Methods for dealing with the contamination of marine environments by plastics is expected to be a major theme of the Group of 20 summit to be held in Osaka on June 28-29.
Kohei Oda, now professor emeritus of applied biology at the Kyoto Institute of Technology, was among those who were part of a team that discovered the bacterium.
Subsequent research by Shosuke Yoshida, now a specially appointed associate professor of environmental microbiology at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, found that the bacterium used two enzymes to decompose polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a synthetic resin widely used in plastic products.
The bacterium was found to consume PET film with a thickness of 0.2 millimeter in about a month while decomposing it into carbon dioxide and water.
PET was long believed not to be biodegradable, as it is produced using petroleum.
But when Oda and others released an article in an academic journal in 2016 about how Ideonella sakaiensis feeds on plastic bottles, the global scientific community was stunned.
Inquiries came in from fiber and other manufacturing companies around the world, and a race to uncover how the enzymes break down PET was also triggered.
In 2017, a team of Chinese scientists released its finding of the analysis of the structure of one of the enyzmes, dubbed PETase, and published it in a British journal.
That was followed by other articles by South Korean and Chilean teams that provided greater detail into the enzyme structure.
A British team succeeded in improving the ability of the enzyme to decompose plastic, leading the BBC to report that the finding could set off a revolution in PET bottle recycling and more effective reuse of plastics.
This year, a German team succeeded in creating a 3-D analysis of the other enzyme, MHETase.
Yoshida and other scientists have joined the international effort to determine what conditions allow the enzymes to break down plastics in a more efficient manner.
"Although I believe it will take time, I am hopeful that the bacterium found in Sakai will become the catalyst for a resolution of the plastic problem," Oda said.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201906210037.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/-pet
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Mirvac has struck a deal with construction materials giant Boral to develop a 171-hectare quarry site at Wantirna South in Melbourne into a 1700-lot housing community, a project with an end value nearing $1 billion.
The venture with Boral has been finalised just weeks after Mirvac, led by Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, raised $750 million to fund the next wave of development in both residential and commercial. The Wantirna South project was among those foreshadowed in Mirvac's pipeline.

https://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/mirvac-to-build-1700-homes-on-quarry-site-20190621-p51zwz
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If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/mirvacboral
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According to The Nikkei Asian Review, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will scrap a system in which solar and wind energy from major power companies is purchased at a predetermined price.
Increasing purchasing fees have translated into a greater burden for consumers, so the ministry will introduce a competitive bidding system as soon as 2020 in an effort to keep costs down.
The government wants renewable energy to become a major component of Japan's power mix, and it is trying to rush adjustments to the power grid to make that happen.
The ministry introduced a feed-in-tariff system in 2012 to promote greater development of renewable energy. The government set favorable prices for energy from wind and solar operators, but the higher rates are passed on to consumers via electricity bills.
Those purchasing fees have grown as solar and other forms of renewable power have gained. In fiscal 2019, they are expected to amount to about 3.6 trillion yen ($33.2 billion), with about 2.4 trillion yen being passed on to households and businesses. Policymakers decided reforms are needed as the corporate side has been reluctant to move ahead with cost reductions.
The new system will be along the lines of those used in Germany and other European countries. Mid-size operators that produce more than 50 to 100 kilowatts will be obligated to find their own customers and to sell on the wholesale market. Prices will not be fixed but rather negotiated based on market conditions.
While the merits of the old feed-in-tariff system will be lost, prices should drop rapidly on the wholesale market. Companies will only be compensated for losses if prices fall below a set standard. That standard will be based on the low-end prices that come from competitive bidding.
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https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Environment/Japan-to-overhaul-renewable-energy-system-in-bid-to-lower-prices

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/7115861 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, the Reserve Bank could slash its key cash rate to as low as 0.5 per cent by this time next year, signalling further pain for savers and depositors but more gains for the sharemarket.
Markets are pricing in two 25 basis point cuts by the end of the year. But a growing number economists now expect the cash rate, which guides lending and deposit rates, could fall to a historic low of 0.5 per cent by next June from today's 1.25 per cent level.
As rate cut expectations grow and iron ore prices remain high, investors are piling into stocks, with the S&P/ASX 200 jumping to a fresh 11-year high last week.
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https://www.afr.com/news/economy/monetary-policy/rba-cash-rate-could-fall-as-far-as-0-5pc-20190614-p51xsg

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/05
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, specialist physicians will be able to use remote-controlled surgical-aid robots to operate on patients in far-off places under a revised health ministry guideline that lifted a ban on such procedures.
The Japan Surgical Society (JSS) is now compiling its own guidelines for the practice, which will enable, for example, a top surgeon in Tokyo to operate on a patient in a remote part of Hokkaido.
Although it may take a few years to prepare the environment, set up the infrastructure and ensure safety of remote surgeries, those involved are excited about the move.
“The revision of the guideline will enable legal preparations for remote surgeries, and Japan could become a world leader in this field,” said Kenichi Hakamada, a professor at Hirosaki University who is involved in setting up a JSS committee on the guidelines. “It would allow patients to receive high-quality surgery wherever they are located.”
Japan faces a severe shortage of surgeons, and some patients in serious condition who cannot travel have been forced to forgo operations.
A surgical-aid robot called “da Vinci,” developed by U.S. company Intuitive Surgical, is expected to be used for remote endoscopic operations.
More than 350 da Vinci robots have been set up around Japan. Health insurance covers 14 kinds of surgeries, such as removing stomach cancer, performed by the robots.
The robot consists of a main body with several arms that is connected by a communication line to another device, which the surgeon uses to operate the main body.
Cameras attached to the tips of the arms allow physicians to view the images on a monitor. The arms can also handle medical instruments used in the operations.
But up until now, the doctors operating da Vinci have been present in the surgery room.
The health ministry’s guidelines concerning online medical practice had said that doctors, in principle, must meet their patients at least once in person. The guidelines also prohibited doctors from performing surgeries by remote away from their patients.
However, the ministry drafted revised guidelines on June 10 to allow remote surgeries. The revisions are expected to take effect as early as July.
In response to the ministry’s move, the JSS will set up an expert committee to prepare its own guidelines on such topics as safety and which patients are eligible for remote operations.
The JSS will conduct demonstration surgeries by connecting robots in university hospitals via optical lines.
Two control devices connected to the main body of the da Vinci robot can be operated simultaneously.
This allows a specialist physician outside the operating room and a surgeon beside the patient to operate together. It is assumed that the specialist is in charge of the difficult parts of the surgery.
If a control device malfunctions or an optical line becomes disconnected, the surgeon in the operating room can still control the robot or continue the operation manually.
Remote surgeries have already started in China on a trial basis, but few have been performed elsewhere.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201906130045.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/4981601

According to The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese research team has discovered a “switch” that may someday be used to shift a person's circadian cycle, or internal clock, which determines behavioral rhythms such as sleep patterns.
A research team including members of Kyoto University announced the finding on June 12. The study result was published the same day in the British scientific journal Nature Communications.
The team said that it discovered for the first time that DNA arrangement plays a role as a switch to controlling a mice's internal clock. It is believed that humans also have the same mechanism.
“This is a vital step to understanding the mechanism of the biological clock,” said Masao Doi, a professor of Kyoto University specializing in chronobiology.
The finding could be a clue to unlocking the mechanism of a morning person and a night person or treating sleep disorders, the study said.
In terms of a biological clock, three U.S. researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017 for their discovery of a gene related to the circadian clock.
The gene was found to cause increases and decreases of a protein over an approximately 24-hour cycle and create body temperature rhythms. But the detailed mechanism of the gene’s movement had not been determined.
Hitoshi Okamura, a specially appointed professor of Kyoto University, specializing in chronobiology, and other researchers changed the DNA arrangement of mice, which was located in the edge of the gene and whose role was not yet defined.
As a result, the mice were able to create protein, but became unable to decrease it. The biological clock of the mice was placed in disarray and its behavior became irregular.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201906130057.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/-dna 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, city workers will soon be able to step onto a Melbourne CBD rooftop and book a 10-minute, ride-sharing flight to the airport for less than $100, after Uber Air announced Melbourne will be the first international city to trial the service.
The plan will be revealed by Uber on Wednesday (AEST) at its Elevate summit in Washington, after striking partnerships with Macquarie Capital, Telstra, Scentre Group and Melbourne Airport to construct city skyports to support vertical take-off and landing.
The new type of aircraft - a piloted, electric passenger aircraft designed by Uber's manufacturing partners, including Bell and Boeing - are designed to carry four passengers with hand luggage of up to 18 kilograms.
Melbourne will join Dallas and Los Angeles as pilot cities for the program, with test flights due to start from 2020 and plans for commercial operations to commence from 2023.
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https://www.afr.com/business/transport/uber-air-to-launch-in-melbourne-20190611-p51wew

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/9943853
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