A plant with an unappetizing English name caught the attention of a company known for its beauty products, leading to a major transformation of Japan’s westernmost island.
Production of the wild dropwort species, resembling a large honewort plant, on Yonagunijima island has now approached the level of sugar cane, long the island’s most important crop.
The plant has a more appealing name in Japanese, “chomeiso” (long life plant).
Major cosmetics maker Shiseido Co. adopted chomeiso as an ingredient for its health food and now its cosmetic products, prompting many farmers to grow the plant on Yonagunijima, 2,000 kilometers from Tokyo.
Chomeiso now covers the farmland owned by Kazunobu Sugimoto, president of the Yonaguni Yakusoen farm.
“Chomeiso stores many nutrients inside to protect itself from sea breezes and ultraviolet rays,” Sugimoto said. “Legend says that a person can live a day longer if he or she eats a chomeiso.”
Sugimoto, one of the first islanders to grow chomeiso, was trying to cash in on the “aojiru” vegetable drink that made waves in the 2000s.
“I thought young people did not feel like returning to the island because there were few industries here,” Sugimoto said.
The turning point came in 2006, when a Shiseido employee visited the island after hearing about the reputation of chomeiso grown there.
“We were looking for a special ingredient to develop Shiseido’s distinctive aojiru,” said Toshiko Maeda, a Shiseido official in charge of chomeiso-based products. “The plant’s name also sounds good.”
Chomeiso turned out to be rich in polyphenol, calcium, vitamin, iron and other nutrients.
Shiseido mixed chomeiso and fruit juice into a single drink and also produced a chomeiso-based dietary supplement. Both were marketed nationwide in 2008 for consumers seeking quick nutritional fixes.
Only nine farmers grew chomeiso in 2004 on Yonagunijima, which has a population of 1,700. The number of producers has since increased to 60, and production has risen twentyfold over the last 10 years.
The chomeiso industry has increased local job opportunities. Around 10 people currently work at a plant on the island to wash chomeiso.
“I did not expect the industry would grow so much,” Yonaguni Mayor Shukichi Hokama said. “I want to urge more farmers to grow both chomeiso and sugar cane simultaneously.”
Shiseido plans to release its Hydro Genius beauty serum under the Benefique cosmetics brand in September. It will be the company’s first cosmetic product using chomeiso as an ingredient, and it will carry a price tag of 10,000 yen (US$98.90), excluding consumption tax.
“Chomeiso extract makes and keeps the skin moist,” a Shiseido official said.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607280001.html

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According to The ABC News Australia, Mr Pfitzner was the first person in Australia to have the much-hyped Tesla Powerwall (battery system) installed. Six months on, he has cut his daily power bill by nearly 90 per cent and said his family had become "smarter" with their use of appliances.
The Powerwall, a lithium-ion battery system designed to store electricity generated from rooftop solar panels, is widely considered to be a game-changer for the electricity industry.
The ability to monitor the household's usage meant the Pfitzner family had become more efficient and smarter with their appliance use.
"I have absolutely no regrets," Mr Pfitzner told 702 ABC Sydney from his home in the Hills district.
"The battery performance is still what it was on day one, and we'll be keeping an eye on that over the coming years.
"I'll consider more panels and another battery in a few years."
James Martin from solar and battery comparison service Solar Choice cautioned battery units, which are charged using renewable sources such as solar and wind, were still a costly option.
"The thing that is common to these battery banks is they still don't make sense from a pure financial perspective," he said.
"Pretty much none of them will pay for themselves before the warranty expires."
Mr Martin said the cost of solar battery products ranged on average between $1,500 and $2,000 per kilowatt hour.
The Pfitzners spent $16,000 installing solar panels and their home battery system which can hold 7 kilowatt hours of power.
His last electricity bill had reduced from $5 to $6 per day to just 59 cents.
If there is an oversupply of solar power, any excess will be fed back into the grid.
If all the power is used in the battery or if there is no solar power due to it being a cloudy day, then the house will draw from the electricity grid as needed.
In the past six months, Mr Pfitzner said he used solar power and stored battery power for about three-quarters of the time.
While solar panels had a payback period of as low as three years and last for about 25 years, Mr Martin said most solar battery options would have a payback period of at least a decade.
Mr Pfitzner said he anticipated it would take about 10 years for the system to pay itself off, though he said he was looking at other methods of saving more money in the meantime.
He wants to take up an off-peak system that will be able to predict what the weather will be, and if the battery is running low or cloudy days are expected, the system will draw power from the grid in cheaper, off-peak times of the day.
At the moment, the battery system draws power from the grid whenever it is needed and charges a single electricity rate for usage.
Mr Pfitzner said he expected more households might take up home battery systems in New South Wales when the Solar Bonus Scheme ends in December.

Ref: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-27/six-months-on-how-is-the-tesla-powerwall-working/7664450

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According to The Asahi Shimbun, carmakers are speeding up efforts to develop mirrorless rear-view systems that are expected to eliminate driver blind spots and improve vehicle aerodynamics in Japan.
Recent revisions of the transport ministry’s automobile safety standards no longer require vehicles to be equipped with a rear-view and side-view mirrors if they come with outboard cameras and an in-car image monitor.
The new systems are required to have the same image quality and range of vision of rear-view mirrors, and the monitor must be installed at a location where it does not disturb driving.
The new standards took effect on June 18. Passenger cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles with the new system that have been authenticated by the transport ministry will be allowed to operate on public roads.
The review of the automobile safety standards came in response to a revision of global vehicle regulations that took place last year at a United Nations forum. The latest developments in camera capabilities and image processing technologies have set the stage for the trend in allowing the substitution. Japan and Europe are expected to lead the global trend toward similar deregulation measures.
The introduction of rear-view cameras is expected to enhance safety. For example, the cameras would eliminate driver blind spots, thereby reducing accidents when the car is put in reverse and other accidents. It would also make it easier to assess conditions behind the car when it is raining or when bulky luggage is in a rear seat.
Further, the elimination of side-view mirrors protruding from the vehicle body would help reduce air resistance.
“That would help improve fuel efficiency and reduce whistling noises,” said a senior Toyota Motor Corp. official.
The freedom of exterior design is also expected to increase.
Automakers had set out on the development of mirrorless cars ahead of the deregulation measures.
During the Tokyo Motor Show last autumn, Toyota exhibited a prototype car under its luxury Lexus brand that carried no side-view mirrors on its doors.
“Of course we are looking toward mirrorless cars, which represent a technology of the future,” the senior Toyota official said.
Germany’s BMW AG also presented a prototype car with cameras mounted where door mirrors are usually located at a U.S. trade show in January.
Vehicle component manufacturers, which will be the central players of actual development, are also making inroads.
To coincide with the revision of standards, Murakami Corp., Japan’s largest manufacturer of automobile mirrors, introduced a mirror that is mounted with electronic devices so it can also be used to display images. The Shizuoka-based company is pitching the product to automakers so it potentially could be mounted on marketed cars by the end of fiscal 2018.
To accelerate development, Denso Corp., the country’s leader in manufacturing of automobile components, acquired a stake late last year in a Tokyo-based venture capital company that is studying image recognition technologies.
Hagiwara Electric Co., based in Nagoya, has developed a technology for integrating multiple camera images into a plainly visible pictures, whereby images captured with wide-angle lenses are corrected for distortions before being synthesized.
“The trend toward digitized cars, including the use of mirrorless features, presents a new business opportunity,” said Shigenobu Ishikawa, a senior executive officer with Hagiwara Electric.
There are, however, lingering safety concerns.
“Delays in transmitting images and responses to a technical problem present major challenges,” a Denso official said.
A car traveling at 100 kph covers nearly 30 meters a second. Unlike in the case of cameras that are being used to confirm rear-side views when parking a car, slight delays in displays or physical damage to cameras on running cars could endanger drivers and passengers.
Some point out that, while traditional mirrors allow humans to have an intuitive sense of positions, it could be more difficult for them to do so with a rear-view monitor.
“I have been told that in the past manufacturers exercised considerable caution when mirrors located on the front fenders were replaced with side-view mirrors mounted on the doors,” Ishikawa said. “There is an urgent need to devise ways to ensure the comfort of use for drivers.”

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607270005.html

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According to The Asahi Shimbun, beauty-conscious drivers, who are already choosing cars with windows that block ultraviolet rays to prevent tanning, will soon be able to avoid developing wrinkles as well, according to a glass maker.
Nippon Sheet Glass Co. has developed special glass for automobiles that can block not only short-wavelength ultraviolet rays, which burn the skin’s surface, but also long-wavelength ultraviolet rays, which damage deeper parts underneath the skin.
That feature of the material will help prevent wrinkles and skin cancer caused by ultraviolet rays, company officials said.
The company is in talks with automakers to sell the glass and is looking to have the material adopted in at least five car models by 2020.
According to Nippon Sheet Glass, ultraviolet ray-blocking glass for automobiles has become common mainly in mini-vehicles because many female drivers, who typically dislike tans, prefer that type of car.
The market for anti-ultraviolet ray glass has doubled each year over the last five years. That type of window glass is currently used in about half of all new cars including mini-vehicles.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607230008.html

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According to The Australian Financial Review, a new suburb being planned in Melbourne may take out the much coveted title of Australia's most environmentally friendly.
Local property developer Glenvill has announced plans for the world's first "Tesla town" where every house will feature a Tesla Powerwall solar battery and solar panels on the roof.
The new suburb, YarraBend, will be built on the old Alphington Paper mill site, which enjoys 300 metres of Yarra River frontage, hence the suburb name.
The 16-hectare site was approved as a "mini suburb" by Yarra Council in December.
Victorian chief executive of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Danni Addison, says the planned project is one of the most environmentally sustainable developments in Australia.
Compared with other buildings, the YarraBend houses are expected to have a standout water reduction of 43 per cent, landfill reduced 80 per cent and the potential to reduce energy use by 34 per cent.
YarraBend will include a mix of free-standing houses, apartments and townhouses, totalling 2500 new dwellings, with the first 60 yet-to-be-built homes to go on sale this week. 
Homes will range in price from $1.48 million to $2.1 million, and are more expensive than Alphington's median house price of $1,285,000.
The houses are designed with environmentally focused features including low-energy lighting and appliances, and will generate and store solar power. 
As well as housing, the suburb will gain a primary school, community centre, two parks and a commercial precinct.
Within the suburb will be communal charging stations for electric cars and interconnected bike paths.
YarraBend will even have its own app, connecting users to public transport timetables, home delivery menus and social events.
Residents are expected to begin moving in by late 2017, the Heidelberg Leader reports.

Ref: http://www.afr.com/technology/solarpowered-tesla-town-is-coming-to-melbourne-australia-20160722-gqbd0h

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According to The Asahi Shimbun, companies ranging from shoemakers to railway operators in Japan are offering services to track senile seniors who wander off, a problem that affects more than 10,000 families a year, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Some involve high-tech devices while others promote information sharing to address the problem of missing elderly people in this rapidly graying society.
According to the National Police Agency in Japan, 12,208 seniors with signs of senility went missing in 2015, a 13-percent increase over the previous year. Last year was the third straight in which more than 10,000 senior citizens went missing.
Yokohama-based Tsukui Corp., which provides various care services for elderly people, shoemaker Achilles Corp., and Kato Denki Inc., a manufacturer of security-related electric equipment are involved in a joint project to develop footwear containing small transmitters.
Tsukui on July 15 began a trial run of the shoes at 10 of its care facilities.
When residents with signs of senility leave such facilities wearing the shoes, a receiver can pinpoint their whereabouts by catching electric signals emitted by the transmitters.
The device also sends warning e-mails to care workers as well as family members when a resident leaves the facility.
A pair of shoes with the transmitter costs about 20,000 yen (US$190), while a receiver costs about 40,000 yen (US$380). One receiver can confirm data coming from about 20 pairs of shoes.
Security firm Secom Co. is already providing services to keep track of senior citizens who may wander off. The elderly people carry a mobile device that uses a global positioning system to inform family members about their locations.
Secom services start from 900 yen a month. For an additional fee, specialized workers from the nearest Secom facility are dispatched to find the missing senior citizen if such a request is made.
Sohgo Security Services Co. has a similar service. But it also began a program this spring with some local governments that allows for a less expensive way to keep track of senior citizens by having them carry smaller tags.
In 2007, a senior citizen wandered onto railway tracks and was struck and killed by a train. Central Japan Railway Co. filed a lawsuit against bereaved family members, seeking compensation for the stoppage of operations. But the Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiff on March 1 this year.
That same month, West Japan Railway Co. teamed up with an information technology firm to begin a tracking service using a special app that informs family members and others about the individual’s location.
Aeon Co., the nation’s largest supermarket chain operator, has begun a program to foster employees into supporters for senile elderly people.
Seven-Eleven Japan Co. has signed agreements with local governments to provide information on seniors with signs of senility who wander into its outlets.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607190040.html

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According to The Asahi Shimbun, Japanese elderly people may soon access home help as well as more convenient grocery shopping through a new link-up between a major housing complex operator and the big three convenience store chains in Japan.
To strengthen community ties and improve the daily lives of elderly people, the Urban Renaissance Agency signed an agreement with Seven-Eleven Japan Co., FamilyMart Co. and Lawson Inc. on July 5 to enable the three companies to open their outlets in unoccupied facilities in the agency’s apartment complexes.
“We want to create an environment centering on convenience stores where elderly people can live without any anxiety,” said an agency official.
The move, proposed by the agency and agreed on by the three companies, is aimed at offering support for elderly people by helping them purchase essentials, as residents of the agency’s housing complexes become increasingly elderly.
Under the plan, convenience stores will open at a total of 100 locations. They will also consider providing housekeeper services through such stores in the future.
New stores are planned to be opened at unoccupied facilities in the agency’s apartment complexes that used to house supermarkets and other types of outlets primarily in the Tokyo metropolitan area and in and around the Kinki region.
More food products and daily necessities that elderly consumers typically like, such as ready meals, will be available at planned shops. Those stores will offer daily shopping services, room cleaning and mending services as well.
At some of the outlets, radio calisthenics and other programs will be provided to deepen interactions between residents, while residents will also be allowed to use the shops’ eat-in sections to hold gatherings.
The agency and the convenience store operators will consider having store staff handle urgent problems reported by residents on Saturdays and Sundays as well as at night, when caretakers of housing complexes are typically absent.
The agency operates many large apartment complexes, so the three companies expect cooperation with the agency will help them win new customers and increase their brand power.
Households of elderly people account for 40 percent of all the 740,000 families living in the agency’s 1,664 housing complexes across Japan. Among these, around 200 people annually die alone.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201607190011.html

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According to The Australian Financial Review, Japanese institutions have returned to the Australian government bond market after two months away, drawn back by the relatively high returns in a world of negative yields.
However, the cost of offsetting the currency risk as the yen edges higher against most currencies means investor appetite for the relatively high-yielding paper is waning relative to other assets, including mortgage-backed securities in the US, analysts say.
"While nominal and real yields are important, what matters most for Japanese investors is the hedged foreign exchange return," wrote TD Securities rate strategist Prashant Newnaha.
"This has mattered more so this year than most other years because yen strength has been relentless, with the cross with the Australian dollar close to testing multi-year lows just last month," he said.
According to the Japan's Ministry of Finance, Australian dollar-denominated bond purchases were worth $2 billion in May. Of this, $1.7 billion was spent on 10-year and 20-year government bonds and $300 million on issues from non-residents such as supranational and sovereign agencies (SSA).
Central bank bond buying – or quantitative easing – over recent years has driven yields along the maturity curve below zero in Japan and Europe, making returns of 2 per cent or more in Australia particularly attractive.
Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda formally announced a negative rate strategy in January, pushing more institutional investors abroad.
Australia, though, was out of favour at that time as commodity prices slumped on fears about Chinese growth and the Australian dollar fell to as low as US68.27¢.
By February, however, Japanese investors were back with a vengeance, buying a net $3.9 billion in $A-denominated securities, including $2.5 billion in government bonds.

Ref: http://www.afr.com/markets/japanese-investors-return-to-australian-bond-market-20160718-gq80lq

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What can we do in the meantime to satisfy the demand for talented technical staff in Australian technology companies?
According to The Australian Financial Review, we have around 300,000 foreign students in our tertiary institutions, many from China and India who come to Australia to study degrees like software engineering and maths.
We need to do a better job at selling Australia to these students as a permanent home.
A Sydney University lecturer recently told me that historically Chinese students would come to study in Australia and then use that as a path to migrate.
Anecdotally, she's finding that many of the business and engineering students are now more excited by the prospect of being an entrepreneur back in China than by the idea of remaining in Australia.
There has been a lot of debate about the merit of the government's $28 million taxpayer-funded Innovation Statement marketing.
Some of this money might be better spent outside Australia promoting our country as a destination to the world's top tech talent and companies.
Given all the talk about simplifying our 457 regime to help start-ups access critical talent, it's surprising that we've yet to see any action.
The fact that the immigration department takes up to eight weeks to process a 457 application for a software engineer is a joke.
Technology companies in every other country are fighting for the same talent and we are missing out on the best and brightest because of government process.
I recently tried to move an engineer to Australia on a 457 visa. The process was time-consuming and expensive and took the full eight weeks to get approved. In stark contrast, we had an Australian employee organising an E3 visa to work in our US office at the same time. The process was able to be done online and his visa was approved on the spot at the US consulate.
Let's create a program where there is an incentive in the first few years of returning to Australia after having worked in a qualifying technology company overseas.
It is a very encouraging sign for the health of our ecosystem that so many people in the wider community are now talking about start-ups and innovation. In all of the excitement to lay the proper foundations for future growth let's not forget about the issues facing our companies in the here and now.

Ref: http://www.afr.com/technology/changes-australia-must-make-to-solve-its-tech-skills-shortage-20160715-gq6s08

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According to The Australian Financial Review, house prices will rise a faster-than-expected 5.1 per cent this year, due to stronger growth in Melbourne and Sydney, the National Australia Bank's second quarter Residential Property Survey says.
Price growth has picked up since March in the two largest cities and in the year to June, Melbourne homes rose 12.1 per cent, while Sydney gained 11 per cent, the NAB's latest quarterly survey shows.
Brisbane (7.6 per cent), Adelaide (3.9 per cent) and Hobart (4.9 per cent) also benefited from "solid and generally better-than-expected"  growth, the report said.
However, the good news only delays rather than rules out a severe slowdown from last year's 7.8 per cent growth, NAB said.
The outlook for apartments is worse, with prices expected to fall in every city except Adelaide and Hobart.
The survey of 230 property professionals, the first since the Reserve Bank cut interest rates in May, shows overall weak sentiment. It chimes with a separate ANZ/Property Council of Australia survey  this week that showed confidence among property professionals had weakened to a three-year low.
The market has certainly come off recent highs. Wary of over-extending themselves, banks have tightened credit and this is curbing the ability of both local and foreign buyers to take out mortgages.
The NAB survey also showed foreign purchases of new property fell for a third straight quarter to their lowest level in two years.
 Foreign buyers accounted for 10.4 per cent of total new property sales in the second quarter, down from 11.8 per cent in the March quarter and 12.8 per cent a year ago, and 7.2 per cent in established property markets.
The biggest change was in Queensland, where the proportion of foreign buyers nearly halved to 11.2 per cent, compared with 21.9 per cent in the first quarter.
Foreign buyers increased over the quarter in Victoria's new property markets, with their market share doubling to 21.7 per cent from 10.7 per cent.
"This sharp jump in buying activity came ahead of an increase in the stamp duty surcharge on foreign buyers of residential real estate in Victoria from 3 per cent to 7 per cent on contracts signed from July 1 2016," the report said.
Foreign buyers also increased their market share slightly in NSW to 11.8 per cent from 11.1 per cent in the first quarter, but this was well below the high of 21 per cent the survey recorded in the first quarter of last year. 

Ref: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/house-prices-to-rise-faster-than-expected-this-year-nab-says-20160714-gq697x

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