According to The Australian Financial Review, Daiwa House sees Australia as a “big target” for growth, buoyed by demand from an increasing population, but is quiet about whether expansion plans will include its challenged subsidiary, Rawson Homes.
Japan’s largest home builder acquired Sydney-based Rawson in 2017 and last month announced a build-to-rent joint venture with Lendlease – in which it will invest $250.5 million by June 2025 – as part of plans to expand globally at a time when Japan’s domestic population is shrinking. https://www.afr.com/property/residential/australia-s-growing-population-a-big-target-for-daiwa-house-20230809-p5dv2j
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According to The Nikkei Asia, the Chinese government released a new list of destination countries for outbound group tourism, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, the U.S. and the U.K., a move that will give a lift to retailers and other travel-related businesses in those countries.
According to the announcement, the application process for group tours begins on 10 August. New countries approved by the Chinese government include India, Pakistan, Qatar, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel, Mexico, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden. China began allowing its citizens to take overseas group tours in February after a roughly three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ban has been lifted in stages. Chinese tour groups can visit about 60 countries at present, including those in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America, but Japan has not been on the approved list until now. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Travel-Leisure/China-approves-Japan-U.S.-other-destinations-for-group-tourism
According to The Nikkei Asia, companies in Japan, which sources a third of its energy from coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, have been exploring a way to "cleanly" use coal power plants by instead burning ammonia, a derivative of hydrogen that does not emit carbon when burned.
These companies, in tandem with the Japanese government, are continuing to hone this signature technology as they believe it will help decarbonize Asia's coal-reliant power sectors, unfazed by ever-skeptical criticism from wealthy Western countries and appealing instead to countries in the developing world. In a key first step toward this goal, JERA, the nation's largest power generator, at the end of this fiscal year is preparing to start a test run at a commercial coal plant in Aichi prefecture by sourcing 20% of the fuel from ammonia and 80% from coal, a process generally referred to as "co-firing." https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-Spotlight/Japan-warms-to-disputed-coal-power-technology-under-West-s-icy-stare
According to The Australian Financial Review, two major Japanese investors have struck a $US500 million ($763 million) deal to buy into Woodside Energy’s $16.5 billion Scarborough LNG project in Western Australia, shrugging off warnings from green groups about the environmental and commercial risks involved with the project.
The deal with Sojitz Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation also runs counter to warnings that Japanese buyers have lost confidence in Australia as a long-term supplier of LNG after a raft of policy measures against the sector under the Albanese government that cast doubt over future supply volumes. Under the accord announced on Tuesday, the two diversified trading giants, equal partners in the Japan LNG venture, will buy a 10 per cent stake in the Scarborough gas field and they have signed up for LNG cargoes. They have also agreed to collaborate with Perth-based Woodside on clean energy ventures such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/woodside-signs-up-japan-for-16-5b-lng-project-20230808-p5duts
According to The Australian Financial Review, Australia’s reigning cotton grower of the year sees a European Union crackdown on the textile industry’s carbon footprint as a money-making opportunity and is moving to build a renewable ammonia and green hydrogen plant on one of his farms with help from the NSW government.
David Statham’s Sundown Pastoral has a business model that relies on a dash of rare earths, its own solar farm and a leap into producing green hydrogen to power farm machinery, and green ammonia for fertiliser. The NSW government has handed Sundown and privately owned Hiringa Energy nearly $36 million to help build a renewable ammonia and green hydrogen plant on a Sundown property west of Moree, in northern NSW. https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/top-farmer-cottons-on-with-green-hydrogen-rare-earths-20230802-p5dt5o
According to The Australian Financial Review, new housing approvals fell to their lowest in four years over the 2023 calendar year, as the fastest interest rate-tightening cycle in a generation cut buyers’ ability to borrow at the same time as construction costs soared.
A 7.7 per cent monthly decline in June pulled the yearly total of new home approvals to 175,790, the weakest since June 2020, with a 13.8 per cent year-on-year decline in detached house approvals to 106,958 and a 10.5 per cent slide in attached homes to 68,831, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. https://www.afr.com/property/residential/new-home-approvals-fall-to-weakest-in-four-years-20230801-p5dszs
According to The Jiji News, major Japanese companies plan to spend 20,615.2 billion yen on plants and equipment in the country in fiscal 2023, which started in April, up 20.7 pct from the previous year, a survey released Thursday by the Development Bank of Japan showed.
The survey showed that domestic capital spending by major Japanese companies in fiscal 2023 will mark the second straight year of growth and recover to pre-pandemic levels. https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/27723
According to The Asahi Shimbun, Japanese toymaker Bandai Co. has come up with a novel way to get kids to exercise while glued to games on their smartphones: “smart” shoes.
Each shoe has a sensor on the sole to “read” foot movements. When the sensors are linked with a free gaming app, the in-game avatar moves in sync with the player. The company says the shoes, named “Digicalized,” are designed to help schoolchildren regain fitness lost during the novel coronavirus pandemic. This allows players to enjoy puzzles, dance battles and other games that involve physical activity, the company said. The number of steps taken each day is charted, and players can earn in-game points. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14954919
According to The Australian Financial Review, homegrown self-tanner and skincare brand Bondi Sands has been offloaded to Japan’s chemical and beauty giant Kao Corporation in a cash deal estimated to be worth $450 million.
The Tokyo-listed Kao owns skincare brands Bioré and Jergens, salon haircare brands Oribe and KMS, and fragrance brand Molton Brown. Mr Wilson said the integration of Kao’s scientific and technological resources was “an unparalleled opportunity” to grow Bondi Sands. https://www.afr.com/companies/retail/sunny-days-bondi-sands-offloaded-to-japan-s-kao-for-450m-20230731-p5dspi
According to The Australian Financial Review, French renewables and storage developer Neoen has decided to increase the size of its large battery under construction in Queensland by 35 per cent in a further sign of the surge of investment in capacity that supports the push to weather-dependent wind and solar.
The Western Downs battery in Queensland will now be built to a capacity of 270 megawatts of power and 540 megawatt-hours of storage, meaning the plant will be able to supply at full capacity for two hours. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/qld-battery-to-be-upsized-as-storage-investments-soar-20230726-p5dr9s |
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