According to The Asahi Shimbun, a floating inn will make its maiden voyage in the Seto Inland Sea in Japan on Oct. 17.
The Guntu, a ryokan-like passenger liner whose guest rooms are made mainly of wood, is 81.2 meters long and 13.75 meters wide and has a gross tonnage of 3,200 tons.
It also features a gable roof, a 35-square-meter veranda, a gym, a beauty treatment salon, a large bathroom with a sauna and a sushi bar. All of those facilities use wood.
“The vessel features a Japanese-style interior, allowing passengers to have a relaxing time and fully enjoy the appeal of the Seto Inland Sea,” said Akio Jo, president of the operating company of the vessel.
He said the ship, which uses an electric propulsion system, can travel “so quietly that passengers do not realize it is moving.”
All 19 guest rooms of four types offer views of the sea. Each room will accommodate two people, with charges ranging from 400,000 yen to 1 million yen ($US 3,565 to 8,914) per night.
The largest room, the 90-square-meter Guntu Suite in the bow, will provide a 180-degree view of the sea.
Six routes will be available to travel in the Seto Inland Sea, mainly for three days and two nights or four days and three nights.
The vessel will not stop at any port during its trips. It will anchor off the coast, and passengers will be sent on two boats to their destinations.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201710140006.html

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According to The Australian Financial Review, iron ore imports by China surged above 100 million tonnes to a record, smashing the previous high set in 2015, as the country's concerted push to clean up the environment stoked demand for higher-grade material from overseas while hurting local mine supply. Prices rallied.
Purchases of iron ore expanded to 102.8 million tonnes in September from 93 million tonnes a year ago, surpassing the previous record of 96.3 million tonnes in December 2015, according to customs data on Friday. Over the first nine months, imports climbed 7.1 per cent to 817 million tonnes, putting full-year purchases on course to top 1 billion tonnes by a comfortable margin.
"High-grade ore is certainly gaining popularity," Dang Man, an analyst at brokerage Maike Futures Co, said via text message. "Seasonally, September is a strong month for imports as mills tend to stock up before winter. We think purchases will drop significantly in October as steelmakers cut output."
On Friday, futures in Singapore advanced as much as 6.2 per cent to $US62.20 a tonne. The benchmark spot price for 62 per cent content ore in Qingdao climbed 4.1 per cent, the most since August, to $US62.53 a tonne, according to Metal Bulletin Ltd.
Ore comes in different grades according to purity of content, and higher-quality shipments are more efficient for mills, enabling them to make more steel, and they also cause less pollution. BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, said there's a "new reality" in the global iron ore market as a flight to quality boosts the premium users will pay for better material.

Ref:http://www.afr.com/business/mining/iron-ore/iron-ore-rallies-as-chinese-imports-top-100m-tonnes-in-september-20171013-gz0wa8

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According to The ABC News, more than a quarter of new homes built in New South Wales are being bought by foreign buyers, with Victoria close behind and closing in, according to new research from Credit Suisse.
Using revenue figures obtained from state governments under freedom of information requests, Credit Suisse calculated that 26 per cent of new homes sold in New South Wales between September 2016 to June 2017 were purchased by foreign buyers.
The figure was not much lower in Victoria, with 17 per cent of new home purchases coming from overseas buyers.
Queensland was less attractive to foreign buyers, with 8 per cent of new homes sold to non-residents.
Credit Suisse was able to obtain the breakdown, because these three state governments now charge higher stamp duties on overseas buyers.
The stamp duty surcharge is 8 per cent in NSW, 7 per cent in Victoria and 3 per cent in Queensland, but does not appear to have put a significant dent in demand from overseas buyers.
On an annual basis, foreign buyers poured almost $6 billion into residential property in NSW, $3.4 billion in Victoria and $0.7 billion in Queensland.
Credit Suisse said the data from January to June 2017 showed that 87 per cent of foreign property buyers in NSW were Chinese, with New Zealanders at 1.6 per cent the next biggest nationality.
"In both states [NSW and Victoria] we see no evidence of a slowdown in foreign demand because of the stronger capital controls introduced by the Chinese authorities in December 2016," Credit Suisse research analysts Hasan Tevfik and Peter Liu wrote.
"Chinese demand for Aussie property continues at a strong rate despite the government's efforts."

Ref:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-11/foreign-buyers-not-deterred-by-rising-stamp-duty/9038014?section=business
 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, foreign languages were no barrier to Japanese customers at a cafe staffed by foreigners in Tokyo’s Roppongi district on 10th of Oct, when a major mobile phone carrier in Japan, NTT Docomo Inc., set up shop to promote its translation app.
The leading mobile phone carrier recruited non-Japanese to work at the one-day pop-up cafe who speak eight mother tongues, each among the 10 languages including English and French the speaking app can convert into Japanese, and vice versa.
Serving Japanese customers in their own languages with the aid of a tablet computer, the staff spoke into the device, “What would you like to order?”
The app repeated the question in Japanese, in both voice and text displayed on the screen.
Megumi Nakaya, 30, ordered a cheeseburger from a Chinese attendant.
“I hope Japan will become a country where foreign visitors do not encounter language barriers, as we are going to host the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Nakaya said.
NTT Docomo’s campaign reflects recent trends where the increasing numbers of foreign visitors give Japanese people opportunities to communicate with them in their daily lives and in a business environment.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201710110047.html
 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, a group of Japanese researchers has reported discovering a mechanism through which appetite for food becomes difficult to suppress in the brain, which could lead to the development of therapies for treating obesity in the future.
The scientists with the National Institute for Basic Biology in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture in Japan, and other institutions demonstrated that PTPRJ, an enzyme in brain cells, suppresses the workings of leptin, a hormone released by fat cells.
Appetite for food is controlled by the workings of leptin on the brain’s feeding centre. It has been known that obese people have weak leptin action, which makes their appetites difficult to suppress, but how and why that occurs was previously unknown.
The team of researchers, led by Takafumi Shintani, an NIBB associate professor of neurobiology, said it has discovered that increased fat increases the amount of PTPRJ in cells, which inhibits leptin action and makes it difficult to suppress appetite.
When mice were fed for 12 weeks under identical conditions, individuals that lack PTPRJ exhibited smaller food intake and about 15 percent less body weight than normal mice. The former also had about 40 percent less total body fat, the scientists added.
Their research results were published Sept. 14 in Scientific Reports, a British science journal.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201710090003.html

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According to The Australian Financial Review, shares in Mantra Group soared more than 16 per cent on Monday after Paris-listed global hotel giant Accor made a $1.2 billion all-cash offer to buy Australia's second biggest hotel and resort operator.
A merger of the country's two biggest accommodation providers would create a local hotel giant with a national portfolio of more than 300 hotels, a dozen or so brands and in excess of 50,000 rooms – about five times bigger than its nearest competitor, franchisor Choice Hotels.
Accor's indicative and non-binding proposal to acquire Mantra Group at $3.96 a share was at a 23 per cent premium to Mantra's Friday closing price of $3.23, and valued the business at $1.17 billion.
Mantra Group, which operates more than 125 properties and in excess of 21,500 rooms under its Mantra, Peppers and Breakfree brands, said it had granted Accor access to due diligence "to determine if a transaction can be agreed and recommended unanimously by the Mantra board".
It was worth less than half this when it floated in June 2014 at $1.80 a share.
Since then, a tourism boom and rapid growth has lifted Mantra, though its share price is still well off its December 2015 peak of $5.05 a share.
The approach from Accor, which operates more than 4100 hotels and almost 600,000 hotel rooms around the world and more than 30,000 rooms in Australia, follows a wave of global hotel company mergers driven by the growth of online booking platform Airbnb and the increased market power of online travel agents such as Expedia and Booking.com.
Last year's global $17 billion merger of Marriott and Starwood created the world's biggest hotel company with around 1.2 million rooms.
Locally, amid a China-led tourism boom, Australia's hotel sector is booming with occupancy rates near 90 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne, a wave of new brands coming into the country and all the major players undertaking big development pipelines.

Ref:http://www.afr.com/real-estate/commercial/hotels-and-leisure/accor-makes-12b-bid-for-hotel-operator-mantra-group-20171008-gywu9i
 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, the Turnbull government is at war over proposed Clean Energy Target but the rapidly falling cost of wind and solar energy could mean developers can do without such targets and their rich subsidies as soon as the early 2020s.
Contrary to former PM Tony Abbott, who argues that pushing renewable energy onto the grid under the Renewable Energy Target (RET) has made power costly and unreliable, rapidly falling prices may now mean that building more wind and solar is the key to bringing wholesale electricity prices down.
That offers the tantalising prospect that Australia can meet the energy "trilemma" – restoring affordable and reliable energy and meeting the nation's commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – with a mix of wind, solar, gas, storage and "demand response". Demand response offers customers incentives to curb their demand and send energy from solar panels, batteries and smart appliances when demand spokes, helping to avoid blackouts.
AGL Energy has outlined such a future in its plan to replace the ageing Liddell coal power station in the NSW Hunter Valley. But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull remains unconvinced and deputy PM Barnaby Joyce is openly hostile.
There are still obstacles to financing a 25-year project like a wind or solar farm without subsidies. And wind and solar power need to be backed by dispatchable capacity that can be turned on and off at will – which will be increasingly costly as penetration rises and drives out baseload coal power.
Still, the dramatic shift in debate from only a few months ago – when Mr Turnbull canvassed building new coal-fired power stations – shows how swiftly energy markets are changing.

Ref: http://www.afr.com/news/you-could-soon-build-a-wind-farm-without-subsidy-20170928-gyqieu
 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, Central Japan Railway Co. hosted a sneak preview of its latest Shinkansen.
The framework for the boxy front of the bullet train and a smart passenger cabin were shown to media representatives.
The key feature is that the new N700S series will have only two types of cars--except for the head and tail cars--because underfloor equipment have been streamlined. By comparison, the current-generation N700A series has six variations.
JR Tokai hopes the fewer number of car variations will boost sales of the new Shinkansen to other railway operators in Japan and abroad because it allows for more flexible arrangements, such as an eight-car train and a 12-car train, instead of the current 16-car formation.
The new train will debut on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line linking Tokyo and Osaka in fiscal 2020, and the unveiling of the new bullet train took place at the manufacturer Nippon Sharyo Ltd.'s plant in Toyokawa.
The head car of the N700S bullet train is more angular than the N700A's. This lessens the horizontal oscillations the passengers feel by changing air flows.
The new train is also more eco-friendly, consuming 7 percent less electricity than the current model when it runs at 285 kph.
If an emergency automatic brake is applied in the event of a major earthquake, the N700S series halts after traveling another 2,800 meters, compared with the 3,000 meters required for the current model.

Ref: http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201710020026.html

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According to The Australian Financial Review, house hunters are steering away from Sydney and Melbourne and turning their attention to Brisbane, according to property data group CoreLogic.
Investors are being turned off by affordability constraints in Sydney and Melbourne, and the sentiment that both markets are currently at their peak, CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless says.
More investors and prospective buyers are now looking at Brisbane, as recent migration growth and improving job prospects make it more attractive, he said.
Queensland's unemployment rate has tumbled in recent months, falling from 6.5 per cent in June to an 18 month low of 5.7 per cent in August, the Australian Bureau of Statistics says. 
"I think one of the missing pieces of the Brisbane puzzle up to date has been the fact that there hasn't been much jobs growth," Mr Lawless said.
"This is one of the reasons why we haven't seen Brisbane values growing to the same extent as Sydney and Melbourne, despite affordability and the decent rate of population growth.
"It hasn't been a very strong economy but that seems to be changing now."
In the past 12 months, Brisbane's home prices have jumped 2.9 per cent. That compares with a 10.5 per cent increase in Sydney and a 12.1 per cent rise in Melbourne.
But Mr Lawless said an oversupply of apartments could have investors treading cautiously.
Mr Lawless said, while Brisbane is at a higher risk than Sydney and Melbourne because of a substantial uplift in existing unit stock, the threat is starting to subside.
"Brisbane has already moved through the peak of the construction pipeline - back in December last year - so it is already starting to come down a little bit," he said.
Recent data from CoreLogic shows investors are also looking outside of the major capitals to regional areas where growth rates have been remarkably strong, particularly in areas adjacent to the Sydney metro area.
NSW's Newcastle and Lake Macquarie were the strongest regional performers with home prices up 15.3 per cent over the past 12 months, according to CoreLogic.
In Victoria, the strongest regional market was Geelong and in Queensland, the Sunshine coast was the most popular.
Mr Lawless said more and more people are using their equity in their property to buy lifestyle properties such as holiday homes or future retirement premises.
"The metro areas and the major capitals have just become too expensive," he said.

Ref:http://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/brisbanes-slower-house-price-growth-lures-more-home-north-corelogic-says-20171003-gytsx6

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According to The Australian Financial Review, Galaxy Resources has inked an agreement with Tesla battery supplier Panasonic.
Battery makers like Japan's Panasonic have been looking to lock in supplies of high quality lithium to ensure they have enough material to meet demand for their lithium-ion batteries, used to power electric vehicles.
Sources told this column managing director Anthony Tse, chairman Martin Rowley and other directors were in Japan for a signing ceremony two weeks ago. Shipping data also shows product from Mt Cattlin being shipped to Japan.
Galaxy, capitalised at $1.1 billion, is one of the few producers that hasn't locked all of its slated production into agreements with long-term customers.
Galaxy currently supplies spodumene concentrate produced from its Mt Cattlin mine in Western Australia to lithium converters in China, which then make the lithium chemical used by battery manufacturers.
It has agreements to sell 120,000 tonnes of concentrate from Mt Cattlin in 2017 and is expected to announce a 2018 offtake agreement before the end of the year.

Ref: http://www.afr.com/street-talk/galaxy-resources-strikes-deal-with-japans-panasonic-sources-20171002-gyt44m

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
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