According to The Nikkei Asian Review, Toyota Motor and about 40 other leading Japanese companies will create a framework for sharing technologies and business ideas to spur innovation, joining a growing global trend for collaborative development.
Toyota and partners launch a consortium on April 15. Other participants include All Nippon Airways, brewery Asahi Group Holdings, trading house Itochu, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and advertising agency Dentsu. Businesses competing in the same fields are welcomed to join as the organization aims to expand membership to 100 companies in 2020.
Japanese companies have traditionally taken a go-it-alone approach toward innovation, keeping new technologies and business ideas to themselves. The consortium represents the first large-scale attempt at so-called open innovation in Japan, a trend gaining traction abroad as revolutionary technologies grow increasingly elusive.
As early as May, company representatives in charge of new business ideas will start sharing relevant technologies and data. Those at other companies interested in the ideas will evaluate them, with their scaled grading converted into numerical results by an artificial intelligence program developed by Visits Technologies.
The companies believe that showing the potential of each business idea with a numerical grade will make it easier to find business partners or sell the technologies.
In particular, ANA is interested in businesses that can be offered to consumers upon arriving at airports. Asahi, meanwhile, wants to develop technologies used in environmental protection.
In other countries, top companies across different sectors, such as Intel and Disney, often collaborate in nurturing startups.
In China, search engine giant Baidu is leading the Apollo project to develop autonomous driving technology, recruiting more than 100 companies, including Intel and Honda Motor.
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https://asia.nikkei.com/Location/East-Asia/Japan#page=8

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/409487059
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Propy, a real estate platform that enables the buying and selling of properties using fiat money and cryptocurrency, has closed its first blockchain-recorded residential land sales in Asia-Pacific.
The two sales in the St Moritz neighbourhood of Niseko in Japan were to Hong Kong investors.
The sales were struck as the blockchain-powered platform makes inroads into the Australian market.
Private owners in Sydney and Melbourne are also selling land and houses on Propy, asking that sales be completed using either standard currencies or cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Ripple and bitcoin. There have been no transactions completed yet.
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https://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/australians-selling-houses-and-land-with-cryptocurrencies-20190411-p51d6v

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/8227744 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, a major housing manufacturer is touting its iron frame for houses that can withstand shocks four times greater than those suffered by houses in Kobe during the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
Panasonic Homes Co. in Japan conducted a test in its plant here for the media, in which a one-ton iron ball struck the iron frame of a house.
Although a conventional brace was bent, the vibration control equipment developed by the firm suffered no problems. The equipment is utilized in vibration control technologies used in high-rise buildings.
The frame will be installed in houses to be put on sale on April 13 under the name “Bousai-Jizokuryoku o Sonaeru Ie” (House equipped with enduring strength against disasters).
The houses will also have storage batteries and a water storage tank that can hold three days of drinking water for a family of four.
In addition, the houses will be equipped with “Home X” functions that connect household electric appliances and housing devices with the Internet. As a result, for example, shutters will be automatically shut when violent wind warnings are issued.
For a house with a total floor space of 120 square meters, the construction costs will be about 29 million yen (US$ 259,200), excluding tax.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201904120068.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1ok
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, to enhance “omotenashi” (hospitality), McDonald’s Japan on April 10 started new services that will help customers avoid waiting in line or balancing their food precariously on trays.
The fast-food giant deploying special staff members at its 75 outlets in Shizuoka Prefecture and plans to cover 1,500 restaurants, or half of its outlets in Japan, by the end of this year.
The staff members help customers choose their food items before they get in line at the counter and guide the customers to their seats. The staff members will then bring the orders to the customers’ tables.
An average of five omotenashi workers will be stationed at each outlet on a rotation basis.
In another new service that removes the need to place orders and receive meals over the counter, customers can place advance orders through a smartphone app, as well as specify the preferred outlet and the time they want their meals served.
Although the food-service industry is known to promote labor-saving in customer service, McDonald’s Japan will hire additional staff in an effort to increase contact with customers and raise the number of visitors to its restaurants.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201904100069.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1926988 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, cross-border payments start-up Airwallex has become the quickest company in Australian history to achieve so-called unicorn status, with a $US1 billion valuation, after closing a $US100 million ($141.3 million) funding round.
The round, led by US investor DST Global, which has also backed the likes of Facebook, Airbnb, Spotify and Stripe, makes Airwallex the third Aussie company to become a unicorn in the last 18 months.
It was founded in late 2015 by its chief executive, Jack Zhang, alongside three University of Melbourne friends and a former partner in a coffee shop. Mr Zhang was raised in Qingdao, China, before moving to Australia in his mid-teens for high school.
Airwallex has created a payments infrastructure that enables businesses to manage cross-border payments easily and cheaply, and has grown to employ 260 people, while raising more than $US200 million in capital.
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https://www.afr.com/technology/airwallex-becomes-the-fastest-aussie-unicorn-after-us100m-raise-20190322-h1covg

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/airwallex-1 
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According To The Asahi Shimbun, an Osaka Institute of Technology research team developed a paint that produces heat from solar light, enabling remote places to be heated with surgical precision without using electricity or gas.
The team, headed by Shuji Fujii, a professor at the university, and Tomoyasu Hirai, an associate professor there, who both who specialize in polymer material, expect it can be applied for cooking on spacecraft, using the paint to absorb light that exists in space.
Materials that vacuum up light and convert it into heat already exist, but there weren't any that could be put into large-scale use.
The team paid particular attention to high molecular Poly 3 Hexylthiophene (P3HT), which conducts electricity. As it can be applied to coarse materials, it has been widely used for thin-film solar cells and transistors.
In the experiment, P3HT was created using chlorine ion as an impure substance.
When applying the paint to glass and exposing it to near infrared light (at 800 nanometers), which is also included in solar light, the temperature rose only at places where solar light was shed.
Only several seconds after shedding light, the temperature rose more than 500 degrees on the surface the paint was applied to.
The team also found they could control the paint's temperature. For example, when applying it in a thin layer, its temperature remained constant at 5 degrees.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201904010069.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/5003946204 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, the Opposition leader dubbed the cash splash on the cancer plan the most "important investment in Medicare since Bob Hawke created it".
Shorten pledged that if Labor wins the election, six million cancer scans over four years, including MRIs, will be paid for. Further, three million appointments with specialists, like oncologists, will also be covered.

Here is the summary:

Coalition
• $1.1 billion lift in primary care funding, and $309 million boost to imaging.
• Indexation freeze to be lifted for a further 113 GP items on Medicare.
• Commonwealth website created where specialists outline costs.

Labor
• $2.3 billion Medicare cancer plan over four years.
• All drugs recommended by experts will list on PBS.
• $600 million spent to cover all out-of-pocket costs for diagnostic imaging.

https://www.afr.com/business/health/health-sector-winners-no-matter-who-takes-the-election-20190403-p51ahu

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/3858247
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, cashless purchases of items automatically scanned by a robot, dozens of surveillance cameras to prevent theft, and nary a staff member in sight and all you need to do is show your face.
Leading convenience store chain FamilyMart Co. started testing face-recognition payment technology at a newly opened outlet in Yokohama.
With many chains struggling to fill staff shortages, urgent measures are necessary to create shops that can operate 24/7 with fewer staff members.
“What we have to do right now is save on labor and staff. We are looking at all possibilities,” said Takashi Sawada, president of FamilyMart.
FamilyMart Saedo, opened as a test outlet, includes a partitioned space separate from the normal retail area, with no staff stationed there.
The outlet introduced face-recognition technology developed by Panasonic Corp., which has a factory located nearby.
Currently, only Panasonic employees whose faces were registered in advance can use the face-recognition camera to open the wicket and enter the partitioned space.
When desired items are put in the center of the checkout, the price is automatically calculated and the money is withdrawn from a user's pre-registered credit card.
No fewer than 80 security cameras and infrared radiation sensors are installed in the general shopping area to detect customer movements and the number of products on shelves.
The information is displayed on screens held by staff members and alerts them if certain goods run out, or if the restroom needs to be cleaned.
The system is expected to save on labor for checking out items, as well as avoid missing sales opportunities owing to products being sold out.
FamilyMart will use the test outlet to check how operating efficiency is improved and decide whether to expand the system to other outlets.
Rival Seven-Eleven Japan Co. teamed up with NEC Corp. for its face-recognition system, which it is testing at an outlet in an NEC office building.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201904030061.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/ok 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, an army of Amazon Japan robot discs briskly hauled tall shelves stacked with items across the firm's warehouse floor in Japan.
The online retail giant installed the orange robots to accelerate efficiency in receiving items arriving at its warehouse and shipping them out to customers.
Touting its high-tech distribution Amazon robotics system, which began full-scale operations in April, the Japanese arm of U.S.-based Amazon.com Inc. opened its cutting-edge distribution base to media representatives on the day.
It is the firm's second such facility in Japan following one it operates in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.
The slim robots, which resemble Roomba robot vacuums, glide automatically through the warehouse on wheels at a speed of 1.7 meters per second. They were upgraded to carry items of up to about 567 kilograms, over 200 kg more than those in the Kawasaki warehouse, a move the firm says paid off in increased efficiency.
People working with the robots don't need to memorize the whereabouts of items since the robotics system also manages the warehouse shelves.
Staff stay in a designated spot and follow instructions on a monitor, retrieving items from the shelves the robots bring over, and stowing them in containers to be shipped.
In contrast to traditional warehouse operations, no specific shelves are allocated to particular items. The system links items and available shelves as they arise.
The space the shelf-carrying robots move around in is off-limits for humans and partitioned off by a fence, which ensures safety, the company said.
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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201904050032.html

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/2117742
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According to The Australian Financial Review, with both the Coalition and the Labor party pledging to spend billions of dollars on new road and rail projects around Australia as well as schools and hospitals, infrastructure and transport companies will be well-positioned whichever party wins the election.
Unlike several years ago, when the Coalition favoured road over rail projects, both parties are now firmly committed to funding more rail lines to take cars off roads and ease congestion, helping people move around more quickly.
But there is one key difference: the Coalition wants to put money into fast regional rail links with trains running at about 160 kilometres per hour, including a tunnel through the Blue Mountains from Sydney to Parkes, and create a National Faster Rail Agency.
Labor disagrees with the fast rail plan (which does not yet have cost estimates), and instead wants to set up a High Speed Rail Authority to build even faster trains that would run at speeds of up to 350 kilometres per hour from Brisbane to Melbourne via Sydney and Canberra at an estimated cost of $114 billion.
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https://www.afr.com/business/infrastructure/boomtime-for-infrastructure-investors-20190404-p51asc

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/4286198 
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