According The Nikkei Asian Review, tourism in Japan bounced back in October after the number of foreign visitors dropped the previous month for the first time since 2013 following major natural disasters, government data showed Wednesday.
The estimated number of visitors from overseas rose 1.8 percent from a year earlier to 2,640,600 in October, according to the Japan Tourism Agency, while the pace of the increase has not returned to double-digit levels seen before the disasters such as strong earthquakes and a typhoon.
By country and region, the biggest number of tourists came from China in October at 715,300, up 7.8 percent, followed by South Korea at 571,200, down 8.0 percent for the fourth consecutive month of decline, Taiwan at 379,600, down 9.9 percent, and Hong Kong at 169,500, down 0.9 percent.
The total number of foreign travelers to Japan in the January to October period reached 26,109,300, up 9.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data.
If foreigners keep visiting the country through the end of the year on a pace equivalent to that of November and December last year, the figure would for the first time eclipse the 30 million milestone for annual visitors. Japan aims to welcome 40 million foreign visitors by 2020.
In September, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake rocked Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido, killing more than 40 people and triggering an island-wide blackout, and a typhoon forced the temporary closure of Kansai International Airport in Osaka, the main international gateway by air to the western Japan region.
Earlier this year, a major earthquake jolted Osaka and torrential rains devastated wide areas of western Japan, killing about 230 people.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Foreign-travelers-start-to-return-to-Japan-after-natural-disasters

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/10218 
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According to The Australian Financial Review, technology consulting giant Infosys will invests "tens of millions" in three new innovation hubs, promising 1200 new jobs by 2020, but the states will fight to host them.
The hubs will be "co-creation" centres for government, business and universities to work with Infosys on digital transformation, said Andrew Groth, boss of the India-founded multinational's 4500 staff across Australia and New Zealand.
About 40 per cent of the new hires will be Australian university graduates, from fields including computer science and design.
"The Australian Computer Society released a report in June which found Australia would need 200,000 technology workers over the next five years, but that we're still less than 5000 local graduates from degrees in information and communication technology degrees each year," Mr Groth said.

https://www.afr.com/technology/infosys-to-create-1200-local-jobs-in-three-new-innovation-hubs-20181120-h185ab

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1200 
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According to The Nikkei Asian Review, All Nippon Airways operator ANA Holdings and trading house Marubeni will set up a spaceport in Japan as early as 2021, Nikkei has learned.
The launch site, equivalent to a seaport for ships or an airport for aircraft, will be for private space travel, and feature 3-km runways for craft that take off horizontally like airplanes.
There are already around 10 spaceports in the U.S. for commercial use, some built for the purpose and others converted from airports. The Japanese corporate alliance aims to secure a foothold in the international space-business race by building Asia's first space travel hub.
The two companies, together with four other partners -- including Airbus Japan, satellite broadcaster Sky Perfect JSAT and real estate company Mitsui Fudosan -- have established a company named Spaceport Japan to advance the project. The Tokyo-based team will begin work on Friday.
Japan's second woman to go to space, former astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, serves as representative director of Spaceport Japan. Down the road, major builders and other companies will be invited to join.
Spaceport Japan will begin by working with local and national government bodies to select a spaceport site.
It will also participate in international conferences to discuss topics like safety standards. The partners are expected to set up a stock company to build and operate the facility once work is ready to begin. The first spaceport is likely to have an adjoining training facility.
ANA Holdings has been working to strengthen its hand in space-related businesses through measures such as investment in Japanese spacecraft development startups. Sky Perfect also appears to be on the hunt for business opportunities in the space field.
Gaps in the law are a hurdle, however. A space activities law that took full effect Thursday spelled out authorization and liability frameworks for the launching and management of satellites, but it does not cover manned spacecraft. Since vessels at the spaceport will use rocket engines, they probably will fall outside aviation law. Japan does not have a government authorization process for spaceports.
Sky Perfect "will request the preparation of appropriate laws," said Mihoko Shintani, a lawyer affiliated with the company.
In the U.S., the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 allowed commercial human space flight, on the condition that passengers themselves held full responsibility. The U.K. passed its own space industry bill this year.
Some U.S. spaceports are operated by their home states in efforts to jump-start local economies. Virgin Galactic, a U.S. subsidiary of the Virgin Group, aims to start commercial operations out of a spaceport in the state of New Mexico. Spaceports are planned for the U.K., Italy and Spain as well.

Ref: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/ANA-and-Marubeni-join-to-build-spaceport-in-Japan
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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/-ana
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According to The Australian Financial Review, farmers battling falling agribusiness returns from the severe drought are turning to the renewable energy market as a way to earn additional income and future-proof their enterprises against climate change.
"More and more farmers are coming to the realisation that they need a survival strategy that takes into account not just normal seasonal weather patterns or even `normal' droughts, but the extraordinary weather that climate change is now delivering," said Angus Shaw, a rural manager at valuers Herron Todd White.
"The clean energy option offers farmers both a regular, dependable, income and a means of reducing the often debilitating mental and physical stresses that can accompany the no-income years."
Depending on the number of wind towers or solar panels, a renewable energy income contract can net an individual farmer as much as $100,000 per year or more with long-term leases up to 30 years.

https://www.afr.com/real-estate/commercial/droughtstricken-farmers-earning-extra-income-from-renewable-energy-contracts-20181116-h17z92

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/3203961 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, thanks to a multimodal self-driving car that can be operated by simple gestures, voice commands and a glance, there’s no need for drivers to turn the steering wheel or slam on the brakes.
The futuristic vehicle, the world’s first, was created through an academic-industrial collaboration here.
A study team including researchers of Nagoya University, Tokushima University and auto parts manufacturer Aisin Seiki Co., based in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, rolled out the vehicle to the media during a news conference at Nagoya University on Oct. 25.
The team developed the technology that recognizes “the will of the driver” with pinpoint accuracy by capturing the direction of their eyes, the movement of their mouth and other actions with a camera installed behind the steering wheel.
The driver’s voice, recorded by a microphone placed inside the car, is also utilized to figure out the driver’s intention.
“It will take time to put it into practical use,” said Kazuya Takeda, a professor of signal processing at Nagoya University, who is a member of the study team. “We will strive to raise the performance to allow the self-driving car to operate in various circumstances regardless of who drives.”
When a driver tells the car to “turn right,” it will change directions as instructed.
The smart vehicle can even respond to the driver's question, "What's that?" with the name of a particular building.
The car will answer, “It’s a library,” for example, analyzing the direction of the driver’s eyes, map coordinates and other information.
The team confirmed that its technology not only enables the self-driving vehicle to operate but also to depart and arrive automatically through test runs on the university campus.
This technology is also expected to be applied to robots and other devices to easily operate them.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201811150001.html

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/3037959 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, Kyoto University researchers transplanted nerve cells derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into the brain of a Parkinson’s disease patient, a world’s first that moves regenerative science closer to a new therapy.
The team must still confirm the safety of the clinical trial but plans to eventually have the treatment covered under the national health insurance program.
The patient, a man in his 50s, looked comfortable after the three-hour transplant operation conducted in October and remains in good condition, the team said at a news conference in Kyoto on Nov. 9.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous system disorder caused by a decrease in nerve cells that produce dopamine in the brain. Symptoms include shaking in the limbs and difficulty in movement.
An estimated 160,000 people in Japan have Parkinson’s disease.
For the operation, about 2.4 million nerve cells were created through iPS cells donated by a third party.
Those nerve cells, programmed to produce dopamine, were injected into 12 parts of the patient’s brain through a 1.2-centimeter-wide hole created on the left side of his forehead.
For the therapy, the team envisions using one injection to transplant about 5 million nerve cells created through iPS technology.
The researchers started with half of that amount on the patient because of the possibility that the dopamine-producing nerve cells would not achieve the intended result and become cancerous.
So far, the patient has had no bleeding in the brain or other troubles, according to the team.
The remaining half of the nerve cells will be transplanted after the team confirms the patient has not exhibited any problems for half a year.
The team will then spend two more years to verify the safety of the clinical trial and monitor if the patient’s movement functions have improved.
The researchers also plan to perform the operation on six other Parkinson’s disease patients in their 50s and 60s, including transplants of about 5 million nerve cells in a single injection.
Any patient who receives the nerve cells will be administered an immuno-suppressing agent for a year to rein in rejection symptoms, according to the study.
The university team is soliciting participation from patients with no other diseases.
If the clinical trial produces promising results, the university will team up with businesses to establish a system to mass produce nerve cells created through iPS technology. It will also seek government approval to cover the treatment under the national health insurance program.
“We are aiming to gain early approval,” said team leader Jun Takahashi, a professor of neurosurgery at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application at Kyoto University.
The Japan Parkinson’s Disease Association was encouraged by the university’s announcement.
“It is great news because we were hoping for the start of a clinical trial as soon as possible,” said Kosei Hasegawa, representative chairman of the association whose wife died of complications from the disease a decade ago.
“But we are still in the stage of waiting with high expectations for the results of the trial. We hope things will go well and that the treatment will spread,” he said.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201811120029.html
 
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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/ips3555094
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According to The Australian Financial Review, within five years, Melburnians or Sydneysiders could look out of their office windows and see flying ride-sharing vehicles transporting workers between the central business district and regional centres or airports,  because Uber has entered discussions with local and federal governments.
The company first indicated Melbourne and Sydney as possible trial locations for its UberAIR service last year and last week Uber's global head of aviation, Eric Allison, was in the country meeting with politicians, policymakers and Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA) representatives.

https://www.afr.com/technology/flying-uberair-trials-set-to-for-lift-off-in-australia-with-government-support-20181106-h17lna

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/uber 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese telecommunication company, NTT Docomo Inc. and glass maker AGC Inc. have jointly developed a transparent antenna that can be affixed to the inside of a window without spoiling the view.
The world-first high-tech antenna is expected to be used in urban areas that require numerous base stations, which transmit mobile phone radio waves, to handle high levels of mobile traffic, the companies said Nov. 7.
The transparent antenna featuring new technology fits between two panes of glass and measures 21 centimeters by 70 cm. It allows mobile phone users to communicate without disruption within a radius of 200 meters or so.
The base station equipment is likely to be installed in areas such as just above the ceiling of a room.
The innovation comes amid a rise in mobile traffic in tandem with the spread of smartphones, requiring stable high-speed communication.
In areas with high mobile traffic, it is essential to disperse the radio waves by setting up so-called small-cell antenna base stations, which require additional antennas.
To maintain high-speed communication, Docomo has increased the number of small-scale base stations, especially in highly populated urban areas.
Currently, small antennas are mainly set up outdoors, such as on the rooftop of a building, or on the wall of the lower and middle levels of buildings. However, it is difficult to secure locations for such set-ups and they can spoil a building's appearance.
NTT and AGC plan to start installing the antennas at base stations shortly.
The companies also aim to utilize the antenna for 5G, the next generation of cellular networking that is expected to be put into practical use by 2020.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201811080040.html

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​https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/6006326 
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According to The Asahi Shimbun, when Keisuke Shimakage invented an eyewear-shaped support device that reads text aloud for the user, he primarily wanted to help his father. Now the product is generating interest from the medical community and vision disorder societies for its accuracy and usefulness in daily life.
Venture group Oton Glass, based in Tokyo's Minato Ward, has been refining the device of the same name by having people with dyslexia, amblyopia and other difficulties try it and provide feedback, with an eye toward sales next year.
Shimakage, 27, the company president, was still a product design student when he set out to develop the product in 2013, after his father had a brain infarction, making it difficult for him to read.
"I wanted to make something that would provide support to Dad by means of voice," Shimakage said.
The name is derived from "oton," meaning father in a Japanese dialect, and "oto," meaning voice.
The device consists of a digital camera that takes images of letters or text when a button is pressed on the side of the glasses. The data is then processed over the Internet and converted into voice, which can be played through earphones or a speaker.
When Shimakage's father tried the prototype on, the son quoted him as saying, "Life would be easier with something like this."
During the development process, Shimakage got to know people with dyslexia, a condition that makes it difficult to read and write, but which does not affect mental faculties, vision or hearing.
He learned about the difficulties they face in learning and daily life by not being able to read books, manuals, signs and other written material with sufficient speed and accuracy.
Believing he could help such people, Shimakage decided to commercialize his product and set up a business venture. About 10 people, including engineers, joined his company.
The inspired inventor broadened the range of his anticipated clientele to include people with visual field defects and amblyopia. He went on trains and into shops with people that have such deficits in Yokohama and elsewhere to get feedback to refine the product.One individual with acquired blindness who tried the "speaking glasses" was quoted by Shimakage as saying: "The experience was so touching. It felt as though I had recovered my previous sight."
Oton Glass also received input from Tokyo-based Edge (Japan Dyslexia Society) on how the product could be improved. The government-certified nonprofit organization provides support to dyslectics and conducts campaigns to raise awareness.
"The accuracy of the product has been refined so much that now it can even read signs in the distance and handwritten menus at restaurants," said Eiko Todo, 65, the chairwoman of Edge. “There is no discomfort when it is used outdoors. The device can live up to our needs very well."
The Kagawa Prefecture branch of the Japanese Retinitis Pigmentosa Society organized a hands-on demo session for the eyewear in spring in Takamatsu.
“This is quite good,” said a 31-year-old man who tried the device on. “It would be even better if it could tell you what product you are holding while shopping."
Yosuke Yamashita, 42, a society official, also spoke positively about the support device, saying, “The product appears likely to help enhance people's quality of life in the future."
Oton Glass currently features conversion of English and Japanese text into voice, as well as translation of multilingual text into Japanese and English voice, said Yoshihiro Asano, 26, an Oton Glass official in charge of open innovation.He said improvements are ongoing, including a reduction in the device's size.
With an eye toward release for sale to the public, the company is also hoping to have the product certified as a “daily life tool,” which can be covered by local government subsidies when purchased, and thus available at a reasonable price, Asano added.

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201811110001.html
 
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https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/1950602

According to The Australian Financial Review, an Australian start-up that seeks to keep elderly people out of hospital and in their homes living independently for longer by monitoring them remotely has raised $5 million from one of South Australia's largest aged care service providers.
Billy uses a series of discrete sensors placed around the home to build a picture of daily activities for family of the elderly residents in their own home or in an assisted-living environment. Activity information can be shared with the family via a smartphone app and can be alerted if there is a change in pattern.
It gives data in real time and looks for changes in behavioural patterns, such as skipping medication or going to the toilet more than normal patterns, which could indicate another health problem.
That technology piqued the interest of Enabling Confidence at Home (ECH), one of the largest integrated providers of retirement village accommodation in SA. The non-profits chief executive David Panter said it also had the potential to be used globally.

https://www.afr.com/business/health/billy-a-health-tech-startup-keeping-the-elderly-out-of-aged-care-raises-5m-20181102-h17fua

If you want to read this article in Japanese, please see the following link:
https://www.j-abc.com/jp-blog/3948856
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