Int'l contest for cello and contrabass in Izumisano
A rare international contest for cello and contrabass will be held at Izumisano Municipal Culture Hall (Izuminomori Hall) in Izumisano City, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8-13, 2001.The event is the First Izuminomori International Contest to be held as part of the Izuminomori Cello and Contrabass Festival 2001 under the aegis of the Izumisano Foundation for Cultural Promotion to mark the fifth anniversary of the opening of the hall and the start of the 21st century. Other events in the festival will include a junior cello contest on May 5-6 and a workshop for amateurs for cello and contrabass on May 12.
The participants in the international contest will include 57 artists from 16 countries, including Japan, Germany and the Republic of Korea. The judges will include Mr. Gary Karr, a world-famous contrabass player. It is expected that the event will prove to be a heated, high-level competition.
Mie to send delegation to attract US soft industry
The Mie Prefectural Government will send a delegation to the United States from late April through early May to conduct, among other things, a seminar to attract American information technology companies to Mie. At the seminar, the delegation will brief the participants on its 'Cyber Project,' which will be undertaken to develop the software industry in conjunction with the opening of the terminals of six submarine cables at Shima Peninsula in the prefecture.The delegation will be headed by governor Masayasu Kitagawa. While visiting related corporate facilities and data centers in New York and Ohio States, the delegation will hold the 'Investment-in-Mie' seminar in Chicago on May 2.
Unique incineration plant on Maishima Island
An incineration plant with a unique appearance designed by the late Friedensreich Hundertwasser will be completed shortly on man-made Maishima Island, Konohana Ward in Osaka City. Mr. Hundertwasser was a world-famous Austrian artist known for architecture for the conservation of the environment and who passed away in February 2000 at the age of 71. The seven-story, steel-enforced concrete Maishima plant has been under construction since March 1997 on an approximately 33,000-square-meter plot of land at a total cost of some 60.9 billion yen. It will be capable of incinerating 900 tons of solid waste and crushing 170 tons of bulky waste, such as pieces of furniture, per day. It is designed to protect the environment through maximum efforts for pollution prevention by using state-of-the-art technologies, the effective utilization of excess heat generated by the plant and the use of rainwater that falls on the building.
Osaka City commissioned Mr. Hundertwasser to design the plant, because it would be located on Maishima Island which would serve as the venue for many of the main events, if Osaka succeeds in hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
The signing of a sister plant agreement between the Maishima plant and an incineration plant at Spittelau in Vienna, Austria, also designed by Mr. Hundertwasser, is scheduled for May 10. It is hoped that the two plants will work to share information and promote friendship between them.
Honorary Consul-General of New Zealand in Osaka
Mr. Noriyuki Inoue, president of Daikin Industries, Ltd. (Kita Ward, Osaka City), has been appointed Honorary Consul-General of New Zealand in Osaka. Simultaneously with his appointment, the General Consulate of New Zealand in Osaka was opened on the premises of Daikin Industries.Daikin Industries has established sales offices of its air conditioners in Australia since 1969 and has been actively conducting business in Oceania, including New Zealand. Mr. Inoue has decided to assume the post in order to maintain and develop friendly relations between New Zealand and the Kansai region.
Technical tie-up on thermal energy conversion
Hitachi Zosen Corp. (Osaka City) and Satomi Industries, Ltd. (Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture) have agreed to form a technical tie-up for technology development, designing, and manufacturing of Thermal Energy Conversion Power (U-TEC). The two firms have also signed an agreement on the joint development of equipment for U-TEC using heat emission from ships' engines based on the 'Uehara Cycle' patent, for which Satomi Industries holds exclusive right for use, and related technologies.The 'Uehara Cycle' was invented by Professor Haruo Uehara of Saga University, who is one of the world's top experts on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). Patent rights for OTEC, a heat cycle technology that efficiently generates electricity from very small temperature differences (at least 15 degrees centigrade) between warm water and cold water by using a medium that combines ammonia and water, have been established in Japan, the United States and Europe.
Through joint research with Saga University, Satomi Industries has been focusing on U-TEC including heat cycles. Hitachi Zosen's core strategy in its corporate vision has been to contribute to society as a comprehensive environmentally-friendly business. With the signing of the agreements, the two firms are expected to further promote the development of technologies for environmental conservation.
Historic Kansai:Shingu City in Wakayama -Dynamic, delicate and international
By Junzo TanakaThis is the time of year when one longs to see the ocean. But, there are very few places where one can really feel that Japan is a dynamic country surrounded by a big ocean, partly due to the excessive development of cities. Wakayama Prefecture at the southern tip of the Kansai region boasts many places where one can feel the dynamic nature of the place. Most prominent among them is Shingu City.
Shingu is an intriguing town. It is wide open to the Pacific Ocean and there is the constant murmuring of the rising tide. Both men and women are frank and generous and the fruits of the sea, such as tuna fish and bonito, are excellent. However, Shingu is not a rustic fishing village. It is home to the great shrine of Kumano-Hayatama, which has been well-known since the ancient times. The town bustles with worshippers who flock here from all around the country.
The residents of Shingu City are affluent, refined and very much education-oriented. The city has produced a large number of writers, artists and musicians. Satoh Haruo (1892-1964), a late well-known poet and novelist, is one of its sons. His home in Tokyo was relocated and reassembled in Shingu and is open to the public. The building, which is a combination of the Japanese and Western architectural styles in fashion before World War II, is as beautiful as a jewel box.
The pinnacle of pleasures one finds in Shingu is the fact that a 2200-year-old legend is still alive. In 221 B.C., the emperor of the Qin Dynasty and the first unifier of China, Shih Huang Di (259-210 B.C.), is said to have sent one of his subjects, Xu Fu, overseas in search of a portion for eternal youth and life. This is a famous story that also appears in Shih Chi, or Historical Memoirs, of ancient China. That Xu Fu's tomb is in Shingu.
The legend has it that Xu Fu visited mystic Hohrai Island in the East. It is said that the Hohrai Island was really Japan, and many localities in the country claim that Xu Fu was there. The residents of Shingu City firmly believe that Xu Fu visited their hometown and his tomb in the center of the city is surrounded by a beautiful park. It is said that Xu Fu brought 3,000 men and women to Shingu with him, and they taught farming, whaling and papermaking to local residents.
The legend of Xu Fu has been a subject of academic research in modern-day China and it has been reported that the 71st generation of Xu Fu's descendants was recently discovered in a village in China's Chiangsu Province.
The City of Shingu is maintaining the park beautifully in the belief that honoring Xu Fu contributes significantly to friendly relations between China and Japan.
Kansai in Focus: Otsu to host global lake conference to conserve freshwater
Otsu City, on the shore of Lake Biwa, will host an international conference on the conservation and management of lakes on November 11-16. At the conference, citizens, researchers, government officials and corporate representatives will discuss on a global scale the environment, water quality and pollution of lakes, where most freshwater resources on the Earth exist. This series of conferences was launched in Otsu City in 1984 in a bid to save lakes from pollution. The nearly biannual conferences have been hosted by cities located on the shores of lakes around the world. This year's event, the 9th of its kind, will return to the place of its origin.With the theme 'Partnership for Sustainable Life in Lake Environments,' the conference, sponsored by the Shiga Prefectural Government and the International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC, headquartered in Kusatsu City), will kick off with a technical tour to Lake Biwa on Nov.11. The opening ceremony and plenary session, including keynote speeches, will be held at Biwako Hall in Otsu City on Nov.12. These will be followed by 'The Lake Biwa Session' through the morning of Nov. 13, where all the participants will discuss the preservation of the environment of the world's lakes using Lake Biwa as a model case. The session is designed to enable the sharing of basic information necessary for future discussions. Five sub-sessions will be held at the Otsu Prince Hotel on the afternoon of Nov. 13 and on Nov. 14-15. Another plenary session for concluding discussions and making a declaration of the conference and the closing ceremony will be held at Biwako Hall on Nov. 16th.
The conference is the first to be held in the new millennium, which is called the Century of the Environment. The brochure for the conference states that the conference 'will be a unique opportunity to exchange views on many issues about lakes, reservoirs, and freshwater management, which are unresolved legacies of the 20th century. We hope that this conference will be a chance to create and strengthen partnerships among people working on lakes and reservoirs and other freshwater resources issues of local as well as global significance, including climate change.' In this spirit, the conference will feature sub-sessions, free discussions with NGOs and workshops.
The subjects of sub-sessions are: Session 1: Cultural and Industrial Evolution-Seeking for environmentally sound life-style; Session 2: New Development of Environmental Education-Learn, inform and act; Session 3: Drinking Water and Pollution-Aiming for safe and clean water; Session 4: Littoral Zone and Its Ecosystem-How to conserve the fragile littoral zone (ecotone); and Session 5: Circulating Water-People and nature living together in a watershed.
The applications for making presentations in the sub-sessions were closed at the end of March. The organizing committee of the conference is now in the process of sorting more than 800 applications from 50-odd countries into different categories. The committee reports that the number of applications is so large that it cannot be compared with that for the first conference.
The Shiga Prefectural Government has made unceasing efforts to protect Lake Biwa since the first meeting of the conference in 1984 and the establishment of the Shiga Office of the Freshwater Lakes Management Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme-the International Environmental Technology Center (UNEP-IETC) adjacent to the ILEC in Kusatsu City. Such efforts have boosted Shiga Prefecture as a global hub for conservation activities on the lakes' environment. It is likely that every nation with concerns over lakes' environment is paying close attention to the conference. We hope that brilliant messages will be sent from the shores of Lake Biwa next autumn. (J)