'Tour Expo 2001' to dispatch travel information
'Tour Expo 2001,' an occasion for tourism organizations and travel-related companies in various countries of the world to exhibit information, goods and services, will be held at the Asia and Pacific Trade Center in Suminoe Ward, Osaka City, from September 28 to 30 under the auspices of the Osaka International Trade Fair Commission. Television Osaka will cooperate with the commission.The event, which has been held once every two years since 1987, aims at sending out the latest information on domestic and overseas travel to people in Osaka and the Kansai region.
A total of 41 countries/ territories and international organizations will take part in the event, which will be held as a supporting event for the 14th General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization (WTO). A total of 132 travel organizations, including 79 from overseas and 53 in Japan, are scheduled to exhibit travel-related services. Nine countries including United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Ghana will participate for the first time.
Hyogo to hold four int'l interchange events
The Hyogo Prefectural Government will hold four international interchange events from September 25 to 28 at facilities in Chuo Ward in Kobe City, including Kobe International Exhibition Hall. Event sponsors hope to form an 'international economic base' for people and corporations in the world to get together for business and research interchanges.On September 25-26, intellectuals and learned people from various countries, including Singapore, the United States and Japan, will participate in 'International Economic Forum in Kobe' (to be sponsored by the Forum's Executive Committee) to discuss policies for the formation of an international economic foothold in the Hyogo and Kobe region and stress the appeal of its significance.
About 420 corporations and organizations centering on growth industries in 20 countries/territories will exhibit a wide variety of goods at the 'International Industrial Fair 2001 Kobe,' the largest class of general trade fair in the Kansai district, from September 26 to 28.
'The Friendly State Exhibition' will be held under the auspices of the prefectural government to introduce products and tourism of local governments in foreign countries that maintain friendly ties with cities and towns in the prefecture as a means to promote economic interchanges.
At the '2001 Global Linkage Forum in Hyogo' scheduled for September 26 and 27, the governors of Washington State in the United States, Parana of Brazil, Western Australia of Australia and Hyogo will deliver keynote speeches in an attempt to resolve problems common to the foreign local governments participating in the forum and to establish a new multilateral liaison.
China-Japan symposium on business prospects
'China Japan Symposium' on bilateral business prospects for the 21st century will be held on September 21 at the Osaka International Convention Center in Kita Ward, Osaka City. It will be sponsored by the Kansai Economic Federation, the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, the Osaka Industrial Association, the Kansai Employers' Association, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Institute for International Studies and Training.The purpose of the symposium is to provide Japanese business leaders with the opportunity to hold candid talks with 'new business people,' who are shouldering China's rapid economic growth.
Liu Yonghao, chairman of feedgrain producer New Hope Group in Sichuan Province, and Masayuki Matsushita, vice chairman of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., will deliver keynote speeches on the theme, 'China's Strength, Expectations for Japan.'
Following their speeches, Japanese and Chinese participants will be divided into four subcommittees to hold discussions. They will give reports on their discussions at the closing session. Nobutada Saji, president/CEO of Suntory Ltd., and Richard Lee, chairman of PCCW, will end the meeting with their closing lectures.
Oolong tea's effect in delaying aging proved
Suntory Ltd, announced that it has been proved for the first time in the world that consumption of oolong tea for a long period may delay the aging process.Research on the effect of oolong tea on aging and memory deterioration in senescence accelerated mice (SAM) was conducted by the Suntory Research Center together with Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Providence University in Taichung, Taiwan, the University of Tokushima's School of Medicine and others.
The researchers conducted the research on SAM mice, which are noted for their short lives lasting about six months. Fifteen male and 15 female SAM mice, all six months old, were divided into three groups-those receiving water, green tea and oolong tea. They received such liquids for 16 weeks. Consequently, the study showed that the effect in controlling aging was recognized in the male mice, which received green tea and oolong tea. The effect was particularly conspicuous in the case of oolong tea, according to the study.
There were no significant changes in aging scores among female mice that received water, green tea and oolong tea. However, it was learned that the progress in aging among the female mice was slower than the male mice, with virtually no aging during the period of 16 weeks from the time they became six months old.
Kansai posts record number of int'l conventions
The Kansai district posted a record number of international conventions held in 2000 totaling 787 and accounting for 29.3 percent of such functions held across the country, the Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) said.The figures for the Kansai region represented an increase of 8.0 percent or 58 more than the previous year. Osaka City recorded 224, which made it the second highest nationwide, followed by Kobe City with 195 (4th in the nation), Kyoto City 190 (5th in the nation) and the Senri district 81 (10th in the nation). Nara City had 19 conferences, the highest ever for the city.
JNTO compiles statistics based on the standards that define an international convention as one that has more than 20 participants from more than two nations, including symposiums and seminars, every year.
The Osaka Convention Bureau, which is working hard to promote conventions in Osaka City, says it will continue to make an effort to collect information on international conferences and invite international meetings to the city.
Successful production of bread from rice in Mie
The agricultural cooperative corporation 'Igano Sato Mokumoku Tezukuri Farm' in Ayama Town in Mie Prefecture succeeded recently in producing bread from rice.The cooperative used the original brand of rice it developed by improving the Koshihikari brand of rice. Noting a decline in the consumption of rice in the face of growing numbers of people eating bread for breakfast, Ayama farming officials decided to develop rice bread to encourage people to eat more rice. Ayama is well known as a rice-producing region.
The method of turning out rice bread is the same as that of producing bread from wheat flour. It has a fine and moist taste that is similar to a rice cake. It has its own characteristic sweeter flavor than that of wheat bread.
Tezukuri Farm officials said Kurokawa village in Niigata Prefecture and Kamoto town in Kumamoto Prefecture are the only two other places where bread made wholly from rice is produced.
Kansai in Focus: Irokawa, 'advanced' countryside for I-turn urbanites
The Irokawa area of Nachi-Katsuura Town in Wakayama Prefecture is the center of attention again in the midst of a rising number of people who wish to free themselves from troublesome city life and live and work permanently in the countryside. The phenomenon is called 'I-turn' in Japan. Irokawa is an 'advanced' area in accepting I-turn people, dating back about 20 years ago.The community is made up of less than 500 people and those who have moved in from urban areas account for 40 households or 116 residents. But, such migrants are finally reaching the age when they will have to undergo a generational change while the district itself is facing a shortage of farmland and houses for newcomers.
How is Irokawa going to overcome these problems and maintain its vitality? The problems are not 'something happening to others' for the other areas in the Kansai region suffering from depopulation.
Irokawa is a mountainous area on the western side of the Kii Peninsula and is about 10 kilometers northwest of JR Nachi station on the seaside. Nachi Falls are about 4 kilometers to the east of Irokawa. For 500 years, Irokawa was famous for its copper mine. Even after the Meiji era (1868-1912), 2,500 people including workers for the mining office, lived there. The population in the region dropped sharply after the mine was shut down in 1972. The closure of the copper mine meant there was only agriculture and forestry left for Irokawa, creating not only the problem of depopulation but a crisis of life or death for the area.
Local residents and the Nachi-Katsuura town office took measures to positively accept those who wished to move into the mountainous region. A group of interested local residents cooperated with the town office in helping migrants find houses and farmland and assisting them in getting training in the farm industry. Four households moved from the Kanto region in 1977 to engage in organic farming. Subsequently, more people came successively from Osaka and Tokyo to take up residence in Irokawa.
Since 1991, the town office has built facilities to manufacture fertilizer from fowl droppings, constructed nine dwellings for hopeful permanent residents for 15,000 yen in monthly rent, and converted the former copper mine site into a park. It also utilized abandoned Kago elementary school building for a training school 'Kago Furusato Juku' in 1995. It has six rooms for married and single people and a study and training room. The school is designed to allow those wishing to settle in Irokawa to live in the facility from three days to a year to undergo training in areas such as farming. Three singles in their thirties are staying during the August-September period.
However, the real life situation is not so rosy. Nearly 10 migrants have left Irokawa. Migrants are not necessarily well to do, as they maintain livelihood by engaging in self-employed farming, cultivating and selling chemical-free vegetables, growing tea leaves, working in the field of forestry and commuting to tourism facilities. Living in mountainous places, they face difficult problems such as their children's high school education. An official of the secretariat of Furusato Juku says that it is 'absolutely necessary to experience life at juku training school before moving in.'
For the town office, officials are worried about a shortage of houses and farmland for new comers. Furthermore, a generational change is a matter they cannot leave untouched. Atsushi Misumi, chairman of the promotional committee of the district, says with a sigh, 'Some migrants' children study at high schools and universities in cities. There is little possibility that they will come back here. Success of our project depends on how we teach them the charm of hometown Irokawa.'
Indeed, Irokawa, which has made steady progress with its project to resolve depopulation, now squarely faces the matter of generational change, which is an old but new obstacle. (K)