23rd Asia-Pacific/13th Nippon Jamboree
The '23rd Asia Pacific/13th Nippon Jamboree'will be held at Maishima Sports Island in Osaka City on August 3-7 with the participation of about 20,000 people, including boy scouts both from home and abroad.The Nippon Jamboree is held at an interval of three or four years since 1956 as the largest Scout Movement camp where boy scouts from across the country gather. This time, it will be held as a regional Jamboree in the Asia-Pacific region to promote mutual exchanges, international understanding and international cooperation among boy scouts from across the world.
OMRON develops multi-model information retrieval technology
OMRON Corp., based in Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto City, has developed information retrieval technology for multi-model interface combining 'display and keyboard' and 'voice recognition and synthesis.' If users subscribe to train information service using this technology, by verbally inputting the name of the station to get on the a train and that of the station to get out the train, and displaying the route to be used on the screen, they can quickly get the information they want from among numerous pieces of information. Because this technology can be applied on personal computers, mobile phones, and other information terminal appliances, users can have the benefit of using such useful services at anytime and anywhere.With the popularization of the Internet, content delivery services to information terminal appliances have been rapidly increasing. In using mobile phones, users have such difficulties as the handling of small buttons and the successive renewing of screens to get desired information. In an only-voice service, users find it difficult to review or reconfirm retrieved information.
OMRON has developed software enabling access to the Website by phone voice, thus establishing synchronization control technology for communication between the software and the Web server, enabling the results of speech recognition to convey to the Web server and to be displayed on the screen and enabling control of verbal interaction in accordance with the button input on the screen.
Sail training program between Osaka, Busan
Osaka Municipal Government and other organizations will sponsor a sail training program between Osaka port and South Korea's Busan (Pusan) port in August for young people of the two countries to promote mutual exchanges under a project called the 'Year of Japan-Korea National Exchange in 2002 - Friendship Bond Between Youths in Osaka and Busan.' About 40 participants (Japanese, South Koreans and Korean residents of Japan aged 16 to 34) will be divided into two groups and go on board the municipal government-owned sail training ship 'Akogare' to receive sail training. The first group will leave Osaka on August 8 and arrive at Busan on the 15th, and the second group will depart Busan on August 21 and arrive at Osaka on the 28th.
Kansai-revitalizing traditional arts performance
The 'Kamigata Renaissance Gakugeki Festival 2002,'a cultural event comprised primarily of traditional performing arts, such as Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku (professional puppet theater), will be held from August 1 through 11 at various venues in the Kansai region under the aegis of the Kansai Gakugeki Festival Association (Chairman: Tetsuo Yamaori, director-general of International Research Center for Japanese Studies). The event is designed to stimulate the Kansai region by reevaluating the value of these classical arts and actively promoting them. It also aims to create a new form of performing arts by fusing the traditional Japanese arts with the western style of arts such as opera.The festival will get under way with an opening ceremony in Kyoto City on August 1 and will include the performance of Kabuki in Osaka City on the 2nd-4th; an open meeting and other events in Kyoto City on the 4th-10th; a creative dance drama in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, on the 5th; Bunraku in Osaka City on the 6th; a symposium in Osaka City on the 7th; an outdoor Noh play in Nara City on the 8th; a classical performing arts movie show in Kyoto City on the 8th-11th; a Kamigata dance in Osaka City on the 9th; a new opera performance in Nara City on the 10th; a Kabuki play in Kishiwada City, Osaka Prefecture, on the 10th-11th, engulfing Kansai entirely in the colorful aura of classical performing arts.
Beach Volleyball world tour Osaka Aug. 9-11
The '2002 Beach Volley World Tour Osaka,'an international tournament for women, will be held at the Sennan Satoumi Park Beach Volleyball Court in Misaki Town, Osaka Prefecture, and other venues on August 9-11 (qualifying matches on August 7-8), under the aegis of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) with cosponsorship of the World Tour Organizing Committee provided by the Osaka Prefectural Government, the Osaka 21st Century Association, Mainichi Broadcasting System, etc. and the Executive Committee of the Osaka Marine Festival.The event is the Japanese portion of the World Tour the FIVB is organizing around the world and is the only women's international beach volleyball event held in Japan. This year, the ninth year in which the event is held in Japan, 32 teams from around the world are scheduled to participate. The prize money will total 150,000 U.S. dollars.
Also, 'Osaka 21st Century Association Beach Volley Japan Ladies 2002,'sponsored by the Japan Volleyball Association and others, will be held on August 1-4 with the participation of 60 teams.
Historic Kansai:Osaka's Hirakata-a city with summer holiday resorts and historical legacies
By Junzo TanakaSummer holiday resorts everywhere are crowded. Hirakata City in northern Osaka Prefecture with an amusement park is one of them, but its main feature is that there are historical legacies close to the amusement park. Only a few people notice that, however. Hirakata used to be a stage -an area designated as a transit point on a public road and a center of traveling and transportation with administration offices and lodging facilities.
After defeating his Osaka enemies in the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu of Edo (Tokyo) extended the Tokaido highway linking Edo and Kyoto to Osaka, and created four stages, including Hirakata, between Kyoto and Osaka. Although called the 53 stages on the Tokaido highway, it actually had 57 stages. Hirakata was the 56th stage from Edo. Designated as the port of call along the Yodogawa River at a time when water transportation was important, Hirakata was the top stage.
Ukiyoe painter Ando Hiroshige painted the 'Kurawanka Fune' as Hirakata's popular thing. When a big ship approached Hirakata, small ships appeared with their men shouting 'Kurawanka!' (why don't you eat!) in trying to sell food and souvenirs.
Hirakata was full of inns, restaurants and food shops. The largest restaurant 'Kagiya' was especially popular because of its unique structure enabling ships to enter it through a watercourse. Kagiya was opened until the 20th century. Hirakata was also an international city. Foreign people who landed at Osaka port headed for Kyoto and Edo through Hirakata. They included the Korean envoy to Japan and the Ryukyu Kingdom mission. In 1728, an elephant sent from a country, now Vietnam, also passed through Hirakata.
Officials at the Dutch office of merchants in Nagasaki went through Hirakata. Engelbert Kaempfer, a German doctor and zoologist, wrote in a diary in 1691, 'There are 500 houses in the town. You can eat cheaply. Young women are at every shop.' In 1826, Philipp Franz von Siebold, a German doctor and naturalist, wrote, 'The Yodogawa River reminds me of my country's Main Valley.' After the railway was introduced in the Meiji era, land and water transportation became less popular. Kagiya was closed recently, but the Hirakata municipal government has designated it as an important cultural asset of the city. As a result, the building was restored as the Hirakata-shuku Kagiya Museum in July last year.
Hirakata may be the city that you should visit as early as possible amid drastic changes in Japan.
Kansai in Focus: Strong man at Busan Trade and Investment Office in Osaka in the bay area
Suppose that a smaller manufacturer has developed an epoch-making product, and wants to do active business with enterprises in neighboring countries using the product as leverage but does not know where to start. What does it do? At such a time, matching between companies having similar business ideas can be realized at the discretion of a facility full of business information. This is now called business matching.The Business Partner City (BPC) Network Center on the fourth floor of the Asia and Pacific Trade Center (ATC) building at the Osaka Bay area is a public-private entity which is achieving a steady performance in this field of business.
This writer has visited Mr. Lim Soohyeok (40), deputy head of the Busan Trade and Investment Office in Osaka, Japan, a collaborating office on the same floor. Mr. Lim is a man of commanding appearance. Just one glance tells you that he is a strong man, an eloquent speaker and an affable person.
'Trade between Japan and South Korea has undergone drastic changes. Twenty to 30 years ago, primary products, such as fish and vegetables, were exported to Japan from South Korea. About 15 years ago, South Korean-made sundries and toys were sent to Japan. But now, they are all exported to Japan from China,' Mr. Lim says.
The Busan Trade and Investment Office is actually 'Busan City's Osaka Office,' trying to strengthen and develop relations between Japanese enterprises, especially those in the Kansai region, and companies in Busan. 'Thanks to you, there are five to six inquiries daily,'he says.
Busan's population is about 3.8 million. Busan, located on the southeastern tip of Korea, is the largest port in Korea and the world's third-largest container handling port. Consequently, there are many enterprises and personnel with high technology standards.
'Excellent are South Korea's precision machines, semiconductors and ultra-small metal molds for example. On the other hand, Japan's camera and acoustic instrument technologies are the world's top,'he says.
Assembling in Japan by buying parts from South Korea, or assembling in South Korea by using Japanese parts and bringing finished products to Japan. With various business ideas in mind, Mr. Lim is visiting various parts of Japan.
He hails from Busan. After graduating from Dankook University, he came to Japan in 1989 to study. He found a job at a newspaper sales office in Tokyo. He went to bed at 10 p.m. and woke up the next morning at 3 a.m. After delivering morning papers, he went to school, and after returning to the office, he delivered evening papers.
A person with imperfect emotional, physical strength cannot endure a life like that. At the graduate school of Sophia University, he studied journalism. These are probably the reasons behind Lim's big character.
By the way, this writer wanted to know what Mr. Lim would say about the source of the explosive energy shown by South Koreans at the 2002 FIFA World Cup cohosted by Japan and South Korea.
'In 1997, the South Korean economy deteriorated, and the country was placed under the management of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), you know. What would be the country's independence? I think a sense of humiliation and frustration smoldering in the depths of the minds of the Korean people since then burst out at all once triggered by the FIFA World Cup,' Mr. Lim says. (H)