2003 Melbourne-Osaka yacht race to start Mar. 15
The final entrants to the fifth international double-handed yacht race between Australia's Melbourne and Osaka, which will start March 15, will total 24 crafts from five countries, according to the race's Promotion Council.There will be 17 crafts from Australia, three from Japan, two from New Zealand and one each from Denmark and France. All crafts are expected to arrive in Melbourne by March 1. The quadrennial race was launched in 1987 as an event to connect the two sister cities and sister ports by ocean. This year's race is the fifth in the series.
Superalloy with world's highest thermal resistance
The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (KEPCO), in conjunction with Hitachi, Ltd. and Nagoya University, has developed a world-class Ni-based single-crystal superalloy that can withstand super high temperatures for use as gas turbine blades.Thermal power plants are required to increase the power generation efficiency by making the maximum use of heat that is generated by the combustion of fuels. However, with the existing materials technology, turbine blades now in use in turbine generators can withstand temperatures of only around 1,400 degrees Celsius, resulting in the wide use of gas turbines of around 1,300 degrees Celsius for power generation. In order to develop alloys with high temperature capabilities involving in both strength and corrosion resistance, KEPCO et al. have been conducting studies to find out combinations of metallic elements with the aid of an electronic theory called the 'molecular orbital method.' They have investigated the compositions of Ni-based alloys that also include cobalt, chrome, tungsten, rhenium, aluminum and titanium and succeeded in developing a superalloy with an optimum combination of these elements.
Turbine blades made of this superalloy can generate power at the combustion temperatures of approximately 1,500 degrees Celsius. KEPCO has announced that this would raise the power generation efficiency from the current maximum of 49% to 55%, which would lead to a reduction in generating cost.
3rd World Water Forum in Shiga Mar. 19-21
The Shiga Prefectural Government has adopted 'Water, Life and Humans' as the basic goal for the '3rd World Water Forum' to be held in the prefecture in March and the promotion of its Lake Biwa comprehensive environmental conservation plan 'Mother Lake 21 Plan' as its basic strategy, and publicize to the world the natural environment of Lake Biwa which the prefecture is proud of as well as efforts being made for environmental conservation.The 3rd World Water Forum will be held in the three prefectures of Shiga, Kyoto and Osaka on March 16-23. Shiga Prefecture will host Forum Sessions (March 20-21 at Biwako Hall in Otsu City and other venues) and Biwako Water Fair (March 19-21 at Shiga Prefectural Gymnasium in Otsu City and other venues).
A total of 55 sessions are being planned, including those under the theme of 'Integrated Water Resources Management and Basin Management'(37 sessions); 'Water for Peace: Conflict solution through water,' in which the solution of various problems between or among the nations regarding water will be discussed; 'Children's World Water Forum,' in which children from around the world will contemplate their relations with water; and 'Water, Food, Agriculture Ministers'Meeting,' in which agricultural ministers whose jurisdiction includes agricultural water will exchange views.
Biwako Water Fair, on the other hand, will feature events, exhibitions and performances relating to water to introduce to the world efforts being made for the conservation of the environment surrounding Lake Biwa and to offer an opportunity where the public can learn about efforts being made for the conservation of the water environment in Japan and the world.
Shiga Prefecture hopes that the promotion of 'Mother Lake 21 Plan' through the forum will strengthen the solidarity in Lake Biwa and the Yodo River Basin area, contribute to water problems in the world, and enhance the worldwide recognition of lake problems.
Lyon chamber orchestra coming to Kansai
At the invitation of Hyogo Prefecture, Conservatoire National Superieur Musique et Danse de Lyon, a French national conservatory of music and dance, orchestra will perform at five venues in Hyogo Prefecture and Osaka City between February 25 and March 2.The events are part of the annual Hyogo Invitational, sponsored by the government of Hyogo Prefecture, which invites outstanding groups of young artists in Japan and elsewhere to provide opportunities for exchange and guidance as well as for the public to enjoy their performances at affordable prices. The conservatory is one of the only two national conservatories of music in France. It is actively giving regular concerts, concert tours and overseas performances. This is its first tour to Japan.
The performances are scheduled for February 25 (Kobe Shimbun Matsukata Hall, Chuo Ward, Kobe City), 27 (Izumi Hall, Chuo Ward, Osaka City), 28 (Ichikawa-Cho Cultural Center, Ichikawa-Cho, Hyogo Prefecture), March 1 (Tojo Cosmic Hall, Tojo-Cho, Hyogo Prefecture), and 2 (Kawanishi Mitsunaka Hall, Kawanishi City, Hyogo Prefecture). The orchestra will perform French masterpieces of the early 20th century by such composers as Debussy, Ravel and Ibert as well as Mozart's 'Jupiter' Symphony.
966 entries to Osaka's Concept Competition
A total of 966 entries from Japan and abroad were made to the 'International Concept Competition for the Northern Osaka Station Area,' which seeks to obtain ideas for the redevelopment of the area, according to the International Concept Competition Committee (which comprises the Urban Development Corp., the Osaka Municipal Government and others).The committee accepted entries between December 1, 2002 and January 31, 2003, the deadline date. Entries from abroad numbered 363, or approximately 38% of the total entries, and came from 52 countries and territories, indicating strong international interest in the competition. The top countries in terms of the number of entries were the United States (55 entries), Poland (34), Italy (24), Russia (20) and the United Kingdom (20). Results of the judges' selection are scheduled to be announced in late March.
15th 'Big Hinamatsuri' doll-fest in Tokushima
The 15th annual 'Big Hinamatsuri' doll festival will be held in Katsuura Town, Tokushima Prefecture, at its labor welfare center from February 23 through March 9.The event is to display hina dolls sent to the town from around the nation for exhibition as well as to pray for the peaceful repose of their souls and is held every year around the time of the 'Peach Festival,' which honors girls and is to pray for their happiness. This year, approximately 10,000 hina dolls will adorn stands, including one with 100 tiers, in a colorful display that fills the entire hall.
On March 2, the event will also feature 'Hina Procession,' in which people dressed as hina dolls will show unique performances as they walk in a big procession, and a performance of Ningyo Joruri (Japanese classical puppet show). At the venue, the town will also invite applications from people who would act as 'foster homes' and take the dolls sent to the town into their homes to cherish as part of the Japanese culture.
Sinking of Kansai International Airport slows
Kansai International Airport Co, Ltd. (KIAC) has announced that 17 monitoring sites installed on the Kansai International Airport (KIX) had sunk on the average 17 centimeters during the year of 2002, bringing the total depth of the sinkage since the start of its construction to 12.0 meters.The figure, as of December 2002, is two centimeters less than the average sinking of 19 centimeters registered in 2001, indicating a slowdown in the rate of sinking. The rate of sinking has been slowing year after year and sinking would stop by around 2008, according to the airport company. It has announced that there was no change in the company's forecast released in January 2001 that sinking would stop at around 12 to 12.5 meters of sinkage.
Kansai in Focus: New voyage for Kobe University of Mercantile Marine
This spring, the prestigious Kobe University of Mercantile Marine (KUMM), in Fukae Minami-machi of Higashinada Ward, Kobe City, will welcome its last incoming class. It is because the university will be consolidated into Kobe University, another state-run university, this October in a tidal wave of reorganization of universities in Japan.The university has a proud history of supporting the backbone of Japan's maritime business both in education and research, and graduated corps of elite seamen. As such, a great many people watch with a sense of loss the disappearance of the university's name with its long tradition.
KUMM was founded in 1917 as Kawasaki Merchant Marine School according to the wishes of the late Shozo Kawasaki, the founder of Kawasaki Shipbuilding (the present Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.) and who was called the king of shipbuilding. The university changed its status from a private university to a state-run university in 1952. Today, its mercantile marine department comprises four programs; the mercantile marine system, transportation information system engineering, marine electronic machinery engineering and motor system engineering, and has been enrolling 200 to 230 new students every year.
It also has a graduate school of mercantile marine and its graduates lead the maritime industry of not only the Kansai region but also of the country as a whole. They include Izumi Imai, who has become a writer after serving as the captain of an Aomori-Hakodate ferry; Yasuyuki Nakagawa, president of the Nippon Kaiji Kentei Kyokai and Koichi Nanno, president of International Marine Transport.
The graduates of the university are certified as Class 3 nautical engineers upon the completion of a six-month practical training following four years of study at the university. Although one out of every four graduates still work at sea, others have found jobs on the land in such diverse fields as electrical machinery, fishing, transportation and warehousing, communications and information processing due to the great inroads made by foreign seamen into the Japanese shipping industry. The university has made a great deal of efforts to become a 'university open to the wide public' by enrolling women for the first time in 1982, for example. However, partly due to the declining birth rate, the number of candidates for admission has tended to stagnate.
The wave of the reorganization of universities has hit the school just as it was struggling in this environment. After university-wide debate, it has decided to seek interdisciplinary education and research on a wider scale rather than remaining as a college that specializes in shipping and oceanography. It will become the department of maritime sciences of Kobe University.
The new department will start accepting students in April next year and students are to study both at Fukae and Rokko campuses in the City of Kobe. This year's enrollees will become the last class to graduate from KUMM. The school's facilities and equipment, including the training ship Fukae-maru, will all be taken over by the new department.
The consolidation of universities will also hit Tokyo University of Mercantile Marine and Tokyo University of Fisheries, which are slated to merge to establish Tokyo Marine University (a tentative name).
Behind the consolidation of the two Kobe universities, there is the demand of the times for an improvement of and increased efficiency in university management. However, everyone at KUMM says, 'We are being consolidated not because we are no longer needed but because we want to build an advanced system which would allow us to supply fruit of our research as well as human resources when the ocean and maritime transport become even more important than they are today.' Don't let the waves crush you! Hoist the sails boldly! That is the true character of men of the sea. (K)