Creation Core Higashi Osaka makes grand opening
The South Hall, the second-phase facilities, of Creation Core Higashi Osaka, a center that provides comprehensive support to manufacturing, was completed on August 20 in Higashi Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, where there are clusters of small- and medium-sized makers of home appliances and machinery parts. Combined with the North Hall, which provides space for permanent exhibition of products and parts from approximately 200 companies and one-stop services for new businesses and new industry creation, that was opened in the summer of 2003, the Creation Core Higashi Osaka made a grand opening as a facility that supports 'small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies,' unrivaled in the nation.The 'Business-academia tie-up office,' a nucleus of the now-completed South Hall, is designed to give birth to new businesses and industries by fostering the seeds of industries in the possession of researchers at the universities, mainly in the field of engineering, with the technologies and ideas of small- and medium-sized enterprises. A total of 13 universities (Osaka University, University of Osaka Prefecture, Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka Industrial University, the Osaka University of Commerce, Osaka Electro-Communication College, Kansai University, Kinki University, Kwansei Gakuin University, Doshisha University, Ryukoku University, Ritsumeikan University and Nara Institute of Science and Technology) have established offices in the facility.
The South Hall also houses 'university tie-up incubation,' a research facility led by firms that wish to get support from universities or other businesses in order to actually start new businesses. The facility now has 11 businesses and a university as tenants.
'Manufacturing pass-on center' is also there for the development of human resources and in the near future will engage in consultation on the skills development of skilled workers and technicians.
Osaka Industrial Promotion Organization, which operates the facility, intends to strengthen efforts for the creation of new industries and businesses by expanding cooperation among universities and small- and medium-sized enterprises in the area.
URL http://www.m-osaka.com/jp/
Nippon Steel opens world's first tire recycling plant
The world's first 'Tire gasification recycling plant' to recycle used tires as raw materials for steel-making was completed at Hirohata Works of Nippon Steel Corporation in Hirohata Ward, Himeji City and began full-scale operations in July. The plant is one of the core facilities of 'Hyogo Eco-town Project' designed to establish a wide-area recycling center through industry-academia-government joint efforts by making full use of the industrial and physical distribution infrastructure in Hyogo Prefecture.Used tires have been usually burned as a fuel in steel works and other plants, but the new plant breaks down used tires cut into small pieces with heat in an outer-heating rotary kiln, recovers steel wires and carbon residues used in webbing within the tire for recycling and uses the gas and oil generated in this process as heat sources for the Hirohata Works. It can process 60,000 tons, or six percent of all the waste tires that are discarded in Japan, per year. Combined with the scrap melting process used at the Works, the company is now ready to recycle approximately 12 percent of all waste tires in Japan.
In April last year, Hirohata Works was designated as an 'unvironment and recycle economic district,' making it possible to transport and process waste tires without getting a license as a waste disposal business. Since then, Nippon Steel has established a new company jointly with its affiliates to build the present recycling plant.
This move should be noted as an effort in advance of Automobile Recycling Law, which will come into effect in next January.
For inquiries, please contact Nippon Steel (Fax: 03-3275-5607) URL http://www.nsc.co.jp/
World's first nano-search microscope developed
Shimadzu Corp. (head office: Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto City) and Olympus Corp. (head office: Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo) together have developed the world's first three-dimensional nano-search microscope that allows a wide range of magnifying power from millimeters to nano (one-billionth) meters. Shimadzu is the employer of Koichi Tanaka, who received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on protein structural analysis, a member of the government-backed 'Kyoto nanotechnology-based business creation cluster,' and a leader in the area of measuring instruments, while Olympus is based on the value creation resulting from the fusion of traditional optical technology and the state-of-the art digital technology.The new microscope is a result of combining the technologies of Shimadzu's scanning-type probe microscope (SPM), which excels in the observation and measurement on the nano order, and Olympus's scanning-type laser microscope (LSM), which is excellent for the observation on the order of micro (one-millionth) meters.
The improvement of the functions of optical microscopes has made it possible to compare inclusively the fine points with the whole of the specimen to evaluate the substance in a broad range of from 2.5 millimeters to 10 nanometers, as it can determine the position with very high accuracy, something conventional single-function microscopes have not been able to do very well.
The price of the newly-developed microscope is 32 million yen per unit. The two companies plan to sell a total of 60 units of the new machine in its first year to enterprises and universities engaged in the research on semiconductors, materials for membranes and films or bio materials, increasing combined sales to 120 units a year in three years.
For inquiries, please contact Shimadzu Corp.(Tel: 075-823-1111) URL http://www.shimadzu.co.jp/
Kansai molders plan joint order-acceptance in China
The metal-mold and die makers in the seven prefectures of the Kansai region (Fukui, Shiga, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Hyogo and Wakayama Prefectures), which together account for 20 percent of total national metal-mold and die production in terms of value, will start a project for joint acceptance of orders for metal-molds from American and European firms operating in China.The project is a brainchild of Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI-Kansai) and the Western Division of Japan Die & Mold Industry Association (Chuo Ward, Osaka City) will build a joint order-acceptance system for metal-molds with support from Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).
The group will station a coordinator in Shanghai on a permanent basis from this September to conduct demand research and also marketing to the American and European companies. On the Japanese side, the coordinators at the Western Division of the organization will contact metal-mold makers in the Kansai region to select the optimum supplier.
The American and European companies operating in China are purchasing precision metal-molds from their home countries, which is both costly and time-consuming, because it is difficult to buy them locally. If they can buy them from Japan, they will be able to obtain high-quality metal-molds at low costs. For the Japanese metal-mold makers, approximately 90 percent of which are small companies with 20 or fewer employees, who have found it difficult to sell to the overseas markets, it has the advantage of developing new sales channels taking advantage of their strengths, such as short lead time and good after-sale services.
The prospective customers of the new system are American and European cell phone and automobile makers operating in China. The group expects to receive approximately 100 orders annually.
For inquiries, please contact Western Division, Japan Die & Mold Industry Association (Tel: 06-6271-7939)
Moraes to revive in Awa classical puppet show
Wenceslau de Moraes (1854-1929), a Portuguese author who spent his last years in Tokushima, will be the protagonist of a new work in Awa Ningyo Joruri (classical puppet show in Awa, an old name of Tokushima) to be scripted by Japan's famous author Jakucho Setouchi, age 82, who is also the director of Tokushima Prefectural Museum of Literature and Calligraphy.Moraes, often dubbed 'Yakumo Koizumi (Lafcadio Hearn) in Tokushima,' was a man of letters who was so versed in Japanese culture and left a number of works that introduced the customs of Tokushima in the Meiji and Taisho periods. His works include 'Oyone and Koharu,' 'The Japanese Spirit' and 'Bon Dance in Tokushima.'
With the '22nd National Cultural Festival-Tokushima,' a cultural festival where people engaged in cultural activities across Japan will get together to celebrate their work and make presentations, to be held in 2007, the new work is to be staged for the first time in the pre-event in 2006 and to be premiered formally at the National Cultural Festival. It will also be played in and outside of the prefecture in 2008 and later.
A major characteristic of the new work is that it will be an easy-to-understand work in modern Japanese. Since this is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Moraes, he will be the protagonist of the play. Setouchi, whose translation into modern Japanese of the classical work "Tale of Genji" has been received extremely favorably, will write the script in an easy-to-understand Japanese. The script is to be completed before the end of this fiscal year. The puppet-making, composition of the music, choreography for the puppets and the construction of the stage sets will be carried out in fiscal 2005 based on the script.
Awa classical puppet show is a performing art in farming communities in Tokushima Prefecture and has been staged at Shinto shrine festivals and on other occasions. They feature puppets with large heads and a unique dramaturgy that takes advantage of this fact with exaggerated movements of the puppets. It has had a major impact on other parts of Western Japan, including Shikoku and Kyushu islands. It was designated as a state-designated important intangible ethnic cultural asset in 2000.
Kansai in Focus: Ambitious plans for Kansai railway network envisioned for 2020
First since 1989, the Council for Kinki Regional Transport, an advisory organ to the Director of the Kinki District Transport Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, is expected to submit to the government in October a report on the plans for new railway lines and extensions in the Kansai region envisioned for completion in 2020. If the plans are executed as they are, a more convenient 'mutual ride-through operations' will be realized with Osaka as the hub. All of these plans, however, call for massive outlays and are therefore tough propositions for the financially-strapped municipalities and private railway companies.Osaka as the hub
The centerpiece of the report probably is the plan to extend Osaka Municipal Subway Yotsubashi Line for approximately three kilometers northward from the Nishi Umeda Station making it go beneath the Umeda-Kita Yard (JR Umeda Freight Train Station adjacent to northern part of Osaka Station) to connect to the Juso Station on the Hankyu Line. Hankyu Corp. is already working on its plans to bury the lines around the Sannomiya Station on its Kobe Line to create a ride-through with the Kobe Municipal Subway System. It is aiming at realizing the mutual ride-through by 2015.
In line with this plan, the Osaka Municipal Subway System and Hankyu Corp. also plan mutual ride-through operations to directly connect the areas along the Kobe Municipal Subway lines with the Namba district in Osaka. The Hankyu Corp. and the Osaka Municipal Subway System are already operating ride-through on the Senri Line and Sakaisuji Line. Since the new plan will directly connect major business and commercial centers in Osaka and Kobe region, it should have a great impact if realized.
Hanshin Railway and Sanyo Railway are already practicing ride-through operations between Osaka-Umeda and Himeji on the Sanyo Line. If the work on the extension of the route from the Nishikujo Station on the Nishi Osaka Line of Hanshin Railway to the Namba Station on the Kintetsu Line, now in progress with fiscal 2009 as the target year of completion, is completed, it will realize ahead of other plans mutual ride-through operations between Himeji, Kobe, Namba and Nara, connecting Sanyo, Hanshin and Kintetsu railways via the Amagasaki Station on the Hanshin Line.
Directly to USJ from Kyoto
The new plans also include extending the New Nakanoshima Line, an extension line of Keihan Railway for which the work is now in progress in business center Nakanoshima (Kita ward, Osaka), further westward to the vicinity of the Sakurajima Station on the JR Sakurajima Line via the Nishi Kujo Stations of the JR Osaka Loop Line and Hanshin Railway. Since the Sakurajima Station is close to Universal Studios Japan (USJ), if the plan is realized, visitors from Kyoto will have direct access to the USJ.
Since our newsletter carried an article on the proposed introduction of LRT (light rail transit) to Sakai City (Osaka Prefecture) in its February 25, 2004 issue (No. 463), here we will only mention that it has been included in the forthcoming report. It is hoped that this new street car system, friendly to the people and the town, will come true as early as possible.
The basic redevelopment plan for the Umeda-Kita Yard was authorized this summer. The freight line that connects the Shin Osaka Station to the Osaka Loop Line, which runs along the western edge of the Umeda-Kita Yard, is now used by special express trains destined to the Kansai International Airport (KIX) and Shirahama/Shingu in the Nanki region (Wakayama Prefecture). But, since the trains do not go through the JR Osaka Station, the redevelopment plan calls for burying the freight line underground to build a new station. The new station will provide direct access between the Kita-Yard, which aims to become a center of international cultural exchange of Osaka City, and the KIX.
The Osaka Outer Loop Railway Line, connecting the JR Katamachi Line, JR Kansai Line and others, is scheduled to partially open for business in 2006. There are also plans for extending the line to allow mutual ride-through operations between the Kyoto Municipal Subway System and the New Keihanna Line in the Kansai Science City. The web of railways in the Kansai region is expected to become larger and more convenient. (J)