Use promotion of Kansai Int'l airport discussed
A new organization to attract more passengers and aircraft to Kansai International Airport, called the 'Kansai International Airport Use Promotion Headquarters' headed by Yoshihisa Akiyama, chairman of the Kansai Economic Federation, has held its first meeting.The headquarters is an organization to locally promote the use of the airport sought by the state as a condition to open a second runway at the airport as scheduled, and is made up of top officials of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, local governments, airlines and railway companies.
At the meeting, Osaka Governor Fusae Ota referred to the creation of a system to give subsidies to airlines using the airport for international flights with funds from local governments and the economic community.
The airport anticipates the number of flights at the airport will be 712 per week in fiscal 2005, more than the all-time high of 700 recorded in fiscal 2000, and the subsidies are expected to give further momentum.
The headquarters will hereafter study the discount of a car traffic charge on the airport-linking bridge and other measures in concrete terms, including a measure to attract more people for sight-seeing purposes.
For inquiries, please contact Community Group, Kansai Economic Federation (Tel: 06-6441-0107)
Cloned cherry to bloom in Fushimi, Kyoto City
Some drooping branch cherry trees grown with clone biotechnology started to bloom at the Daigoji Temple in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City, well known for cherry blossoms and the place where Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) organized gorgeous Hanami (cherry blossoms-viewing party).The parent tree at the estimate age of 150 is called 'Togyu's Sakura' because Japanese painter Togyu Okumura painted it in his work 'Daigo.' Since it is old and feared to be dead, the Sumitomo Forestry Tsukuba Research Institute in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, began to grow its child tree in 1998 using clone biotechnology.
In March 2004, the cloned drooping branch cherry tree bloomed for the first time in the world and was moved to the Daigoji Temple's precincts in November the same year.
It is now 4.5 meters tall, and its trunk is 33 meters long. Recently, a Buddhist service was held at the temple to pray for a success in its transplantation at the temple and its smooth growth.
For inquiries, please contact General Administrative Div. , Corporate Communications Group, Sumitomo Forestry Co. (Tel: 03-6730-3501) URL http://www.sfc.co.jp/index.html
Large Ferris wheel opens for business on Dotonbori River
The world's first large Ferris wheel with oval-shaped, oblong-style outer track was recently opened for business along the promenade 'Tonbori River Walk' being built on both sides of the Dotonbori River in Minami, Osaka City.The 77-meter-tall Ferris wheel has been created in the compounds of the Dotonbori shop of Don Quijote Co., LTD., a volume sales company. In the center of the oval-shaped track, there is a huge model of 'Ebessan,' a god for business prosperity.
Thirty-two gondolas each capable of accommodating four people in a row make a round in about 15 minutes. The wheel is opened from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. the next day.
The 1.3-kilometer promenade is being built between the Minatomachi River Place in Naniwa Ward and the Kamiyamatobashi bridge in Chuo Ward for completion in fiscal 2010 as a key symbol in Osaka City's water metropolis project.
A 170-meter-long section of the promenade facing the Ferris wheel has already been made available for use since December 2004. As a site for the state's social experiment, cafeterias and shops can be built in the water zone, and administrative officials and local people concerned are now working out a new rule for water space in order to create the din and bustle of the district.
For inquiries, please contact Public Relations Department, Don Quijote Co. (Tel: 03-5667-7563) or Public Works Division, Public Works Bureau, Osaka Municipal Government (Tel: 06-6615-6848)
Records about earthquake victims shown to the public
The Disaster Reduction and Human Innovation Institution in Chuo Ward, Kobe City, run by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Research Institute (Chairman: Toshitami Kaihara) created by the Hyogo prefectural, Kobe municipal and other governments has begun showing to the public records about the victims of the quake.The institute has begun this to hand down the experience of the quake from generation to generation without making it to fade on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the quake.
Since autumn last year, the institute has been inviting bereaved families to submit names and photos of the victims, and their memories. Those of 348 victims have been collected, and the institute judged the record of 132 of them can be shown to the public.
In the materials room at the institution, visitors can see names and photos of the victims on the screen of a personal computer installed there. The visitors can also see the comments from bereaved families.
Amid moves to put an end to the quake-related work on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, including the closure by the Hyogo prefectural, Kobe municipal and other governments of the Kobe City Disaster Countermeasures Office, set up immediately after the quake to rescue human life, secure necessary goods for daily life and restore the lifeline, the institute hopes the public disclosure of the victims' record can lead to disaster reduction.
For inquiries, please contact Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial Research Institute (Tel: 078-262-5580) URL http://www.hanshin-awaji.or.jp/
Capital of "Japan Central Republic" relocated
The cultural capital of "Japan Central Republic" comprising Fukui, Mie, Shiga and Gifu prefectures, now at the Iga area in Mie Prefecture, will be transferred on May 15 to Omihachiman City in Shiga Prefecture, known for its streets with merchant shops on both sides, Western-style buildings, cultural landscape, including the Hachimanbori moat, and waterways with ditch reeds grown in crowds.The republic was created by the four prefectures situated in the central part of the Japanese archipelago to create a new region by utilizing mutual historic and cultural resources beyond their prefectural borders.
In Omihachiman in fiscal 2005, the four prefectures will hold cultural exchange events throughout the year, including exchanges of traditional arts, and interchanges of parents and children with a theme of "Culture that will range in water, road and the future."
The cultural capital is patterned after the "European Cultural Capital" which the European Union (EU) created in 1985. Annually, the capital is selected, and its cultural heritage and history are made public so that people can have a common recognition about the EU's diversity.
For inquiries, please contact Citizens' Culture Division, Shiga prefectural government (Tel: 077-528-4632) URL http://www.pref.shiga.jp/
Daikin/JT jointly develop new air cleaning machine
Amid diversifying needs for domestic air cleaning machines, such as those for disinfection, deodorization, cigarettes and pollen, Daikin Industries Ltd. based in Osaka City and Japan Tobacco Industry Inc. (JT) based in Tokyo have jointly developed for the first time in the industry new air cleaning machine specialized in removing tobacco's smoke and smell.The new machine is equipped with deodorization and anti-bacterium functions using a high-speed electron with strong oxidation power and a filter of three-layer type.
Ammonia, acetaldehyde and the acetic acid, the principal ingredients of the smell of cigarettes, could be removed by more than 95% a minute. In developing the machine, its concept was jointly worked out, and Daikin was in charge of technology.
According to a JT survey, about half of smokers said there is a certain restriction of smoking at home, and some 80% of nonsmokers said they are concerned about smell and smoke.
For inquiries, please contact Public Relations Department, Daikin Industries Ltd. (Tel: 06-6373-4348) URL http://www.daikin.co.jp
Kansai in Focus: Rice-flour bread getting popular nation-widely breaks common sense
Bread made of rice flour is getting popular with its damp, peculiar feel and sweet-rice flavor in the mouth, breaking a common sense that bread is made of wheat flour. The common sense was broken by Koichi Fukumori, president of Pankoubou Aoi Mugi, a bread producer in Osaka City. In Paris, he has studied the heart of bread production under Raymond Calvel, said to be a god of bread.Fukumori has been in the job for 34 years, and a new and easy method to produce rice-flour bread developed only with his experience and intuition is spreading nationwide, attracting keen attention among quarters concerned as to how it is going to become more popular and increase its share.
In mid-February, this writer visited Aoi Mugi's shop in Toyonaka, 10 minutes on foot from Toyonaka Station of Hankyu Corp. Fukumori said, 'Rice's attractiveness is more diversified than wheat. That has also been proved in the bread.'
Request from government official
The method to produce rice-flour bread has been developed upon request from a high-ranking official of the Kinki Agricultural Administration Bureau four years ago. The official made the novel request, saying, 'We would like children to eat tasty rice-flour bread with local ground rice.' At that time, rice flour for bread was commercialized and was beginning to appear on the market.
Fukumori had already ordered such flour and baked bread, but he could not accept what was produced. He strongly refused the request but finally accepted it when told by the official, 'Why don't you help farmers hit hardest by forced reductions in rice growing?' The spirit of a workman also prompted him to accept the request.
What is the secret of the method? Rice flour is called joshinko and used to produce Japanese-style confection and skewered dumplings. Rice flour is strong than wheat and not suited for bread because it is not easy to grind homogeneous and minute flour. Rice flour's weak point is that it lacks gluten which makes bread swelled and chewy. In wheat, gluten can be formed naturally. Another weak point is that even if the dough is leavened, it soon becomes sticky with excess water.
After struggling for several months, Fukumori thought of a technique of mixing gravel with the powder of cement and found that rice flour will be suited to bread if combining it with particles in a fixed ratio.
There is also a know-how in the combination of gluten used as an additive, but he produced flour without using any special mill machine and attempted to bake bread by cutting the number of leavening in the production process. As a result, he has succeeded in producing any kind of bread in one to two hours against two to four hours in producing wheat bread with its quality as good as wheat bread.
High nutrition, low calory
Rice's ingredients are highly nutritious and low in calories, gaining high interest as being healthy. Therefore, Fukumori created Japan's first association to promote rice-flour foods, called the Kinki Rice-Flour Food Popularization Association, jointly with related organizations and citizens. He made public the know-how to produce rice-flour bread and has since been active as head of the association's technique division in popularizing it by holding lecturers with other association members.
At present, 65 elementary and junior high schools in the Kinki region introduce it into their school lunch, and as many shops are in bread producing places and department stores in Osaka City. As school lunch, rice is offered 2.9 times a week on national average, and the rest are bread and others.
Fifteen percent of pupils and students are said to leave rice half eaten. Now, there is bread made of rice. But a rice-flour roll as school lunch is priced 10 yen higher than a wheat-flour roll. There is also a barrier in consciousness that 'bread is wheat, rice is meal.' In spring this year, Fukumori will open a specialized rice-flour bread plant, publicly created and privately managed, in his native prefecture of Miyazaki to bake high-grade bread at low costs fully using rice grown poorly due to typhoon and other damage. The business model of local production and consumption is worth watching. (T)