Japan-China Economic Confab, Oct. 25-26 in Osaka
The Japan-China Economic Conference Organizing Committee (chairman: Yoshihisa Akiyama, chairman of the Kansai Economic Federation) will hold the Japan-China Economic Conference 2005 on Oct. 25-26 in the Osaka International Convention Center under the theme of "The Future of the Symbiotic Relationship between Japan and China -How to deepen dialogue and promote business relations in a period of historic transition." The conference is aimed primarily at spurring interchanges between Chinese entrepreneurs and Japanese businesses that are keenly interested in China's economic growth.This year's event is the fifth of its kind, with the first conference held in 2001. Last year's conference was participated in by about 170 business people, scholars and news reporters from China and about 250 people from Japan.
During the first-day panel discussion, JETRO Chairman Osamu Watanabe will serve as moderator. Lectures will be given by Yukio Shotoku, an adviser at Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Fan Gang, director of the National Economic Research Institute, China Reform Foundation. The two-day conference will be divided into three subcommittees, with participants at each subcommittee to discuss a total of 11 themes such as Managerial Strength of Chinese Enterprises, Global Management -Market Strategy M&A, and Crisis Management in Chinese Business. Simultaneous interpretations in Japanese and Chinese languages are available, with participation fees set at 50,000 yen per head.
For inquiries, please contact International Affairs Group, Kansai Economic Federation (Tel: 06-6441-0104) URL http://www.congre.co.jp/jcec2005/
Annual event Midosuji Parade 2005 set for Oct.9
The Osaka 21st Century Association has announced an outline of the Midosuji Parade 2005, which is set for Oct. 9. This year's event, the 23rd of its kind, will be joined by about 10,000 people from 85 bands on Osaka's main street Midosuji (Midosuji Boulevard) as the western Japan city's main autumnal event. The parade will be staged at a 3.3-kilometer section between Ohe Bridge in northern Osaka City and Namba in the south. The event will be held in two stages for the first time. In the first stage titled "Nurture the Flower Within," "Dojima Yakushido Setsubun Omizukumi Matsuri" will lead the parade from the northern area while the Kumano-mode (procession) will take the lead from the southern area, with citizens playing the central role. The second stage titled "One Garden, One World" will be participated in by a variety of floats, festivals around the world and traditional Japanese performing arts in various parts of the country. Famous actress Yoshino Kimura, who serves as Japan's tourism goodwill ambassador under the "Visit Japan Campaign," will take part in the parade, together with the Regimental Band Goldstream Guards of the United Kingdom, the University of Washington's Husky Marching Band from the United States and the Kalinka Russian Fork Dance Company for the first time. Also scheduled are the Nakanoshima Riverside Festival on Oct. 7-10 and other related events.For inquiries, please contact Public Relations Dept. Osaka 21st Century Association (Tel: 06-6942-2006) URL http://www.osaka21.or.jp/
Give youth dreams, revitalize Shikoku through baseball
Hiromichi Ishige, representative of the Shikoku Island League made up of four baseball teams such as the Tokushima Indigo Socks, made a speech titled "The Current State of and Future of the Independent Shikoku Island League," at a luncheon hosted by the Kansai Press Club. The excerpt of his speech follows:After retiring from Japanese professional baseball, I studied how to coach baseball teams in U.S. Major League Baseball and made on-the-spot inspections of an independent league. I have since hoped to see similar independent league teams playing in Japan. Thinking of the rest of my life after retirement as manager of the Orix Buffaloes, I decided this spring to inaugurate the Shikoku Island League in Shikoku, one of Japan's main islands well-known for strong enthusiasm about baseball, in order to give youth dreams of becoming pro baseball players.
Of more than 1,000 applicants, 100 were chosen for the newly created league, with 25 of them distributed to each team of four Shikoku prefectures and playing four games a week. They still lack experience but grew steadily with the support of local residents, and administrative officials as well as of sponsors. With a monthly salary of 120,000 yen, they play under a one-year contract.
I plan to foster the independent league into a local community-based one and also have league players participate in baseball classes at local schools. I also hope league players will actively join volunteer activities and that local businesses will actively hire those players after their retirement, with some of them being engaged in agriculture so that they will be able to contribute to developing the primary industry in Shikoku. Moreover, I intend to set aside a budget for promoting public relations of the independent league next year, thereby giving Shikoku residents excitement and helping revitalize Shikoku.
Int'l Cosmos Prize awarding ceremony on Oct. 17
The International Cosmos Prize Committee (Chairperson: Dr. Akito Arima) of the Commemorative Foundation for the International Garden and Greenery Exposition, Osaka, Japan 1990 (Expo '90 Foundation) has selected Dr. Daniel Pauly, 59, professor and director of Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Canada, as the winner of the International Cosmos Prize for 2005, and is slated to hold the awarding ceremony on Oct. 17 in Osaka City. Dr. Pauly will give a commemorative lecture titled "Global Trends in Marine Fisheries: Ecological and Food Security Implications." The prize is an annual award presented by the Expo '90 Foundation to honor those who have applied and realized the ideals that the foundation strives to preserve under global perspectives and in a comprehensive manner under the theme "The Harmonious Coexistence of Nature and Mankind." Inaugurated in 1993, this year's prize is the 13th of its kind.From the viewpoint of marine ecology, Dr. Pauly called for developing ways for human beings to make good use of marine ecosystems in a sustainable way and made great contributions in the fields of marine ecosystems and resources research.
For inquiries, please contact Commemorative Foundation for the International Garden and Greenery Exposition, Osaka, Japan, 1990 Cosmos Prize Secretariat (Tel: 06-6915-4513) URL http://www.expo.cosmos.or.jp/
Way opened for wiping out toxic water bloom, Fukui
Fukui Prefectural University, together with the independent administrative body Fisheries Research Agency and private concerns, has successfully developed for the first time in the world a method to separate, foster and clarify the state of a virus that contracts and kills Plectonema boryanum in a phenomenon called toxic water bloom.With the assistance of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a joint research team conducted research to develop a technique to prevent and wipe out toxic Plectonema boryanum that irrupts in lakes and ponds of overabundance of nutrients, causing massive deaths of fish and shellfish and bad odor. The separated virus was confirmed to specifically contract Plectonema boryanum of Microcystis genus and kill it, and has a structure of phage that attacks specific bacteria.
The research team says the latest discovery indicates the fate of water bloom in the natural environment could be affected by the virus -a finding that may open the way for developing technology to keep the environment surrounding lakes and ponds from deteriorating by controlling the spread of toxic water bloom in the future.
For inquiries, please contact Fukui Prefectural University, Dept. of Marine Bioscience (Tel: 0770-52-9618) URL http://www.fra.affrc.go.jp/
Ancient square pond found in Takatori Town, Nara Pref.
The Takatori Town Board of Education in Nara Prefecture has announced that a rockwork square pond, built apparently in the sixth century, had been discovered at an archaeological excavation site in the Kangakuji Temple in the town. The relic is believed to have been the central base of the Yamato-no-Ayauji clan, who came to Japan from the Korean Peninsula around fifth century. The pond, measuring 5 meters from east to west by 4 meters from north to south and about 40 centimeters in depth, is the oldest stonework square one among those ever discovered in Japan. Some researchers believe the pond was built for visual effect in a garden. But the education board views it as a pond for reserving water for daily needs, citing few decorations and the fact that it is located near the relic of building structures.In addition to the pond, stud-wall houses, which have their roots in the Korean Peninsula, were found, along with ondol heating facilities and shards of pottery in the Sueki style, including those of Korean-style pottery. The findings have led the board to believe the relic was the central base of a clan who came to Japan from Korea.
For inquiries, please contact Takatori Town Board of Education, Nara Pref. (Tel: 0744-52-3715) URL http://www.town.takatori.nara.jp/top.html
Kansai in Focus: Wisdom required to make State Guest-House Kyoto more open
As Japan's second one, a state guesthouse was completed in the Kyoto Gyoen national garden in Kyoto City's Kamigyo Ward in April to accommodate state and official guests invited to visit Japan. Although it has since accommodated foreign dignitaries only twice, the guesthouse attracted strong popularity this summer when it was opened to the public for 11 days, with the ratio of applicants to admissions (500 people a day) reaching 30 times. Amid chirping of cicadas in chorus, this reporter visited the guesthouse, together with general visitors.The guesthouse, built at a 20,000-square-meter site, has facilities for conferences, dining and accommodation. It features a soft tone of edge line of its wall and tiled roof. There are the Kyoto-Gosho (Kyoto Imperial Palace) and the Omiya Gosho Palace nearby -a scenery that makes visitors feel as if they were in the Edo period (1603-1867). The facility inside the guesthouse has tea ceremony house carpentry, with a blue metal roof. The main house is of a "sukiya" style with a modern Japanese-style roof. It also has a Japanese garden with a pond in its center -a feature that naturally make visitors comfortable, along with numerous trees in surrounding areas. As for furnished goods, it has furniture which incorporate nishijin-brocade, lacquer made with traditional techniques based in Kyoto. Though based on Japanese-style harmony, the State Guest-House Kyoto was designed in a Western lifestyle, with seven living national treasures taking part. The guesthouse thus can be regarded as Japan's edifice of modern Japanese-style architecture.
Local needs
At stake is whether authorities can make the new guesthouse more open. In early stages, for instance, it had been believed hard to open the guesthouse to the public. Finally, however, the authorities concluded that they should respond to great public expectations. It has since taken charge of holding the opening ceremony and working dinners for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) foreign ministers meeting and a luncheon meeting of a European Union (EU) parliamentarian delegation, both in May.
How about the possibility of accommodating local guests? Construction of the guesthouse was decided on at a Cabinet meeting held in January 1994 at the request of Kyoto organizations which made a plea as part of events to commemorate the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of the ancient capital. The Cabinet meeting agreement party says "the guest house will also be utilized for events that help revitalize and internationalize the Kansai region, including international exchange programs hosted by local public organizations." The Kyoto Prefectural Government and Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry are planning to take the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of "sister-city" relations between Kyoto City and Italy's Florence to enter into a tie-up relationship at prefectural administrative and business levels. Specifically, they intend to hold a joint ceremonial event at the guesthouse this fall.
Japan's virtue
But it is not an easy task. Local governments and business circles must explain why they need to make use of the state guesthouse. The utilization of the State Guest-Hous Kyoto is based on the standard set for a state guesthouse in Akasaka in Tokyo. The State Guest-House in Akasaka is used several times a year. Last year, it was used only once -the accommodation of the Danish king and queen. Construction of the Kyoto guesthouse cost a lot -a fact that tends to arouse strong public criticism if it is used inefficiently. Today, Japanese people themselves are not well aware of good points of Japan. Under such circumstances, many critics maintain that the State Guest-House Kyoto should be treated as an important site for rediscovering the virtue of Japan.
Kyoto is an international tourist city. Authorities should be willing to allow people including foreigners who want to view the state guesthouse to do so. Japanese-style architecture may be damaged if numerous people make visits. If so, traditional Japanese craftsmen should be employed more actively. Such employment for the maintenance and management of facilities would help raise their techniques and make sure of technological transfers to younger generations. Creation-based tradition appears most fit for modern Japanese-style architecture. (T)