Information technology venture enterprise to be set up in Shima
The Mie Prefectural Government and six private companies, including Kinki Nippon Railway Co. and KDD Corp., will jointly set up an information technology (IT) venture enterprise, to be called Cyberwave Japan (CWJ), in Ago Town remodeling an empty facility at a health resort into its office.CWJ will take advantage of its location in the Shima area where facilities for large-capacity, super high-speed submarine cables linking Japan with the U.S., Australia and Asia are located. By taking advantage of such an environment, the new company will provide a server space-lending hosting service.
It will also act as an application service provider (ASP) using servers and circuits. At the same time, it will foster and lure venture enterprises, and promote employment and the regional economy.
The company will be capitalized at 110 million yen, 50 million yen of which will be paid by the prefectural government and 10 million yen each by the six companies. Its presidency will be assumed by Mie Governor Masayasu Kitagawa.
Unlike conventional quasi-public corporations, CWJ will introduce business checks by outside information advisers, carry out personnel affairs by publicly recruited staff giving priority to workplaces, turn its business into the black in the third year and offer its shares for public subscription.
Art theater to be created by university in Kyoto
Kyoto University of Art and Design has announced the construction of an art theater on its campus in May next year to stage kabuki dramas, originated in Kyoto, and modern dramas. The theater will be an 8,900-square-meter concrete-reinforced structure with three floors on the ground and two others beneath ground level.The large theater "Shunju-za," to be located on the first and second floors, can be used for kabuki dramas and opera performances. The small theater "Studio21" on the third floor will be for modern dramas and dance performances.
The art director of the large theater will be assumed by kabuki actor Ennosuke Ichikawa, vice president of the university.
The "Shunju-za" will have a stage similar in size to the ones at the Minami-za in Kyoto City and the Shochiku-za in Osaka City. It will have 950 seats at most. In addition to the mawaributai (a revolving stage) and the hanamichi (an elevated runway), the "Shunju-za" will have a device for midair stunts, enabling Ennosuke to perform his unique performances and lessons.
It will be opened formally May 29-30 next year, and Ennosuke and Tamasaburo Bando will be vying with each other in their performances in a kabuki drama "Nihon Furisode Hajime," the first to be staged in the Kansai region.
Olympic Day Run 2000 Osaka on Maishima
The Osaka 2008 Olympic Bid Committee will sponsor the "Olympic Day Run 2000 Osaka" in the morning of June 11 (Sunday) and the "Olympic Festival Osaka" in the afternoon on Maishima Sport Island. The Olympic Day Run will involve 1-, 3- and 5-kilometer running. Runners participating in the 3- and 5-km race along Maishima route will have a views of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and Rokko mountains.All participants will be given Olympic Day Run T shirts and certificates of participation signed by Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The race will also include marathon runners Kenji Kimihara and Kumi Araki as well as several other guests, including short-track skater Takafumi Nishitani.
At the festival, visitors will be given autographs by Olympians invited as guests. There will also be Olympic-related quiz games, table tennis challenge games, events for visitors to experience indiaca and other new sports, and a soccer lesson by a Cerezo Osaka coach.
Line-carved picture of fleet in Kofun period
The Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education recently announced the discovery at the Hakaza ruins in Izushi Town, Hyogo Prefecture of a board with a carving of a fleet of vessels, which appeared to be in operation in the Early Kofun Period (fourth century).A total of 15 ships were carved on a 2-meter-long board. The canoe appeared to be a quasi-structural ship with a wave-preventing standing board and a side board.
The fleet is depicted with a large ship 37 centimeters long at the center of the board and other ships are etched on its upper and lower sides. Details of the ships are quite real.
At the Kyuhoji ruins in Osaka Prefecture, materials for the bow of a quasi-structural ship were unearthed, but this is the first discovery of a wooden product on which a large fleet of ships is depicted.
The Board of Education said, "We can make various speculations about the scene of oceangoing voyages and the intention of the depiction of a fleet of ships. This is an epoch-making discovery." Experts also regard the board an important material testifying to exchanges with the Asian mainland as inscribed in Chinese dynastic histories such as the "Wei zhi (Gishi)."
Report on foreign-affiliated firms in Osaka
The Osaka Prefectural Government has released a report on the present actual situation and characteristics of foreign-affiliated business enterprises in Osaka Prefecture, and promotion of their location in the prefecture.The report has been compiled based on oneyear of hearings with Osaka-based foreign companies, embassies and governmental agencies as well as on various materials.
The report, made up of four chapters, suggests that the development of Osaka-based foreign enterprises utilizing Osaka's conditions of location in spite of their small number and size, is important in the vitalization of Osaka industry. It also mentions the importance of wide regional tie-ups in the Kansai region to lure more investment there, and analyzes the present situation in details.
KIPPO conducts press tour in Tokushima
The Kansai International Public Relations Promotion Office (KIPPO) conducted a press tour in Tokushima Prefecture May 30-31 by inviting 15 foreign media representatives from eight countries based in Tokyo.On May 30, the foreign journalists visited the Tachibanawan Thermal Power Station being built jointly by Electric Power Development Co. and Shikoku Electric Co. in Anan City. It will become Japan's largest coal thermal power station with maximum output of 2.8 million kW, featuring the recycle of ash and environment protection measures.
They inspected the No. 1 Unit on trial run, and collected data from Masashi Hatano, director of Tachibanawan Thermal Project Construction Office, and others. In the evening, they experienced genuine Awa Dance at the Awa Dance Hall in Tokushima City and held an interview with the representatives of famous "ren" dance groups.
On May 31, after visiting Kitano Engineering Co., which has developed the world's first DVD bonding machine, the journalists inspected a factory of Advanced Media Corporation (AMC), Japan's largest DVD soft maker, and held an interview with its president, Takao Inoue.
In the afternoon, they toured the Otsuka Museum of Art, which boasts the largest permanent display of replicas of paintings on ceramic boards, in Naruto City, and then went to the promenade "Whirlpool Way," which opened on April 22 in utilization of the space of 15-year-old Ohnaruto Bridge, although it was raining.
Kansai in Focus: Kobe's international coordinator plays triple role as worker, wife and mother
When I entered the room of the International Division of the International Department on the 12th floor at the Kobe City Office No. 1 building overlooking the port of Kobe, I found five staff members sat facing each other across a table, exchanging opinions in English.While admiring that an international city office is different from others and staffers made arrangements in English, their conversation ended and one of them said, "We pick up topics from newspapers and other places, and talk about them without reserve during the noon break on Tuesdays and Fridays."
In the center of the pleasant chat, there was a foreign woman. She was Cindy Haruyama, 34, a coordinator for international relations of Kobe City.
Cindy is from Brisbane, Kobe's sister city in Australia. She studied law and Japanese at the University of Queensland, and first came to Japan in 1987. In Hiroshima, she taught English to children at a language school for two years.
"Because I studied Japanese only at university and had a few contacts with the Japanese, I was not in a condition to speak it fully, although I could read and write it a little bit. However, among my students, there were three-year-old kids with broken language. I was really in a fix because I had to teach these kids both English and Japanese."
Cindy began speaking Japanese fluently. Her relations with Japan are long. She married a Japanese from Kobe whom she became acquainted with in Hiroshima and the couple have a nine-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter. For two years from 1989, she worked for the Japanese Consulate General in Brisbane as a local staff and worked for a language center in Cairns for two years from 1995 Eboth jobs aimed at promoting cultural relations with Japan. With such rich experience, she was invited by Kobe City to work as a coordinator for international relations.
Cindy is involved in a wide range of work and is quite busy Econtacts and adjustments with Brisbane, assistance to official translation of official documents and their check, interpretation, and so on and so forth. She said, "The number of international conferences in Kobe has increased since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. There are also many inspection tours. On these occasions, I become an interpreter for the Kobe mayor and attend to guests."
Her son plays soccer and her daughter studies piano. She can cook almost all Japanese dishes. During the weekends, the three play at a park. "My husband? He goes to his office on Saturdays and Sundays due to the nature of his job and takes days-off on ordinary days. But I am not dissatisfied because my husband works hard for our family," she said.
Her manner of speaking and demeanor reminded me of an old-type graceful woman rarely found these days. Her term as the coordinator ends in July. Asked about her future after that, she replied, "I would like to do a similar job, if possible." (H)