Design mission to be dispatched to Italy
Japan Design Foundation (JDF), based on Osaka City's Kita Ward, will dispatch a mission of design specialists to Milan and other parts of northern Italy February 2-10 to promote exchanges of design industries. The 14-member mission, headed by Junichi Yoshida, former professor at the graduate school of Kobe University, is dispatched as part of JETRO's 'Region to Region Initiatives for Industrial Development' aimed at promoting exchanges between Japanese and foreign local industries and their mutual development. The members of the mission were selected from among applicants.Northern Italy was selected as the destination of the mission because Osaka City has close connections with Milan. The mission will hold a seminar on exchanges between Japanese and Italian design industries, hold an exhibition of Japanese designs, and hold business talks with Italian design companies (February 4-5, in Milan); attend international sample fairs; visit leading design companies as well as design schools and institutions. Members of the mission hope they will be able to learn business models from Italian companies, which lead the world in industrial designs, and promote exchanges with Italian design offices and design schools and institutions.
Int'l workshop on earthquake safer world in Kobe
An international seminar on the prevention of earthquake disasters will be held at the Yomiuri Kobe Hall in Kobe City's Chuo Ward January 30-February 1. The seminar, called 'International Workshop on Earthquake Safer World in the 21st Century III: People, Communities and Disasters,' will be jointly organized by the UNCRD Disaster Management Planning Hyogo Office, Hyogo Prefecture, Kobe City, the Osaka head office of the Yomiuri Shimbun, and Citizens toward Overseas Disaster Emergency.The seminar is the third of a series, the first being held in 2001. It aims to 1) throw light on the disaster issue at individual and community levels, and 2) see how the community and individual needs and priorities are integrated with the disaster reduction initiatives.
On January 30 and 31, the seminar will hold group discussions on the activities the UNCRD has performed and hear reports on the current disaster reduction initiatives undertaken in Nepal, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other countries. The February 1 session will hear a keynote speech by Naseer Saberi, Deputy Minister of Housing, Building and Urban Planning of Afghanistan. The first public showing of a documentary film recording the lives of Afghan people in 1985 is also scheduled.
Wakayama introduces flying ambulance service
Wakayama Prefectural Government has started a daytime flying ambulance service using a helicopter staffed with a doctor and a nurse and carrying medical equipment. The service, called 'Doctor Heli,' covers not only Wakayama Prefecture but also parts of the neighboring prefectures of Mie and Nara under an agreement concluded among the three prefectures. Similar medical helicopter services have already been introduced in six other prefectures including Okayama and Shizuoka. But Wakayama's Doctor Heli service is the first wide area service extended to neighboring prefectures.The Doctor Heli helicopter, with a seating capacity of six, is stationed at the Wakayama Medical University Hospital and dispatched in emergency cases to bring patients to hospitals at the request of fire stations or medical institutions. The service is expected to raise the survival rate in emergency cases and reduce their aftereffects.
The service is available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (6 p.m. from May to August). The operation manager is stationed at the command center located on the 13th floor of the hospital. The service area is within a radius of 100 kilometers from the Wakayama Medical University Hospital, that is the whole of Wakayama Prefecture and the southern parts of the Kii peninsula in Mie and Nara Prefectures.
Deodorization of fish oil with bread yeast developed
The Osaka Municipal Technical Research Institute has developed a new biological method of deodorizing fish oil using bread yeast. The institute believes that the method, the first of its kind in the world, will serve as a new process in the deodorization of fish oil, which is essential in fish oil processing plants.Under the method, yeast suspension liquid including sucrose (or D-glucose) will be added to fish oil, will be stirred for a day or two, and will then be left as it is for a certain period of time. After being separated from the water layer, the oil layer is washed with water under stirring and left as it is for a certain period of time.
The principle is based on the fact that odoriferous compounds of fish oil are converted into odorless compounds with a reducing enzyme and a coenzyme (NADH) which are generated in the process of fermentation of bread yeast. The method makes it possible to use fish oil as a seasoning. It realized safe and economical deodorization only with bread yeast without installing special facilities.
Most fish oil contains highly polyunsaturated fatty acids including DHA (Docosa-hexaenoic acid) and lately is commercially used as functional health-food products which prevent life-style-related diseases. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are easily oxidized and emit peculiar odors and thus fish oil must be deodorized in the refining process.
Previously, distillation was used as a method of removing odor from fish oil. But, since this method required special facilities, the development of an alternative method using microbes was long waited.
Business bodies issue reports on Kansai's activation
The Kansai Association of Corporate Executives has prepared a proposal for activating the Kansai region through globalization. The proposal focused on three I's, which stands for investment, intelligence and individual, and emphasized the need to establish Kansai's own brand.'Investment' requires the leadership of the heads of the local governments in the Kansai region, the establishment of the Osaka headquarters for the resurrection of Osaka and inducement of foreign investment as well as improvement of basic infrastructure for the inducement of foreign capital. 'Intelligence' involves the invitation of competent foreign teachers, the building of world-class universities where brilliant foreign students can study, and the creation of a biotechnological mecca. 'Individual' requires the enhancement of tourism by increasing the number of foreign visitors through improvement of Osaka City's Midosuji Street and enhancement of the city's attractiveness as a residential area, among others.
Meanwhile, the Kansai Industrial Competition Congress, organized by seven major business bodies in Kansai (Kansai Economic Federation, Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kyoto Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kobe Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, Osaka Industrial Association and Kansai Employers'Association) has compiled a report titled 'For Stronger Industrial Competitiveness of the Kansai Region.'
The report specifically put forward seven action programs the Kansai business community should undertake, including the building of a base for a robot industry which coexists with humans, the establishment of an organization which leads promotion of tourism and promotion of the formation of consensus on the creation of a Kansai state. Each member body offered their own initiatives toward realization of the goals.
Invest-in-Kansai promotion seminar in Tokyo
The Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI-KANSAI) will hold a seminar for promoting investment in the Kansai region at the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Tokyo on February 18.The seminar, called 'Invest-in-KANSAI Promotion Seminar- Advantages for Life-science Industries in Kansai,' will be cosponsored by Japan Regional Development Corporation (JRDC), JETRO and the Kansai Council of Investment Promotion (K-CIP). It is aimed at presenting the advantages of investment in Kansai region to foreign affiliated companies and foreign government agencies located in the Tokyo Metropolitan area.
The seminar will consist of speeches on the potentials of life-science and research on bio-industry in the Kansai region by corporate executives of Kansai-based companies as well as presentations on the promotion of bio-industry in Osaka by Osaka Prefectural Government and on the Kobe Medical Industry Development Project by the Kobe Municipal Government.
Each local government in Kansai will set up a desk to offer information on starting a business in their area.
Kansai in Focus: Kansai follows active moves for municipality mergers
Moves to merge municipalities are gaining momentum throughout Japan. The Kansai region is no exception. The merger moves are accelerated due partly to initiatives taken by the central government. Some municipalities dogged by fiscal crises and depopulation are actively pursuing the possibility of a merger with other municipalities for survival.There are many hurdles to municipal mergers, however, as each municipality's and its residents' interests are at stake and there are conflicts of interests among them. Some municipalities withdrew in the process and there are many cases of merger talks hitting snags.
Back in March 2001, the central government launched moves to encourage municipality mergers with the coming into force of the Laws on Special Cases of Municipal Mergers. Under the special law, the central government established the Municipal Merger Assistance Headquarters and designated merger-focused assistance areas. The recent surge in enthusiasm for municipal mergers is motivated by the fact that fiscal incentive measures to be extended to municipal mergers under the special law will be terminated in the spring of 2005.
As of the end of 2002, the following municipalities in Kansai have been designated as merger-focused assistance areas: seven in Shiga Prefecture including Azuchi and two other towns; Hikone and three other towns; and Nagahama and nine towns and 26 areas in Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, Wakayama, Mie and Fukui prefectures. Altogether 25 areas in eight prefectures have already started merger talks and adjustment efforts by establishing consultative councils.
Among them are Azuchi and two other towns (Shiga) ; Sumoto City and three other towns, and Midori and three other towns (Hyogo); Hokusei and three other towns (Mie); Mineyama and five other towns (Kyoto); two towns including Shinjo (Nara); Tanabe City and seven other towns and villages (Wakayama); and Tondabayashi City and three other towns and villages (Osaka).
Moriyama City and the two towns of Chuzu and Yasu, designated as merger-focused assistance areas, launched merger moves but terminated merger consultations one year later, because they failed to agree on the site of the capital of a new municipality to be created by the merger.
Keihoku Town, which neighbors Kyoto City, pursued a merger with six other towns of Funai and Kitakuwada counties, but the town mayor and other officials last November visited the Kyoto City Office and submitted the signatures of town residents who are in favor of incorporation into Kyoto City, not the merger, reflecting their circumstances that many of town residents and children commute to Kyoto.
On the contrary, moves to merge six towns in Kyoto's Tango area (Mineyama, Omiya, Amino, Tango, Yasaka and Kumihama) had made progress and the consultative council agreed late last year that the new city would be named Kyo-Tango City.
There are many merits in municipality mergers. For example, the creation of Sasayama City with a population of 47,300 in Hyogo Prefecture through the merger of the four towns of Sasayama, Nishiki, Tannan and Konda reduced the number of municipal chiefs from four to one, the number of assembly members to 26 from 57 and the number of officials from 686 to 653 and greatly contributed to administrative streamlining.
At the same time, the creation of the new city has prompted moves to establish various large-scale public service facilities. A new civic center will open in Sasayama in March and a central city library will open there in April. Establishment of such facilities as a comprehensive support center for physically handicapped persons, and a municipal funeral hall is also planned. City officials say it is important to place these facilities evenly in the four former municipal entities. They are pursuing plans for establishing other large-scale public facilities. (K)