Author: g_fasol

  • Nuclear safety – Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida

    Nuclear safety – Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida

    “Japan needs to prepare fourth level and fifth level defense-in-depth to nuclear accidents”

    Record, summary and commentary by Gerhard Fasol

    Governor Hirohiko Izumida: “Nuclear power operating companies should have their headquarters at the nuclear power plant in order to immediately take responsibility and respond.”

    Governor Hirohiko Izumida (泉田裕彦) is elected by the 2.3 million people of Niigata Prefecture to be responsible for their lives, safety and assets. The world’s largest nuclear power plant, Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station (柏崎刈羽原子力発電所) with seven reactors and 8 GigaWatt power, is located in Niigata Prefecture, but as all other nuclear power stations in Japan, it is currently switched off.

    On October 15, 2014, Governor Izumida in his official role, explained a long list of detailed safety concerns, and a list of necessary changes in legislation and emergency command regulations in order to ensure nuclear safety. These safety concerns include the reduced responsibilities of the new Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which limits its responsibility to technical issues, and shies away from the broader issues of nuclear accident management, in particular, IAEA’s fourth level and fifth level of defense-in-depth. Governor Izumida demands a full investigation of the Fukushima nuclear disaster which should address who is responsible, and in particular also why the knowledge of the meltdown was hidden for more than two months.

    Niigata Governor Hirohiko Izumida’s safety concerns – overview:

    1. Safety concerns regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
      1. the Fukushima accident was not yet sufficiently investigated or reviewed
      2. shrinking jurisdiction of the NRC. Regulatory safety standards have been reduced to performance standards. NRC have reduced their actual work.
      3. insufficient support for IAEA “defense-in-depth”. No provision at all for IAEA fifth level, and insufficient provision for IAEA fourth level response
      4. insufficient support for municipalities
    2. Safety concerns regarding nuclear accident preparations
      1. no meltdown countermeasures
      2. decision making during crisis, e.g. seawater flooding of a reactor in risk of meltdown. Salarymen including Presidents of companies are not equipped for such serious decisions during crisis.
      3. emergency response under high radiation. Revision of labor laws is necessary. Immediate response team needs to be created.
    3. Safety concerns regarding evacuation policies
      1. unification of legal systems: natural disaster response and nuclear disaster response needs to be integrated, and two-tiered command structure needs to be unified
      2. decisions of nuclear disaster response needs to be reformed
      3. insufficient response for sheltering in place when evacuation is impossible
      4. current regulations for the distribution of Iodine tablets are impossible to implement. Need for realistic regulations which can actually be implemented in case of disaster.
      5. Disaster response under high radiation levels: reform of labor laws necessary. Need to clarify hierarchy and issue of orders during emergency. Must review laws for command structure, responsibility and compensation.
      6. Other concerns: screening and decontamination, safety of assets in evacuation areas, nuclear disaster prevention system.
    4. Safety concerns regarding TEPCO
      1. Inadequate investigation and review. No one has taken responsibility for the Fukushima accident. TEPCO has not explained who was responsible for the 2 months delay in acknowledging the meltdown.
      2. Economic issues are given priority over safety. TEPCO should have their headquarters at the nuclear power station in order to immediately take responsibility and respond.

    Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station (柏崎刈羽原子力発電所)

    Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station (柏崎刈羽原子力発電所) is the world’s largest nuclear power station, and consists of 7 reactors with a total capacity of about 8 GigaWatt. It began operations in September 1985.

    Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station is located about 220km from Tokyo, in Niigata-ken in the village Kariwa (刈羽村) near the town Kashiwazaki (柏崎市), and about 80km from the Niigata Prefecture capital Niigata-shi. Niigata Prefecture has about 2.3 million population.

    At the time of this article, the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station, as all other Japanese nuclear power stations, is completely switched off, and the time of a potential restart of any of its seven reactors is unclear.

    The Heisei 19 (2007) Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake” (平成19年新潟県中越沖地震)

    The Heisei 19 (2007) Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake” (平成19年新潟県中越沖地震)

    The Heisei 19 (2007) Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake” (平成19年新潟県中越沖地震) took place on July 16, 2007 at 10:13am of magnitude 6 on the Japanese Shindo-Scale, and caused fires and a number of other worrying defects at Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station.

    Lessons learnt and implemented from the fires and other defects caused by the 2007 Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station

    Hirohiko Izumida was Governor of Niigata at the time of the 2007 Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake on July 16, 2007. The Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station was about 20km from the epicenter, the ground at the Nuclear Power station dropped about 1.5 Meters leading to a fire of the transformer at the nuclear reactor Unit 3.

    Due to the damage caused by the earthquake, Niigata Prefecture Government had no communication link to the Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station, all we could do was to follow the fire on public television. There had been a hotline, but it was not secure, and because of the dropped land, the entrance door to the building containing the hotline connection became warped and the hotline became unaccessible at the nuclear power station.

    Land dropped by 1.5 meters and distorted pipes which caused the fire. We are concerned that similar damage could render the venting tubes dysfunctional.

    Governor Izumida insisted that a seismically secure communications building and hotline should be built at Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Station and also at other nuclear power stations including the Fukushima Nuclear Power stations.

    We requested TEPCO very strongly to build a secure building for a secure hotline between the Nuclear Power Station and the Prefectural Government Office. Initially, TEPCO rejected this request, because at that time such a hotline was not required by regulations, and Governor Izumida was told that it should be sufficient to use mobile phones for emergency communications (note that Japan’s mobile phone networks were largely out of service for several days after the March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake).

    Governor Izumida insisted that a seismically isolated building for a hotline and a secure hotline be built, and because of the strong instance this hotline was built. Governor Izumida also insisted that the same type of secure communications buildings and hotlines should be built at other nuclear power stations including Fukushima Dai Ichi. The secure communications building and hotline at Fukushima Dai Ichi was only completed 8 months before the March 11, 2011 earthquake.

    Governor Izumida feels, that if he had not insisted on the construction of secure communications buildings and hotlines at Fukushima and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power stations, there might be no-one living in Tokyo today.

    Governor Izumida demands improvement of fire fighting infrastructure at nuclear power stations.

    At the 2007 Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake the underground emergency water supply lines were destroyed, and the fire fighting forces could not help and had to leave the nuclear power plant. We insisted on improvements of the fire fighting infrastructure.

    Governor Izumida has grave concerns on the current work of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

    We have grave concerns on the Nuclear Regulatory System today, as the Fukushima accident has not yet been fully investigated. Therefore it is not yet possible to draw all necessary lessons from the Fukushima disaster for the necessary new nuclear regulatory system.

    We believe that the current Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is shrinking its responsibility: we believe that the current Chairman Tanaka of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is restricting his responsibility to a narrow range of technical issues, and withdrawing from his responsibilities for the wider safety issues.

    The law says, that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission “must ensure the safety of the usage of nuclear power”. Governor Izumida thinks that the current commission and it’s Chairman Tanaka is not fulfilling this obligation to ensure the overall safety, and instead focuses only on a limited range of technical issues.

    Insufficient support for “defense-in-depth” recommended by the IAEA: NRC does not take responsibility for the Fifth Level of IAEA defense-in-depth

    The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recommends a system of “defense-in-depth“, which includes mitigation of nuclear accidents in different levels.

    IAEA levels of defense-in-depth:

    1. First level: Prevention of abnormal operation and failures
    2. Second level: Control of abnormal operation and detection of failures
    3. Third level: Control of accidents within the design basis
    4. Fourth level: Control of severe plant conditions including prevention of accident progression and mitigation of severe accident consequences
    5. Fifth level: Mitigation of radiological consequences of significant off-site releases of radioactive materials

    Fifth Level response is absent – NRC needs to build fifth level response

    Governor Izumida: The current Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Commission essentially does not take any responsibility at all for the fifth level of the response in depth recommended by the IAEA, and in case of the Fourth Level

    Fourth Level response is insufficient – NRC needs to expand fourth level response

    Governor Izumida: the current Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Commission restricts its responsibilities to hardware issues and does not touch on operations.

    Insufficient support for municipalities

    The communication between Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the local authorities is totally inadequate, basically the NRC does not listen to us directly, although we – the local Government authorities – have to take care of the local population when an accident occurs.

    Insufficient preparations for the case of a nuclear accident

    Other countries are taking very detailed preparations for the case of nuclear accidents or melt-downs: for example European countries are requiring core catchers, and the US has centralized response forces. Governor Izumida feels that in Japan preparations are totally insufficient and need to be much improved.

    “Salarymen” employees, including company Presidents, in case of a melt-down are not equipped to take necessary decisions for example to inject sea water for cooling, which is certain to destroy a US$ 5 billion investment

    Current decision making processes and legal frameworks are totally insufficient for the case of nuclear accidents.

    To be specific, at the time of the Fukushima Nuclear disaster on March 14th – 15th, TEPCO employees could not make the necessary decision quickly enough to pump seawater into the Fukushima nuclear power station.

    “Salarymen” employees, even if they are Presidents of companies, are not equipped to take decisions which destroy equipment which represents US$ 5 billion (YEN 500 billion) investment, as injecting seawater for cooling as in the case of Fukushima Dai Ichi. We need regulations to take necessary decisions quickly.

    A further problem is that when private company employees work at the nuclear accident location, they are governed by the common labor laws, so they cannot be forced to work at dangerous high-radiation locations. This also needs to be solved.

    Command structure currently leads to confusion in case of nuclear accidents

    With the current legal framework in Japan, in the case of a natural disaster, the State Minister in charge of disaster prevention sets up Disaster Headquarters.

    In the case of a nuclear disaster however, the Head of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency sets up its own Disaster Headquarters. So if we have a natural disaster and a nuclear disaster concurrently, as in the case of Fukushima, we have two competing Disaster Headquarters, which leads to great confusion.

    In the case of natural disasters, the local authorities can issues evacuation orders. However, in the case of a nuclear disaster, the Prime Minister gives the evacuation orders – again a reason for inconsistencies and confusion.

    Also the provisions for people who cannot evacuate for health or other reasons is inadequate.

    Many current regulatory provisions are impossible to implement

    As an example, according to the standards by the NRC for nuclear accidents, the population within a 5km – 30km radius needs to be sheltered in-doors, in the case of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa this population is about 440,000 people. According to current regulations, Iodine tablets need to be distributed after the accident occurs. If venting becomes necessary 8 1/2 hours after the accident, this means that current regulation requires that Iodine tablets must be distributed to 440,000 people within 8 1/2 hours. The medical association tells us that it is impossible to distribute Iodine tablets to 440,000 people within 8 1/2 hours.

    It is one thing to create regulations on paper, but Governor Izumida asks the NRC to create regulations which can actually be implemented.

    Q&A

    Q: How can the NRC reduce its responsibilities by itself, while these responsibilities are surely fixed by the relevant laws?
    A: The law says very clearly that the NRC is responsible for ensuring the safety of nuclear power. I feel that the Chairman of the NRC Tanaka is reluctant to meet with the local authorities, and I think only recently has he started to talk to TEPCO, probably following pressure. Mr Tanaka is a teacher, a Professor of nuclear technology, so I believe that he is focusing to much on the technical issues, focusing on the nuclear technology, and that he neglects the wider issues of safeguarding the lives and assets of the people.

    Q: What you are saying sounds very obvious and common sense. Why does nobody else except you speak out clearly about these issues?
    A: I think there are two reasons:
    1. I had first hand experience as Governor of the 2007 fire at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station caused by the 2007 Chuetsu Offshore earthquake,
    2. As Governor of Niigata I was deeply involved from the beginning in the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear accident, I heard all the communication and information from the Fukushima nuclear power station, the Government and TEPCO and experts.
    Therefore I have direct experience with nuclear accidents, and know which developments are likely to happen. I can imagine which sequence of events are likely to occur as a consequence of nuclear accidents. Therefore I can speak with confidence.

    I should also say that some of the points raised are not just points raised by Niigata Prefecture. There is an Organization of Governors of those Prefectures where nuclear power stations are located. Many of the points I have raised are shared by all Governors of Prefectures with nuclear power stations. No-one in this organizations has raised objections to the points I am raising.

    Q: NRC Chairman Tanaka says that Japan now has the world’s strictest safety regulations. Is this true?
    A: I am the Governor of Niigata Prefecture, therefore all my statements refer primarily to the safety of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station in my prefecture.

    The new Nuclear Safety Standards of Japan do not include any provisions at all regarding the fifth level of the “defense-in-depth” recommendations of the IAEA, and in case of the fourth level they do not go deep enough at all. Therefore my conclusion is that Japan’s new Nuclear Safety Standards are not the strongest in the world.

    Q: Do you think that concerns about nuclear accident mitigation plans and evacuations plans are holding back the restart of nuclear power plants in Japan?
    A: My primary mission as Governor is to safeguard the safety, lives and assets of the citizens of our Prefecture. TEPCO knew from very early on that a nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima Dai Ichi, yet TEPCO hid this fact for more than two months. If an organization does not reveal the information about something that serious we cannot make any reasonable evacuation plans. To make evacuation plans we need to have reliable information about the actual situation. We have to ask the question whether an organization that hides the truth can even have the right to operate a nuclear power plant. The first step needs to be to thoroughly investigate the Fukushima Disaster and to determine where the responsibilities lie. Before we have such an investigation we cannot even think about restarting nuclear power plants.

    Q: Don’t you think that nuclear power has any positive points? Are you saying there are zero benefits in operating nuclear power stations?
    A: My responsibility as Governor of Niigata is for the safety and lives of the citizens of Niigata, and I am speaking in my official capacity as Governor of Niigata. Therefore all my comments about restarts are limited to Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station and TEPCO. It is not my responsibility to talk about the general issues of what Japan as a country should do about nuclear power.

    Regarding Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power stations and TEPCO my position is very very clear.

    However, regarding TEPCO, TEPCO hid the crucial information of the nuclear meltdown for two months. My question is whether such an organization has the right to operate nuclear power stations at all. Before this question is not addressed, I cannot enter into any discussions about restarting the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station.

    Q: Don’t you think seven nuclear reactors in one location are too many? In Germany only two reactors are permitted at one location.
    A: This question has also been raised by our population. However among experts we hear differing opinions. We need to look not only at technical issues, but also at management structures. Therefore at our Prefectural Government we have formed a committee of experts and we are investigating this and other safety questions in detail.

    Hirohiko Izumida, Governor of Niigata Prefecture talks about nuclear safety – watch on YouTube:

    Hirohiko Izumida, Governor of Niigata Prefecture

    Nuclear safety - Governor of Niigata Prefecture Hirohiko Izumida comments on his experience with the world's largest nuclear power plant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
    Nuclear safety – Governor of Niigata Prefecture Hirohiko Izumida comments on his experience with the world’s largest nuclear power plant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa

    Hirohiko Izumida (泉田裕彦) is the elected Governor of Niigata-Prefecture, elected by the people of Niigata. He assumed office on October 25, 2004, two days after the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake.
    Governor Izumida was born on September 15, 1962 in Kamo, Niigata Prefecture
    March 1987, graduated from the Law Department of Kyoto University.
    April 1987, entered Ministry of Economics and Industry METI, energy resources bureau
    June 1994, visiting researcher at the University of British Columbia.
    June 1998, Prime Minister’s Office
    July 2001, Land and Transportation Ministry
    November 2003, Head of the Gifu Prefecture Industrial Labor Bureau
    October 2004, elected Governor of Niigata Prefecture

    Copyright (c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Shuji Nakamura: did he invent the blue GaN LED alone and other questions. An Interview.

    Shuji Nakamura: did he invent the blue GaN LED alone and other questions. An Interview.

    Interview for the Chinese Newspaper Southern Weekly about Shuji Nakamura

    by Gerhard Fasol

    The Chinese Newspaper Southern Weekly interviewed me about Shuji Nakamura’s invention of the blue LED and the background to his Nobel Prize. Here some of my answers.

    Read the article in Southern Weekly in Chinese language here: 【2014诺贝尔·科学】无人相信的发明

    Shuji Nakamura: when he first announced his breakthrough, most people just did not believe him initially. But you are an exception. What made you believe in Dr Nakamura?

    At the time when I first heard Shuji Nakamura’s results around 1992 – long before Bob Johnstone hear about these results (Bob Johnston is a friend of mine, and I know him for a long time – but Bob Johnstone is a journalist, I am a Physicist) I had worked about 18 years in physics research, at many of the best research labs in the world. So I had at that time already a very long experience in research. When I heard Shuji Nakamura’s talk at the Physics Conference in Nagoya, I could immediately judge from his talk that this was a very very important result. So I visited Shuji Nakamura at his laboratory at the company Nichia in Anan several times for discussions, he gave me copies of his papers and patents and I studied his research papers and his patents, and he also showed me the blue LEDs so I could see for myself. I had worked a long time in this field already, so I could understand that his work was true, and I could also see the working blue LEDs with my own eyes. Such blue LEDs did not exist before, so it was clear that he had succeeded in this breakthrough.

    At that time I knew almost all research groups in the world working on blue LEDs, at IBM, Hitachi, SONY, and many University labs and national labs globally, and I knew the status of their research. It was obvious that Shuji Nakamura had won this race.

    It is true that many people did not believe his results initially. That was because these people did not make the same effort that I made to visit Shuji Nakamura and study his results.

    For example, I send a report about Shuji Nakamura’s breakthrough to the German Physical Society member’s journal for publication, and the Editor rejected my article initially, because he showed this report to German Professors in this field. They had not heard about Shuji Nakamura’s work, so they had never heard about this blue LED breakthrough and were working in their own labs on II-VI compounds which was a dead end. Because they considered themselves as the top experts in the field they rejected my report on Shuji Nakamura’s work.

    I told the Editor that I am right, and the German experts are wrong, the Editor believed me and printed my report about Shuji Nakamura’s work. You can read this report online here (in German language):
    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/phbl.19950511004/abstract

    Some researchers question whether Dr Nakamura made the blue LED on his own. Why do people criticise his achievement and what is the truth? Do these rumors continue after the Nobel Prize was announced?

    Every researcher “stands on the shoulder of giants”, of course now work is done in total isolation, and always rests on some previous results. Even Einstein, who did not read many scientific papers and worked out many results on his own from zero point, of course used many results of others.

    Therefore Shuji Nakamura’s work of course relied on the hard work of many other researchers before him. For example he used the production technology called MOCVD (Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition), which he learned in Professor Ramaswamy’s group at the University of Florida (Professor Ramaswamy was working in the office next to mine at Tokyo University for about 1 year, so I know him also very well). Shuji Nakamura also could read the published part of Professor Akasaki and Professor Amano’s excellent results on GaN compounds – Professor Akasaki and Amano’s work were also awarded the Nobel Prize at the same time as Shuji Nakamura.

    Shuji Nakamura could not have done his work without the support of the Founder and Chairman at that time of the company Nichia, Mr. Nobuo Ogawa. Shuji Nakamura introduced me to his Chairman Mr Nobuo Ogawa and I had lunch with him several times and discussed how he supported Shuji Nakamura’s work financially and as the leader of Nichia. Mr Nobuo Ogawa at that time owned about 1/3 of the company Nichia, so he could take major decisions such as supporting Shuji Nakamura.

    I believe that at Nichia there are two people without whom this work would not have happened:

    1. Chairman Nobuo Ogawa and
    2. Shuji Nakamura

    Neither could have done the work alone, and both together were necessary to achieve this
    breakthrough at Nichia. Also, when Shuji Nakamura went to Mr Nobuo Ogawa and proposed to work towards the discovery of blue GaN LEDs, at that time, Shuji Nakamura did not have a PhD, and no great research success stories behind him, although he has done successful development of red LEDs, but which were not commercially successful. Without a PhD I think there would have been almost no one except Mr Nobuo Ogawa who would have supported Shuji Nakamura’s proposal, certainly no large corporation, government supported research agency, or University, and without a PhD he would have had zero chance to win a peer-reviewed research grant from large research agencies.

    Unfortunately Mr Nobuo Ogawa passed away some years ago, so he cannot enjoy the Nobel Prize celebrations.

    Of course at Nichia, Shuji Nakamura could attract a number of very excellent assistant researchers, but it is very clear that Shuji Nakamura was the leader of the Blue LED research at Nichia who was leading a group of assistant researchers who essentially followed his leadership and were doing this work because of him and under Shuji Nakamura’s leadership. I am very convinced that if Shuji Nakamura would not have been working at Nichia, this invention would not have happened at Nichia. This is quite obvious to anyone who understands how science works.

    Of course there are some people who envy Shuji Nakamura. Excellent people celebrate Shuji Nakamura’s success and get inspired. Mediocre people spend their time spreading rumors and talking bad about Shuji Nakamura, don’t listen to them. I have heard some of these rumors, and I have checked most of them direct with Shuji Nakamura, and I am convinced that these rumors are wrong.

    Maybe some of the people who spread stupid rumors about Shuji Nakamura have failed in their own work, and don’t like someone else succeed?

    About the Nobel Prize: The Nobel Prize in Physics is decided by the Nobel Prize in Physics Committee of the Swedish National Academy of Science. When I have worked in Europe, I met some of the members of this committee and I can tell you that they are all very very excellent Physicist. I am convinced that they are doing a very excellent job in checking in great detail how Shuji Nakamura achieved his results, and I am sure they have checked out all these rumors and found that they are untrue.

    As a colleague of Dr Nakamura’s, could you describe a little bit about his style in research?

    First of all like all excellent researchers Shuji Nakamura is extremely passionate, driven by passion for his work, and he is a maniac, working very very hard. When I was working on the book with Shuji, he was working with me on 30., 31., December, 1st of January all over the New Year period without break, exchanging emails with me in the middle of the night etc.

    Secondly he is driven by intuition – he is a genius. Maybe you know that when Shuji studied at the University of Tokushima, the University did not have a Physics Department, so Shuji did not study full Physics but won the Physics Nobel Prize! I am Physicist, I have full Physics University training even to a PhD level, and I can tell you that Shuji has a very deep understanding of Physics, but he has essentially learnt this all by himself! Not through a University Physics degree!

    I think his work is very intuitive. He has a very deep understanding of Nature, and follows his intuitions, his feelings, much more than anything he has learnt from the books.

    More information:

    Copyright 2014-2019 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano win Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 for the blue LED

    Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano win Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 for the blue LED

    Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 for the blue GaN LED

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano enabled the global lighting revolution

    The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 was awarded in equal shares to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”.

    While red and green LEDs were invented long ago, efficient blue LEDs did not exist until Akasaki’s, Amano’s and Nakamura’s long series of inventions. Blue LEDs are needed to create white light.

    The invention of blue GaN based LEDs enables the global lighting revolution. By replacing legacy light bulbs, fluorescent tubes etc by GaN LEDs, a big fraction of the world’s electricity can be saved, and the effect is even bigger in the developing world where still today many people use extremely expensive oil for lighting. Read a detailed analysis of the economics of lighting here.

    The mainstream blue-LED scientific community was working on a dead-end: II-VI compounds

    Of course the importance of blue LEDs was understood for a long time, and in the 1980s and 1990s all major industrial and University labs were working towards this holy grail – Hitachi, SONY, Philips, IBM, lots of Universities in Europe and US and elsewhere had groups working towards blue LEDs – but they all worked on II-VI compounds, which turned out to be a dead end.

    The way much (not all – and thats the way towards Nobel Prize class discoveries) of mainstream established incremental research works, in most established labs, to get peer reviewed grants for research towards blue LEDs in the 1980s, this had to be II-VI work.

    It needed strong willed people as Shuji, Akasaki and Amano to take a totally different approach outside the mainstream. Its to the credit of JST and other Japanese funding agencies to have supported Amano and Akasaki’s work. Shuji on the other hand ‘only’ had one person to convince: the owner and founder of Nichia Mr Nobuo Ogawa- and did I say that Shuji did not have a PhD at that time?

    Which research agency would give a couple of million $ to a researcher without a PhD but with a big almost unreachable target who still has to learn the methods (MOCVD in this case) to work towards this target – other than Mr Nobuo Ogawa?

    Shuji Nakamura actually introduced me to Mr Nobuo Ogawa in Anan (Tokushima-ken), and we had several curry lunches in a restaurant next to Nichia Chemical Industries Headquarters. I asked Nichia-Chairman and Founder Nobuo Ogawa how he decided at the time to fund Shuji Nakamura’s one-year stay at the University of Florida in Professor Ramaswamy’s group to learn MOCVD (by the way Professor Ramaswamy was my office-neighbour when I was Associate Professor on the NTT Telecommunications Chair at Tokyo University), and fund Shuji Nakamura’s work to the tune of many US$ million, which at that time was a large fraction of Nichia’s overall sales.

    To my question how Mr Nobuo Ogawa took the decision to support Shuji Nakamura, Mr Nobuo Ogawa simply answered: “How did you chose your wife, Gerhard?”.

    Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano worked on III-V compounds and achieved the lighting breakthrough

    While the mainstream scientific blue-LED community worked with high intensity towards this dead end without knowing that they devoted their lives and their students to a dead-end, Akasaki and Amano over many years painstakingly solved one problem after another to create electronic devices based on the III-V compound semiconductor GaN and its variations.

    Shuji Nakamura then built on Akasaki and Amano’s work, solved the three major and many many minor problems remaining to create commercially viable blue LEDs. But the work did not stop there: Shuji Nakamura also created white LEDs, UV LEDs, blue Lasers (e.g. for SONY’s blue-ray DVD players and displays) and a lot more. (read about Shuji Nakamura’s breakthrough work in great technical detail here: The Blue Laser Diode)

    Shuji Nakamura, Nichia Kagaku Kougiyou and releasing Japan’s creative power

    Shuji Nakamura was also a very diligent writer of patents and wrote a large number of very strong patents. These inventions together with patents propelled his then employer Nichia Kagaku Kougiou from a maker of phosphors (which were used for cathode ray tubes and fluorescent tubes) to one of the most important semiconductor companies. For these inventions, Nichia paid Shuji Nakamura a salary approximately on the level of a Japanese primary school teacher, plus a few US$ 100 bonus for the inventions.

    Lets not go into the law suits between Nichia and Shuji Nakamura here, but let me say, that I have never found the complete story explained in the media. Most media reports give a very incomplete picture of the true story of the law suits between Nichia and Shuji Nakamura. – I guess most media just copy from each other in this case…

    I noticed Shuji Nakamura’s work first around 1992 at the Japanese Applied Physics Conference in Nagoya, where Shuji gave a talk about his GaN work. I visited Shuji a couple of times in Anan (Tokushima-ken), he introduced me to the founder of Nichia, Mr Nobuo Ogawa, without who’s support Shuji’s work would have been impossible. With Nobuo Ogawa’s death, Shuji decided to move to the USA, to Santa Barbara, where he is working today. Interestingly, when Shuji was looking for a job, he had lots of offers from USA, but none from Europe and none from Japan… Why that?

    Shuji developed deep insights about issues holding back Japan, and has shared his advice on many occasions, including also the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, which I annually organize in Tokyo as a leadership platform. Read about his talk here, where Shuji passionately calls for changes – even a revolution – in Japan, to unshackle Japan’s creative energies.

    To learn more about the Blue GaN LEDs and lasers, and their invention:

    and of course you can also read Shuji Nakamura’s, Isamu Akasaki’s and Hiroshi Amano’s 100s or even 1000s of original scientific publications.

    Shuji Nakamura talking passionately at the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum in Tokyo 2013
    Shuji Nakamura talking passionately at the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum in Tokyo 2013

    Copyright (c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan nuclear safety – Dr. Charles “Chuck” Casto’s view and lessons learnt

    Japan nuclear safety – Dr. Charles “Chuck” Casto’s view and lessons learnt

    Dr Charles Casto: the Fukushima disaster changed my life. We cannot let this happen again anywhere in the world.

    Dr Charles “Chuck” Casto: leader of the US Government response to the Fukushima Dai Ichi Nuclear disaster

    When President Obama expanded the Operation Tomodachi to include the nuclear disaster, Dr. Charles Casto was selected to lead the US Government response.

    Read also:

    First time, where a first world country assists another first world country in a major crisis

    We are very good at providing humanitarian support from first world countries to second or third world countries.

    However, it is unprecedented for a first world country to assist another first world country in a crisis of this magnitude. The Fukushima Dai Ichi Nuclear crisis is without doubt the most serious international crisis we ever had in peace time. How do we respond to first world to first world crisis?

    How do we respond in a prolonged “nat-tech” (natural – technology) disaster in a first world country?

    Need for protocols and frameworks for information flow in case of large scale first world disasters

    Dr Casto feels there is a need to establish international protocols and frameworks for information exchange and cooperation in the case of this kind of large scale disasters.

    Time lost: It took 10 days until an understanding and a framework for the exchange of information was established

    In this case there was much information missing, information was “unknowable”, since the reactors were unaccessible. Big disconnect in the availability of data.

    No one engineer had all the information. Sources of information were unfamiliar. It was necessary to go high enough in the administration to understand the situation. It took about 10 days to establish an understanding

    Kantai meetings started on March 21st, 2011 – about 10 days after the start of the disaster, until a framework for understanding the disaster was established and a rhythm for the exchange of information.

    Speed of the response must be at least as fast as the speed of the accident evolution. Achieving sufficient speed is a challenge for Governments. Governments tend to be too slow.

    Five crisis caused the Fukushima Dai Ichi accident:

    1. Earth quake
    2. Tsunami
    3. Nuclear event
    4. Societal crisis
    5. Policy crisis

    To understand the Fukushima disaster and in order to solve and to respond it is necessary to analyze all these five crisis.

    Fukushima Dai Ichi: A system breakdown, an organizational accident, imbalance of power.

    It is necessary to understand the balance of power, the history of how the electricity industry developed over time, and how nuclear industry was established in Japan.

    Most expertise rested in the hands of the 9 utilities, giving all power to the utilities. This imbalance of power is a major component of the accident.

    Unless all five crisis are addressed and solved, including the societal crisis and the policy crisis, nuclear power is unlikely to start again in Japan.

    Need to share responsibility.

    Today most power and responsibility is with the regulator. However, it is necessary to share power and responsibility between regulator, Government, and the utilities.

    It needs to be clear that the utilities are responsible for safety.

    Need for national dialogue on how much risk the people of Japan are willing to accept.

    Elected officials need to have a national dialogue to understand which level of risk the people of Japan are willing to accept. Only the people can decide.

    The level of acceptable risk needs to be determined by the elected officials in dialogue with the people, that level of acceptable risk needs to be set in law, and then the regulator needs to regulate to this level of acceptable risk. It is not the role of a regulator to determine the level of acceptable risk.

    If the national dialogue results in the result that no level of risk is acceptable, then there will be no nuclear power operating.

    The Government needs to prove to the people that Fukushima Dai Ichi can be resolved.

    The regulator needs to address emergency planning in dialogue with the population.

    We cannot permit another accident like Fukushima Dai Ichi happen anywhere else in the world again.

    When traveling through the evacuated zone around Fukushima Dai Ichi, it is clear that we cannot ever let such an accident happen anywhere else again in the world.

    We have to learn about the science of nuclear energy. I want the Fukushima disaster to be treated in science books – not just in history books. We need to understand the science of nuclear power.

    Q & A

    Q: Do Mr Yoshida’s notes show that operating a nuclear power plant in emergency is too difficult to handle for humans?
    A: We need an incident command system to be bigger than the crisis. Such an accident is too big for one single person. No one single person can have all the knowledge required for such a disaster.

    Q: Are six or seven nuclear reactors at one single plant too much for one single plant manager?
    A: Dr Casto worked several years on a three unit site. We should treat each reactor individually. We should have six or seven leadership structures for each reactor, and then one overall leader.

    Q: Were we lucky that the disaster occurred on a working day, rather than on a weekend?
    A: We need a command system that is of sufficient size. If we have more people than this its good, but we cannot have less than the sufficient size to respond to the accident.

    Q: Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been under heavy criticism. Do you think if Abe and the LDP would have been in power, that the crisis management would have been better?
    A: Without doubt the response would have been different with different leaders in charge. The difference I saw in Japan compared to other countries: in all other countries we have independent Government people at the site of the nuclear power station, who will be at the control room, and work independently for the Government. One of the issues of Prime Minister Kan was, that he did not have any independent source of information, he had to use other organizations, and he felt that he did not have a reliable source of information. It is necessary to flatten the organization. The people at the top need to be able to talk to the people on the location of the accident.

    Q: With the reactors being US designed, did US teach Japan enough about disaster response?
    A: We need to look at the evolution of nuclear technology and security over the years since the first introduction. In the US a huge amount of regulations was created since the beginning of nuclear power in response to Three-Mile-Island and other accidents. However in USA maybe we have too many layers of regulation now. Adding more and more layers of regulations does not necessarily improve safety.

    Q: What could have been the worst case scenario?
    A: I believe that after the first week the worst was over, when the water was cooling the cores I thought we had overcome the worst. So after March 15th maybe the worst point was overcome. Also there is not a linear relation between the number of reactors and the created damage. The radiation damage depends on wind, weather and many other factors. Overall I underestimated the severity of the accident initially.

    Q: What did Japan do right?
    A: Yoshida-san was absolutely right to inject sea water. Injecting sea water was key to mitigating the ultimate outcome of the disaster.

    Q: What did Japan do wrong?
    A: The isolation of the plant from the outside was wrong. The Fukushima Dai Ichi plant become more and more isolated as the accident progressed, and had to rely on their own resources. McArthur said – most failures in war time can be summed up in two words: “too late”. Not reacting fast enough, and not getting resources to the site in time.

    Q: What have we learnt from the Fukushima disaster?
    A: We learnt to make plants more resilient. We need the plants to be resilient for 72 hours, so that the national Government has time to bring in additional resources from distant locations.
    In the USA we have established FLEX: two locations in the USA with massive amounts of equipment, which can be flown into the site if there is a significant problem. We have checked in advance that the equipment fits into the airplanes and can be transported properly. We need sufficient equipment available, but far enough away, so that it is not destroyed by a disaster at the site, as in the case of Fukushima.

    Q: Japan’s Government says that today’s safety regulations are the highest in the world. Do you think this is true?
    A: I think this is likely to be true for the technical aspects of the regulations – but I have not checked this in detail. However, the society issues and emergency planning, evacuation plants, sheltering plans are equally important. Maybe technical people are less interested in these societal aspects, but we need the policy and societal side in case the technology side fails. We cannot neglect the society and policy issues (crisis four and five above).

    Q: What about the command structure?
    A: I think for the initial 10 days the command structure was unclear, but was unified after the first 10 days from March 21st. Then we started the bilateral US-Japan meetings, and that also solidified the command structure.

    Q: What do you think about Prime-Minister Naoto Kan’s helicopter visit to Fukushima Dai Ichi?
    A: If I was in place of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who did not feel he got reliable information, if I am the commander and don’t have anyone I trust on the site, I would also go and look.
    I talked with Governor Thornberg of Three-Mile-Island: for him the lesson learnt was to “anchor the facts”. He interrogated the facts, and he interrogated the people who brought the facts. “Anchoring the facts” was why he succeeded in the Three-Mile-Island. A major leadership lesson learnt is that you need to understand the facts.

    Q: How many experts did US send, and how did they help?
    A: US Government brought in 150 US experts, the best 150 people we have in the USA in the nuclear industry, and we had regular meetings of about 30-40 US experts with the Japanese cabinet every day starting with March 21st, 2011.

    Q: There are rumors that TEPCO wanted to withdraw completely from Fukushima Dai Ichi?
    A: I don’t know the answer, maybe no-one knows. But I am sure there would have been sufficient protection and resources at Fukushima Dai Ichi to deal with the accident. Currently there is an enormous effort with large resources to deal with the accident, and there is much progress.
    I believe that Yoshida-san at Fukushima Dai Ichi, and Masuda-san at Fukushima Dai Ni with their teams did an outstanding job given the situation and given the resources they had.

    Q: Are you pro-nuclear?
    A: I am not pro-nuclear, I am not anti-nuclear. I am pro-safety. Every human activity including nuclear energy has risk. Coal has risk. Gas has risk. The people need to decide what level risk they want to accept. If the people decide they want nuclear power, then I can help to make nuclear power safe.
    Direct communication between Government, nuclear plant operator and population is required. In Three-Mile-Island the population found out about the nuclear accident because journalists overheard a walkie-talkie conversation at the plant, and the Chernobyl disaster was found out via Sweden. Why not establish a direct information link between the nuclear power plant and the population via mobile phones?

    Dr. Charles “Chuck” A. Casto

    Japan nuclear energy restart: former leader of US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) efforts in Japan explains lessons learnt from the Fukushima disaster
    Japan nuclear energy restart: former leader of US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) efforts in Japan explains lessons learnt from the Fukushima disaster

    Charles Casto was leader of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) delegation supporting the Japanese Government during the initial 11 months of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and to ensure the safety of US citizens in Japan during this period. For this work he was awarded the Presidential Distinguished Services Award in 2012. He is Regional Administrator for the Region III of NRC overseeing the nuclear regulation in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin, where he has regulatory responsibility for 23 reactors and a large number of other users of radioactivity. Previously Dr Casto has served many years as certified Reactor Operator and Instructor, and in many other leadership positions in the US nuclear industry.

    Dr Casto’s talk and Q&A on YouTube

    Further information:

    Copyright (c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Murata cheerleader robots: stability, sensing, synchronized dance – waiting for open innovation and APIs?

    Murata cheerleader robots: stability, sensing, synchronized dance – waiting for open innovation and APIs?

    Murata cheerleader robots
    Murata cheerleader robots

    Murata and its robots

    Murata introduced their newest Cheerleader robots in a press event on September 25, 2014 in Tokyo.
    Purpose of the robots is brand building and advertising of the company’s components and capabilities.

    Watch the Cheerleader robots dance synchronously here:

    Murata Manufacturing (村田製作所)

    While Japan’s eight electronics conglomerates stagnate in both revenues and income for the last 15 years, many of Japan’s electronic component manufacturers are thriving, as explained in detail in our report on Japan’s Electronics industries.

    It is maybe not a coincidence, that many of the most successful electronics manufacturers are located in Kyoto, including Murata Manufacturing (村田製作所) – away from the politics of Tokyo.

    Ceramic capacitors are at the core

    At the core of the business are monolithic ceramic capacitors with a 35% market share globally. A single typical smartphone includes about 700 such ceramic capacitors, a laptop computer about 800, and a tablet computer or TV set about 600, and a car about 200.

    Overcoming commoditization and maintaining pricing power by achieving overwhelming global market shares

    For most manufactured electronic components, Murata is able to achieve overwhelming global market shares, e.g. 35% for monolithic ceramic capacitors, 70% for ceramic filters and resonators, 60% for radio connectivity modules and 95% for shock sensors.

    Globalization

    While company culture is strongly determined by Kyoto entrepreneurial traditions, Murata has 14 companies in USA, 13 companies in Europe, 27 companies in Greater China, 17 companies in the rest of Asia, and 30 companies in Japan. For our detailed analysis and comparison with other Japanese electronics companies, read our report on Japan’s Electronics industries.

    Cheerleader robots highlight components and communication modules and “3S” competence: Stabilization, Sensing and Synchronization

    Cheerleaders robots are a group of robots, bodies are balancing on rolling balls, and their bodies are equipped with motors to drive the balls, position and balance sensors and communication modules to synchronize the robots’ motion.

    Murata “3S”: Stabilization, Sensing and Synchronization

    Murata cheerleader robots dance in sync
    Murata cheerleader robots dance in sync
    Yuichi Kojima, Senior Vice-President and Deputy Director of Technology and Business Development Unit, and Koichi Yoshikawa, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications present the robots
    Yuichi Kojima, Senior Vice-President and Deputy Director of Technology and Business Development Unit, and Koichi Yoshikawa, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications present the robots
    Murata Boy, Girl and the Cheerleader robots
    Murata Boy (ムラタセイサク君 = Muratseisaku-kun), the Murata Cheerleaders, and Murata Girl (ムラタセイコちゃん= Murataseiko-chan) (left to right)
    Yuichi Kojima, Koichi Yoshikawa, Murata Boy, Murata Girl, and the Murata Cheerleader Robots
    Yuichi Kojima (Senior Vice-President and Deputy Director of Technology and Business Development Unit) and Koichi Yoshikawa (Senior Manager, Corporate Communications) present Murata Boy (ムラタセイサク君 = Murataseisaku-kun), the Murata Cheerleaders, and Murata Girl (ムラタセイコちゃん= Murataseiko-chan) (left to right)

    The bigger picture: Murata’s robots, the big wide world, and open innovation

    As presented by Murata today, the cheerleader robots, Murata Boy and Murata Girl, are closed stand-alone systems, essentially for advertising and branding the company’s products.

    SoftBank, on the other hand, is working to create a developer community around its Pepper robot, and SoftBank’s SPRINT subsidiary is planning to sell Pepper in the USA from 2015. Pepper has been developed for SoftBank by the company Aldebaran, founded by Bruno Maisonnier.

    Google has acquired a range of robot companies, and is developing self driving cars.

    In the USA, the DARPA Robotics Challenge is driving competition to develop robots.

    iRobot has a program for developers.

    LEGO switched from a closed “waterfall” model for developing the LEGO Mindstorms system to an open innovation model with huge success.

    There is a huge contrast between these robotics programs which are community based, aim to create developer communities, develop API’s (application develop interfaces) and in some cases use open source software – and on the other hand the Murata robotics program, which seems to be a closed program creating one-off closed robot systems.

    I believe that Murata’s robots could create much more global impact, if they would move from a corporate branding exercise to a platform for developer communities. In my view, Murata’s Cheerleaders – if they could talk – might shout out for being opened up. Imagine the creativity which could emerge from school classes or students programming the Cheerleaders via their APIs or SDKs.

    Japan electronics industries – mono zukuri

    Copyright 2014-2019 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • ApplePay vs Osaifu-Keitai – CNBC interview

    ApplePay vs Osaifu-Keitai – CNBC interview

    ApplePay is expected to start in October 2014 – Docomo’s Osaifu-keitai wallet phones started on July 10, 2004.

    https://www.cnbc.com/video/2014/09/16/why-apple-pay-isnt-as-revolutionary-as-it-seems.html

    Mobile payments Japan, e-money and mobile credit (200 pages, pdf file)

    In business the first-comer does not always win the game

    Japan’s NTT-Docomo tested two types of wallet phones, manufactured by Panasonic and SONY with 5000 customers between December 2003 and June 2004, and introduced mobile payments and wallet phones on July 10, 2004 – over 10 years ago.

    ApplePay therefore could be developed based on over 10 years of experience with mobile payments in Japan. ApplePay is expected to be introduced for the USA market in October 2014, and we can expect Apple to introduce ApplePay to other markets including Japan in due course.

    It will be particularly interesting to see how ApplePay and the already established mobile payment and NFC payment ecosystems in Japan will integrate.

    For detailed analysis read our reports:

    Mobile payment Japan, e-money and mobile credit report:

    Copyright (c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Apple Pay vs Japan’s Osaifu-keitai – the precursor to Apple Pay

    Apple Pay vs Japan’s Osaifu-keitai – the precursor to Apple Pay

    What can we learn from 10+ years of mobile payments in Japan?

    Apple Pay vs Japan’s Osaifu-Keitai: watch the interview on CNBC

    https://www.cnbc.com/video/2014/09/16/why-apple-pay-isnt-as-revolutionary-as-it-seems.html?play=1

    Mobile payments Japan, e-money and mobile credit (200 pages, pdf file)

    Japan’s Osaifu keitai mobile payments started on July 10, 2004, after public testing during December 2003 – June 2004

    Two different types of Docomo‘s “Osaifu-Keitai“, manufactured by Panasonic and by SONY, were publicly tested by 5000 customers between December 2003 – June 2004. Docomo’s Oseifu keitai mobile payment system builds on SUICA NFC stored fare cards, which JR-East brought to market in Tokyo on November 18, 2001, after long years of development and public testing, where the author of this newsletter was one of the testers.

    Apple-Pay was developed building on almost 15 years of NFC payments in high volumes in Japan

    Therefore, those who wish to make predictions about how the Apple-Pay market is likely to develop can use the experience gained during 15 years in Japan.

    There are also some open questions, which will probably be answered after we can all check out Apple-Pay after September 19, 2014. One point which is very important is the speed of transactions – especially in transport applications such as the London or Tokyo Subways – read about this in the next section of this newsletter below.

    Read more below, and in our reports on mobile payments and electronic money in Japan:

    The speed of NFC mobile payments – and why does it take 10 years to reinvent the wheel?
    and: what is the speed of Apple-Pay transactions?
    faster than 100 milliSeconds? or 500+ milliSeconds?

    On July 17, 2012 The Wallstreet Journal reported, that as far as Transport for London is concerned, there is no viable mobile payment solution available at this time, because to the knowledge of Transport for London at that time, mobile payment transactions take longer than 500 milli-seconds, which is too slow for Transport for London requirements (e.g at Picadilly station during the rush hour).

    Interestingly, in Japan “mobile SUICA” payments have been used in Tokyo successfully since January 28, 2006 at the world’s busiest railway stations including Shinjuku and Shibuya – arguably more busy than Piccadilly Circus in rush hour, with transaction speeds faster than 100 milli-seconds – according to The Wallstreet Journal, London Transport did not even know about this.

    Read in more detail about this issue in our blog here: “Mobile payments: 10 years to reinvent the wheel?

    Therefore one obvious question we have about Apple-Pay is whether the speed of Apple-Pay transactions is in the 500+ milli-second range – unacceptable for Transport for London, or faster than 100 milli-seconds – as is Tokyo’s state of the art since January 28, 2006…
    I guess we will soon learn the answer to this question.

    Why is it that Japan does not capture the global value which Apple and Apple-Developers will create and capture now?

    Japan developed mobile payments, e-cash, credit cards in mobile phones and at least as much functionality as Apple-Pay and an open API and a mobile payment and e-cash developer ecosystem over the last 10-15 years.

    Why does Japan leave all the global value on the table for Apple and Apple developers?

    Actually, I personally had discussions over the last 15 years will all major players in Japan’s mobile payment and e-cash field, crowned by 1-1 discussions with Docomo’s CEO at that time – Dr. Tachikawa – I wrote about one of these meetings in The Wallstreet Journal, of course without mentioning the details: “Wallstreet Journal leadership question of the week – Japanese leadership“.

    Essentially my conclusion at that time, and today is, that Japanese companies never showed any interest at all in developing global business to capture the global value of mobile payments, e-cash and the related businesses. Japanese companies did not even try, and were not even interested in discussing the globalization of mobile payment and e-cash technologies and business models.

    You can read about Japan’s Galapagos issues here:

    All opportunities are not lost of course for Japanese companies in the mobile payments and e-cash fields, but most if not all of Japan’s early-mover advantage has evaporated with Apple-Pay.

    In business, sometimes the second or third mover can be commercially more successful than the first mover, and it will be very very hard even for a united Japan Inc to stand up to Apple.

    Apple Pay vs Japan’s Osaifu-Keitai: watch the interview on CNBC

    Mobile payments Japan, e-money and mobile credit (200 pages, pdf file):

    Mobile payment Japan, e-money and mobile credit report

    Copyright (c) 2014-2019 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • EU Japan management: what is the value of good management in Japan?

    EU Japan management: what is the value of good management in Japan?

    EU direct foreign investment into Japan could be 56% higher!

    With improved management skills, EU owned business in Japan could be at least € 50 billion high than it is today

    Many companies would wish to have a larger business in Japan, and generally the overall amount of direct EU investment in Japan is considered low. We show below that the value of EU investments in Japan could be at least € 50 billion higher than they are today, if some decisions had been taken differently.

    We found a way to measure the value of management skills!

    We analyzed the EUROSTAT data for direct investments between Japan and EU, and combining the EUROSTAT data with stock market capitalization data of relevant public companies we found a way estimate the value of management skills and management decisions in the EU-Japan direct investment field!

    EU Japan management: EU direct investment in Japan is totals about €90 billion. If all  acquisitions of Japanese companies by EU companies had been successful, the total could be €50 billion higher.

    The figure above shows the EUROSTAT data for direct investment by EU companies in Japan and vice-versa:

    • the combined total of Japanese direct investment stock in EU (i.e. the acquisition of EU based companies by Japanese companies) in 2012 was about € 152.1 billion,
    • while the combined total of EU investment stock in Japan (i.e. the acquisition of Japanese companies by EU companies) in 2012 was about € 87.5 billion – substantially lower.

    The fact of a relatively low EU investment stock is often superficially explained by “Japan is a closed country”, “cultural differences”, “low profitability in Japan”, “Japan is unattractive for foreign investment” etc.

    Actually, the figure above shows, that if Vodafone would have been successful in managing Japan Telecom, that Vodafone had acquired, and if Daimler would have been successful in managing Mitsubishi Motors that Daimler had acquired, total EU investment stock in Japan would be at least € 50 billion higher than it is today.

    How do we arrive at this estimation?

    Mitsubishi Motors value today

    Determining the value of Mitsubishi Motors today is straight forward. Mitsubishi Motors is a public company, traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (Securities Code 7211), and as of September 10, 2014, the market capitalization is YEN 1197 Billion = € 8.8 billion. If Daimler would have successfully managed Mitsubishi Motors Daimler would today own Mitsubishi Motors with a valuation of € 8.8 billion, and potentially even higher because of synergies.

    Estimating the value of Vodafone’s acquisitions in Japan, had it been successful

    Estimating the value of the companies Vodafone would own today in Japan, had it been successful in managing the company Japan Telecom it had acquired is more complex.

    Essentially Vodafone acquired Japan’s 2nd largest full-service fix-net, internet, data-center and mobile general telecom operating company Japan Telecom (which had been built on railway rights of way, and had been majority owned by Japanese railway companies, before Vodafone acquired Japan Telecom). In about 30 or more separate investment banking transactions (which made investment bankers very happy), Vodafone acquired Japan Telecom, then split the company into several parts, and all parts in the end are today owned by SoftBank. The major transaction was the sale of Vodafone KK to SoftBank, however in total there were about 30 or more transactions.

    As of today (September 10, 2014), there are three general telecom operating companies in Japan’s telecom market:

    • NTT Group, (Tokyo Stock Exchange Code 9432), market cap YEN 8025 billion = € 58 billion
      • NTT-Docomo (Tokyo Stock Exchange Code 9437), market cap YEN 8128 billion = € 59 billion
      • NTT-East
      • NTT-West
      • NTT-Communications
      • NTT-Data
      • and 100s more subsidiaries
    • KDDI: (Tokyo Stock Exchange Code 9433), market cap YEN 5655 billion = € 41 billion
    • SoftBank: (Tokyo Stock Exchange Code 9984), market cap YEN 9545 billion = € 69 billion

    Therefore, if Vodafone would have succeeded in managing the company Japan Telecom it had acquired, it can be expected that a fictitious “Vodafone-Japan 2014” today would have a market value on the order of somewhere in the range between € 40 billion (KDDI) and € 70 billion (SoftBank). Now, since Vodafone – if it would have been successful and continued to develop successfully until this day in Japan, would not have the Alibaba and Yahoo-Japan, and 1500 other investments that SoftBank owns, nor the dominating market share that Docomo owns in Japan, we can assume that a fictitious “Vodafone-Japan 2014” would have a valuation similar to the one KDDI has today. Thus we conclude that Vodafone if it had been successful in managing Japan Telecom, would today own a business in Japan worth about € 40 billion.

    Of course there are many more companies than Vodafone and Mitsubishi-Motors & Daimler, but because of their enormous size, in terms of statistics these companies totally dominate the overall statistics.

    Estimating the value of Japan management know-how: € 50 billion in the case of Vodafone and Mitsubishi Motors/Daimler

    We argue now, that if Daimler would have known how to manage Mitsubishi Motors correctly, and if Vodafone would have known how to manage Japan Telecom correctly, then today this knowledge would have created value of about € 50 billion in Japan, and the EU investment stock in Japan would be about € 50 billion (56%) higher than it is today.

    The pitfalls and traps facing EU companies over managing Japanese companies

    Foreign companies doing business in Japan face a number of dilemmas. Maybe the biggest dilemma is a situation which arises, when there is no Japan know-how represented on the Board of Directors of the mother company. This was the case for Vodafone, and it took Vodafone’s CEO and Board of Directors several years to realize that Japan Telecom could not be managed with the same “standard global management methods” as in all other markets. At that time, when Vodafone’s global CEO realized that “Japan is special”, Vodafone removed Vodafone-Japan from reporting to a Singapore-based Asia-GM, and moved Vodafone-Japan to report directly to the CEO, however this was only of many other problems, and also came far too late. NOKIA’s NSN also made a similar move years later, fortunately not too late. Read here for a more detailed discussion of the Vodafone-Japan case.

    Another dilemma regularly arises about the management and governance structure of foreign subsidiaries in Japan. There are 100s of ways of organizing the management of foreign subsidiaries in Japan, and “cookie-cutter” approaches usually fail.

    There are many more dilemmas, and this article shows, that solving these dilemmas correctly is worth many billion Dollars/Euros in the case of large corporations, and of course also of substantial value for small corporations and venture startups.

    With better Japan management know-how, the EU investment stock in Japan could be at least € 50 billion higher:

    EU Japan management: EU owned business in Japan could be at least € 50 billion higher with improved management

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Storage battery testing laboratory for batteries up to 2 MegaWatt hours

    Electricity storage is crucial for the efficient use of renewable energy, especially solar and wind

    Japan plans to build world’s largest storage battery testing laboratory

    Wind farms and solar plants deliver electricity not continuously, but output depends on weather, wind and solar illumination conditions. Battery storage technology is necessary to store solar electricity produced during the day for usage during night hours when the sun does not shine.

    Storage battery testing laboratory planned

    The Japanese Government is planning to build the world’s largest testing laboratory for batteries up to a capacity of 2 Giga Watt hours, largest in the world. Planned investment is on the order of YEN 13 billion (US$ 130 million).

    The purpose is to develop and test battery storage systems for integration with renewable energy generation systems such as solar plants and wind farms

  • Carlos Ghosn: the four global socio-economic mega-trends reshaping the auto industry

    Carlos Ghosn: the four global socio-economic mega-trends reshaping the auto industry

    The Way Ahead; Trends Reshaping the Auto Industry

    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Renault, Nissan and the Renault-Nissan Alliance

    The Renault-Nissan Alliance was started on March 27, 1999 with Renault acquiring 36.8% of outstanding Nissan shares, and with Nissan acquiring 15% of Renault later in 2001. Chronological details can be found in the EU-Japan Direct Investment Register.

    Carlos Ghosn speaks at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) as President and CEO of Nissan Motor Company Limited

    On July 17, 2014, Carlos Ghosn spoke as President and CEO of Nissan Motor Company at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo, we summarize his talk here in this article.

    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance

    Nissan leads innovation and brings new technologies to market:

    Nissan has made great progress to make driving easier, safer and more environmentally friendly.

    Nissan to bring autonomous drive vehicles to market before 2020.

    Nissan Leaf has become the leading zero emission vehicle by a large margin.

    Four major socio-economic megatrends reshape the automotive industry

    Innovation and new technologies allow Nissan to address the four global socio-economic megatrends:

    1. Rise of global megacities: increases the need to ease congestion, reduce emissions, improve traffic management
    2. Need for in-car communications: must satisfy the needs of the connected, digital generation. Our vehicles must be as connected as smart phones and tablets
    3. Aging society: need to bridge the generation gap. Seniors need technologies to drive safely until later age.
    4. Must embrace gender diversity: must respect the role women play as consumer purchasers, as decision makers, managers and leaders throughout the car industry

    Nissan is determined to innovate in each of these areas and by developing new technologies, Nissan aims to address the opportunities created by these four major megatrends.

    1. Rise of global megacities

    Today 30 cities of more than 10 million people, including Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing, Shanghai, Sao Paolo, Mexico, Mumbai. Number of megacities will reach more than 50 by 2030, with 1/3 being in China. With the rise of mega-cities in China, it is not surprising that China increases support for electrical vehicles to reduce pollution. China aims that 30% of Government vehicles are electric, and to eliminate sales tax on all electric vehicles.

    20% of CO2 emissions come from transport, therefore automotive industry must be part of the solution.

    Nissan introduces ENV200 electric vans in Europe and later this autumn here in Japan. Electric vans have the potential to change the cost economics of fleet management.

    Autonomous driving can help to reduce pollution and congestion

    Nissan is seeking regulatory changes and consumer adoption to make autonomous driving a reality. Nissan seeks workable regulatory standards.

    Automatic lane changing and automated parking can increase convenience and safety.

    Difference between autonomous driving and self driving cars

    Autonomous drive is about relieving drivers of repetitive tasks, particularly in congested or long-distance situations, while the driver remains in the drivers seat and control.

    Self driving cars don’t require human intervention, and remain a long way from commercial reality. Only suitable for tightly controlled environments at slow speeds, and face a regulatory minefield.

    Nissan focuses on autonomous drive systems that can be introduced over 4-5 years.

    Nissan’s timeline until 2020 for the introduction of autonomous drive systems:

    • end of 2016:
      1. traffic jam pilot for congested highways,
      2. fully automated parking systems
    • by 2017 expect parking to be fully automated
    • 2018: multiple lane controls, allow cars to circumvent obstacles and change lanes
    • before 2020: intersection autonomy, navigate city cross roads without driver intervention

    2. Connected car

    Deploying “Nissan Connect” system with bluetooth, apps, cloud base systems.

    Nissan expects more than 1.5 Million Nissan cars to be connection to enhanced communications by 2015, using cloud systems, delivering access to social media, entertainment apps and voice recognition systems.

    3. Aging population

    Last year introduced 22 new technologies alone.

    4. Gender diversity

    Must serve the women customer base and employ women talent.

    Women control 65% of consumer spending overall, and women make the final decision on the purchase of more than 60% of cars.

    In the past the vast majority of Nissan employees were men – while 60% of car purchase decisions are made by women! This means that Nissan was missing out on many business opportunities by having an overwhelmingly male workforce and management.

    In Japan, 7% of Nissan’s managers are women, more than double the average for large Japanese manufacturers, in the past the ratio at Nissan of women in management was 3%, so we have already increased the ratio. Aim to increase the ratio of women managers to 10% by 2017. More women managers ensure that women take part in product management and planning – this is important since the majority of purchase decisions are taken by women.

    Nissan has a program to make dealerships more woman friendly.

    Carlos Ghosn – watch on YouTube here:

    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance

    Carlos Ghosn – Question and answers

    Q: vision for Google’s Android system

    Carlos Ghosn: autonomous driving and self driving is very important, and every major car manufacturer is working with Google. Every car manufacturer wants to keep control of its own products. Car makers do not want to become just maker of simple hardware, but wants to control the products.

    A baby born today has a 50% chance to live longer than 100 years, on average people lose their drivers license sometime around 80 years age. Therefore technology has to change, and technology can help older generation to stay mobile for a longer time.

    Q: what is your favorite exchange rate

    Carlos Ghosn: I have always been consistent, that US$ 1 = YEN 100 is neutral. We don’t want to have a handicap from the exchange rate. An exchange rate of 100 is perfect to allow us to do our job. YEN/$ = 100 is a neutral position

    Q: do you intend to go into politics and become President of Lebanon?

    Carlos Ghosn: Very low probability. I am being accused of accumulating too many jobs. I have just been renewed for another period of four years as CEO of Renault by the shareholder meeting in May 2014. I can make my best contributions where I am now.

    Q: to you prioritize profit margin or market share? what is your strategy for emerging markets? what are your problems in global platforms?

    Carlos Ghosn: Power 88 = 8% profit margin, 8% global market share. Profit enables growth.

    We go to every emerging market. Leadership must begin in emerging markets. We are No. 1 Japanese brand in China. We are aiming to become No. 1 Japanese brand in Russia, in Europe and in South America, particularly in Brazil.

    We are fighting to become the 2nd brand in Japan.

    Growth without profit will not last. Without profit we cannot grow, we cannot invest.

    The long term trend counts. To understand what Nissan is doing you must look at the long-term trend:

    • Nissan in 1999: 2.4 million cars, 2 Trillion Yen debt
    • Nissan in 2014: 5.2 million cars sold, 1 Trillion cash, presence in twice as many countries

    We are creating joint platforms with Renault, Daimler, Mitsubishi, and Ashok Leyland in India.

    We are the only company which is successful and productive with alliances. What counts are not handshakes of top management in front of cameras, but the actual platforms and cooperation projects we deliver.

    The Renault-Nissan Alliance is a world champion in alliances.

    The automotive industry today is an industry of scale. The largest players are the most competitive and have the highest profits.

    I am not saying that this will always be like this, this could change. But today the automotive industry is an industry of scale, where to be successful we must offer a large range of products in different product segments.

    Success for small automotive companies is very difficult, they have to offer a extremely special, hugely attractive model to compete.

    Q: any comments about your salary

    Carlos Ghosn: What is the question about my salary? The question about my salary comes up regularly at every shareholder meeting and is a kind of ritual. We follow systematic principles. Nissan is in search for global talent.

    As example the head of Infinity last week left us for Cadillac. There is a global fight for talent, remuneration should not be a handicap but an asset.

    I have no discretion on the market for talent.

    We take into account the efficiency of the company, and also local sensitivities, but we have to be competitive. We cannot say: “we need this expert, but we cannot pay him”.

    We have YEN 1 trillion cash and we are making US$ 6-7 billion profit – saying “we want this talent no matter what” is a sign of vigor and vitality.

    We will see more and more global professional talent in Japan with established record.

    Q: Why is it important to have women in all roles of leadership, and do you have examples

    Carlos Ghosn: I support the Japanese Government in aiming for more women in management.

    Concerning Nissan: 60% of all car buyers are women, and what women are looking for in a car is very different to what men are looking for. Therefore women need to have a strong role in designing cars. We need female designers, female engineers, female marketers. Women in decision making positions is not optional but mandatory.

    • 80% of women going to a car dealer want to have a woman sales person, 20% don’t care.
    • 50% of men prefer a woman, 50% prefer a man sales person.

    Therefore logically, we should have lots of women sales people in our stores, at least 50%. However, at present we only have about 15% women sales people in our stores. This is not logical and must change.

    Q: Green cars?

    Carlos Ghosn: I believe electric cars are most important, and US and China will lead. Infrastructure investments and the speed of development for infrastructure are an issue.

    Infrastructure is a much bigger challenge for fuel cell cars than for electric cars. Selling 500-1000 cars is not the issue, 100,000 – 200,000 is the issue.

    Q: Is there friction between Nissan’s mono tsukuri culture, and Renault’s freedom to work less?

    Carlos Ghosn: The two companies contribute together. Both companies have successes. Renault has a very big success with the Dacia platform, the M-1 platform, is selling more than 1 million cars, and is unique. Renault also has a very strong mono tsukuri culture.

    As another example, Renault will now move into China on the basis of Nissan’s business platform in China. Renault will copycat Nissan’s plans of building business in China.

    Q: Departure of Nissan Infiniti Chief Johan de Nysschen, and search for successor:

    Carlos Ghosn: we have a global fight for talent. 49% of Nissan’s top management have 13 different citizenships. Its not that 49% are all French. Diversity is out strength. There is war for talent, and that is normal.

    We have to accept that some talent leaves us when the mission is finished. We have people dedicated on searching for global talent all the time. You can be sure that this job will be soon filled again.

    Q: electrical car charging infrastructure:

    Carlos Ghosn: it is in our interest to have the highest number of electrical cars. We are pushing towards standardized charging infrastructure. We all want to promote zero emission cars.

    Q: Tesla has made patents free: will you use Tesla’s patents?

    Carlos Ghosn: we are first in electrical cars, we have enough patents, we have no reason not to use Tesla’s patents, but we don’t.

    Q: conflict between growth and quality issues

    Carlos Ghosn: The most important is to take any problem immediately out of the hands of the consumer. That is why we see more recalls recently. First we recall and take the problem away from the consumer, and then we solve the problem.

    We have an Executive Vice-President for consumer satisfaction and quality, who has full power to reduce all risks on quality.

    Q: you want to increase the ratio of women in management to 10% by 2017, and Prime-Minister Abe wants 30% women in management by 2020.

    Carlos Ghosn: I am very modest, and Prime Minister Abe is very ambitious. I do not want a burst of women in management with failures afterwards. I want to advance safely without massacres. I am prudent and conservative.

    We had less than 2% of woman managers, today we have a solid 7%, and I want to go a solid 10% of woman managers. I don’t want a “flavor of the day”, I want solid stable progress.

    Q: how does your strategy regarding autonomous driving differ from your competitors?

    Carlos Ghosn: we do not know what our competitors are doing. Everyone moves to autonomous driving, because consumers want:

    • drivers want more time
    • drivers want more pleasant time

    We want to be the pioneers, the battle is to be first and to associate the image of being No. 1 to the brand. We are not aiming to be late with a more perfect product, we want to be first with significant autonomous driving features.

    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance
    Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Nissan, Renault, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance

    Copyright (c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Nokia No. 1 in Japan! – Panasonic to sell mobile phone base station division to Nokia

    Nokia No. 1 in Japan! – Panasonic to sell mobile phone base station division to Nokia

    Nokia strengthens No. 1 market position in Japan’s mobile phone base station market!

    Japan’s mobile phone base station market

    Japan’s mobile phone base station market is about US$ 2.6 billion/year and for European companies Ericsson and Nokia the most important market globally, although certainly also the most difficult one.

    Nokia is No. 1 with a 26% market share, and Panasonic is No. 5 with 9% market share.

    European investments in Japan

    Nokia acquiring Panasonic’s network division is one of many investments and acquisitions in Japan by European companies. For more details, see the EU-Japan M&A register.

    Panasonic to focus on core business, Nokia to expand market share in Japan

    Panasonic, after years of weak financial performance, is focusing on core business. Nikkei reports that Panasonic is planning to sell the base station division, Panasonic System Networks, to Nokia.

    Succeeding in Japan at the second try, learning from initial failure:

    We see a pattern here: after failing spectacularly trying to build a mobile phone business in Japan for almost 20 years without success, Nokia is now winning the second time round.

    It can be hard for foreign companies to build a business in Japan, and many fail. Interestingly, there is a long list of famous companies that succeed on their second attempt after initial failure, this list includes:

    • IKEA: failed first time in 1974, succeeds now
    • DAIMLER: failed spectacularly first time with Mitsubishi Motors, now successful with Mitsubishi Fuso trucks – read the time line here
    • NOKIA: failed first time after trying for 20 years (1989-2008) to sell mobile phones in Japan, now successful with mobile phone base stations and network infrastructure

    Read a detailed timeline in The EU-Japan Investment Register.

    Nokia expands No. 1 position in Japan

    Our analysis of Japan’s mobile phone base station market shows, that Nokia became No. 1 in Japan’s base station market with the acquisition of Motorola’s base station division. Acquisition of Panasonic System Networks will expand Nokia’s NSN to expand market leadership in Japan’s mobile phone base station market.

    I believe without success in Japan’s mobile phone base station market, there is a big chance Nokia as a company, or at least Nokia’s NSN division would not exist any more at all today.

    With a market share of 26%, approx. US$ 700 annual sales in Japan, Nokia is No. 1 market leader in Japan followed by Ericsson on 2nd position. With the acquisition of Panasonic’s base station division, Nokia should be able to expand its market share beyond 26%+9% = 35% and expand its leadership, especially via Panasonic’s deep relationship with Docomo.

    Because Docomo with its very deep pockets, is traditionally the first globally to develop and bring to market the most advanced radio technologies, a deeper relationship with Docomo will also help Nokia to develop and bring to market new communication and radio technologies. Thus I believe the impact on Nokia will be far more than an increase of the market share in Japan from 26% to 35%.

    Panasonic System Networks

    Panasonic System Network’s market share is estimated at around 9% of Japan’s mobile phone base station market, while international sales are essentially non-existent. Thus Panasonic System Network’s global market share is negligible, giving Panasonic little possibility for the scale necessary to operate a stable profitable longterm base station business.

    Japan’s mobile phone handset makers and base station makers have for many years focused on serving Japan’s internal market only, and in particular have focused on Japan’s No. 1 mobile phone operators NTT Docomo. This gave Japan’s mobile phone base station makers a temporary home advantage, however with the value shift from hardware to software, they lack scale, and are subsequently uncompetitive globally. More about Japan’s Galapagos effect here.

    Over the last 15 years since 1998, Panasonic has shown no growth in revenues, and average net losses of YEN 85 billion (US$ 0.85 billion) per year, as typical for most of Japan’s top 8 electronics companies and as we analyze in detail in our report on Japan’s Electronics Industries.

    Panasonic is on 5th rank with about 9% market share in Japan’s mobile phone base station markets, and has little chance and not the capital to scale its base station and mobile phone businesses globally. For Panasonic in it’s current very limited financial situation, focus on core business areas is very prudent.

    The context: EU investments in Japan

    While Japanese investments in Europe are booming, recently European investments in Japan have been stagnating after Vodafone’s withdrawal from Japan, and there are very few new European investments in Japan. Could it be that Nokia’s investment in Japan starts a new trend of renewed European investments in Japan?

    Understand Japan’s telecommunications markets

    Report on Japan’s telecommunications industry
    (approx. 270 pages, pdf file)

    Copyright (c) 2014-2019 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan iPhone AppStore: world’s top grossing!

    Japan iPhone AppStore: world’s top grossing!

    iPhone AppStore-Japan “Top Grossing” games ranking of July 13, 2014:

    Japan game market report (398 pages, pdf-file):

    Bold figures show rankings in February 2014

    1. No. 1 Puzzle & Dragons by GungHo
    2. No. 2 Monster strike (by Mixi)
    3. No. 3 LINE Disney tsumu tsumu (by LINE Corporation & Disney) (Tsum Tsum) (was rank 23)
    4. No. 4 Brave frontier (by Alim Co Ltd) (was rank 19)
    5. No. 5 Clash of Clans (by Supercell) (was rank 13)
    6. No. 6 Dragon poker (by Asobism Co Ltd) (was rank 17)
    7. No. 7 Tsuri Suta (by GREE) (same rank 7)
    8. No. 8 Sengoku Enbu – KIZNA – (by Sumzap Inc, subsidiary of CyberAgent) (was rank 8)
    9. No. 9 Love life! School Idol Festival (by KLab Inc) (was rank 14)
    10. No. 10 LINE Rangers (by LINE Corporation)
    11. No. 11 Puyo puyo!! Quest (by Sega Corporation) (was rank 9)
    12. No. 12 Dragon Quest Monsters Superlight (by Square Enix) (was rank 3)
    13. No. 13 Ange Vierge – No. 2 Public Morals Committee Member girls battle (by Sega Corporation)
    14. No. 14 Logres of Swords and Sorcery – popular online RPG (by Marvelous Inc.)
    15. No. 15 Pro yakiyu PRIDE (by Colopl Inc) (was rank 6)
    16. No. 16 Merc Storia (by Happy Elements KK)
    17. No. 17 Candy Crush Saga (by King.com Ltd) (was rank 15)
    18. No. 18 OnePiece Treasure Cruise (by Bandai Namco Games)
    19. No. 19 SG GUNDAM GENERATION FRONTIER (by Bandai Namco Games)
    20. No. 20 Summoners War: Sky Arena (by Com2u2 Corp., a South Korean game company)
    21. No. 21 Quiz RPG Witch and black cat quiz (by Colopl) (was rank 2)
    22. No. 22 LINE Pokopang (by LINE Corporation (was rank 5)
    23. No. 23 World soccer collection S (by KONAMI) (was rank 24)
    24. No. 24 Frozen Free Fall (by Disney)
    25. No. 25 Gundam Area wars (by NamcoBandai Games Inc) (was rank 18)

    Dropped out of the top 25 since February 2014:

    • February 2014:No. 10 Gunzei RPG aoi no sangokushi (by Colopl)
    • February 2014: No. 11 Bousou retsuden tansha tora (by Donuts Ltd) (a motobicycle race game)
    • February 2014: No. 12 Dragon league X (by Asobism Co Ltd)
    • February 2014: No. 20 Chain cronicle. Original scenario RPG. Chencro (by SEGA Corporation)
    • February 2014: No. 21 LINE Play (by LINE Corporation)
    • February 2014: No. 22 LINE Bubble! (by LINE Corporation)
    • February 2014: No. 25 Hay Day (by Supercell)

    AppAnnie showed that in terms of combined iOS AppStore + Google Play revenues, Japan is No. 1 globally, spending more than the USA. Therefore Japan is naturally the No. 1 target globally for many mobile game companies, and quite a few of the top grossing apps in Japan are of foreign origin – can you guess which?!

    Japan’s iconic game companies created many game categories – this tradition carries over to mobile gaming now.

    Building a business in Japan is not trivial

    Many foreign game companies have failed and given up. Foreign game companies that have recently given up in Japan include Zynga and Habbo Hotel. EA has given up twice, and is now undertaking the third entry to Japan. To understand some of the key mistakes foreign companies make in Japan, read our blog about why Vodafone failed in Japan.

    Lets have a look at the list of top grossing games in the Apple iOS AppStore today. Out of the 25 top grossing games in the AppStore, quite a few are by foreign originating companies. Can you guess which these are by reading the list above?

    Japan is certainly not a “closed market”. It is obvious that Apple does not discriminate in any way against foreign companies in Japan – and neither do Japanese consumers!

    Interestingly, neither Nintendo, nor Rovio’s games, such as Angry Birds appear among the 200 “top grossing games” in Apple’s iOS Japan AppStore.

    Japan game market report (398 pages, pdf-file):

    Copyright (c) 2014-2019 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan biomass electricity generation booming

    Japan biomass electricity generation booming

    Japan biomass electricity generation approaches 4 GigaWatt

    Renewables in Japan is not just solar…

    Looking superficially at Japan’s renewable energy sector, its easy to overestimate geo-thermal energy, and to underestimate biomass.

    Biomass electricity generation capacity is about 5 times higher than geo-thermal

    Japan biomass - Biomass electricity generation capacity in Japan approaches 4 GigaWatt
    Biomass electricity generation capacity in Japan approaches 4 GigaWatt

    Currently the installed biomass electricity generation capacity is about 5 times higher than for geo-thermal energy production – a fact often overlooked in superficial discussions.

    Biomass electricity production is included in Japan’s new feed-in-tariff program which started in July 2012, and is also very generous.

    The figure above shows approvals for electricity generation projects from biomass under the new feed-in-tariff program, and demonstrates that after a slow start, approvals are now picking up. The sum of biomass generation facilities operating before the introduction of the new feed-in-tariffs plus approvals since July 2012 approaches 4 GigaWatt, which corresponds approximately to the generation capacity of 4 nuclear reactors.

    Understand Japan’s renewable energy

    Our report on Japan’s Renewable Energy Sector (pdf file, approx. 219 pages)

    Understand Japan’s energy sector

    Our report on Japan’s Energy Sector (pdf file, approx. 227 pages)

    Copyright 2014-2019 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Solar Japan: Japan approves a full Germany worth of renewable energy in a single month

    Solar Japan: Japan approves a full Germany worth of renewable energy in a single month

    Solar Japan: some of the world’s most attractive feed-in-tariffs

    In the single month of March 2014 Japan approved almost as much renewable energy projects as all solar ever installed in Germany

    Japan’s ten regional electricity monopoly operators traditionally kept renewable energy below 1% following an unwritten rule. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) kept renewable well below this magic 1% limit – until recently TEPCO’s renewable energy ratio was about 0.05%, slightly “greener” than Kansai, and Shikoku Electrical Power Companies with 0.03% renewables, and Chugoku Electrical Power Company with 0.02% of renewables in their energy mix.

    Complete reversal of Japan’s previous “no renewables” strategy

    Switching off all nuclear power stations combined with extremely high natural gas (LNG) prices forced change of this “no renewables” strategy in Japan, and Japan quickly moved in the opposite direction with some of the highest feed-in-tariffs globally, about three times higher than in Germany. (To understand the details of LNG costs and prices for Japan, read our Japan Energy Report, where you’ll find month-by-month data of Japan’s coal and gas payments, as well as the price developments and the reasons for the extraordinarily high prices Japan pays for LNG and LPG).

    solar japan : Driven by high LNG costs Japan approves almost as much solar energy projects in a single month as ever installed in Germany
    Driven by high LNG costs Japan approves almost as much solar energy projects in a single month as ever installed in Germany

    Solar plants ever installed in Germany total about 36.5 GigaWatt – Japan almost approved as much renewables in the single month of March 2014

    Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) published detailed data of solar energy projects installed and approved for subsidy in Germany. As of May 31, 2014, all solar power ever installed and approved for subsidy in Germany amounts to 36.5 GigaWatt (peak). The figure above shows that Japan’s Industry Ministry METI approved about 26.7 GigaWatt of solar projects under the feed-in-tariff program during the single month of March 2014 alone.

    Here are the actual figures of renewable electrical power projects approved by METI under the FIT program during the single month of March 2014 alone:

    solar projects less than 10kW: 159,070kW = 0.16GW
    solar projects over 10kW: 26,521,483kW = 26.5GW
    Subtotal solar (all sizes): 26,680,553kW = 26.7GW
    Total all types of renewable energy: 27,436,598kW = 27.4GW

    The figure also shows that March 2014 is somewhat an anomaly – because feed-in-tariffs are reduced each year on April 1 at the beginning of the new financial year, METI cooperates with applicants to approve large numbers of applications during the last month of the previous tariff. Thus renewable project applications in Japan have developed an annual rhythm.

    “Renewable energy Japan” research report

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan electricity sector disruption – new business models and deregulation overdue

    Japan electricity sector disruption – new business models and deregulation overdue

    Japan electricity regional operators’ income peaked about 10 years ago

    Japanese electricity companies’ business models face massive disruption by technology innovation and the Fukushima nuclear accident

    With the annual general shareholder meetings completed and financial results published, we have analyzed the financial results of Japan’s 10 regional electric power companies (plus several other Japanese electricity companies, including J-Power) in detail.

    We find that each of Japan’s electrical power companies has its own particular circumstances, and some are coping better than others, while of course Tokyo Electric Power Company is a special case due to the incalculable costs of the Fukushima nuclear accident, and due to possible changes in case of a change of Japanese Government policy regarding TEPCO.

    Our financial analysis shows, that revenues of Japan’s electricity sector have increased substantially, due to increased electricity costs. On the other hand, revenues of Japan’s electricity companies overall have been declining steadily since a peak around 2005, i.e. ten years ago.

    Switching off nuclear power generation contributes to financial problems, but is clearly not the root cause

    From our analysis it is obvious that the financial profitability issues of Japan’s electricity sector have started about 10 years ago, long before nuclear reactors were switched off due to the Fukushima accident – while of course the switch-off of nuclear power does contribute to a worsening of the financial situation in the last 3 years.

    Clearly, the electricity deregulation which is now on track with regulatory and legal changes, was long overdue, and in my opinion is more due to the declining profitability of Japan’s electricity sector, than immediately triggered by the Fukushima accident. The financial data clearly show that a change of business model for Japan’s electricity sector is needed.

    Japan electricity: Combined annual operating income of Japan's regional electric power companies
    Operating income of Japan’s electricity sector has been falling continuously since the peak in 2005

    Chugoku Electric Power Company as an example

    Our analysis shows that each of Japan’s 10 regional electricity companies have different financial circumstances.

    We discuss Chugoku Electric Power Company which serves the area around Nagoya in the middle of Japan as an example. The Figure below shows that Chugoku Electric Power Company’s income peaked around 2004-2005, about ten years ago, and since then has been continuously falling, with net income dropping into the red for the first time for Financial Year 2008 (ending March 31, 2009), about two years before the Fukushima nuclear disaster. An important point to consider is that only about 10% of the electricity generation capacity of Chugoku Electric Power Company is nuclear power, which is one of the lowest ratios of nuclear power in Japan. It follows logically, that switching off this 10% of nuclear generation capacity has a much lower impact than for other regional power companies, where the nuclear contribution was about 30%.

    Japan electricity: income and margins of Chuo Electrical Power Company have been continuously falling since their peak around 2004
    Japan electricity: income and margins of Chuo Electrical Power Company have been continuously falling since their peak around 2004

    We conclude that the peak around 2004-2005 in profitability followed by a long decline in profitability indicates a deep rooted need for change of business models which was exacerbated but not directly caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident. Japan’s Government is now reacting to this fact by deregulating the electricity sector.

    Japan electricity: Why do current business models need to change?

    • Japan’s regional electricity companies enjoyed monopoly power within their regions, where the electricity prices were regulated by Government, and in exchange electricity companies could enjoy a financial model where they could charge costs + profits to customers. There was no competition and little incentive to reduce costs
    • Japan will now follow the global trend from top-down electricity grids with large central generation facilities and a top-down distribution grid to more de-centralized, localized smart-grids, driven by technological progress, and the emergence of renewable energy.

    Renewable energy Japan – research report

    Japan’s energy sector – research report

    Copyright 2014-2019 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan’s electricity and new energy policy

    Japan’s electricity and new energy policy

    Stockholm School of Economics at the Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo (Alfred Nobel Lecture Theatre)

    European Institute for Japanese Studies EIJS

    Gerhard Fasol "Japan's electricity and new energy policy" Embassy of Sweden
    Gerhard Fasol “Japan’s electricity and new energy policy” Embassy of Sweden

    Announcement and summary on the website of Stockholm School of Economics.

    This talk is based on data from our reports:

    European Institute of Japanese Studies (EIJS) Academy Seminars

    About the talk: Japan’s electricity architecture was put in place in 1952 and was not much changed until 2011. Electricity liberalization, introduction of smart meters and smart grids bring very large investments in Japan’s energy infrastructure, and are creating huge opportunities for Japanese and foreign companies in Japan’s energy sector. At the same time there is much uncertainty about Japan’s nuclear program -will Japan’s nuclear power plants restart? The talk will explain Japan’s energy architecture today and how we arrived at today’s situation and will give you some tools to understand possible scenarios for Japan’s energy and electricity future.
    As an introduction, you may watch Gerhard’s interview for The Economist about Japan’s energy situation here

    About the speaker: Gerhard came first to Japan in 1984 to help build what was NTT’s first international R&D cooperation and has worked with Japan ever since. Gerhard is founder and CEO of Eurotechnology Japan KK, where he has worked for 100s of US, EU and Japanese companies on M&A and business development, and he is independent Member of the Board of Directors
    of the Japanese company GMO Cloud KK, a cloud services company with about 500 employees and traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Gerhard is also the creator and curator of the Ludwig Boltzmann Symposia on Energy, Entropy and Leadership. Gerhard graduated with a PhD in Physics from Cambridge University, Trinity College, was tenured faculty at Cambridge University in Semiconductor Physics, Associate Professor at Tokyo University’s Electrical Engineering Department, and the first foreigner to lead an elite Sakigake Research project of Japan’s Science and Technology Agency.

    Date and place – Japan’s electricity and new energy policy

    Date: Wednesday, June 18th, 2014
    Time: 6.30 p.m. – 7.00 p.m. Drink & Snack (served before lecture), 7.00 p.m. – 9.00 p.m. Lecture and Discussion
    Place: Alfred Nobel Auditorium, Embassy of Sweden, 10-3-400 Roppongi 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032
    Fee: JPY3,000 per person, payable at the door, Free for those who are from sponsoring companies, Free for students, please bring your student ID
    Language: English
    Registration required:Please sign up by June 13 (Fri.) via e-mail to eijsjap (at) gmail (dot) com for the attention of Ms. Futagawa (EIJS Tokyo office)
    In cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden

    Gerhard Fasol: Japan's electricity and new energy policy
    Gerhard Fasol: Japan’s electricity and new energy policy

    If you can’t attend the talk on June 18th, 2014 at the Embassy of Sweden, you can download our reports on Japan’s energy situation here:

    Japan’s energy market – report:

    Renewable energy Japan – research report

    Copyright Eurotechnology Japan KK. All Rights Reserved.

  • What will happen with Japan’s nuclear power stations?

    What will happen with Japan’s nuclear power stations?

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Watch The Economist interview on Japan’s energy policy.

    Read our report on Japan’s energy sector,
    and our report on Renewable energy in Japan.

    Many times, often several times a day, I get asked about what will happen with Japan’s nuclear power stations – today alone twice. So here is the answer I usually give – please note that I am Physicist, and I know a lot about the Physics of nuclear power, and although I have personally avoided working in the nuclear physics field (which is much wider than nuclear power), I do not have a personal opinion for or against nuclear power:

    Quick answer: it is impossible for anyone, including the Prime Minister of Japan, to know with any certainty.

    Long answer: Japan is a democracy. Japan currently is quite polarized for or against nuclear power. Everyone knows that some Japanese leaders including the Prime Minister Abe, are in favor of nuclear power. On the other hand, many outstanding opinion leaders are strongly against nuclear power in Japan, these include Nobel Prize Winner Kenzaburo Oe, and also the former Prime Minister Koizumi. Currently we can observe the evolution of a democratic process in Japan to reach a consensus on the future of nuclear power stations in Japan. This process is different for every single nuclear power station, and it is impossible for anyone to make predictions.

    Obviously the owners of the nuclear power stations hope to restart their power stations as quickly as possible, and they are supported by many industrial leaders and the current Prime Minister. They need to obtain the agreement by the newly established nuclear power regulator, which was newly established because the Parliamentary Committee which investigated the Fukushima nuclear disaster established that the cause for the nuclear disaster was “regulatory capture”. This committee was chaired by Kiyoshi Kurokawa, and you can read one of his speeches “Groupthink can kill”, and watch YouTube movies explaining the results of his committee here.

    Sofar none of the nuclear power station was cleared by the new nuclear safety agency, and no one knows when the safety inspection program will be concluded for any of the nuclear power stations, nor which stations will be cleared to restart (in principle) and to which the nuclear safety agency will refuse the clearance.

    However, clearance by the nuclear safety agency is by far not enough. In addition, in Japan, nuclear power stations need the agreement of the local communities, i.e. the local mayors and Province (Ken, Prefecture) Government Prefects. As an example, the world’s largest nuclear power plant is Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, it is currently owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Company to supply Tokyo with electricity, and it is located approximately 80 km from the Prefecture capital city Niigata-shi, which has about 1 million inhabitants. The current very outspoken Governor (Government Leader) of Niigata-Prefecture, Hirohiko Izumida (泉田 裕彦), has clearly stated his opposition both to the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station, and secondly he has also stated that he considers Tokyo Electric Power Company unsuited to manage a nuclear power station. Read and watch a video of Governor Hirohito Izumida here. I have read speculations that as a consequence it might be thinkable that ownership and/or management of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power station could be transferred to a different power company to overcome this local resistance. But it is not possible for anyone to predict how this will play out.

    It is my understanding also, that in Japan it is not clearly defined which local authorities have to agree before a nuclear plant can operate, and which distance from the nuclear power station is still close enough that agreement of local authorities is needed. In my understanding also it seems to be unclear which type of local authorities have veto power: The Prefect (i.e. the chief of the Prefectural Government), cities, towns, villages etc. There seems to be much uncertainty here, which did not exist in the past, or which did not come out into the open in the past.

    Another factor is the local geological situation for each nuclear power station. In Japan there are legal requirements that nuclear power stations need to be located away from active geological faults. Recently there have been investigations by geological experts about the geological conditions near the nuclear power stations, but my understanding is that many questions are still unsettled at least for some of the nuclear power stations.

    Still another factor are the courts. Traditionally Japanese courts have rejected all complaints against the operation of nuclear power stations, but I hear that recently some court complaints against the operation, or against the restart of nuclear power stations have been successful. Court decisions also cannot be predicted by anyone.

    So in summary: No-one can possibly predict what will happen with Japan’s nuclear power stations. When pushed, I sometimes say that a possible scenario will be that about 10 out of Japan’s approx. 50 nuclear power stations might be restarted in about 3 years from now. However, no one can know this for sure, and no one can assign a probability to any outcome.

    There have been enquires by some non-Japanese/foreign media, which interviewed a number of experts, asked them to estimate the probability for each of Japan’s nuclear power plant, and then took some kind of average of these experts opinions. I was also asked to participate in this experts’ enquiry, but I refused to participate, and said that simply no one can know with any precision at all.

    Watch The Economist interview on Japan’s energy policy.
    Read our report on Japan’s energy sector,

    and our report on Renewable energy in Japan.

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Corporate governance Japan: independent Directors not only execute control in emergency situations, continuous contributions are more important

    Corporate governance Japan: Prime Minister Abe urges reform of corporate governance

    Reuters reports that Japan’s Prime Minister Abe urges company boards to reform corporate governance to include independent directors. I added the following comment.

    Corporate governance Japan: exercise of shareholder power and emergency situations

    The question of independent Board Directors is often framed in terms of exercising shareholder power over the company, as is the main message of the article above. Another focus of discussions on the role of outside independent directors, is during emergencies, and here the Olympus case is often cited.

    Corporate governance Japan: steady state contributions of independent directors

    However, in my experience in Japan, including my work as a non-Japanese independent Board Director of a public Japanese company, enlightened companies will welcome independent Board Directors for their know-how and contributions to the company – in the end the market decides.

    Corporate governance Japan: Docomo vs SoftBank

    As an example, lets compare NTT-Docomo and SoftBank. NTT-Docomo has a homogeneous pure Japanese Board, while SoftBank has independent Directors from many different countries and from many different walks of life. SoftBank recently overtook NTT-Docomo in terms of market cap, revenues, operating income and net income. https://www.eurotechnology.com/2014/05/07/softbank-overtakes-ntt-docomo-kddi/
    In the end regulations have limitations, and the realities of the market decide, as is the case of SoftBank.

    Corporate governance Japan: SoftBank and SPRINT

    As another example, SoftBank appointed Marcelo Claure, CEO of Brightstar Corporation and of Bolivian origin, to the Board. Masayoshi Son announced the appointment with the following words: “Marcelo’s experience as an entrepreneur and businessman who created and successfully grew a global telecommunications company will bring an invaluable perspective to Sprint’s board.” Note that Masayoshi Son clearly states that Marcelo Claure is appointed to bring invaluable know-how and experience to SPRINT, Masayoshi Son does not seem to be motivated by “increasing the power of the shareholders over Sprint“.

    The “power of shareholders” is usually a matter or last resort, when all other methods fail. Usually, when you have to show your power, its too late.

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan’s new energy policy

    Japan’s new energy policy

    Interview for The Economist

    “Keeping the lights on – deregulation and Japan’s energy mix”

    Japan energy policy – interview outline:

    Japan energy policy Question: Is the new energy policy of Japan’s Government an appropriate response to the situation or a missed opportunity

    Answer summary:The Government in its new strategy summarizes Japan’s energy situation and proposes a cocktail of different energy sources. Everyone knows that Prime Minister Abe is pro-nuclear energy, but that does not mean that he is against other energy sources, such as renewables. The new energy strategy paper though misses KPIs, Key Performance Indicators. There are no many numerical targets.

    Japan energy policy Question: It is often repeated that Japan is poor in energy sources, is this true?

    Answer summary:Yes, that is often repeated without thinking, and thats also the case in the introduction of the new policy paper. This is only true as long as we restrict our view to traditional carbon based primary energy sources such as oil, gas, or coal. But if we widen the view to renewables such as wind, water, solar, biomass, and geo-thermal energy sources, then Japan is actually very rich in primary energy sources, and could even aim for energy self-sufficiency. Off-shore wind alone would be sufficient to make Japan energy self-sufficient.
    Just by repeating the statement many times, that Japan is poor in energy sources, does not make this statement true.

    The new energy policy paper also starts out by saying the Japan is poor in primary energy sources. This is not true if we widen the view to renewable energy sources.

    Japan energy policy Question: Re-engineering the electricity grid. Can you explain the concept?

    Answer summary:The electricity grid has evolved over many years, maybe 100-150 years. The traditional architecture of the electricity grid is a top-down one-way distribution network from large central power station such as large coal-, gas- or oil-fired power stations or nuclear power stations, to consumers. The traditional electricity grid is similar to the arteries in the human body, where there is the heart in the center, and the arteries distribute the blood to the extremities. This traditional top-down grid has served us very well for a long time, but the time as come now to evolve the grid to the next stage. There will be more distributed power generation, which feed in electricity in the opposite direction from the extremities, and there will be more intelligence in the grid.

    Japan energy policy Question: How do you see Japan deal in the future with supply and demand management, how do you see electricity prices evolve in Japan?

    Answer summary:With the liberalization there will be more flexibility in the pricing of electricity and supply and demand management. Prices will not necessarily go down, but will depend much more on the timing of demand, on demand/supply management, or on the value of electricity. For example, mission critical electricity consumers such as data centers or hospitals will need a different type of electricity supply, than washing machines in households. Demand/supply management and smart grid will manage the timing of less critical electricity usage.

    Economist briefing “Keeping the lights on – deregulation, new and renewables and Japan’s energy mix” handouts

    Japan energy market report:

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Top Japanese game companies

    Top Japanese game companies

    25 listed top game companies listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange have total market cap of US$ 30 billion

    Japan game market report (398 pages, pdf-file):

    Japan is the cradle of many global games

    Japan created much of today’s global game market with icon’s such as Nintendo. However, today the moment has been taken over by new online game companies. Their combined income now exceeds the traditional icons.

    Top Japanese game companies: disruption by newcomers making mobile apps

    We wrote in our blog first back in 2009 about the disruption of Nintendo’s blue ocean (Wii and DS) by smartphone app stores.

    Top Japanese game companies: top 25 public game companies have added market cap of US$ 30 billion

    Today, 25 Japanese online game companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, have a combined market cap of about YEN 3000 billion (US$ 30 billion).

    These are (data of May 9, 2014):

    1. Konami (TSE Code 9766)
    2. DeNA (TSE Code 2432) market cap = YEN 246 billion (US$ 2.5 billion)
    3. Gree (TSE Code 3632) market cap = YEN 216 billion (US$ 2.2 billion)
    4. Square Enix Holdings (TSE Code 9684)
    5. Capcom (TSE Code 9697)
    6. GungHo (TSE 3765), market cap = YEN 612 billion (US$ 6 billion)
    7. Colopl (TSE Code 3668), Market cap = YEN 257 billion (US$ 2.6 billion)
    8. find the full list in our report on Japan’s game sector

    Total market cap= YEN 2954.2 billion (=US$ 29 billion)

    Top Japanese game companies: list above does not include LINE

    This list does not include LINE, which is a private company, and has built a substantial games business.

    Japan game market disruption – market report:

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • LINE revenues: LINE announces YEN 14.6 billion first quarter revenues

    LINE revenues: LINE announces YEN 14.6 billion first quarter revenues

    LINE revenues:

    LINE announced quarterly revenues on their website, the revenue data are redrawn below, with approximate US$ amounts shown as well.

    Extrapolating assuming continued linear growth, we can estimate expected annual LINE revenues of YEN 70 billion (US$ 700 million) for the full year 2014.

    LINE quarterly revenues
    LINE quarterly revenues

    Yesterday I was interviewed by Wall Street Journal about future prospects for SONY, and we discussed SONY‘s need for new “killer” products. Considering Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsUp, we thought SONY would need a “killer application” such as LINE. However, since SONY‘s current market cap with US$ 18 billion is of similar size as WhatsApp’s acquisition value, and presumably LINE’s value will be in a similar range. Thus purely theoretically, considering the growth rates of both companies, it would be more appropriate for LINE to acquire SONY than the other way round. Purely theoretically of course.

    Read our report on Japan’s games sector

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in revenues and income and market cap

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in revenues and income and market cap

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in all major KPIs

    SoftBank presents annual results for the Financial Year which ended March 31, 2014 today, NTT-Docomo and KDDI presented their results a few days ago. Using projections published by SoftBank and using data found in the Japanese business press over the recent days, we have compared SoftBank, Docomo and KDDI financial results:

    SoftBank overtook both Docomo and KDDI in all major KPIs: SoftBank’s annual revenues, operating profits and net after-tax profits are higher than NTT-Docomo’s and KDDIs.

    To understand SoftBank, read our report about the Softbank Group, and read our report on Japan’s telecom sector.

    The reason for SoftBank overtaking NTT-Docomo and KDDI are both excellent performance of SoftBank’s core businesses, mobile communications and media in Japan, and also a series of recent investments: SuperCell, GungHo, SPRINT, BrightStar, eMobile/eAccess, Willcom and more which all have been very successful investments sofa, not counting Alibaba, which of course is an amazing success story.

    Going forward, of course the key questions now are the turn-round of SPRINT, and whether SoftBank can succeed with the much rumored acquisition of T-Mobile in the USA, and possibly also a major European acquisition.

    We have today updated our Report on Japan’s telecommunications landscape, to include latest financial and subscriber data, and latest M&A activities: Japan’s telecommunications market is one of the world’s most active also regarding M&A and restructuring.

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in Market cap (data for May 7, 2014):

    SoftBank: ¥ 8908.9 billion (US$ 89 billion)
    NTT-Docomo: ¥ 7049.5 billion (US$ 70 billion)
    KDDI: ¥ 4925.2 billion (US$ 49 billion)

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual revenues:

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual revenues
    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual revenues

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual operating income:

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual operating income
    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual operating income

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual net income:

    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual net income
    SoftBank overtakes Docomo and KDDI in annual net income

    Learn more about SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, and his 30/300 year vision for SoftBank

    Report on “SoftBank today and 300 year vision” (approx 120 page, pdf file)

    Japan’s telecommunications industry

    (269 pages, pdf file)

    Copyright (c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Corporate governance Japan: external independent directors on Japanese Boards

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Corporate governance Japan is now in the focus of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reforms

    Reform of corporate governance is an ongoing issue in Japan, and part of Prime-Minister’s Abenomics’ “third arrow” revival efforts. Here is a note, that I added to a recent article in The Economist, entitled “Corporate governance in Japan – A revolution in the making“:

    “Outside Directors” is only one step along the way to end the “inbreeding problem”. Bringing diversity into the management of Japanese companies is critical for growth in Japan: non-Japanese directors, women directors, non-Japanese women directors.

    Corporate governance Japan: in the end the markets decide whether diversity is necessary, or whether in-breading wins

    Of course the market decides: I believe that companies which do not bring in management diversity will find lower market capitalization than those which do.

    I am European and independent Board Member of a Japanese company, traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Since all business and all board meetings are in Japanese, full command of business Japanese is necessary, including the ability to read a big volume of Japanese reports 100s of pages long sometimes from one day to the next.

    Corporate governance Japan: very few non-Japanese are capable of functioning on the Board of a Japanese corporation

    There are only very very few non-Japanese people with the qualifications to serve as independent Board Directors, who have the necessary full command of Japanese. So there is a substantial bottle neck against bringing diversity into Japanese corporations even if there was a strong pull from Japanese corporations. Currently only a few excellent Japanese corporations exercise this pull, to pull in non-Japanese external Board Members.

    One company which is remarkably advanced is HitachiHitachi several outside and non-Japanese Board Members, including also one foreign woman recently.

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Supercell Japan advertises to improve today’s top-ten rank in Japan’s i-Phone/iOS App-Store

    Supercell Japan advertises to improve today’s top-ten rank in Japan’s i-Phone/iOS App-Store

    Supercell Japan is not satisfied with 10th rank for Clash of Clans in the Japanese iPhone app store…

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Report on Japan’s game makers and game markets

    Japan is the world’s No. 1 top grossing app market both for iOS apps and for Android apps, as we discussed before.

    Supercell Japan: investments by SoftBank and GungHo

    Supercell recently opened operations in Japan, and attracted major investment by SoftBank and SoftBank affiliate Gung-Ho.

    Supercell advertising Clash of Clans in Tokyo Shibuya - one of the world's busiest rail stations
    Supercell advertising Clash of Clans in Tokyo Shibuya – one of the world’s busiest rail stations

    Supercell currently advertises with large scale posters on the platforms of one of the busiest rail stations globally, Tokyo-Shibuya. Currently Supercell’s “Clash of Clans” is ranked on No. 10 position of top grossing iPhone Apps for all categories combined, while GungHo’s “Puzzle & Dragons” is on No. 1 (Gung-Ho is investor in SuperCell).

    Supercell Japan on rank 10 in the top grossing ranking of the iPhone app store:

    “Top Grossing” ranking in the iPhone AppStore for all categories combined:

    1. Puzzle & Dragon by GungHo Online Entertainment
    2. Monsterstrike by mixi
    3. LINE Pokopang by Naver Japan
    4. Brave Frontier by Alim
    5. PyuoPuyo!! Quest by Sega
    6. Dragon Poker by Asobism
    7. Disney Tsumu Tsumu by Naver Japan
    8. Pro Yakyu Pride 2014 by Colopl
    9. LINE by Naver Japan
    10. Clash of Clans by Supercell
    Clash of Clans advertising on the platform of one of the world's busiest rail stations - Tokyo/Shibuya
    Clash of Clans advertising on the platform of one of the world’s busiest rail stations – Tokyo/Shibuya

    Copyright(c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Docomo financial report for FY2013: operating income of YEN 819 billion (US$ 8.2 billion)

    Docomo financial report for FY2013: operating income of YEN 819 billion (US$ 8.2 billion)

    Docomo financial report for FY2013: US$8.2 billion operating profits but withdraws from India

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Docomo financial report: Kaoru Kato, CEO of NTT-Docomo explaining NTT-Docomo's annual results in Tokyo on April 25, 2014
    Kaoru Kato, CEO of NTT-Docomo explaining NTT-Docomo’s annual results in Tokyo on April 25, 2014

    On April 25, 2014 NTT-Docomo announced annual results for FY2013 (April 1, 2013 – March 31, 2014) and explained the way forward.

    Annual revenues are YEN 4461.2 billion (US$ 33.6 billion),
    operating income is YEN 819.2 billion (US$ 8.19 billion),
    net income is YEN 464.7 billion (US$ 4.6 billion).

    These figures are of course amazing results, and Docomo remains one of the most important mobile operators globally.

    Docomo financial report – technology roadmap:

    Docomo is now planning to:

    • introduce VoLTE in summer 2014,
    • quad-band LTE with 150Mbps in FY2014,
    • LTE-Advanced with 225Mbps in FY2014/2015,
    • and aim for 10Gbps bandwidth beyond FY2015,

    ensuring that Docomo will remain a leading edge mobile operator for the foreseeable future.

    Docomo financial report – announces failure in India:

    Still, there are some shadows on Docomo’s amazing success story:

    • Docomo announced withdrawal from the joint-venture with TATA-Teleservices in India, thus another of Docomo’s ventures to create growth outside Japan has failed. This is the last in a very long string of failures of NTT-Docomo outside Japan, after having lost about US$ 10 billion on investments in KPN-mobile, AT&T-Wireless, and Hutchinson, and the attempt to develop i-Mode mobile internet services in many countries.
    • NTT-Docomo has now been overtaken by SoftBank on most key performance indicators (KPIs). SoftBank has achieved higher overall subscriber numbers, higher revenues, higher operating income and higher net income than NTT-Docomo.
    Docomo financial report: Kaoru Kato, CEO of NTT-Docomo, bathing the crowd and answering questions at the annual results meeting on April 25, 2014 in Tokyo
    Kaoru Kato, CEO of NTT-Docomo, bathing the crowd and answering questions at the annual results meeting on April 25, 2014 in Tokyo

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Japan energy mix: Keeping the lights on in Japan – deregulation, new and renewable energy

    Japan energy mix: Keeping the lights on in Japan – deregulation, new and renewable energy

    Japan energy mix, smart grid, electricity deregulation – briefing by The Economist Corporate Network

    Economist Corporate Network held a breakfast briefing today April 24, 2014 for about 50 Japan-CEOs and executives.

    Shigeki (Sean) Miwa, General Manager of SoftBank’s CEO Office, and Representative Director & CEO of Bloom Energy Japan KK, and EVP of SB Energy Corporation

    Mr Shigeki (Sean) Miwa, General Manager of SoftBank’s CEO Office, and Representative Director & CEO of Bloom Energy Japan KK, and EVP of SB Energy Corporation, explained SoftBank’s and Masayoshi Son’s reasons for entering the energy business, and he explained Bloom Energy’s offering of energy sources based on very efficient fuel cells in Japan.

    Gerhard Fasol, CEO of Eurotechnology-Japan

    Gerhard Fasol, CEO of Eurotechnology-Japan, gave an overview of Japan’s energy situation, and an outlook into the future.

    You can find detailed data and analysis in our report on Japan’s energy sector, and on Japan’s renewable energy sector.

    Renewable energy Japan – research report

    Japan energy market report:

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • EU Horizon 2020 Japan participation: research and innovation program and Japan-EU Science and Technology cooperation

    EU Horizon 2020 Japan participation: research and innovation program and Japan-EU Science and Technology cooperation

    Horizon 2020 Japan participation conference at the EU Delegation in Tokyo

    Horizon2020 is the world’s largest research program, undertaken by the European Union, and it is open to cooperation with researchers from all countries including Japan.

    EU encourages Japan participation in Horizon 2020

    Actually, the EU strongly encourages participation from Japan: Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, pointed out that currently Japan is on 12th rank in the number of joint research programs with the EU – behind Mexico, and Marocco, but one place above Argentina and Egypt.

    To encourage more participation by Japanese organizations in EU Horizon-2020 projects, the EU held a conference at the EU Delegation in Tokyo on April 14, 2014.

    Read a report of the Horizon-2020 Tokyo conference here.

    Horizon 2020 Japan presentations

    • Yoichiro Matsumoto, Executive Vice President, The University of Tokyo: Japan’s research needs to go global
    • Anders Karlsson, Vice President for Global Academic Relations, Elsevier, Tokyo: EU-Japan Science collaboration – a “bird’s eye view” on publication patterns & opportunities for collaboration
    • Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission: Horizon2020 – the chance to go global
    • Kazushi Watanabe, General Manager, Business Development, Sumitomo Precision Products, Aerospace & Defense: Experience of international collaboration. FP7 project: Surface heat exchangers for aero-engines
    • Naoto Kobayashi, Center for Research Strategy, Waseda University: FP7 project and internationalization of research at Waseda University
    • Yoichi Iida, Director, Aerospace and Defense Industry Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, METI: Japan-EU cooperation in civil aeronautics industry
    • Satoru Ohtake, Senior Executive Director, Science and Technology Agency: closing remarks

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • IAEA recommends international cooperation for Fukushima decommissioning, Mr Yukiya Amano (天野之弥), Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

    IAEA recommends international cooperation for Fukushima decommissioning, Mr Yukiya Amano (天野之弥), Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

    IAEA President Amano on Fukushima decommissioning

    by Gerhard Fasol

    It is wrong that Japan has all technology to decommission Fukushima Dai-ichi

    “It is wrong that Japan has all technology to decommission Fukushima Dai-ichi. The IAEA strongly recommends international cooperation for the decommissioning of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plants”, is the strongest statement Mr Yukiya Amano (天野之弥), Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) made today at the Foreign Correspondence Club in Tokyo in a very carefully worded presentation.

    IAEA is currently preparing a report about Fukushima Dai-ichi which will be completed by the end of this year, 2014.

    We are often asked, whether nuclear power is safe, the answer is that no technology is 100% safe. A multilayer defense is required against risks, in-depth defense. Safety levels are now higher than they were before the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear accident.

    IAEA: non-proliferation, nuclear safety, and other programs

    Let me introduce The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA has three roles:

    1. Advise on nuclear power and nuclear safety. In this area, IAEA has no authority. IAEA only can advise. IAEA also helps developing countries which are are thinking to introduce nuclear power.
    2. Prevent nuclear proliferation. In this area, IAEA has authority.
    3. Other projects, for example in healthcare and decease prevention. For example, IAEA used radiation to disable breeding by insects distributing malaria and other illnesses.

    IAEA is not an international nuclear safety regulator. IAEA can only advise on nuclear safety. IAEA does not influence countries, but provides comprehensive assistance.

    Of course nuclear safety is intrinsically international: one country’s nuclear accident is all countries’ nuclear accident.

    IAEA position on nuclear power

    The IAEA has the position that nuclear technology is affordable and useful. IAEA is much more than a “nuclear watchdog”. IAEA also helps to make nuclear technology available for developing countries.

    IAEA advises countries introducing nuclear energy. Today we have 437 nuclear power plants globally, and 72 are under planning or construction. Growth of nuclear energy is mainly in Asia, especially China and India, but also in Europe and in developing countries.

    30 countries use nuclear power, and 60 countries are considering to start using nuclear power in the future.

    IAEA and nuclear security

    A growing role for IAEA is nuclear security, to advise on proper protection of nuclear materials, for example to prevent dirty bombs. IAEA provides guidance and measurement equipment. IAEA is ready to assist Japan in advising on nuclear security for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Next week, we will have a Nuclear Security Summit in Den Haag.

    IAEA prevents proliferation, prevents spread of nuclear weapons

    The main current issue is Iran, and Iran has taken positive steps forward, but much remains to be done.

    Regarding North Korea, the IAEA is currently not involved inside North Korea, but ready to help. The IAEA calls on North Korea to fully cooperate with IAEA.

    IAEA motto is “Atoms for peace”.

    Q&A

    • Question: Is it right to release contaminated water into the ocean?

      Answer: It is common practice globally, to release contaminated water into the ocean, provided contamination is sufficiently low, and it is essential to talk to stake holders, e.g. fishermen. Storage is not a long term solution. IAEA recommends to release contaminated water into the ocean after proper treatment of the water, and after consultation with stake holders. IAEA recommends release into the ocean, because storage is cost and human resource intensive, and these resources need to be used in other areas of the decommissioning work.
    • Question: Should not Japan have higher safety requirements because Japan is in an earthquake zone?

      Answer: IAEA does not discriminate against any countries, and strong earthquakes are also known to happen in Europe. Strong earthquakes and tsunami can occur anywhere.
    • Question: what is IAEA’s position regarding the prioritization of the Sendai nuclear plant in Kyushu?

      Answer: IAEA does not take party in such decision making. Regulation is the responsibility of each country, and IAEA says that the regulator must be robust, independent and well funded.
    • Question: Prime-Minister Abe says that Japan’s nuclear safety regulations now are the strictest in the world. What about missing evacuation plans?

      Answer: It is not IAEA’s role to rank countries. Broadly speaking, Japanese regulations today are broadly in line with global regulations recommended by IAEA, and Japan has requested the IAEA to review the Japanese nuclear safety standards. IAEA makes safety standards, recommends the use of these standards, and if requested, sends missions to assist.
    • Question: why do you say “broadly”?

      Answer: Nuclear safety is a huge and complex field. In our view, Japanese nuclear safety regulations are broadly in line with global regulations, and IAEA will evaluate Japanese safety regulations on request by the Japanese Government.
    • Question: Did IAEA warn that pre-Fukushima Dai-Ichi-disaster Japan’s nuclear regulator did not fulfill IAEA criteria: (1) robust, (2) independent, and (3) well funded?

      Answer: IAEA did warn in polite language that more independence was needed.
    • Question: What was the Japanese Government’s response?

      Answer: The Japanese Government’s response was, that the regulatory body was sufficiently independent.
    • Question: IAEA promotes nuclear power, and sets safety standards. Is there no conflict of interest between these two roles?

      Answer: The IAEA is not a global regulator. In each country separately an independent in-country regulator is responsible for regulation in that country. IAEA supports, provides training for in-country regulators.
    • Question: Who assesses IAEA?

      Answer: The member states assess, and will end the tenure of the Director General if they are not satisfied.
    • Question: Did IAEA hide nuclear radiation information in the days after the Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster?

      Answer: The IAEA came on a radiation measurement mission to Tokyo and Fukushima on March 18, 2011 one week after the Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster, reconfirmed the measurements on March 19, 2011, the next day, and published these data.
    • Question: Japan has 331 kg Plutonium. What is the target?

      Answer: There are three issues: (1) Safeguard: this material is placed under IAEA control, assure that all material is used for peaceful purpose, and short-notice controls by IAEA are included by Japan, (2) nuclear security: is the responsibility of each state under IAEA guidance, (3) transparency, including future use: it is the responsibility of the Japanese Government to provide transparency regarding future use
    • Question: do you think that 30-40 years will be sufficient for complete decommissioning of Fukushima Dai-Ichi?

      Answer: I don’t know. Good understanding of the melted core takes very long time. At present we have no understanding of the melted core. IAEA recommends international cooperation. It is wrong that Japan has all technology. It is IAEA’s recommendation to cooperate internationally. Decommissioning the most difficult nuclear power plant will help to decommission all other nuclear power plants.
    • Question: what about the shortage of workers for decommissioning Fukushima-Dai-Ichi?

      Answer: Shortage of workers in nuclear plants is a global phenomenon.
    fukushima decommissioning - Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mr Yukiya Amano (天野之弥)
    Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mr Yukiya Amano (天野之弥)

    Copyright 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • SoftBank market share in Japan – many articles get it wrong. What is SoftBank’s true market share in Japan?

    SoftBank market share in Japan – many articles get it wrong. What is SoftBank’s true market share in Japan?

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Many press articles get SoftBank market share in Japan wrong

    With SoftBank‘s acquisition of US No. 3 mobile operators Sprint and the possibility that Softbank/Sprint will also acquire No. 4 T-Mobile-USA, SoftBank and Masayoshi Son are catching global headlines.

    SoftBank market share in Japan: Many media articles report wrong data, because they forget to include group companies

    These articles state SoftBank’s market share in Japan’s mobile market as 25% and say that KDDI Group has more subscribers than Softbank Group in Japan, but is this really true?

    What is SoftBank‘s true market share in Japan’s mobile communications markets?

    Detailed subscriber data and analysis of Japan’s telecom markets in our Report on Japan’s telecom sector.

    SoftBank recently acquired eMobile/eAccess, and has been the court-appointed reconstruction partner of Willcom, after Willcom’s financial failure. Therefore eMobile/eAccess and Willcom are also part of the SoftBank group, and SoftBank plans to merge both. In addition, Wireless City Planning (WCP) are also part of the SoftBank group. You will find these transactions, the logic and reasoning behind them explained in great detail in our reports on SoftBank and on eAccess/eMobile.

    List of mobile operators on Japan’s market today:

    We have the following mobile operators currently in Japan – subscription market shares are shown in brackets (subscriber numbers for Docomo, KDDI and Softbank are as of February 28, 2014, while for other operators the latest officially reported numbers are used):

    • NTT Docomo Group (40.8%)
    • KDDI Group (28.9%)
      • AU
      • UQ Communications
      • fixed line and other businesses
    • SoftBank Group (30.3%)
      • SoftBank
      • eMobile/eAccess (note: eMobile, eAccess and Willcom are now combined into Ymobile)
      • Willcom (now merged into Ymobile)
      • Wireless City Planning (WCP)
      • fixed line and other businesses
    • several virtual mobile operators, e.g. Japan Communications Inc. who lease communications capacity e.g. from Docomo and retail this leased capacity to their own subscribers

    The SoftBank group including eAccess/eMobile, Willcom and Wireless City Planning has actually more than 30% of Japan’s mobile subscriber market – not 25% as some articles write.

    For detailed market data, statistics and analysis of Japan’s highly competitive mobile communications market, read our market report on Japan’s telecom markets, which includes analysis and data for Japan’s wireless, fixed, ADSL and FTTH markets, and detailed financial data, analysis, and comparison of the financial performance of NTT, NTT Docomo, SoftBank and KDDI.
    We are also preparing reports on Japan’s cloud and data center markets –

      Softbank market share: Subscriber market shares in Japan's mobile market
      Subscriber market shares in Japan’s wireless communications markets for each of the competing groups: Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank.

      Learn more about SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, and his 30/300 year vision for SoftBank

      Copyright (c) 2014 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved ;

    • Tokyo Institute of Technology President Yoshinao Mishima: “Become a world class University with more diversity by 2030”

      Tokyo Institute of Technology President Yoshinao Mishima: “Become a world class University with more diversity by 2030”

      Tokyo Institute of Technology President Yoshinao Mishima: Educational reforms at Tokyo Institute of Technology

      (President of Tokyo Institute of Technology. Materials scientist specialized on nano-materials and high-performance materials)

      Keynote presented at the 6th Ludwig Boltzmann Symposium on February 20, 2014 at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo.

      Tokyo Institute of Technology – short history

      • 1881: founded as The Tokyo Technical School
      • 1929: elevated to a degree-conferring university as Tokyo Kogyo Daigaku (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
      • 2004: reorganized as an independent administrative institution “National University Corporation Tokyo Institute of Technology”

      Tokyo Institute of Technology – Statistics as of May 1, 2013

      • Undergraduate students: 4,790 (of which 180 are foreign students)
      • Graduate students: 3,611 Masters students + 1,512 Doctorate students = 5,123 (of which 943 (18.4%) are foreign students)
      • Research students: 90
      • Academic staff: 1,148
      • Administrative staff: 472

      Tokyo Institute of Technology – The mission is to develop a new and vibrant society

      • produce graduates with a broad understanding of science and technology with both the ability and the determination to take on leading roles in society
      • create and support innovative science and technology that will lead to sustainable social development

      Tokyo Institute of Technology – Detailed mission statements cover three areas

      • education: produce masters graduates who will thrive globally, and doctorate graduates who will come world’s top researchers are leaders
      • contributions to society and international activities
      • research: produce globally recognized results. Reform the research and support systems, in particular multi-step support for young researchers.

      Tokyo Institute of Technology aims to become a world class university with greater diversity in faculty and students by 2030

      Major educational reform plan (2013-…)

      1. Reborn masters and doctoral courses
      2. Reorganize departments, curriculum, courses
      3. Change from year-based study to credit based study
      4. Increase teaching in English, and numbers of foreign students
      5. Align with world top class universities for student transfers and credit transfers
      6. Enhance professional practice education for industry

      A key challenge is that students primarily focus on earning credits to graduate, and lack a sense of mission to develop professional skills or to cooperate in our diverse global society. We need to change this type of behavior to create scientific leaders for the global arena.

      We want to create a more flexible curriculum, that can be completed in a shorter time, so that students have more time for personal professional development and international exchange activities and communication skills.

      Tokyo Institute of Technology: The Board of Directors decided on three pillars for education reform on September 6, 2013

      1. Build education system to become one of the world’s top universities
      2. Innovate learning
      3. Promote ambitious internationalization

      We will move to a new and more flexible curriculum system, where undergraduate schools and graduate schools are blended.

      Tokyo Institute of Technology: new initiatives

      We are introducing a number of initiatives including active learning, a faculty mentor system where every faculty member mentors 5-10 students, increased numbers of lectures in English, invited top global researchers, provide facilities for foreign researchers, and broaden academic cooperation agreements and mutual accreditation of credits and degrees.

      Professor Yoshinao Mishima, President of Tokyo Institute of Technology
      Professor Yoshinao Mishima, President of Tokyo Institute of Technology

      <img src=”http://www.eurotechnology.com/b/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/20140220_IMG_4885.jpg” alt=”Professor Yoshinao Mishima, President of Tokyo Institute of Technology” width=”590″ height=”924″

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