July 2010 Archives

On June 9th, Business Computer News (BCN) disclosed that, in the notebook market in May, the sales share of Apple that launched the new model multimedia iPad increased three times from 3.5% in April to 11.5%.

BCN included iPad in the "notebook" category. Apple took some share from Sony (9.3%) and went up to 4th position. (In April, Apple was in fifth position).

iPad, which was launched by Apple on May 28th, has exploded in popularity. Even the sales portion of the last four days in May managed to increase the sales share. Toshiba was at the 1st place with 22.1% share, Fujitsu was second at 17.4%  share. Following after, NEC was third with 16.0% share. However, all the three top companies were affected and have lost some share because of the sudden rise in the popularity of Apple.

According to BCN, "iPad is now being sold at the rate three times higher when iPhone was first introduced to the market".

Furthermore, within one week of the sales of flat-screen televisions, the sales of 3D television reached 3%, when based on total amount of money. It was because Panasonic increased the new model towards the end of May.

For information:
Business Computer News (BCN) A Japanese company that is doing market research about PCs and digital consumer electronics, and issues newspapers and free papers containing information related to the field)

Comment:
It's impressive how Steve Jobs has managed to ingrain a really strong brand in the minds of consumers. Apple's products are now getting much and much more popular, such as Mac notebooks, iPhones and iPads. It seems like this generation is going to be an Apple generation.

NUGROHO Katarina Marsha Utama
Indonesia
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APM, 4)

(Oita Godo Newspaper, July 14^th 2010, Morning Paper, Page 4)

 

Nissan Motors announced on the 13 that they would produce the new model of "march" in Thailand, and sell it back to Japan. This is the first time that a Japanese car manufacturer produced their main car models in a foreign country and selling it in Japan. March have receive have not been modified since year 2002, and this is the first time in 8 years. Mitsubishi motors' too will start to produce their cars in Thailand and import them back to Japan. According to the Japanese car manufacturer, the production overseas in future is a gold mine.

The new model of March is aimed targeted towards a global market. Nissan march is competitive in cost as it is manufactured in Thai, India, china and Mexico, and it is aim to be sold in 160 countries. For the Japanese models, they are produced in Thailand.

When the car stops, the engine rest, it triggers the idling stop function. A 1200CC engine is fixed and 1 liter of gasoline can travel 26 kilometers. As compared to the old 19.0 kilometers, it's a vast improvement. The price ranges from 9,909,600 yen to 16,443,000 yen. The sales target is 4000 cars per month.

A representative from Nissan said that the class number 1 has low fuel consumption, easy to drive and a priced at a reasonable price. The main consumers that Nissan hoped to attract are women from the late twenties to the early thirties. March is first sold in 1982 and represented the small class cars, this time it is the 4^th generation. 

The domestic production of cars before the 2007 financial crisis is 11,600,000 cars, but in 2009 the production shrank to about 7,930,000 cars. The developed countries which has been supporting the market is in recession and that the market is supported by domestic consumerism. As the Japanese yen appreciates, and the strengthening of temporary workers system, the Japanese companies felt producing products overseas will be easier.

 

Comments

Japanese companies are known all over the world, but there are many products that is produce in Japan. Products produce in Japan is seen to be of better quality and that its more value for money. With the productions going overseas, this will give the Japanese consumers a better price and thus Japan would be able to compete with other countries manufacturers. I think that this will be the first step for Japanese companies to gain control over what market share they have loss because of price competiveness from the other countries and with its superior technology and quality checks, and competive price in future, it will be a great asset for Japan.

 

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, July 9^th 2010, Evening Paper, Page 10)

 

In Seoul, Korea, a Japanese Ramen shop is experiencing its next phase in shop operation. There are about 10 such shops in Korea. After getting experiences in Japan, there are many shops which are opened by the Koreans who went back. Some shops even make their own soups and noodles. The Koreans who visit Japan are on the increase, resulting in the increase of "Ramen fans".

"Extra noodles!" This can be heard from young people who gathered in the Kyushu Ramen shop. When the employees orders for a change of Ramen, they will use Japanese to inform the cooks. This is part of the "tonkotsu ramen" culture. This smashed the belief that Koreans could not tolerate the smell of tonkotsu(pig bone), resulting in an increase of Japanese ramen popularity.

Entrepreneur Li kang yu, came to Oita city as a international student in 2001 and ate "tonkotsu" Ramen for the first time, he was attracted by the taste of Ramen.

He started as a part timer in Kyushu ramen shop, and mastered the secret recipe of making ramen. The shop first opens its doors on 2008 July. Neighbors said that the shop will close after half a year, but after 1 year, the shop is making a profit.

The noodles comes in various types, soft, hard etc, a total of 5 types. There is also Gyoza and Oden served in the shop. Lee said that he wanted to provide the original taste of japan, and did not make any modifications to the noodle. 90% of the customers are Korean. The ramen is made with pain, he commented as he have many customers. He would like to make a Ramen museum in Seoul, and try to attract famous Ramen shop to come to Seoul. Lee holds a big dream.

Originally, Koreans like Ramen. According to the world's ramen association, the expenditure that Koreans spent on Ramen is 34 billion 80000 thousand, ranking number 6 in the world.

The chief editor of a magazine which provides information for Japanese in Seoul, Mr Onishi, said that Japanese ramen will change how Korean taste ramen. With the expansion of Japanese- Korean relationship, more Koreans will have the chance to taste Japanese ramen.

Comments

I too enjoy Japanese ramen, and of course it taste so different from Singapore noodles, noodles like fish ball noodles, Laska (noodles cook with coconut milk). Japanese noodles are delicious yet simple, and even though there are many shops in Singapore which sells Japanese Ramen, there are not as tasty as the one that I tasted here.

 

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, June 22^th 2010, Evening Paper, Page 1)

 

On 22th morning, around 7.35am, in Hiroshima's Matsuda factory site, a man hijacked a car and ran away with it, following that he ran into 11 workers who are working in the factory with the car. Staff Hamada (39 years old) died in the hospital and 2 others sustained heavy injuries, 8 sustained light injuries. The car escaped but the police from Hiroshima caught up with the car as they were just in the same prefecture. The suspect was a temporary staff who worked in Hiroshima was caught. According to the prefecture police, the suspect was fired from Matsuda in April, and has built up hatred and released it on the people whom he knocked over, with the intention to kill.

The suspect welded a cooking knife, and was planning to stop the cars in the factory using the knife. Police deduce that he would kill anyone that stood in his way.

According to Matsuda, the suspect entered the company earlier this year. In this year March 25 he entered the company and was allocated to the plastic section on April 1, and quit on April 14. He only worked for 8 days and the reason for quitting is because of personal reasons. There were no problems.

According to Hiroshima prefecture's police, the suspect's car was found near the east gate of a factory after hitting 7 people, after crossing the road to a factory, then exiting from the north gate.        

 

Comments

I think that because of Japanese high stress society, with the financial crisis, more and more people are showing signs of distress. But it is not only happening in Japan but in China, in USA. These people are affected by the recession and carry on to inflict the pain to other people. I felt that this is very selfish and we if we have problems, we should try our best to solve it, not to inflict pain on other people or killing oneself.

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, July 10^th 2010, Morning Paper, Page 8)

According to the report by the Chinese Automobile federation on the 9^th, the first quarter (6months),the domestic sales of cars have increased by 47.7%, making a new sales record figure of 9,016,100 cars a sold.

In China, the expansion of the economy and the revamp of the roads leaded to private cars being prevalent. The market in china as compared to America (5,610,000 cars) is 1.6 times bigger, and that in this year it has the world's largest market share. In order to cope with the sharp increase, the number of cars produced increased by 48.8%, a record of 8,927,300 cars are produced.

The sales of car in July, as compared to July in the previous month, increased by 23.5%, 1,412,100 cars are sold. The Chinese Automobile federation analyzed that the high volume of sales is expected to continue and that even though at the start of this year experienced a sharp increase, the rate of increase will cool down. 

In the first half of the year, the types of cars (4 wheels) sales increased by 48.2%, a number of 6,720,800. In this year, because of the reduction of taxes rebates for the light car, the small cars (fewer than 1600 CC) sales dropped, but on the other hand, the big car sales (over 1600 CC) increased. This is especially true for Sports type, which experienced an increase of 2.3 times as compared to the same month last year.

The brand of the car sold in China comprises of 47.4% Chinese manufacturer, 19.4% Japanese manufacturer, 13.4% Germany manufacturer, 10.0%, American manufacturer, 7.3% Korean manufacturer. Furthermore, business cars also experienced a increase of 46.1%, a number of 2,295,300 cars.   

Comments

I think that the Japanese cars are environmental friendly, and that the reason why it could not sell that well in china is that it is more expensive as compared to the Chinese manufacturers. But as the economy develops, people will be more conscious about the environment and they would consider buying environmental friendly cars. I think that Japanese companies should first expand to china, try to capture the Chinese market. But I don't think this will be an easy task, as Chinese car manufacturers are also aggressively promoting their cars.

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, July 6^th 2010, Evening Paper, Page 11)

In order to reduce the CO2 emissions in Oita Prefecture's household, Japanese companies created a club, "Oita Taiyo koguraku", which equips the houses with solar energy generator system. By next year march, there will be 300 new members, about 200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by the carbon credit system, which aims to gain a profit of 200,000 yen by the starting of next year.

The companies which registered for the domestic credit system is the business section and affairs section, but this year from June, the Japanese economic bureau have created the household section to implement this system. The biggest domestic house manufacturer uses municipality as a frontier for this system.

After 2008, the solar energy system was installed, and that its target was normal household. According to the reports that the individual members, the total generated electricity and total sold electricity is calculated by a common body, which is run by the prefecture, will use the domestic credit that Japan had created , to get refunds for the companies and households.

There are no benefits that the members receive but are given a members card. They are also able to get capital from the "prefecture's protect the environment fund, which is available for the next 12 years and that the members will grow to 2500 in strength."

"Combination of Citizen's environmental awareness level in the prefecture and cooperation will lead to great things"

According to the prefecture, there are 10,105 household in iota with the solar energy generator system, and out of those, 2896 of the households qualify for membership.   

Comments

I think this is a great idea, not only extending the carbon credits to companies but also to household. There are more households in Japan than companies and they will make a greater impact. I hope that in future this will be able to spread to the world and we could together combat global warming before it is too late. Japan must not only implement it in Japan but in Asia then other parts of the world.

From Japan to the world!

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, July 6^th 2010, Evening Paper, Page 2)

 

At the 6^th of July, research shows that Uniqolo's Fast retailing, Convenience store Lawson, internet retailer Rakuten, among the new recruited workers, 20% to 50% are foreigners of Asian nationality. 

As the domestic demand is stagnant, Japanese companies are strengthening their strategies for Asia. Even in these 3 companies, the human resource strategy is developing at a fast pace, international students from Asia, is being targeted for recruitment so that in future, they would want to expand their business in Asia using the international students.

Other than the 3 companies, Panasonic also recruited many international students. In 2011, Panasonic's recruitment of foreigners (inclusive of midterm recruitment) increased, as compared to 10 years ago, the numbers increased to 1100 people; a increase of 50 % plan is devised.  International students recruited by companies increased by 80%. Aiming for Asia markets, the strategy is to recruit international students on a large basis, especially towards the new graduates in Japan. As the companies globalize, recruitment of international students will be the issue of the future.

Fast retailing(uniqolo), out of the 300 people that the company recruits, 50% of the new recruits are foreigners. With the establishment of more stores in china, Taiwan, Malaysia, they would want to recruit talents who are able to perform the role of store managers.

Lawson is also trying to recruit more international students. Currently, they are tried to have 20% to 30% of new recruits from developing countries in Asia. From 2008, in these 3 years, the international students who entered Lawson consist of 66 people.

Rakuten is also trying to recruit more international students, and that out of the 600 new recruits, 150 of them will be international students.    

 

Comments

With the graying population in Japan, the declining population, Japan is forced to expand to Asia. The companies just cannot find enough demand in Japan and they would need talents who will be able to help them in the expansion. Not only the language but also the culture is important when setting up business overseas, furthermore the international students will have contacts in their home country, and they are able to set up business networks for Japanese companies.

I feel that this is a good sign, a sign of globalization, a step in which other Japanese companies have done, brands like Toyota, Honda, Hitachi is known all around the world.

I hope to see that more Japanese company expanding to Asia in future.

 

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, July 11^th 2010, Morning Paper, Page 12)

Oita Prefecture's main support for communication is students from Koto high school and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific university's (APU) international students. They participated in a rice planting event held at Oita prefecture.

For the high school students this is not only part of learning about rice planting, but also a chance to have an exchange with international students. 19 high school students and 6 international students participated.  

After land owner of the rice fields, Mr Tachigawa(age 62) gave them a lesson on how to plant rice, the students went on to put their knowledge into practice in the fields. Submerge in mud; they gently plant the seedlings into the field. Furthermore, communicating in English made the exchange a more pleasant one.

Year 2 high school student, Izumi said: "Planting rice is so much fun! I learnt so much from just this experience"

A third year student international relations APU student, Genève cook (age 21), said: " I am able to experience Japanese culture and its very significant to me. It was a pleasure meeting the high school students."

The students are going to harvest the rice that the planted today in autumn.  

Comments

 

I too had an experience planting the rice in the rice field, and it was a pleasant experience. Coming from Singapore, there are virtually no farms or rice fields, there is only sky scrapers and high rise buildings. Being in Oita prefecture, I experienced a new experience and I loved it, the serenity and tranquility that Mother Nature provides is priceless.

Many international students find it hard to make friends outside school, and I think events like this would create chances for the international students to make friends with the Japanese high school students.

 

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, July 7^th 2010, Evening Paper, Page 1)

 

In an online survey taken by the Japanese economic bureau on the 10^th of July shows that at a Chinese online shop, there are many products which imitate Japanese manufacturer's products. Cases like these have been on an increase, and the Japanese economic bureau has requested help from the Chinese government to deal with this problem, at the same time, letting the consumers know that this problem exist.

In order to research the imitation products, the Japanese economic bureau bought products from the Chinese internet websites in 2009, checked and tested the products. The products bought in some sites, make up and character merchandise are 100% imitation. In another site, 60% of clocks and watches, 83 % of the clothes are imitated. The researched sites are not publicly declared.

In china, internet sales contributes to 3 billion yen in 2009, which is twice as much as last year, and the Japanese economic bureau analyzed that this have to do with the large amount of imitation products in the net.

According to a spokesman from the Japanese economic bureau, the transactions on the internet is 5 times more than 2009, an increase of 953 transactions, and the received proportion increased from 60 % to 90%. This might be also one of the reasons on why the imitation sites are increasing.

There have been many cases in which a advertisement is sent to the Japanese consumers, luring them to the sites which sells bad quality, this is also linked to the increase of sharing of information.

Furthermore, from 2004 to 2009, there are 173 cases in which the Japanese companies launched a complaint against Chinese internet websites for infringement of copyright and imitation.

The government responded to this problem by requesting that they delete the website. In June, there was a symposium held to try to solve this problem.       

Comments

There are many imitation products on the internet, but I think that imitation products are not as good as the real goods. In Singapore, sometimes in the night market, you can see peddlers selling imitation Gucci, LV. But people seldom buy them as they breaks easily and their quality is not as good as the real goods. Even though, I felt that there is a need to eradicate the imitation so that people who have a peace in mind when shopping online.  

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, June 27^th 2010, Morning Paper, Page 8)

 

The number of Mobile phones manufacturers have been cooperating with rival companies have been increasing. This brings merits to the consumers. Jun is a high school student and his father, Ichiro, is working in a big mobile phone manufacturer.

Jun:  "It seems that Fujitsu and Toshiba is cooperating in the mobile phone business".

Ichiro: "Fujitsu has many unique technologies like finger print recognition technology, and Toshiba has multi function capabilities technologies."

So together, their growth enables high technology mobile phones to be developed. Furthermore, they are able to bear the burden of investing big amounts of money into development.

Jun: "If the manufacturer cost goes down, the end user charge also becomes cheaper, and that the cost of the mobile phone becomes cheaper."

Ichiro: "The money that the end user have to pay will definitely become cheaper, its only a matter of cooperate strategy and a combination of operations. On the other hand, there are 11 companies in the mobile phone manufacturing business and with Fujitsu and Toshiba combined they have 6 companies."

Jun: "Japanese mobile phone manufacturers have high technology, hence if they cooperate, they could be number 1."

Ichiro: "Regarding that, the Japanese mobile phone manufacturer does not have a huge impact on the global market, unlike brands like Nokia and Samsung which has billions of units sold as compared to the domestic brand leader sharp, which only sold about 10,0000,000 units, because sharp only sells in Japan.

Jun: "Why is there such a huge gap?"

Ichiro: "The mobile phone standards in Japan and the world is different, "Galapagos" is used. I-mode and Seg are technologies that have been ship out from Japan to the world. The mobile phone prices in Japan are high and could not compete with the other mobile phone manufacturers overseas."

Jun: "That's dreadful, so what should they do?"

Ichiro: "What they need to do now is to reach to the expanding Chinese market, and capture the market share. It's a good chance for the Japanese mobile manufacturers to expand to international markets. Within this year, the domestic mobile phone manufacturer is going to introduce the next generation of mobile phones "LTE" which confirms with the international standards. It is a mobile phone which is developed in Japan for Japan but has the potential to be sold overseas."

Jun: "But even so, could they win Nokia?"

Ichiro: "It is quite impossible in the near future. But if Japanese mobile phone manufacturer could increase the speed of manufacturing and lower the cost, like America's I Phone, they could stand a chance in the global market."

Jun: "I hope that Japanese mobile phone manufacturer would try their best."

Ichiro: "Have you done your home work? I also hope that Jun will try his best in his homework."

 

Comments

The mobile phone industry in Japan is very advance, they have high mega pixel camera, brilliant display and cool applications(wallet), but there is one down side to Japanese mobile phones, they are too expensive. They could not compete with the simple design which Nokia has, and I think that it will be hard to compete with Apple's I phone.

But I do think if Japanese mobile phone manufacturers would want to succeed, they must find a niche and expand on it, just like apple, apple combined a internet browser, I pod and a phone all in one device.

I do hope that Japanese mobile phone manufacturer will succeed in future.

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4

(Oita Godo Newspaper, June 28^th 2010, Evening Paper, Page 5)

 

The basic sales strategy of the room air conditioning system is one that is able to combat the heat of summer. As the environmental awareness of the consumer increases, various air condition manufactures began to produce Air con that are able to save energy. In order to receive the "Eco points", various techniques and technology are implemented, so as to pursuit comfortableness, there is a product in the market now that shows added value, it is the "X series" air con which has the "Eco Navi" function was sold starting from last year October. There is 3 sensor which is able to detect motion and position of the people in the house, the rays of light which is reflected from the windows, the wind speed and wind direction. Ultra fine ions which are produced by high voltage is also emitted from the air con, apart from that, there is also deodorant and anti bacterial properties. The open price is 260,000 yen for the Air con used in the 14 tatami room, model number "CS-X 400C2".

Daikin industry produced a Air con, "UrurutoSarara", which is able to blow from 4 directions, up, down, left and right. This enables the room to have air flow and enables the room to reach the desired temperature at a fast pace. If the humidity in the room does not go down, a "Air con : remove humidity" mode will be activated, and it will automatically adjust to the desirable temperature. The open price is 250,000 yen for the Air con used in the 14 tatami room model number "AN40LRP".

Mitsubishi Electric's "KirikeMineMubeai" is able to move left, right by 160 degrees using its sensor. The air con is able to detect the temperature of the bed and wall, if the temperature of the wall is high, there will be a flash on the remote control that will ask you if you want to open the curtain. The Air con is also able to give advice to people who would want to save energy. The open price is 260,000 yen for the Air con used in the 14 tatami room, model number "MSZ-ZW400S".

Comments

I think that the high tech industry in Japan has a lot of potential to expand to developing countries like China, Thai and even Vietnam. As the country gets richer and richer, the people will be more concern about the environment. Japan is doing a great job as the industry leader, not only in Air con, but also in cars and other high technology products.

I hope that Japanese companies would be able to sell their 'green' concept to the rest of the world so that the world will be a better place.

 

Tay Zhong Jie Edwin

Singapore

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, APM 4