The Fukuoka and Kumamoto Regional Taxation Bureaus announced the status of national tax receipts in Kyushu for FY 2009. The aggregate total for the seven prefectures was 2.5065 trillion yen, a 3.0% decline. This is the lowest level since the consumption tax was introduced in 1989. It was the third consecutive annual decline, and was attributed to the economic downturn.
Daiichi Kotsu Sangyo, which operates roughly 1,000 taxicabs in both Fukuoka City and Kitakyushu, announced it will start installing equipment in the cabs on September 15 to allow drivers to accept payment using the NTT Docomo iD and JR Kyushu Sugoca debit cards, and Visa credit cards. They will be the first cab company in Japan to accept payment using three different systems. The intent is to improve customer convenience.
Miyazaki Prefecture Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru declared the hoof-and-mouth epidemic that ravaged his prefecture for more than four months had ended. The prefecture has just finished work converting the excreta of the slaughtered animals into compost. An estimated 290,000 pigs and cows were lost, or roughly 25% of the prefecture’s livestock.
The Veda International Robot R&D Center of Munekata, Fukuoka Prefecture, has developed a new electric wheelchair very convenient for the elderly. It is now at the prototype stage, and the center hopes to commercialize it within the year. Countries in Europe have already expressed interest in the wheelchair as it lessens the burden of long-term care for the elderly.
Kitakyushu-based Yaskawa Electric revealed it has started work on the development of a fully-automated recharging stand for electric cars using its robotics technology. A robot arm will be attached to the device. In place of a human being, a robot will recognize the auto’s recharging inlet and insert the recharging plug. The company hopes to complete its work next year and commercialize the device by 2012.
The Fukuoka City-based Fukuoka Financial Group announced it would beef up the business activities of the Shinwa Bank of Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, one of the local banks it operates. The FFG will upgrade the 12 business offices of the Shinwa Bank in the prefecture to full branch status, which is a move designed to attract more corporate customers. The Shinwa Bank has the second highest share of the lending market in Nagasaki Prefecture, estimated to be from 25%-29%.
The Financial Services Agency reports that the number of companies in the money lending business in the seven Kyushu prefectures as of the end of June had fallen to 369, a 50.2% drop from the previous year. One reason for the decline is their mandated obligation to return the excessive interest paid by borrowers. The law governing businesses in this sector was toughened in June, and the trend toward companies either closing or going bankrupt is accelerating.
Mayor Takehara Shinichi of Akune, Kagoshima Prefecture, is embroiled in a long-running dispute with City Council over city governance issues. Chief among them is his decision to shift from a salary system to a per diem system for the payment of council members, which will reduce their income by 90%. He has ruled by executive order since then, saying that the council is a waste of time. The mayor convened the first meeting in four months for a special two-day session. Though a majority of the council is opposed to the mayor, they earlier voted against a no-confidence motion because that would require a special election, and it is generally assumed the citizens would back the mayor because of his cost-cutting measures. Recently, however, a citizens’ group has collected the required number of signatures to hold a recall election.
The Kurume Yakitori Cultural Promotion Association of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, which has the largest number of yakitori shops per capita in Japan, plans to begin offering instruction to people interested in opening their own yakitori shops. The instruction will be provided by current shop operators, poultry farmers, and accountants. The classes could begin as early as the first week in September, when the city holds its annual yakitori festival.
Solaria Plaza, the Tenjin shopping complex operated by Nishi Nippon Railroad (Nishitetsu), is set to reopen on September 10 after extensive remodeling. The facility targets women aged about 25 working in the Tenjin area, and has shops offering clothing and sundries. Nineteen new shops were added to the complex, which accounts for 15% of the tenants. It was Solaria Plaza’s first remodeling after its 1989 opening, and was conducted to help it compete against other Fukuoka City facilities and the JR Hakata City complex at Hakata Station that will open next spring.
Kyushu Gas of Nagasaki Prefecture, Nippon Gas of Kagoshima, and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. of Tokyo (JAPEX) announced they will create this year a new company named Kumamoto Mirai LPG in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, to supply liquid natural gas to homes in that city, as well as factories and medical institutions in the southern part of the prefecture. Kyushu Gas is already supplying city gas in the city, but plans to switch to LPG by March 2013 because CO2 emissions are lower. The LNG will be supplied from Nippon Gas’s plant in Kagoshima City.
Plans had called for the use of a gauge change train, also called a free gauge train, on the Nagasaki route of the Shinkansen, but that is proving difficult. The train would have variable gauge axles to allow the use of trains on both Shinkansen lines and narrower provincial lines. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport conducted trials of those trains last year, but will not have them built. Development of new trains had begun, but they are unstable on the rails and it is not known when the technical difficulties can be overcome. Because further trials and the manufacture of these trains would require a lot of time, they are unlikely to be ready by the planned opening of the Nagasaki leg in March 2018.
A conference consisting of 46 groups from industry, academia, and government held their first meeting to discuss trials of a smart grid in Kitakyushu, the only Kyushu city selected for that project. A total of 38 separate projects will be tested in the trials, including new electric buses and solar power generation. Among those participating will be the University of Kitakyushu, IBM Japan, Toyota, and Nippon Steel.
Of the 4,200 public primary and junior high schools in the seven prefectures of Kyushu, roughly 40% were staffed with a librarian. This is far below the national average of roughly 60%. The assignment of a librarian to a school is required by law. Fukuoka Prefecture has the best compliance, with librarians on the staff of 67% of primary schools and 62% on the staff of junior high schools, while Kagoshima Prefecture has the worst at 23% and 19% respectively.
Kyushu Electric Power subsidiary Kyuden Ecosol announced that it will install a solar power generating system at the Fukuoka Airport next year. They will also be responsible for the management and maintenance of the on-site system. The system will consist of panels on the terminal roof, and its annual output will be about 1% of the building’s power consumption. It will also reduce CO2 emissions by 73 tons.
Kyushu Electric is involved in a project to develop a new type of transformer using superconducting materials. They announced they are the first in the world to conduct successful trials of a transformer to automatically limit current fluctuation on a large scale such as those that occur when lightning strikes. The utility says this is a major step toward commercializing the product.
The shortage of farm animal veterinarians is becoming acute, reports the Nishinippon Shimbun. In recent years, most students in the field have been gravitating to practice with pets. Statistics show that Kyushu has only 74% of the farm animal veterinarians it requires, the lowest percentage of the nine blocs in the nation.
Extensive reconstruction is underway on a 210-meter bridge between the Dazaifu and Chikushino interchanges on the Kyushu Expressway. To relieve congestion, the highways operators, West Nippon Expressway Co., are urging people to take the train instead. They’ve started airing television commercials suggesting the move, and will continue to do so until the end of September.
The city of Kyushu announced that it will prohibit smoking in 21 municipal buildings next January, including City Hall and the City Council building. It will then become the fifth specially designated government ordinance city to prohibit smoking in its buildings. Kagoshima Prefecture is planning to prohibit smoking in prefectural buildings in September, and will become the first Kyushu prefecture to do so.
Korea Air Express, a South Korean commuter airline, announced that it was moving ahead with plans to launch a charter service between Busan, South Korea, and Goto, Nagasaki Prefecture. They would use a small aircraft seating 19 and make four or five round-trips a week, mostly for tourists. They hope to start the flights in November.
All classes at the Kyushu University Business School will be conducted at the new Hakata Station Building starting next spring. One objective is to attract a broader range of students from throughout Kyushu with the opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen next spring. About 90% of the students are those with full-time jobs elsewhere, and most of the classes are conducted at night.
JR Kyushu and JR Central announced that the use of its contactless payment cards Sugoca and Toica will be allowed on each other’s systems next spring. JR Central will be the third Honshu regional company on which JR Kyushu’s Sugoca card can be used. The measure is to facilitate travel on the Kyushu Shinkansen line when it opens next March. Toica is used at 148 stations in four prefectures in the Tokai region.
Businesses and others with an interest in the opening of the Kyushu route of the Shinkansen are beginning to wonder when the formal opening date will be. JR Kyushu says only that it will be sometime in mid-March 2011 because the date has yet to be decided. It will be determined next month after agreements about service connections to other railways have been finalized. Businesses are especially interested because they will hold special events timed for the opening. The most likely dates are either March 12 or March 19.
Huis ten Bosch, the Sasebo resort currently undergoing financial reconstruction, posted 100 million yen in net profit in the April – June quarter, and expects to have earned several hundred million yen in the first half, it was learned. Barring a change, this will be the first interim profit the resort has posted since it opened in 1992. It represents an excellent start for the new parent company HIS, which assumed control in April.
Kitakyushu will be the first city in the country to operate a new type of electric bus that is recharged without direct connections and uses IT to forecast demand. Called an on-demand bus, it is slated to go into operation by 2014. The operating plan is incorporated into the smart grid master plan the city has submitted to the national government. The bus is recharged at bus stops automatically in a short period of time using electric supply coils buried in the earth.
Town Kompas, a Fukuoka City-based NPO, is conducting trials of a water bus in the city powered by biodiesel fuel refined from used vegetable oil leftover from cooking tempura and other dishes. The bus takes passengers through the central parts of the city on the Naka River and makes round trips from Nishi Ward to Noko Island. The trials will be conducted until October.
Reflecting the strong growth in China and other Asian countries, the Port of Hakata is showing signs of recovery in international freight handled. The port was not selected to be one of the nation’s Strategic International Container Ports, but Fukuoka City’s efforts to attract new routes and build new facilities seems to be paying off. The port handled a record high 760,000 containers in 2008. While that slid to 660,000 in 2009 due to the global economic downturn, there has been a 13% year-on-year increase in the first half this year.
Kyushu Electric Power subsidiary Nishinippon Environmental Energy Co. of Fukuoka City will begin a biomass power generation project using chicken manure in India in 2011, the company announced. It will be the first power generation project conducted by the Kyushu Electric Group in that country. The utility is interested in strengthening its overseas operations to cope with what it anticipates will be a shrinking domestic market in the future due to population declines. NEECO also says this will be the first biomass generation project conducted by a Japanese company in India.
The Fukuoka Branch of Tokyo Shoko Research released its ranking of the Kyushu-Okinawa companies with 10 billion yen in sales on a non-consolidated basis in 2009. There were 597 of these companies, 58 fewer than during the previous year. It was the second straight annual decline, and the first time since 1994 the total was below 600 companies. The aggregate sales for these companies was 22.3899 trillion yen, a 6.9% year-on-year decline. The leading company for the 33rd straight year was Kyushu Electric Power.
The Kagoshima City Aquarium has received an award from the Japan Association of Zoos and Aquariums for its successful propagation of a type of coral known as a sea pen. The award is presented to any of the 156 member institutions that has been the first in the country to successfully propagate and keep alive a living creature for six months. It is the first time the Kagoshima City Aquarium has won this award, and the 13th time the award has been presented for a type of coral.
The Fukuoka branch of Teikoku Data Bank revealed its ranking of the financial institutions used as main banks by 140,963 companies in Kyushu and Okinawa Prefecture. The leader was the Nishi-Nippon City Bank of Fukuoka City, used by 17,073 companies, or 12.1% of the total. The aggregate lending balance of the Bank of Fukuoka is higher, however, and they were in second place in the overall ranking with 15,635 companies, or 11.1% of the total.
Honda Motors and Kumamoto Prefecture signed an agreement on the 5th to conduct trials of vehicles for what was referred to as “next generation personal mobility”. These include an electric car and Monpal, a plug-in hybrid vehicle for one rider, both under development. The vehicles, slated to go on sale in 2012, will be tested for carbon emissions and other factors on prefecture roads. The Monpal in particular will be tested for use at facilities for the aged.
Kitakyushu-based Mitsui High-Tec revised downward its earnings forecast for the year ending January 2011 from a projected current profit of three billion yen to a loss of one billion yen. They’ve also revised net profit down from a two billion yen profit to a one-billion-yen loss. This will be the company’s third straight year of losses. While demand for their products in the semiconductor sector remain high in China and Southeast Asia, the skyrocketing prices of copper and other metals in combination with intense price competition spelled the end of profitability.
The Kyushu branch of the Development Bank of Japan announced the results of its survey of the planned capital investments in Kyushu by medium-sized and large companies in 2010. This investment is expected to total 94.11 billion yen from the previous year, an 8.7% increase. It will be the first increase in plants and equipment in the region in three years. The increase is attributed to the opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen next spring and the location of some large solar power plants in the region.
The tairagi fan shells are one of the special products of the Ariake Sea, and last year there was a bumper harvest, the first in 13 years. This year, however, the Saga Prefecture Ariake Maritime Promotion Center reports that many are dying in the Ariake Sea off the prefecture due to an extreme lack of oxygen in the sea water. The center confirmed they had been wiped out entirely in five primary production areas, and 92% of the population had died out in a sixth. The lack of oxygen is attributed to a combination of heavy rains, hot temperatures, and little wind.
The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has asked municipalities nationwide to visit the homes of all families with infants in their jurisdiction to check for possible cases of child abuse. A survey by the Nishinippon Shimbun found that in Kyushu, 52 of the municipalities, or 22%, have not visited households at all. The rate of municipalities in Kyushu that have visited all subject households is 78%, which is below the national average of 84%. Many of these municipalities say they are conducting visits, but are unable to visit all homes for several reasons, including refusal by the parents. Municipal officials in Saga and Nagasaki prefectures have conducted all the visits, while 18 in Kagoshima Prefecture and 12 in Fukuoka Prefecture have conducted no visits at all.
Japan Airlines, which is currently undergoing reorganization, has outsourced its ground support operations at airports in Kumamoto, Miyazaki, and Ube (Yamaguchi) to the Nishi-Nippon Railway (Nishitetsu) Group. The work involves baggage handling, aircraft cabin cleaning, and other tasks. The objective is to cut costs.
The Huis ten Bosch resort in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, and Nagasaki International University announced they have agreed to jointly establish the East Asia Tourism Strategy Research Institute, which will survey and analyze market trends for tourism in China and other countries in the region. The facility is expected to be located on the resort grounds, and will be staffed by university students and researchers dispatched from the Japan Tourism Agency. There are also plans to form ties with the national and local governments, as well as business and tourist industry groups in the region.
Rice Databank of Tokyo offered their forecasts for this year’s rice crop nationwide, which gave the national average a score of 102. In contrast, six Kyushu prefectures were rated as “somewhat poor” with scores of 96-98. This was attributed to the large rainfall and lack of sunshine since June. Miyazaki was the only exception, receiving a score of 100, within the range of the national average. The lowest ranked prefectures in the country with scores of 96 were Nagasaki, Saga, and Okinawa.
Fukuoka University announced it has opened its first overseas office in Haerbin, China. The objective is to promote the school among prospective students from China. Most Japanese universities open Chinese offices in such cities as Beijing and Shanghai, so this is an unusual step.
