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The Fukuoka branch of Teikoku Data Bank released the results of its survey of the sales of the 50 leading companies in the food service industry in Kyushu and Okinawa Prefecture for the fiscal year ended March 2009. Aggregate sales fell 0.8% from the year before to 401.4 billion yen. It was the first sales decline in the industry in three years. The company said it reflected a desire on the part of consumers to economize during the economic downturn.

The Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry held a conference for local businesses in Fukuoka City on the 15th to promote the hiring of foreigners. About 120 people, including representatives of companies, universities, and local governments, as well as foreign students, attended. As of 2008, the percentage of foreign students who were employed by Kyushu companies accounted for just 4.1% of the national total. One solution suggested was three-week internships for the students at local companies.

The name of the new Hakata Station Building set to open with the start of service of the Kyushu Shinkansen in March 2011 is to be JR Hakata City, it was learned. The building will have 10 floors above ground, three basement levels, and occupy 200,000 square meters. There are expected to be about 200 commercial facilities, including the Hakata Hankyu Department Store. There will also be a movie theater, the satellite campus of a university, and a satellite studio of an FM radio station.

Riders of the Nishi-Nippon Railway (Nishitetsu) transportation network who use their nimoca non-contact payment cards; JR Kyushu with its Sugoca cards, the Fukuoka Municipal Subway with its Hayakaken cards, and JR East Japan with its Suica cards can now use any of those devices to ride any of those trains or buses in an arrangement that started on the 13th. Some commercial establishments also accept them as debit cards to buy products. The objective of this acceptance by other companies is to promote their diffusion. The initial use of the cards will be limited to certain areas, however, because of the substantial investment required to modify the systems of each company.

Satoh Industries of Umi-machi, Fukuoka Prefecture, has developed a greenhouse that accumulates and retains heat from the sun. They used as a reference for their project a similar type of facility employed in China for decorative gardening, and reworked it for use in Japan. The company says it is much more ecologically sound than greenhouses that burn oil for heat, and it will also reduce fuel bills.

For the first time, Fukuoka City officials inquired of the Foreign Ministry whether American naval vessels entering the Port of Hakata had nuclear weapons on board on the 16th. Previously, the city operated on the assumption that naval vessels weren’t carrying such weapons. Now that the Japanese Foreign Ministry has confirmed the existence of a secret agreement in which the Japanese government tacitly accepted the possibility that American ships would be carrying nuclear weapons, the city has changed its policy. The first inquiry concerned the U.S.S. Rushmore, and Fukuoka City was told by the Foreign Ministry that the ship did not have the capability to carry nuclear weapons.

The Financial Services Agency announced it has decided to provide the Miyazaki Taiyo Bank of Miyazaki Prefecture with 13 billion yen in public funds to help the troubled institution. The money will be provided when the government accepts preferred stock that the bank will issue at the end of March. The bank also revised its projections for the current fiscal year downward. It now expects to post a net loss of 8.3 billion yen for the year, its highest loss ever, due to its expenditures for disposing of non-performing loans.

The business and financial industry in Fukuoka and Saga prefectures held the third Kyushu Economic Forum in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, on the 12th and 13th to promote closer ties. This is the third such forum; the first two were held in 2006 and 2008. About 120 people participated.

The Food Culture Studio, a facility to prevent information about food and related matters though lectures by nutritionists and chefs, opened in Fukuoka City’s Chuo Ward on the 16th. It is operated by Saibu Gas, and will also promote the use of gas for cooking in the home. The company plans to present about 200 events a year. There are also plans to conduct research into developing recipes to prevent lifestyle-related diseases.

The Fukuoka City-based Nishi-Nippon City Bank will join with Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings to create a subsidiary selling securities called Nishi-Nippon City TT Securities. The new subsidiary is slated to begin business after the end of the spring holidays in early May. The bank says it wants the company to offer financial products suited to the needs of the community, and to help boost trading on the Fukuoka Stock Exchange.

The Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry published a compilation of some successful cooperative projects between regional universities and small businesses to create new products and develop new technology. The compilation, titled Regional Innovation Project Anthology, presents the most noteworthy results of 28 projects among 172 selected projects that have been conducted from 1997 to 2008. Among the entries are descriptions of a fuel production system using disposed cooking oil, and a hydrogen leak detector.

The Fukuoka branch of Tokyo Shoko Research reports that February corporate bankruptcies in Kyushu and Okinawa Prefecture exceeding 10 million yen in liabilities were down 23.5% from the year-before period to 65. This is the 13th straight monthly year-on-year decline, and the lowest number of monthly bankruptcies since the total of 47 in 1973. The decline was attributed to the government’s policy of allowing small businesses to postpone bank loan payments.

The Oita Prefecture Board of Education released its opinion on the 8th that “biased education was conducted” at one junior high school in the prefecture. First year students were distributed materials that claimed the national flag and national anthem were “symbols used to conduct war”, and that they “frightened some foreigners”. They board said the material were inappropriate because they did not follow the legal requirement for neutrality in education. The materials were distributed on a class about National Foundation Day, which is February 10.

The Okuno Law Office in Arita-cho, Saga Prefecture, is now offering the first service in the country to conduct the procedures for gaining halal certification for food products sold in Islamic countries. Islam has strict rules for the processing of beef and other products, and requires that those products be certified before they can be sold or consumed. Many companies in Japan do not have the staff or expertise to handle those arrangements, which include documentation from certification agencies, on-site inspection of processing plants, and the translation of those documents into English.

The Kyushu branch of Dentsu conducted a survey to determine the recognition factor that the new Kyushu Shinkansen will provide direct service from Kagoshima to Osaka after it opens for service next year. Only 27% of the people in Kyushu knew that, while only 16% in Osaka were aware of it. In fact, more than 30% of those surveyed in Osaka didn’t even know about the Kyushu Shinkansen. Dentsu thinks more PR work needs to be done in the Kansai area to increase the line’s economic benefit.

In advance of the crowded conditions expected at fiscal and business yearend, Sagara Ward in Fukuoka City has instituted a system for the ward office in which information on the number of people waiting to be served at the office is distributed on the ward’s website and on cell phones. Trials of the system began on the 8th. It will allow people with business to conduct at the office to better time their visits and cut down on the length of their wait. They are the second municipal office in the nation to implement such a system, after Yokohama.

The Kyushu Local Finance Bureau and the Fukuoka Local Finance Branch Bureau released the results of their survey of statistics for the major regional companies for the October-December 2009 quarter, which shows that aggregate current profit skyrocketed to 4.7 times the year-before figure to 104.7 billion yen. This represents a rebound following the poor results in the wake of the previous year’s financial crisis caused by the Lehmann Bros. collapse. They also note, however, that corporate reduction in operating expenses also was a factor. In contrast, capital investment during the same period fell 40.1%.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan held a party to celebrate the opening of their office in Fukuoka City, their first outside of Tokyo. The office began operating in January to further business ties with the region. They represent about 160 member companies in this country.

Yoshiomi-machi in Yanagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, plans to start teaching kindergarten and nursery school children English conversation starting in April. A bill budgeting 6.3 million yen for the project was introduced last week in the municipal assembly. The objective is for the children to have English conversation capability by the time they graduate from primary school. It will be the first municipality in Fukuoka Prefecture with such a program.

A Nishinippon Shimbun survey of revealed that from the years 2003 to 2007, 54 of Kyushu’s 241 municipalities had death rates from leukemia more than double the national average. Sixteen of those municipalities had death rates from three to six times the national average. Many of those municipalities are either on outlying islands or on the seacoast. Many specialists say that Kyushu’s high rate is caused by a high rate of infection of the adult t-cell lymphoma virus.

Taiheiyo Cement, the country’s largest cement manufacturer, announced it will suspend production at three plants, including one at Saiki, Oita Prefecture, until September. It’s the first time the company has taken this step since it liquidated a subsidiary in March 2004. The company says the prolonged economic downturn has resulted in stagnant cement demand.

The major Japanese merchandiser Parco announced it would close its first Kyushu store in Oita City at the end of February next year. The reason cited was poor sales figures. The company will open a store in the Tenjin district of Fukuoka City on March 19th. They plan to pursue their Kyushu strategy with the Fukuoka City store and their Kumamoto City store.

The municipal council of Mifune-machi, Kumamoto Prefecture, will begin year-round sessions starting in April. The objective is to more promptly respond to emergencies and to discuss local issues in more detail. The first municipal council to move to year-round sessions was Shiraoi-cho in Hokkaido in 2008. Mifune-machi will be the fifth in the country, but the first in Kyushu.

Fukuoka City-based Kataranne, which is involved with planning historical and cultural tours, is operating a portal site on the Internet that presents the public sector cultural facilities of the four northern Kyushu prefectures. It is said to be the first comprehensive website of its type in Kyushu. A Kataranne spokesman says that in addition to being useful to those with an interest in history, it can have an economic benefit by being utilized for tours.

Five leading Kyushu department stores—Fukuoka City’s Hakata Daimaru, Kitakyushu’s Izutsuya, Kumamoto City’s Tsuruya, Oita City’s Tokiha, and Kagoshima City’s Yamagataya—plan to expand the joint development of products they began in the fall of 2009 with a line of original men’s clothing. They will start sales of men’s suits for a limited period in March, and will revive a brand unused for 10 years. They also plan to conduct campaigns together. The objective is to boost flagging production.

An investigation by the Nishinippon Shimbun revealed that the post of chairmen of the credit guarantee associations in all seven Kyushu prefectures have been dominated by former government officials almost continuously for periods ranging from 28 to 53 years, depending on the prefecture. The practice of providing plum jobs in agencies such as these to former government officials or bureaucrats is known as amakudari, and is under attack by the public and the media today. The longest period of this dominance in Kyushu is in Saga Prefecture, for 53 years, followed by Fukuoka Prefecture, for 46 years.

Fukuoka City-based Best Denki revealed plans to cut more than 1,000 of its roughly 5,500 employees, including irregular workers, by February 2012. In addition to offering workers early retirement, they will not replace retirees and cut back on new hires. Combined with the employee cutbacks at major department stores, this indicates the impact of the financial crisis that began in late 2008 on employment has spread from the manufacturing industry to the retail industry.

Nissan President Carlos Ghosn, local government leaders, and 700 other guests attended the ceremony marking the opening of the Nissan Shatai Kyushu plant in Fukuoka Prefecture. President Ghosn said the plant, which makes auto bodies, was an important one for the Nissan group because it incorporates new production systems. He reaffirmed that Kyushu was an important part of the company’s global manufacturing strategy, and that he intended to increase production here in the future.

In advance of the start of exhibition season for the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks on the 26th, the two new Hawksvision screens installed in the Yahoo Dome, their home park, were shown to reporters. There is one new screen each in the left and right field stands, measuring 5.7 meters high by 33 meters wide. Combined with the existing screen in center field, their viewing surface is 905.2 square meters. This is the largest viewing surface in the world, surpassing the total of the new Yankee Stadium in New York City.

The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), has signed a memorandum with the city of Kitakyushu to build a facility that combines the functions of water desalinization and the reuse of sewer water. Called Water Plaza, it will be the first facility in Japan to combine those two functions. Work on the facility is expected to begin at the end of March and be completed by September.

Miyazaki Prefecture announced plans to open an antenna shop in the Tenjin district of Fukuoka City in late April. It will be the prefecture’s fourth shop in the country, after Tokyo, Osaka, and Miyazaki City. The shop will offer about 130 different products, focusing mainly on daily consumables. One will be a free range chicken barbecue pack.

Fukuoka City-based Saibu gas formally announced it would build a liquid natural gas complex in the Hibikinada district of Kitakyushu. It will rent 250,000 square meters of ground, erect two 180,000-kiloliter LNG tanks, and use them for storing LNG shipped from overseas. The company will invest about 70 billion yen in the project, for which construction will begin in June and is scheduled to be finished in November 2014.

Fukuoka City-based Nishi-Nippon City Bank became the first bank in the country to offer student loans when it introduced a special program on the 22nd for those aged 18-30 to help pay tuition and living expenses. One of the requirements is that a parent cosign the loan. The interest rate will be fixed at 2.0% for students still in school, but after graduation that will rise to about 4.8%. Students can borrow up to one million yen.

The Kyushu Economic Research Center released its Kyushu economic white paper for 2010, called Changing Consumption and Retail Innovation. It describes the changes in consumption activities and sales strategies that have occurred in the region since the economic downturn caused by the financial crisis of 2008. The center notes that larger commercial facilities have struggled in this climate. They emphasize the importance of products and sales methods aligned with local interests, and propose a long-term regional growth strategy based on the industries serving local consumption.

Tokyo-based Parco, which will open a commercial complex in Fukuoka City’s Tenjin district on March 19, announced their tenant lineup. Including a directly operated outlet that will sell its own brands, Parco will have 154 different shops. About 30% will sell clothing, and there will also be many shops selling sundries, beauty products, and food products. Of the 154 total, 104 will be opening their first outlet in Fukuoka.

The members of the municipal council of Itsuki-mura, Kumamoto Prefecture, have agreed in principle on a plan to base their salaries on an evaluation of their performance. The residents will create a committee to evaluate the council members as “excellent”, “good”, or “ordinary”. It will be presented to the municipal council in March, and it is expected to be passed. The National Association of Chairmen of Town and Village Assemblies says they have never heard of a local assembly introducing a performance-based salary system, and think it is the first in the country.

Officials at the Nissan Kyushu plant in Fukuoka Prefecture have asked its primary parts subcontractors to reduce parts manufacturing costs by 20%-30% by 2013. Nissan thinks it must cut costs to compete with companies in newly developing countries, where personnel costs are lower. It has been expanding its ties with regional subcontractors since implementing a new mid-term plan in 2009.

Kumamoto City and Kumamoto Prefecture have announced a policy of implementing a general ban on billboard advertising along the route of the Kyushu Shinkansen, on which full service is slated to begin next year. The ban is slated to come into effect next month. The governments want to preserve the natural scenery. It is uncommon in Japan for prohibitions of outdoor advertising along Shinkansen routes to take effect a year in advance.

Kyushu University has decided to open in the spring of 2011 a research institute for industrial mathematics, a field using mathematics to develop new technologies for resolving social issues. It will be the first institute in this sector in Asia, and it is planned to have 50 researchers. Specialists and companies will work together to deal with such issues as ensuring information security on the Internet, developing new financial instruments, exploring for resources, and forecasting disasters.

The labor union of Kyushu Electric Power has asked the company in this year’s wage negotiations to maintain the current wage increase structure and the average annual bonuses of 1.75 million yen for its roughly 10,000 members. In return, it will not ask for a wage increase, the first time in four years it has not done so. In addition, the 1,400 member Saibu Gas labor union has also not asked for a wage increase, the first time in nine years it has not done so.

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