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JapanTechnology & Innovation
Beyond bulletsNew highspeedtrains will ‘levitate’– but can theyboost growth?Page 3
Inside
Stem cell firstScientist hopes torestore patients’vision but profitsmay be elusivePage 2
Robots hit byhard timesAutomatons needto earn keep withserious engineeringPage 2
Merger shyCompanies pushedto join forces totrim bloatedsectorsPage 3
Making a splashManufacturers ofhightech toiletshope to increasesales abroadPage 4
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Selfdriving carsAutomakers keento stress safetyover excitement
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As an undergraduate in thelate 1990s, Shuhei Morofujiwas facing the traditionaland laborious process ofapplying for jobs at leadingJapanese corporations.
With established compa-nies at the time beginningto merge, lay off staff andeven go bankrupt, however,he concluded that life asa white-collar salarymanwas no longer a stableoption.
“I thought that it wouldbe better to take charge ofmy career and form a com-pany at my own risk,” saysMr Morofuji. After a coupleof years spent working insales, he set his sights onone of the few parts of thedomestic economy that wasalmost guaranteed to seefuture growth.
“The ageing of Japanesesociety was beginning to befeatured on the news regu-larly at that time; how thepercentage of older peoplein the population wouldkeep on rising and howthey held the most of thecountry’s assets,” herecalls. “But I realised thatgoing into the actual medi-cal or healthcare businessrequired a lot of invest-ment, and there were a lotof barriers.”
His first foray into themarket did not go according
to plan. The venture was anagency that specialised infinding accommodation forelderly people, completewith suitable facilities andavailable care. However,when Japan’s long-termcare insurance system cameinto operation in 2000, com-petition increased and feesdropped, rendering the busi-ness unprofitable.
Fear of this type of failurepartly explains the lack ofentrepreneurs in Japan inrecent decades, according toMr Morofuji – something hebelieves must change if theeconomy is to grow.
Undaunted, Mr Morofujithen founded SMS in 2003,with the aim of providing“information infrastruc-ture” for the elderly caremarket and its associatedindustries. His first stepwas to take the advertisingrelated to elderly care,including personnel recruit-ment, and shift it from leaf-lets and newspapers to anonline model. With revenuefrom the success of thisventure, SMS was able toexpand its offerings.
“A lot of people don’tunderstand what we do as acompany, and think we’rejust an employment agencyfor elderly healthcare. Infact, that is only a part ofour operations,” he says.
SMS now operates morethan 20 web-based servicesto meet the needs of the eld-erly healthcare and medicalindustries, companies sup-plying it, those working init and the elderly them-selves. These include a web-site that provides advicefrom industry professionals
for people caring for elderlyrelatives recently dis-charged from hospital; anonline community for careworkers and managers, andanother site promoting pro-fessional qualifications forthose employed in the sec-tor, collecting commissionsfrom schools when its mem-bers sign up for courses.
With 80 per cent ofJapan’s numerous elderly-care companies consistingof independent, often fami-ly-run, concerns, SMS cre-ated a dedicated, computer-ised management system,which is now used by morethan 15,000 of them.
The overlapping nature ofthe various services meanmany of the businesses feedinto each other, while bigdata analysis has helpedidentify needs and developnew offerings, according toMr Morofuji.
“Our overarching strat-egy is to be ahead of thecurve in creating the fullrange of information infra-structure services,” he says.
SMS listed on the TokyoStock Exchange’s so-calledmothers section for high-growth start-up companiesin 2008, and was promotedto the first section in 2011.Annual revenue topped
Y10bn (£62m) for the firsttime in the year to March2013, while net profits forthe quarter ending Septem-ber jumped 35.5 per cent onthe previous year toY1.08bn.
As the populations ofJapan’s Asian neighboursare expected to age rapidlyin the future, SMS is posi-tioning itself to take advan-tage. The first generation ofparents from China’s onechild policy will retire overthe next few decades, skew-ing the demographics of itsvast population even morethan that of Japan. SMS hassubsidiaries in China, aswell as in the greyingnations of South Korea andTaiwan. This is in additionto operations in countrieswith younger demographicprofiles, including Malaysia,India, the Philippines, Thai-land and Indonesia.
“If there is any one areawhere Japan leads, it’s theshrinking, ageing popula-tion,” says William H Saito,a serial entrepreneur, ven-ture capitalist and govern-ment adviser. “And thiswill soon be a problem forcountries all around the
world. Japan has a 20-yearhead start on this.
“The person who figuresout how to address thisissue – and it’s going to bethrough ideas and technol-ogy – is going to do verywell. That is going to beexportable to many coun-tries very soon.”
Having run SMS for adecade, Mr Morofuji, whostill owns 31 per cent of thecompany, has decided thetime has come to step asideand let another chief execu-tive take the reins. Hebelieves that companiesthat continue to be run bytheir founders tend tounderperform, often becom-ing vehicles to implementthe boss’s will.
“In order to develop anorganisation that can con-tinue for 50 or 100 years, it’simportant to nurture talentproperly in the companyand have a career route forthem through to chief exec-utive,” he says.
Mr Morofuji says he plansto provide support to thedevelopment of SMS’s busi-ness overseas from April2014 – while thinking abouthis next move.
Startup seeks to profitfrom ageing populationEntrepreneurship
Those ventures thatsucceed can expectto reap rewards,writes Gavin Blair
Potential: elderly Japanese people take exercise Getty
‘This will soon bea problem forcountries all aroundthe world – Japanhas a head start’
The outlook for Japan’s engi-neers and entrepreneurs isthe brightest for 20 years –on the face of it.
Prime minister ShinzoAbe’s three-pronged strategy to revivethe economy – known as Abenomics –aims to help both ventures startingout and conglomerates that haveexisted for decades.
Tokyo kicked off the year with fis-cal stimulus followed by an unprece-dented monetary loosening from theBank of Japan. Following that wasthe promise of additional reformmeasures, such as special zones inurban commercial centres wherederegulation will go further than atthe national level. To add to all thatcame the apparent removal of fundingbarriers for entrepreneurs.
For those budding enterprises thatdo make the grade, a stock marketrally instigated by a new flush ofinvestor optimism about the world’sthird-largest economy is boosting thechances of successful initial publicofferings, should the enterprises wishto raise further capital.
Japanese companies compete hardto remain technological frontrunnersin traditional areas of strengths suchas the automotive industry. Nissanand Toyota want vehicles with self-driving technology to start rolling offtheir mass production lines by theend of the decade.
But businesses in other traditionalareas, notably consumer electronics,continue to struggle.
Last month Sony slashed its full-year net profit forecast by 40 per centas the consumer electronics companyfell back into the red for its secondquarter.
Much rides on whether the groupwill make good on a promise that itsXperia smartphone range and Play-Station 4 game console, for which ithas set an initial sales target of 5m,will help Sony return to profitability.
Sharp, which this time last yearwarned of doubt about its survival, isfighting back after two years of multi-billion-dollar losses.
It is making a $1.4bn share offeringand various equity agreements with
manufacturers in Japan, focusing onrestructuring rather than novelty.“The electronics industry is changingdrastically and it has become vital tobuild systems to provide high value-added products as quickly and as effi-ciently as possible,” says YoshihiroNishida, a manager at Murata Manu-facturing, a Kyoto-based supplier ofcomponents to Apple and Samsung.
The challenges of introducing struc-tural reforms and fostering entrepre-neurship remain.
One recent row is a case in point.Last month Hiroshi Mikitani, the
chief executive of Rakuten, Japan’slargest e-commerce company, who has
the ear of the prime minister as amember of a council advising on legis-lation to boost Japan’s growth, threat-ened to quit after questioning the gov-ernment’s commitment to revivingthe economy through deregulation.
Mr Mikitani was acting in responseto a draft pharmaceuticals bill, one ofthe first reforms promised by Mr Abeafter his election late last year.
Bricks-and-mortar pharmaciesoppose the bill’s removal of a ban oninternet sales of non-prescriptiondrugs.
Yet Mr Mikitani was dismayed todiscover that the planned legislationcontained caveats that would prolong
pharmacies’ hold over more than twodozen popular medicines, in somecases permanently. “If Mr Abe cannotdecide on this, he cannot decide onanything,” he said.
Another eternal complaint aboutJapanese industry is that too manycompanies make the same things.Their executives complain of profit-squeezing competition yet are loatheto leave money-losing businesses ormerge their companies with rivals.
There has been progress this year.Panasonic, for instance, has said itwill abandon smartphones, while tele-vision makers across the board havetrimmed production. But expertsagree more consolidation is needed.
Part of the government’s grand planto haul the economy out of more thana decade of low growth and 15 yearsof deflation is to encourage businessesto collaborate in the hope that reduc-ing the number of players in a singlesector will relieve downward pressureon profits, wages and prices.
Excess capacity plagues virtuallyevery industry, particularly food,retail, chemicals and constructionwhere the top five businesses have aslittle as a 30-40 per cent share betweenthem.
Changing corporate law is one partof the solution. Mr Abe’s administra-tion is pushing for tax breaks toreward companies that carve out over-lapping operations and combine themin a new entity.
Some areas are already witnessinggrowing innovation.
Japanese engineers at Toyota andTokyo university this year created arobot capable of holding a conversa-tion about everyday events. Not ananswer to mankind’s most pressingneeds, perhaps, but certainly a usefuladdition to the International SpaceStation, where the robot, Kirobo, actsas a companion and instructor to aJapanese astronaut.
“I believe robots will be the nextsmartphone, just like Google believesGoogle Glass will be the next smart-phone,” predicts the robot’s designer,Tomotaka Takahashi.
Other breakthroughs will reachwider audiences.
Japan’s prototype levitating train,in development for years, broke the500kph barrier in testing this summer.
JR Central is aiming to start aMaglev service on a line betweenTokyo and Nagoya in 2027. Some havecalled for construction plans to bespeeded up so the service can start
Continued on Page 2
Asia’s testbed strives to adaptThe imperative tomodernise presentsdilemmas, writesJennifer Thompson
Robot dreams: Kirobo travels to theInternational Space Station to supporta Japanese astronaut
Companies complain ofcompetition yet are loathto merge with rivals
2 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES TUESDAY DECEMBER 3 2013
Japan Technology & Innovation
before the 2020 TokyoOlympic Games.
On a smaller scale, oneJapanese company is exam-ining ways to reinvent thatmost basic and quintessen-tial Japanese staple: rice.
Keiji Saikahas spentyears perfecting alternativeways to polish the grains inorder to remove the outerbran and leave a thin, nutri-tious membrane intact.
“I feel I have a duty tohelp protect Japan’s riceculture,” he says. After heworked on the idea for morethan a decade, musenmai –wash-free rice – waslaunched.
By 2011 about 460,000tonnes were being made,equal to 6 per cent ofJapan’s total rice produc-tion.
Such ventures indicatethat the particularities ofJapan make the country avital testing ground for newtechnology.
Some developments willpotentially be slowed, atleast in terms of their com-mercial availability, by reg-ulation and the need to cre-ate the infrastructure inwhich they can operate,most notably in the case ofself-driving cars.
But there are strongimperatives for many morebusinesses in Japan towork more closely togetherin order to combat risingenergy costs, serve anageing population anddevelop cutting-edge tech-nologies.
The country also needs tofoster an environmentwhich enables entrepre-
neurs to keep trying even ifa first venture fails.
Shuhei Morofuji’s firstbusiness did not survivebut his second, operatingweb-based services to meetthe needs of healthcare andmedical services for elderlypeople, saw annual revenuesurpass Y10bn ($98m) forthe first time this year.
As a fellow Japaneseentrepreneur describing thebattle to adapt products andservices to suit changingdemographics puts it: “Theperson who figures out howto address [demographic-re-lated business challenges] –and it’s going to be throughideas and technology – isgoing to do very well. Thatis going to be exportable tomany countries very soon.”
As Japan has proved timeand again, lessons learnedby the Japanese will inevi-tably be transferred else-where.
Continued from Page 1
Asia’stestbedstrivesto adapt
Jonathan SobleTokyo bureau chief
Jennifer ThompsonTokyo correspondent
Ben McLannahanTokyo correspondent
Amie TsangWorld desk researcher
Gavin Blair, David A McNeillFreelance journalists
Benjamin LazarusResearch
Helen BarrettCommissioning editor
Andy MearsPicture editor
Steven BirdDesigner
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There are strongimperatives forbusinesses towork moreclosely together
While governmentselsewhere wrestle with costcontrol and austerity cutsto research, healthcare inJapan is a growthindustry. But that was notalways the case.
From the end of thesecond world war until themid-1970s, Japan’sintellectual propertyprotection policy fosteredimitation rather thaninnovation. In thepharmaceutical industry,foreign companies couldenter Japan only as jointventures with 50 per centor less ownership. Patents
were granted for processesrather than products, soresearchers in Japanesecompanies focused onfinding innovative orunpatented processes tomake drugs that had beendiscovered elsewhere.
All this changed in 1975when a product patentsystem replaced theprocess patent system, andforeign companies couldestablish 100 per centowned affiliates in Japan.Researchers were forced todiscover new substancesinstead of new processes.
Western criticsconsidered Japaneseresearch inferior because itproduced small-stepinnovations, such as
second or third generationproducts that were not athreat to first-in-classdrugs. However, theapproach was rational inJapan because higherprices were awarded forsmall innovations. Thegoal was to launch anynew version of a drugrather than a new andunique drug.
Consequently in the1980s Japan approved andlaunched more new – or atleast new versions – ofdrugs than either the USor Europe. Many of thesewere not sold outsideJapan, but they did solidifya dominant position forJapanese companies intheir home market, the
second-largest in the world.Japan no longer had torely on foreign partners,and researchers worked todiscover first-generationdrugs that would establisha presence in internationalmarkets. In the 1990s someJapanese-origin drugsbecame internationalblockbusters.
Regulators wereconvinced that strongerintellectual propertyprotection yielded positiveoutcomes as Japan took aposition alongside the USand Europe in new drugsdiscovered rather thancopied. Further policiessupported innovation. Onewas to shorten the timerequired to review and
approve patentapplications.
The result was a gradualdecrease from between afive and eight-year wait forapproval in 1998 to anaverage of 18 monthstoday. Another, in 2007,gave new drugs eight yearsof exclusivity regardless ofpatent status.
New drug ideas springfrom laboratories, and inJapan most are in largenational universities.Researchers weregovernment employeesunable to profit from theirdiscoveries.
But once that restrictionwas removed in 2004 therewas an explosion in newbio-venture companies and
new drugs today are mostoften large moleculebiopharmaceuticals ratherthan small moleculechemicals.
Innovation is changingbut Japan still lacks abridge between new drugideas and marketedproducts.
The next steps must beventure capital, ease ofpublic listing on stockexchanges and a centralagency to optimise theallocation of governmentmoney for research.
P Reed Maurer is presidentof International AlliancesLimited and author of“They Do Well Who DoGood”
Patent protection has helped drugs industry to moderniseCommentP REED MAURER
Masayo Takahashi isJapan’s latest medicalcelebrity. Next summer, the52-year-old ophthalmologistwill extract skin cells froma volunteer whose visionhas been impaired by age-related macular degenera-tion, a common retinal con-dition that makes it diffi-cult for those affected to seestraight ahead, but leavesperipheral vision intact.
Dr Takahashi, who worksat the Riken Centre forDevelopmental Biology inKobe, plans to transformthose cells into retinal tis-sue using an experimentalstem-cell technique, thenimplant them into one ofthe patient’s damaged eyes.
Because the tissue will beextracted from the patient’sbody, Dr Takahashi hopes itwill be integrated easily bythe eye, regenerating it andrestoring at least some ofthe lost vision. “Fifteen
years ago, I thought, I willdevelop cell transplantationtherapy,” she says. “Genetherapy and stem cells werecompletely new to ophthal-mology then, but I saw theimportance.”
Dr Takahashi’s work isthe first clinical trial in theworld involving iPSCs –induced pluripotent stemcells – a type of stem cellderived from adult tissue. Itis backed by a high-profilenational effort to capitaliseon a Japanese scientific dis-covery: last year, ShinyaYamanaka, a professor atKyoto University, sharedthe Nobel Prize in medicinefor working out how to“trick” mature cells intobecoming iPSCs.
Stem cells have enormouspotential in treating dis-eases because of their abil-ity to grow into any sort oftissue. Until now, mosthave been cultivated fromthe cells of human embryos,but iPSCs offer two distinctadvantages: they are free ofthe ethical objections thatsurround the use of embry-onic tissue and they can begenetically matched bymaking them out ofpatients’ own cells. Labora-tories around the world are
using iPSCs to study howdiseases progress and todevelop treatments: scien-tists imagine creating eve-rything from brain cells forParkinson’s patients toinsulin-making cells for dia-betics.
But Dr Takahashi and herteam at Riken will be firstto try an iPSC treatment ona human subject.
Despite the novelty of thetechnology, Japan’s govern-ment is already betting thatit can become the basis of amajor new industry.
Shinzo Abe, the primeminister, has given regener-ative medicine a centralplace in his “Abenomics”growth strategy, and he isbacking revisions toJapan’s pharmaceutical lawthat are intended to shortenapproval times for newresearch and treatments.The changes are expected tobe approved by parliamentbefore the end of the year.
“Regulation is the biggesthurdle in this field, butJapan will be the best placein the world to pursueregenerative medicine,” DrTakahashi says.
Yet for all her confidencein the health benefits ofstem cells and other regen-
erative therapies, she iswary of the high expecta-tions building up aroundtheir economic potential.
“Start-up companies arealready involved and theroad to commercialisationis there, but to assume thatthe concept of iPSCs andregenerative medicine willyield a lot of money isnaive,” she says. “Onlyparts of the field willbecome industries. It’s dan-gerous to think that all ofregenerative medicine will.”
Still, she believes movingquickly to find applicationsfor stem cells is a positiveturn for Japan’s scientificestablishment. The countryhas an impressive record inbasic research – DrYamanaka was its 11thNobel laureate since 2000 –but when it comes to com-mercialising its discoveries,she acknowledges that thecountry has been “weak”.
“In Japanese academiathere is this idea that poorequals pure,” she says.
She draws a contrast withRiken, which has partner-ships with universities andthe government but wasfounded as a private institu-tion. “Our project is seen asspecial, but at a Japanese
university every depart-ment is supposed to betreated equally. I think a lotof universities will bewatching us.”
Dr Takahashi did notalways have ambitions torun a cutting-edge clinicallaboratory. She says shedrifted into medicine at theurging of her parents, andchose ophthalmologybecause she wanted chil-dren, and the field offeredstable working hours. Herhusband, a neurosurgeon,was the more illustriousdoctor. “I saw it as my jobto support him,” she says.
It was in 1995, when shefollowed her husband to theSalk Institute in California,that she started on her ownpath to prominence. Shewas introduced to the fieldof stem cell science and sawthat no one was exploringits use in ophthalmology, soshe began her own researchproject. “I was the only per-son in the world who under-stood it,” she says. “Thatwas an exciting feeling.”
On returning to Japan, DrTakahashi continued herwork at Kyoto University.
Paradoxically, becauseshe had chosen clinicalresearch, academia’s mix of
Stem cell scientist warns on profitsRegenerative medicine
Pioneer is wary ofhigh expectations formaking money, saysJonathan Soble
It was not quite as memorable as“That’s one small step for man,one giant leap for mankind,” asuttered by Neil Armstrong in 1969.But the matter-of-fact statement
was thrilling for the creators of a newbreed of astronaut sent into space thissummer: “On August 21 2013, a robottook one small step toward a brighterfuture for all.”
Kirobo – a combination of the Japa-nese words for “hope” and “robot” – isa machine with a difference: not onlydoes it provide technical assistance, itis also designed to provide compan-ionship to human astronauts whospend months working in space.
“I believe robots will be the nextsmartphone just like Google believesGoogle Glass will be the next smart-phone,” says Kirobo’s creator, Tomo-taka Takahashi, referring to theefforts made to enable the machine tohold basic conversations.
Kirobo was last month joined byKoichi Wakata, a Japanese astronaut,having travelled ahead to the Interna-tional Space Station in an unmannedrocket which blasted off from a Japa-nese island this year.
Mr Takahashi, a robotics engineerat Tokyo university, was inspired bythe Manga character Astro Boy, aclassic cartoon robot, and worked onthe project in collaboration with Toy-ota and Dentsu, an advertising firm.
Kirobo has been programmed tocommunicate in Japanese and recog-nise voices and faces. He is capable ofholding a conversation and improvis-ing basic responses. On the morepractical side, he is there to act as anobserver and recorder, and can relayinstructions verbally to Mr Wakatasent from earth. But despite the atten-tion the project received and the high
level of Japanese robotics expertise,other manufacturers are unlikely tofollow suit, say those working in theindustry.
“They don’t recognise space robot-ics as a big area for the business,”says Hiroki Kato, an engineer at theJapan Aerospace Exploration Agency(Jaxa). He says projects such asKirobo make great PR – the littlespace companion generated headlinesworldwide – but are not the basis fora sustained commercial programmeunless they could earn their keep byperforming a wide range of tasks.
Jaxa has created prototype robotssent into orbit on several missions fortasks such as refuelling and mainte-nance but is not currently working ona humanoid robot, although it has notruled that prospect out. The USregards itself as leading the field.
“Japan has significant experiencewith its advanced robotics but onlyRobonaut [the first humanoid robot inspace] has worked side by side withastronauts performing tasks that cur-rently only humans perform,” saysRon Diftler, manager of the Robonautproject at Nasa.
Japanese roboticists have some-times come under fire for makingmachines that entertain rather thanpursuing serious engineering projects.
Honda’s Asimo robot, the “world’smost advanced humanoid robot”according to the carmaker, can walklike a human and is the size of a smalladult. But it has usually made head-lines for conducting’ symphonyorchestras, performing dances andgreeting royalty.
The March 2011 tsunami and subse-quent Fukushima nuclear disasterwas a wake-up call. The event oughtto have been an opportunity for
roboticists to show what their tech-nology could do, given the dangers forhumans during the clean-up operationat the stricken power plant.
But few robots were capable ofresponding to the nuclear accident, asituation that has since encouragedmany to focus on developing robotsthat can perform rescue operations.
After Fukushima, space is no longerregarded as a priority for Japaneseroboticists – but some believe robotastronauts will eventually come intotheir own.
Technology used in Honda’s Asimoand other robots can easily be applied
to machines created with space mis-sions in mind, says Mr Kato. But forthose that decide to go down this pathprofits may not materialise for 50years, he predicts.
“Interest in space robots is growingmore quickly now than 10 years ago,”says Mr Diftler. “The space station isa very busy place and having an extraset of hands, in this case robot handsthat can handle maintenance tasks,frees up the crew for more science.”
Mr Takahashi argues the good pub-licity is enough at this stage. “A lot ofpeople are interested in this project,and that’s the important thing.”
Robots mustearn their keepwith seriousengineeringAndroids Humanoid models may helppromote manufacturers’ abilities but they needa practical purpose, writes Jennifer Thompson
glass-ceiling sexism and dis-dain for applied scienceworked in her favour. “Icould do what I wantedbecause I was a woman,”she says. “I didn’t thinkabout career advancement.”
Today, she believes, barri-ers to women in sciencehave largely disappeared inJapan. Although the coun-try has mostly resisted quo-tas and other formal anti-discrimination measures,qualified women are oftengiven priority for jobs.
“At Riken, the other can-didate for my job was awoman and a foreigner, so Iwas pretty worried,” she
half-jokes. “Luckily, shedropped out.”
The bigger barrier is apsychological one imposedby traditional culture, sheargues. “Japanese womendon’t want to stand out,they don’t want to be lead-ers. They don’t think, ‘Iwant to have my own laband reach the top in myfield’. I certainly didn’tuntil Salk.” But Dr Taka-hashi believes things arechanging, in part because ofthe growing number of rolemodels such as herself.“Sometimes,” she says, “Imeet young women who tellme, ‘You’re cool’.”
In 2011, few robotswere capableof responding tothe Fukushimanuclear accident
1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
Edo period (17th to 19th century) Japanese craftsmen build complex automatons for theatre performances and for sale as domestic toys
1932 Robot Lilliput, probably the first toy mechanical robot, produced in Japan by an unknown manufacturer. It can walk and swing its arms
1945 Japan embraces technology in an effort to turn imported raw materials into high-tech goods for export after the second world war
1973 WABOT 1 created by Waseda University. It can communicate, measure distances and work out directions
1978 The ACMVI (Oblix) created by the Tokyo Institute of Technology, later adapted with others for use in manufacturing and industry
1981 Professor Hirose creates the Titan III, a quadruped robot that can climb stairs
1984 WABOT 2 unveiled by Waseda University, a robot that can talk, read musical scores with its eyes and play an electronic organ
1989 AquaRobot, a hexapod that walks under the sea, created by the robotics arm of the transport ministry
1999 Aibo, a robotic dog, created by Sony. It can learn and communicate. A robot fish is created by Mitsubishi to replicate an extinct species
2013 Kirobo, developed by Tokyo University, accompanies a Japanese astronaut into space. The government allocates Y2.39bn to develop robots to care for elderly people
Source: FT research FT graphic
Japan’s history of robotics
Sixth century and earlier Japan's relationship with robots may have its origins in the Shinto belief system. A component is animism - the notion that objects have spirits
Restoring sight: Masayo Takahashi
‘Japan still lacks abridge betweennew drug ideas andmarketed products’
FINANCIAL TIMES TUESDAY DECEMBER 3 2013 ★ 3
Japan Technology & Innovation
When Murata Manufactur-ing, a Kyoto-based supplierof components to Apple andSamsung, wanted tobecome closer to Toko Incnorth of the capital, it didso in stages.
First, in March 2012, therivals set up a “capital andbusiness alliance”, whichinvolved Murata subscrib-ing to new Toko shares andconvertible bonds. Almost ayear later, Murata launchedan offer to raise its equitystake in Toko to 66.6 percent, while leaving theremainder listed.
A similar phased dealwith Tokyo Denpa, acquiredin August this year, tookabout four times longerthan the Toko Inc deal.
This softly softlyapproach is not a matter ofpolicy, says YoshihiroNishida, Murata’s generalmanager in charge ofaccounting, finance andplanning, noting that theY1.9tn ($19bn) company hasbought other companies inone go within the past cou-ple of years.
Rather, he says, it is apragmatic response to astrategic imperative: tobuild stronger ties withcompanies that can offer“complementary” skills andknowledge, in the constantpursuit of miniaturisationand digitalisation.
“The electronics industryis changing drastically andit has become vital to buildsystems to provide high val-ue-added products asquickly and as efficiently aspossible,” says Mr Nishida.
The way Shinzo Abe seesit, more companies shouldbe thinking like this.
Part of the prime minis-ter’s grand plan to haul theeconomy out of more than adecade of low growth anddeflation is to encouragecompanies to join togetherso that capital can be allo-cated more productively.
Having too many rivals inone sector, all trying to
steal market share fromeach other is a recipe forlow profits, low wages andlow prices.
The problem is not just inthe cars and electronicssectors, where excess capac-ity is most remarked upon.
In machinery, food, retail,chemicals and construction,the top five companies haveas little as a 30-40 per centshare between them.
Beer is another bloatedsector, with Asahi, Kirin,Suntory and Sapporojostling for space in super-market aisles.
“We have four bigbrewers, none of which iswell known in the globalmarket,” says one M&Abanker in Tokyo. “They areall competing for drinkersin this shrinking popula-tion, which is stupid.”
It is not that Japanesecompanies are shy of M&A.It is that they would rathernot do it with each other.
Data from Recof, theJapanese research house,shows that domestic compa-nies were involved in 1,457M&A deals worth Y6.5tn inthe first nine months of theyear. But most had a cross-border element.
Purely domestic M&Aaccounted for just 20 per
cent of the total value – thefourth year in a row wherethe share of “in-in” dealshas been below half thetotal.
That is a far cry from2005, when giant deals suchas the $7bn Daiichi/Sankyodrugs merger pushed thedomestic share to 80 percent, raising hopes thatmore idle capacity would beshaken out.
Mr Abe seems determinedto restore some of that
momentum, which was afeature of the era of primeminister Junichiro Koizumia decade or so ago. In thecurrent parliamentary ses-sion the government ispushing for tax breaks forcarve outs, in which multi-ple enterprises split off partof their operations andcombine them in a newcompany.
Parent companies will be
able to book investmentsand loans in the joint sub-sidiary as losses, if they cansatisfy the relevant minis-ter that the new company isaiming to develop overseasmarkets and new businessfields.
Such laws “have thepotential to change thestructure of Japanese indus-try radically, if used effec-tively,” says MasatoshiKikuchi, a strategist atMizuho Securities.
More encouragementcould come via the Innova-tion Network Corporationof Japan (INCJ), a mostlystate-backed institution setup in 2009 under the gov-ernment of Taro Aso, nowdeputy finance minister.About two-thirds of the cor-poration’s Y600bn of invest-ments to date have beendirected towards corporaterestructurings and mergers.
In its biggest deal in 2011,INCJ plucked out threelossmaking businesses fromSony, Toshiba and Hitachiand mashed them together,injecting Y200bn of equitycapital in exchange for costcuts. The new creation –Japan Display – could beready for an initial publicoffering within the nextcouple of years.
The INCJ “can play a roleas an agent of consolida-tion”, says Kensaku Bessho,head of M&A at MitsubishiUFJ Morgan Stanley Securi-ties in Tokyo.
A new stock index to belaunched in January repre-sents another effort to sortwinners from losers. TheJPX-Nikkei 400 will grouptogether the most profitableand most investor-friendlycompanies in Japan, itsdesigners say, positioningitself as a rival to the dec-ades old Nikkei 225.
If it takes off, analystssay companies not in theindex will want to get in it,while companies already inwill want to stay there.
If that requires a lot ofspinning off of duff busi-nesses, then so be it, saysMasashi Oda, chief invest-ment officer of equityinvestment at SuMi Trust,Asia’s largest institutionalasset manager.
Broad usage of the newindex is likely to be a “moti-vator for change”, he says.
Abe employs more carrot thanstick in drive to consolidationM&A
Japanese companiesare shy of takeoversand mergers, writesBen McLannahan
Too many rivals inone sector is arecipe for lowprofits, low wagesand low prices
Japan mergers and acquisitions deals
Source: Dealogic
$bn
Domestic M&AOutbound M&AInbound M&A
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2003 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 2013YTD
On October 1 1964, nine daysbefore the last TokyoOlympics, the TokaidoShinkansen bullet trainbegan operating between
the capital and Osaka, completing the500km journey in just four hours. Itwas the most potent symbol of thecountry’s rapid progress after the sec-ond world war.
As Tokyo prepares to host the 2020Olympics, Japan hopes once again toshowcase the world’s fastest train,this time the SCMaglev, a hover trainthat will run at more than 500kph.
The SCMaglev (superconductingmagnetic levitation) will eventuallycut the journey between the cities ofOsaka and Tokyo to 67 minutes; ittakes around two and a half hours onthe current Shinkansen train.
JR Central, the railway companybehind the Maglev, is expected tobegin work next year on thefirst 350km phase, to link Tokyo toNagoya with a 40-minute journey. In
September, the L-zero SCMaglevequalled the world train speed recordof 581kph set by an earlier JR Centralprototype. Shortly afterwards, JR Cen-tral announced plans to begin servicesto Nagoya by 2027 and Osaka by 2045.
The SCMaglev is propelled by pow-erful supercooled magnets along awalled track known as a “guideway”.The train runs on rubber wheels untilit reaches 100kph, at which point itfloats to 10cm above the ground. Thelack of friction allows it to reach itsrecord-breaking speeds.
JR Central says the fact that thetrain hovers, combined with theguideway, makes it difficult for thetrain to derail. The country’s bullettrains have an exemplary safetyrecord – not one serious injury among7bn passengers carried since theirinception. Earthquakes are a threatbut have been the cause of just onederailment, in 2004. Bullet trains arefitted with early-warning systems thatstop them during an earthquake.
The cost of the project, to be bornewholly by JR Central, is forecast torun to Y9tn ($89bn) and concernshave been raised about its viability. Inaddition to very large investment inresearch and development, the linewill take a new and more direct routebetween Tokyo and Osaka, a majorcivil engineering challenge. At suchhigh speeds, the track needs to be asstraight as possible, requiring 250kmof tunnels, many through the moun-tains of the Japanese Alps.
“It can’t be viable between Tokyoand Nagoya, not with the amountthey are investing, though it has thepotential to be once the line isextended to reach Osaka,” says RyotaHimeno, a transport analyst at Bar-clays in Tokyo. “But linking the twobiggest population centres, Tokyo andOsaka, with the potential for both lei-sure and business travel betweenthem should allow it to eventuallypay for itself.”
Japan’s demographics are a consid-
eration for every domestic business.The population is expected to drop by8 per cent to 117m by 2027, accordingto government projections. Tokyo willkeep growing until about the time theline opens by drawing people in fromthe provinces but its population islikely to start falling from there.
JR Central is undaunted. “AlthoughJapan is already facing an ageing soci-ety with a low birth rate, the Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka area will continue tobe the driving force of the Japaneseeconomy,” it says. “And its popula-tion is not expected to fall as much asthe country as a whole.”
The company suggests that once themetropolitan areas of Tokyo, Nagoya
and Osaka are linked, a giant popula-tion centre of about 65m will emerge.The development of technology forthe SCMaglev could also boost localindustry and create opportunitiesoverseas, it says.
The existing Tokaido Shinkansenbetween Osaka and Tokyo presentsanother challenge. It carries nearly400,000 passengers a day, making itthe busiest and most lucrative high-speed rail service in the world. JRCentral’s intention to keep it runningafter the new service is launchedmeans it will have to attract manymore passengers to rail travel in orderto make the SCMaglev viable.
Yusuke Aramaki, an analyst at Mit-subishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, hasdoubts about the business model, say-ing JR Central’s only option will be to“take share from the airlines”.
But JR Central argues its projec-tions are sound. “Our plans arebased . . . on the respective marketshares for bullet trains and airlines
‘Levitating’ trainboosts hopesfor growth andOlympic glory
Maglev World’s fastest service will be amongthe most expensive but the rewards could beconsiderable, writes Gavin Blair
Linking metropolitan areascould create a populationcentre of about 65 million
Attractive proposition: the SCMaglev is propelled along a walled track by powerful supercooled magnets Bloomberg
and the combined income from theexisting Tokaido Shinkansen and thenew service,” it says. Barclays’ MrHimeno foresees some risks butbelieves the huge investment, “shouldgive an overall boost to Japan’s GDP”and “will have a positive effect onNagoya, where companies may relo-cate offices from Tokyo for cheaperrent and taxes”.
If the technology is adopted over-seas, JR Central is likely to act as aconsultant. Representatives fromNortheast Maglev, a Washington-based firm proposing a high-speedlink from the US capital to Baltimoreand New York, have already riddenon the L-zero SCMaglev at JR Cen-tral’s test track in Yamanashi. The42.8km test track, which will formpart of the Tokyo-Nagoya line, isexpected to open within a few years topaying passengers at certain times. JRCentral is hoping that both train andtrack will be major attractions for vis-itors to the Tokyo Olympic Games.
4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES TUESDAY DECEMBER 3 2013
Japan Technology & Innovation
The walls outside the other-wise minimalist bathroomcubicles in Toto’s Londonshowroom are adorned withmessy scraps of paper, each
with the header: “My first Washletexperience was . . . ”. One reads:“I became a child again”.
Others range from fearful – “Veryscary” – to rhapsodic – “Orgasmic”,“Bangin!”, “The most exciting toiletexperience of my life!”
High-tech toilets have been commonin Japan for 30 years. At least 70 percent of households have one fitted.
They are more unusual outside theJapanese domestic market, but com-panies such as Toto are hoping tomake them popular worldwide.
Toto, which sells them under thebrand name Washlet, is growingsteadily outside Japan. The companyentered the European market with abase in Germany in 2008 and the Lon-don showroom opened in 2010. It fore-casts that by the end of 2013 overseassales of all its equipment will haverisen 22 per cent year on year.
This is much higher than the 9 percent rise in sales in Japan, but comesfrom a lower base. The company’soverseas sales of housing equipmentrose 9 per cent year on year in thesecond quarter of 2013 in the Ameri-cas and 16 per cent in Europe.
Hiroki Oizumi, global marketingofficer for Lixil, the group that ownsInax, another Japanese high-tech toi-let maker, says the prices of suchproducts can be a barrier to new busi-ness within the UK and the US.
The “retail price of a shower toiletis significantly higher than a normaltoilet”, he explains. “And people haveno experience when they try to useit,” which makes it a harder sell.
Mr Oizumi says that giving custom-ers the “real experience is the key toexpanding the market”. However,high-tech toilet manufacturers cannotjust rely on showroom visitors.
Sohei Nishida, Toto’s London man-ager, thinks it can expand only byestablishing the same bathroom pref-erences in Europe as Japan. He recog-nises talking about toilet habits canbe unsociable, but Washlets certainlyhave enough features to discuss.
Floyd Case, a manager at the“concept store” in London’s Clerken-well, demonstrates how the technol-ogy works with a sheet of glass placedover a showroom toilet seat. A nozzleappears and squirts a spray of waterup at the glass. He keeps up a
running commentary as he pressesbuttons: “You can have an oscillatingmovement or massage and there is adrying system.” The nozzle recedesand an avocado-shaped patch of wateron the glass shrinks as the dryer getsto work.
Showrooms are a crucial way toconvert people to using these toiletsbecause they provide a way to test theproduct. Since setting up in London,Toto has also targeted potential cus-tomers in places such as five-starhotels to create awareness. It hopesthat making the brand more recognis-able will establish a bigger sales net-work and lead to more individual
customers, as it has done in China,the Caribbean and the US.
Entry into other markets has beenhelped by technological developments.Other manufacturers are moving intomaking high-tech toilets, and thequest for more environmentallyfriendly products has given them afoothold in other markets.
David Krakoff, president of sales forToto in the Americas, says the pushfor lower water consumption for toi-lets in Canada and the US gave Totoan opportunity to get into the region.“It wasn’t hard to create toilets thatflushed 1.6 gallons – they just weren’tflushing what was in the bowl.
Efficiency became a big deal and thisis when we jumped in,” he says.
The industry has been helped by therapid development of technology. Thepervasiveness of smart appliances hasmade smart toilets seem less odd.
Mr Krakoff is dismissive of the ideathat people are worried about technol-ogy going wrong near their netherregions. “It’s not an issue any more.We have ultra-high manufacturingstandards . . . we get almost no war-ranty claims on Washlets,” he says.
Back in the UK, Mr Nishida doesadmit to one serious cultural barrier –British consumers are not enamouredwith futuristic design.
“In Japan, we hear about how easy[the toilets are] to use or clean – that’swhat’s important. But here there ismore care for design. That’s some-thing we’re still struggling with,” hesays.
“We don’t have it yet, but I thinkthat in the UK it is about classical,traditional design.”
Despite the aesthetic challenge, heis ambitious. It took Toto 10 years tobecome established in China and “itneeds to happen quicker than thathere”.
“Once [consumers] experience it,they know how good they are,” MrNishida adds. “I am not worried.”
Hightech toilet makers contrive to make a splashHousehold goods Manufacturers such as Toto hope to persuade the world to purchase what is regarded as a Japanese oddity, writes Amie Tsang
‘Efficiency became abig deal and this is whenwe jumped in’
Toto Neorest ACWashletThis selfcleaningtoilet has anintegrated UV lightto break downorganic substances.It also sprays thebowl before and afteruse with electrolysedwater, typically used todisinfect vegetables or asa mouthwash.
Inax RegioThe toilet has a soundsystem so that userscan listen to classicalmusic or relaxingsounds. The bowl isfitted with lights thatturn on when someoneapproaches, which isuseful for stumbling,nighttime visits.
Toto SG WashletThe spray wand can beadjusted to wash frontand back. Waterpressure andtemperature can beregulated. It has aheated seat and a lidthat closesautomatically.
Technology Game of thrones
Less than 20 miles north ofthe hulking corpse of theFukushima Daiichi nuclearplant, Eiju Hangai, a busi-nessman, is plotting hisown modest course towardJapan’s energy future.
A native of Minamisoma –the largest city in theplant’s immediate falloutzone – Mr Hangai says he istrying to help his devas-tated home town make acomeback with a solar-pow-ered lettuce farm. “It’s mycontribution to our recov-ery,” he says.
The farm, shelteringunder two nylon domes onland leased from the citygovernment, is powered by2,000 Toshiba solar panels.Any surplus electricity issold to the local utility,Tohoku Electric Power.Katsunobu Sakurai, themayor, is an enthusiasticsupporter and he hopessmall projects such as thiswill help make Minamisomaself-sufficient in energy by2030.
Even before the March2011 disaster, Japan’s elec-tricity rates were amongthe world’s most expensive.
The impact of Fukushimaand the eye-popping pricetag for cleaning up from thedisaster are extra incentivesin the race to find alterna-tives. One result has been atripling in the number ofindependent power produc-ers over the past two years,says Andrew DeWit, a pro-fessor of policy studies atRikkyo University.
Since a feed-in tariff sys-tem for renewable energybegan last year, dozens ofcompanies have applied togenerate solar and windpower. The tariff systemmeans that small, renewa-ble energy producers suchas Mr Hangai are paid gen-erously for their electricity:Y42 (26p) per kWh, or about
twice the average price ofpower in the UK.
That solar rush, however,is from a very small start.
Power from renewablesources made up approxi-mately 9 per cent of Japan’stotal pre-Fukushima energysupply, according to theministry of economy, tradeand industry. Most of thatwas hydroelectric. “Otherrenewable energy is stillcost prohibitive,” says theministry. Even with the tar-iff system, independentpower producers todayaccount for less than 3 percent of the nation’s electric-ity market.
Nevertheless, renewableenergy is being produced inEuropean and US marketsat prices competitive withcoal and gas, says TomO’Sullivan, an independentenergy specialist. “There isno reason why this cannotbe achieved in Japan sincethe technology is thesame,” says Mr O’Sullivan,adding that Japan needssolar and other renewablesto meet its newly revisedclimate change targets.
Bridging Japan’s energygap has become more press-ing this year. Japan waspreviously nuclear free in1970, when its then twoworking reactors were shut
down for maintenance.Today it has 50 commercialreactors and these are nowoffline for safety checksthat are tougher and morepoliticised after Fukushima.The triple meltdown at theplant in 2011, combinedwith the weaker yen, willadd an extra Y9.2tn to thenation’s fuel bill between2011 and the end of thisyear, say officials, as thenation’s nine big utilitiesscour the planet for gas,coal and heavy oil.
Opponents of the nuclearrestarts are putting theirfaith in power saving andrenewables. Eventuallysolar power could conserva-tively supply more than10,000MW of electricity inJapan, equivalent to theoutput of 10 nuclear reac-tors, forecasts Mika Ohba-yashi, director of the JapanRenewable Energy Founda-tion, a think-tank. “There isno need to restart nuclearreactors,” she insists.
But where is crowded,mountainous Japan goingto put all those solar pan-els, asks Paul Scalise, anenergy specialist at the Uni-versity of Tokyo. He sayssupporters of alternativeenergy must confront whathe calls the density problem– power generated per
available space. “Wind isabout two watts per squaremetre; solar power 20 watts;with nuclear you get 1,000watts per square metre.”
In practice, this hasmeant most new large-scalesolar projects have set up inJapan’s less crowded north.Among the biggest reportedinvestors is SoftBank, a tel-ecommunications company,which announced plans lastyear for three solar stationsin Hokkaido, the northernisland, with a combinedcapacity of more than180MW.
Concentrating the solarboom in the north has cre-ated roadblocks, however.Hokkaido Electric Powerhas been overwhelmed byapplications for power salesand is dragging its feet inapproving them.
Another problem is trans-ferring power across acountry divided into 10regional power fiefdoms,with different technicalstandards overseen by sepa-rate local governments. Notsurprisingly, SoftBank hasbeen forced to scale back onthe size of the solar project.
The slow growth ofenergy alternatives andopposition to nuclear dragson economic recovery.Prime minister ShinzoAbe’s position is clear. InMarch, he removed most ofthe anti-nuclear panellistsfrom an energy policy boardadvising the state on post-Fukushima alternatives. MrAbe is acting true to form.His Liberal Democraticparty brought nuclearpower to Japan in the 1950sand will not let it go easily.
This month, parliamentpassed legislation aimed attriggering what many say isJapan’s most ambitiousreform of its electricitymarket since the US occu-pation ended in 1951.
Perhaps the most strikingpart of that reform is theestablishment of a nationalgrid company by 2015. Thatshould help unify thedivided transmission anddistribution systems andallow solar power producerslike Mr. Hangai easieraccess to the network.
Land of rising sun pins hopeson increased use of solar powerElectricity
Nuclear disasterstarted race to findalternatives, writesDavid A McNeill
Keiji Saika’s first innova-tion in rice polishing wasinspired by a product farremoved from Japan’s cher-ished staple food: a piece ofchewing gum.
It was the 1970s and MrSaika was running his fam-ily’s small manufacturingbusiness near Osaka, whichspecialised in making rice-polishing machinery.
Most Japanese prefer ricebuffed to its shiny whitecore. The grain is milledindustrially to remove thehusk, then polished insmaller batches by whole-salers, retailers or even athome. Cooks usually give itanother wash in the sink toremove leftover traces ofbran, thought to taste bitterand to be difficult to digest.
Mr Saika was concernedthat the starchy water, ortogijiru, discharged by mil-lions of households in thisprocess was contributing towater pollution, a big prob-lem in Japan after morethan two decades of indus-trial expansion.
“I wanted to find a wayfor people to eat rice with-out hurting the environ-ment,” he says.
The breakthrough camewhen a piece of chewinggum got stuck to his trou-sers. He removed it the wayhe learnt as a child: dab-bing it with a second pieceof gum and pulling both offtogether. “I suddenlythought, ‘I can do the samething with rice’,” he says.
Bran is slightly sticky, sohe went about devising apolishing machine thatwould force the rice grainsto jostle together. Theywould pull the hada nuka,or bran, off one anotherresulting in more cleanly
polished rice that did notneed a rinse at home.
“I imagined myself as agrain of rice bouncingaround in the machine,” hesays. After more than adecade of tinkering, musen-mai – wash-free rice – wasborn; by 2011, roughly460,000 tonnes were beingmade, 6 per cent of Japan’stotal rice production.
Now at 79, Mr Saika ismarketing a new innova-tion aimed at consumers’health. It is the result of afurther refinement of hisrice-polishing machine thathe says produces grainsthat are more nutritiousthan regular white rice.
As most health fanaticsknow, genmai or brown riceis healthier than the whitekind: the bran that issloughed off during polish-ing contains micronutri-ents. Yet in spite of itsadvantages it remains aniche product, particularlyin Japan and other big rice-consuming Asian countries.
Mr Saika sought a com-promise – rice that wouldbe as nutritious as possiblewhile still being white. Heachieved it, he says, byadjusting his polishingmachine’s design – specifi-cally, the angle of the blade-like grain spreader attachedto its central cylinder – tomake the grains collidemore gently and evenly.The result is the bran isremoved but a delicate andnutrition-rich membraneunderneath is left intact asis the kinme or germ.
Hiroyuki Inagawa, a pro-fessor at Kagawa Universitymedical school, says thatpreserving the membrane,which is just 1/100 of a mil-limetre thick and is knownas the subaleurone layer,may have benefits includ-ing boosting the immunesystem. “It’s better at sup-porting the body’s ability toself-regenerate than the ricewe normally eat,” he says.
Mr Saika says his ricecontains nine times asmuch vitamin B1 and 1.5
times as much vegetablefibre as fully polished rice.
His company, Toyo Rice,is selling it under the brandname Kinmemai, or “goldenbud rice”. Although itsprice can be 10-15 per centhigher than that of regularwhite rice, Mr Saika pointsout each bag of Kinmemaistretches further – becauseit is slightly plumper thannormal rice, the same vol-ume can be made with atenth fewer grains. Mr
Saika says he hopes Kin-memai will re-energiseJapan’s rice farms, whichproduce a third less ricethan they did 20 years ago –a result of changing eatinghabits, a shrinking ruralpopulation and a govern-ment policy of reducingacreage to support prices.
Last year, sales of breadin Japan overtook those ofrice for the first time.
“I feel I have a duty tohelp protect Japan’s riceculture,” Mr Saika says.
Innovations like his may
become increasingly vital.Japanese rice farming hasbeen insulated from foreigncompetition by onerous tar-iffs on imports, but the cur-rent level of protection maynot be sustainable.
Shinzo Abe, the primeminister, has pledged todefend rice farmers in nego-tiations over the Trans-Pa-cific Partnership, a sweep-ing trade pact that his gov-ernment is seeking to join,but other parties to thetalks – including big agri-cultural producers such asthe US and Australia –want exemptions to be nar-row and temporary.
The small size of mostJapanese farms means theycannot hope to compete onprice, so offering premiumproducts will be essential.Mr Saika understands this,and wants to broaden hiscustomer base by appealingto health-conscious foreign-ers. He recently organised a“rice tasting” for journalistsand diplomats at an expen-sive restaurant in Tokyo’sGinza district, where dishesincluding plain Kinmemaiserved with a pinch of seasalt, puffed Kinmemai andgrilled Kinmemai in dashibroth won rave reviews.
“I was happy to see for-eigners have basically thesame taste in rice as Japa-nese do,” Mr Saika says.“This is a good first step.”
Rice shines as itpasses chewinggum testFood
Most Japaneseprefer the grainbuffed to its core,says Jonathan Soble
‘I wanted to find away for people toeat rice withouthurting theenvironment’
Offwhite: Kinmemai rice is processed and packed
Jet set: a hightechtoilet on display inLondon Charlie Bibby
Japan’s electricity generation
Source: OECD
% of total
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20
40
60
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1990 2011 2020 2025 2030 2035
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NuclearRenewable
