The EU-Japan Centre is pleased to start a new weekly service by publishing brief summary of the latest information from the Japanese governmental organizations & private companies/organizations. A couple of minutes reading to be informed about what is happening in Japan's policy, economy, EU-Japan relations, and innovation.

*Information is deemed correct at the time of release. 

Weekly Japanese Industry and Policy News (Jan. 6-Jan. 12, 2023)

Kuraray begins call for school bags donation to Afghanistan
Kuraray announced on January 10 that it has begun accepting applications for randoseru (Japanese style school bag) needed for this year's donation activities. This is an international social contribution activity sponsored by Kuraray, which produces the man-made leather CLARINO®, which accounts for approximately 70% of the market share for school bags. It receives used school bags from people in Japan and give them to children in Afghanistan every year along with school supplies such as notebooks and pencils. School bags submitted in 2022 were distributed to children in Achin District, Nangarhar Province from October to November 2022 with the cooperation of the Afghan Medical Union, which has a clinic and office in Jalalabad (the capital of Nangarhar Province). This campaign, which started in 2004, has so far delivered approximately 150,000 school bags to children in Afghanistan.

Kuraray website (in Japanese): https://www.kuraray.co.jp/news/2023/230110

Japan and the United States conclude framework agreement on space cooperation
On January 14, Japan time, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In the presence of Prime Minister Kishida, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and the Antony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States of America signed the Japan-U.S. Framework Agreement on Space Cooperation. The agreement sets out the basics for Japan and the United States to cooperate in space for peaceful purposes. The signing ceremony was attended by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, Astronauts Akihiko Hoshide and Astronauts Anne McClain.

MOFA website: https://www.mofa.go.jp/fp/msp/page1e_000559.html

Corporate Goods Price Index rises 10.2% in December 2010, record high for the year
The corporate goods price index for December 2022 (preliminary figure, 2020 average = 100) announced by the Bank of Japan on January 16 was 119.5, up 10.2% from the same month of the previous year. The index hit a record high for the ninth straight month. It was the 22nd consecutive month that the index exceeded the previous year's level. The movement to pass on the soaring energy prices has been prolonged, and the situation where electricity and city gas continue to push up the overall prices. The annual increase in 2022 was 9.7%, the highest since 1981. Of the 515 items announced, 454 increased, accounting for 88% of the total, and the trend continues at a high level. Indexes of steel (20.9%), food and beverages (7.7%), and agricultural, forestry and fishery products (6.9%) rose significantly.

Bank of Japan website: https://www.boj.or.jp/en/statistics/pi/cgpi_release/cgpi2212.pdf

Shimizu Corporation develops "Decarbonized" Soil Improvement Method
Shimizu Corporation announced on January 13 that it had developed an improved "Decarbonized" soil improvement method, jointly with Toyo Stabi. The method is mixed molten slag and biochar into the ground to be improved in the ground improvement work, creating a decarbonized ground that would reduce CO2 emissions resulting from construction to virtually zero. This method improves the properties of cohesive soil by mixing molten slag, which is made by cooling and solidifying incinerated ash, etc., which has been melted at high temperatures, and reduces the amount of cement-based solidification materials that emit a large amount of CO2 during manufacturing. At the same time, by offsetting the amount of CO2 emissions associated with the production of the solidifying material with the amount of CO2 absorbed and fixed by the biochar, it is possible to achieve carbon neutral construction. Furthermore, by increasing the amount of biochar used, it is expected that the total amount of CO2 emissions reduction and CO2 fixed amount will exceed the amount of CO2 emissions, it means the construction under the "carbon negative" environment.

SHIMIZU CORPORATION website (in Japanese): https://www.shimz.co.jp/company/about/news-release/2023/2022061.html

GE and IHI sign MoU to develop gas turbines that can operate on 100% ammonia
IHI announced on January 18 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with GE Gas Power U.S. to develop ammonia combustion technology for large heavy-duty gas turbines in order to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions in the power generation field. IHI and GE have signed a memorandum of understanding on the joint implementation of market and demand surveys aimed at commercializing carbon-free ammonia-fueled gas turbines in 2021. Based on these memorandums, the two companies will proceed with formulating a technology development roadmap for large ammonia gas turbines, and will develop 100% ammonia combustion (single combustion) technology that is superior in safety, competitiveness and environmental friendliness for GE's 6F.03, 7F and 9F by 2030.

IHI website: https://www.ihi.co.jp/en/all_news/2022/resources_energy_environment/1198148_3488.html

EU and Japan sign Administrative Arrangement for promotion of mutual sharing and utilization of satellite data
On January 17 (Japan time January 18), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced that at the 5th Japan-EU Space Policy Dialogue held in Brussels, Belgium, METI and the European Commission's Directorate General for Defense Industry and Space agreed on the "Interaction of Satellite Data and signed an Administrative Arrangement for the Promotion of Sharing and Utilization. The content of the agreement is 1) Enables mutual use of satellite data between the satellite data platform "Tellus" and "Copernicus" operated by the European Commission 2) Promote shared use of satellite data in areas such as marine and coastal monitoring, climate change countermeasures, water resource management, and disaster risk reduction. The EU's "Copernicus" is an earth observation program that makes available observation data obtained from several EU satellites, ground-based weather stations and ships. On the other hand, In 2019, Japan released a platform called Tellus, which can mainly analyze data from multiple Japanese satellites. As a general rule, both can be used free of charge, but an application is required to use them, and the procedures are complicated. In order to realize the cooperation stipulated in this agreement, the two sides will proceed with discussions toward the signing of the "Technical Operating Arrangements".

MOFA website: https://www.mofa.go.jp/fp/msp/page22e_001022.html

METI website (in Japanese): https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2022/01/20230118003/20230118003.html

Former Japan-EU Business Roundtable Co-Chair Sakuyama visits Prime Minister Kishida and presents a proposal
On January 17, Mr. Masaki Sakuyama, former Co-Chair of the Japan-EU Business Roundtable (Former Senior Advisor, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) and Mr. Nikolaus Boltze, Deputy Co-Chair of the EU Side (Member of the European Business Council in Japan) visited to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and handed over a proposal to the Japanese government and the European Commission, which was adopted at the Japan-EU Business Roundtable annual meeting in November last year. Mr. Sakuyama and Mr. Boltze explained the contents of the main discussions on digital and green at last year's Business Roundtable annual meeting and an overview of the proposals. Prime Minister Kishida expressed his appreciation for the strong support and recommendations of the Business Roundtable, which contributes to the strengthening of Japan-EU economic relations. The Japan-EU Business Roundtable = BRT was established in 1999, as a framework for dialogue between the business communities of Japan and the EU. Annual meetings are held alternately in Japan and the EU. The annual meeting in 2022 was held in Tokyo on November 15, 2022.

MOFA website (in Japanese): https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/ecm/ie/page6_000657_00001.html

Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications signs Memorandum of Cooperation with Director General of National Telecommunications and Information Agency of the U.S.
On January 17, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Matsumoto held talks with Deputy Secretary of Commerce Graves of the U.S. and Secretary General Davidson of the National Telecommunications and Information Agency of the U.S. and signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on open and resilient telecommunications networks. The memorandum of understanding between Japan and U.S. confirms the common commitment of both countries to the resilience and security of telecommunications networks, in particular 1) exchanging information on Open RAN testing-related activities 2) cooperation in activities to raise awareness and disseminate information about Open RAN 3) promoting cooperation in multilateral forums related to 5G including Open RAN and beyond 5G/6G.

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications website (in Japanese): https://www.soumu.go.jp/menu_news/s-news/01tsushin08_02000146.html

Foreign visitors to Japan in 2022 was 3,831,900, the first increase in three years, but level of 10% to 2019
The number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2022 (estimate) announced by the Japan National Tourism Organization on January 18 was 3,831,900. Due to the drastic relaxation of border measures, the number of people has increased 15.5 times from the record low of 2021 (245,862), the first increase in three years since 2019 before the COVID crisis. However, compared to the peak in 2019 (31.88 million), it remained at a level of about 10%. Looking at the number of visitors to Japan in 2022 by country/region, South Korea was the largest with 1,012,700, followed by Taiwan with 331,100, the United States with 323,500, Vietnam with 284,100, and Hong Kong with 269,300. On the other hand, China, which accounted for 30% of the total number of visitors to Japan before the pandemic, was only 189,000.

Japan Tourism Agency website (in Japanese): https://www.jnto.go.jp/jpn/statistics/data_info_listing/pdf/20230118_monthly.pdf