British American Tobacco plc. (BAT) has chosen Japan as the first market for its new tobacco-heating product, glo, Fox Business reported on 11 November. The device is similar to a cigarette, but heats, rather than burns the tobacco.
The launch comes after the success in Japan of rival Philip Morris International, Inc.’s iQOS.
As part of its attempts to crack the market, BAT will make use of the firm’s well-known Kent brand to promote the product, and glo will also undercut the cost of iQOS.
A firm selling desserts based on the Japanese delicacy mochi has signed a national distribution deal with the British online supermarket Ocado, Bdaily reported on 28 November. Little Moon, as the firm is called, is now targeting revenues of £4mn in 2017.
The dessert maker’s “Little Moons” are made with the standard pounded rice used for mochi in Japan, but deviate from tradition by including a centre filled with ice cream.
The brother and sister partnership of Howard and Vivien Wong founded the firm in 2015.
Daisuke Ohata, the former Japan rugby international, was inducted into the sport’s hall of fame on the day of its official launch in Rugby, England, the sport’s governing body World Rugby announced on 17 November. Ohata was the 131st person to be inducted.
Although the Hall of Fame has existed since 2006, it was not until this November that it first established a physical home. The project was the result of collaboration between World Rugby and Rugby Borough Council.
Ohata was joined in the Hall of Fame by 11 others, including England World Cup winners Lawrence Dallaglio and Jonny Wilkinson.
Japanese Ambassador to the UK Koji Tsuruoka attended a traditional Japanese tea ceremony in the Fens to mark the start of construction of the Dojima sake brewery, Cambridge News reported on 1 November. He was joined by MP for South East Cambridgeshire Lucy Frazer and a Shinto priest from Osaka.
Overseen by the Hashimoto family, the £9mn project represents the first sake brewery to be built in the UK. It is estimated it will take nine months to complete.
The first batch of Sake will be available in October 2017.
The newsreader Mao Kobayashi has been selected as one of the BBC’s 100 Women list for 2016, which highlights inspirational and influential women around the world, it was revealed on 21 November.
Kobayashi suffers from breast cancer, which has spread to her bones and lungs, and writes a blog about the illness to raise awareness, an unusual move in Japan where such matters are rarely discussed publicly. Nonetheless, the blog has gone on to be the most popular in the country.
England and Japan will send teams to compete in a Nitro Athletics event to be held in Melbourne, Australia in February, Inside the Games reported on 14 November. Nitro Athletics is a new track and field team format developed by Athletics Australia.
The competition will see such individuals as Olympic medal-winner Usain Bolt captain the teams involved.
“We are always looking for exciting and innovative ways to create new opportunities in our sport”, said Chris Jones, chief executive officer of England Athletics.
We are now approaching the end of the nenmatsu shosen (year-end sales war), arguably Japan’s most tumultuous period of consumer activity. The question arises: Is there room in the calendar for another slice of commerce?
Maybe. An article in the Shukan Shincho magazine of 1 December looks enviously at the popularity of Black Friday in the United States. Taking place the day after Thanksgiving, when the Christmas shopping season begins in earnest, the term “black” is said to refer to the fact that many US retailers operate at a deficit for much of the year, and so count on the frenzy of year-end shopping to move them out of the red and into the black.
“For the first nine months of this year, total sales revenues at supermarkets reached ¥9.607 trillion—a year-on-year decline of 0.4%”, a journalist who covers distribution and retailing told the magazine. “That was the first decline in two years”, the same source explained.
Brand piracy has been a long-running source of trade friction. A special supplement in Dime magazine featured a report on the latest developments. The National Police Agency—with government backing—announced the results of its latest “Stamp out pirated brand goods month”, during which time it confiscated 61,992 items, including 8,843 phoney Louis Vuitton goods; 8,589 bearing the Celine brand name; 4,835 labelled as Arnold Palmer products; 4,202 bearing the renoma brand name; and 3,194 that of Dunhill. The number of items confiscated has risen about six fold from the level in 1982.
Famous-brand goods are extremely popular in Japan, but it is not known what percentage of the buyers of such items understand that they could be purchasing counterfeits, particularly when the goods are secondhand. A ¥1,500 Louis Vuitton cigarette lighter should set off alarms, for example, since the firm does not offer any such item.
The 13 November edition of Tokyo Shimbun carried an editorial titled “Sayonara, price war management”. It begins with a quote from Prof. Koji Sakamoto of Hosei University’s Graduate School of Regional Policy Design that states, “Reducing prices is like trying to wring water out of a dry dish towel. To achieve profitability, the number of workers is reduced by the greatest extent possible, with working hours extended for those who remain”.
Sakamoto, who was addressing a management seminar, noted that in a survey of small and medium-sized enterprises conducted in January, more than 80% of the respondents agreed that “price is the main source of competitiveness”. Any business ascribing to that philosophy, he asserted, faces a dismal future.
With Japanese wages in the service sector typically some 10 times those of other Asian cities, such as Shanghai or Bangkok (according to Japan External Trade Organization data), the country stands to be priced out of the market. This situation also exacerbates the deflationary spiral, which has hit small firms that supply components, equipment and manpower to the majors.
About 953,000 households, or 1.8% of Japan’s total, can be classified as affluent—with savings, property and other assets valued at ¥100–500 million. In addition, some 54,000 households worth more than ¥500 million account for the rarefied 0.1% super-affluent sector of society. Their lifestyles and spending patterns, in sharp contrast with those of the hoi polloi, are eagerly studied by marketers seeking to meet their demands.
So reports the tabloid Nikkan Gendai—which ran a five-part series on wealth in Japan during the week commencing 10 October—have been eagerly studied. The Nomura Research Institute has calculated that, as of 2013, the average household comprised 2.49 individuals, meaning that roughly 2.5mn people in Japan have financial assets of at least ¥100 million.
“Those who are born into affluence are quite different from the nouveau riche and have little interest in items such as Chanel or Hermès brand goods”, said journalist Yuta Nakamori. “Their lifestyles are rather modest and they may reside in a rented condominium. They accumulate savings and don’t really perceive themselves as being wealthy”.
On 19 October, the Nikkei Marketing Journal published the results of its fifth Internet life survey, in which 10,000 users were questioned regarding their activities and preferences. The poll, conducted via the Internet over the period 12–20 September, received valid responses from 10,137 men and women 16–80 years of age.
The questionnaire found that the average outlays for purchases via the web during 2016 totalled ¥197,000, down 6.4% year-on-year (YoY). Some 69.7% of respondents said they use their devices to view videos or listen to music, up 3.8% YoY. 62.5% of respondents said they watch YouTube and other video sites, up 4.3% YoY. And, thanks to the popularity of Pokémon GO, the number of game users was up 5.8 points YoY, accounting for 25.6% of respondents.
E-commerce’s decline was reflected in fewer purchases of computer equipment and appliances; gifts; food and beverages; as well as sundry goods. Consumer outlays did increase in six categories: fashion; medications and supplements; books; CDs and DVDs, game software and other digital content; hobbies and recreation; travel; as well as purchases of tickets and gift coupons.
Scientists at Edinburgh and Hokkaido universities have discovered new ways to improve seawall defences through their study of wave dynamics, it was reported on 15 October by HeraldScotland.com.
The ability of scientists to predict what happens when large volumes of water hit solid objects—such as cliffs, buildings and coastal defences—enables advances to be made in the design of seawalls and the defence of battered coastal areas.
Tests were conducted in Japan using a 24-metre wave flume.
Tokyo-based Cornes Motors, Ltd., agent for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in Japan, has been expanding their sales efforts around the country, and have announced plans to open six new sales outlets in Hiroshima Prefecture over the coming year. In August, the firm also opened a new maintenance facility in Tokyo’s Koto Ward.
The Nikkei Marketing Journal (NMJ) reported on 7 October that the 156 units sold in 2015 represent a 1.5% year-on-year (YoY) gain, marking the sixth consecutive year of increased sales.
“Popularity among sports car enthusiasts explains the appeal of the four-seater Dawn convertible (¥37,400,000)”, explained Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chief executive Torsten Müller-Ötvös.
The Japanese translation of a book, based on lectures by the British scientist Michael Faraday, has seen sales spike since it was cited as an influence by this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Yoshinori Ohsumi, The Japan News reported on 26 October.
Based on lectures given by Faraday at the Royal Institution during 1860 and 1861, The Chemical History of a Candle was given to Ohsumi when he was an elementary school student. It inspired him to pursue a career in science.
The publisher, Kodokawa Corp., is now rushing to reprint the paperback edition.
In a 22 September article, the Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman detailed a visit to the Embassy of Japan in London. There he met Ambassador of Japan to the UK Koji Tsuruoka, who had been appointed on 6 June.
The topics discussed included Brexit, the desire of Emperor Akihito to abdicate, the embassy’s artworks and Tsuruoka’s passion for golf.
Prior to taking up his current position, the ambassador was one of the negotiators in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.
Nobuyuki Hirano, president and chief executive of the financial group Mitsubishi UFJ, has visited the family home of 19th century Scottish industrialist Thomas Blake Glover in Aberdeen, The Scotsman reported on 19 October. Known as the Scottish Samurai, Glover played a leading role in Japan’s development during the Meiji Restoration and helped establish the Mitsubishi shipbuilding firm.
The Glover family home had fallen into disrepair by 2012, and Hirano visited Aberdeen to hear about plans to restore the property, which had been bought by Mitsubishi 20 years earlier and gifted to the Grampian-Japan Trust.
A global tech fund, run by a subsidiary of Softbank Group Corp. in collaboration with the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, will be managed from the UK, it was announced in a 14 October press release.
The fund will have up to $100bn at its disposal, with Softbank contributing $25bn over the coming five years and the remainder to be sourced from Saudi Arabia and other global investors.
“Over the next decade, the SoftBank Vision Fund will be the biggest investor in the technology sector”, said Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of Softbank.
The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is targeting an extra £185mn in food and drink exports to Japan over the next five years, The Telegraph reported on 18 October. Tea, jam and biscuits are on the menu of items that DEFRA believes can be a success in the country.
The goal comes as part of DEFRA’s new international action plan for the UK’s food and drink sector, which also targets the US, China and India, among other countries.
Tokyo has moved up from fourth to third place in this year’s Global Power City Index to displace Paris, it was revealed at a Mori Memorial Foundation Institute for Urban Strategies press conference in Tokyo on 18 October. London held on to the top spot, while Paris came fourth.
The capital’s advance is due to higher scores in the areas of cultural interaction, liveability and accessibility. London maintains its position despite a slight decrease in its overall score. Research was based on data obtained prior to the UK’s EU referendum vote.
Technology firm Fujitsu Services Ltd. has announced it will trim 1,800 jobs in the UK, The Guardian reported on 11 October. The figure represents more than one-tenth of the firm’s workforce in Britain.
The cuts will begin to take place next year and are part of an effort to streamline operations. The firm operates several offices in the UK, and did not specify where cuts would take place. Fujitsu’s largest office, in Bracknell, employs 1,500 people.
Fujitsu has insisted the cuts are not related to Brexit.
Welsh firm The Pembrokeshire Beach Food Company was selected to participate in this year’s British Fair at Hankyu Department Store, Wales Online reported on 4 October. The firm, which began as a mobile catering operation called Café Môr, promotes Welsh seaweed, as well as lobster rolls and Welsh breakfasts.
“Japan has always been a big influence for our business, and to be invited there is a great honour”, said Jonathan Williams, the firm’s founder.
British-Canadian techno DJ and producer Richie Hawtin has launched his ENTER.Sake range of the Japanese spirit in the UK at a pop-up dinner in the capital followed by a DJ set, The Drinks Business reported on 10 October.
Hawtin was inspired by his visits to Japan over the years, where he would visit breweries between gigs. The range had previously been available in Ibiza, where it was launched four years ago, and Japan.
The DJ has Advanced Sake Professional Certification and, in 2014, was recognised as an official Sake Samurai by the Japan Sake Brewers Association.
Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd. hit an employment milestone after the firm brought on board its 1,000th UK employee, the system supplier announced in a 13 September press release.
The employee, Emma Dixon, joined the manufacturing team at the Japanese firm’s facility in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. Meanwhile, the landmark came as Hitachi Rail were celebrating the plant’s first anniversary and the 10th since their initial UK office.
Hitachi Rail plans to hire a further 150 people at its Newton Aycliffe plant, and expects its employees in the UK to total 2,000 by 2019.
Mitsui Fudosan, a Japanese property developer, is expected to see its operating profit boosted by ¥5 billion in the two years to March 2020 as a result of a project in London, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on 16 September.
The redevelopment project, to include offices, a hotel and 432 apartments, will be completed in 2018. More than half of the apartments, which range in price from £700,000 to £7mn, have been sold.
The profit projection is premised on an exchange rate of ¥135/₤1.
Uniplex, a Sheffield-based provider of surgical instruments, has secured its first order from Japan, Business Quarter reported on 7 September.
The deal was signed with Muranaka Medical and came after the British firm joined a trade mission to Japan led by national health technology business support organisation Medilink and the Department for International Trade.
The order is for the firm’s medical tuning forks, and the market for such devices in Japan is twice that of the UK.
The Sakurajima volcano in Kagoshima Prefecture is due to erupt within 30 years, according to a pioneering report from the University of Bristol and the Sakurajima Volcano Research Center, the BBC reported on 14 September.
The finding came after the team used a new method of calculating and modelling the size of a volcano’s reservoir. Currently, magma is being amassed faster than it can be expelled through the volcano’s frequent small eruptions.
The volcano’s last deadly eruption came in 1914 and killed 58 people.
Four RAF Typhoon jets are to join the first ever UK–Japan Joint Fighter Exercise, the British Embassy Tokyo said in a 16 September press release.
The news came as General Yoshiyuki Sugiyama, chief of staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), announced that the exercise would be held from mid-October to early November at the JASDF’s Misawa Air Base.
The British and Japanese foreign and defence ministers agreed the exercise in January, and it represents the first time that Japan has hosted an exercise with a country other than the US.
A delegation, led by Japanese Ambassador to the UK Koji Tsuruoka, who was appointed earlier this year, has visited Scotland to explore bilateral business links, The National reported on 17 September.
The trip included meetings on food, tourism, golf and renewable energy industries, as well as a visit to the Dounreay plant with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to review the ongoing process.
Tsuruoka said he had been “very impressed” by the trip.
Speaking ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, the 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button MBE floated the possibility of competing in Japan’s Super GT touring car series next year, ESPN reported on 14 September.
The driver is due to take a break from Formula One, although he could still be drafted as a reserve by his current team, McLaren.
McLaren’s engine partner is Honda.
Two British badminton players, Tom Wolfenden and Peter Briggs, came close to causing a significant upset at the Yonex Japan Open, Badminton England reported on their website on 16 September.
The two Brits were competing against the two-time world champions, Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan from Indonesia. Wolfenden and Briggs came within a point of winning the match, but ultimately lost.
Both British players, along with others from the UK squad, trained alongside their Japanese counterparts while in the country.