The sub-prime scandal in the financial
scene has spread dark explosive clouds like hurricane over the world business
arena precipitously. Not only Asian
economies but also the EU countries have started suffering seriously. It is true that the financial catastrophe has
caused enormous damages against the real sector of economy. Due to the vicious cycle between the real
estate industry and financial lenders, consumersf mind for purchasing daily
goods, electrical products and automobiles now falls down. As well-known
widely, the first-ever economic crisis in the world is equipped with tremendous
computer-base dealings and transactions.
In other words, highly advanced information technology invites this
devious situation, which implies very cynical situation. On the other hand, this most advanced
information technology obviously revealed the reality of the world regulatory
supervisory bodies which are poor at recognizing and handing causes and effects
of high-tech based financial business activities. It might be true that almost no-check
circumstance exists due to the successive emergence of huge debts, at least
billions dollars for each of gprestigioush banks and securities. When we consider this mechanism objectively,
we might find the framework of almost outlaw activities of such financial
institutions and the world supervisory bodiesf inability to handle the ongoing
matters. In addition, the resolving
measures also look like old-fashioned. FRB helped to bail out U.S. securities and the U.S. government has decided
to rescue public residence institutions by largely consuming taxpayersf
money as a result. In short,
we can say authoritarian resolution measures have been taken to cope with feudalistic
collapse of financial business. But do
not we live in a democratized society in the world? On the contrary, landmark of technological
developments in various industries has common features such as step-up and
take-off periods, objective inspections and tests, term-base investment plans
into facilities and factories. However,
in case a few outlaw barbarians suddenly take our industrially deliberated
scheme and long-term prepared fund away from ordinary citizensf pockets, how
can we live on now and expect positive future?
We should now ponder healthy mechanism between finance and industry very
seriously. (Takashi Higashi, President, TCS)
Key articles on Japanese industry scenes selected by TCS
Headlines of the articles:
| COMMUNICATION |
Operational Improvement of PCs for Office Workersf Home Work |
| ELECTRONICS | Solid Digital Camera with Easy-Handling Function |
| ENERGY | Silicon-Base Bifacial Solar Cell Factory to Launch |
| Water Produce Photocatalyst at Visible Light against Hydrogen | |
| Hydrogen from Household Wastes to Be Utilized for Automobile Fuel Cell | |
| MATERIAL | Thermal-Electricity Conversion Material Realizes Extensive Power Generation Efficiency |
| Low-Cost Carbon Catalyst Instead of Platinum for Car Fuel Cells | |
| Wood Biomass made from Bioethanol to Produce Foam Polystyrene | |
| ENVIRONMENT | Cleaning Water and Desalination Technology by Solar Light |
| MEDICINE |
iPS Cell Comes from Wisdom Tooth for Reproduction of Human Tissues and Organs |
COMMUNICATION
Operational Improvement of PCs for Office Workersf Home Work
July 24--Hitachi
Software Engineering will begin to provide low-cost information technology
environment in July which is necessary for office workersf extra work at
home. When office workers insert USB
memories into their home PCs and input power, LINUX operation software inside
the memories start running and connect PCs to data center of Hitachi Software
for realizing the workersf manipulation of PCs.
ELECTRONICS
Solid Digital Camera with
Easy-Handling Function
August 27--Olympus
Imaging announced that the company will start selling a shock-resistive,
water-and dust-proof digital camera on September 6. When users tap any points of camera body by
their fingers, photo shooting and its replay and function settings can be
realized. Gloved persons and long-nail
people can manipulate the camera easily. The company expects production volume of 130,000 units monthly.
ENERGY
Silicon-Base Bifacial Solar
Cell Factory to Launch
August 22--Space Energy will construct a silicon-use bifacial solar-cell
factory in Iwate Prefecture. Power generation can be realized in both up
and down sides of solar cells. The technology of the solar cell derives from Hitachi whose production
facility was procured by Space Energy. The company will invest 17billion yen in the
factory, and annual power generation capability will reach 3,500KW next
year.
Water Produce Photocatalyst
at Visible Light against Hydrogen
July 29--A study group of Tokyo University has invented a photocatalyst
that can produce hydrogen from water at radiation of visible light. The developed
catalyst, which is made in combination of gallium nitride and zinc oxide at
high temperature, absorbs blue color of 400-500nanometer at wavelength.
Hydrogen from Household
Wastes to Be Utilized for Automobile Fuel Cell
July 28--Nippon Steel invented a technology
to extract hydrogen by using wastes from offices and households for fuel-cell
use automobiles. Gathered wastes are
discomposed at high temperature for taking out useful hydrogen. Waste treatment costs in municipalities can
be also decreased to about 20% compared to the conventional costs.
MATERIAL
Thermal-Electricity
Conversion Material Realizes Extensive Power Generation Efficiency
July 25--A study tram of Osaka University and American universities has
devised a new thermal-electricity conversion material whose electricity
generation efficiency becomes about twice compared to existing materials.
The new material is made of mixed metal by led and tellurium added to a
few thalliums. The electricity generation efficiency is about 12-13%
Low-Cost Carbon Catalyst Instead
of Platinum for Car Fuel Cells
July
12--Nisshinbo and Tokyo Institute of Technology have devised a carbon-use
technology for fuel cell catalyst. Cost
for carbon catalyst is one-tenth that for platinum one. If carbon catalyst is used for automobilefs
fuel cell, fuel-cell cost can be decreased about 400,000yen from the existing
fuel costs. The technology is expected
to be completed by 2009.
Wood Biomass made from Bioethanol to Produce Foam Polystyrene
July
9--Juon invented foam polystyrene made of wood-base biomass. The product is composed of lignin, a by-product
occurred in the production process of bioethanol as well as less oil-oriented
raw material. The company plans to sell
the product for electrical products makers and copy-machine producers from the
fiscal year of 2009.
ENVIRONMENT
Cleaning Water and Desalination Technology by Solar Light
July 7-- Tokyo
Institute of Technology developed a cost-competitive technology to clean water
by solar light. The technology enables
to warm water up to 90 centigrade degree to flow out salt compound by
concentrating solar light using a specific lens, which can be also applied for
desalination of sea water.
MEDICINE
iPS Cell Comes from Wisdom Tooth
for Reproduction of Human Tissues and Organs
August 22--AIST has succeeded to make an
iPS cell from a wisdom tooth cell which is embedded in gum. To realize iPS cell, the institute extracted
a cell from a ten yearfs old girlfs wisdom tooth which was kept in a frozen
state at -180 centigrade degree for three years. According to AIST, there is a possibility for
many disease patients to benefit from regenerative therapy to reproduce tissues
and organs by using wisdom teeth.
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(Source: Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun)
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