When I saw the news of economic crisis in Greece at this time, I wondered
why the Greek government’s fiscal deficits had been neglected or left
without serious concern among EU member countries in the past years. At least, there should have been a consensus in
the circle that the fiscal deficit of member country has to be less than 3% of
GDP. But it seems many of them do not
care about it or might feel afraid of knowing realty. Does it mean EU countries
have just participated in a fantasy like a big family umbrella or hided away
the contradiction between the common financial rules in the member countries and
nation’s substantial handling for financial policy? If the Treaty of
Maastricht in 1992 had embraced such contradiction at the birth, the European
Union would be a world-scale political show which has inherently been destined
to ignite global financial turbulence which is not incidental but
inevitable. Have the politicians who advocated EU taken care of financial stability
in Greece, Portugal and Spain seriously? I do not think so. They just played work on stage like actors
and actresses to draw applause from audience named innocent citizens. The audience firstly clapped their hands for
the show, but changed color of their face in the middle of the story and
finally shouted out:”We were betrayed!” But you remember such dialogue has been
reiterated again and again historically against political players. In that sense, although it is ironical, Adolf
Hitler made the point:”Masses are foolish.”
In other words, the crowd tends to be deceived easily, especially to
populist approach by politicians, agitators and so on. This might be a failure of democracy or
democratic style. Unless creed, philosophy
and conscience are rooted in individuals belonging to the society, easy-going
protagonists will change societal structure in favor of their own way
intentionally. Maybe, the first thing to
do is how to establish educational system based on ethical sense in our
society, which starts by seeing the foot of us. (Takashi Higashi, President, TCS)
Key articles on Japanese industry scenes selected by TCS
Headlines of the articles:
| ELECTRONICS |
Storage Battery to Facilitate Velocity and Operational Distance of Electric Vehicle |
| Higher Brightness of Light in Organic Electro Luminescence | |
| Ultra Durable Optical Component for Laser Beam Machines | |
| Paint-Like Electrode to be Sprayed for LCD Panes and Others | |
| MATERIAL | Steel Strength Plastic Realized Using Polypropylene |
| Recycled Plastic for Appliance’s External Coating Developed | |
| Semiconductor Element for LCD Resin to Make TV Screen Weight Lighter | |
| Ceramic-Made Bar Code Bearable High Temperature to Apply for Auto Parts | |
| Super Thinner Non-Contact IC Card to Realize | |
| ENVIRONMENT | Large Automobile Recycle Plant for Recovering Metals and Chemicals Launches |
ELECTRONICS
Storage Battery to Facilitate
Velocity and Operational Distance of Electric Vehicle
April
14--Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and Nippon Chemi-Con developed
a storage battery to enhance speed-acceleration capability and extend running
distance of electric vehicles. By using carbon nanotube, the battery realized
output and energy density, 3.8 times and 4.5 times, respectively than the
existing batteries.
Higher Brightness of Light in
Organic Electro Luminescence
April 13--Konika
Minolta Holdings announced that they jointly developed a lighting source of
organic electro luminescence with General Electric. An organic material is coated onto a plastic
substrate so that the brightness becomes the same as that of incandescent
lamp. Commercialization is expected
within 2010.
Ultra Durable Optical
Component for Laser Beam Machines
April 13--Ricoh
Optical Industries started selling an optical component whose durability is
more than 100 times higher than that of existing components. Also, the new component can penetrate 99%
portion of high-output laser light at maximum. The product will be sold for laser beam machines.
Paint-Like Electrode to be Sprayed
for LCD Panes and Others
March 15--Mitsui Kinzoku and Tohoku University have devised an electrode
for liquid crystal panels, which can be painted on various materials like
paint.Indium tin oxide of the electrode is transformed into small particles for painting by using inkjet printers.
MATERIAL
Steel Strength Plastic
Realized Using Polypropylene
April 20--Hiroshima University and JST announced that they have developed
a plastic whose strength is 2-5 times that of steel. The study team
improved a manufacturing method of polypropylene. It is expected the new material might be a
substitute for iron, aluminum and glasses.
Recycled Plastic for Appliance’s External Coating Developed
April 1--Ube Industries will start
providing a technology to re-use second-hand plastic by coloring it for
external decoration of household appliances. Used resins recovered from waste
household appliances are homogenized by mingling, melt at about 2000 Celsius
degrees and colored for use of outer decoration of the appliances. 5 time re-use is possible.
Semiconductor Element for LCD
Resin to Make TV Screen Weight Lighter
March 20--Teijin, in collaboration with Yamaguchi University succeeded
to produce a semiconductor element on a resin which is needed for liquid
crystal display. The company has used a
general-use resin for that purpose instead of glass substrate. Based on the technology, the weight of
large-screen TV will be half the existing ones.
Ceramic-Made Bar Code Bearable High Temperature to Apply for Auto Parts
March 10--Sigmax devised a two-dimensional
bar code made of ceramic which can bear 1650 Celsius degrees. The product is realized by mixing alumina with
multiple chemical compounds to largely enhance bearing temperature limit. The company expects demand for auto parts.
Super Thinner Non-Contact IC
Card to Realize
March 2--Dainippon Printing will start
selling a non-contact IC card from April whose thickness is 0.28mm. The thickness is less than half that of the
existing IC cards. The company will conduct sales promotion of the new card to be used for member’s cards and prepaid cards at retail distribution outlets.
ENVIRONMENT
Large Automobile Recycle
Plant for Recovering Metals and Chemicals Launches
April 21--JEF Engineering will launch the
newest recycle plant of automobile wastes in this summer. The plant will take about 40,000 ton shredder
dusts per year from automobile shredder factories in the Metropolitan
area. About 9,000 ton valuable metals of
the collected dusts are recovered, and plastics and urethane are selected and
pressured to produce 30,000 ton regenerated fuels.
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(Source: Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun)
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