27 Fukuoka Now #129 September 2009
Kyushu Headline News Get Kyushu News Now! !Mobile phone:
http://www.fukuoka-now.com/mobileHP: www.fukuoka-now.com/news
English language summaries of last month's top Kyushu area news
stories. 1
CM Sadaharu Oh to Appear in CommercialsKyushu Electric Power
announced it has signed a contract with former Fukuoka Soft-bank
Hawks manager Sadaharu Oh to appear on behalf of the company in
television com-mercials to be shown only in Kyushu. The contract,
which took effect on the 19th, is for one year only. Oh has seldom
appeared in television commercials in the past.
JR5 Personal Messages at Five JR StationsThe JR Hakata Station
and four other JR sta-tions in Kyushu have begun a service in which
people can pay to use the stations advertising boards with
digitized displays for personal messages, such as wishing someone a
happy birthday. The service is being provided by the Fukuoka
City-based JR Kyushu Agency, the JR Kyushu groups ad agency. The
company says that blackboards had been used at stations for
messages of this sort years ago, but few sta-tions in Japan now
provide the service for the digitized display boards. The other
four JR sta-tions at which the service is being offered are Kokura,
Nagasaki, Oita, and Kumamoto.
Rare Metals from GarbageThe city of Chikugo and Ooki-machi in
Fukuoka Prefecture have decided to establish a new cat-egory for
small consumer electronics products when separating garbage for
collection to pro-mote the recovery of the rare metals used in
digital equipment and automobile production. According to the
Japanese government, these two municipalities are the first in the
country to take such a step. Ooki-machi is slated to begin the
program in August, and Chikugo will follow in September. Both will
continue the program for three years.
Toyota Kyushu to Double CapacityToyota Kyushu plans to boost the
annual ca-pacity of its Kokura plant assembling parts for hybrid
vehicles from 84,000 units to 168,000 units, it was learned. In
addition to assembling large parts for Toyotas hybrid sports
utility vehicles, the plant will also be given the role of
producing parts for mid-size hybrid vehicles. The large SUV parts
in question are transaxles, which are the combination of the
transmission and the motor.
Street Stalls as Tourist ResourceA joint questionnaire survey
conducted by the Kyushu University School of Engineering and the
Kyushu Economic Research Center shows that the residents of Fukuoka
City increasingly see the citys street stalls as tourism resources
rather than eating or drinking places. The sur-vey was conducted
from December 2008 to January 2009, and the results were
compared
with a similar survey in 1996. Those respon-dents who said they
go to stalls several times a year fell by 12.6 percentage points
from the previous survey to 28.8%. The primary reasons cited for
not going were (1) not having the chance to go, and (2) no
particular reason. In contrast, 73% said that keeping the stalls
were a good idea because they were part of the citys identity and
contributed to tourism.
Huis ten Bosch Asks for InjectionThe Huis ten Bosch resort in
Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, asked its parent company, Nomura
Principal Finance in Tokyo, to find another Japanese company and
provide financial sup-port to ameliorate the sharp deterioration of
its bottom line due to plunging visitor totals. The two groups are
already in discussions and a general plan should be formulated by
the end of the month. It is also possible that Nomura Principal
Finance could transfer its operating authority to the new financial
backer.
Call Center in Kitakyushu to OpenThe Tokyo-based Fujitsu
Communication Ser-vice plans to open a call center employing 300 to
350 people in Yahatanishi Ward, Kitakyushu, it was learned. About
half of the employees will be newly hired local people. The call
center, which will provide technical support for PCs, is scheduled
to open in October.
Kyushu Investment Fund to be LaunchedToyo Capital, a subsidiary
of the Tokyo-based, mid-tier securities company Toyo Securities,
plans to create an investment fund to provide the start-up capital
to new Kyushu companies and new companies listed on the Fukuoka
Stock Exchanges Q Board. The fund, which will be called the Kyushu
Capital Engine Fund, is expect-ed to start operations this fall.
Its initial capitaliza-tion will be from 500 million to one billion
yen.
8 Flight Reductions at Kyushu AirportsAs of July, there were 74
regularly scheduled domestic routes and 25 international routes at
the eight primary Kyushu airports. Compared to July 2006, the peak
period over the past five years, this is six fewer domestic routes
and eight fewer international routes. There are also 379 daily
round trip flights on the domestic routes, a reduction of 15 during
the same period. The declines are attributed to the global economic
downturn, during which corporations are cut-ting back on business
trips and individuals are less likely to travel for recreational
purposes.
9 Fukuoka Asia Collection to OpenFukuoka Asia Collection, a
group organized to promote the region as an Asian fashion center
that includes as its members the Fukuoka
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Fukuoka City and Prefecture,
and area clothing mer-chants, will open a section for clothing
sales on the Internet shopping site operated by Rakuten in
September. The group attracted area atten-tion by holding a fashion
show in March that featured well-known models wearing local
clothing brands. They hope their section on the Rakuten website
will increase interest in their event next March.
5 Seagaia Posts LossThe Phoenix Seagaia resort in Miyazaki
Prefec-ture revealed that it recorded an operating loss of 500
million yen on the non-consolidated account for the year ended
March 2009. It is the businesss first loss in three years. The loss
was attributed to the sharp rise of gasoline prices peaking during
last summer vacation, and the economic downturn. The resort also
had 80,000 fewer lodgers than during the previous year, and sales
fell 14.9% year-on-year to 12.0 billion yen.
Wild Boar SausageThe city of Takeo in Saga Prefecture recently
be-gan a campaign to eliminate wild boar from the city as a harmful
animal, setting up a municipal department for that purpose in
April. Rather than dispose of the meat, however, they are trying to
turn it into a special product. Merchants in the city have begun
processing the meat and sell-ing it locally in the form of sausage
and bacon. The price for both products is 1,000 yen for 200 grams.
They also plan to turn it into hamburger and sliced lunchmeat in
the future.
1 4,900 Nishitetsu Posts Huge LossFukuoka City-based
Nishi-Nippon Railway (Nishitetsu) released figures showing they
suf-fered a consolidated net loss in the first quarter of 149
billion yen. This is in contrast to the 72 million yen profit they
posted during the year-before period. The company attributes this
to the economic turndown, the discounted ex-pressway tolls during
the Golden Week holiday period, and concerns over the flu
epidemic.
Fukuoka Airports Losses Worst in NationThe Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, and Transport released the financial statements for
Japans 26 state-managed airports for FY 2006. An examination of
their finances performed af-ter removing the airports income
derived from tax allocation shows that 22 of them, or 80%, lost
money. The biggest money-loser of all was Fukuoka Airport, which
was 6.7 billion yen in the red. Other regional airports that were
in the hole were those in Kitakyushu, Nagasaki, Oita, and Miyazaki.
Officials think the plan to expand the current airport in Fukuoka
will result in greater losses.
28Fukuoka Now #129 September 2009
Job-Seeker to Job Opening Ratio at Rock BottomThe Health, Labor,
and Welfare Ministry re-leased the seasonally-adjusted June figures
for Kyushus job-seeker to job-opening ratio. The results showed
there were 100 job seekers for every 39 job openings, lower than
the 0.43 national ratio, which was a record low. The only Kyushu
prefecture to perform better than the national average was Oita,
with a 0.46 ratio, while Kagoshimas was the lowest at 0.34.
Daihatsu to Produce New Mira Model in OitaDaihatsu Motor Co.
revealed that the new model in its Mira lineup, due to go on sale
in Japan this month, will be produced at its #2 plant in Nakatsu,
Oita Prefecture. The company anticipates producing several thousand
units per month. The plant already manufactures several of the
companys best-selling cars, and the latest announcement shows that
the Oita plant has become a key part of the company.
22% Kyushu Capital Investment Plunges 22%The Kyushu branch of
the Development Bank of Japan released the figures from its survey
of capital investment trends in the seven re-
gional prefectures for FY 2009. The projected aggregate amount
of capital investment for the current year is expected to be 946.4
billion yen, a 22.7% drop from the previous year and the second
consecutive decline. The 38.5% fall in capital investment for the
manufacturing industries, primarily autos and semiconduc-tors,
exceeds the national average. This is the second-largest projected
decline reported, following the sharp drop in 1977 caused by yen
appreciation.
92Poor Kyushu Rice Crop ExpectedThe Tokyo-based Rice Databank
Inc., a com-pany tracking rice market conditions, released its
forecast for the years wet paddy rice crop using an index scaled to
100 points. The rating for Kyushu was a poor 92. They gave a very
poor rating under 90 for the crops in Nagasaki, Saga, Fukuoka, and
Oita prefectures, which were hit by heavy rains in late July. The
lowest rating nationwide was for Nagasaki Prefecture, which scored
86.
40% Honda Plans to Cut Motorcycle ProductionHonda Motors
revealed it would reduce overall motorcycle and motorbike
production at its
News source: With permission from the morning editions of the
Nishinippon Newspaper.
Kumamoto plant by 40% and shift its focus to the domestic
market. New plans call for a 30% increase in production for
Japanese customers, which would then account for two-thirds of the
plants total output. One reason for the de-cision was the lagging
drawdown of overseas product inventory.
