General Edition Sunday, August 28, 2005 Issue No. 340
+++ INDEX
- What's new
- Services lineup
- News
- Candidate roundup
- Upcoming events
- Property
- News credits
Wine Offer Largest imported wine collection in Japan only 1 click away from you. The World of Prestigious Wines is now available for you on-line with the relaunch of the Pieroth Japan K.K. web site <http://www.pieroth.jp/>. Pieroth Japan (est. 1969) offers over 1,500 spirits and wines (including 750 Bordeaux) from 16 countries. Many of these are exclusive to Pieroth Japan. The importer also offers expert wine advice, personal wine tasting, and home delivery. Its stock is stored in climatically controlled warehouses.. Ashley Associates is proud to be providing the creation, maintenance and development of ongoing marketing activities for the Pieroth Japan web site. Please visit <http://www.ashleyassociates.co.jp> for more information about us. |
| +++ WHAT'S NEW |
The news this week that Japan's trade surplus for July dropped to JPY870bn (US$10bn) due to a 45% year-on-year increase in the price of oil, caused us to wonder just how dependent Japan is for oil and what would happen if things got really bad. To partly answer the question, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, has a reasonable web site with data up to 2003, outlining just what Japan uses and how.
Based on their statistics, it is true that Japan is very dependent on imported energy, including crude oil, LPG, coal, and LNG. As of 2002, Japan produced only 19% of its own energy requirements, which was mainly unscalable nuclear and hydro. However, at the same time, despite a growing demand for energy from private consumers (air conditioners, fridges, etc.), Japan has been able to reduce it's oil dependency to somewhere around 50% of primary energy supply, and has a target to reduce this to 45% by 2010, just 4 years from now. It has been able to do this through a combination of increased nuclear power, Japan has 55 nuclear power plants, and increased imports of natural gas (LNG), liquified petroleum gas (LPG), coal, as well as new energy resources.
Since 85% of Japan's oil comes from the Middle East, the fear by government and investors of disruption of supplies is palpable, with each remotely related disruptive event (typhoons and such like), being flashed across the TV screens of the nation. But infact, we believe that Japan could be quite resilient in the face of a sudden reduction in supply. Why? Mainly because: 1) the country has reasonable stockpiles of fuels, 2) it is very active in developing alternative energy resources, 3) it has plenty of lee-way to cut energy consumption.
Stockpiles. Japan currently uses about 400 million kiloliters of mainly imported fuel a year. Right now, it has about 169 day's worth of state-owned and private crude oil (about 320m barrels) in-country, and probably another 25 days worth in 60+ oil tankers on their way here. Then there is the millions of kiloliters, 3+ months supply, of refined products such as kerosene, LPG, and natural gas, either in the distribution system, or again, on their way into Japan.
LPG in particular is important to Japan, given that it is used in 57% of households and 90% of taxis. In February, the government announced that it will spend JPY160bn (US$1.5bn) by 2010 to increase national reserves of LPG to 1.5m tons, about 40 days worth of consumption at current rates. Already there is another 60 days worth of LPG in private storage and another 19 days on board ships on their way here -- in all, totalling about 6 month's reserves.
So while a major disruption of oil flow in the first several months in the middle east would rattle the stock and foreign exchange markets, Japan could by and large continue doing business.
Alternative energy. Last year, TEPCO and several other major power companies announced that they would try to put fuel cell "batteries" into every new home, as a means of spreading power continuity. Certainly, such units would dramatically reduce the impact of power black outs and other emergency measures to conserve electricity. Then of course, look no further than the Toyota Prius for how fast consumers can move to alternatives if they couldn't tank up with regular gas.
Japanese companies are not just talking about alternative fuel sources, they're doing something about it -- everything from solar cells to wind turbines. Taisei Corporation announced recently that it will start building an ethanol plant in Osaka, which will be capable of producing about 1,300 kiloliters annually when it opens in January 2006, and 4,000 kiloliters by 2008. The ethanol is added 3% to gasoline, for cleaner, richer burning fuel. Whereas in the USA, ethanol typically comes from corn, Taisei's ethanol will uniquely come from 48,000 tons of recycled wood from building demolitions.
Reduction in consumption. In the early 80's, long after the impetus provided by the second oil shock, Japan consumed about 250 million kiloliters of imported fuel and 85 terawatt hours of electricity, a bit over half what it consumes now. And yet, 20 years ago, Japan did more manufacturing at home than it does today. We believe that the country has the capability of doing that again -- and if so, then this would double the life of the fuel stockpiles mentioned earlier.
Also, let's not forget coal and LNG, which are supplied by such friendly and traditionally reliable trading partners such as Canada, Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. These fuels are likely to be primarily used for electricity generation, to supplement the two new nuclear power stations coming on line this year, and another 11 scheduled for completion in the next 10 years.
...The Information Janitors/
Join the ANZCCJ and Grow Professionally For Australian and New Zealand professionals in Japan. Give yourself an advantage. Become a member of the Australian & New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ANZCCJ). The ANZCCJ provides a unique opportunity to stay up to date with matters of interest to you in Japan as well as providing regular opportunities to meet with and hear from senior politicians and business people on a range of interesting topics. |
| +++ SERVICES LINE-UP |
Contact [email protected] if you want your company here.
- Personal International Investor -- a convenient source of ideas and information on how to invest profitably as an expat in Japan. Every Thursday, 48 weeks of the year. Completely free.
http://japaninc.typepad.com/personal_intl_investor/
- Advertise with Japan Inc newsletters. JIN and Terrie's Take cost just 2 yen per person to reach 51,000 people. Great for last minute offers and event advertising.
[email protected].
- Get a low-cost office in Tokyo, at the Venture Gas Station incubator. Just JPY80,000/month, in Minami-Aoyama. Spaces closing fast -- enquire now.
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- J@pan Inc. magazine has gone quarterly. Subscriptions now just JPY3,600 a year. Sign up at
http://www.japaninc.com/mag/subs.html
- Find new bilingual sales staff -- a specialty for DaiJob.com,
[email protected]
- Anyone can buy a .JP domain...online...real-time...in English! Register now at:
http://www.JapanRegistry.com
JIC Sponsored Interviews You read Terrie's Take and JIN, and so do 54,000 other executives inside and outside Japan. Let them know what your company does, with our new Sponsored Interviews service. We create a lead-in for the interview, and run it within the newsletters, with links back to the page holding the full interview. For a small additional charge, we will also run it in the Japan Inc magazine, the www.japan.com website, and the www.japaninc.com web site for archiving. Cumulatively, your message will be seen by at least 120,000 English-language readers. |
| +++ NEWS |
- Rio MP3 players to cease
- CapitaLand to put JPY180bn into Japanese land
- VC funds create trade association
- Trade surplus shrinkage lower than forecast
- Supersonic jet dream resumes
-> Rio MP3 players to cease
Ripplewood-related D&M Holdings, the maker of Denon, Marantz, and other premium brands, has announced that it will discontinue its Rio line of MP3 players, saying the division has been a drag on profits. The company said that the Rio business was responsible for most of its JPY717m net loss for Q1 ending June 30, 2005. Sales fell from JPY19.22bn (US$174.7m) to JPY18.75bn (US$170.5m). (Source: TT commentary from newkerala.com, Aug 27, 2005)
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=17619
-> CapitaLand to put JPY180bn into Japanese land
Singapore-based CapitaLand has said that it will more than triple its real estate holdings in Japan over the next 3 years. The largest realty fund in Southeast Asia, CapitaLand currently has allocated a Japan-specific pool of funds worth JPY44bn. The company is mainly interested in investing into shopping centers. (Source: TT commentary from nikkei.co.jp, Aug 26, 2005)
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20050826D26HH976.htm
-> VC funds create trade association
Eight VC-Buyout investment funds have set up an association, the Japan Private Equity Association, to represent the interests of the industry. The eight firms include: Advantage Partners, MKS Partners, Nikko Antfactory, the Carlyle Group, and Unison Capital. The 8 companies have executed approximately 205 M&As so far this year. (Source: TT commentary from nikkei.co.jp, Aug 25, 2005)
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20050825D25HH898.htm
-> Trade surplus shrinkage lower than forecast
Japan's trade surplus shrank less than expected, and exports rose to the second-highest level on record. The surplus fell 23% to JPY873.6bn for July (compared to July 2004). Most experts were expecting the surplus to fall to JPY760bn. The trade figures had a palliative affect on FX and stocks, with foreign investors buying JPY447.7bn for the week -- the 10th straight week of net purchases. The yen has improved 3.3% since its dollar-related low on July 20th. (Source: TT commentary from bloomberg.com, Aug 25, 2005)
http://tinyurl.com/84446
-> Supersonic jet dream resumes
The Japan Aerospace Agency (JAXA) has said that it will resume testing of its experimental unmanned supersonic aircraft in Australia (Woomera) from next month. If successful, the tests will pave the way to Japan building the next generation of high-speed aircraft, following in the footsteps of the Concorde. JAXA says the new aircraft would get passengers from Tokyo to LA in just 4 hours. (Source: TT commentary from dailybreeze.com, Aug 28, 2005)
http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/articles/1698901.html
NOTE: Broken links
Many online news sources are now removing their articles after just a few days of posting them, thus breaking our links -- we apologize for the inconvenience.
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| +++ CANDIDATE ROUND UP |
DaiJob, Inc's executive placement team, AMBITION Consulting
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DaiJob has great candidates. Contact Alex Burr at
[email protected], or Ph: 03-3499-3040 for details.
-> Technical Support Manager
Male, mid 40s, Native Japanese, Fluent English
Experience:
- 7yrs Technical Support Manager (24*7 support) for Enterprise level software
- Extensive knowledge on how to structure & run a self-sufficient support organization in Japan
- Well experienced in supporting enterprise level (UNIX/Windows)
- Managed 30 staff
- First certified trainer in Japan of enterprise-level application solution
- Excellent command of English
- Studied and worked in the US & Europe
* Looking for JPY16.0M. Available in 2-4 weeks
--------------------------------------------
-> Business project/planning Manager
Male, late 30s, Native Japanese, Fluent English
Experience:
- Experience in financial control and reporting for overseas branches
- 2 yrs as financial analyst, 2 yrs as assistant mgr in financial field
- Conducted intensive cross-industry research, involving bilingual communication and negotiations
- Knowledge of international business, economy, finance
* Looking for JPY7.5M+. Available in 2-4 weeks
--------------------------------------------
-> Accountant Manager
Female, Early 40s, Native Japanese, Business-level English
Experience:
- Over 10yrs of financial accounting experience
- Knowledge of salary, social security, and payroll
- Prepared bilingual monthly/year-end closing financials
- Knowledge of US/Japanese business practices and tax laws
* Looking for JPY7.0M. Available in 4-6 weeks
Contact Alex Burr at [email protected], or Ph: 03-3499-3040 for details.
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DaiJob's executive placement team, AMBITION Consulting!
| +++ UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS |
ICA Event – Sept 15 Presenter: Daniel Lintz, Director of Corporate Communications in Japan for Visa Int’l Asia Pacific Ltd. Topic: Security Threats in Japan: Changing Attitudes, the Legal Framework, & Credit Card Industry Countermeasures Complete event details at http://www.icajapan.jp/ Date: Thursday, Sept 15, 2005, RSVP |
Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo September 6th Seminar September EA-Tokyo's featured speaker will be Gordon Thom, Chairman of Dyson. Don't miss this great opportunity to hear more about how Dyson has achieved such rapid growth in the Japanese market. Date/Time: Tuesday, September 6th 7:00 pm |
IT events announcements are priced at JPY50,000 per week. |
| +++ THIS WEEK'S PROPERTY |
-> Lanikai, Kailua, Oahu
Great opportunity to own direct beach/oceanfront 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath home on world famous Lanikai beach in Kailua! Exquisite ocean front 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bath fully furnished two-story home completed in 2000. Offers resort living and a residence of the highest quality. Designed by renowned Big Island architect Lucky Bennett, this home is sited perfectly for direct framed views of the Mokulua Islands. Lush tropical landscape.
Lanikai ("heavenly seas") is a small, private, sandy beachfront community in Kailua (East Oahu) located 25 minutes from Honolulu, Waikiki and Honolulu International Airport. Lanikai beach has been rated as one of the world's "Best Beaches" by Dr. Beach and "Best Beach In America" by "Conde-Nast". Swimming, snorkling, kayaking, sailing, fishing, windsurfing, and kite boarding are some of the many ocean activities enjoyed by residents and visitors to Lanikai. Kailua offers a nice variety of great restaurants, assorted gift shops, major grocery markets, a large natural food store, movie theatres and other stores. The weather is normally warm, with cooling trade winds.
List Price: US$6,200,000
Bedrooms: 4, baths: 3/1
Interior Living Area: 4,357 sq. ft.
Open Lanai Area: 332 sq. ft.
Land area: 10,204 sq. ft.
Year built: 2000
Parking: 3 car garage
Monthly taxes: US$1,099
Stunning photos at: http://www.hawaii-realty.com/aol/2503512.htm
E-mail us at [email protected] for more details on any property listed here.
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| +++ ABOUT US |
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