Dec 2009 Fukuoka Now

Fukuoka Now #132 December 2009

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Kyushu Headline News

Get Kyushu News Now!

キュウシュウヘッドラインニュース無料配信 !

Mobile phone: http://www.fukuoka-now.com/mobile HP: www.fukuoka-now.com/news

English language summaries of last month's top Kyushu area news stories. 九州エリアの 1 ヵ月分の英文ニュースの中から選り抜きの話題をピックアップ

九州新幹線、長崎―諫早は未定

Shinkansen Funding Pending Under the direction of the new Hatoyama administration, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport has approved the 260 billion yen in spending requests for the Kyushu Shinkansen submitted by the previous government. In regard to this year’s scheduled start for the work between Nagasaki and Isahaya, however, Minister Seiji Maehara said that the new government will not be bound by previous agreements. They plan to reconsider the starting date between now and the end of the year. 西鉄が高速バス試算 高速無力化で年 16 億超減収

Nishitetsu Says Toll-Free Expressways Will Cause Losses The Nishi-Nippon Railway Co. (Nishitetsu) has calculated the effect eliminating highway tolls would have on their long-distance bus business, and concluded it would lead to a minimum loss of 1.6 billion yen. That amounts to 17.4% of the business’s revenue in FY 2008.

They also say that, considering the impact of the reduction of tolls to 1,000 yen during Golden Week, their revenue from this business could be halved. 不況でも 7 割新卒採用

Companies Still Plan on Hiring Graduates Fukuoka City-based employment services company Universe Create released the results of its questionnaire survey of 180 companies regarding their intentions to hire new graduates next spring. Despite the harsh economic climate, 70% of respondents said they will be hiring new graduates. The reasons most frequently cited were to ensure the continuation of the company and to prevent an age-based imbalance among the employees. 安川電機、売上げ高半減

Yasukawa Electric Sales Down by Half Yasukawa Electric of Kitakyushu released its interim report for the current fiscal year and recorded sales of 98.355 billion yen, down 48% from the year-before period. The company also posted a current loss of 98 million yen, following the previous year’s 16.69 billion yen in profit. It was the first time the company suffered revenue and earnings losses together in seven years.

Sales were slack for electric motors to the auto industry and for industrial robots. キャナルシティ、無線 LAN で商品情報

Wireless LAN Trials Planned Trials will begin in February of a wireless LAN service that shoppers at the Canal City Hakata shopping complex can use to access product information with handheld terminals.

The system will also provide information on

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the user’s location in the complex, helping prevent children from getting lost. The trials are part of a program promoted by the national government, which will bear the roughly 100-million-yen expense. 自治体の 76%、合併効果あり

Municipalities Say Mergers Were Effective The Kyushu Economic Research Center released the results of its survey of municipalities in Kyushu, and in Okinawa and Yamaguchi prefectures, regarding the efficacy of the many mergers that have been conducted since 1989.

A total of 76% of respondents said the mergers were effective. The municipalities cited as advantages the reduction in the number of municipal employees and greater financial efficiencies. Of the 308 municipalities in the region, 182 submitted answers. 九州工業立地、最少 47 件

Factory Placement in Kyushu Down The Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry released the results of a survey that showed the number of new factory placements in Kyushu in the January-June 2008 period were down 51.5% from the year-before period to 47%.

This is the sharpest decline in placements since six-month surveys began in 1980. The bureau attributes this to a corporate unwillingness to invest in plants and equipment since the global financial crisis began. 福岡県開発の専用小麦、一蘭でデビュー

First Use of Fukuoka’s Ramen Wheat Fukuoka-based ramen chain store Ichiran announced that its Nakasu-kawabata shop would be the first in the region to sell ramen using noodles made from wheat specially developed in Fukuoka Prefecture for that purpose. The first day of sale will be November 9. Though ramen in Japan was first made in Fukuoka Prefecture, most of the wheat for the ramen sold there is grown overseas. 九州は「自立ハデ婚」

Magazine Reports on Kyushu Weddings Zexy, a magazine providing wedding information published by Recruit of Tokyo, released the results of its 2008 survey of wedding trends. The survey found that the average expenditure per couple for all aspects of their wedding, including the preliminary ceremonies and the honeymoon, totaled 4.29 million yen, an increase of 77,000 yen from the previous year. This was about 40,000 yen less than the national average. In contrast, the average expenditure for the ceremony, the reception, and the party was 130,000 yen more than the national average. Also, about 30% of the Kyushu couples received no

Fukuoka Now #132 Decmber 2009

financial assistance from their parents for the ceremonies, the highest regional percentage of the 15 regions nationwide. 九州知事会、高速道路無料化「慎重に」

Kyushu Governors Wary of Expressway Policy The Kyushu Governors Council held its first meeting since the inauguration of the new Hatoyama administration in Oita Prefecture on 26 October. In regard to the government’s plan to eliminate expressway tolls, the council issued a statement that said, “Discarding the principle that the people who benefit should be liable for the expenses puts the construction of the essential East Kyushu Expressway in danger of being delayed.” Considering the diversion of the gasoline tax funds to the general account, the council also adopted a special resolution asking the national government to prudently examine the potential results of their plan. 福岡銀の 9 月システム障害、電池交換忘れ

IBM Japan Forgot to Change the Batteries The cause of the total shutdown of Fukuoka Bank’s online banking system in September has been traced to the failure of IBM Japan, responsible for system maintenance, to replace the batteries in the backup system during a check last March, despite their report saying they had done so. Some of the system data was lost as a result of the failure. It took the bank until October 6 to straighten out the problems with various transactions. 日韓海上旅客、韓国人が半減

Korean Sea Travellers Down by Half The Kyushu District Transport Bureau reports that the number of travelers between South Korea and the Kyushu region in the first half of the current fiscal year totaled about 48,000, down 35.9% from the year-before period. This is the largest percentage-point decline ever.

Though the number of Japanese traveling to South Korea rose by 7.2% during the period, the total of South Koreans plunged by 50.9%.

The decline was attributed to the high yen, the low won, and fears of the new flu virus. スター社、初の中間黒字

Starflyer Earns First Mid-Term Profit Kitakyushu-based airline Starflyer earned 57 million yen in current profit and 47 million yen in net profit on revenue of 8.578 billion yen, according to its consolidated interim report for the current fiscal year. It is the first mid-term profit earned by the company in its existence, and came despite a 3.9% year-on-year decline in sales. The profits were attributed to cheaper fuel and corporate cost-cutting moves.

九州ニュース

北九州市「長崎・広島五輪」委員会に参加

福岡県、学力テストを全校継続へ

Kitakyushu Mayor to Join Olympic Committee Kitakyushu Mayor Kenji Kitahashi said he would accept an invitation to join the exploratory committee for examining a possible bid by Nagasaki City and Hiroshima City to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. He added, however, that it would be only to assist their efforts, and not for the purpose of holding any of the events should the bid be accepted. Fukuoka City turned down the same invitation because it thought the involvement of cities that did not suffer an atomic bombing would dilute the cause.

All Schools Administer Scholastic Ability Test Under the new Democratic Party of Japan administration, the Ministry of Education has announced a policy of having only selected schools administer the scholastic ability test given to sixth-grade primary school students and third-year junior high school students rather than all the schools in a prefecture. The test, which is to be conducted annually, was restored in 2007 after 43 years. Fukuoka Prefecture, however, announced its intention to have all schools continue to administer the test. They say it will be difficult to certify academic ability by district or by municipality if only selected schools administer the test.

福岡レッドワーブラーズ、来季リーグ不参戦

Fukuoka Red Warblers Taking Year Off The Fukuoka Red Warblers, one of six teams in the independent Shikoku-Kyushu Island League, will suspend play next season due to a lack of funds. Team officials said they would try to raise the cash to return to the league in 2011. Next season, only five teams will play, and only one, based in Nagasaki, is from Kyushu. Attendance last season averaged 782 people per game, and the league itself is in debt by 220 million yen.

九州 7 地銀、上方修正

Regional Banks Revise Projections A total of seven of the 17 Kyushu regional banks have revised upward their net profit projections for the year on their interim reports.

The banks’ improved outlook results from a decline in bankruptcies among their customers, reduced expenses required for disposing of non-performing loans, an upturn in the

stock market, and improved results from their securities portfolio management. The banks also caution, however, that demand for loans remains low and that concerns remain about an economic downturn. 鮮魚に QR コード

QR Code Trials Start for Fresh Fish The Nagasaki Prefectural Institute of Fisheries and the Yokohama-based National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Fisheries Research Agency announced they have begun trials of Japan’s first traceability system for fresh fish using the QR Code. A tag with a QR code is attached to each fish, and a customer can photograph the code with his cell phone camera, connect to the Internet, and learn the region of production, the distribution route, and product characteristics. The two groups say this is a ground-breaking trial because it enables the quick check of the quality and freshness of fish. That is not always easy to determine with the naked eye, and distribution routes can be complicated.

News source: With permission from the morning editions of the Nishinippon Newspaper.

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