fasol.blog

The total solar eclipse could be seen clearly today around 11:13am in Tokyo - however in Tokyo the coverage was not total. Here is a picture taken with a standard Canon digital camera:

Labels: canon, eclipse, solar eclipse

Read more about SONY and Japan's electrical industry sector: http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/j_electric/index.shtml
Subscribe to our newsletters: technology newsletters from Japan

Labels: sony

It's not all doom and gloom here in Japan. Nintendo's sales and operating profits are rising 8.8% year-on-year. KDDI saw its net profits increasing 59% year on year. Yahoo Japan increases dividends by 22%-25% for 2008. Who are today's winners in Japan's IT industry? Gerhard Fasol will show us how and why some great Japanese companies excel in today's crisis.

The talk reviews today's status of Japan's electrical companies, the telecommunications sector and the internet sector, and introduces seven different companies, which show rapid growth of revenues, operating income and net income despite the crisis. These seven companies we introduce turn the crisis into an opportunity.

The PowerPoints of this presentation are available as the April-2009 issue of the (paid) Eurotechnology-Japan newsletter series. Subscribers receive one newsletter each month - the April issue is an augmented and expanded version of the PowerPoints of the presentation above.

To subscribe to the newsletters and to download the presentation click here (April 2009 issue of our Eurotechnology-Japan newsletter, requires subscription)

Mr Fasol is one of the best specialists of Japan's IT industry. After 12 years in Japan working for the most prestigious Japanese institutions and companies (the University of Tokyo, NTT, Hitachi...), he founded the strategy and M&A firm Eurotechnology Japan KK in 1996. Mr Fasol has advised some of the greatest companies, including NTT, SIEMENS, Deutsche Telekom, Cubic, Unaxis and about 100 fund managers on strategy for Japan, as well as the President of Germany. He helped a French pharmaceutical company acquire a factory in Japan.
He comments regularly on CNBC on Japan's tech sector.

Schedule: March 24th, 2009 (Tuesday) from 18:30
The conference will be followed by a light cocktail.
Place: French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan, meeting room
Iida bldg 1F, 5-5 Rokubancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0085
Tel.: 03-3288-9624
Access map: www.ccifj.or.jp
Language: English
Fees: 5.000 yens (to pay in cash at the door)
Payment will be required for cancellations or no-show after this deadline.
Announcement on the website of the French Chamber of Commerce
read a report on the talk here in the monthly newsletter of the French Chamber of Commerce in Japan (in French)


Background reading: our J-ELECTRIC report about Japan's electric companies

and our Eurotechnology Japan Blog

Labels: business in japan, crisis, french chamber of commerce, nintendo

Attended Professor Junichi Hamada's presentation at Tokyo University. Professor Hamada is expert on the legal aspects of journalism, freedom of press and media regulation. Professor Hamada will be the new President of Tokyo University from April 2009.

In his presentation Professor Hamada discussed the changes in the media sector, and of course also his views and strategies for Tokyo University.

Asked during question time about his views of University ranking lists, his answer was that serving society is much more important than ranking lists.



For my own work at Tokyo University see: Fasol Laboratory webpages

Labels: hamada, junichi hamada, president, tokyo university, university of tokyo

Ludwig Boltzmann was one of the most important physicists and philosophers: it is almost impossible for any engineer, chemist or physicist to do a day's work without using Boltzmann's tools and results every day. Ludwig Boltzmann is this author's and Eurotechnology Japan KK's founder's great grandfather - and his excellence is our company's guiding light.

Ludwig Boltzmann was born 165 years ago on February 20, 1844, and last Friday, February 20, 2009 we celebrated by inviting several of Japan's science and technology leaders to the Ludwig Boltzmann Symposium in Tokyo with kind cooperation and hospitality by the Ambassador of Austria and the Austrian Embassy.

First speaker was Professor Hisashi Kobayashi, Founder of the IBM Tokyo Laboratory, former Dean of Engineering of Princeton University. He showed how Entropy and noise in communications is linked to Boltzmann's generalized Entropy and the H-Theorem. Coming from Princeton, Hisashi also showed us elegantly how strongly Einstein's work is linked to Boltzmann's.

Professor Kiyoshi Kurokawa, former Dean of Medicine of Tokai University, former President of Japan's Science Council and Advisor to two Japanese Prime Ministers and now Professor at Japan's new Political Science University, gave an intense and passionate speech about which changes are necessary to live in our future which will be hot (as in global warming), flat (as in global communications and internet) and crowded (due do population growth). Kiyoshi also made a passionate appeal to Japanese organisations (including the S&T leaders participating at our Symposium) to change, open up and compete globally. (Website: "Hot, Flat and crowded" by Thomas Friedmann)

Kazu Ishikawa of Exa Japan gave a fantastic demonstration how Boltzmann's equations are used to simulate airflow for the construction of cars, airplanes, jet engines ... Boltzmann's equations replace the macroscopic Navier-Stokes equations as numerical wind tunnels. Boltzmann's equations are particularly needed for the simulation of transients.

Finally, Gerhard Fasol, Ludwig Boltzmann's Great-Grandson, gave two talks: one talk about Ludwig Boltzmann's scientific achievements, his search for understanding the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics with mechanics, the effects of collisions and the generalization to non-equilibrium - leading the H-Theorem, and the generalization of Entropy and Boltzmann's philosophical work. The second talk introduced the human side of Ludwig Boltzmann: his life and his passions.


Photo: Hisashi Kobayashi shows why Boltzmann's work is important for telecommunications, and how Einstein's work is linked to Boltzmann's. Her Excellency, the Austrian Ambassador follows closely.




Photo: Hot, flat and crowded. In a passionate speech, former science and tech advisor of two Japanese Prime-Ministers, Kiyoshi Kurokawa talks about the future, and how to be prepared to compete.


Photo: The Austrian Ambassador invited the participants of the Ludwig Boltzmann Symposium to the Austrian Residence.

More photos here

Labels: entropy, h-theorem, ludwig boltzmann

Was invited to coffee with the Foreign Minister of Austria, Mr Michael Spindelegger, at the Embassy in Tokyo. Minister Spindelegger is in Tokyo for celebrating 140 years of Austria-Japan diplomatic relations, and he gave a short presentation.

Another reason for the Minister's visit to Japan is that both Japan and Austria are non-permanent members of the United Nations UN Security Council for the two year period from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010.

Labels: aussenminister, austria, foreign minister, spindelegger

Since Shuji Nakamura's first commercialization of GaN LEDs (read the Blue Laser Diode Book) LEDs are progressing rapidly to make the US$ 400 Billion global lighting industry more environmentally friendly, reducing CO2 output and reducing electricity bills for lighting dramatically. Recently rail stations in Japan have begun to test plug-compatible replacement of fluorescent tubes by LED based solid state lighting.

This year our company advised a number of investment fund managers on technology, business models, financial models and trends of the solid state lighting industry. Please find a detailed Solid State Lighting report here - we continuously update this report.

Christmas lighting with blue LEDs in Tokyo Midtown. Tokyo Tower can be seen in the back, lighted using traditional lamps, though. Merry Christmas!

Labels: blue led, gallium nitride, led, solid state lighting

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura (河村建夫) gave a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club on December 17th, 2008. Kawamura is born in Hagi (Kawaguchi-ken - a beautiful Castle Town in the west of Japan's main island, which is also host to many famous potters). Kawaguchi was Education Minister in Prime Minister Aso's cabinet.

In his speech Kawamura of course mainly talked about the current global financial crisis and stimulation programs to support the economic recovery, to support new industries and new technologies. Another emphasis is consumer protection support of the consumer agency in view of recent food scandals, and other consumer good problems.

Points which I found interesting in Kawamura's presentation where:

- A comprehensive law for decentralization is on the way for next year.
- The basic law on space development

There was quite a long Q&A with discussion. What I found interesting was Kawamura's answer to the question about the disputed Takeshima islands, that a solution in an international arbitration court is desirable.- This is the first time I heard about this possibility from Japanese leaders.
Asked also about the disputed Sentaku Islands, Kawamura mentioned the possibility of joint ownership areas for maritime resources, and the development of gas resources beyond the 200 mile territorial limits.

Labels: business in japan, chief cabinet secretary, kawamura takeo, ldp, takeo kawamura, 河村建夫

presentation by Gerhard Fasol, at the Industry Association of Japanese telecom and networking equipment makers, Friday November 27, 2008, 15:00-16:30

Presentation was fully booked several weeks before the talk, attended by about 100 managers and executives of Japan's telecom equipment makers, and included also the Vice-Minister/Secretary of State of Japan's General Affairs Ministry, which is responsible for telecom regulation in Japan.

Download the presentation as a pdf-file here (in Japanese language)

Labels: international business, japan, MIC, mobile phones, telecom equipment

Nomura CEO, Kenichi Watanabe, today gave a presentation about the acquisition of the former Lehman Brothers operations in Europe & ME, Japan, Asia (ex-Japan) and in India.

Nomura acquired:
Europe and ME:
Equities and investment banking operations (approx 250 people)
Fixed income staff (approx 150 people)

Japan:
approx. 1100 people

Asia (ex-Japan):
approx. 1500 people

India:
three subsidiaries, in total approx 2900 people
LB Services India, IT, Global servicing
LB Financial Services India, research services
LB Structured Finance Services, Capital Markets Support and Analytics

Synergies:
Nomura is strong in mutual funds (74.2% of business)
Lehman is strong in hedge funds (56.8% of business)
Nomura is strong in retail
Lehman is strong in wholesale

Nomura plans three phases:
Phase 1: x-Lehman staff join Nomura
Phase 2: start joint operations
Phase 3: promote efficiency
Phase 4: create synergies

Q&A (there was an extensive Q&A session), selected questions were:

Question: Could the Lehman acquisition be seen as a "reverse takeover", ie Lehman people taking over Nomura?

Answer: any kind of takeover, foreign staff taking over, new hires taking over, long term employees taking over is ok for Nomura, if it makes the customers, shareholders and employees happy.

Question: how does Nomura plan to cover the acquisition costs, how does Nomura plan to become profitable, and could there be cuts in headcount?

Answer: we will right-size in each business area according to the necessities in each business area, and in some business division we are hiring and increasing headcount.

Question: what about highly paid "talents" and high bonus payments? Could there be friction with existing Nomura employees?

Answer: Nomura already has several thousand employees with about 50 or more nationalities, and some are paid more than the CEO of Nomura, so we are already familiar with this situation. Currently Goldman-Sachs CEO and top executives have announced that they will not receive any bonus payments. We will hope that this will be understood in our company as well.

Question: Will the acquisition mean an end to lifetime employment and bring the introduction of performance based payment?

We must make sure that we satisfy our clients, we will focus to deliver the services our clients need.

Labels: ceo, lehman, nomura, watanabe