Dec 2010 Fukuoka Now by Fukuoka Now Ltd.

Fukuoka Now #144 December 2010

九州ニュース

Kyushu Headline 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中国の格安航空、佐賀空港に誘致

Saga to Solicit Low-Cost Chinese Airlines Saga Prefecture Gov. Yasushi Furukawa revealed at a press conference that the prefecture is working to attract low-cost carriers to use the prefecture-operated Saga Airport, a perennial money-loser. The prefecture government is concerned about traffic and revenue because ANA will discontinue its roundtrip flights from the airport to Osaka in January. The governor said he began negotiations with Shanghaibased Spring Airlines last month in that city. 韓国高校生の就業体験、福岡の 3 社受け入れ

Companies to Accept South Korean Interns The Education Committee of South Korea’s Chungcheongnam Province asked Chukeikyo, an association of small and medium-sized business executives in Fukuoka Prefecture, to accept six high school students from that country in their internship program, and the Fukuoka Group agreed. The six students will work part time at local companies while going to school to gain work experience and focus on their career goals. The South Korean province has been conducting the overseas internship program since 2008, and this is the first time students will be sent to Japan. 九州知事会、7 県で行政機構措置

Governors Set Seven-Prefecture Administrative Mechanism With the national government mulling the elimination of local offices for government ministries and agencies and transferring their responsibilities to sub-national governments, the Kyushu Governors’ Council agreed to establish an administrative mechanism for the seven prefectures in the region. They will petition the national government to create the legal framework required to implement their plan. If the national government takes that step, the offices, authority, funding sources, and employees for 15 agencies in eight ministries will be transferred nearly intact. Duties related to national taxation and defense will not be affected. 九州バイオ組織が仏団体と食品分野で連携

Kyushu Bioindustry Group Forms Ties With French The Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry announced that the Kyushu Regional Biocluster Promotional Council, a group for developing the regional biotech industry consisting of representatives from industry, academia, and government, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the F2C Innovation, a French agri-food “super cluster”, for exchanging information and technology in the food product and biotech sector. The agreement is the first of its kind for the Kyushu group, and it was signed at the suggestion of the French group.

They are impressed by the safety and high quality of the primary agricultural products and food products from Kyushu, 都城ワイン初仕込み

First Wine to be Made in Miyakonojo Miyakonojo Winery Farm, an agricultural company formed to produce wine using grapes grown in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, began the process of making its first wine this month. The company receives technical advice from specialists at the Miyakonojo National College of Technology. They will handle all the operations from production to sales, and plan on selling 6,000 bottles from the end of November to next spring.

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expected to rise. When the expansion is completed, capacity will have been boosted by four times. They also plan to increase production capacity at their Saga plant, which manufactures steel cords for their tires. 九州は派手婚

Extravagant Weddings the Trend in Kyushu Zexy, a magazine providing wedding information published by Recruit, released the results of its survey of wedding ceremony trends for 2009. The average cost of a Kyushu wedding rose 26,000 yen from the previous year to 3.462 million yen. That is roughly 200,000 yen more than the national average, which fell about 50,000 yen from the previous year.

九州新幹線、大阪――鹿児島朝夕計 4 往復

井筒屋、3 年ぶりに黒字達成

Shinkansen to have Four Osaka-Kagoshima Daily Trips JR Kyushu and JR West announced they will operate four daily roundtrips on the Shinkansen between Osaka and Kagoshima when the Kyushu Shinkansen begins service next March. The total trip will take three hours and 45 minutes. The train will stop at Osaka, Kobe, Okayama, Hiroshima, Kokura, Hakata, Kumamoto, and Kagoshima.

Izutsu-ya Turns First Profit in Three Years Kitakyushu-based Izutsu-ya released its interim consolidated report showing it earned 1.154 billion yen in current profit during the first half, a sharp increase from the 1.69 billion yen loss of last year. They also posted 1.140 billion in net profit, up from last year’s 563 million yen loss. It was the first time in three years the department store recorded profits in these categories. They managed to achieve profitability despite a 9.1% drop in sales during the same period to 140 billion yen, the second straight annual sales decline for the company. One reason cited for the profit gains was that the company slashed 30% of its workforce as part of its new three-year plan.

ヤフー子会社、コールセンターを北九州に開業

Yahoo Subsidiary Opens Calls Center in Kitakyushu Yahoo Customer Relations, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yahoo! Japan, opened a call center in Kitakyushu. It is their third call center, joining ones in Kochi and Oita, and has 180 employees. They plan on expanding to 300 employees in three years. 新生ハウステンボス半年、入場者 17.2%、売り上げ高 4% 増

Admissions Climb at Huis ten Bosch Since becoming a subsidiary of travel agency HIS in April, the Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture resort Huis ten Bosch has achieved a recovery in both admissions and sales in the first half of the current fiscal year. They’ve been particularly successful in attracting middle-aged and elderly customers, which had been their weakness, by sponsoring such events as the Gardening World Cup. Merchandise and eating and drinking place sales are climbing as a result. They posted a 17.2% year-on-year rise in admissions and a 4% increase in revenue during the first half. ブリヂストンー北九州、佐賀工場を増強

Bridgestone to Expand Kitakyushu, Saga Plants Bridgestone released its mid-term business plan for the next five years, which calls for an expansion of its Kitakyushu factory to manufacture extra-large radial tires used for construction and mine excavation vehicles, for which demand is

Fukuoka Now #144 December 2010

北九州に水素発電住宅

Excess Hydrogen to be Used for Home Power Generation The hydrogen created as a byproduct at Nippon Steel Corp.’s Yahata Plant in Kitakyushu will be used in fuel cells that do not emit CO2. Those fuel cells will in turn be used by Shin Nippon Homes and an NPO in a business enterprise for power generation in a seven-unit apartment house currently under construction in the city. It is the first time in Japan for hydrogen from a factory to be reused to generate power in a residential unit. Occupancy of the apartments could begin as early as this year. 九電が台湾に進出

Kyushu Electric Establishes Presence in Taiwan Kyushu Electric Power revealed that they have purchased a 33.2% stake in a Taiwan-based independent power producer from the Marubeni Corp., which had an 83.2% share in the company. This is the sixth country or territory outside of Japan in which Kyushu Electric has made an investment. They are also the fourth Japanese power company to take an ownership share of an independent power producer in Taiwan. News source: With permission from the morning editions of the Nishinippon Newspaper.

Fukuoka Now #144 December 2010