Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Insurance company Sompo Japan is offering strong support to the satellite startup Synspective through financing and a business alliance.

Synspective, a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data and solutions provider, announced at the end of March that it had raised US$100 million in its Series B funding round, and that Sompo Japan Insurance was the leading contributor.

The startup aims to put thirty SAR satellites into service by around 2026 that will enable wide-area, high-frequency observation of the Earth.

Sompo Japan believes that these satellites will be instrumental in its future insurance business, greatly assisting it in monitoring those who are affected by floods, windstorms, and other related natural disasters through the satellite data. If all goes to plan, the acquired data will also identify potential damage areas, predicting each location’s susceptibility to natural disasters.

Masachika Nakao, managing executive officer of Sompo Japan, states, “Taking the opportunity of the capital tie-up with Synspective, we will cooperate to create social value through the new services development that deliver peace of mind to our customers, those who are affected by a disaster, as soon as possible by encouraging them to make insurance claims.”

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Nissan Motor has repeatedly delayed the launch of its fully-electric sports utility vehicle Ariya, citing problems in the supply chain.

It is now nearly a year since the successor to the venerable Nissan Leaf was supposed to have launched, and the latest projected date for the offering within Japan is now May 12.

The supply chain problems include, but may not be limited to, the global shortage of semiconductors, which has dogged much of the world’s automakers over the past couple years.

The Nissan Leaf had been the best-selling plug-in-electric car of all time until 2020, when it was finally surpassed by the Tesla Model 3. The Japanese automaker had thus gotten out to a global lead in electric vehicles in the early 2010s, only to forfeit its position by failing to follow up with any new offerings.

The Ariya is supposed to be Nissan’s belated effort to get back in the electric vehicle market, but its release, originally set for mid-2021, has still not been achieved.

According to current information, Ariya sales are expected to begin in Europe in the summer and in the United States in the autumn.

With a 100% electric powertrain, the Ariya is billed as having powerful acceleration and smooth, quiet operation. It has an estimated range of up to 610 kilometers.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — PSG eSports is competing in the Japan’s Rainbow Six Siege League for the spring season, bringing the firepower of a highly successful international outfit into domestic Japanese competition.

The new PSG team debuted on March 26, and it is composed of the entirety of the former Yoshimoto Gaming Lamy lineup

Paris Saint-Germain, more recognizable by its acronym PSG, is a professional football club with its headquarters located in Paris, France. The club competes in the top division of French football and is very successful.

The overwhelming success and brand recognizability of PSG has prompted it to expand into other areas, one of which is the esports market, resulting in the launch of the PSG eSports division in 2016.

PSG has fielded several rosters in different countries, playing a number of popular esports titles, including a Thai roster in Arena of Valor, a Japanese and Singaporean duo in Brawl Stars, and a Chinese-French roster in FIFA.

Additionally, PSG’s partnership with Hong Kong esports organization Talon eSports fostered a League of Legends squad that consistently dominates the Taiwanese league and makes regular appearances in international tournaments.

Moreover, LGD, a Chinese esports organization, formed a joint venture with PSG to create PSG.LGD for Dota 2. Like its League of Legends roster, its Dota 2 team also regularly competes at a high level.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Executives of US casino operator Bally’s Corporation were in Japan this week and have expressed interest in joining the emerging Japanese casino market—although most of the reporting about Bally’s intentions proved inaccurate.

At least three senior Bally’s executives were on the Japan tour: Chairman Soo Kim, President of Retail George Papanier, and Vice-President of Corporate Development Christopher Jewett.

The misleading reporting about Bally’s purposes was largely the result of press conference on March 30 at the Hotel Okura Fukuoka, which was sloppily organized by members of the local business community, but was largely presented to the audience as an event held by the Bally’s team.

The relationship between the speakers was not clearly explained, and about halfway through the event the Japanese-English interpretation disappeared, leaving frustrated Japanese journalists trying to ask questions directly to the Bally’s team of American executives, but instead having them fielded by a local consultant who was himself not in full command of the facts.

What the Japanese media took from the event was that Bally’s was jumping into the process at the eleventh hour—two months before the national deadline for licensing applications—with the aim of opening a major Integrated Resort (IR) in Fukuoka by 2028.

This notion was clearly preposterous to anyone familiar with all of the political steps that would be need to be accomplished to meet the deadline, as well as the fact that the Fukuoka governor is already committed to supporting Nagasaki’s IR bid through a number of all-Kyushu organizations.

Moreover, a series of concept drawings for a Fukuoka IR offered by another speaker, Kelly DeVine of HBG Design, were presented to the audience as if they were part of a Bally’s plan, when in fact it seems that the US casino executives had never even seen them before.

As for why the Bally’s team was actually in Japan, it was simply to scope out the country for future opportunities.

Evident in their generalized platitudes about how “this area has tremendous potential as a host community for an Integrated Resort” and Papanier’s inability to correctly pronounce the name of the host city was that Bally’s has no commitment at this stage to this particular municipality.

The most enlightening explanation for the actual motives and purposes of the Bally’s executives’ tour of Japan at this time came from Jewett, who stated (though his message was lost in translation) that “we are aware that the existing national process to select Integrated Resort candidates will conclude at the end of April. There is the possibility that after the national government assesses the initial round of proposals, that it will choose to reopen the bidding process.”

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Honda’s Asimo robot has been retired after a two-decade long career as one of the company’s mascots, extending a national trend toward the mothballing of iconic humanoid robots.

After its release in 2000, Asimo became a symbol of Japan’s anticipated future as pioneering robot society. Asimo proved capable of performing human motor functions such as walking, running, speaking, moving objects around, and more.

However, with the company’s priority now shifting towards Artificial Intelligence and perhaps a lack of practical applications for its skills, Asimo’s plug has been pulled, and all development of the humanoid robot is being discontinued.

The company hosted a retirement ceremony for Asimo, where it gave a final performance for fans and staff.

Asimo’s fate follows that of counterpart Pepper. Like Asimo, last June the iconic SoftBank humanoid robot also saw the curtains come down after a storied career as a public entertainer.

Pepper’s retirement was attributed to its lack of commercial viability and an overall drop in sales.

With Pepper and now Asimo leaving the stage, an era in Japanese robotics appears to have come to an end.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Tokyu Railways Company has announced that all its lines will run entirely on solar and renewable energy sources from next month, making it the first Japanese railway company to achieve this goal.

Tokyu Railways said it will purchase non-fossil fuel certificates for its electricity supplies along all its lines in the Tokyo area. This marks the first time a Japanese railway company has decided to go fully green.

This move may achieve a carbon dioxide reduction equivalent to the emissions of approximately 56,000 households per year.

Non-fossil certificates are issued by local governments, and are used to prove that a certain amount of energy has been produced by renewable energy. These certificates are available for purchase by companies, and this demand for green energy in turn pushes utilities and suppliers to expand renewables production.

Tokyu has assured its customers that the increased costs for acquiring electricity will not influence train fares, as the firm plans to introduce new electricity-efficient train models in the near future.

Tokyu plans to cut its overall company emissions by 46.2% by 2030 and aims to eliminate CO2 emissions entirely by 2050.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Osaka Prefectural Government has released its awaited “Road Map” on the development of the eVTOL industry.

It is a 27-page PDF document, which is at this juncture available on the prefecture’s website, but only in Japanese language.

The part of the report highlighted most prominently by the domestic news media was the timeline envisioned by the prefectural government.

Vertiport construction is to begin next year and to be completed in 2024.

The next few years will also be occupied by various demonstration events and an effort to educate local residents, preparing the ground for social acceptance of flying vehicles in the urban environment.

As has been previously noted, it is the 2025 World Expo on the manmade island of Yumeshima in Osaka Bay at which the age of the eVTOL will be proclaimed to the nation and the world.

The Road Map goes on to specify that even after the World Expo closes, eVTOLs should continue to run along various routes in Osaka for sightseeing and other purposes.

Around 2030, the Road Map foresees a gradual shift toward automatic flight without pilots, as well as on-demand flight based on user reservations. Moreover, this is likely to be the period when eVTOL flight areas expanded from central Osaka to the whole of the Kansai region.

Finally, around 2035, Osaka Prefecture expects that eVTOLs will come into daily use by a significant portion of the population, no longer seen as a curiosity or something out of the ordinary.

The Road Map explains that the prefectural government’s interest in proactively promoting the eVTOL industry derives from the fact that these vehicles, when compared to helicopters or conventional aircraft, are likely to become less noisy, better for the climate, and cheaper than the existing options. Vertiports will also require much less ground space than the major airports in use today.

As the report puts it, “As a means for daily and short-distance transportation, eVTOL have the potential to bring new value to people’s lives and the towns they live in. They are expected to be used for a wide range of applications such as urban transportation, tourism and leisure, critical care, and disaster response.

The prefecture also has its eye on some of the positive knock-on effects that might attend the development of the eVTOL industry, such as the creation of new manufacturing and service jobs in the local economy.

Specifically, these could include the training of eVTOL pilots and mechanics to support commercial operations, aircraft and airframe maintenance jobs, and new opportunities for the insurance business.

On the same day as the Road Map was released, the Osaka Prefectural Government also hosted the 6th meeting of the Osaka Roundtable on a Moving Revolution Society in the Sky.

This event included presentations by a number of private firms that are making their own proposals. Namely, there were presentations by SkyDrive (an eVTOL developer), ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines (which are collaborating with foreign eVTOL makers to bring eVTOL services to Japan); as well as FaroStar and Mitsui & Co. (which are promoting air traffic management systems).

The Osaka Roundtable on a Moving Revolution Society in the Sky was launched on November 17, 2020, with the Osaka Prefectural Government and 41 private companies and organizations as its inaugural members.

Osaka’s initiative was in turn based upon the Public-Private Conference for Future Air Mobility, an initiative jointly launched in August 2018 by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).

Osaka Prefecture has a population of over 8.8 million people and is the traditional rival within Japan of the capital city, Tokyo. The city’s leaders believe that the eVTOLs can help them take the national lead in a strategic forward-looking industry.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The video game adaptation of popular anime KonoSuba will be receiving a sequel, currently scheduled for a July 28 release.

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o (God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World), better known as KonoSuba, is a fantasy comedy, isekai (different world) light novel series launched by Akatsuki Natsume in 2013.

The series eventually garnered considerable popularity and was adapted into an anime series, with two seasons already released, and a third season officially announced.

Natsume later paired with Japanese video game developer Entergram, primarily known for its work porting visual novels into consoles, to release in 2019 a dungeon RPG titled KonoSuba: Labyrinth of Hope and the Gathering Adventures for the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 4. An enhanced Plus version of the game was released for the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch in 2020.

The KonoSuba video game sequel, Noroi no Ibutsu to Madoishi Bokenshatachi (Cursed Relics and Deceived Adventurers) aims to extend the success of the franchise on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch with a series of new experiences.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Osaka Prefectural Assembly approved on March 24 the development plan for the Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino on the manmade island Yumeshima, despite lingering doubts over potential soil liquefaction and only conditional commitment by the private companies.

With the backing of the locally dominant Osaka Restoration Association led by Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, the Osaka City Council is also expected to give its nod to the project on March 29.

In order to be considered for licensing, the IR proposal must be submitted to the national government before the April 28 deadline.

Development costs for the IR are expected to reach ¥1.08 trillion (US$9 billion), including ¥530 billion (US$4.4 billion) in direct investment the MGM Resorts-Orix Corporation led consortium, and the remaining ¥550 billion (US$4.6 billion) through bank loans.

This figure appears to be separate from the ¥79 billion (US$660 million) needed to strengthen and decontaminate the Yumeshima soil, which will be ponied up by Osaka taxpayers.

The passage of the IR plan through the prefectural assembly finally spurred local anti-casino groups to action, with a referendum petition now appearing imminent.

However, this grassroots reaction is likely coming much too late to impact events, and in any case it has no chance to succeed with the pro-IR Osaka Restoration Association dominating the local political offices.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Bandai Namco and CyberConnect2 have announced the remaster release of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R, which will be launched in the early fall of 2022.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle is a 3D fighting game originally released for the PlayStation 3 in 2014, featuring forty characters from the show’s previous animated seasons. The new remaster of the game will expand to a roster capacity of more than fifty characters, to accommodate the characters taken from the new season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean.

Japanese video game publisher and developer Bandai Namco and CyberConnect2, which did the original All-Star Battle, will collaborate once again to work on the remaster of the video game to maintain the authenticity of the creator Hirohiko Araki’s captivating art styles.

The remastered game modes will remain largely unchanged from the original release. However, the remaster does feature a revamped and improved fighting system, with new combos, dashes, and a new tag-team battle system called “Support Attack.”

With over one hundred battles with varying settings and conditions from their revamped All-Star Battle Mode, along with several special cosmetic skins and unique illustrations of the characters, the options have grown considerably.

The precise release date of the new video game remains unknown, but the firms have stated that it will hover between September and October 2022.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — An Artificial Intelligence-piloted ship successfully performed an extended test voyage along the coast of Japan, a first-of-its kind event at the end of last month.

The AI-piloted container ship, Suzaku, sailed from Tokyo Bay to Ise Bay from February 26 to March 1, without human intervention.

The 790 kilometer voyage was the fifth in a series of tests by the Nippon Foundation’s autonomous ship program.

Program director Satoru Kuwahara told national broadcaster NHK that the ship “was developed to solve the problem of labor shortages on domestic ships as society ages.”

There are still some labor demands even in the case of fully autonomous voyages, but far less manpower is needed compared to conventional shipping.

The tests are backed by the Designing the Future of Full Autonomous Ship Consortium, which includes over thirty companies from an array of fields.

The ship was equipped with numerous cameras to scan the coastline and to avoid maritime collisions. The AI piloted its course by measuring the height of waves and taking into account local weather reports. In this way it plotted the safest path to its destination.

In the event of technical failures or emergencies, the AI can switch to a remote manual piloting system.

Since roughly five hundred commercial ships navigate through Tokyo Bay on a daily basis, avoiding collisions was a particular concern of the developers, but the automated ship was able to perform its tasks flawlessly.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Eight Japanese firms came together in mid-February to declare that 2022 is “the first year of robot delivery” as their industry is now making strides toward widespread use within society.

The eight firms used the occasion to establish the Robot Delivery Association. It’s founding members are Honda Motor, Japan Post Holdings, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Panasonic Corporation, Rakuten Group, TIS, Tier IV, and ZMP.

Each of the firms demonstrated their own model delivery robots, some of which are already in practical use.

The robots are expected to roll in to help solve manpower shortage issues in Japan both within indoor use cases and outdoors.

In regard to the latter, one of the first tasks of the Robot Delivery Association will be to establish voluntary safety standards and to create a certification system in the industry for robots utilizing public roads. The government is also moving to set new rules for low-speed, small-sized automated delivery robots.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan’s largest esports park “Red Tokyo Tower” is preparing its grand opening on April 20, 2022, within the iconic Tokyo Tower of Minato Ward.

The facility will take up five floors of space.

The operator, Tokyo eSports Gate, is an entertainment company that prides itself on the promotion and expansion of the esports industry.

At the moment, only the fifth floor of the facility, the “Ultimate Zone” is open to the public. The other four floors are reserved for the day of the grand opening.

Red Tokyo Tower will include dedicated PC areas with 32 gaming PCs with the most advanced specs, e-motorsport simulators with the latest game titles, streaming rooms for live performances, card and board game arenas, and a food court.

The fourth floor, or the “Attraction Zone,” will cater to people who enjoy mysteries and problem solving.

The third floor, or the “Inspiration Zone,” will be primarily for retro and virtual reality game enthusiasts.

Finally, the first-floor “Wonder Zone” is targeted at families with children, including playgrounds and puzzle-related challenges to stimulate intellectual curiosity.

The first floor will also offer a cafe restaurant for family experiences.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — ACSL has developed an LTE-compatible drone that can be remotely operated throughout all of Japan.

ACSL recently announced that it will start offering and developing drones that can be remotely steered through LTE-compatible PF2-LTE. The combination of technologies allows users to control drones from any location within Japan via LTE.

ACSL is known for its domestic industrial drones and autonomous control technologies, which are used in a variety of fields such as logistics, disaster, and infrastructure inspection. With the demand for LTE flight options significantly increasing, specifications for the LTE flights through PF2-LTE have been significantly improved.

The biggest and most important feature of the LTE is that it no longer requires direct communication between the drone and the ground station, thus enabling unassisted non-visual flight from all locations via internet connections.

It is also important to note that since these LTE drones are compatible with multiple carriers, it is technically possible to operate several drones at the same time.

Otherwise, the PF2-LTE drones have a size under 1.2 meters in total length including the propellers, 65 centimeters in height, and just over 7 kilograms in weight with the two batteries included. The drone has maximum flight time of around 30 minutes with a payload, and 15 minutes with a maximum payload capacity of 2.75 kilograms. The drone is also dust-proof and waterproof.

The domestic version of PF2-LTE will become available for purchase sometime this spring.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The appearance on March 17 of Mario Ho and other representatives of the Clairvest Group-led consortium aiming to build the ¥470 billion (US$4 billion) Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino in Wakayama city failed to quell the misgivings of some members of the IR Countermeasures Special Committee of the Wakayama Prefectural Assembly.

Clairvest is gradually filling some of the details about the shape of the consortium and its financing arrangements, but even at the eleventh hour information gaps remain.

What is currently public is that 30% of the needed construction funds—¥145 billion (US$1.2 billion)—are expected to come from the direct investment of the partners, and the remaining 70%—¥325 billion (US$2.8 billion)—is to be covered by borrowing.

The facts are not entirely clear with regard to either portion.

As for the investment segment, 27.5% is expected to be put up by Clairvest Neem Ventures, 27.5% by the Canadian mother company Clairvest Group, 5% by casino giant Caesars Entertainment, and 40% by “minority shareholders.”

And who exactly are these minority shareholders? Nishimatsu Construction is the only one that has been specifically named, and it is not clear how much money they would be investing.

Similarly, there are now three financial institutions that have been named in regard to the provision of loans—Credit Suisse, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Hanwha Investment & Securities—but it is not evident exactly how much they would loan to the project, and it does not appear that they have yet made firm commitments beyond letters of intent.

Nevertheless, Mario Ho (a son of the late Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho) gave an upbeat account to the committee through a video link from China, declaring that he has full confidence in the plan.

Ho also promised that if construction expenses turned out to be greater than anticipated, or other similar problems emerged, then he would not seek compensation from the taxpayers of the prefecture.

“I decided to move forward after understanding the political risks,” he says.

Takeshi Kaji of Clairvest Neem Ventures, when asked about the impact of the Covid pandemic, speculated that the local economy will likely pick up by the latter half of this decade when the facility opens its doors.

Wakayama Governor Yoshinobu Nisaka, who has been the main booster for IR development since the beginning, pronounced himself satisfied, telling the committee, “The certainty of the investment has increased considerably. I think this will work.”

Others are not so sure. Committee Chairman Masaki Fujiyama said, “The plan is moving forward, but I want them to respond more sincerely and to make it a more concrete and persuasive plan.”

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — An air mobility integrated flight management system was successfully tested on the manmade island of Yumeshima, Osaka, in mid-February.

The consortium which conducted the tests is made up of Terra Drone, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Mitsui & Co., and Aero Asahi. These partners first came together in August 2021.

The aim of this particular test was to confirm that real-time traffic data can be safely transmitted between various forms of air transport, such as the helicopters, drones, and eVTOL that may share the skies at the same time, even when emergencies strike and require quick changes to flight plans and evacuation orders.

The specific scenario posited for the test was an emergency that might occur during the 2025 World Expo in which a security alert is issued. An airspace control center was sited at the Sakishima Government Building.

JAXA contributed support through its Disaster Relief Aircraft Information Sharing Network (D-Net) technology, and Terra Drone offered its own expertise in aerial traffic management.

The consortium reported that all tests of the system proved successful.

The Osaka Prefectural Government is planning for the 2025 World Expo to be the effective launch of the eVTOL industry in Japan, with companies offering air taxi services from the city center to the fairgrounds at Yumeshima.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Employees of Japanese video game developer company Pocket Pair were granted days off to play the latest, hottest video game Elden Ring.

Elden Ring is a fantasy action roleplaying video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, known for its development and publication of other popular action roleplaying video game series such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

Dark Souls 3, in particular, was the series’ biggest hit, with over 10 million units sold across the globe.

However, Elden Ring has now demolished that sales record.

In fact, the game is so popular that sone companies in Japan took notice and even provided their employees with time off work to focus on the game.

Pocket Pair was one of the companies to formally announce an “Elden Holiday” for all of its staff members, as the human resources department noticed that several of its employees neglecting their work as they were too distracted by Elden Ring.

Last year, Japanese tech company Mark-on announced a “Monster Hunter Holiday” following the release of Monster Hunter Rise

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