Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Japanese government is expected to lift its ban on Level 4 drone flights, perhaps as soon as April of next year.

Currently, some beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone flights can be permitted in “less populated areas” such as the remote islands and mountainous areas of Japan. The lifting of the Level 4 ban will also open up the possibility of BVLOS flights in populated and urban areas.

“BVLOS is the biggest obstacle to overcome when wanting to establish commercialized logistics with drones,” comments Asa Quesenberry, founder of Sakai, Osaka, based drone and eVTOL firm DroNext.

The first drone delivery services in Japan have already been launched, although currently only in a few remote rural areas of the country.

This movement is expected to pick up steam with the lifting of the Level 4 ban, especially since it will open up the possibility for a wide variety of additional companies and groups to begin testing and building out drone logistics systems.

No longer will tests in more populated areas rely only on those major corporations which have influence with the national government.

Quesenberry explains that Japan’s approach has been different from some of the other leading drone nations in the sense that there is not—and never has been—any sort of national drone pilot licensing system.

“It is very odd that Japan is going from no national license to its first national license granting the ability to conduct this BVLOS Level 4 flight,” he says.

He adds, “This whole decision in my mind speaks volumes about how serious the Japanese government is about being involved and being a leader in the advanced air mobility space, whether it be drones or eVTOLs.”

Japan was originally rather passive and sluggish about the drone industry, and there was disinterest in the equipment which may have formerly been viewed as more of a curiosity or as a toy.

However, this attitude has palpably changed in the past three years or so, as more policymakers in both the national and local governments are beginning to focus on drones and eVTOLs as industries which are set for rapid market growth, and in regard to which Japan may have important contributions to make, even on a global scale.

Quesenberry cautions, however, that even the lifting of the Level 4 ban next year will not immediately lead to a swarm of drones hovering over Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo.

There will first need to be steady advances in Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) involving the need to identify the necessary services, responsibilities, information architecture, data exchange protocols, software functions, infrastructure, and performance requirements for enabling the management of low-altitude drone operations.

However, the new licensing system and the lifting of the Level 4 ban may be creating the conditions for Japan to accelerate its testing stage and potentially move more quickly than many other nations toward drone-based logistics systems in urban settings.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The release of the Soten drone this month represents a milestone in the low-profile campaign of the Japanese government to sweep China-made drones out of the Japanese market, allegedly over security and human rights concerns.

This campaign dates back to the latter months of the Shinzo Abe administration, when conservative politicians and officials began to raise fears that the dominance of Chinese drones (namely Shenzhen-based DJI which had a global market share over 70%) represented a security threat to Japan, and that domestic firms should be encouraged to choose Japanese makers instead.

This followed a warning by the US Department of Homeland Security in May 2019 that Chinese drones “may” be transmitting flight data back to Beijing, though no particular evidence for this claim was provided. Several other US agencies had raised similar concerns going back to 2017.

The first major action taken by the Japanese government was to eliminate the use of DJI drones by the Japan Coast Guard, which occurred last year.

Another pillar was the launch of the Safe and Secure Drone Basic Technology Development project, which has now produced the Soten drone.

In early 2019, before the anti-Chinese drone campaign began, DJI executives in Japan had been explaining to the media that they were especially interested in expanding in the surveying, industrial inspection, and security markets in Japan, while they were more skeptical about the prospects for consumer drone delivery services.

It is precisely these same markets that the Japanese government is now aiming to sweep DJI out of, using the government-funded Soten drones.

Meanwhile, the US government is increasing pressure on DJI. This week the US Treasury Department announced that it has placed investment restrictions on the firm. This time the reason given is not the alleged security risk, but because DJI drones are being employed in Xinjiang and thus supposedly contributing to human rights violations.

However, even if the political winds have turned frosty for DJI, the official campaign to push their drones out of both the United States and Japan is running up against one serious problem–they gained their market dominance by producing better products at a cheaper price, which is supposed to be the free market ideal.

With ACSL predicting only a thousand units in sales of the Soten drone next year, even with all of the anticipated government agency purchases, it seems unlikely that DJI drones will truly be swept away anytime soon, short of a complete legal ban.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The first mass-produced drones commissioned by the Japanese government have been released for sale with a focus on securing drones from malicious hackers.

In a project carried out by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) through the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japanese firms gained over US$14 million in funding to create the small four-rotor Soten drone.

Developed by Autonomous Control Systems Laboratory (ACSL), Soten weighs only 1.7 kilograms and can shoot 4K video, mainly intended for industrial inspection missions.

Its maximum flight time is 29 minutes per charge and it is LTE compatible, capable of beyond visual line-of-sight flights.

The special point is the Secure Flight Management Cloud developed by NTT Docomo, which aims to make it difficult for drones to be hijacked or otherwise hacked by unauthorized users.

This cloud service operates integrally with the aircraft, and the data collected by the drone, including video and stills, is encrypted immediately inside the drone and then uploaded to the cloud for decryption.

The management screen can be accessed from the web.

In addition, this cloud service can centrally manage information necessary for operations, including the setting flight plans, managing flight team authorization, and monitoring equipment malfunctions.

The Safe and Secure Drone Basic Technology Development project was implemented from 2020 by NEDO, with the potential for cyberattacks from nations such as China and Russia at the front of the Japanese government’s mind.

Government agencies are expected to procure the Soten drone for many official operations.

ACSL predicts that it will sell over one thousand units by the end of 2022.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — AirMobility has begun practical tests of its AirNavi eVTOL (flying car) navigation system in Toba city, Mie Prefecture.

In the current test, AirNavi was connected to a drone, which it successfully guided to a location 2.7 kilometers distant at an altitude of about 60 meters.

The system relayed real-time weather information during the flight, and all takeoff, landing, and communication operations were performed as intended.

In future tests, AirNavi will be tasked with making real-time route changes based on weather information, as well as for the purpose of collision avoidance within a traffic management system.

Like many other eVTOL firms in Japan, AirMobility is aiming to have its product ready for public use by the time of the 2025 World Expo in Osaka.

In November 2020, Mie Prefecture, AirMobility, and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Company concluded an agreement to collaborate on the testing of the system within Mie Prefecture.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — China’s EHang 216 has become the first eVTOL (flying car) to conduct an outdoor test flight in eastern Japan.

This the first flying car tests to receive official Japan government permission for outdoor flights in the region. The test took place on Monday at the Fukushima Robot Test Field in Namie town.

“I hope we can create a society where the problems of local people can be solved by utilizing such new technology,” said Hiroshi Sakanoue, secretary-general of the Mizushima Aero & Space Industry Cluster Study Group (MASC), which is EHang’s Japanese partner.

The EHang 216 is a two-seater with a top speed of 160 kilometers per hour. It can fly for about 25 minutes.

The aircraft is autonomous without any piloting gear. The flight route was sent from a computer on the ground. No one was aboard during the test flight.

On this occasion, high winds delayed the test for a few hours, but the flight was ultimately conducted safely and successfully at an altitude of about 25 meters. It traveled a distance of only about 300 meters during the test, taking about four minutes.

The first official outdoor eVTOL test flight in Japan was conducted by the same team in Kurashiki city, Okayama Prefecture, on June 4.

The EHang 216 is expected to sell in Japan for about ¥30 million (US$264,000) per unit.

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By Astrid Walmer

Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Mara Arguello is an Argentinian entrepreneur who established a catering business called Raices (roots in Spanish) in Shizuoka four years ago.

She specializes in homemade Argentinian dishes, which in pre-pandemic times she used to sell at numerous food fairs all over the prefecture.

Raices’ most popular dish above all is empanadas.

Empanadas owe their creation to the Arab stuffed pie fatayer and in Spanish it means “stuffed in bread.” It was brought by the Spaniards to Central and South America, and today each Latin American country has its own regional recipe.

“In Argentina, for the gauchos who worked long days in the Pampas handling livestock, the empanada were easy to carry and didn’t easily spoil. They are packed with protein since they contain minced beef, sauteed with onions, hard boiled eggs, olives, and raisins. From its humble beginnings, today the empanada is a popular street food that’s also prepared in many homes,” explains Arguello.

The youngest of five sisters with a single working mother, her mother divided the household chores amongst the girls, assigning a specific chore to each of them. At age 12, Arguello became the one in charge of cooking for her family, and from then on went every weekend to learn how to cook with her French grandmother.

In an unusual twist of fate, she married a Japanese chef who owned a restaurant in Buenos Aires. Since cooking was no longer her main duty, she soon discovered that she wasn’t up to being a housekeeper.

Laughingly, she recalls the time when she did a load of laundry without separating it into different colors, only to realize that they had bled.

“Trying to fix the mess, I poured bleach on the pile of clothes, which made it even worse!”

Arguello’s ability to use humor to diffuse tension by joking about her mistakes adds to her strength of character, helping her with life’s difficulties.

In the late 1980s, during the government of President Carlos Menem, Argentina was hit hard by a financial crisis due to hyperinflation. Forced to close the restaurant in Buenos Aires, Arguello’s husband decided to return to Japan, bringing her along with him.

Their project was to establish a staff recruitment agency that assisted foreigners in searching for employment with Japanese manufacturers. Although very successful for a number of years, the agency collapsed with the end of the Japanese economic bubble.

The financial strain also ended their marriage. Arguello, suddenly on her own, was in dire need of a job, which led her to work as an assembly line worker for a phone manufacturer.

“The hours were long and earnings meager as female workers were paid less than male coworkers,” she reminisces. ”Nonetheless, it was a positive experience as it forced me to focus on the circuit board in front of me. Gradually, I stopped ruminating about the end of my marriage and my former business.”

The factory gig provided her with much needed time to heal while allowing her to pay for food and shelter.

Eventually, she realized that she had to find a way to reinvent herself in Japan. It was at that point when she decided to go back to her roots, by establishing her own catering business and fittingly named it Raices.

Fast forward to 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit, affecting her income badly.

However, thanks to a loan for small businesses from the Japanese government, she was able to convert her garage into an industrial kitchen in order to produce and sell Argentinian food online.

In the agricultural town of Kikugawa, where she currently lives, farmers often leave their fresh produce on an unattended spot by the roadside with a money box for passersby to purchase. Inspired by this very Japanese way of selling based on trust, every Friday Arguello’s empanadas are placed on a case left by the entrance of Raices.

When asked why she opted to stay in Japan instead of returning back home to Argentina, she explains that, “I feel that I still haven’t proved myself, the agency was run together with my ex-husband, and since he is Japanese I depended a lot on his knowledge of the language and culture. He acted like a filter that smoothed my path in this country.”

She concludes that Raices is like a child that she wants to raise and see successfully grow. Her aim is for her empanadas to become popular, since they are tasty, affordable, and can be eaten anywhere just like onigiri.

When talking about her future objectives, she mentions that she would like to introduce other delicious recipes that she learned from her grandmother into the menu.

“Now it’s different. I’m alone and I depend on myself to achieve my goals,” she concludes.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The anticipated Sony drone is now available for purchase and the first shipments are expected to go out on December 24.

It is definitely aiming for the premium, professional segment of the air photography market: The Airpeak S1 has a price tag of about US$9,000, and that doesn’t include a camera or a gimbal. Realistically, consumers are looking at a US$12,000+ investment for a full package.

The flight time of the Airpeak S1 on single charge is only 12 minutes when carrying a payload such as a camera.

On the positive side, the Airpeak is very compact in size and stable even in moderately strong winds.

Sony has announced an annual US$300 Airpeak Plus cloud subscription, which will offer additional data storage, advanced geofencing options, and the import and export of flight logs.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Drone Fund, a venture capital specializing in drone and air mobility, announced that it has successfully reached its ¥10 billion (US$88 million) target for its third fund.

Drone Fund III was launched in May 2020. It was able to reach its investment target with critical recent support from Japan Investment Corporation, as well as Logistics Innovation Fund Investment, Nakashima Propeller Company, Yoshimasu Manufacturing Company, and Proto Ventures II Investment.

Other major companies contributed to Drone Fund III shortly after it was announced last year.

As for the purpose of Drone Fund III, the official statement explains that it had been established “to promote the further social implementation of drone and air mobility.”

“Drone Fund aims to maximize the use of the communication infrastructure, including the next generation communication standard 5G, and to achieve digital transformation of industrial activities—such as automation and remoteness of field operations through the network with business companies participating as limited partner investors,” it continues.

Separately, Drone Fund III has just made an investment in Germany-based Wingcopter, which it believes may become a market leader in medium- to long-distance drone delivery services.

In April, All Nippon Airways (ANA) announced that it had formed an agreement with Wingcopter to test strategies for connecting small island communities throughout Japan via drone deliveries.

Wingcopter CEO Tom Plummer said of the Drone Fund investment that it “comes at a time when we are intensifying our efforts on the Japanese market. We are convinced that the Drone Fund team will open doors, allowing us to bring drone delivery services to more customers in Japan and beyond.”

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — New Mie Governor Katsuyuki Ichimi has flashed the yellow card to IR development plans at Nagashima Spa Land, a major amusement park in Kuwana city, almost certainly dooming the long-shot initiative.

“The biggest problem,” the governor explained to the Mie Prefectural Assembly, “is that I wonder if it is really good that the wealth accumulated by the residents of the prefecture should legally flow to overseas businesses.”

He added, “The most important thing is the understanding of the residents. I would like to pay close attention to whether the residents of the local municipalities are convinced.”

With the deadline for IR licensing applications less than five months distant, the governor’s skeptical response probably brings an effective end to the matter—at least in terms of the first round of development.

Previous Mie Governor Eikei Suzuki had also been negative about IR development, but Kawana Mayor Narutaka Ito seems to have become more convinced about the merits. The mayor might have believed that new Governor Ichimi—a former bureaucrat of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism—might be more positive about the IR initiative.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Casinos Austria has unveiled a revised draft plan for the design of its proposed ¥350 billion (US$3.2 billion) Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo city, Nagasaki.

The design is strikingly different than the previous concept images, adopting futuristic rounded shapes for the large convention facility and for the crystal tower.

It is arguable whether these design changes represent an improvement or a deterioration. The futuristic rounded architectural designs certainly clash with the established traditional Dutch themes of the next door theme park.

In addition to the new design, Casinos Austria has also revealed that it intends to provide a ¥14.7 billion (US$130 million) contribution to local infrastructural development.

Meanwhile, the Stop Casino! Nagasaki Prefectural Citizens Network is continuing its activities, presenting a new petition on November 30 signed by over 5,000 residents to the Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly, calling for a rejection of the IR plans.

The opponents are casting doubt on the economic benefits of the project and warning of the various dangers of casino gambling.

Questions are also being raised about Casinos Austria’s financial capabilities to complete construction of the proposed IR.

Additional public briefings on the IR project are scheduled for December 15 and 17.

The Nagasaki Prefectural Assembly is expected to vote on the IR development project next February.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Nissan Motor has unveiled a Moon rover prototype jointly developed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Since it began collaborating on the project with JAXA at the beginning of 2020, Nissan has been focusing on the rover’s power and control systems, applying the technologies it has developed through its production of mass-market electric vehicles.

In particular, Nissan is highlighting its e-4ORCE all-wheel control technology, which as the name suggests, independents powers all four wheels of the vehicle, adding higher performance in sandy terrain and other harsh conditions.

Director of JAXA’s Space Exploration Innovation Hub Center Ikkoh Funaki commented, “By conducting research with Nissan, which has expertise in electrified technologies, we hope to apply our findings to the development of higher-performance lunar rovers.”

Nissan currently has no fixed deadline by which it expects it Moon rover prototype to be completed.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — NTT Docomo is preparing a host of services that will make longer range drone flights possible in the coming years.

Most drone flights in Japan have used wifi to connect the aircraft with their pilots, but next year the Japanese government is expected to legalize Level 4, which denotes drone flights beyond visual line-of-sight, even in populated areas.

Since these longer flights are beyond the capacity of wifi in many cases, long-term evolution (LTE) wireless broadband systems, now used mainly for mobile devices and data terminals, will become indispensable for control and communication.

Generally speaking, wireless communication is used in drones for two main purposes–to remotely control the drone flight and convey flight control commands from the user to the drone, and to convey information from the drone back to the user, such as video and flight information.

This is where “Docomo Sky” aims to step in, offering drone manufacturers a solution that uses LTE communication for long-range drone flights.

These so-called “cellular drones” can also potentially take advantage of the Docomo Sky Cloud services, which include automatic flight preparation, video photography, data analysis, and report-creation functions.

NTT Docomo is encouraging drone manufacturers to make their aircraft compatible with its LTE system, and so far the domestic firms ACSL, Aerosense, Eams Robotics, NTT e-Drone Technology, and Sony have hopped on board.

Additionally, US-based Skydio, a major drone-maker in which NTT Docomo has invested, is also joining the program.

Looking forward, Docomo Sky will also be offering “packages” aimed at facilitating specific kinds of drone operations, such as agricultural, industrial, and entertainment uses.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — A.L.I. Technologies has reached an agreement with Yamanashi Prefecture for what it calls “social implementation of air mobility.”

CEO Daisuke Kitano explains, “By today’s agreement, we will make maximum use of Yamanashi Prefecture, which is extremely attractive both geographically and environmentally, as a test bed, and proceed toward social implementation of hoverbikes.”

He added, “We are confident that we have taken the first step to grow as an industry that contributes to society, together with the products and technological innovations of air mobility.”

In practical terms, it appears the thrust of the agreement is that Yamanashi, a mountainous and sparsely populated prefecture near Tokyo, will provide areas where A.L.I. can conduct test flights of its XTurismo hoverbike and perhaps other experimental vehicles.

The company made a splash in the global media last month when it announced that it is now accepting customer orders for the XTurismo Limited Edition hoverbike at a price tag of ¥77.7 million (US$680,000).

Customer deliveries are not expected for another year, giving the firm time to improve the technology.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan’s casino industry in general, and Wakayama in particular, have narrowly dodged what might have been a major scandal with the arrest in China of Suncity Group CEO Alvin Chau.

It raised eyebrows from the beginning in July 2019 when Macau’s leading junket operator, Suncity, signaled that it would join the race to build an Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino at Wakayama’s Marina City.

It had been anticipated that Japan would try to construct a squeaky clean gambling regime in their country, and while Suncity was undoubtedly one of the most dynamic gambling companies in Asia, with sky-high ambitions and a growing track record of financial success, it was also widely believed that it had deep links with Chinese organized crime. It just didn’t seem like the kind of company that would be welcome in Japan.

But the early indications were that Suncity might rock the cynics after all. By August 2019 it had opened an attractive Japanese-language website promoting its IR bid, and this was followed in September 2020 with the opening of a beautiful open office in Wakayama city and sponsorship of the Wakayama Trians, the local professional basketball team.

In part because the Covid pandemic took most of their competition out of the race, only Suncity and the Clairvest Group joined the Wakayama request-for-proposal (RFP) process in May 2020.

Suncity was by far the more dynamic and credible bidder, and in fact the Wakayama selection committee rated the Suncity bid much higher than the Clairvest bid.

But then something occurred in the background in May of this year. The Wakayama prefectural government delayed announcing the winner. Next came a shocking statement from Chau that Suncity was pulling out of the race which it was about to win.

After deep consideration, we have made this difficult decision under the enormous impact on the industry due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection. Many companies anticipate a long period of uncertainty, and the IR certification process in Japan appears set to take a lot longer than expected. Many things remain unclear, but we must consider the risks as a business operator.

This explanation made no sense. If the pandemic was the factor which induced Suncity to withdraw, then it wouldn’t have come in May 2021. This was transparently a pretext and not the real reason why the company suddenly gave up on its Wakayama bid, where it had already expended so much time and money.

Moreover, the firm retained its non-gambling resort development projects in Okinawa and Hokkaido, which likely would have been linked to the Wakayama IR’s services had they all moved forward.

Media organizations tied to the Asian gambling industry, however, took Chau’s explanation at face value and didn’t dig any further.

Behind the scenes, Suncity was ruthless about pulling advertising in order to influence editorial policies, and it was just too much of a major player in the industry to want to alienate.

The only media outlet which hinted at the truth of the matter was the Asahi Shinbun, which is not subject to the same economic pressures to lay off Suncity.

The Asahi reported, somewhat obliquely, that the Macau firm had been unable to shake rumors that it had organized crime links, and accusations in Australia that Suncity was linked to money laundering had become the final straw.

We may surmise—though the hard evidence is still pending—that someone in the Japanese government let the authorities in Wakayama know that Suncity would not be accepted as a casino operator in Japan. This in turn led to Suncity’s withdrawal with its face-saving, but not very convincing, explanation.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), a financial regulator, had concluded as early as 2016 that Alvin Chau had been a member of the Triads in charge of loan-sharking and gambling, but he later broke away to form his own gang, which presumably developed into the Suncity Group.

This weekend, Chinese authorities arrested Chau and about ten of his colleagues on charges of conducting illegal cross-border gambling and a money laundering syndicate.

While Chau’s arrest may well involve a political agenda on the part of the Chinese government to clip the wings of Macau’s gambling industry, and it probably does not represent fresh evidence against the Suncity boss, it nevertheless highlights how much of a legal gray area that the Macau junket industry had been operating within for a long time.

Chau’s arrest is an epic news story in Macau, but it will probably have only a few ripples in Japan: Six months ago, Suncity was given its IR walking papers by the Japanese authorities, and by that margin they have just avoided a political bullet.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Organizers of the signature drive for a popular referendum on the construction of an Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino at Marina City, Wakayama, have stated that they are already well above the necessary threshold.

Needing about 6,200 resident signatures to make a referendum petition to the Wakayama City Council, the organizers say they’ve already collected over 8,000 signatures and expect many more before the December 5 deadline.

Attorney Yasushi Toyoda, one of the leaders of the referendum campaign, stated, “The prefectural government and the operator have made insufficient efforts to explain their IR initiative. The fact that so many signatures have been gathered shows that interest among the people is spreading.”

Once the signatures have been handed over the local government and verified, the city council must decide whether or not to go forward with the popular referendum.

In a similar case in Yokohama earlier this year, that city council rejected the referendum appeal, but later paid a political price when an anti-casino opposition candidate won the mayoral election. There is no indication yet what the Wakayama City Council might do.

The Wakayama IR initiative is already facing several major challenges, including uncertainty whether or not the Clairvest Neem Ventures-led consortium has sufficient financial backing to proceed with the construction.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — After more than two years of silence, Kuwana city, Mie Prefecture, may be reemerging as a candidate city to host an Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino.

Kuwana Mayor Narutaka Ito has indicated that he is asking the prefectural government to examine the possibility of locating an IR next to Nagashima Spa Land, a major amusement park along Ise Bay in Kuwana.

The proposal that this site could host an IR was first made by Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura in 2018.

Kawamura—who has long been in a bitter rivalry with Aichi Governor Hideaki Omura—had been unable to find a suitable IR candidate site near Nagoya Station, but was still determined to disrupt his governor’s tentative plan of making an IR bid at Tokoname city’s Chubu Centrair International Airport island. Kawamura therefore suggested Kuwana’s Nagashima Spa Land as an alternative candidate site.

Kuwana city, however, though geographically part of the greater Nagoya area, is not within Kawamura’s own jurisdiction, and in fact belongs to neighboring Mie Prefecture.

In December 2018, then-Mie Governor Eikei Suzuki expressed annoyance with Kawamura’s presumptuousness, stating, “We were surprised to be cited as a candidate… Our prefecture has not taken an active stance toward making such a bid.”

Kuwana Mayor Ito’s response was that the whole matter seemed “like grasping at clouds” and that “a cautious response was necessary.” Nevertheless, he continued, “We cannot say at this point if an IR bid is a good thing or a bad thing. Our policy management division is now gathering information.”

In September 2019, the Mie Prefecture Chamber of Commerce and Industry formally requested Governor Suzuki to conduct research with an eye toward making an IR bid. Anticipating the scheduled 2027 completion of the maglev Chuo Shinkansen, the business lobby argued, “it is necessary to promote large-scale projects from a medium- to long-term perspective.”

But that was where the matter seemed to end. Neither Governor Suzuki nor Mayor Ito made significant statements or took specific actions, and before long the arrival of the Covid pandemic completely overwhelmed the agenda.

Two events, however, seem to have revived the discussion at this juncture.

First, Mayor Ito has become increasingly convinced that the IR plan has merit. He has heard back from experts that the reclaimed land near Nagashima Spa Land is indeed a suitable site. The mayor commented this week that “an IR would be a catalyst for tourism and will have a great impact on the city’s finances with its declining birthrate and aging population.”

Second, Eikei Suzuki has resigned as Mie governor and been elected to the House of Representatives as a ruling party lawmaker. The new governor, Katsuyuki Ichimi, is a former bureaucrat of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. He may be more open to an IR bid than his predecessor.

Even if the new governor proves to be keen, there are still many obstacles to the realization of an IR at Kuwana in the first round of development, not least that local public opinion is untested, no process for recruiting operators has been launched, and the current application deadline is only seven months away, probably much too short a window of opportunity to succeed.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Three companies including Seven-Eleven Japan are collaborating on practical tests within Tokyo of a drone delivery service for customers of convenience store outlets.

Aside from Seven-Eleven Japan, All Nippon Airways (ANA) will operate the drones, and the drone-maker itself, ACSL, will also lend a hand.

The tests will take place from November 29-December 19 with Seven-Eleven’s Hinode-Oguno store (between Hachioji and Okutama) as the hub. Products ordered through the Seven-Eleven Net Convenience Store will be delivered to four delivery destinations within Hinode town, including local parks and a hospital.

The drones will be loaded with the purchased products by the actual Seven-Eleven store staff.

The convenience store is also installing the needed drone takeoff and landing site.

Orders will be accepted from 9:00 to 16:00, and the drone shipping fee will be ¥110 (US$1) including tax.

ANA will play the most difficult part, operating the drones, issuing the delivery notifications, and generally coordinating the whole operation.

ACSL will provide technical support for the operation of the drone, while NTT Docomo will offer use of its LTE network.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is playing its part by excluding these tests from the usual ban on Level 4 drone flights in which the operator flies over a populated area outside of visual range.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Seino Holdings and Aeronext have launched two drone delivery services within Kosuge village, a mountainous area of Yamanashi Prefecture.

The two services are the SkyHub Store, a convenience store specializing in on-demand delivery, and the second is SkyHub Delivery, a delivery service created in collaboration with other local shops and restaurants.

SkyHub Store allows local residents to order their groceries and daily necessities via the SkyHub app up to 30 minutes before delivery. The system uses a Drone Depot, a drone delivery base, that is an on-demand service utilizing purchase forecasts based on customers’ past records, and then delivers them by the most suitable means, either by land or air.

Kosuge village customers have a selection of about three hundred groceries and daily necessities on the app. There is a sixteen time slot delivery schedule at thirty-minute intervals every day. The shipping fee is ¥300 (US$2.60).

Deliveries are usually made by drone unless weather or other circumstances intervene. Delivery by car is the back-up option.

SkyHub Delivery uses the same app, but expands the delivery service to other local shops, supermarkets, and restaurants (about a thousand items in all). This is intended to make the drone services more welcome to, and supportive of, the local community.

Seino and Aeronext are planning a rollout of the SkyHub system to approximately 820 depopulated municipalities around Japan. While no target dates for this expansion have been announced, the firms say it will happen “speedily” with Kamishihoro town, Hokkaido, expected to become the second venue this month.

Tsuruga city, Fukui Prefecture, has also signed an agreement to become an early venue.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — NTT Docomo has revealed that its blimp drones will be offered for sale by March 2022, offering a safe, high-quality option for indoor aerial filming.

Unlike conventional drones that require propellers and sometimes wings, the blimp drone uses helium to remain airborne and is propelled by small modules that produce ultrasonic vibrations to move air.

The propulsion system makes little noise with its minute vibrations and is safe to touch. Overall, drone accidents involving serious human injuries are difficult to imagine with this soft, balloon-like aircraft.

Docomo is equipping the drone with a high-resolution video camera for filming indoor events. Secondarily, its full-color LED lights glow in radiant colors, meaning that the blimps can also be used as “a surrealistic standalone attraction,” according to the company.

Docomo has not given a public name to its blimp drones, nor has it provided any indication of how much they are likely to cost or what its precise specs will be.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Wakayama Prefectural Assembly has put its foot down, demanding that the Clairvest Neem Ventures-led consortium reveal how it would fund the construction of its proposed US$4.3 billion Integrated Resort (IR) including a casino before allowing the approval process to continue.

Wakayama Prefecture had previously announced that it would conduct a total of fourteen public hearings from November 25 to December 5, but this plan is now on ice until Clairvest can put some evidence on the table of its financial capability.

Last week, the Clairvest Group revealed in its latest financial disclosure in Canada that the entire book value (the value of their total assets minus the value of their total liabilities) of the firm had reached about US$711 million. Clearly, Clairvest itself can only front a small fraction of the development funds with its own money.

Caesars Entertainment, an undoubted giant, is marked to become the Wakayama casino operator, but it has already stated that it will be paying nothing for the IR’s construction.

Other mooted members of the Wakayama IR consortium, such as William Weidner’s AMSE Resorts Japan and esports entrepreneur Mario Ho, likely have less money to chip in than Clairvest.

Unless there are additional deep-pocketed consortium members, the project would need to rely mainly on bank financing, and there’s plenty of reason to think that most lenders won’t be jumping at the prospect.

Still, Clairvest did tell the prefectural assembly that it is “negotiating with megabanks.” It has also been reported that Project Manager Takeshi Kaji is working hard to bring about three other large Japanese companies into the consortium.

Brendan Bussmann, partner at Global Market Advisors, told Akihabara News last month that “Clairvest has a strong track record with the developments they have invested in by making sure they have a solid foundation of financial standing to complete the project. I would be surprised if it was anything less as it pushes forward with its consortium in Wakayama.”

Even if the consortium can somehow scrape together the US$4.3 billion, that would still leave it vulnerable to unexpected construction delays and costs, such as damage from earthquakes or typhoons, or perhaps a future wave of the pandemic.

No one wants to see a half-constructed eyesore in the middle of Marina City with no money left to do anything about it—much like what Saipan is now dealing with in relation to its Imperial Pacific International fiasco.

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The post Doubts Grow Over Wakayama IR Financing appeared first on Akihabara News.

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