SNA Travel (Tokyo) — Tomorrow, October 11, is the long-awaited day when the Japanese nation will finally lower the drawbridges and allow most foreign tourists to freely enter the country.

The daily cap on the number of entrants will be abolished and prearranged visas will no longer be required for those arriving from a list of 68 countries, likely to be expanded before too long.

Entrants are still required to show acceptable documentation of either three Covid vaccination shots or a negative Covid test within 72 hours of their plane’s point of departure.

This move has come far later than any other major nation, but even Japan, it seems, has decided that the world is now entering the post-pandemic era–or at least a period in which the threat of Covid should not guide most public policies.

Face masks may prove a sticking point. The government is moving to provide hotels and other tourist accommodation spots with legal authority to reject service to foreign tourists who are not wearing face masks.

But there is also some ambiguity regarding such matters. The government is now advising the public that it doesn’t need to wear face masks outdoors, even as most Japanese are keeping their masks on. Foreign tourists have a delicate decision to make whether to go with the government’s official view that masks aren’t needed outdoors, or else to respect Japanese society’s inclination to travel masked.

It is not clear how quickly major international tourist spots like Ginza or Kyoto will fill up with visitors, but the initial weeks, at least, should still offer travel without enormous crowds. This is especially true because Chinese outbound tourists are restricted by their own government, and they had formed the backbone of the pre-pandemic cohort of international visitors.

One challenge that Japan still needs to overcome is a serious manpower shortage in the hospitality industry after two-and-a-half years of sharply reduced demand. Not only have many people who formerly worked in hospitality moved on to other trades, but the country’s overall demographic crisis cuts into the size of the available workforce each and every year.

Nearly three-quarters of all hotels in Japan are reporting that they are having trouble recruiting a sufficient number of staff.

But there is one factor which provides a big boost for reviving inbound tourism–the Yen exchange rates. With the Yen having fallen so far in value versus the US Dollar and some other currencies, it means that foreign tourists will find great value once they’ve gotten into Japan, and perhaps this will even encourage them to spend more on an individual basis.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan was the first country in the world to openly formulate a renewable hydrogen strategy, but the country is now falling behind some of its competitors, according to a new report from the Tokyo-based Renewable Energy Institute.

Japan introduced the idea of a “hydrogen society” some years ago, noting that the nation “is in a good position to take on the challenge of bringing about innovation ahead of other countries and should lead the globe in hydrogen use.”

Japanese leadership, however, has not panned out as hoped–China, Germany, and Australia have begun providing subsidies for companies using climate-friendly green hydrogen.

In Japan’s case, the report contends, there has been a misguided prioritization of the production of grey hydrogen–produced from natural gas or methane, without capturing the greenhouse gases. This is a much cheaper form of hydrogen production, but it is certainly less useful in addressing the climate crisis.

Indeed, according to REI’s calculations, the use of grey hydrogen will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and may even cause them to rise by an additional 10%.

REI also doubts that Japan will prove able to meet the government’s targets for the use of hydrogen vehicles, Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs).

In 2021, the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry (METI) predicted in its 6th Hydrogen Strategy Plan that 80,000 FCVs will be sold in Japan by 2030. REI’s report, however, predicts that only about 25% of this mark will be achieved within that time frame.

METI has boasted that “Japan is a leading hydrogen nation” and the government more broadly talks about the coming “hydrogen society,” but recently it has been forced to admit that, in fact, Japan lags behind some other advanced economies in its hydrogen development.

In the words of the REI report, “If Japan does not fundamentally revise its hydrogen strategy, the hydrogen business in Japan may lose its growth potential.”

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Toyota Tsusho, a Nagoya-based trading company, has begun construction of a 540MW wind farm on the northern tip of Hokkaido, according to a report by the Nikkei.

While the companies involved in this project have yet to release their own information, the Nikkei states that the partners aim to send some of this electricity to energy-hungry Tokyo.

Aside from Toyota Tsusho, the other partners are Cosmo Eco Power, a Tokyo-based wind power firm, and Looop, a Tokyo-based electric power retail business.

Power generated at the plant, according to the Nikkei, will be sold to major power companies under a feed-in tariff scheme, and it will include a large-scale battery storage system.

This project, aiming to begin operations next year, will double Hokkaido’s wind-power capacity.

The report does not explain how the partners intend to overcome the low-capacity electricity transmission link between Hokkaido and Honshu.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Executives within Tokyo-based Nippon Koei are aiming to make their company Japan’s market leader in the forthcoming eVTOL vertiport industry.

In an exclusive interview with Akihabara News, Nippon Koei Senior Manager of the Global Aviation Department Yasushi Inoue, explains, “We already provide design and consultancy services for helipads, so we need to start as soon as possible to design vertiports so as to be involved in the making of the new standards.”

Inoue, whose background is in air traffic control, is the executive who first got the company interested in eVTOL vertiports. It was an extension of an earlier interest he had developed in the drone industry.

A year ago, only three or four employees were involved in Nippon Koei’s data collection about the eVTOL market, but a big step forward was the firm’s decision to join the Public-Private Committee for Advanced Air Mobility. This March, it made a presentation at the committee’s eighth meeting. At this time it first became known publicly that Nippon Koei was interested in vertiports, focusing on aspects such as airfield maintenance, airspace control, power supplies, environmental assessment, and security.

Last month, Nippon Koei was part of the Kanematsu Corporation-led consortium that received a financial grant from the Osaka Prefectural Government to establish a vertiport management system. Its partners in this consortium, aside from Kanematsu, are Skyports and Chuo Fukken Consultants.

While Inoue admits that the top level of company management has yet to make a full commitment to this market, he says that “they know this is a very chance for Nippon Koei to start a new business.”

For his part, Inoue has a clear vision about how he would like to see the company’s vertiport business proceed.

He sees the first step as providing a planning and design consultancy service to major real estate companies and others, similar to what the firm already does in connection with airports. He believes that major real estate companies which are building new facilities or designing new towns may be attracted to the idea of supplying them with vertiports, turning them into the hubs of future transportation networks.

The second step, as Inoue sees it, is that Nippon Koei–or perhaps a subsidiary that may be established later–should own and operate vertiports itself.

While many observers have assumed that the first vertiports will be repurposed helipads, Inoue sees it the other way around–first will come the entirely new vertiport constructions, and only later, perhaps from around 2030 when the market begins to mature, will some existing helipads be converted.

“The issue is how to install the battery chargers,” he explains. “We have to consider firefighting and rescue operations. Nobody yet knows what standards will be required. It will be much easier to make a new environment within new constructions.”

On the other hand, Inoue recognizes several technical and regulatory challenges which still need to be overcome.

First of all, the Japanese and international companies which are building the first generation of eVTOLs are not yet releasing detailed specifications. This means that, for example, it is impossible to know precisely which kinds of electric charging equipment will be needed at vertiport sites.

Also, Inoue recognizes that the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau may put a drag on Japanese competitiveness if it behaves as it has in the past: waiting on the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to first set their own standards.

“In the aviation field, Japan has always been a follower, not a leader,” Inoue observes ruefully. He notes that within the legacy aircraft industry, Japan has routinely lagged far behind competitors in the United States and Europe.

He hopes, however, that the eVTOL industry could become an opportunity for Japan to shake off this history of delay and failure: “This is a very good chance for Japanese companies to create a success story in the aviation field,” he contends.

Inoue is also clear that he sees Nippon Koei at the forefront of the movement: “We would like to become the top vertiport design company in Japan.”

By 2030, he would also like to see Nippon Koei regularly designing vertiports overseas, especially for developing nations in Southeast Asia.

Nippon Koei, established in 1946, is a broad-based engineering consultancy service for infrastructure projects, including for airport design. It employs more than 6,000 people.

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By Raine Jenkins

SNA (Sydney) — Although the government is introducing plans to address the climate crisis, concrete measures are proving slow to appear as a consequence of corporate lobbying, according to some nongovernmental organizations.

Japan is currently ranked as the fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, with almost 80% of its electricity deriving from fossil fuel sources.

According to Energy Tracker Asia, an energy-related news and information website, the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has been the fifth-largest global institutional investor in coal. Additionally, over 40% of the country’s fossil fuel funds have come from government policy institutions.

In this context, the Kishida administration’s Green Transformation (GX) roadmap and other efforts are often being hindered and delayed by the lobbying of big business organizations, which are concerned that the required changes will be prohibitively expensive, especially for the small and medium firms which constitute their suppliers.

UK-based research organization InfluenceMap released in 2020 a report detailing Japanese companies’ stances on climate-related policies. In a recent press conference held in Tokyo, Dylan Tanner, co-founder and executive director of InfluenceMap, expanded on this theme, warning that “corporate influencing has diluted and delayed policy.” He cited the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) as a prominent culprit.

Tanner explained that Keidanren–which has many members from the electric power, automobile, and fossil fuel industries–is not only a powerful lobbying organization, but has also acted as a “central negotiation point” on climate policy for at least two decades.

This means that the government is routinely exposed to the voices of those cautioning against bold steps to address climate concerns, even when such measures would serve the public interest.

In 2019, for example, Keidanren argued against government proposals to reduce carbon-related emissions by 80% with a target date of 2050. In its own policy proposal, Keidanren wrote “the long-term strategy of Japan should not compete for the level of numerical targets, but it should indicate an ambitious stance ‘towards goals such as the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement.’”

The precise methods by which the preferences of big business are incorporated into government policies is generally hidden from the public. The processes are not open to outside scrutiny, and very little in the way of disclosure is required by Japanese law.

Japanese automakers, however, are understood to be among those most deeply implicated in corporate lobbying against robust climate policies, often operating through the influential Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA).

The case of Toyota has become widely known among those who follow this industry, but InfluenceMap has also highlights cases such as that of Suzuki.

Suzuki Motor, the well-known motorcycle maker, is one of the worst companies in the world regarding its degree of climate policy engagement, according to a ranking platform run by InfluenceMap. Indeed, it scored a grade of E+, making it the lowest-ranked automobile company globally.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — A subsidiary of major travel agency JTB has announced that it is going big into Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, building out a national network in support of tourist activities.

The partnership aiming to realize the plan is between its subsidiary JTB Communication Design and Terra Motors.

Using Terra Charge equipment, the partners aim to control about 10,000 charging points within such structures as condominiums, commercial facilities, and supermarkets; while at the same time adding another 5,000 charging points at accommodation and leisure facilities–locations meant to support tourism around Japan.

The partners’ press release explained that “we will not only provide optimal charging spots, but also propose ways to spend time while during the charging process (promoting activities such as cycle sharing, sightseeing, and locations to find gourmet food) to encourage excursions, increase stay times, and increase consumption.”

The charging spots will be supplied with local travel information and special discount coupons.

The aim is to have all of this infrastructure in place by the end of 2025.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japanese eVTOL-maker SkyDrive has unveiled its long-awaited design for the SD-05, a two-seater flying car expected to enter practical service by the time of the 2025 World Expo in Osaka.

The design the firm has gone with is a wingless multicopter with twelve rotors, bearing resemblance to the VoloCity eVTOL of the German developer Volocopter, though with a somewhat more elegant form.

The specs offered by the firm make clear that the SD-05 is designed for short flights within major cities rather than regional travel–the listed operational flight time is only 5-10 minutes, and the maximum listed range is given as only 10 kilometers. Presumably these are the realistic targets expected for the inaugural 2025 version of the aircraft.

The twelve motors will utilize a battery electric propulsion system, accounting for limited flight time and range. On the other hand, such a design is likely to offer a high standard of safety, even in the case of an engine failure.

The maximum takeoff weight is estimated at 1,100 kilograms.

The overall materials used in the aircraft are described as “composite, aluminum alloy, etc.”

The firm also released the following short introductory video for the SD-05:

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Financing has been secured for the 112MW offshore wind farm in Ishikari Bay, Hokkaido, which includes plans to install the first 8MW offshore wind turbines in Japan.

The turbines will be supplied by Siemens Gamesa. The SG 8.0-167 DD offshore turbines are designed to comply with all standards related to the withstanding of typhoons and earthquakes, as well as the harsh climate of the Hokkaido seas.

Development of the Ishikari Offshore Wind Farm will be led by Pattern Energy Group and its Japanese affiliate, Green Power Investment (GPI). Financial support for construction will be provided by MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Mizuho Bank, Development Bank of Japan, Societe Generale, and Shinsei Bank.

Mike Garland, CEO of Pattern Energy, declared, “This historic project is Japan’s largest combined offshore wind and power storage facility and the first installation of an 8MW offshore wind turbine in the country. Together with GPI, we have built an in-house team of leading experts in onshore and offshore wind and the Ishikari project is the culmination of more than fifteen years of planning.”

The Ishikari wind farm, including its battery storage component, is expected to begin commercial operation in December of 2023.

The project has a twenty-year power purchase agreement with Hokkaido Electric Power Company (Hokuden) for 100% of its power output.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — China’s industrial dominance of the Internet of Things (IoT) via tech giants closely linked to the state has been cited as a central national security concern for the West. China considers this stance one of unjust politicization aiming to undermine its success on the global stage.

IoT refers to objects containing components or software which wirelessly share data with similar devices or a central system. It could be something as simple as an automatic alert to refill an empty vending machine to extraordinarily complex systems running a nation’s surveillance camera network, or mechanisms to ensure the efficient management of smart power grids. In all cases, IoT devices regularly collect vast amounts of information.

In July, a cross-party group of about sixty UK lawmakers petitioned their government to ban the domestic use and sale of Chinese surveillance equipment. The legislators argued that the technology’s principal provider, Hikvision, was tied to China’s ongoing human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Calls for similar action have also been raised in New Zealand, which relies heavily on Hikvison IoT devices.

Speaking to the press in New Zealand, a Hikvison spokesperson responded by criticizing the West’s increased scrutiny on its products: “Any such decisions should be based on credible evidence and due process instead of being driven by a geopolitical agenda.”

These moves in the United Kingdom and New Zealand echo proposed US sanctions on the company and similar Chinese state-owned enterprises.

Beijing has long spoken out regarding similar moves to restrict Huawei and its dominant role within the 5G industry, which is part of the foundational infrastructure for IoT products. In July 2020, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying argued “decisions to ban Huawei are not about national security, but political manipulation.”

For their part, both the United States and United Kingdom have asserted that their policy on Huawei is motivated entirely by national security concerns and is informed by the advice of intelligence and cybersecurity experts.

These Western nations fear that allowing Huawei to exercise control of IoT infrastructure will enhance Beijing’s global influence.

This influence could be, ironically, very much akin to the US National Security Agency’s PRISM, a controversial program of widespread online surveillance achieved by intercepting communications across the IoT industry through companies such as Google.

In other words, the West does not want Beijing to exercise international power in the same way which it does.

Chinese companies Fibocom, Quectel, and the entirely state-owned China Mobile represent over half of the current global IoT market. Their major customers include Dell, Intel, and Tesla, which also use China-made IoT modules and components in their own products.

There has yet to be any publicly proven case of China wielding its IoT influence in an illegitimate manner, though accusations that it is doing so are not few in number.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has joined a team assembled by the UK government to create a cutting-edge nuclear reactor.

JAEA will work alongside the United Kingdom’s National Nuclear Laboratory and the nuclear company Jacobs to develop a high-temperature gas reactor (HTGR).

JAEA was selected in part due to its previous experience acquired through the construction and operation of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) in the town of Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Although the HTGR project is based in Britain, the project will include Japanese scientists, providing them practical experience.

There are various differences between the HTGR and conventional light-water reactors. The HTGR will operate utilizing helium as a reactor coolant to generate heat above 900 degrees Celsius (1,650 degrees Fahrenheit). This heat can then be used either to generate power or to produce hydrogen. Despite the extremely high temperatures, the core of the reactor is highly unlikely to melt, even in the case of an accident, as the nuclear fuel is coated with a heat-resistant ceramic material.

One major advantage of the HTGR is that there are fewer restrictions as to where it can be located. This is because, unlike earlier generations of nuclear reactors, it does not require a vast amount of water.

The project is part of Britain’s Advanced Nuclear Fund, which has been allocated £385 million (US$438 million) by the UK government to fund nuclear technology projects. Around £500,000 (US$570,000) of this sum will be used for the Japan-Britain project.

Now that the team has been assembled, the research and testing are set to be completed this year, with detailed designs to be drawn up next year and construction potentially starting in 2025.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Toyota Motor and Kawasaki Motors have confirmed that they are working jointly to develop motorcycles that will be powered by hydrogen engines.

For Kawasaki, hydrogen-powered motorcycles offer a potential new market. The prototype engine, which has secretly been under development, is a modified version of the engine used for Kawasaki’s large motorcycle model, the Ninja H2.

The stakes are higher for Toyota, which has agreed to share its hydrogen engine technology with the motorcycle maker.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda has been on a mission to prove that battery electric vehicles are not the only option for future ground mobility. Toyoda is determined to preserve the global market for hybrid vehicles–which the company classifies at “electrified vehicles” in an apparent attempt to confuse policymakers and the public–as well as to suggest that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles or other technologies might also spread on a global scale.

Earlier this month at a demonstration event in Tochigi Prefecture, Toyoda declared that “there should be a variety of options to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. I hope the government will support the output by technological innovations like this, rather than stopping us with regulations.”

The creation of hydrogen-fueled Kawasaki motorcycles assists in furthering these goals.

Most environmental groups are highly critical of Toyota’s reluctance to fully embrace battery electric vehicles–especially its political lobbying efforts in Japan and overseas to prevent governments from adopting laws mandating the end of sales for internal combustion engines, which contribute to the climate crisis.

Proponents of Toyota’s approach point out that global demand for materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel needed to produce the needed car batteries far outstrips global supplies, and therefore Toyoda’s demand for alternative technologies is prudent and even necessary.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently outlined his policy aiming for increased use of nuclear energy, but details remain sketchy.

On August 24, Kishida oversaw the second GX (Green Transformation) Implementation Council held at the Prime Minister’s Office, a meeting with the broad aim of ensuring secure and stable energy supplies for Japan.

Kishida stated after the meeting, “Keeping our eyes not only on the coming winter, but also on several years to come, we will mobilize every possible measure and fully prepare for unforeseen situations to get over the ongoing crisis of strained balance between supply of and demand for electricity.”

He added, “Regarding nuclear power plants in particular, the government will stand at the forefront of every effort toward the restart of nuclear power stations whose installment permission has been given, in addition to ensuring the operation of ten reactors that have been brought back online.”

The prime minister hopes that at least half a dozen currently suspended nuclear reactors can be brought back online, including some at the most controversial candidate site, the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture.

TEPCO was the operator of the disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and has not operated an active nuclear reactor since that time.

Rising energy prices are also major source of concern for the country, especially in the context of the falling value of the Yen. Indeed, Japan recorded its worst-ever monthly trade deficit in August, ¥2.82 trillion (US$19.7 billion), largely due to energy costs.

In addition, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) continues to fret that Japan cannot meet its energy needs at times of peak demand, prompting it to ask businesses and households to reduce energy consumption as much as possible this winter.

Although the government is aware of this host of challenges, no detailed plan has yet been publicly presented that would accomplish the goals which have been set out.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Tokyu Kabukicho Tower is set to open in Shinjuku next year, becoming the largest hotel and entertainment complex in Japan.

Rising 48 floors high, with five basement levels and a penthouse, the tower will boast a luxury hotel, an entertainment hotel, a cinema, a theater, a live venue, and much more.

The live music venue in the basement, Zepp Shinjuku, will have a capacity of 1,500 people. This space will be dedicated to music of a variety of genres, both Japanese and international.

The cinema will take up the 9th and 10th floors of the tower, with eight screens and a total seating capacity over 750.

Floors 6 to 8 will feature the Shinjuku Milanoza theater, with space for an audience of 900 people.

Naturally, there will be restaurants as well, including one area that offers a festival-like environment with a DJ and a stage.

The luxury hotel brands, located on the higher floors, are Hotel Groove Shinjuku and Bellustar Tokyo.

Tokyu Kabukicho Tower is set to open its doors in April next year, though the precise opening date is yet to be announced.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Osaka-based drone services provider DroNext is transforming into SkyScape, a new player in Japan’s eVTOL industry. It aims to enter the advanced air mobility vertiport market with financial support from Drone Fund and other investors.

In email communications and an exclusive interview with Akihabara News, SkyScape Founder and President Asa Quesenberry reveals that “while drones, aquatic drones, and our operator teams are a crucial part of our business, our real focus within the sector is on facility and infrastructure development for the advanced air mobility markets here in Japan and abroad.”

He adds, “our team has partnered with some major corporate groups here in Japan to begin testing our first generation vertiport integration platform.” In fact, the name of the company’s lead product will be “VIP.”

The name “Skyscape” was selected to signal that the firm’s ambitions go far beyond the drone industry alone. Rather, the aim is no less than to “shape the skies” as the world enters the new era of advanced air mobility.

Quesenberry says that he is unfazed by the fact that many other firms, domestic and international, have been signaling interest in building out Japan’s vertiport infrastructure.

“The business model we’ve come up with–the way we’re looking at implementing our vertiport development–it doesn’t put us in competition with many people. In fact, it allows us to actually collaborate with a lot of other companies,” he states.

While Quesenberry is not interested in giving away the secret sauce, he does note that SkyScape’s approach to vertiport development will be characterized by “true modularity” as well as affordable prices and the ability to integrate within both existing infrastructure or at greenfield sites.

He also specifies that SkyScape’s business model will not encompass the ownership of vertiports.

SkyScape will soon be be announcing that it has closed its pre-seed investment round with Drone Fund taking the lead, but with several angel investors also contributing. While the precise level of funding isn’t being revealed, Quesenberry characterizes the amount as “enough for us to really get moving.”

Although eVTOL infrastructure is now its lead focus, SkyScape will retain the legacy drone service and consulting clients which it has built up over the past five years.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Shigenobu Nagamori, the founder and chairman of Nidec, a company which focuses on electric motors, has so far proven to be unwilling to retire from his posts and to hand power over to the next generation, in spite of being 78 years old.

The average age of Japanese company CEO is just over 60 years old.

Nagamori founded Nidec in 1973, and during his remarkable tenure he built it up into a major corporation with annual revenues in excess of US$11 billion, employing over 110,000 people.

Nagamori gained a legendary reputation for his strict discipline and his philosophy of “Stick to Number 1,” meaning that the company’s goal is to become the absolute top firm in every field it competes in.

Perhaps it is because of this perfectionist orientation that Nagamori now finds it difficult to hand over authority to anyone else. He simply can’t find anyone who can reach his lofty standards of leadership.

In April last year, Jun Seki, a former deputy chief operating officer of Nissan Motor, was appointed to take over as the leader of Nidec. However, he only lasted about a year. Nagamori explained, “Since Seki took over as CEO, the corporate culture based on hard work has been lost.” He disapproved of the direction the company was taking, and so he sacked him.

Last month, Seki resigned from the company entirely.

73-year-old Vice Chairman Hiroshi Kobe replaced Seki, but obviously this is only a stopgap measure.

The future of Nidec remains uncertain, but one thing that is clear is that it will be extremely difficult to fill Nagamori’s shoes, at least if Nagamori himself has anything to say about it.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Osaka Prefectural Government has provided grants to eight domestic and international consortiums to assist its development of the eVTOL industry ahead of the 2025 World Expo, which to be held on the manmade island of Yumeshima in Osaka Bay.

The application period ran from June 30 to July 29, with the results announced on September 7. In the end, the eight successful consortiums will share a pool of ¥30 million (US$210,000) in funding from the prefectural government, though the precise division of the funds was not revealed.

There were a total of fifteen applicant companies or consortiums, seven of which were unsuccessful.

The firms which received grants from the Osaka government were as follows:

Mitsui & Co.: Mandated to create a platform for an air mobility integrated operations management system. This includes assistance in the creation of an Osaka Kansai Expo Flight Coordination Center, as well as studies and practical experiments aiming to provide a safe environment for eVTOL flights, both under normal conditions and in emergencies. Other members of this consortium are Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), JR West Innovations, Aero Asahi, Ogawa Air, and Terra Drone.

Airbus: Mandated to verify optimal flight routes, including a consideration of necessary equipment. Initially, tests will be conducted via automated helicopters. The routes to be verified include Kansai International Airport to central Osaka, Kobe Airport to Kansai International Airport, and Awaji Island to central Osaka. The other member of this consortium is Hiratagakuen.

Sumitomo Corporation: Mandated to conduct eVTOL flight simulations using an unmanned aircraft control system. This project includes the 3D visualization of flight routes to identify potential problems in operations. Flight simulations will involve three potential routes: Yumeshima Excursion; Kansai International Airport to Yumeshima; and Yumeshima to Umeda (a central Osaka commercial district). The other members of this consortium are Japan Airlines (JAL) and OneSky Systems.

Orix Corporation: Mandated to conduct a feasibility study for placing vertiports within central Osaka, including on rooftops. The survey will include an examination of wind conditions and the costs for construction and maintenance. Other members of this consortium are Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), Aero Facility, and All Nippon Airways (ANA).

Kanematsu Corporation: Mandated to investigate candidate sites for vertiports in Osaka Prefecture. This investigation intends to find the optimal sites for vertiports that will service the 2025 Expo. This project aims to establish a vertiport management system that will possess long-term business viability. Other members of this consortium are Skyports, Nippon Koei, and Chuo Fukken Consultants.

Marubeni Corporation: Mandated to conduct experiments aimed at enhancing public acceptance of eVTOLs, and also examining the business case for air taxi services. This includes the provision of a helicopter transportation experience to some members of the public at the estimated ticket price of future eVTOL services on routes connecting Osaka and Wakayama prefectures. A later experiment will use the Hexa eVTOL developed by Lift Aircraft. Other members of this consortium are Chodai Co., Nankai Electric Railway, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, Vertical Aerospace Group, Sompo Japan Insurance, and Lift Aircraft.

SkyDrive: Mandated to conduct lectures and surveys related to increasing social acceptance of the eVTOL industry. In the lecture series to be held at various locations around Osaka Prefecture, this consortium will present attendees with presentations on the theme of “a future with flying cars.” Other members of the consortium are Obayashi Corporation, Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), Kintetsu Group, and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance.

Volocopter: Mandated to hold an exhibition aimed at increasing public acceptance of the eVTOL industry. Volocopter is planning to hold an event early next year in Osaka to display a full-scale model of its VoloCity aircraft and to conduct classes on urban air mobility for elementary and junior high schools. Other members of this consortium are Japan Airlines (JAL), Mitsui & Co., Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, and Century Tokyo Leasing Corporation.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — As commercial space travel becomes more accessible and appealing to some members of the public, the provision of space travel insurance is an issue that has come to the fore.

The space travel industry is predicted to achieve significant growth within the current decade, says Australian business management consultant company Milliman. Several estimates reveal that it could become “a US$10-$15 billion industry annually.” Such growth, especially in demand, means that a new market for insurance could be opening up.

Following the record number of civilian space travelers in 2021, three major insurance projects by Japanese companies were revealed to the public earlier this year.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance are currently cooperating in the creation of insurance products for civilian space travelers. JAXA will be responsible for providing actuarial information, including the causes and likelihood of space mission accidents. Mitsui Sumitomo will then use this data to provide insurance-related expertise to potential customers.

The organizations added that covering the costs of property damage is also being considered in addition to bodily damage travel insurance.

Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance (TMNF) has also revealed plans to join the space travel insurance market. In April, the company announced that it had entered into a development project with Beazley PLC, a UK insurance company described as “one of the major players in the international space insurance market” by the Japan Space Law Association.

This project will focus on supporting lunar exploration missions, an area in which “risks are still unmitigated, however, no specially-designed insurance products have emerged” to address the challenge, said TMNF in a statement this year.

TMNF will be providing their insurance product to project Yaoki, organized by Dymon, a Japanese aerospace company. If successful, it would become “the first private entity in the world to complete a lunar exploration mission.”

Finally, Sompo Japan Insurance announced in March that it has entered into an alliance with Synspective, a Japanese company specializing in the development and operation of satellites.

Sompo Japan claims that it is motivated by the fact that “space activities are exposed to various risks that we have not experienced on Earth, and there is an urgent need to develop insurance coverage for these new risks.”

The information collected and analyzed from the alliance will allow Sompo Japan to “further enhance and develop its space-related insurance products and services.”

However, the lack of historical data, increasing amount of debris in Earth’s orbit, current expenses in space travel, and the wealth of the most likely customers make providing insurance both complicated and risky.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported last year that the amount of orbital debris has increased dramatically over recent years.

This presents several major risks which insurance companies will need to evaluate. Last year, NASA warned that “the rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, including to the International Space Station and other spacecraft with humans aboard.”

Richard Parker, the co-founder of Assure Space, a unit of AmTrust Financial, told Reuters last year that “it may start to get difficult to get [low Earth orbit collision damage] coverage in the near future as more insurers realize that this is a significant risk that we can’t even get our arms around.”

University of Mississippi Professor Joanne Gabrynowicz mirrored this concern in a statement reported by Space Safety Magazine: “two of the most pressing issues faced by insurance companies hoping to cover space tourism is… lack of a track record upon which a statistical analysis can be made” and “a large enough pool of funds that needs to be available in the event a claim is made for which a payment has to be made.”

Currently, spaceflight companies such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are not legally required to offer any insurance to their passengers.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — GE Renewable Energy has announced that it will be the supplier of wind turbines for an onshore wind farm in Fukaura town, Aomori Prefecture.

This wind farm will be built by Green Power Investment (GPI), a Tokyo-based developer and operator of renewable energy assets.

GE Renewable Energy will provide nineteen of its 4.2MW onshore wind turbines for a total installed capacity of 79.8 MW.

GE Chief Commercial Officer of Onshore Wind International Gilan Sabatier, stated, “We have already had the opportunity to work together with GPI in Japan, so this project is a tremendous next chapter in our growing relationship. Working with GPI, we believe that this project will strengthen Japan’s ambitious carbon neutral commitments and provide Japanese consumers with affordable, reliable, and clean energy for the future.”

The site is located in Japan’s snow country along the Sea of Japan coastline. The turbines are being specifically designed to withstand extreme coastal wind conditions.

The installation of the wind turbines is set to start towards the end of next year, with the facility due to be operational in 2024.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — In its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, Japan’s government and big business viewed hardware as the key to the future and was a world leader in the field. However, software engineering is an area where Japan has largely been left behind.

There are various factors which contributed to Japan’s lag in software development.

In a podcast with Akihabara News, Yan Fan, cofounder of the coding bootcamp Code Chrysalis, outlined some of the factors that contributed to the country falling behind in software engineering. She explained that Japanese universities continue to focus on electrical and mechanical engineering departments rather than computer science. Japanese employers have also tended to devalue their own software sections.

Consequently, there are not enough software engineers in Japan, nor sufficiently capable software firms, meaning that the country has tended to depend on foreign expertise.

Fan also highlights the fact that Japanese women have traditionally been steered away from careers in engineering, depriving the country of this pool of talent as well.

One area in which Japan is now witnessing serious impact from such deficiencies is in its development of electric cars.

Experience in China and in other nations has revealed that the development of electric cars in particular is closely linked to advanced software, in the sense that many of the services which contemporary drivers expect are software-based technologies.

This means that Japan, which has long prided itself as a global leader in the automotive industry, is at a serious disadvantage due to its lack of facility with advanced software.

Observers are watching Japanese automakers closely to see what measures they take in an effort to close the software gap.

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japanese eVTOL maker SkyDrive has established a temporary office in South Carolina as it scopes out the giant US urban air mobility market.

SkyDrive is taking advantage of an office hub program in Beaufort (along South Carolina’s Atlantic coastline between Charleston and Savannah, Georgia) called the Landing Pad.

The Landing Pad is a collaboration between a number of local interests including Beaufort County Economic Development, the city of Beaufort, and the Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance. Its mission is to assist companies from around the world that are considering investing in the region for the first time.

For ninety days, SkyDrive will be provided free office space and assistance from local agencies and businesses to accustom itself to local conditions. When that period ends, SkyDrive is not obligated to stay in Beaufort, but of course local officials are attempting to convince the Japanese firm to make this city of about 13,400 people its American home.

SkyDrive is the first company to take advantage of the Landing Pad, having been introduced to the program by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).

William Fugate, SkyDrive’s US business development manager, is leading the company’s mission in Beaufort.

For their part, local officials are enthusiastic about the opportunity to host SkyDrive. Speaking to The Island Packet, a Hilton Head Island-based media outlet, Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray calls the eVTOL maker’s arrival “pretty darn exciting.”

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