Tag: Japans

technology articles

Japan’s Docomo Embarks on Aggressive Cuts to Wireless Plans

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(Bloomberg) — NTT Docomo Inc. unveiled a deeply discounted mobile plan for voice and data services, undercutting many of its rivals in response to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s push to lower phone tariffs.



a man standing in front of a store: A pedestrian holding an umbrella walks past an NTT Docomo Inc. store in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. Docomo this month cut prices on its mobile phone data plans, some by as much as 40 percent, responding to government pressure to reduce prices that it says are among the world's highest.

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A pedestrian holding an umbrella walks past an NTT Docomo Inc. store in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. Docomo this month cut prices on its mobile phone data plans, some by as much as 40 percent, responding to government pressure to reduce prices that it says are among the world’s highest.

Docomo, which is being acquired by parent Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. in a deal worth about 4.25 trillion yen ($40.7 billion), will offer 20 gigabytes of data for 2,980 yen for customers using 4G and 5G starting in March, the carrier said in a statement Thursday.

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Japan’s three big wireless carriers, Docomo, SoftBank Corp. and KDDI Corp., have seen

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uCloudlink and NTT Support Japan’s Digitalization Efforts With Cloud SIM Mobile Broadband Technology

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HONG KONG, Dec.1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — UCLOUDLINK GROUP INC. (“uCloudlink”) (NASDAQ: UCL), the world’s first and leading mobile data traffic sharing marketplace, and NTT Media Supply, a subsidiary of Japan’s NTT Group are paving the way for digitalization in Japan with “DoRACOON”, a stable mobile broadband access environment powered by innovative Cloud SIM technology and architecture. The mobile broadband trial comes following the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the need to promote digitalization in both Japan’s public and private sectors.

The pandemic has exposed Japan’s fragility in the digital realm, leading to delays in the handout of subsidies to firms as part of the government’s rescue plan and hindering efforts to push telemedicine and remote work. Earlier this November, a government report highlighted that promoting digitalization of society is essential to boost productivity for future economic growth in the “new normal”. With the launch of the “DoRACOON” mobile broadband

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Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo to invest $350 million in insurance startup Hippo

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Japan’s MS&AD Insurance Group, will invest $350 million in U.S. home insurance technology company Hippo Enterprises to fund its next stage of growth, the companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Mitsui bought a convertible note in Hippo that will turn into an equity stake the next time it raises new funds, Hippo Chief Executive Officer Assaf Wand told Reuters in an interview.

MS&AD’s venture arm was part of Hippo’s Series E funding round that was announced in July, and the new investment – which is accompanied by a plan to sign a reinsurance agreement with Mitsui Sumitomo – builds on that partnership.

Hippo was valued at $1.5 billion in July, although Wand noted this figure was now outdated because of market developments and the growth of the business. He declined to disclose an updated valuation.

“We have

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Japan’s High-Tech Experiment Packs Ballpark at 90% Capacity

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Japan’s High-Tech Experiment Packs Ballpark at 90% Capacity

By

Joe Lemire

In advance of its stadium being used to host Olympic baseball and softball games next summer, Japan’s Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars hosted a three-game series at the end of October in which fan attendance reached 50%, then 80% and finally 90% capacity.

DeNA Bay Stars EVP Yota Kimura joined the SportTechie PRO DAY: Reopening Sports Venues to share his insights from the high-tech experiment in which the club hosted as many as 27,850 fans in the 32,402-seat stadium. “We believe that even though we increased the number of capacity from the regulation of 50% to 90%, we have not seen an increase in COVID,” Kimura said through a translator.

Among the technologies deployed at Yokohama Stadium: 

  • 13 facial recognition cameras from NEC Corp., to record gate and concourse congestion, the percentage of fans wearing masks, and
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technology articles

Japan’s F-15JSI Will Be A Super Interceptor. That Sets It Apart From Boeing’s Family Of Advanced Eagles.

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Boeing
BA
 has had considerable success selling new variants of the 1960s-designed F-15 Eagle over the last decade-and-a-half. Singapore, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all operate updated versions of the F-15, what Boeing loosely calls “Advanced Eagles”. They share similar improvements from AESA radars and new mission computers to new engines and additional weapons stations.

They share another trait as well. They’re all multi-mission strike fighters including the latest and greatest F-15EX for the U.S. Air Force. But there’s one Advanced Eagle that will only lightly embrace the strike role.

Japan’s forthcoming F-15 JSI will largely stick to the same the air superiority mission that Japan Air Self Defense Force Eagles (JASDF) always have. The country’s current F-15Js

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Japan’s Takeda eyes new focus on vaccines after OTC asset sales-CEO

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TOKYO, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co is looking at making vaccines a core business after completing asset sales to lower debt following its takeover of Shire Plc, Chief Executive Christophe Weber said.

Japan’s biggest drugmaker by revenue recently completed $10 billion in sales of mostly over-the-counter drug assets to reduce debt after its $59 billion purchase of Shire, saying it would focus on five key business areas.

With a dengue fever vaccine in development and deals to make and distribute COVID-19 vaccines in Japan, the company could add a new pillar to its business lineup, Weber said.

“We are in the vaccines business,” Weber told Reuters in an interview. “If the dengue vaccine is successful, yes, it would be a sixth one.”

Takeda’s current five core businesses are oncology, gastroenterology, neuroscience, rare diseases, and plasma-derived therapies.

The company looked into making a COVID-19 vaccine, but determined with

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Wary of security issues, Japan’s government moves to shut China out of its drone supply chain

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By Kaori Kaneko, Izumi Nakagawa

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan may effectively shut off China from supplying drones to its government to protect sensitive information, according to six people in government and the ruling party familiar with the matter, as part of a broad effort to bolster national security.

An unmanned flying boat named ‘HAMADORI’, developed by Japanese company Space Entertainment Laboratory and is equipped with various sensor options for survey, enabling safe operation on the open sea, is displayed at Japan Drone 2020 exhibition at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan September 30, 2020. REUTERS/Izumi Nakagawa/Files

The primary concerns, those people said, centred on information technology, supply chains, cyber security and intellectual property – worries that have been rising outside Japan as well.

But Japan must balance such fears – particularly Beijing’s growing push to export sensitive technologies such as commercial drones and security cameras – against deep

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