GREATER NAGOYA INITIATIVE Monthly Newsletter Issue No.25 (Jun, 2008)

GREATER NAGOYA INITIATIVE Monthly Newsletter 
Issue No.25 (Jun, 2008)

Greater Nagoya Means Greater Business Opportunities

1. Event: The Concert of Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in Greater Nagoya (June 5, 2008)

2. Event: Result of Japan-Korea-China Industrial Fair 2008 in Osaka, Japan (June 18 to 20, 2008)

3. Industry: Ubiquitous Alliances with Overseas Companies on Field Server Network

4. Culture: Greater Nagoya’s Retro Towns for Candidates of World Heritage Sites

*Please contact Greater Nagoya Initiative Center (Ms. Miura and Ms. Sumi) for further details on the above events.

On July15, 2008, FrankfurtRhineMain GmbH will be holding a seminar in Greater Nagoya in order to promote the Frankfurt RhineMaine region (in Germany) and the investment opportunities to the region for the companies in Greater Nagoya. Prior to this event in July, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonieorchester) will be performing at Greater Nagoya’s annual international music festival called “The Nagoya International Music Festival” as one of its promotional activities of the region. It is the 31^st festival and many other top orchestras and musicians are invited from overseas, such as one of the world’s greatest ballet company “The Paris Opera Ballet (Ballet De L’Opera National De Paris)”, etc. The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra was built by the German Public Radio of Hessen and has a long history with international reputation. Maestro Paavo Järvi, who is a chief conductor of the orchestra, will perform the Symphony No.9 in D major by Gustav Mahler, and with the Japanese Soprano Maki Mori a piece “Four Last Songs” by Richard Strauss will be performed. Paavi Järvi is young and still in his 40’s, but has already received international reputation.

The Nagoya International Music Festival (In Japanese Language Only): http://www.hicbc.com/event/nimf/main.htm

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (In German Language Only): http://www.hr-online.de/website/rubriken/kultur/index.jsp?rubrik=2021

Japan-China-Korea Industrial Fair 2008 takes place in Osaka, Japan from June 18th (Wednesday) through 20th (Friday) at INTEX OSAKA, Greater Nagoya Initiative will participate in the fair to promote the Greater Nagoya region and represent a vigorous area of business opportunities in recent Japan. The fair is organized by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), and Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and it aims at promoting and enhancing the economic business partnerships among Japan, China, and Korea. The fair has taken place three consecutive years: 2006 in China, 2007 in Korea, and this year in Osaka, Japan. Greater Nagoya Initiative will have its own exhibition booth to present the attractiveness of Greater Nagoya region for business and industrial opportunities as well as its superb living environment.

The fair will feature several exhibitions consisting of approximately 420 booths for 270 companies and organizations in fields of such as electronics, transportation, general machinery, and IT industries. There will be Industrial Zone and Regional Business Zone. The Industrial Zone is for companies to exhibit their products and services, and government organizations introduce the attractive features of investing in their economic field. The Regional Business Zone is for local municipalities, public agencies, industry groups and other organization promoting interregional business exchanges with China and Korea through enterprise attraction programs.

Greater Nagoya is promoting a project in the field of Ubiquitous and the seminars on “Field Server (sensor network devices)” have been held twice (last year and this year) in Greater Nagoya with the ultimate goal of creating a global-collaborative ubiquitous industry cluster in order to develop a local sensor network project. At the seminars, experts, professionals, and overseas corporations specialized in Ubiquitous provided discussions and presentations on “Application of Sensor Network for Resolving Issues Concerning Food, Agriculture, the Environment and Education”. Several overseas companies were invited by the Greater Nagoya Initiative (GNI) for this event. As a result of these events and the GNI invitation programs, three companies (Decagon Devices Inc. (USA), SenseAir AB (Sweden), and CSEM SA (Switzerland)) concluded technology exchange agreement with an industry-academia organization working on “Field Server Network” called ALFAE (Area-wide e-Laboratory for Food, Agriculture & Environment) established in Greater Nagoya. By this agreement, it is expected to develop technologies on the field server further and contribute food, agriculture and the environment in Asian countries, including Japan near future.

The project on Ubiquitous (“Field Server”) was originally launched as an industry-academia project by Mie University and the Greater Nagoya’s local ICT (Information and Communication Technology) companies, and they established ALFAE. Since issues on food safety/security, environment, etc have become more important, a key to address these challenges is to monitor the conditions (temperature, humidity, solar radiation, CO2 concentration, soil water, etc.) of the fields (agricultural fields, urban areas, forests, etc.) across national boundaries for 24 hours. The “Field Server” has been developed by combining various electronics devices (such as a web server, multiple sensors, a network camera, wireless LAN communication module, high-intensity LED illuminati, etc.) and experimental operations of the Field Server have commenced around the world in order to monitor the environment, plants and animals and agricultural farms 24 hours per day. Since Greater Nagoya plays an important role in terms of food and environment, and serves as a hub of monozukuri (the Japanese art of creating and making things). The goal of this project is to create a global-collaborative ubiquitous industry cluster by taking advantage of its geographical strength.

Local municipalities within the Greater Nagoya cooperated and resubmitted a proposal of “Tsumago-juku, Magome-juku and Nakasendo” to be considered as a World Heritage Site chosen by UNESCO. The heritage sites are called “Tsumago-juku, Magome-juku and Nakasendo“, and the title of it comes from “Juku” of “Tsumago-juku and Magome-juku” meaning lodgings and “do” of Nakasendo meaning highway. The areas are, in turn, formed as two lodging towns and the main street for travelers. The towns of Tsumago and Magome still retain their historic appearance with many traditional wooden buildings due to the great effort of the local people to preserve them as they were. Nakasendo Highway is an ancient main road that was often used by travelers widely between the major cities of Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo in present-day), and total length of road has 533 km (around 330 miles.) It was established around the 8th Century as one of several highways connecting between the then ancient capital of Japan, Nara, and major provinces. The road was important as a long-distance transportation for any kinds of people such as Samurai commanders, feudal lords, or general people in former times. Attractive walking courses along the Tsumago with Magome are available. In the center of the town, carps are swimming in the small canals along the sloping sideways, and it shows how much the melting water from mountains is clean in the area.

The proposal, resubmitted to Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan (The agency was established to promote culture and international cultural exchange and administers matters concerning religious juridical persons.), outlines four key points explaining the reasons why municipalities recommend the area as a candidate of World Heritage Sites: preservation of an asset as pre-modern transportation systems, the setting of the historical novel “Before dawn” by Toson Shimazaki (A famous Japanese novelist who was born in Greater Nagoya. 1872-1943), an area recognized for its preservation activities, and comparison with similar World Heritage Sites. The proposal emphasize that the street was commonly used by people from any classes and levels, and the point indicated that the places contributed in general. 20 km of the whole length will be registered as the proposal.

Nakasendo Map: http://www.town.nagiso.nagano.jp/html/english/Page2.htm

〔Issued by〕 Greater Nagoya Initiative Center（GNIC）

〔EMAIL〕 gninewsletter@greaternagoya.org

〔URL〕 https://greaternagoya.org/
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