2019年7月15日 星期一

U.S. won't mediate in Japan-South Korea spat, Japan looks to turn up the heat on South Korea with stricter export controls on more items. South Korea eyes investing ¥91.8 billion annually in chip supply chain after Japanese export curbs


U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell says Washington has no plans to mediate a spat between Japan and South Korea, which are locked ...







The envisaged plan comes in response to what Tokyo views as Seoul’s failure to address the dispute over compensation for wartime labor and prevent it from hurting bilateral relations.




2019年7月6日 星期六

Japanese people need to put more aside for retirement

A quarter of all 60-year-olds in Japan will still be alive in 35 years. The country's pension system will struggle to cope

2019年7月5日 星期五

《日本式接觸》 天下叢書,1984



《日本式接觸》   天下叢書,1984,pp.176~77


36年(1983)前的日本第五代電腦、AI 研究等未竟之志。我讀過日本的失敗分析。





找不到小林牙醫1983/84:




小林宏德 科 霞關区

Grannies in Running Shoes Are Delivering Ramen for Uber in Japan

“The elderly are actually signing up for Eats couriers,” Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg News. “Eats has been a huge success for us in Japan. It is going to be a very effective introduction to the Uber brand.”











Grannies in Running Shoes Are Delivering Ramen for Uber in Japan
Bloomberg
Uber Technologies Inc.'s strategy for Japan, where ride-sharing is banned, is as unique as the country itself — think grandma in running shoes .



Uber Technologies Inc.’s strategy for Japan, where ride-sharing is banned, is as unique as the country itself — think grandma in running shoes delivering ramen noodles.
Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi was in the country this week to stress the importance of the market, where the San Francisco-based company has built a growing food-delivery business but kept rides limited to black-car hires and taxi dispatches. The archipelago is also home to Uber’s biggest shareholder, SoftBank Group Corp., and where he’s planning to boost staff in the coming year.
“The elderly are actually signing up for Eats couriers,” Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg News. “Eats has been a huge success for us in Japan. It is going to be a very effective introduction to the Uber brand.”
Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Interview
Dara Khosrowshahi
Building up Uber Eats could be the company’s best chance, for now, to capture revenue in the world’s third-largest economy. More than 10,000 restaurants and 15,000 couriers are part of a delivery network spanning 10 Japanese cities, according to the CEO. That puts the service within reach of about 15% of the population, compared with 70% in the U.S., leaving plenty of room to grow, he said.
With an unemployment rate of 2.4%, near quarter-century lows, Japan’s labor market is tight. The population is aging; adult diapers outsell baby diapers. Seniors are tapping into food delivery to find jobs, in addition to getting hot meals delivered to their doors.
While most workers deliver using a bicycle or scooter, seniors in search of exercise are doing it on foot, Khosrowshahi said. “This is one area unique to Japan, and we are looking if we can expand to the rest of the world,” the CEO said.
To support its Eats business, as well as its nascent efforts to offer dispatch services for taxi companies, Uber is planning to increase full-time staffing in Japan by more than 30% over the next year from about 100 now, in areas such as account management, sales and local operations. Even at that pace, that’s still a tiny proportion of Uber’s global headcount of 22,000.
Uber Skips World's Biggest Cab Market for Town of 5,914 People
A vehicle for Uber service awaits passengers in Kyoto.
Shares in small-cap food-delivery firms Yume No Machi Souzou Iinkai Co.and Ride on Express Holdings Co. slid more than 3% in Tokyo. “Uber Eats has a cutting-edge, cool image, so concerns could easily develop that young users might switch into Uber Eats,” said Iwai Cosmo Securities equities manager Toshikazu Horiuchi.
Given Japan‘s strict regulations against ride-sharing, Uber has chosen to work with regulators. It rolled out a pilot program in 2016 to provide rides to seniors in the small coastal town of Tangocho, where an aging population was left with dwindling public transport services.
Read more: The ‘Taxi Prince’ Fighting to Make Sure Uber Won’t Win in Japan
Last year, Uber pivoted to partnerships with local taxi companies. It now has deals with eight cab companies in as many cities, including popular tourist destinations Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. Sony Corp., startup Japan Taxi and China’s Didi Chuxing are among those that have rolled out competing taxi-hailing apps, seeking to make it easier for consumers to hail rides and get to their destinations. Uber Black, the car-hire service, is currently available only in Tokyo.
Uber Seals First Japan Taxi Deal
A Fuji Taxi vehicle with the Uber logo.
“It will take time, but we like what we see in terms of the potential of the market,” Khosrowshahi said. “The innovations that we are going to make in taxi here are going to carry around the world.”
The CEO also took time during his Tokyo visit to meet with SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, who has built a stake of 13% in Uber, worth about $9.8 billion. The conversation focused on the ride-hailing giant’s blueprint for growth during the meeting.
“If I’m in Japan, you can bet that I’m going to see Masa,” Khosrowshahi said. “Masa is really focused on where we are taking our business three years and beyond from now.”
Son is in the process of raising money for a second $100 billion Vision Fund; one question is what assets he might seek to sell to finance SoftBank’s portion of another investment fund. Son raised $28 billion for the first fund, in part, by selling down his lucrative stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
While Khosrowshahi declined to detail what he and Son discussed, the take-away is that SoftBank’s commitment to Uber is for the long term. Takeaki Nukii, a spokesman for SoftBank, couldn’t immediately comment on the subject.
“Masa and I, we talk about growth,” Khosrowshahi said. “We don’t talk about exit.”
(An earlier version of this story corrected the timing of the CEO’s visit.)
(Updates with share action in the eighth paragraph.)