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Fri 26 April 2013

The 23rd Foreign Chambers Business Confidence Survey

The Foreign Chambers in Japan (FCIJ) has been conducting Business Confidence surveys online twice a year since 2002 among foreign-affiliated companies in Japan. This, the 23rd, survey was conducted between 10 and 19 April 2013, and received 293 valid responses from members of 18 foreign chambers of commerce and business organizations.

Wed 03 April 2013

METI and JETRO incentive schemes for 2013

METI, in cooperation with JETRO, is offering various incentive schemes with the aim of increasing investments either into Japan in general or to specific regions. The most well known are perhaps the incentive schemes focusing on Tohoku and the general incentive scheme to promote the establishment of Asia regional headquarters in Japan or R&D facilities.

Thu 21 March 2013

Support Dutch public health study trip Japan

This summer, twenty medical students of the University of Amsterdam are traveling to Tokyo to learn about different topics regarding public health, including the (medical) history of Japan and the current advantages and difficulties that exists in the Japanese health care system. For this reason, Organizing Committee Study Trip Japan, Medical students association Mozaïek would like to ask you for assistance.

Tue 19 March 2013

Event report: Lotgenoten on 14 March 2013

Let’s face it, Japan can be a tough place to manage a business. This country has its charms, but it can be a tough market to crack and maintain for the foreign executive. And Japanese managers of foreign firms have their own challenges when dealing with expats in Japan and the people at an overseas headquarters. That’s why the NCCJ began its Lotgenoten series of informal seminars – to provide an opportunity to share experiences of challenges and solutions in an informal, friendly atmosphere. To help ensure an atmosphere of frankness and openness, all discussions are off the record.

Fri 01 March 2013

Event report: NCCJ Briefing & Drinks with Safecast

Safecast – Crowd-sourcing safety

In the fourth of the NCCJ’s “Briefing and Drinks” series of events, NCCJ member Pieter Franken gave a rundown on the activities of his group Safecast, at Loftwork in Shibuya on Feb. 27.

     After the earthquake and devastating tsunami of March 11, 2011, all over Japan people held their breath and awaited information about the radiation spewing out of the stricken reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A week after the disaster, a group of volunteers founded Safecast, to collect and distribute data on local radiation levels using their own designed and built “bGeigie” mobile radiation sensor units. Small and versatile, the bGeigie units can be mounted on a vehicle or simply carried by individuals, and the data uploaded via iPhone.

     Safecast found that the information from the government was not only slow in coming and incomplete, but in many cases it was inaccurate. Safecast volunteers found radiation levels as much as 10 times higher than the official data, due to localized hotspots and the greater frequency of their readings.

     Two years on, they’ve collected over 5 million data measurements and put the data on their website for all to see and use, making their effort the biggest of its kind ever attempted.

     Safecast is a truly crowd-sourced effort – funding to develop and build the bGeigie units has come from Kickstarter and private donors, and the group has got help from local groups such as Hackerspace and Keio University, as well as from the MIT Media Lab. The data is collected and distributed entirely by volunteers. Their enthusiasm, and Safecast’s success to date, are allowing the group to expand its activities, into monitoring of air and water pollution and food contamination as well as education and outreach.

     After the presentation, lively discussions among the participants and members of the Safecast organization at a nearby restaurant brought the evening to a pleasant end.
 
For more information about Safecast and its activities, see: http://blog.safecast.org . The latest ongoing measurement results can be found here.

Event photos

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