Japan Machine Orders Rise More Than Expected; Recovery May Last

From Bloomberg.com

By Jason Clenfield and Tatsuo Ito

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) — Orders for Japanese machinery rose more than twice the pace economists estimated in September, signalling that a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy may be sustained.

Orders, an indicator of business investment in three to six months, climbed 10.5 percent from a month earlier, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. The median estimate of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 4.1 percent increase.

The yen gained and stocks rose, led by machinery makers Fanuc Ltd. and Kubota Corp., after the report showed businesses are becoming more willing to invest in equipment as profits recover. Companies from Toshiba Corp. to Elpida Memory Inc. have announced plans to build factories or increase capacity in the past month after beating their own earnings estimates.

“The bottom is probably behind us for capital spending,” said Masamichi Adachi, a senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo. “The retrenchment phase is over and the corporate sector as a whole should gradually pick up in a self- sustained way.”

The yen climbed to 89.61 per dollar at 12 p.m. in Tokyo from 89.76 before the report was published, building on the currency’s 7 percent advance in the past three months. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.2 percent. The Topix Machinery Index of 124 companies advanced to the highest this month.

Second Expansion

Figures due Nov. 16 may show Japan’s economy grew at a 2.9 percent annualized pace last quarter, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It would be the second consecutive expansion since the economy emerged from its worst postwar recession and the first since Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s government took power in September.

Reports today showed the recovery in China, Japan’s largest market, is gathering steam. Industrial production rose 16.1 percent in October from a year earlier, the most since March 2008, the statistics bureau said in Beijing. Retail sales gained an annual 16.2 percent, and urban fixed-asset investment climbed 33.1 percent in the first 10 months of this year.

Japan’s business spending may add to growth for the first time since the first three months of 2008, analysts predict. The Cabinet Office today forecast orders will increase 1 percent in the three months ending Dec. 31, which would be the first advance in seven quarters. It also raised its assessment of the indicator, saying that it is showing signs of bottoming.

Level Still Low

“The level of capital spending is still very low even though it started to pick up,” said Rei Tsuruta, economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co. in Tokyo. “Today’s report showed signs that spending is starting to bottom.”

A rebound in capital spending, which accounted for about a third of the economy’s growth during the six-year expansion that ended in 2007, would lend stability to a recovery that has depended on temporary factors including government stimulus and a rebound in production spurred by run down inventories.

Improved earnings have provided companies with money to invest, while economic growth in Japan’s overseas markets has rekindled demand. Exports grew 10.4 percent last quarter from the previous period, according to Cabinet Office trade figures measured by volume.

Pretax profit at the more than 900 Japanese companies that had announced earnings as of Nov. 10 doubled in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from the previous three months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. Even after the gain, profit was still 40 percent below the same period last year.

Toshiba’s Factory

Better earnings are already encouraging companies to spend. Toshiba, Japan’s biggest maker of semiconductors, said last month it will spend 25 billion yen ($277 million) to build a lithium-ion battery plant in Niigata, northern Japan. Cost cuts last quarter helped the company narrow its loss to 200 million yen from 27 billion yen during the same period last year.

Elpida Memory, Japan’s largest computer memory-chip maker, last week raised its estimate for capital spending in the fiscal year by 50 percent to 60 billion yen, citing increased orders for gear to make more advanced semiconductors. Shares of machinery makers have risen this year, with Fanuc up 21 percent and Advantest Corp. climbing 41 percent.

“Executives feel that we’ve escaped the crisis and now we have to think about a more normal situation,” said JPMorgan’s Adachi. “It’s less benign than in the five years through 2007, but there’s still going to be positive growth and you have to compete with competitors in Asia.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Jason Clenfield in Tokyo at jclenfield@bloomberg.net; Tatsuo Ito in Tokyo at tito@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 10, 2009 22:04 EST

UK trade magazine adopts Social Media interaction as editorial policy – is this the future?

A major b2b title in the UK has become the first to employ Social Media directly in the production of its print-edition editorial. Control Engineering magazine under the editorial direction of David Greenfield has only been an active participant in the business networking site LinkedIn since May 2009, but has already built a strong following of around 3,500 users. LinkedIn allows users to organise themselves into groups based on interests or professions. Each group offers its members an interactive discussion board facility that allows them to debate the various themes and topics they are interested in. By following and participating in these discussions on its LinkedIn and Facebook pages, Control Engineering’s editor has been able to tap into a rich seam of lively debate and informed comment from which to create highly-topical editorial. You can read the first article developed in this way here.

In a publishing world that has for so long simply regurgitated print editorial in online form, this is a very interesting development. Closing the loop between traditional and modern media makes a lot of sense from an editorial point of view; comment is easily obtained, it’s dynamic, fresh and completely democratic. Anyone has a chance to have their voice heard, not just those with big PR budgets and advertising spends.

For PR companies, it provides the clearest signpost yet that the role is changing. Clearly, it is no longer enough just to be writing and sending out press releases when editorial policy is being built in such a dynamic way; PR companies now have to take an active role in monitoring and engaging in forums such as Linked In and Facebook or risk having their messages left behind. It’s like the editors are stepping down from their ivory towers into a vibrant, thronging marketplace filled with colour and distraction. The challenge for PR people is to ensure they maintain an influential position in this melee; if you like, a guiding hand to lead an editor gently but firmly to their client’s stall. We can only do that by being there and staying connected.

Honesty is the best policy

“Photoshopping” – the deliberate manipulation of photographic images to enhance, conceal or mislead – is in the news a lot lately,  mainly as a result of the media’s growing unease about the use of implausibly-skinny models to promote ladies fashion. But as far away as it may seem from the glamour of haute couture, the world of B-2-B PR is not immune to Photoshop controversy, particularly when it comes to the portrayal of professional display equipment such as LED screens and videowalls.

The problem is – like stroppy catwalk models – such devices are notoriously difficult to photograph well, particularly with digital cameras. There are problems of exposure, viewing angles, unpredictable moiré effects and screen refresh artefacts. Little wonder, then, that some manufacturers resort to the “artist’s impression” approach to creating imagery for their products.

Personally, I don’t like it. Trying to promote a visual product by using a picture that has been faked is questionable practice at best. Particularly so when the subterfuge has been badly executed, as in the example above. In this recent image from a well-known European manufacturer, the fake image has been badly aligned, resulting in a picture that seems to float a good centimetre outside the physical dimensions of the screen. Not good. The same image also features fake mullion lines superimposed over what is quite clearly a stock library image. To my mind, not only does this seriously undermine the quality proposition of the product concerned, but it also raises questions of ethics –  a deliberate attempt to mislead a potential customer surely is not a good start to the relationship. If a manufacturer is willing to “lie” about how its screen actually looks, what else are they willing to lie about?

We do, from time to time, manipulate images of our client’s products to enhance their appearance or correct some of the technical problems that often occur when photographing screens. However there is one big difference: We NEVER use library shots to fake a screen image because it is vital to maintain integrity. We would never for a second consider putting an untruth into a press release – why would we do so with an image?

When we go on a shoot we always take lots of shots at various timings and exposures, and then use these collections of real images to create a composite or an HDR composite of a real, genuine product image.

If you or your client are a display manufacturer – please think twice about using fake pictures. With just a little more effort and skill, you can achieve great results without cheating. As they say – honesty is the best policy.

Ian Pickering wins top photography award

We just heard this afternoon that our favourite photographer has been awarded the title of UK Commercial Photographer of the year 2009 by the Master Photographers Association, at its Annual Awards Presentation on Sunday evening in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. These awards are the professional photographer’s equivalent of “The Oscars” – contested by the very best of the UK’s photographers. And as if that wasn’t enough, Ian also scooped first AND second place in the Midlands area Best Wedding Photograph before capping the evening with a Special Silver Award for his outstanding achievements. Quite an evening!

We’ve worked with Ian on many occasions and as our clients will testify, Ian is not only a gifted and visionary photographer but the consummate professional. Ian could be briefed to photograph a black cat in a coal cellar at midnight and still come away with a picture good enough for a magazine front cover. And not only that, he’s one of the friendliest and easy-to-work-with people we’ve known.

Well done, Ian – your awards are richly deserved.

www.ianpickering.com

LED pioneer honoured

When the history of technological development in the late 20th Century is written, the name of Dr. Isamu Akasaki is sure to figure prominently. Everyone who relies on modern communication technology owes a great debt of gratitude to this elderly Japanese professor, and yet publically, he remains a little-known. But hopefully, that may be about to change thanks to an award honouring Dr. Akasaki’s achievements.

What was Dr. Akasaki’s contribution to our modern world? Simply, he was the man that made the blue LED possible. Thanks in large part to his work, we now have high-speed internet communications, high-density data storage (hence the trade name “Blu-Ray”), and a cornucopia of other technological marvels – not to mention today’s full-colour LED screens.

The Inamori Foundation has announced that Dr. Isamu Akasaki will be awarded the Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology for 2009. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the annual Kyoto Prize is an international award honouring “significant contributions to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind.” The award is presented on November 10 each year in three categories.

Dr. Akasaki, 80, will receive the award for his pioneering work that led to the development of the blue LED. A semiconductor scientist, Dr. Akasaki serves both as a university professor at Nagoya University and professor at Meijo University in Japan.

The story of the development of the blue LED is the real stuff of legend: Once generally regarded as impossible, Dr. Akasaki persisted in his research for decades – long after others had given-up, and was eventually rewarded with success; his GaN-based positive-negative (p-n) junctions, making the blue LED practically possible for the first time. This achievement stimulated research on blue LEDs worldwide, and served as the first step toward their eventual commercialisation in the 1990s.

According to the Kyoto Prize press release, Dr. Akasaki’s pioneering research has not only led to numerous and diverse new applications in electronic equipment, but also offers great promise for protecting the global environment as blue LEDs are adopted for general-purpose lighting with superior energy-conserving qualities.

LEDs Magazine – Isamu Akasaki awarded Kyoto Prize for LED work

Hesitant signs of recovery for Japanese economy

According to some commentators, the Japanese economy is showing signs of turning the corner of recession. The Nikkei 225 stock index recently broke the 10,000 barrier for the first time in eight months, with steelmakers and financial stocks leading the trading.

News of the Nikkei breaching the “ichiman” mark comes after further news reports appear to show signs of recovery beginning. Earlier this month, the country revised its GDP forecast from a 4 per cent contraction to 3.8 per cent. Corporate capital spending in the first quarter fell by a smaller-than-expected 25.3 per cent while bankruptcies dropped last month for the first time in a year.

Data released earlier indicated that Japanese industrial production rose 5.2 per cent in April from the previous month, the fastest rise in more than half a century. The drop in exports also eased in April, falling 40.6 per cent year-on-year compared with a 46.5 per cent decline in March.

But despite the encouraging signs, trading remains difficult. Japanese machinery orders – a key indicator of manufacturing confidence – are still fluctuating, falling unexpectedly in April as manufacturers delay expansion plans because of continuing tough trading outside of Japan. News from China last week showed a larger-than-expected drop in May imports and exports.

The signs are positive, and while the economy still has a very long way to go, there is very real optimism that we are at least on the road to recovery. New technologies – and in particular, “Green” technologies – are looking to become very important contributors to the “new” Japanese economy and we are already seeing Japanese companies like Mitsubishi Electric achieving considerable international success in this field.

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Further information can be found here

FT.com / Markets / Asia-Pacific – Nikkei breaches 10,000 level

Shot in the foot by Cupid’s arrow – a cautionary tale of Social Media marketing

It seems that the topic of Social Media is never far from the headlines of the business press. From Twitter to YouTube, debate rages back and forth amongst communications professionals as to the worth – or otherwise – of these sites as valid business communication channels.

Some of the more Ludditic (if there’s such a word) persuasion dismiss it all as a passing fad; others claim with equally unbridled passion that Twitter et al represents a new era of engagement and hyper-responsive communications.

Now – interestingly – a new dynamic has entered the debate in the shape of one Trent Reznor, singer with legendary industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor, formerly an enthusiastic Tweeter and Internet music pioneer, has reportedly closed his Twitter account after his candid, heart-warming posts prompted negative reactions from some of his 600,000 followers.

Writing on Japan Inc, Michael Condon suggests this is an event of far greater significance than it may first appear.

Reznor’s departure from Twitter is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, Reznor is one of the more Web-savvy, forward thinking members of the music industry out there. It should be noted that Reznor was one of the first major artists to take advantage of changing distribution and promotional systems with the Nine Inch Nails release of "Ghosts I IV."  Reznor himself has been a prolific "tweeter" with, as mentioned before, over 600,000
followers.

Michael’s second, and most interesting conjecture is that even for die-hard fans of blogging and Social Media, there is a point where “engagement” and interaction becomes a bit too real. Specifically, when the candid reality of Tweeting starts to diverge from the perceived reality of the “brand”, it can only lead to trouble, as Reznor has apparently discovered to his cost.

It seems, among other things, a big problem was that Reznor was, well, in love. HERE are some of the tweets that infuriated angsty fans:
Reznor: "Now that I’m in love and gone all soft on you, can anyone recommend any romantic comedies? Got a weird urge."

And

Reznor: "I am missing someone. Boo hoo."

And

Reznor: "Wait – I’m in love and getting married! I’d give you all free tickets if I could. (hugs)"

All sweet and innocent, until you remember that these utterances come from the creator of albums such as "Pretty Hate Machine", "Broken" and "The Downward Spiral." And it seems this romantic epiphany has not gone down well with the band’s more moribund fans.

There were proclamations of "selling out," "going soft" and worlds being turned "upside down."
And so, in the end, Reznor got sick of it all and pulled the plug on his Twitter feed.

For some celebrities – and increasing numbers of corporate marketeers – Twitter is regarded merely as a marketing tool. Yet it was never intended as such. It was always supposed to be much more personal than that. Ironically, in using it as it was originally intended, Reznor appears to have unwittingly undone the marketing work of many years and many record company dollars – at least in the eyes of some fans.

And therein lies a sobering lesson for those considering Social Media as part of their marketing mix. Twitter feeds and Facebook pages might be fine in some circumstances, but not all, and they need to managed with particular care: Social Media is far from being the silver bullet of marketing; and it’s all too easy to get hit by those ricochets. 

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You can read the original post on Creative Deconstruction here

Language difficulties preventing export success for Japanese SMEs, says expert

Language difficulties are hampering the efforts of Japanese SMEs to promote themselves overseas, claims a leading commentator on Japanese business affairs. In his weekly newsletter, Terrie Lloyd observes that many Japanese start-ups find it difficult to connect to buyers in the global markets. Lloyd comments: “90% of this equation is a simple lack of English-language confidence, coupled with the historic domination of profitable export business segments by the major trading companies.

“SMEs definitely need help to reach out to the global markets”

The recession has changed the face of international business, especially for Japanese companies that are traditionally heavily reliant on exports. But establishing links with new markets can prove problematic because of unfamiliarity with local business customs and language.

Terrie Lloyd comments, “If a small company with world-class technology or products gets a call from a potential foreign customer, they do in fact get scared and hide under a shell. Usually they will either take ages to come back with a quote, or they go find an aged (retired) consultant to help them with English and export issues. As a result, the potential customer reads the lack of
immediate response as lack of interest, and they go elsewhere.”

EIDO Public Relations was established to help plug that gap and provide an effective interface between Japan and the English-speaking business world. Visit our international services page to find out more or click here to contact us with a specific enquiry.

How many buzzwords can you cram in single sentence?

Sadly, the world of business is littered by buzz-words and catchphrases that have very little to do with creating a meaningful dialogue with the intended audience. Here’s a particularly fine example of business gobbledegook we ran across today:

B2B Product Marketing Leadership in the era of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt requires B2B Focused, Holistic, Guru Agnostic, Outcome-Driven and Action-Oriented Capabilities.

No-one here – and I suspect very few people other than the originator – has the remotest idea what that’s about! Business writing should, first and foremost, be about clarity and accessibility. I suggest that a course in concise writing might serve business people a lot better than learning about Holistic, Guru Agnostic – whoever he is.

“Give your fingers a rest”, advises editor

Barnaby Page of Screens.tv and aka.tv is a highly-respected commentator on the latest developments in digital OOH and other new forms of communication. As such, he is perhaps better placed than most to comment on the latest internet craze/scourge, Twitter. With an elegantly argued case that there is a time and a place for Twittering, Barnaby is perhaps illustrating that, as a serious communications medium, Twitter is reaching – if not maturity – then at least a sober adolescence in the minds of media professionals.

Give your fingers a rest (1)

Barnaby Page – 06 Apr 09, 17:08 PM

With Screen Media Expo Europe nearly upon us, to all those sitting itchy-fingered in the conference rooms (you know who you are) I have just one polite request:

STOP THAT TWITTERING.
Trust me on this: there is nothing to be gained by Twittering conferences in real time, except the irritation of your followers and a spurious sense of “being first”.
Twitter is great for big, unpredictable events unfolding moment-by-moment – things like election nights, Windows reinstalls, soap opera Christmas specials. But when it comes to conferences, what those people who couldn’t attend really need is a thoughtful round-up of key points after the event, all accessible in one place. An article or an email or a blog post, in other words.
Being told what speaker X said five seconds ago, when you the Twitterer aren’t in any position to know whether it’s a trivial throwaway or the lead-in to an important revelation, is useless.
So just don’t do it. The world can wait.

Give your fingers a rest – SCREENS.tv Blog