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 Mitsubishi
Aluminum wraps up a promising collaboration in foil
products for home kitchens. |
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will join hands with Sumikei Aluminum Foil and Sun Aluminum
in producing aluminum foil products for packaging and for
consumer goods, such as ventilating fan covers, gas range
mats, and dishes and bowls. The tie-up is an effort to secure
viable profit margins amid escalating price competition
through increased economies of scale. |
The
partners will foster economies of scale in several ways.
They will adopt unified product standards, purchase raw
materials jointly, and cooperate in distribution. They also
are studying the potential for developing products together.
Especially notable about the tie-up is that
it straddles large corporate groups that are traditional
rivals in numerous products. Sumikei Aluminum is a member
of the Sumitomo group of companies, and Sun Aluminum is
a subsidiary of Kobe Steel.
Foil products for home kitchens are just a
small part of the product portfolio at Mitsubishi Aluminum.
The company is an important supplier of weight-saving components
for automobiles. It also manufactures sheet products, extruded
tube products, foil products, and numerous other items for
diverse applications. |
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automotive components that help improve fuel economy
are the core product line at Mitsubishi Aluminum.
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K
irin Brewery, Japan's foremost beer maker and a core Mitsubishi
company, is expanding its presence in pharmaceuticals. It
has agreed with California-based Cerus Corporation to collaborate
in developing and marketing products for stem cell transplantation
based on proprietary Cerus technology.
"We are honored and pleased to have Kirin
as a partner as we pursue the oncology potential of our
Helinx technology," said Stephen T. Isaacs, president
and chief executive officer of Cerus. "Kirin is a leader
in the field of stem cell therapy. It is a pioneer in biotechnology
and has had great success in the cooperative development
of biopharmaceutical products."
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Kirin Brewery has built
a large business in pharmaceuticals through original
development and strategic collaborations. |
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Stem
cell transplantation is a promising treatment for cancer.
It entails a significant risk of a serious and often fatal
complication known as graft-versus-host disease. That condition
occurs when the donor's leukocytes, transfused to promote
acceptance of the donor's stem cells, proliferate and attack
the transplant recipient's tissues and organs. Cerus's Helinx
technology addresses that problem by targeting and binding
with the DNA of leukocytes, which inhibits their proliferation.
Cerus and Kirin will develop the products together.
Kirin will pay a licensing fee for the Cerus technology
and will fund all development expenses for the Asia-Pacific
region and part of the cost of development activities for
obtaining product approval in the United States. If and
when the products gain approvals, Kirin will market them
in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, China, the
Republic of Korea, and Australia. |
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Millea
Insurance Group is the name for the tie-up that Tokio Marine
is forming with Nichido Fire and Marine and Asahi Life (Mitsubishi
Monitor, December 2000/January 2001). The partners announced
the name and plans for their tie-up earlier this year.
Tokio Marine, Japan's largest nonlife insurer,
and Nichido will pool their resources under a holding company
in April 2002. Asahi Life has set a target of April 2004
for placing its resources under the same holding company.
It needs time to convert from mutual to joint-stock ownership.
Deregulation has eliminated barriers between
life insurance and property and casualty insurance. Companies
in both businesses have set up subsidiaries to enter each
other's turf. But Millea is the first organization to possess
an extensive presence on both sides of the insurance industry.
It also will engage in financial services business besides
insurance, such as asset management. |
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Ryoshoku
Limited, a food wholesaler whose headquarters appears
above, joined the Mitsubishi Public Affairs Committee
on March 1. |
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The DC Wellness Care
Card is available in both the MasterCard and Visa
formats. |
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| DC
Card, the credit card arm of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, has
developed a product with the research arm of Meiji Life,
another Mitsubishi company. The new product is the DC Wellness
Care Card, a credit card especially for paying for health
care services for elderly people. DC Card began issuing
the new card in January, principally to Meiji Life policy
holders. |
Geriatric
care is a growth industry in Japan, where the population
is aging rapidly. One in four Japanese will be older than
65 by 2020. With DC Card's new credit card, they will enjoy
discounts from participating health clinics, retailers,
and other organizations. DC Card also will furnish card
holders with valuable information about the availability
of useful products and services. In addition, it will use
the card to promote beneficial cooperation among complementary
organizations in the health care industry.
The new card marks a further step for Meiji
Life, too, in the health care business. Meiji Life has led
its industry in developing health care programs for elderly
persons. A CD-ROM developed by the insurer is a standard
tool for planning therapy, home furnishings, and other needs
for aging family members. |
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Meiji Life's policy
holders will use DC Card's new credit card to pay
conveniently for a diversity of health care products
and services. |
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Tippon
Mitsubishi Oil recently unveiled the world's first truly
compact packaged fuel cell that runs on gasoline fuel. Fuel
cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen
in a process known as reverse electrolysis. Most development
work on automotive fuel cells around the world has centered
on systems that obtain their hydrogen by reducing methanol
or gasoline.
Gasoline is an ideal fuel for fuel cells. It
is rich in hydrogen. And it is readily available through
the existing infrastructure of service stations.
Nippon Mitsubishi Oil, Japan's largest oil
refiner, has been a pioneer in exploring sources of hydrogen
for fuel cells. In addition to doing original R&D, the company
does research with various partners. It supplies the fuel,
for example, for two experimental fuel cell vehicles that
DaimlerChrysler and Mazda are testing in Japan (Mitsubishi
Monitor, October/November 2000). |
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The compactness of
Nippon Mitsubishi Oil's fuel cell makes this technology
more practical. |
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Cooperation
among the Mitsubishi financial institutions continues to
broaden and deepen. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi
Trust, Meiji Life, Tokio Marine, and DC Card joined Mitsubishi
Corporation in launching a company earlier this year that
will provide financial services to consumers over the Internet
and through other on- line channels.
The new company is The Net Partners Co., Ltd.
It will build a strong brand for consumer financial services.
And it will use information technology to amass and monitor
information about individuals and to personalize service
offerings on the basis of that information. On-line commerce
is a top priority for all of the participants, and they
each bring unique and highly competitive strengths to the
venture. |
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Titsubishi
Electric introduced an air purifier this year that will
make your home and office smell better. PlasmaPure(TM)
uses air quality sensors and three stages of filtration
to find and eliminate pollutants, pollen, dust, and even
tobacco smoke. The whisper-quiet appliance is four times
as effective as conventional purifiers in eliminating unpleasant
odors.
PlasmaPure's optical sensors detect airborne
particles invisible to the naked eye. Its odor sensor, meanwhile,
is exceptionally sensitive to cleaning chemicals, formaldehyde,
ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and other odor- producing compounds.
The control panel includes an indicator for the concentration
of odors and airborne particles. |
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You can breathe easily
now. |
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Mitsubishi
Electric has strengthened its popular Apricot line of desktop
computers with the introduction of a Linux server. Linux,
a powerful programming language, is increasingly popular
with software developers around the world. It is a so-called
open language. Users can--and do--make continuing improvements
and additions to the language. And continually updated versions
of Linux are available on the Internet.
The new Mitsubishi Electric server went on
sale in February. It is primarily for business users and
is not widely available to consumers. Presently, the server
is available only in Japan. |
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Here's how Mitsubishi
Electric's Linux lineup is shaping up. |
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Mitsubishi
Space Software has begun marketing a high-speed computer
engineered especially to analyze genetic sequences. It markets
the computer, called the GeneMatcher2, as the exclusive
distributor in Japan for the U.S. company Paracell. The
computer uses massively parallel processing--lots of microprocessors
working simultaneously on different parts of an analysis--to
decode genetic information rapidly.
A leading developer of software for Japan's
space program, Mitsubishi Space Software has diversified
in recent years. Its new lines of business include disaster
prevention, government information, business information,
and several others. |
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This high-speed computer
will decode you. |
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| Fullerenes,
named for Buckminster Fuller, the visionary inventor of
the geodesic dome (thus their nickname: Bucky balls), are
geodesic assemblages of carbon atoms. Along with nanotubes,
their close relations, they offer huge promise in electronics
and other applications. Mitsubishi Corporation is commercializing
fullerenes and nanotubes through a U.S. joint venture. In
February, it sponsored a prestigious fullerene conference
in Tokyo where the keynote speakers were Sir Harold Kroto
and Richard Smalley, who earned the 1996 Nobel Prize in
chemistry for discovering fullerenes. |
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Readers
of the Monitor have glimpsed the gilt business at Mitsubishi
Materials. That company is Asia's largest producer of gold
and periodically breaks its own record for the world's largest
gold ingots (Mitsubishi Monitor, December 2000/ January
2001). Mitsubishi Materials also supplies precious metals
for professionals and hobbyists to craft into jewelry and
artworks.
The hourglass in the photo is among the latest
items to emerge from the aesthetic side of Mitsubishi Materials'
gold business. Look carefully: the "sand" inside
the timepiece is tiny flakes of gold. They flutter down
through a transparent filling of silicone oil in a riveting
symbolism of the passage of time.
In the photo right is a sampling of another
dimension of Mitsubishi Materials' precious metals business.
The company's easily shaped clays of gold and silver have
occasioned a whole new genre of jewelry. But the silver
clay has required several minutes of calcination at high
temperature after shaping to harden the jewelry, and that
processing tended to shrink the items.
Now, Mitsubishi Materials and a prominent jewelry
artist have developed a technique for hardening most jewelry
in less than 20 seconds. And their new technique largely
solves the problem of shrinkage. |
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"Got the time?" |
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They've got one for
every finger. |
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Asian
Transmission Corporation, a Philippine subsidiary of Mitsubishi
Motors, has obtained ISO 14001 certification. That certification
has become a common benchmark for environmental management.
Asian Transmission's certification is more significant,
however, for marking an impressive corporate turnaround.
Monitor readers might remember Asian
Transmission's story of overcoming labor strife and revitalizing
its business through mutual trust between labor and management
(Mitsubishi Monitor, December 2000/January 2001). That trust
became the basis for tackling the demanding task of fulfilling
the ISO 14001 guidelines. |
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Asian Transmission
manufactures engines, axles, and transmissions and
exports them to Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia,
and Indonesia, as well as supplying them locally to
its sister company, Mitsubishi Motors Philippines. |
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| Mitsubishi
Materials operates in China and Southeast Asia through more
than 50 subsidiaries and affiliates. The company recently
established a department to support those operations through
offices in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. Its Asian operations
outside Japan include large production sites for such items
as cement, copper, semiconductor materials, and electronic
components, among other items.
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| Japan's
foremost independent research institute in the private sector
has set up a marketing division for nanotechnology business.
"Nanotechnology" is scientific activity oriented
toward controlling individual atoms and molecules to create
computer chips and other devices that are thousands of times
smaller than are possible with present technologies. Rough
extrapolations at Mitsubishi Research suggest that nanotechnology
could spawn business worth as much as a^19 trillion (about
$170 billion) a year by 2010. |
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| A possible
amalgamation of the metals operations at Mitsubishi Corporation
and Nissho-Iwai is under consideration. In steel products
alone, the two companies handle business worth a combined
a^2.2 trillion (about $20 billion) a year. Pooling the companies'
resources in steel and other metals would support huge economies
of scale and could strengthen the companies' mutual competitiveness
in the global marketplace. |
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