Mitsubishi Monitor 0112 NEWS& PRODUCTS

	Mitsubishi Chemical and Mitsubishi Corporation prepare to mass produce fullerene
	Mitsubishi Cable Industries transforms electric coils
	Mitsubishi Motors names Volkswagen executive to head European operations
	Mitsubishi Electric sells elevators on Internet
	Mitsubishi Corporation grows sesame
	Dai Nippon Toryo makes paint better
	Asahi Glass outsources information processing to IT Frontier
	Tokio Marine formalizes merger with Nichido and announces new hybrid product
	Meiji Life works with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi to receive premium payments online
	Mitsubishi Motors shines at Tokyo Motor Show

Mitsubishi Chemical and an investment fund managed by Mitsubishi Corporation established a joint venture in October to mass produce the remarkable carbon material known as fullerene. The new company, Frontier Carbon, will become the first company in the world to produce fullerene in large quantities and at commercially viable prices.

In fullerene, the carbon atoms join together in a latticework pattern of pentagonal units. That pattern is identical to the structure that the architect and visionary, Buckminster Fuller, employed in his famous geodesic domes. The scientists who discovered fullerene thus chose to honor him in naming their discovery. That discovery earned the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry for two Americans and a Briton.
    Fullerene occurs as hollow globes that comprise typically dozens of carbon atoms only a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) in diameter.
    Buckyballs--as the globular molecules are playfully known--have distinctive properties that make them potentially useful in pharmaceuticals, electronics, mechanical engineering, and other fields. They could encase molecules of anticancer drugs, for example, and deliver the drugs to tumor sites. Fullerene has conductive properties, meanwhile, that could be valuable in electronic devices.

In the vanguard
Mitsubishi Chemical is a global leader of long standing in producing carbon black for numerous applications. It has led advances in product and production technologies in carbon chemistry.
    Developing commercial applications for fullerene is a showcase project in Mitsubishi Corporation's strategy of building business in high-technology sectors (Mitsubishi Monitor, June/July 2001). The company was a pioneering investor in ventures for cultivating fullerene's commercial potential.
    Despite the immense potential of fullerene, commercial development has been slow. That is mainly because of the high cost of the material and the limited supplies available for research. Frontier Carbon will resolve those problems by providing companies and researchers with fullerene at low prices and in large, reliable quantities. The partners plan to begin production early in 2002 and to increase their production volume in stages to 1,500 tons a year by 2004.

This image displays an electron density isosurface (in gray) of fullerene with two slices that reveal electrostatic potential (photo courtesy of Accelrys).

It's going into mass production.

Small electric motors and electronic components will become even smaller. That's thanks to a flat wire with ultrathin insulation that Mitsubishi Cable Industries has begun supplying for coils. The company, a leader in wire for motor coils, has achieved a breakthrough in applying ultrathin insulation to rectangular wire.
    Mitsubishi Cable Industries markets the new wire as MEXCEL®. The company uses electrodeposition to affix an ultrathin insulation layer of epoxy modified acryl resin to the rectangular wire. Its patented electrodeposition process allows for using wire that is more than 20 times as wide as its thickness. That broad thinness is possible because the deposition produces a highly uniform layer of insulation.
    The insulation is extra thick at the corners of the wire, where dip coating tends to leave wire exposed; it offers better dielectric properties than dip-coat insulation. MEXCEL® is softer and more flexible, so it has very good windability in the coiling process. And its resistance to heat shock is better.
    Making coils with rectangular wire eliminates most of the air space between the conductors that occurs with round wire. In other words, the conductor density is higher, which improves performance and allows for smaller coils. And take-up machines developed at Mitsubishi Cable Industries wind MEXCEL® into perfectly regular coils.
    Makers of miniature motors are adopting MEXCEL® for the coils in tiny motors for video cameras, disk drives, headphone stereo players, and numerous other products. Makers of electric and electronic coils, meanwhile, are using the new wire in coil components for a vast range of consumer and industrial electronic equipment.

Demand for edgewise-wound coil and surface-mounted inductors, like MEXEL®, is growing rapidly in electronic and electrical products.

Production technology developed at Mitsubishi Cable ensures exceedingly precise tolerances in the flat wire.

Mitsubishi Motors has named a Volkswagen executive, Stefan Jacoby, to head its European operations. Jacoby, who had overseen VW's business in Asia and Oceania since 1997, became president and CEO of Mitsubishi Motors Europe on October 1.

The Japanese automaker is working aggressively to make good on its turnaround program. In Europe, it is pursuing aggressive cost reductions through a sweeping organizational realignment, promoting sales by reshaping its model line in accordance with a long-range product strategy, and strengthening its local production capabilities with an eye to breaking into the black by the fiscal year that begins in April 2003.
Jacoby has extensive experience in the markets of North America and Asia, including Japan, as well as Europe. Born in Germany in 1958, he joined Volkswagen in 1985 after earning an MBA degree from the University of Cologne. Management at Mitsubishi Motors identified him as the individual best equipped to lead their company's turnaround in the European market.

The German prepares to steer the three-diamond automaker to a turnaround in Europe.

Mitsubishi Electric, Japan's largest supplier of elevators and escalators, has begun selling small elevators in Japan through the Internet. Home builders in Japan have been able to order lifts for houses from the company since January 2001. The success of that service prompted the company to start marketing four-passenger elevators for small commercial and residential buildings.
Initially, Mitsubishi Electric restricted its online elevator marketing to contractors. But it since has made the service available to building owners. The company projects sales of about 100 elevators a year through the online service.

Going up?

Mitsubishi Corporation joined a project in summer 2001 for cultivating sesame in Thailand. Its partners in the project are Thailand's largest producer of consumer products, the Saha Group; a leading Japanese producer of sesame, Katagi Foods; the Thai Ministry of Agriculture; and Thailand's Kasetsart University

The partners will cultivate a variety of black sesame, KU-18, developed at Kasetsart University. Trial cultivation by 31 farm households in Thailand has verified the commercial potential of KU-18 as a flavorful grain and robust crop. Researchers at Kasetsart University also are developing improved varieties of white sesame. And Mitsubishi Corporation and its partners plan to add white sesame to their cultivation portfolio when development work is complete.
Sesame production is the latest step in wide-ranging cooperation between Mitsubishi Corporation and the Saha Group, which comprises some 300 companies. Mitsubishi Corporation acquired an approximately 5% interest in the holding company of the Saha Group in 1998 and began formal collaboration. In the collaboration, Mitsubishi Corporation will introduce new products into the Thai market, it will study the potential for upgrading products handled by the Saha Group and marketing them in Japan and other nations, and it will furnish the Saha Group with expertise in supply chain management.
In the sesame project, Kasetsart University and the Ministry of Agriculture handle the technical aspects of cultivation and harvesting. The Saha Group supplies the seed, fertilizer, and land. Mitsubishi Corporation coordinates the overall project and helps with logistics.

How about a sesame-seed bagel?

Mitsubishi Corporation senior executive vice president Kanji Yamaguchi (third from right) and Katagi Foods president Seiji Katagi (second from right) meet with Saha Group chairman Boonsithi Chokwatana (center) and government, academic, and corporate representatives to conclude their agreement.

Dai Nippon Toryo recently began marketing a water-based paint that is astounding contractors and the public with its soft and silky finish on indoor and outdoor surfaces. The new paint, HYMEL, adheres well to metal and wood surfaces and resists scratching and soiling. Most important, the water-based composition makes HYMEL largely harmless to the environment. Dai Nippon Toryo employs a polymer component that gives the paint surface a two-layer structure: hard and durable on the outside and soft and continuously adherent on the inside.
Another new product from Dai Nippon Toryo gives corrugated metal roofs a lasting, attractive finish. The product, ROOVEN, includes an epoxy-based paint for undercoats and a silicon resin-based paint for outer coating.

HYMEL (left) and ROOVEN reinforce Dai Nippon Toryo's strengths in strategic sectors of the paint market.


Asahi Glass, Japan's largest glass manufacturer, has begun outsourcing its data processing to another Mitsubishi company, IT Frontier. All 55 employees in Asahi Glass's information systems center have moved to new quarters at IT Frontier. They retain their employment links to Asahi Glass but manage its data processing through IT Frontier's advanced systems in cooperation with engineers at their host company. Specialized capabilities in information management are crucial to competitiveness in global markets. Asahi Glass has strengthened its global competitiveness by tapping the highly sophisticated strengths available at IT Frontier. Mitsubishi Corporation created IT Frontier in April 2001 by combining five subsidiaries that each specialized in different sectors of information technology (Mitsubishi Monitor, April/May 2001).

Tokio Marine has reshaped Japan's property and casualty insurance industry in recent years through bold corporate tie-ups and innovative product development. Its Millea Group will be the nation's first organization to provide both property and casualty insurance and life insurance on a large scale.

The initial pillar of the Millea Group is a new holding company announced recently by Tokio Marine and another large property and casualty insurer, Nichido Fire and Marine. Millea Holdings, as the new company will be known, will begin operation in April 2002. It will own 100% of Tokio Marine and Nichido. A new listing by Millea Holdings on the Tokyo Stock Exchange will replace the listings of the two founding companies. The holding company also will list its shares on the NASDAQ market in the United States. Another property and casualty insurer and a large life insurer are preparing to join the Millea Group by 2004.
Tokio Marine and Nichido accompanied the announcement of their holding company with news of an important new product. The two companies have developed Japan's first hybrid insurance product that integrates automobile insurance, casualty insurance, property insurance, and life insurance in a single policy. Equally important, the new product is flexibly adaptable to changing needs during the lifespans of policyholders. It exemplifies the new possibilities that the members of the Millea Group will cultivate together.

Tokyo marine president Kunio Ishihara
explains his company's new product.


Meiji Life, a Mitsubishi company and a Japanese pioneer in life insurance, continues to expand its presence on the Internet. The company began marketing life insurance on the Internet in 1999. But customers made the premium payments through traditional channels, such as bank transfers. Now, Meiji Life has begun accepting the initial premiums directly over the Internet. The new payment format is the result of cooperation with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. Meiji Life has adopted the bank's e-Payment service to offer customers the convenience of safe online transfers of funds. All four of the main financial institutions among the Mitsubishi companies--including Tokio Marine and Mitsubishi Trust and Banking, as well as Meiji Life and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi--have agreed to step up their cooperation. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Mitsubishi Trust have placed their operations under a common holding company, Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group. The online cooperation with Meiji Life signifies a continuing, shared commitment to mutually beneficial cooperation.

Automotive transport for today, for tomorrow, and for the future were the themes of the Mitsubishi Motors' exhibits at the Tokyo Motor Show in October and November. Four concept models highlighted possibilities down the road. Highlighting Mitsubishi Motors' competitive edge in automotive technology for today were vehicles that have won international rallies.
Also on display were specially configured Mitsubishi Motors vehicles for accommodating people in wheelchairs. Of course, the automaker displayed its line of standard passenger vehicles. (Its trucks and other commercial vehicles were on display at last year's Tokyo Motor Show, which now alternates annually between passenger and commercial vehicles.)
Supervising the creation of the concept cars was Olivier Boulay, who Mitsubishi Motors recruited from DaimlerChrysler in 2001 to head its Design Office. His concept models comprised two that could become production vehicles soon, the CZ-2 and the CZ-3 Tarmac, and two models that hinted at long-range directions, the S.U.P. (Sport Utility Pack) and the Space Liner.

The wraps come off the CZ-3 Tarmac at the Tokyo Motor Show. Mitsubishi Motors designers characterize this concept car as a "sports feeling" compact vehicle. It incorporates some of the performance and cockpit features that the automaker has refined in international rally competition.

Equipment from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for Belgian Nuclear Power

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has won the contract to supply two steam generators to a nuclear power plant in Belgium. The company has supplied equipment to some 30 nuclear power plants outside Japan.

Arkansas-based ETA, which operates seven warehouses in the United States and one in Mexico, will become part of NYK Line's global logistics network. NYK Line agreed in September to acquire the U.S. company.

Mitsubishi sold its one millionth vehicle equipped with a gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine in September. The automaker introduced the fuel-saving engines in 1996.

A new algorithm developed by Mitsubishi Research Institute will help optimize the operation of large electric power grids. The algorithm, which employs massively parallel, nonlinear computing, will be valuable in managing supply and demand as Japan deregulates its power industry.