World Scope

Nikon has won an iF DESIGN AWARD 2020 in the product discipline for its fundus camera “RetinaStation”. The iF DESIGN AWARD is a globally prestigious design award sponsored by iF International Forum Design GmbH since 1953. The iF DESIGN AWARD comprises several disciplines including product, communication, and packaging. This year, 7,298 entries from 56 countries and regions were evaluated by renowned experts.
   RetinaStation is a device that can take fully-automatic fundus images and support diagnosis of various eye diseases such as glaucoma, pigmentary degeneration of the retina, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.

Turboden S.p.A of Italy, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) group, has concluded a contract to provide an 8,000kw power generation system to the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC), representing nine Indigenous First Nations in Saskatchewan, Canada. Turboden’s own binary cycle power generation system has as its core component an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbine and uses biomass fuel derived from residual wood waste from an adjacent MLTC-owned sawmill. The system is expected to produce enough carbon neutral baseload electricity to power approximately 5,000 homes, improving the environmental and economic sustainability of the area and contributing to an improvement in local air quality.

Mitsubishi Materials (MMC) group of companies has its roots in metal and coal mining. Supplying mines on outlying islands with fresh water was a burdensome task, either having to ship it from nearby shores or collecting rainwater. The company started to use seawater in the Takashima Coal Mine, Nagasaki Prefecture, in its boilers in 1886, producing distilled water as well as salt as by-products; and the salt-making operations have continued to supply the region with drinking water. Since 2012, MMC group company Diasalt Corporation based in Saikai, Nagasaki Prefecture, has run hands-on seminars using seawater to show children how much fun science can be. Last year, the seminar taught the children how to make tofu and colorful artificial salmon roe from bittern (a hypersaline solution of salts).

NYK Line (NYK) and its partners Bolloré Africa Logistics (Bolloré) and Toyota Tsusho Corporation have signed an agreement with the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone to set up and operate Egypt’s first dedicated automotive roll-on/ roll-off (RORO) terminal at East Port Said to meet future growth in demand. The skill and expertise that NYK has gained in its automotive transportation and terminal operations throughout the world, the knowledge and experience that Bolloré has accumulated through its port operations in Africa and the know-how that Toyota Tsusho has acquired in a wide range of businesses inside Egypt will be utilized together to provide a high-quality service.

Mitsubishi Research Institute envisions the desirable world in 2050 as an “affluent and sustainable” world. To achieve this world, it argues that it is imperative to reach multilateral consensus among countries that share common interests including free and open trade and economic systems, and approaches to climate change. The document identifies six major trends, as shown in the figure below, that will affect the world through 2050. It explains that the emergence of the digital and platform economy will serve as a wellspring of new growth as it permeates the business sector and personal life. The report also calls for a society in which individuals are able to choose the kind of life they want to live from a variety of options, and for government and business to invest in reforms and in a future that will allow people to enjoy a high-quality life span of 100 years or more.

Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance has entered a tieup with UK company Tractable Ltd., a leader in computer vision technology, and has started trials in the use of AI solution to process auto damage as of April 2020. Looking at photos of car damage, Tractable’s AI analyses the severity of every damage and shares the most suitable repair operations and the labour hours required. The AI then compares its own repair decisions with the repairer’s estimate and flags any potential inaccuracies. The solution guides the claim process to ensure each claim is settled as quickly as possible.