The Knowledge to Decide

Toyota has invented cars powered by human waste. In Fukuoka, Japan, a wastewater treatment plant converts human waste into hydrogen to fuel Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell car – the Mirai. The Fukuoka plant’s current capacity of 300 kg of hydrogen in a day is adequate to run 65 Mirai vehicles. Using wastewater is one of the most eco-friendly methods to make hydrogen, especially for big cities that produce a lot of sewage. In comparison to electric battery cars, hydrogen vehicles may be more effective in convincing consumers to give up their petroleum or gasoline-run vehicles as they function in similar ways. Will tomorrow’s cars run on hydrogen drawn from human waste? https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/human-waste-to-power-fuel-cell-cars/

On 28 September, Spire and Yamada Business Consulting (YBC) jointly held a breakfast seminar in Singapore to discuss emerging business opportunities in Asia facing Japanese firms. Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, Japnit Singh, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Spire; Yasuyuki (Luke) Kita, General Manager of YBC (Singapore) and Takuya Makimura, Manager of YBC (Singapore), addressed the session. Spire Singapore and YBC discussed emerging business opportunities in Asia for Japan Regional HQs. Seminar attendees, who were senior executives in Japanese, heard about how the Asian market can contribute substantially to the revenue of Japanese companies with regional headquarters in Singapore. The speakers talked about under-appreciated opportunities in Asia for Japanese companies. E-commerce will be an important pathway to access markets in Indonesia and India where complex channel structures have often proved forbidding to Japanese investors

On 23 September, Spire and Yamada Business Consulting (YBC) jointly held a breakfast seminar in Singapore to shed light on business opportunities in today’s dynamic Japan. Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, Japnit Singh, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Spire and Yasuyuki (Luke) Kita, General Manager of YBC (Singapore), addressed the session. Yamada Business Consulting recently acquired an 80% stake in the Spire Research and Consulting group. This acquisition gives Spire access to YBC’s extensive network of 5 offices and over 400 consultants in Japan to conduct research and advise clients on Japan market entry and growth. Spire Singapore and YBC discussed emerging business opportunities in Asia for Japan Regional HQs. Seminar attendees heard about how the Japan market can contribute substantially to the revenue of Singapore-based companies. The speakers talked about the macro-factors buoying Japan’s economic growth while also highlig

The Spire Research and Consulting Group is proud to announce its merger with   Yamada Business Consulting Co., Ltd.   or YBC – one of the five largest management consulting firms in Japan and a publicly listed firm on JASDAQ, the second board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. YBC is part of the Yamada Consulting group, which has over 1,200 staff across 12 offices in Japan. With this merger, YBC will use Spire as its global brand outside of Japan. On 15 April 2016, YBC acquired an 80 per cent stake in Spire Research and Consulting Pte Ltd, the Singapore parent company for the Spire Research and Consulting group of companies. Leon Perera, the co-founder of Spire, will continue to serve as the CEO of the group, retaining a 20 per cent stake. Equiteq has been the exclusive financial adviser to Spire in the completion of this transaction. The merger makes Spire part of a much larger and publicly listed corporate group, which is expected to create better access to new consulting solutio

Japan has emerged as an attractive tourist destination. The weaker yen and hassle-free visa application from some countries continue to drive tourism. The country is even on track to surpass its record of 13.4 million tourist arrivals in 2014 this year. Japan aspires to attract 20 million visitors by 2020 as Tokyo plays Olympics host. The rising tourist influx has become a cause for concern due to a hotel crunch. Japan’s answer to this is the conversion of office buildings into hotels to save high construction costs. For instance, B-lot – a 28-year-old office building in Tokyo – has been converted to a hotel called First Cabin. Here a “business-class cabin” with a single bed costs about USD46. The idea is still in its infancy, but the potential lies in major cities where hotel demand is strong. This is evident, as the lowest-ranked business rooms in Tokyo have seen a rise of 11.7% in cost since 2014. Will conversion of offices into hotel rooms help achieve Japan’s 20

Japanese women are increasingly pursuing professional aspirations but are being held back by rigid social norms that discourage mothers from working. However, as Japan realizes the important contribution that women can make to employment and innovation, social norms may be slowly changing. Is there a pathway to gender parity in Japan’s workplace? Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting, shared his thoughts on Huffington Post, Japan – a globally acclaimed news portal. Only 10% of senior managerial positions are occupied by women, which is low when compared to comparable figures for the United States (42%) and France (38%). As in many other countries, women in Japan are often made to choose between their professional and personal lives in a way that men are not. Work-life balance is hard to sustain when they single-handedly take care of household responsibilities. Perera opined that Japan needs to overcome its societal norms about gender so as to b

European investors are showing keen interest in railway projects in the Middle East and North Africa – estimated to be worth USD300 billion. The Middle East’s market for railway equipment has been largely dominated by European producers of railway cars and facilities. Chinese investors are not far behind. Japan, on the other hand, continues to lag. Although the Japanese are far more advanced in railway technology, their success in winning railway projects abroad is poor, reflecting the preference of many Japanese companies to choose projects only in Asian markets. Qatar presents an up-and-coming test case. To host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar will need four lines covering Greater Doha. Japanese vendors are vying for the project. One advantage the Japanese now have is the weaker Yen versus the US dollar and Euro. Will Japan be able to harness the First Arrow of Abe-nomics to gain railway market share in the Middle-East and globally? https://www.spireresearch.com

Japan’s telecom giant SoftBank is eyeing opportunities to expand in South Asia. With its recent investment of USD627 million into Snapdeal – an Indian e-commerce firm – Softbank becomes its largest shareholder. It is one of the largest investments ever made by a single investor in an Indian e-commerce company. Flipkart, another Indian e-commerce player, has also received foreign investment. Does this mark the start of an investment spree? Leon Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Spire Research and Consulting shared his insights on the implications of these investments in Japan’s Diamond Magazine. Softbank is a Japanese internet and telco behemoth. It is listed under 33 industries classification on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Recent financial profits for Softbank’s Q2 2014 touched JPY560.7 billion in terms of net income. Softbank recently acquired the number three mobile service provider in the US – Sprint Corp – for USD21.6 billion. It has one third of shares in Chinese e-commerce g

India remains a desirable investment destination for Japanese companies. Today, over a thousand Japanese companies operate in India, versus 550 in 2008. Despite the fascination with India, what challenges do Japanese companies face as they grow their India operations? Miyuki Morozumi, Director of Japanese Client Service of Spire Research and Consulting, shared her views in Thik Hai Magazine, a leading periodical of the Japanese community in India. Japanese companies are clearly adopting a more aggressive stance in entering the India market. Morozumi remarked that the National Capital Region (NCR) in particular has been a magnet for Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) into India. Out of the 1,804 Japanese companies located in India, approximately 29% of them (517) were located within this region as at November 2012. She observed that Japanese investment in India is largely focused on manufacturing, with industrial and automotive production concentrated in the South. Howev

Imagine a 25,000 square foot factory farm that produces 10,000 heads of lettuce per day. Shigeharu Shimamura’s indoor farm in Japan boasts of being the largest of its kind in the world. Indoor farms consume less water than outdoor farms as they do not lose water by percolation into the soil. This cuts  food  waste as well. Nor are indoor crops threatened by pests or inclement weather. The indoor farm uses vertically-stacked racks in a pest-free environment using LED lights. A conventional agricultural setting results in more than 30% of lettuce being wasted whereas Shimamura boasts of only 3% wastage. That’s a big deal, with over 1.4 billion tons of global  food  wastage every year. Shimamura and his Mira Company plan to set up indoor farming factories in Hong Kong and Russia to support  food  production on a global scale. In early 2014, a unit of Japan’s famous Panasonic Corp started growing ten types of vegetables in one of its factory buildings in Singapore. It curre

Japan’s Goods and Services Tax – otherwise known as Consumption Tax – was raised from 5% in 1997 to 8% in April 2014. It is set to further increase to 10% in October 2015. This decision was taken to help support higher fiscal expenditures linked to Japan’s ageing population, while also helping to trim the  government’s  debt. The effect of the revised tax rate cannot be ignored. Retail sales in April 2014 declined by 4.4%, exceeding the consensus forecast of 3.3% – the biggest decline since the Tohoku earthquake of 2011. Nonetheless, there are a few positives. Corporate orders for machinery have been on the rise since March 2014. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) also rose higher than expected at 5.9% annually in Q1 2014 – the fastest pace recorded in over three years. https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/spirethoughts/will-the-consumption-tax-hike-in-japan-throw-the-country-off-its-growth-path/