Search Results for: japan

BY KARRYN MILLER

A STROLL through Myeong-dong, one of Seoul’s busiest shopping districts, gives a good idea of the magnitude of the popularity of South Korea’s cosmetics and skincare industry: according to the Korea Tourism Organisation there are approximately 1,000 cosmetic shops and hundreds of skincare stores within this small quadrant, alone.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

JAPAN is set to place stricter limits on the maximum levels of radiation in meat products sold for human consumption to Japanese consumers from April 1.

Under the revisions, the limit on permissible traces of radioactive caesium will be set at 100 becquerels (bq) per kilogram for meat products.…

BY JAMES FULLER

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) executive, the European Commission is trying to defeat criticism of a multilateral treaty opposing counterfeiting through a high stakes legal manoeuvre, with officials saying the outcome is of critical importance to Europe’s powerful auto sector.…

BY MARTIN FOSTER, IN TOKYO

AN AMERICAN government minister told a Tokyo-based seminar on the strategic implications of shortages in rare earth that consumer nations faced the need to reduce and over the near to medium term.

US energy secretary Steven Chu said that in the short term it is important to develop technologies to reduce rare earth use, and that rare earth elements should be "used as sparingly as you can."…

BY KARRYN MILLER

IF any two countries could be deemed vulnerable to Chinese dominance of rare earth supplies, it surely has to be east Asia’s high tech exporters par excellence Japan and South Korea. From smart phones to electric cars, these two Asian nations continue to drive technology forward, but with rare earths an essential component of many electronic goods, these Tokyo and Seoul are scanning the region for new sources of these key minerals.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN CANCUN

THE MEXICAN government faces an increasingly pressing need to convince the country’s parliament (Congress) and the Mexican public of the safety of nuclear power following the recent unveiling of its new national energy strategy, according to one of the country’s leading energy experts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a high level industry-public sector advisory group tasked with increasing innovation and research boosting Europe’s raw material production. This ‘European Innovation Partnership’ (EIP) on raw materials will be established this year and will organise raw material research and development projects, drawing on existing research funding budgets.…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

JAPANESE c-store chain Aeon is expanding business in Vietnam, Malaysia and smaller cities in China, last week (March 2) opening a new national headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s commercial capital. Speaking to just-food, a spokesman at the company’s Chiba, Japan, corporate-base said a new Aeon Vietnam subsidiary would control "all of our businesses in the country, including convenience stores, shopping centres and supermarkets."…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, IN BEIRUT

DESPITE much political turmoil over the course of the past year in Egypt, the country’s ongoing airport expansion projects have not been suffering. For the past decade, major expansion and renovation works have been underway, to handle the surge in foreign tourists to the North African country; which jumped from 5.5 million in 2002 to 14.7 million in 2010.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

BILATERAL trade agreements between European Union (EU) and emerging economies have helped cushion EU plastics moulders and machinery suppliers as more important domestic markets have weakened in recession and the Eurozone crisis.

It is a two-way street: lower priced machinery from China and India has made inroads into EU markets for applications requiring less technologically sophisticated kit.…