Tour Report from Frank Ling (Guide Staff)

January 28, 2009 | Staff Essay

Frank Ling

Group Tour1
In the first tour, we were joined by two participants from the US embassy, two students from Switzerland and an investor from Singapore. Our tour began with an introduction through at the 10th anniversary display on Japan’s vision for Low Carbon Society.

The first booth started at METI where we discussed Japan’s efforts to invest in energy efficiency and energy production through the development of industrial technologies. The next stop was NEDO, highlighting uniquely designed wind turbine “Air Dolphin” from Zepher. Next, the group visited the Ricoh booth where we saw their paper replacement. The embassy official was quite impressed with the demonstration of the disappearing image from the heat treated plastic film.

After passing by the Casio boothsakam (cardboard based booth), we went for a tour through the Inkmax.

The next section Oji highlighted new technologies in paper recycling. There were samples showing the difference between 100% recycling paper and brand new paper.

The next stop was the Kuraray and their water purification technology. In the near future, water issues will be as important as energy issues and there will be a lot of demand for water purification and remediation technologies.

We briefly passed by the Eco-lab plaza to show how Japanese companies to improved in efficiency in their home electronics and appliances. The end uses comprise up to 30-40% of all energy use in homes and could be reduced by up to 50% depending on the innovations being employed.

Next, we visited the JFS booth on the other side of the hall.

Group Tour 2
This tour started at the 10th anniversary booth but unlike yesterday’s tour, we went around the opposite direction.

First, we went to JFS and then to SMBC.
Then, we looked at the Sekisui house and then because of interest in architecture, we stopped by the demonstration on the moss for rooftops as a cooling mechanism for buildings.

Next, we headed to the opposite side of the hall where we checked out the Eco-Labs section first. Then, we went by the bioplastics booth, which described plastics being made from rice.

We went by the paper recycling demo and then briefly stopped by InkMax. Finally, we saw the Ricoh booth and then NEDO’s air dolphin wind turbine.

Individual Tour 1
Participant was interested in catalytic material produced by Mitsubishi materials. He was interested in building materials that could break down NOx pollutants and had a potential licensee in China. Afterwards, we discussed investment opportunities in cleantech. We concluded that there is great potential for Japan to license its technologies.

Individual Tour 2
From tour 2, participant was journalist from publishing company. We examined some from the highlights from the group tours including JFS, building materials, InkMax, and Ricoh as well as Fuji Xerox.