Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu. Happy New Year!

During my brief New Year’s holiday in Tokyo, I had received a “Great Good Fortune” written oracle in my neighbourhood Gokoku-ji Temple.

It was a wonderful kick-off symbol to our SJ50 (Singapore-Japan 50th Diplomatic Relations) at the beginning of this memorable year for both Singapore and Japan. (Click here to read more)

The Opening Ceremony of "Time of Others" exhibition at Singapore Art Museum was held on Nov 20th 2015. Ambassador Haruhisa Takeuchi was one of the Guest of Honour to grace this occasion. Ms Hashimoto Azusa from The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Artist Mr Shitamichi Motoyuki and Mr.Shimoyama Masaya from the Japan Foundation Asia Center were also in attendance....(Click here to read more)

JCC and Yamagata Prefecture was delighted to host a Kendama Demonstration by two Singaporean players, Mr. Muhammad Razi Bin Kasmin and Mr. Mohd Nasry Bin Jantan on Saturday 5th December 2015 as a spin-off event of Yamagata Design Exhibition. Both the players used the famous Yamagata-made Kendama for their performance. This demonstration was organised on a concluding note to the Yamagata Exhibition which was held at JCC previously....(Click here to read more)

JCC was delighted to co-organise with the Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF), in anticipation of the 50th Anniversary of Japan-Singapore Diplomatic Relations. Three Japanese films were featured from Saturday, 28th November to Saturday, 5th December 2015 namely, The Ark in the Mirage’,‘Happy Hour’ and ‘That's It’. The films were screened in National Gallery Singapore, the Projector and the Shaw Theatre.
(Click here to view more)

The annual Japan Creative Centre (JCC) Advisory Committee Meeting 2015 was held at the Embassy of Japan in Singapore on 11 December 2015, under the chairmanship of His Excellency Ambassador Haruhisa Takeuchi. Attended by His Excellency Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh and several distinguished members from both Singapore and Japanese-related organisations,  Director of JCC Ms Misako Ito briefed about the JCC activities, together with the future prospective of JCC especially with the celebration of SJ50 – The 50th Anniversary of Singapore-Japan Diplomatic Relations next year...(Click here to read more)

The Embassy of Japan in Singapore celebrated His Majesty Emperor Akihito’s 82nd Birthday on the 15th of December at Shangri-La Hotel Singapore. Minister for Social and Family Development His Excellency Tan Chuan-Jin, Members of Parliament Ms Tin Pei Ling and Mr Chong Kee Hiong, Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Lai Chung Han were among the approximately 660 distinguished guests who attended the event...
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Mr Yasuhsia Kawamura, the spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, visited Japan Creative Centre (JCC) on 14 December 2015, as part of his official tour to Singapore from 13 to 15 December 2015. Accompanied by JCC Director Ms Misako Ito, Mr Kawamura was introduced about the background, activities, milestones, as well as facilitates of the centre.

Announcements

Featured Article of the Month

Element 113, discovered by a RIKEN group led by Kosuke Morita, has become the first element on the periodic table found in Asia. Rewarding nearly a decade of painstaking work by Morita’s group, a Joint Working Party of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) has recommended that the group, from the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-based Science (RNC), be given recognition for the discovery of the new element. This news was conveyed to Dr. Morita through a letter on December 31 from IUPAC. (Click to read more)

At approximately 10:12 p.m. JST. on Dec. 11 (Fri), the Soyuz spacecraft (43S),which Astronaut Kimiya Yui aboard, landed on a snowfield in the Republic of Kazakhstan. He safely came back to the Earth.

Astronaut Yui started his expedition on the International Space Station (ISS) on July 23, 2015, and engaged in various scientific experiments including high quality protein crystallization research. In addition, he manipulated the robotic arm for capturing the ISS cargo transporter “KOUNOTORI5 (HTV5)” as the first Japanese Astronaut.Thank you very much for your support.

Astronaut Kimiya Yui: (Click to read more)

In the mid-20th century, we became able to observe space through the light of some wave lengths other than visible light through human eyes. Those invisible wave length lights include radio waves, infrared lights, and X rays. As a result, we found that various phenomena were occurring in space where we had believed nothing existed as we had not been able to observe stars until that time. The X ray is a light with a wave length emitted from the extremely high-temperature region of several million to several hundred million degrees Celsius.

For more details,. Please see the following URL. (Click to read more)

JAXA confirmed that the Asteroid Explorer “Hayabusa2” entered its target orbit to travel to an asteroid Ryugu after the Earth-swing-by on Dec. 3.

The Hayabusa2 took images of the Earth using its onboard Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic (ONC-T) after the swing-by. You can see the Australian continent and Antarctica in the image. Meteorological satellites including the Himawari cannot take images of the Antarctic area hence the shot this time is precious.

© Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

You can download the wallpapers of JAXA's rockets, transports, satellites, space probe images and the International Space Station as following site. (Click to View)

The RIKEN Venture system enables researchers to put their own world-class scientific achievements to commercial use. It contributes to industrial technology and people's everyday lives by using the new knowledge and new technologies that arise in the course of research at RIKEN on basic natural science. RIKEN Ventures aim to put scientific achievements to practical use and disseminate the fruits of research at RIKEN as quickly as possible. Concerning the List of RIKEN Ventures, .
(Click here to read more)

RIKEN Research is RIKEN's flagship English-language publication, highlighting the latest research at RIKEN labs and centers.
(Click here to view video)

Have you ever seen the inside of lithium-ion battery? Using Japanese supercomputer K, the 1st supercomputer which exceeds 10peta FLOPS in the world, scientists observed atomic-scale processes at the electrode of lithium-ion batteries, allowing them to identify a material that could improve the charging time, voltage capacity and reliability of these batteries for long-term and renewable energy storage solutions.

This video was created for outreach purpose and introduces how lithium-ion battery works and what kind of challenges the scientists are facing as well as the simulations at the molecular level of the inside of the battery.

The scientists awarded Gottfried Wagener Prize 2015 Energy & Industry.....(Click here to view video)

On December 11, 2015, the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) announced that they would commence support for 3 coordinated projects in cooperation with the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) on the topic of “Development of Fundamental Technology for Biodevices Enabling Dynamic Analysis and Control of Cells”.

This support, within the framework of JST-A*STAR Coordinated Research, will be provided as an activity of JST’s FY2015 Strategic International Collaborative Research Program (SICORP). The theme of selected projects are as follows:

(1) “Protocellular Biosensors – Bioinspired devices that mimic cellular signal transduction machinery”
(2) “New optical platform to visualize mechanics of cellular self-organization”
(3) “Near-infrared (NIR) optogenetics using up-conversion system”

(Click here to read more)

The e-ASIA JRP was launched in 2012 with the aim of contributing to economic and human resource development in East Asia, as well as the resolution of various challenges across the region, including environmental degradation, natural disasters and the spread of infectious diseases.

JST is one of the participating organizations intending to tackle these shared challenges head-on, in order to realize an innovative and robust economy and society in the East Asian region through international joint research and capacity building. ..(Click here to read more)

FNCA is a Japan-led cooperation framework for peaceful use of nuclear technology in Asia. The cooperation consists of FNCA meetings and the project activities with the participation of Australia, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

FNCA Brochure
FNCA News Letter (March 2015)

Under FNCA, view and information exchanges are made on the following fields:

1 Radiation Utilization Development

Mutation Breeding Project
Biofertilizer Project
Electron Accelerator Application Project

2 Research Reactor Utilization Development

Radiation Oncology Project

3 Nuclear Safety Strengthening

Research Reactor Network Project
Neutron Activation Analysis Project
Safety Management Systems for Nuclear Facilities Project
Radiation Safety and Radioactive Waste Management Project

4 Nuclear Infrastructure Strengthening

Human Resources Development Project
Nuclear Security and Safeguards Project

...

The Japanese Government launched in October 2013 Tobitate! (Leap for Tomorrow) Study Abroad Initiative, a public-private effort for the future of Japan. This initiative—which hopes to make Japan a nation in which all ambitious youths can go global—offers various opportunities for students to embrace the chance to study abroad.
(Click here to read more), Introduction Movie for "TOBITATE!"

MEXT has been implementing a survey to clarify the situation of the number of annual research exchanges between foreign countries and Japan’s national, public and private universities, colleges of technology and incorporated administrative agencies. The survey for FY2013 has been conducted by the Institute for Future Engineering...
(Click here to read more)