Transcript

Hello and welcome to today’s news from TotemoTech on September 3rd, 2023. In today’s news, Rapidus, a semiconductor company, held a groundbreaking ceremony for its factory in Hokkaido. The event was attended by CEOs of semiconductor manufacturing companies, including imec from Belgium, Lam Research, and Applied Materials from the United States. This marks the beginning of Rapidus’ semiconductor cluster formation in Hokkaido.

In related news, imec and Lam Research have announced plans to establish their Japan bases in Hokkaido. This further strengthens the semiconductor cluster in the region. Rapidus’ factory construction in Hokkaido has led to the formation of a semiconductor hub.

Moving on, the former director of the Personal Information Protection Commission, Mari Sono, has been appointed as a consultant to the Digital Agency. This appointment aims to enhance the agency’s privacy protection measures in response to recent issues regarding the mishandling of personal information.

In other news, Shimadzu Corporation has released the ‘MAP-100,’ an automatic pre-processing device for microplastics. This device streamlines the pre-processing required for microplastic analysis.

Shifting gears, major cloud vendors are now competing in the development platform space for customer companies to incorporate generative AI into their services. The focus has shifted from the performance of large language models to the competition of development platforms for integrating generative AI.

Additionally, the Digital Agency has revealed its budget request for the fiscal year 2024, amounting to 581.9 billion yen. This represents an increase of 86.8 billion yen compared to the previous year’s budget. The requested funds will be allocated to various areas, including the expansion of services related to the My Number system.

Lastly, BYD, a Chinese company, has showcased its small electric vehicle, the ‘DOLPHIN.’ This compact EV is positioned as a practical option for urban commuting, with impressive performance, quality, and packaging. The DOLPHIN is set to be released in Japan on September 20th.

That’s all for today’s news. Thank you for tuning in to TotemoTech. Stay tuned for more updates on the latest tech developments. And that’s all for today’s news. Thanks for listening to TotemoTech.

Keywords - japan, tech, news