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Blockchain refers to an expanding list of blocks where each one contains records. They are secured and linked to each other using cryptography. Within each block, you will find at the most basic level a hash of the previous block, timestamp, and the transaction data.

The origins of the blockchain technology are mysterious. Legend has it that Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the bitcoin white paper, developed bitcoin, and was behind the implementation and deployment of the original bitcoin.

The largest bank in Japan wants to switch to blockchain payments in 2020. This is an aggressive move and schedule as well. If successful Japan will find itself well ahead of other nations in terms of security and digital payments.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has partnered with a US firm named Akamai to make this happen. They plan on being able to handle 1 million transactions per second. One of the issues with blockchain transactions is latency. Latency refers to the time it takes to confirm a batch of transactions on the ledger. They are planning to have latencies of less than 2 seconds. Once fully implemented, they are expected to handle 10 million transactions per second.

In 2016 the Japanese government set ambitious targets for foreign visitors as a way to generate economic growth as the population ages and shrinks. The government is on track to reach its goal of 40 million visitors by 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympics.

But the rapid growth has brought problems, most obviously a shortage of labour. Relatively few Japanese are able to converse smoothly in English or other foreign languages. Most companies rely on point-sheets, translation apps or telephone services to communicate with guests.

There are cultural barriers, too. Shizue Usui, the head of Nikko’s association of okami—female hosts at inns—says they tend to think “tradition should be maintained.” That often boils down to rigid rules about check-in, meal times and other services.

Infrastructure is also a concern. There are limited international flights to cities other than Tokyo and Osaka, and there aren’t enough lodgings available. Tokyo is reckoned to have a shortage of 3,500 hotel rooms.

There is an obvious solution to the labour shortage, at least: import more workers. But the idea is a political hot potato. If more foreigners were allowed to work, even more foreigners would be able to come as tourists.

The New Zealand company behind a landmark trial of a four-day working week has declared it a success and will be adopting the new schedule full time.

Two-hundred-and-forty staff at Perpetual Guardian, a company which manages trusts, wills and estate planning, trialled a four-day working week over March and April this year, working four, eight-hour days but getting paid for five. Staff could choose whether to opt into the four-day week, or to work five days with flexible options such as starting or finishing early to avoid traffic congestion or manage their childcare commitments.

Before the trial, just over half of staff felt they could balance their work and home commitments. After the trial this number jumped to 78%. Staff stress levels decreased by seven percentage points across the board, while stimulation, commitment and a sense of empowerment at work all improved significantly, with overall life satisfaction increasing by five percentage points. Andrew Barnes, founder of Perpetual Guardian, said, ““For us, this is about our company getting improved productivity from greater workplace efficiencies. There’s no downside for us.”

Renewable energy is set to be generating 50% of global electricity by 2050.

The New Energy Outlook (NEO) 2018 says that the continuing fall in the cost of batteries will massively increase the ability to store off-peak electricity and sell it when demand is high, which will enable renewable technologies--particularly wind and solar projects--to take an increasing share of the electricity market. 

Europe’s electricity market will be 87% renewable in Europe by 2050, while India’s will be 75% renewable, China’s 62% and 55% in the U.S., the report says.

However, U.S. President Trump’s battle to save the coal industry looks doomed, with coal-powered generation set to make up just 11% of global electricity generation by the middle of the century, down from 38% today, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

This is an op-ed—meaning it is the author's personal view—from The New York Times.

For nearly the last two decades, Japan has been held up as a cautionary tale, an object lesson on how not to run an advanced economy. After all, the island nation is the rising superpower that stumbled. And Western economists were scathing in their criticisms of Japanese policy.

In January 1990, Japan's stock market crashed. Property values fell 87%. The Bank of Japan lowered the interest rate from 6 percent to 0.5 percent by 1995, but it didn't revive the economy

These days, I often find myself thinking that we ought to apologize.

The West has, in fact, fallen into a slump similar to Japan’s—but worse. And that wasn’t supposed to happen. In the 1990s, we assumed that if the United States or Western Europe found themselves facing anything like Japan's economic slump, we would respond much more effectively than the Japanese had. But we didn't, even though we had Japan's experience to guide us.

In August, an emotional Elon Musk described how he was working so hard to keep production of the Tesla Model 3 on track that he missed his own birthday. Musk had been working 120-hour weeks, often not leaving the factory for three or four days.

Musk has long been celebrated by the business press for his work ethic. His extraordinary schedule—a long working day broken into five-minute increments, so that every second is accounted for—has been reported, approvingly, for some years now.

Historically, the boss who dedicates his life—every second of it—to corporate success has been an icon of the U.S. boardroom. Could Musk’s tearful disclosure be the moment all that changes?

Research shows that greater work effort—measured in both time and intensity—not only leads to reduced wellbeing but also worse career outcomes. In fact, intensity, measured by whether people described their job as requiring working at “very high speed” or to “tight deadlines”, was an even stronger predictor of bad outcomes than whether or not employees had to work overtime.

New Zealand hasn't been walking the talk on climate risk, finds a sweeping new analysis of hundreds of annual reports and statements.

Climate change threatens hundreds of billions of dollars of property and infrastructure, and will require an economy-wide shift toward lower emissions. However, of more than 380 large organisations analysed, just 40 recognised the risks as of serious concern—suggesting that boards either opted not to publicly disclose the implications, or didn't discuss them at all. "Both are horrific—but the latter is particularly more horrific," said Wendy McGuinness, chief executive of Wellington-based think-tank the McGuinness Institute.

She was further alarmed to find little reporting from the public sector. Nearly two-thirds of annual reports of 11 government departments—and more than three-quarters of statements from other Crown bodies and entities—did not contain even one mention of the words emissions, carbon, or climate. "That was quite surprising and disappointing to me—I expected a lot more from government," said McGuinness.

Japan's lower house on May 31 approved controversial labour reforms that the government has defended as necessary to boost the economy. But, critics warn could result in more death by overwork. The legislation would scrap hourly overtime pay for some employees, while setting overtime caps for others at an annual limit of 360 hours for normal cases, and up to 720 hours for "temporary" and "special" cases. 

The government says the measures will boost efficiency and equality, and they form a key plank of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" policy to kickstart the country's sluggish economy. The reform's key feature is letting Japan's corporate sector hire select highly paid professionals, such as currency traders and consultants, on contracts which include no overtime pay. The category only applies to those who earn at least 10.75 million yen ($100,000USD) annually, with employers required to seek the consent of professionals involved.

Abe's government argues the reforms are necessary to respond to the challenge of an ageing and shrinking population. But sceptics say they will endanger workers by allowing contracts that could include almost unlimited overtime with no extra pay, and setting overtime caps for other professions that are still too high to prevent overwork.

A pioneering project by Highview Power will turn air into liquid for energy storage to help electricity grids cope with a growing amount of wind and solar power.  

The world’s first full-scale “liquid air” plant, located in northwest England, is based on a technology that advocates say is cheaper and able to provide power for longer periods than lithium-ion batteries. The energy plant uses excess or off-peak electricity to chill air to -196C, transforming it to a liquid state to be stored inside large metal tanks. Pumping and heating is used later to turn it back to a gas, which is released to turn a turbine, generating electricity at times of need—but without burning the gas and releasing emissions.  

While relatively small at 5 megawatts (MW), compared to 50MW lithium-ion battery facilities, Highview Power said the technology could be scaled up to hundreds of megawatts.  

Gareth Brett, the company’s chief executive, said the technology could timeshift energy across the day, with the firm buying electricity when cheap and releasing it when prices are higher. “If you only want to store energy for an hour, lithium-ion is fine, but the reality is that people are looking to store excess renewable power and release it at peak times, which is usually four hours or more,” he said.