Technology

Fasten your seatbelts for a flight departing to Paris—and never leave the ground.

That’s exactly what 12 passengers did at First Airlines in central Tokyo this week, where they relaxed in first and business-class seats and were served four-course dinners, before immersing themselves in 360-degree virtual reality (VR) tours of the City of Light’s sights.

“A real trip is a hassle to prepare for, and expensive, and takes time. So I think it is good that we can enjoy all this hassle-free,” said Takashi Sakano, 39, who was on his first VR trip, adding that he wanted to try Rome next time.

At 6,600 yen ($62), a fraction of the cost of an actual trip overseas, it’s easy to see why First Airline’s two-hour “flights” to Paris, Rome, Hawaii and New York have been fully booked since the company opened in 2016.

A "rant" is passionate, typically angry, speech or writing about a particular topic.

The topic of this rant from 2013 is the failure of marketing schools to prepare students for the new internet-based marketing industry. 

Take a deep breath and try to read as emphatically as you can.
—
"Unfortunately, the curriculum taught in today’s universities does not reflect the social media reality. Not one résumé from a 2013 marketing graduate on my desk contains a single social media account, blog or website URL. These are bare-minimum requirements to work as a marketer today. When asked, every candidate has openly admitted that they don’t read any blogs.

"The interview process proved what the résumés hinted at—that today’s marketing graduates have virtually zero Internet marketing training or knowledge. 

Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday it will develop “connected cars” jointly with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to offer online services to drivers.

Together with the Chinese e-commerce giant, Japan’s third-largest automaker by volume will aim to launch online payments for fuel, parking and other services in China through the jointly developed vehicles.

Global automakers are focusing on connected cars with internet access to provide drivers with online payments, shared traffic information and other advanced services.

Honda is hoping to attract more customers in China, the world’s biggest auto market, through the tie-up.

Japan’s biggest banks are racing to adapt to changing business conditions amid the shrinking population and spread of online banking.

Many have laid out plans to downsize their workforce and massive network of branches while investing in “fintech”—technological innovation in the financial sector—to streamline their operations and make banking more convenient for their customers.

Mitsubishi UFJ plans to trim 6,000 jobs from the unit’s domestic workforce of 40,000 by the end of fiscal year 2023.

Group CEO Nobuyuki Hirano said he does not foresee layoffs but instead plans to do this “organically” by keeping the number of new hires down as staff taken on in bulk in the run-up to and during the late-1980s asset bubble economy gradually reach the age of retirement.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman R.S. Sharma has called for the Internet being kept open and free, and not cannibalised.

“No one owns the Internet... so, it should be open and accessible to everyone,” Mr. Sharma said, suggesting that service providers should not indulge in gate-keeping of this important platform.

The TRAI issued the much-awaited recommendations on Net neutrality and has sought to bar service providers from any discriminatory practice on Internet access.

Mr. Sharma said the Internet was an important platform for the country, especially in the context of innovation, start-ups, online transactions, government applications and the Digital India program. “So, it is important that the platform is kept open and free and not cannibalised,” Mr. Sharma said.

In a global study of IT security architecture, IT practitioners from Japan (79%) and Canada (74%) are the most concerned about millennials in the workplace posing a significant risk to security.

As the world’s first “connected” generation, millennials are hyperactive on their mobile devices, using apps and social media platforms for both personal and professional purposes. 

There are far too many stories of employees saving private information on their laptops and USBs only to have the devices stolen, leaking confidential information out into the world. Business leaders are urged to enforce strategies and policies that ensure all employees are keeping confidential company information safe.

The world will need "carbon sucking" technology by 2030s, scientists warn.

As efforts to cut planet-warming emissions fall short, large-scale projects to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere will be needed by the 2030s to hold the line against climate change, scientists have said.

“If you’re really concerned about coral reefs, biodiversity [and] food production in very poor regions, we’re going to have to deploy negative emission technology at scale,” said Bill Hare of Climate Analytics, a science and policy institute.

World leaders agreed in 2015 an aim of holding global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial times in order to protect small island nations from sea level rises, shore up food production and prevent extreme weather.

On Wednesday, Melinda Gates joined LinkedIn (now owned by Microsoft) and penned her first column about changing the high-pressure culture.

She writes that in fact technology has made it harder to pull away from our jobs, and easier to wonder whether a night off or a long weekend is damaging our careers.

The result is a work ethic that hurts everyone. When companies demand that employees work themselves into the ground, those that want to balance career with family life lean out. Some of them leave the corporate world altogether, which limits diversity.

And those who stay are less productive. They have to dedicate so much energy to simply keeping their heads above water, instead of thinking of ways to create more value.

A number of Japanese banks are set to launch a new national digital currency in a bid to wean citizens off cash, the Financial Times reports.

The FT says that a consortium led by Mizuho Financial Group and Japan Post Bank plan to launch the new digital currency in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The new project, which has the support of Japan's central bank and regulators, aims to develop technology to allow Japanese people to pay for goods and services with their smartphone.

Cash currently represents 70% of all transactions by value in Japan but such a heavy cash dependency incurs costs for banks and governments. Banks must pay to handle, transport, and audit large amounts of cash, while governments risk losing tax revenue to undocumented cash-in-hand work or black market transactions.