Transportation

Businesses in Tokyo are continuing to look for ways to get foreign visitors to spend their time and cash on the capital’s wide-ranging nightlife options. Travel agencies are arranging special events for foreign tourists such as taiko (drum) performances, while some hotels are extending the business hours of their restaurants to allow guests to socialize into the early hours.

In January (2018), the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said it planned to survey foreign tourists on what they enjoy about the capital’s nightlife, including restaurants, theaters and sporting events, to better cater to their interests and encourage spending.

All of Norway’s short-haul airliners should be entirely electric by 2040, the country’s airport operator said on Wednesday, cementing the Nordic nation’s role as a pioneer in the field of electric transport.

“We think that all flights lasting up to 1.5 hours can be flown by aircraft that are entirely electric,” chief executive Dag Falk-Petersen said, noting that would cover all domestic flights and those to neighbouring Scandinavian capitals.

By market share, Norway has more electric cars on the road than any other country in the world and also has several projects underway for electric ships.

According to official statistics, air transport accounts for 2.4% of Norwegian greenhouse gas emissions for domestic traffic, and more than double that when international routes are included.

Electric air travel will also at least halve noise levels and the operating cost of aircraft, Falk-Petersen said.

Japanese Transport Minister Keiichi Ishii said on Friday that unauthorized technicians had been found certifying vehicles at five Nissan plants that the ministry has been inspecting.

The unauthorized technicians included contract workers, Ishii told a news conference.

"It's extremely regrettable, causing anxiety for users and shaking the foundation of the certification system," he said.

Nissan has decided to recall all 1.2 million new passenger cars it sold in Japan over the past three years after discovering final vehicle inspections were not performed by authorized technicians.

In 2013, Volvo announced a potentially revolutionary approach to designing electric vehicles (EVs). It wanted to replace some of the steel body panels in its cars with carbon fiber composite materials that can store power like a battery.

The rechargeable panels would be composed of multiple layers of carbon fiber, which are insulated from each other by fiberglass inserts. The result is a structural component that can be charged like the battery.

Though this new design would reduce weight problems associated with rechargeable car batteries, it was not without its problems. In the event that the car crashes, emergency crews would essentially be trying to fish someone out of a giant damaged battery. The cost of carbon fiber was also quite high. Due to these issues, Volvo decided not to mass produce its new cars.

Japanese automotive giant Toyota has made a strategic investment in South East Asia taxi-hailing service Grab.

Grab, which competes with Uber, announced on Wednesday that Toyota is investing in a $2 billion (£1.6 billion) plus funding round that was announced in July. Other investors in the round include Japanese tech firm SoftBank and its Chinese equivalent, Didi Chuxing.

Grab—which currently offers services in 87 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar—has raised around $3.5 billion (£2.7 billion), according to Crunchbase.

Japan began introducing bilingual traffic signs on Saturday as the number of foreign visitors increases ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

By the time the games open, about 35,000 of the 140,000 stop signs in the capital will have been replaced with ones in both Japanese and English near the Olympic venues and in other areas, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

Along with the new stop signs, bilingual slow-down signs will also be introduced.

There are roughly 1.7 million stop signs and 1,000 slow-down signs in Japan, according to the National Police Agency.

In 2016, the number of foreign visitors hit a record 24 million. Against this backdrop, the agency has decided to change the signs to make them easier to understand for foreign travelers.

Priority is likely to be given to tourist destinations as well as areas around airports where many visitors rent cars.