- Nihon Shinbun Kyokai
- NSK News Bulletin
- NSK News Bulletin August 2012
NSK News Bulletin August 2012
Record 58 firms, organizations set to exhibit at JANPS 2012
A record 58 companies and organizations are due to exhibit at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center Nov. 27-29, for the 21st Japan Newspaper Production Show – JANPS 2012 . The event is being held under NSK’s auspices with the backing of the Conference for Newspaper Production Technique (CONPT-Japan).
The participants, especially manufacturers of newspaper printing machines and production equipment, will be exhibiting their latest products and services. All five national newspapers based in Tokyo will also take part in this year’s show, along with several university laboratories. The theme of the event is “Reading and Watching Bring News, Newspaper Technology Innovates News”
Noriyuki Shiba, president of CONPT-Japan and advisor to Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho, Ltd. (TKS), a leading printing-press maker, said, “Digitalization is moving ahead in each segment of the newspaper production process – from the upper stream (page-making) to the lower (printing). Each participating manufacturer is expected to exhibit products that conform to this trend.”
For example, TKS is to show the JETLEADER, its latest digital newspaper-printing machine, which economizes on resources by eliminating the need for printing plates. The JETLEADER was shown this past May at DRUPA the international print media fair in Dusseldorf, Germany, where it won positive reviews.
At the last JANPS, which was held in 2009, the Sankei Shimbun became the first newspaper company to participate in the fair as an exhibitor. At this year’s fair, Sankei will be joined by all four of the other Tokyo-based major newspaper companies – the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei).
The Asahi will be showing its color proofing system (due to be used by the Asahi and by the Chunichi Shimbun) to demonstrate how the system achieves a balance between outstanding quality and cost performance. The Asahi will also demonstrate how iPads and other digital devices are being used to read its online edition, “Asahi Digital.”
The Mainichi’s exhibits will showcase its new editorial materials-management system “Minerva,” which it introduced last year, as well as its distribution management system and its new digital media “TAP-i,” technology, which it launched in May of this year. The Mainichi will also be showing its “Mainichi Font,” a typographical family, which the company has developed for public sale.
The Yomiuri is to exhibit its project to integrate CTP (computer-to-plate) servers, which are located at each of its printing factories, with related interfaces. The Yomiuri is also to demonstrate its project to virtualize a desktop via which editing terminals are to be made location-independent, via dedicated servers.
The Nikkei plans to showcase its electronic editions, as well as its ecological advanced power-saving systems for printing processes. It will also display the system it uses for its consignment printing of the British business daily “The Financial Times” and other newspapers.
The Sankei will show its “ASURA” newspaper production system, which won an NSK Award last year by bringing key terminals for the system right into the fair venue.
A noteworthy new feature of this year’s JANPS will be the participation of several universities.
Three laboratories from the Graduate School of Advanced Integration Science, based at Chiba University, will show off their research on themes including the development of next-generation electronic paper and photopolymer substances as materials for ultraviolet (UV) ink.
The Display Technology and Design Laboratory of Tokyo Polytechnic University will also exhibit new luminescent materials that gleam when printed on a specially developed flat film.
The Ergonomic Design Laboratory of Tokyo Denki University will exhibit the outcomes of its research on easy-to-read newspaper designs and resolutions for users of digital devices.
White Paper: Smartphones to Boost Economy by ¥7 Trillion a Year
Smartphones will boost the Japanese economy by an estimated ¥7.2 trillion per year and create 338,000 new jobs, according to a government white paper.
The estimate is contained in the White Paper on Information and Communications in Japan, released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on July 17.
Cited as grounds for that estimate are the increase in sales of digital newspapers and books, the growing utilization of online music and video distribution services, and the increase in advertising targeting cellphone users, as well as other factors.
The annual report also includes a behavioral analysis of the Japanese people at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, to assess which sources of information people rely upon for needed information in times of crisis.
According to the white paper, television was the most commonly used source for disaster-related information. However, newspapers were also used and were regarded as the most reliable source of information when it came to specific issues that required expert knowledge on subjects such as “nuclear accidents” and “food safety,” according to the report.
FY2012 Advertising Spending Estimate Revised Upward
The Nikkei Advertising Research Institute said on July 24 that it had raised its forecast for domestic advertising spending for the fiscal year 2012 (ending March 2012) by 3.7 percentage points, to a 6.6 percent year-on-year rise.
Expenditures for newspaper ads were also revised upward to a growth rate of 4.0 percent year-on-year from its zero-growth previous forecast released in January, the institute said.
The upward revisions result from a stronger-than-expected recovery of the Japanese economy after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The institute also revised upward its overall estimated advertising expenditure figures for the four main traditional media – television, newspapers, radio and magazines – by 4.1 percentage points, to 6.1 percent.
