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Kyoto Police Arrest Online Casino Operators

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Kyoto Prefectural Police and other authorities announced the arrest of seven individuals last month, including 36-year-old Randall Aaron Asher, an American national, for operating an illegal online casino site. It marked the first arrest of online casino site operators in Japan.

The group is suspected of running a mahjong website called Dora Mahjong targeting Japanese players.

Established around 2011, the site boasted over 70,000 members and claimed that its operation was legal due to being an overseas online gaming entity. The company allegedly collected approximately 10-15% of the customers’ profits as venue fees, amassing about ¥2.3 billion (US$15 million).

While the site argued for its legality based on its overseas status, the National Police Agency emphasized that even if online casinos are legal in their place of operation, it is illegal to connect and gamble from within Japan, and that such activities are subject to prosecution.

Authorities noted that it is challenging to prosecute overseas-based operators under Japan’s gambling laws, and despite the illegality, enforcement is difficult. But recent actions such as the Metropolitan Police Department’s crackdown on gamblers last year indicate a heightened effort to address such issues.

Asher, believed to be a key figure in the operation, and three others have admitted to the charges, while the remaining four have partially denied them. Investigations are ongoing, including into the network’s list of customers.

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Japan Space Program Gets Its Groove Back

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — After a series of embarrassing stumbles, Japan’s space program is putting some wins on the board again.

There was a palpable sigh of relief at Tanegashima Space Station when H3 rocket No. 2 had a picture-perfect takeoff, smoothly performed its second-stage ignition, and then entered its planned orbit without a hitch.

The H3 launch vehicle has been designed to become the successor to Japan’s current mainstay, the H2A rocket, providing a new level of capability to Japan’s space efforts.

“We are very happy to see such great achievements in the space field following the successful SLIM Moon landing,” commented Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “I would like to express my respect for the efforts of everyone involved over the years, and hope that Japan’s core rockets will continue to steadily accumulate achievements.”

The first H3 rocket launched last March suffered a failure during its second-stage ignition and was ordered to self-destruct. This capped a series of other setbacks for the space program.

The H3 has been developed since 2014 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at a cost of about ¥220 billion (US$1.5 billion).

Sanae Takaichi, whose portfolio includes the position of Minister of State for Space Policy, issued a statement noting that “since there are only a small number of countries and regions that can launch their own rockets, we hope that the use of the H3 rocket, which captures not only domestic but also overseas launch demand, will lead to economic growth for Japan.”

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Wakayama Signs Pact on Flying Cars

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Wakayama Governor Shuhei Kishimoto made it clear at a press conference on January 30 that his administration is keenly interested in bringing the benefits of “flying cars” (eVTOL) to his prefecture in western Japan.

“We are considering the possibility of regional revitalization using flying cars,” the governor said. “It is a very attractive project, so I would like to work on it together with our officials.”

Kishimoto revealed that Wakayama will sign an agreement at the prefectural office on February 5 with three firms—IHI Corporation and Chodai of Tokyo, and Nankai Electric Railway Company of Osaka.

The agreement will cover matters such as the promotion of flying cars, the holding of demonstration flights, and drawing up plans to use eVTOLs in local tourism projects. One specific item concerns the construction of vertiports at yet-to-be-determined locations. The first test flights may take place before the end of this year.

Advanced Air Mobility has been designated a major theme of next year’s World Expo in neighboring Osaka, and Wakayama hopes to benefit from the regional development of this industry.

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Qualified Success for Japan’s Moon Landing

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) declared success in its “main mission” of conducting a Moon landing near the targeted coordinates, but it was hardly an unqualified triumph.

The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed on the lunar surface on January 20, 2024, making Japan only the fifth nation to land a vehicle on the Moon.

However, JAXA admitted that “at an altitude of 50 meters just prior to the start of the obstacle avoidance maneuver, the thrust from one of the two main engines was most likely lost” for unclear reasons. This caused the vehicle to slide away from its target zone, tilt in an unforeseen direction, and most likely tumble on the ground when it landed.

The most serious consequence of this ungraceful landing is that SLIM came to rest rolled on its head, positioned so that its solar panels couldn’t collect energy to power the craft. This meant that once the batteries ran out of juice, SLIM needed to be prematurely powered down.

Still, JAXA noted that “all technical data on the navigation guidance leading to the landing, and navigation camera image data captured during the descent and on the lunar surface that are necessary for future pinpoint landing technology, were obtained from the spacecraft. The small probes were successfully separated just prior to landing in this contingency situation. The multi-band spectroscopic camera onboard SLIM was also operated on a trial basis and captured images until the power was turned off.”

SLIM’s qualified success is a morale booster for Japan’s space program, which has recently been suffering a series of mishaps while Asian competitors have been moving ahead.

The Soviet Union and the United States both conducted their first successful soft landings on the Moon in 1966, but they have more recently been followed by China (2013), India (2023), and now Japan.

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Pioneering Hoverbike Firm Goes Belly Up

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan’s most prominent hoverbike company, A.L.I. Technologies, has filed for bankruptcy. Although the firm reports that it hopes to rebuild in the United States, there is much reason to believe that it is now down and out.

In terms of media promotion, the company’s main product, the XTurismo Limited Edition hoverbike, was an undoubted success, gaining wide attention both at home in Japan as well as abroad. Last February, under its US brand Aerwins Technologies, it became the first Japan-origin eVTOL firm to be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York. This was achieved via a merger with the special purpose acquisition company Pono Capital, a Hawaii-based firm. It was anticipated that the value of the company would stabilize at about US$600 million.

Those projections turned out to be wildly over-optimistic. When investors took a look at the company, there was a near-consensus that the numbers didn’t add up. On the eve of the merger at the end of January, Pono’s stock was hovering at a value of around $10.40. After a brief spike, its value collapsed in a brutal fashion. By September, the same stock was worth about $0.12.

The fundamental problem is that the XTurismo hoverbike was being sold at a steep US$620,000 per unit, but it was illegal to use it in most places in most nations. Regulators were not willing to permit the hoverbike to fly over public roads, limiting its usefulness to anyone wealthy enough to consider buying it.

Given time and deep pockets, perhaps Aerwins might have eventually overcome these challenges, but since it was a startup firm, and its listing on the Nasdaq had gone so horribly wrong, the money ran out far ahead of any regulatory or commercial successes.

Nevertheless, the company leaders are not admitting full defeat. Although the original Japanese organization A.L.I. Technologies is being disbanded, a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on January 10 asserts that “A.L.I.’s voluntary bankruptcy proceedings are part of the company’s planned relocation of its operations from Tokyo to Los Angeles and continued development of a line of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-compliant manned vehicles for low-altitude flights that are being designed to be flown remotely independently or in multiple synchronous groupings.”

The filing added that “we are redesigning our single-seat optionally Manned Air Vehicle (MAV). We aim to align this vehicle with the stringent requirements of the FAA Powered Ultra-Light Air Vehicle Category, setting a new standard for safe low-altitude manned flight.”

Aerwins has picked up a partner in its second try, a Los Angeles-based firm called Helicopter Technology Company, which will assume a 30% stake.

The filing even offered a prospective timeline: schematic design and detailed specifications (2024); prototype parts design, fabrication, and systems finalization (2025); commencement of assembly, testing, and regulatory approval (2026); and beginning of sales (2027).

This new vehicle, they explain, will cost around US$200,000 and will be designed for “many intended uses, including sightseeing, sports, agriculture, surveillance, field delivery, and numerous military applications.”

Having failed so spectacularly as a business venture in their first foray, and with weak financing, it remains to be seen if this revisioning will ever get off the ground.

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SkyDrive Enters India

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japan’s leading “flying car” (eVTOL) development company SkyDrive is highlighting its strategic move into India, which it has long viewed as market full of potential for its innovative aerial vehicle. SkyDrive’s alliance with Suzuki Motor Corporation, which has an established presence in the South Asian giant, has only enhanced these ambitions.

One announcement concerns the signing of a Strategic Partnership Agreement with the western Indian state of Gujarat. The precise content of the agreement is vague, but is said to involve efforts to “explore the settings of the ecosystem that is required for social implementation of our eVTOL aircrafts within the States of Gujarat by 2027.”

The agreement was signed in person by SkyDrive CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa and Gujarat’s Department of Science & Technology Mission Director Videh Khara.

Fukuzawa stated that “SkyDrive and Suzuki have been collaborating in business development of eVTOL in India and developed suitability use cases. We are delighted to enter into the partnership with the most innovative state in India, Gujarat, also the hometown of the prime minister of India, to embark on the journey together. We would like to work closely together as the public and private sectors to provide solutions for the social issues such as mobility emissions and urban congestion.”

This was not, however, SkyDrive’s only recent move in the subcontinent.

The company also signed a memorandum of understanding a couple of weeks ago with Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation Foundation, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (TiHAN) to collaborate on unmanned drone technology to expand the drone market in India.

By this agreement, SkyDrive will collaborate with TiHAN, India’s first autonomous navigation testbed facility, on development related to heavy-lift drones, another business field in which the Japanese company has been operating.

Following up on this announcement, SkyDrive signed a separate agreement with Hyderabad-based engineering firm Cyient.

On this occasion, Fukuzawa stated that he was “pleased to sign the partnership with Cyient to jointly collaborate on advanced technology development for our eVTOL. Cyient is one of India’s leading engineering companies with a wide range of business operations around the world, including in the aerospace industry.”

Hyderabad lay in south-central India, and it is the capital city of the state of Telangana.

Note: The original draft of this article was updated to include the Cyient agreement which was announced shortly after the initial publication.

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Nagasaki Casino Resort Initiative Goes Bust

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — One of the most carefully planned initiatives to bring a casino resort to a Japanese regional city has ended in failure as the central government declines to issue a license for the project to go forward.

The Japan Tourism Agency made the long-awaited announcement on December 27. The central government’s examination committee found that Nagasaki’s casino resort bid fell short of minimum requirements on two separate criteria.

First, the examination committee judged that the prefecture and the casino resort consortium had failed to present sufficient evidence that it could provide the estimated ¥438 billion (US$3.1 billion) that would be needed to construct and prepare the facility.

In this regard, the report noted that “there have been significant changes in the investors and lenders, some of whom have not provided objective documentation supporting the certainty of funding as required. Moreover, many of the letters are addressed to parties different from those originally intended.”

The second criteria by which the application was rejected was the examination committee’s concern that only Casinos Austria International (CAI) possesses actual experience managing casinos, and its degree of commitment to the project was found to be wanting.

“It is not possible to confirm the existence of companies with experience and expertise in the installation and operation of IR among the investors other than CAI. Regarding CAI, which possesses experience and expertise in the installation and operation of casino facilities, there is insufficient confirmation of its track record in the installation and operation of Integrated Resorts. Additionally, due to the very small investment ratio and the inadequate commitment level in the letters, it is difficult to assert the substantial involvement of CAI in the Integrated Resorts business.”

The conclusion was that “the committee’s opinion is that, in light of non-compliance with the requirements, it is suitable not to certify the plan in accordance with the basic policy.”

The advocates of the “Kyushu-Nagasaki Integrated Resort” are naturally deeply disappointed. They had put years of efforts into the initiative, and in fact, had gained more local public support for hosting a casino resort than any other part of Japan.

Nagasaki Governor Kengo Oishi issued a statement that read, in part: “We deeply regret the results of this examination, considering the support we have received from various stakeholders over the years. The plan was meticulously crafted by the prefecture and the Integrated Resort operators, drawing on the expertise and advice of financial institutions and specialized advisors with experience in numerous Integrated Resort projects worldwide. We were confident that it met the certification criteria and had provided sufficient explanations to the review committee. Therefore, the surprising examination results are particularly disheartening.”

Had it been approved, the casino resort at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo city was expected to become the nation’s first to open its doors, several years ahead of the larger Osaka casino resort on Yumeshima island. It would have included an international conference hall, exhibition hall facilities, a passenger terminal, multiple accommodation facilities (including a hotel with over 2,500 guest rooms), a medical mall, and a shopping mall.

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Universal Entertainment Expanding in the Philippines

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Tokyo-based Universal Entertainment Corporation is poised for a major expansion of its casino resort interests in the Philippines.

It was revealed earlier this month that Tiger Resort Leisure & Entertainment Inc. (TRLEI), the Philippine unit of the Japanese gaming and entertainment company, has signed a “preliminary agreement” that would see it take a majority interest in the Emerald Bay Resort in Cebu.

The Emerald Bay project is currently under construction, but it has already received a provisional gambling license. It aims to become “an iconic and luxurious five-star integrated resort in Cebu, and the premier entertainment destination in the Philippines outside of Entertainment City in Metro Manila.”

Once completed, Emerald Bay will contain a five-star hotel adjacent to the beachfront, with two fifteen-story towers accommodating over six hundred rooms and four swimming pools. It will also host an assortment of food and beverage outlets, retail spaces, and conference and exhibition facilities. The casino is set to include more than seven hundred electric gaming machines and over 140 gaming tables.

Currently, Universal Entertainment runs only one casino resort, Okada Manila in the nation’s capital.

The “definitive agreement” allowing the Japanese company to take over Emerald Bay is scheduled to be reached next July, and the casino resort might be built and open its doors to the public at some point in FY2027. The acquisition price has yet to be determined.

Universal Entertainment’s opportunity to acquire Emerald Bay emerged as a result of the recent financial struggles of the project’s initiator, business magnate Dennis Uy. After experiencing a meteoric rise across a diverse range of industries, Uy became too deeply entangled in debt as profits from some of his major ventures started coming in more slowly than he had anticipated.

Among other things, this caused the construction of the Emerald Bay Resort to stall.

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Joby-Led Initiative on Vertiport Construction

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Joby Aviation, ANA Holdings, and Nomura Real Estate Development have entered into a collaborative partnership to establish infrastructure for electric air taxi services in Japan.

Joby Aviation, a key player in the development of all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, will work alongside ANA and Nomura, one of Japan’s leading real estate developers, to create vertiports, crucial for the deployment of Joby’s electric air taxi service.

The partnership will focus on jointly exploring the design, location, operation, and financing of vertiports, initially targeting metropolitan areas like Tokyo and expanding to various urban areas in Japan. Joby, serving as a technical advisor to the Tokyo Bay eSG Project, will contribute to demonstrating multi-modal mobility solutions, including a floating landing port in the Tokyo Bay.

The collaboration extends beyond infrastructure development, with the companies actively engaging local stakeholders to communicate the technology’s benefits and foster community acceptance of air taxi services.

This collaboration builds upon Joby and ANA’s 2022 partnership to introduce electric air taxi services in Japan. Nomura will add further depth to the initiative.

Joby’s proactive regulatory approach includes applying for validation of its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) type certification last year, collaborating closely with the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) to prepare for commercial operations in Japan.

Joby’s eVTOL aircraft can carry a pilot and four passengers at speeds of up to 320 kilometers per hour, offering high-speed mobility with reduced noise compared to helicopters and zero in-flight emissions.

As the three companies collaborate to shape the future of air travel in Japan, their involvement in Japan’s Public-Private Conference for Future Air Mobility reflects their broader commitment to advancing aerial ridesharing adoption in the country.

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Kazuo Okada Is Out… Again

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Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Japanese casino mogul Kazuo Okada is out in the cold once again with another major legal defeat, while those whom he regards as his betrayers have been on a winning streak.

Billionaire Okada’s ill fortunes began in early 2017 when he was accused of embezzlement at his own Universal Entertainment Corporation. His ex-wife and own children voted him out of authority over the pachinko and gambling company which he had founded.

After a long series of legal defeats in Japan and elsewhere, Okada finally scored a stunning victory in late April 2022 when the Supreme Court of the Philippines issued a shocking order that Tiger Resort, Leisure & Entertainment, Inc. (TRLEI), the management company for the Okada Manila casino resort (which is owned by Universal), was obliged to restore the company leadership to the state that it was in before Okada had been removed.

Okada, however, overreached by ordering a dramatic invasion and physical occupation of Okada Manila, compete with thugs dragging rival Japanese businessmen out of the building by force. This occupation was overturned–again by force–three months later when the other side sent in security guards backed by the Philippine National Police.

This week Universal announced that it has now won the legal battle completely; the Supreme Court has reversed its order of April 2022, thus denying Okada any authority over TRLEI and Okada Manila.

“With this resolution, this litigation has been concluded,” Universal announced in a press release.

Tokyo-based Universal is has been riding high. In September it defeated a lawsuit launched by prospective partner 26 Capital Acquisition Corporation over a October 2021 agreement which would have seen the Okada Manila casino resort listed on the Nasdaq stock market in New York. 26 Capital Acquisition Chairman and CEO Jason Ader had become aggrieved when Universal delayed and eventually pulled out of the merger agreement, citing alleged misconduct on the part of the Miami-based special purpose acquisition company.

A Delaware court came down firmly on Universal’s side, agreeing that 26 Capital had “engaged in conduct that should not be rewarded” and therefore ruled that Universal was free to terminate the unwanted merger agreement.

In September, 26 Capital announced its own liquidation.

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