Innholdsfortegnelse for 12/21/2018 i Newsweek International

2002  During the anxious months leading up to the invasion of Iraq, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was, according to writer Evan Thomas, a “Warrior Princess.” He noted that as the first woman to serve in the position, she put “an end to occasional outbursts of ‘locker-room joking.’” Rice played a critical role in crafting the “intellectual framework” for the Iraq War, which eventually resulted in a promotion: secretary of state. Her insistences that Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, of course, have since been discredited. 1965 Charles de Gaulle (as painted by Georges Rouault) had been re-elected president of France. Reviews of the war hero’s first term were mixed, according to Newsweek. “The general has achieved much…but he has also antagonized his erstwhile allies.” Perhaps, but his legacy…

In a bid to position itself at the forefront of innovation once again and to ward off competition from regional rivals like South Korea and China, Japan is boosting investment in R&D across the board, from the nation’s biggest conglomerates like Toyota, Honda, Panasonic and Sony, to smaller, lesser known B2B firms in specialized industries. A survey released earlier this year by Nikkei about R&D activities for fiscal 2018, which started in April, concludes that total R&D spending by major Japanese companies is set to rise 4.5 percent on the previous year, which will be the ninth consecutive year of growth. These Japanese companies are aggressively investing in innovative technologies, ranging from AI and robotics, to biotech, compound materials and chemicals – technologies which they see as key to future…

“We will leverage on our company’s technology to expand into new markets”Niroh Utsumi, President, ITO Corporation To begin to understand the significance of chukenkigyo – Japan’s ‘strong’ small, medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – to the country’s overall economy, one solitary statistic will generally suffice. That is: 97 percent of all Japanese businesses are comprised of either SMEs, or their slightly bigger cousins, LMEs (large, medium-sized enterprises). Chukenkigyo, in short, provide Japan’s economic backbone. Though it was huge Japanese corporations such as Sony, Sharp and Panasonic that took over the world of consumer products in the 1980s and 1990s – iconic brands that to this day remain synonymous with the famous ‘Made in Japan’ trademark and its reputation for high-quality – these days chukenkigyo are perhaps a more pertinent symbol of Japan’s…

“There are still natural disasters all over the world, so we would like to provide comprehensive solutions to these areas affected by disasters”Atsuki Shibata, CEO, Shibata Industrial Co., Ltd. Established in 1923, Shibata Industrial is a manufacturer of specialized rubber materials that started out as a shoemaker. Today the company stills makes a range of safety boots with high-quality rubber for several industries, but it is also a leading manufacturer of rubber-based marine, civil engineering and disaster mitigation products. In the marine industry, Shibata’s rubber fenders, which it has been developing since 1960, are used in the safe berthing of ships and marine vessels across the globe. The ShibataFenderTeam Group, organized within Shibata Industrial and headquartered in Germany with offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia, brings together a dedicated…

NO GOOD ROLES FOR MINORITIES AND WOMEN? This year put a significant dent in that maxim. Our list of the best performances is as diverse—in race, gender, age—as any in memory. In a fraught year, these artists provided catharsis, vicarious diversion and (this being entertainment) deep pleasure. You can find nearly all of the performances on streaming platforms or in theaters. The holidays are the perfect time to catch up—for amusement, naturally, but also to prepare for the awards season, an onslaught currently in progress. Without further ado, our 31 reasons to celebrate in 2018. FILM TELEVISION THEATER VIDEO Tessa Thompson & Lakeith Stanfield SORRY TO BOTHER YOU The talented and busy Ms. Tessa Thompson co-starred in the sci-fi movie Annihilation and was back for Season 2 of Westworld and…

Fossil fuel-powered vehicles have ruled the roads for a century, but over the coming decades, the number of vehicles running on alternative energy sources will grow as nations around the globe scramble to drastically reduce carbon emissions. Electronic vehicles (EVs) have been hailed as the primary successor to fossil-fuel powered cars. According to a study by consultancy firm McKinsey, last year, global sales of new EVs passed a million units for the first time; and under the current growth trajectory, “EV producers could almost quadruple that achievement by 2020, moving 4.5 million units, around 5 percent of the overall global light-vehicle market”. But 5 percent is a tiny portion and many industry insiders are not entirely convinced that EVs will be able to completely replace vehicles powered by the traditional…

“With pinhole lenses, there is only one design and it fits almost everyone suffering from presbyopia or close-sightedness”Taro Suzuki, President, Universal View Taro Suzuki, President of Universal View, a company focused on developing ophthalmic medical devices such as next-generation contact lenses, is passionate about vision and even more passionate about improving it. “Did you know that 83 percent of the information we absorb comes from our vision?” he says. “Our vision represents the greatest proportion of how we understand the world. As the most crucial sense available to humans, Universal View’s goal is to create innovative ways to enhance our eyesight and eliminate the use of glasses.” Myopia, more commonly known as short-sightedness, affected 1.45 billion, or 27 percent of the world’s population in 2010. That figure is estimated to…

THE 24-YEAR-OLD IRISH ACTRESS DOESN’T JUST RESEMBLE MERYL STREEP; she appears to be echoing her career, juggling accents and racking up Oscar nominations. There are three so far: for 2007’s Atonement, 2015’s Brooklyn and 2017’s Lady Bird (she won a Golden Globe for the latter). In her latest film, Mary Queen of Scots—written by House of Cards creator Beau Willimon—Ronan plays the doomed queen, beheaded by her cousin, Elizabeth I (played by Margot Robbie), in 1587. The movie is based on historian John Guy’s radical reinterpretation of Mary’s life, My Heart Is My Own, and Ronan plays her as a strategic, armor-wearing warrior rather than a flighty beauty buffeted by fate. Despite years of correspondence with Elizabeth, the two never met, though the film—which has a distinctly feminist slant—imagines such…

In a natural disaster-prone country like Japan, the nation’s fire and safety equipment manufacturers are constantly trying to innovate and come up with new ways to tackle fire and rescue issues in treacherous circumstances, such as in the aftermath of earthquakes. One such company that has been doing that for over a century is Morita. Founded in 1907, Morita was responsible for the development of Japan’s first gasoline-powered fire pump in 1910 and its first fire truck in 1917. Since then, the company has continued to develop state of the art fire-fighting technology, working as a leading manufacturer of fire trucks for more than 110 years. Some of the company’s most important innovations have come about from lessons learned in the wake of Japan’s biggest natural disasters. The Great Hanshin-Awaji…