Japan gives emphasis on eco-system, tourism

LED lighting illuminates the city at night. LED lights are now available in all colors and spread all across the city.

Japan's Tokushima prefecture is the hub of manufacturing LED lights.

The region owns the facility to provide a consultation of a new LED product development and evaluation of the product performance free-of-charge.

"Compared to incandescent bulbs, The LED bulb can reduce the power consumption about 1/6 with the equal amount of light emission. We believe that LED can contribute to more energy saving in the future, since the luminous efficiency is rapidly improving," said Toshiaki Kagawa of Tokushima Prefectural Industrial Technology Center.

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LED traffic signal is one of the products which were jointly developed by Tokushima Prefecture and local businesses by taking advantage of energy saving feature of LED.

The LED traffic signals can be replaced easily to the traditional incandescent traffic lights. Only requirement is to simply replace the bulb.

In addition to energy saving, LED bulbs have 10 times longer life.

The local government in Tokushima is flooded with orders from all country Japan.

The facility is working on product development across the range, such as the development of LED interior lighting or indoor plant cultivation.

In addition, there is a growing expectation for LED in this coast area, possibility to save the natural lives.

The sea turtles visit to this coast when it comes to spawning season every year, but the numbers have been decreasing in recent years. It is because of street light affect.

It's not only environment, Japan is giving special emphasis to attract tourists in the country.

Odaiba is one of the most popular tourist spots in Tokyo city, where Toshiba has put their special concierge in one of the department stores.

"Hello. I'm Junko Chihira, Communication Android from Toshiba. I'd like to give the very best service I can for you until Tokyo Olympic in 2020," said Junko Chihira, Communication Android, Toshiba.

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"The reason why we started this android project is because we wanted to make a robot which fits into our daily life rather than industrial robot," added Hitoshi Tokuda, Chief Specialist, Marketing Strategic Office, Toshiba Corporation .

The appearance of this android is very close to human. Her job is to show a lot of information with digital signage. She speaks not only Japanese but also Chinese and English. The power source is air. It can prevent overheat. Also, it realizes smooth movement of the android like human being.

"She got call from many countries. Foreign people are more interested in robot than Japanese and they want to see her. She is soon going to Philippines and Shanghai. This android will be more fitted into human's daily life in the future. We want her to evolve along with human. So we want her to be invited to many different places and used for many different purposes. Those kinds of experiences allow the evolution of her," said Hitoshi Tokuda, Chief Specialist, Marketing Strategic Office, Toshiba Corporation.

The company says she will be more interactive android in the near future.