Nippondaira Hotel (Shizuoka City) to newly open on Sept. 19.

This is the first renewal  for Nippondaira Hotel since its foundation of in 1964. This renewal is one of the series of the symbol plans of Shizuoka City, “Nihon daira renewal plan”.

The concept is the construction of “Museum for the beautiful landscape of Nihon daira”. You can see the whole 360 degree of the landscape including Mt. Fuji and Suruga Bay from the hotel standing at the height of 300 m.

Nihondaira was selected as a venue for the next U.N. armament limitation conference next January. So the hotel is assumed to be a likely candidate for the venue.

The hotel takes a proactive stance on inviting visitors from out of the prefecture and even from overseas, as a resort MICE which is 30 minutes away from Shizuoka Station. As banquet facilities, the hotel has 5 banquet halls (maximum up to 520 square meters × 6 meter ceiling), Japanese banquet halls (maximum up to 64 quires), and also 20,000 tsubo of a lawn garden. And the hotel also has an off-site meeting plan ready for the visitors.

Total floor area is 19,000 square meters, and 6 stories high. There are 80 guest rooms with the average of 45 square meters for each room, which makes the hotel a comfortable place to be. The reservations for accommodations has already begun.

If you have any questions, please contact to either Nihon Daira Hotel’s Preparation Office, or to Tokyo Business Office.

International Development Association of the Furniture Industry of Japan (IDAFIJ)  and Mesago Messe Frankfurt Corp,. announced the outline of the ‘IFFT/Interior Lifestyle Living’ which will be held at Tokyo Big Site, from 17th to 19th October. 305 companies from 12 countries are going to participate, as of 19th September.

This is the fifth IFFT and it will be grealy renewed by 4 Creative Direction, as the related trade show ‘Interior Lifestyle Living’ was, which was held in June. The concept, special exhibition, and the venue layout of the show has been revised this time.

Especially the 5 special exhibitions are organized to meet the needs of the industry dealing with substantial goods, design, and design of space, including houses and stores.

“Creative Resource: Power of Raw Material and Creation” is a special project to promote the creative new business, focusing on material and creative furniture. Keiji Ashizawa, the architect who worked as a concept director, said, “This exhibit will be unique, in the way that focuses more on the material and technique rather than the finished piece.” He added that acrylic, antique material, articles of tin, ornamental film and kumiko products will be displayed this time.

He also introduced a project to display the resources which six architects are paying attention to, saying “In the same way as being curious of the contents of a friend’s bookshelf, we architects wonder the material contained in the backyard of other architects.”

It is designed to respond to the needs of “Editable Lifestyle,” which consumers can edit the ideal space and lifestyle with renovation.

In addition to this, “JAPAN STYLE”: the special project presents a variety of topics including the integration of Japanese production and design, “Heimtextil TRENDS 2013/ 2014Preview”: precious preview of remarkable trends, and “Fablication Cafe”, space production by texture and vintage furniture.

NORDIC LIFESTYLE corner was newly introduced to the new zoning, which is a structure of the venue. There will be Northern Europe items and products and the spotlight zone, PREMIUM ZONE -MOVEMENT, which caught a lot of attentions at Interior Lifestyle in June, at IFFT. Visitors will discover the trends of latest design products.

On September 5, at the conference tower of the Tokyo big site, a well established Italian restaurant will open in Nishi Azabu.

“Al Porto” restaurant is produced by the popular chef Mamoru Kataoka where popular pasta lunch can be enjoyed at a comfortable space. Furthermore, one can enjoy dinner while looking at the night view of the bay area, it can also be reserved for social gathering parties.

The day before the opening, around 100 officials attended the pre-open gathering event. An Introduction of the Menu and a concert was held. “I’m looking forward to a lot people to pay a visit”, a hopeful Chef Kataoka said.

http://www.bigsight.jp/alporto/index.html

On September 5, Japan congress convention bureau (JCCB) convened “MICE seminar hosted by JCCB industry department” at Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)’s conference room. Ryuta Matsunaga of Tokyo Bureau of Sports lectured about their approach to “Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics”. About 60 people from the affiliate companies and organizations have attended the seminar.

Before the opening of the meeting, Chikanami, CEO and chairman of Industry Department, greeted with a message, “Olympics and Paralymics gave me hope and courage. In the year 2020, I would like to invite the games to Tokyo by all means, and let children feel the heat of contending to be the number one in the world.
Also, Kuniko Inoguchi, Chairwoman of JCCB who was absent from the seminar, had sent a message over, “Bidding for Olympics and paralympics leads to a higher level of Japanese MICE. I want JCCB members to work together and give us the support to achieve this.”

Currently, Tokyo is working on bidding the 2020 Olympic games which is the first time in 56 years, since the last time was in 1964. On May 23 this year, Tokyo was already selected a candidate city for the Olympics by IOC execs in Quebec, along with Istanbul and Madrid.

As the reason for Tokyo to have achieved the highest evaluation out of the 3 cities, Matsunaga stated that it was due to the clear motivation and vision of the convention, and also due to strong financial base.

On the other hand, public opinion research showed that the domestic approval rating was as low as 47%, which is the biggest agenda towards the bidding, and to solve it he explained that spreading news of economic ripple effect and having events that would bring excitement over.

In plans for operating, the concept for layouts of sites were decided as “The games taking place in the center of the city still developing”, and was divided into Heritage Zone and Tokyo Bay Zone.

The National Kasumigaoka Stadium which becomes a main stadium is a Heritage zone, the Media Center will be the Tokyo Big Site at the Tokyo bay area, the Olympic athletes’ village will be at the Harumi area which is the center of 2 zones.

This time, the cost of the bid is assumed at ¥ 7.5 Billion which is approximately half of the bid for the 2016 tournament. Additionally, the operating budget for a successful bid costs ¥ 180 Billion, Facility development budget is seen at ¥ 280 billion.

Mr. Matsunaga responds to our interview after the lecture “The proposed theme for Tokyo is Compact. The established permanent venue, the Yume-no-shima (island of dreams) pool, Ariake north gymnasium, about 2 gymnasiums for Yume-no-shima. Aside from the Media Center at the Tokyo Big Site, there are competitions held such as wrestling and fencing and is expected to be utilized like the Excel exhibition center at the London Olympics. I talked about the need for expansion of the regarding the plan for the venue.”

The three regions, namely Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism invite South Korean and Chinese medias from August 27th for the joint promotion of “Tokyo Bay Area”.

This is one of the local collaboration businesses held by Visit Japan, aiming for the appeal to expanding Korean and Chinese incentive travel market as well as the enhancement of exposure to the local industrial and business magazines.
From August 27th to 31st Chinese magazines 都市麗人 and 旅行者, and from September 3rd to 7th Korean magazine Forbes Korea and TNL NEWS visited Yokohama Sankeien Garden, Maihama Amphitheater, Asakusa Nakamise and so on, to observe MICE Spots in several cities.
At the end of this year the three bureaus hold meetings at Shanghai, to proceed branding of “Tokyo Bay Area”.

MPI Japan hosted a seminar on “Trip to ASEANs, charm and latest information of the sightseeing in Vietnam” at August 28th.

Iwashita, the general manager of Travel Journal, delivered a lecture on “the fascination of sightseeing in Vietnam and the latest update on MICE(Meeting, Incentive, Convention, Exhibition), and commented on the major sightseeing attractions and patterns of various travel goods in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi.

He introduced various tips for planning a travel in Vietnam, such as, that staying in Hanoi is recommended from October to March, which is usually popular as it being a dry season, and also May and June are recommended as it being mid-summer. Also he introduced that Staying in Ho Chi Minh is best on the new year’s holidays, for the workers return to their hometown.

Horiuchi, a sectional chief of Vietnam Airlines, appealed that the number of flights per week of Vietnam Airlines, JAL and ANA between Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh and Japan are up to 65 to 66, a very easy access of visiting.

He also introduced holiday resorts such as Da-nang district in central Vietnam, as a new spot which has gotten most attentions out of all the Vietnam’s resort spots.

Suzuki, CEO of ISC and administration officer of Association Vietnam in Japan, told about the attractiveness of Vietnam, which included inexpensive cost of living, low crime rate, good old scenery bringing back memories of rural Japan 40 years ago, and beautiful architectural structure from the French colony era.

Also, not only the beauty of world heritages and resort spots, but communications among each generations and among people who are successful on a world wide basis make it able for a unforgettable MICE to be proposed.

Tamai, CEO of E-Tech Group, Inc., gave a proposal of Vietnam’s business chances and immigration to Vietnam after retirement, under the theme “Changing to globalization, corporates shifting their businesses to overseas, senior life getting visible clearly”.

He explained the charms of business deployment in Vietnam with following reasons; reduced rates and exemption to the corporate taxation and to the corporate preferential taxation, annual economic growth of 7 to 8%, fulfilling hospitality, temperament of the citizens blending right in with the people of Japan, and about 30 corporates expanding their business to Vietnam each year. He also talked about interactions he has had with the people involved with MICE on the spot.

Through his overseas experience in Hanoi, he explained about the comfortable retirement life in Hanoi, which has been chosen as the No.1 as the most inexpensive place for travelers.  With northern Ho Chi Minh’s rural city concept by Tokyu garden city designs, he said that it was a suitable place to withdraw from society in a positive way overseas.

Vietnam’s distilled spirit, Lua Moi, was served to the attendants, and they also got to receive Vietnamese coffee as a souvenir. It was a seminar that made the attendants feel the air of Vietnam, and that was done not only through the lectures they heard sitting down.

Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau (TCVB) has announced the resignation of  Mr. Takumi Okuda from the senior director’s post and that Mr. Yasuyuki Matsumoto assuming the senior director’s post.
Mr. Matsumoto is set out to achieve the goal of “making Tokyo the ecumenopolis of energy and dignity” and focuses on attracting travellers and conventions from in or out of Japan, and also stimulating regional tourism.

From September 5 to 7, 2485 companies gather fills all of Tokyo Big Sight, and “Gift Show 2012 Autumn” convenes where over 3 million new merchandise all come to show in one place.

Following three are the highlights this time.

As an [Idea of a new lifestyle], smart phone related products will gather at IT related and entertainment goods corner, and the scope will expand by 3 times as compared to the last time. Further, San-x, Tezuka productions, Dick Bruna Japan, NHK Enterprises will participate in the character license fare.

And moreover, Nisshin Chicken Ramen’s “Chickirars” and their first public appearance heats up the event, as well as the “Hiyokochan Bus” (Baby Chick Bus) who rushed in to Big Sight.

In [Proposing the global lifestyle], 4 new style (European Style / American Street / Resort Living / Only-one Collection) areas were newly created, and also there was a “Life with Pets” and “Peaceful Life” section were proposed.

And also, Japan Institute of Design Promotion’s first exhibit gathered merchandise from 6 prefectures of Touhoku and Ibaraki prefecture as “Area Aid Design Project-JDP: Designs from Touhoku and Ibaraki” , for assistance for reconstruction of industry in the disaster stricken region.

And, idea of lifestyle from woman’s point of view is that in [Fashion goods world] exhibited in the West Exhibition Building hall 1~2, gather products such as apparel, fashion goods, jewelry, beauty & health products, idea goods, etc, which women would buy without even giving it a thought.

Besides, during the session, also hold special events and contests. It will be an opportunity to know the trend of gifts.

The 75th Tokyo International Gift Show English Page:
http://www.giftshow.co.jp/english/75tigs/