News in Brief

Japan Marks Start of the Year with
Lunar Feat
In the early hours of January 20 Japan time,
the country succeeded in landing its spacecraft on
the moon in an impressive precise touchdown. It
became only the ﬁfth country to reach the moon. The
country’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon
(SLIM) set down roughly 55 meters from its intended
landing site, thus achieving its mission priority of
showcasing Japan’s technology to make a pinpoint
landing. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) told reporters SLIM successfully establishedcommunication with the Earth. It later was unable togenerate power as solar cells pointed away from thesum due to the position the spacecraft had landed,
but the situation was corrected more than a week
later after an apparent shift in lighting conditions
allowed it to catch sunlight. This allowed JAXA to
re-establish communication with the lunar probe,
which began operating again and to begin transmitting

images of its surrounding such as rocks on the
moon’s surface. SLIM also succeeded in setting down
two small Lunar Excursion Vehicles, LEV-1 andLEV-2 ― each entrusted with demonstrating newtechnology ― before it landed on the moon. JAXA
conﬁrmed in a news release that the LEV-1
conducted its planned activities such as directcommunication with ground stations and executing
planned leaping movements. It has completed its
activity, used up its prescribed power, and is now onstandby on the lunar surface. LEV-2, a transformable
lunar robot jointly developed by JAXA, Tomy Co.
Ltd., the Sony Group, and Doshisha University, took
images of SLIM and the surrounding environment
while on the lunar surface via LEV-1’s communicator.
Tomy is a toy maker known for its transformer
ﬁgures. The success of the lunar mission owes in partto the growing number of startups and mid-sizedcompanies that are increasing their presence in thespace industry. One well-known example is Systems
Engineering Consultants Co. Ltd. (SEC) which
PATENTS & LICENSING, March 2024

News in Brief
worked on the development of LEV-2’s control
system. It was established in 1970 as a spinoﬀ fromthe University of Tokyo. Other companies with salesof 30 billion yen or less with promising technologies
and strategies include ispace Inc., which works on
the development of lunar modules and rovers.

Japan to Introduce Law to
Curb IT Giants’ Monopolies
Japan is planning to introduce regulations thatwill curb the dominant position of information
technology (IT) ﬁrms such as Google Inc. and Apple
Inc. Legislation with this aim is due to be presented
to the Diet, Japan’s parliament, this year. The focus
will be on four areas. These are app stores, payments,
search browsers and operating systems (OS). The
government will aim to prevent IT giants frommonopolizing the system at the expense of rivalﬁrms. The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) is
expected to impose ﬁnes for violations. Currently
Apple apps must be downloaded onto iPhones
through the App Store and no other channels. In-app
payments must go through Apple’s system. Google
allows third-party app distribution platforms but asa rule apps must use its billing system. Japan’s
Ministry of Internal Aﬀairs and Communications
says the country’s mobile app market will likely
grow to 29.2 billion dollars in 2023, which is up 50
percent from 2018.
Japan’s move follows theEuropean Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA),
which bans “gatekeepers” from favoring their own
tools in search results.

University of Tokyo Team Develops
Technology Using Muons
The University of Tokyo has developed atechnology to more precisely than previously
measure the position of objects with a margin oferror of just 3.9 centimeters using space-derived
elementary particles falling from the sky. Theseelementary particles have the property ofpenetrating matter and can be used inside buildings

and underground. It can be used to guide robots andautomated vehicles in places where radio waves
from the Global Positioning System (GPS) are
diﬃcult to reach. In its experiment, the university
team used two special 40-centimeter-square plate
sensors that can detect muons to measure theirposition. One of the sensors was attached to theobject whose location was to be determined, and theother was placed at a distance of at least 10 metersfrom the object. When a muon ﬂying from the sky
passes through the two sensors, the position wasmeasured based on the direction from which it ﬂew.
The technology to determine location with muons,called muPS, is already available, but the margin oferror previously was a few meters. Conventional
technology compares the time it took to pass throughthe sensor and uses the diﬀerence to measure its
position. This time, by using angles, the timerequired for measurement became faster, and amargin of error of 3.9 cm was achieved, the world’s
most precise system. University of Tokyo professor
Hiroyuki Tanaka, a leading researcher in the ﬁeld,
has said: “Cosmic-ray muons fall equally across the
Earth and always travel at the same speed regardlessof what matter they traverse, penetrating evenkilometers of rock,”

Japan Launches Entity to Verify AI
In February this year, Japan launched the AI
Safety Institute which is tasked with examining theevaluation methods of artiﬁcial intelligence (AI)safety and other relevant matters. It will study AI
security issues such as the risk of civilian AI
technology being applied to military purposes. Oneof the focuses will be on ChatGPT, the generative AI
technology created by OpenAI. Japan’s institute will
work closely with similar overseas organizations
such as Britain’s AI Safety Institute, which was set up
in November last year. Japan’s AI Safety Institute,
directed by Murakami Akiko, has been establishedwithin the Information-technology Promotion Agency(IPA). Murakami previously served as chief digitaloﬃcer of Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. Prior to that
she also participated in the development of IBM
Japan’s AI system Watson.
PATENTS & LICENSING, March 2024

News in Brief
Japan to Hasten Review Process for
Drug Manufacturing Changes
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
will introduce a new procedure that will aim to
reduce the review time required when changing the
manufacturing method for a drug. Shortening thepharmaceutical review process will lessen theburden on companies and lead to a stable supply of
drugs and stop product shortages. The ministry will
introduce the new review procedure on a trial basis
possibly as early as in ﬁscal 2024. The results will beanalyzed by an advisory body to the Minister of
Health, Labour and Welfare. Authorities hope tointroduce a revision to the current pharmaceuticallaw to the Diet, Japan’s parliament, as soon as
possible.

University Startup Launched toWork on Peptide Synthesis Technology
Substances called peptides, which are made up
of multiple amino acids connected together, areattracting attention for their potential in a variety of
applications. These include their use for antibacterial
and analgesic purposes as well as blood pressure andblood sugar control. Peptides are widely considered
to be the mainstay of next-generation pharmaceuticals.
A number of startups have been established for drug
discovery related to peptides. One of the ﬁrst suchﬁrms was Nagoya-based PepInnova Co. Ltd., which
spun oﬀ from Chubu University in 2022. The ﬁrm
was launched to commercialize the research resultsof Chubu University Professor Hisashi Yamamoto, aleading researcher in the ﬁeld. The company aims todevelop peptides for cosmetics consisting of ﬁve to
six amino acids linked together, and therapeutic
drugs consisting of 10 or more amino acids. It is
hoped that the drugs can be used for the treatment ofcancer. Conventional chemical synthesis of peptides
generates a large amount of waste such as aminoacids and reagents that fail to bind during thecomplex reaction process. This raises production
costs. The Osaka-based PeptiStar Inc. is working toresolve this issue. Some of the companies that haveinvested in PeptiStar includes Shionogi & Co. Ltd.

and Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd.

Global Increase Seen in Perovskite
Solar Cells Patent Application
A study by a research organization shows amarked increase in application for light, bendable
and inexpensive perovskite solar cells. Research by
Clarivate Japan showed that 180 patents forperovskite solar cells were ﬁled globally in 2021, a
45-fold increase over 10 years. That year, China ﬁled
70 applications, nearly four times the number byJapan. However, Japan still leads in the total numberof patents thanks to the accumulation over the past
20 years. Japan led the world in number of patents
ﬁled for perovskite type ― which was developed byProfessor Tsutomu Miyasaka of Toin University of
Yokohama ― for ﬁve years until 2019. Japanesecompanies have strengths in technologies that areoriented toward weight reduction and durability
with highly ﬂexible ﬁlm substrates. Among Japaneseﬁrms, Panasonic Corp. has the world’s highest levelof conversion eﬃciency and plans to unveil its
product by 2028. Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd.’s strengthlies in durability. Toshiba Corp.’s strength lies inlarge-area application technology, and it is aiming to
put its technology to practical use around 2025. The
perovskite type, widely seen as a strong candidate as
next-generation solar cells, is made by applying apaint-like material to a ﬁlm or other material.
Manufacturing cost is expected to be half that of thesilicon type used in general solar panels, and theweight is expected to be reduced to one-tenth.
Because of their lightweight and bendable qualities,
they can be attached to walls, roofs, and windows ofbuildings, areas previously diﬃcult to install. As theinstallation of existing solar cells appears to belimited due to the diﬃculty of securing land forlarge-scale solar power plants, the perovskite typecan be used for power generation in a wider range oflocations. They are expected to be widely used fromthe second half of the 2020s. The Fuji Keizai GroupCo. Ltd. estimates that the international market forperovskite solar cells will reach 1 trillion yen in 2035,
up from 32 billion yen in 2022.

PATENTS & LICENSING, March 2024

News in Brief
Number of patent applications related to perovskite
solar cells
China

70
60
50

South Korea

40
30
20

Japan

10
0

U.S.
U.K.
2005 07 09 11 13 15(Source: Clarivate Japan)

17

19

21

Year

Ranking of patents related to perovskite solar cell(company/organization)

Number ofapplications Patent score

Rank

1

Panasonic Corp. (Japan)

44

2235

2

Merck KGaA (Germany)

36

2177

3

Toshiba Corp. (Japan)

29

1574

4

Raynergy Tek Inc. (Taiwan)

25

1515

5

University of Oxford (U.K.)

22

1445

6

Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd. (Japan)

34

1428

7

Contemporary Amperex Technology
Co., Ltd. (CATL, China)

21

1389

8

Seoul National University (South Korea)

28

1377

9

Korea Research Institute ofChemical Technology (South Korea)

31

1340

10

Commissariat à l'énergie atomique etaux énergies alternatives (CEA, France)

28

1285

Japan Ministry to Use Satellite to
Provide Greenhouse Gas Data
Japan’s Ministry of Environment will begin
providing data on greenhouse gas emissions fromfactories and other facilities to companies, possiblyas early as in ﬁscal 2025. It will use a new satellite
to be launched in ﬁscal 2024 to determine the amountand concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2) andmethane at each business site. This will make it easierfor companies to prove the results of theirdecarbonization eﬀorts and thus help it raise funds
and stimulate investments. It is hoped that this move
will also help avoid criticism of “greenwashing,”
which is the process of conveying a false impression
or misleading information about how a company’s
moves and products are environmentally correct.
Satellites will use the intensity of sunlight reﬂectedfrom the earth to determine the amount andconcentration of greenhouse gases, such as CO 2 andmethane, which absorb sunlight. The higher theconcentration, the weaker the reﬂected light. Japan
has created the world’s ﬁrst satellite to observe global
warming gases. This will provide a model for thegovernment to back corporate emission reductions.

(Source: Clarivate Japan)

Ranking of patents related to perovskite solar cell(country/region)
Number ofapplications Patent score

Rank

1

Japan

274

13178

2

U.S.

231

11487

3

South Korea

228

11203

4

China

196

11036

5

U.K.

46

2893

6

France

43

2019

7

Taiwan

29

1632

8

Germany

27

1353

9

Australia

12

602

10

Russia8475(Source: Clarivate Japan)

Note: Patents filed in two or more countries and publishedby November 9, 2023 were analyzed. Some patents from
European countries are included in the European Patent
Office (number of applications: 110, patent score: 6,624),
and excluded from this ranking. (Source: Clarivate Japan)

The WIPO Japan Office supports these articles undera Funds-In-Trust Japan Industrial Property Global(FIT/Japan Industrial Property Global) project.

PATENTS & LICENSING, March 2024

News in Brief
Japan, U.S., South Korea Firms to
Collaborate on Semiconductor Project
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT)will develop optical semiconductors that will lead toa signiﬁcant reduction in power consumption in thecore technology of next-generation communication
infrastructure, Innovative Optical and Wireless
Network (IOWN). It will work in collaboration withﬁrms such as Intel Corp., SK Hynix Inc. and otherglobal semiconductor manufacturers. The Japanese
government will provide a total of about 45 billion
yen to support the endeavor. Data infrastructure isseen as the cornerstone of the digital society. The
Japan- U.S.- Korea alliance aims to establish aninternational standard data infrastructure technology.
IOWN uses optical technology, an area in which NTT
excels, to exchange large amounts of data with low
power consumption, and is aiming to become aninternational standard for use in the “6G”
communications and data infrastructure network,
the next-generation communications standard that is
expected to become widespread by around 2030.

Kyocera to Develop Device forSuperior Underwater Communication
Kyocera Corp. will develop a device that will
enable the world’s highest level of underwatercommunication at 1 gigabit per second.
The
technology to deliver data 100 meters underwater
will be put to practical use by 2028. This will make itpossible to easily inspect oﬀshore wind power
generation facilities based on images taken byunderwater drones. This means the Internet ofThings (IoT), which connects everything to theInternet, will extend underwater. Kyocera willdevelop communication devices that use blue lasers
instead of radio waves. Land-based radio waves
for smartphones reach only about 1 centimeter
underwater. Using visible light, which can reachmore than 100 meters even underwater, the company
aims to achieve a communication speed that is about
one-tenth that of 5G. In 2021, Kyocera acquired alaser technology that is about 100 times more
powerful than light-emitting diodes (LEDs) throughthe purchase of a U.S. startup. The underwatercommunications market is expected to be worth 3
trillion yen in 7 years.

Japan Camera Firms
Develop Technology to Fight Fakes
Japan’s mirrorless camera manufacturers, which
dominate the global market, are planning tosuccessively unveil new models that are ﬁtted withtechnology to prevent fake images. Information suchas location, photographer, and editing history will beembedded in the image, and digital signaturetechnology will ensure the authenticity of the image.
The Japanese ﬁrms with such a camera in thepipeline are Canon Inc., Sony Group and Nikon
Corp.

Japan to Introduce Strict Security
Clearance Bill that Includes Penalty
Japan is in the process of drafting a bill toestablish a security clearance system to certify people
who will have access to crucial information on
economic security matters. The bill will include
imprisonment as a penalty if a person is found guiltyof leaking key information. It is hoped that if Japan
introduces a system on a par with major Westerncountries, Japanese companies will have more
opportunities to handle highly classiﬁed information.
This is essential for companies that handle
cutting-edge technologies to maintain international
competitiveness. Japan is the only country within
the Group of Seven (G7) lacking a comprehensive
legal framework to address the issue of leaks on
information related to economic security. The newbill, which is due to be submitted to the Diet, Japan’s
parliament, will address this issue by adding asecond clearance system to protect key economic
security data. This will be added to a 2014 statesecrets law, which was designed to safeguard classiﬁed
information on defense, diplomacy, counterintelligenceand terrorism prevention. But, that law did not covereconomic security. The United States has a threePATENTS & LICENSING, March 2024

News in Brief
tiered framework, that is top-secret, secret andconﬁdential information.

Japan to Launch Organization to
Work on Fusion Power Development
Japan’s public, private sectors and academia
will join hands to work on the practical application offusion power generation, a next-generation energy
technology. An organization that includes the threeparties is due to be launched in March 2024. Some 50
ﬁrms and organizations will be involved. These
include ﬁrms involved in fusion reactor construction,such as IHI Corp., materials manufacturers, tradingﬁrms and startups, such as Kyoto Fusioneering Ltd.
and Ex-Fusion Inc. Major ﬁrms also involved include
JGC Holdings Corp., Obayashi Corp. and Inpex
Corp. The United States, which leads in the eﬀort todevelop fusion power, already has an organizationthat is working to commercialize the technology, theFusion Industry Association.

Japan’s Proposed Flying Base Stations
Due to Launch in 2025
Flying base stations used for telecom services
are expected to be put into practical use, possibly as
early as in ﬁscal 2025. The World Radiocommunication
Conference held late last year in Dubai agreed toadopt four frequency bands proposed by Japan asinternational standards for airborne base stations.
The four bands are compatible with High-Altitude
Platform Systems (HAPS). Airborne base stations
will use the 1.7 gigahertz, 2 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands
as global standards. The three frequencies form
the core of cellular communications. The 700 to 900
megahertz “platinum” band, which allows for
improved mobile services, will operate in Europe,
Africa, the Americas and parts of Asia. The recent
development is expected to give Japanese companies,
which are ahead in technological development in the
sector, a boost in expanding exports of unmanned
aircraft and communications infrastructure todeveloping countries.

JAXA, Astroscale Launch World’sFirst Debris Inspection Satellite
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA)
initiative to remove space debris moved a step
forward with the successful launch of startup
Astroscale Japan Inc.’s commercial debris inspection
demonstration satellite from New Zealand in
February. Space debris, which consists of terminatedor failed satellites and other unwanted man-madeobjects, is circling the Earth. They are a cause ofconcern as they could hit and damage satellites
operating in space. JAXA’s Commercial Removal of
Debris Demonstration (CRD2) is a collaborative eﬀort
with private companies such as Astroscale to workon this problem. Astroscale said in a news release:“(It has) conﬁrmed the successful launch of its
commercial debris inspection demonstration
satellite, Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan(ADRAS-J)…The ADRAS-J mission is the world’s
ﬁrst attempt to safely approach, characterize andsurvey the state of an existing piece of large debris.”

SoftBank to Launch Alliance toWork on AI for Telecoms
SoftBank, Japan’s telecommunications giant,
will launch an organization to develop technologythat can process data at cell phone transmission
towers without having to rely on data centers. The
organization, named the AI-RAN Alliance, is
expected to include about 10 ﬁrms such as U.S.-based
chipmaker Nvidia Corp., Sweden’s Ericsson and
Finland’s Nokia Corp. The alliance will work todevelop a technology to distribute data processing
by installing artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) in cell phonebase stations. The group aims to commercialize atechnology that will prevent traﬃc fromconcentrating at a particular base station and also
reduce power consumption at the base station.

PATENTS & LICENSING, March 2024

News in Brief
Researchers Develop Technology to
Produce Sugar from CO 2
A team of researchers including those from
Osaka University and Toyota Central R&D Labs
have developed a technology that uses carbon
dioxide (CO 2) to produce sugar at a rate several
hundred times faster than photosynthesis. The
technology may make it possible in the future to
produce edible sugar and raw materials to makecultured meat which can be used as a protein source.
As a technology useful for decarbonization, theresearchers aim to put this technology to practicaluse in the 2030s.

Seiko Epson to Work on Textile Recycling
Seiko Epson Corp. will start a business torecycle ﬁbers from clothing possibly as early as in
2025. The company plans to develop an equipmentthat applies paper recycling technology, which will
be supplied to clothing manufacturers and otherrelated ﬁrms. Seiko Epson’s eﬀort comes in the wakeof the European Union’s decision to introduce a ban
on destroying unsold clothing from 2025, in a bid to
reduce waste. The Japanese ﬁrm will work with theHong Kong Research Institute of Textiles andApparel Ltd. (HKRITA) in the development of arecycling solution.

Startup Founded by
Ex-Google Researchers Raises
4.5 Billion Yen in Funding
Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based startup founded byprominent artiﬁcial intelligence (AI) researchers
from Google LLC, announced that it has raised a
total of approximately 4.5 billion yen in funding fromtop Japanese ﬁrms such as NTT Corp., KDDI Corp.
and the Sony Group. Founding members of Sakana
AI include Llion Jones and David Ha, both from
Google. Sakana AI is working on next-generation
technologies that overcome the challenges of current
generative AI.

Japan to Establish
Recycling System for Plastics
Japan’s academia and industrial sector,
including Tohoku University and NEC Corp., will
collaborate to create a recycling system for plastics.
The collaboration calls for creating a database of
information such as the production history ofrecycled materials. This database will be madeavailable to molding and processing manufacturers.
The eﬀort is in response to the growing pace ofrecycling around the world, as seen, for example by
the European Unions move to mull making the use ofrecycled materials in automobiles mandatory. The
database of recycled materials is due to include basic
information such as sorting method and amount of
impurities, as well as physical properties such as
bending and impact strength. Molding and processing
ﬁrms will be able to produce a stable quality of
products with the advance availability of suchinformation. This project has been adopted by the
Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion
Program (SIP), a Japanese government initiative torealize the country’s scientiﬁc and technologicalinnovation.

Japan to Launch Company toDevelop Quantum Computer
A new company will be established in ﬁscal
2024 with the goal of commercializing the next
generation of high-speed quantum computers. The
eﬀort will be led by the National Institutes of Natural
Sciences, Institute for Molecular Science, a national
research institute, with the participation of about 10
companies from the private sector. These include
Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., NEC Corp., Hamamatsu
Photonics K.K., as well as the Development Bankof Japan. The new company will aim to leverage
Japan’s strengths in proprietary technologies tostrengthen industrial competitiveness and economic
security for the future. It will work on a new type ofquantum computer called the cold-atom quantum
computer. A prototype is planned to be created inﬁscal 2026, and a commercial model by ﬁscal 2030,
which if achieved will be the world’s ﬁrst suchmachine.
PATENTS & LICENSING, March 2024

News in Brief
Growing Number of Japan Startups
Making their Mark in Space Industry

Kyocera to Develop Device forSuperior Underwater Communication

A growing number of startups and mid-sizedcompanies in Japan are increasing their presencein the space industry. One well-known example is
Systems Engineering Consultants Co. Ltd. (SEC)
which participated in Japan’s Smart Lander for
Investigating Moon (SLIM) program that succeeded
in landing Japan’s ﬁrst spacecraft on the moon in
January. SEC worked on the development of thecontrol system of LEV-2, one of two small Lunar
Excursion Vehicles that took part in the mission.
LEV-2 only weighs about 250 grams and is about thesize of a ball used in baseball. SEC spun oﬀ from the
University of Tokyo in 1970. The company’s strengthlies in autonomous control systems that change themovements of robots and equipment in responseto the surrounding environment. In 1971, the company
was contracted to develop a performance test system
for rocket engines as its ﬁrst project in the space ﬁeld.
One company with sales of 30 billion yen or less withpromising technologies and strategies is ispace Inc.,
which works on the development of lunar modules
and rovers. Another startup is tackling the growing
issue of space debris. This is Osaka University startup
EX-Fusion Inc., which recently reached an agreementwith Australia’s EOS Space Systems Pty Ltd. for ademonstration experiment to capture small spacedebris. Space debris, such as rocket fragments, posesa risk of colliding with satellites and has become anissue that needs to be addressed. The team will workon a demonstration experiment to capture 3centimeter class space debris, which is diﬃcult tocapture with conventional technology. EX-Fusion’s
strength lies in laser technology. It said in a news
release: “EOS Space and EX-Fusion will explore
possibilities for cooperation on space debris issues byintegrating EX-Fusion’ high-power laser technology
into one of EOS’ existing optical ground stations andevaluate it for tracking and removal of space debris.”
EX-Fusion says EOS Space Systems, which was
founded in 1983, is a leader in delivering unique
optical surveillance capabilities for space domainawareness, space intelligence, and space control.

Kyocera Corp. will develop a device that will
enable the world’s highest level of underwatercommunication at 1 gigabit per second. The technology
to deliver data 100 meters underwater will be put topractical use by 2028. This will make it possible toeasily inspect oﬀshore wind power generation
facilities based on images taken by underwater
drones. This means the Internet of Things (IoT),
which connects everything to the Internet, will
extend underwater.
Kyocera will develop
communication devices that use blue lasers insteadof radio waves.
Land-based radio waves for
smartphones reach only about 1 centimeter
underwater. Using visible light, which can reachmore than 100 meters even underwater, the company
aims to achieve a communication speed that is about
one-tenth that of 5G. In 2021, Kyocera acquired alaser technology that is about 100 times more
powerful than light-emitting diodes (LEDs) throughthe purchase of a U.S. startup. The underwatercommunications market is expected to be worth 3
trillion yen in 7 years.

KEK Resumes Operation of
Its Particle Collider
In January, the High Energy Accelerator
Research Organization (KEK) restarted operation ofJapan's largest circular accelerator, in which particles
collide with each other at nearly the speed of light tostudy changes. The performance of the accelerator
has been greatly improved, and it will study the
mystery of the birth of matter, which constitutes theuniverse,
andexploreunknown
physicalphenomena. The SuperKEKB is located under the
grounds of KEK’s Tsukuba campus in Ibaraki
Prefecture, near Tokyo. The particle collider had
been shut down since June 2022 for maintenance andrenewal.
These news articles were compiled by IP・L
Communications.

PATENTS & LICENSING, March 2024