RFID in Japan

Mitsukoshi will soon introduce a system that uses mobile phone-like PDAs to read RFID-tagged designer jeans and quickly check which sizes are available. The system will be introduced at nine Mitsukoshi department stores across the nation, including Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi, Ginza, Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya-Sakae, Takamatsu, Matsuyama, Fukuoka, and Niigata. Nihonbashi and Sendai stores will be the first to introduce it on September 1.

This system is based on the the pilot test they have conducted back in February (recently reported by StorefrontBacktalk). During the pilot test jeans' sales increased by 15.8%.

In addition to the PDAs, sales agents can use personal computers to view sales, orders, inventory, and how many times a pair of jeans was tried on (which is recorded by sales agents using PDAs). The PCs are used to analyse sales, order out-of-stock items, and predict potential demands for each type of jeans. The buyers at Mitsukoshi's headquarter can access the data from all the nine stores.

via lnews, August 30, 2006.

On August 28, 2006, NEC announced their integrated solution packages using UHF RFID (based on EPCglobal standard). The packages include hardware, middleware, business applications, and consulting services. The entire NEC group will work together to provide these solution packages. In this context, they will open so-called "Ubiquitous Solution House" in Tokyo - a test center for RFID systems - in October.

350 employees will be working for this solution business and the company aims at selling the packages to 500 companies (with the sales of 200B Japanese Yen, approx. 2B USD).

via nikkei

via StorefrontBacktalk < RFID Times

In a dressing room in the huge Japanese department chain Mitsukoshi, half-dressed customers scan RFID-tagged jeans and then use an IP telephone to check inventory and call for more clothes to be brought in.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) is considering RFID as a key technology for enhancing safety of electric and gas products.

In 2005, a college student died of inhaling carbon monoxide while using Paloma's water heater. People say one of the things that caused this tragedy (and many other similar incidents) is the illegal modification of the water heater by repairmen.

METI is considering ways to enhance safety of electric and gas products by attaching them RFID tags that records rapair histories. For example, at a second-hand shop, consumers could potentially use such RFID tags to check past repair histories. Gas companies can also use the tags when checking gas water heaters. METI is planning to use 100M Japanese yen (about a million dollar) next year for a pilot test based on this idea.

Challenges include the cost and the durability of RFID tags. It's also a question if repairmen (especially the ones who made illegal modifications) accurately record what they did to equipment.

via Asahi.com, August 12, 2006 (in Japanese)

YRP Ubiquitous Networking Lab (UNL) is the Japanese organization that is promoting a non-EPCglobal RFID standard called Ubiquitous ID or uID. Fudan Univresity in Shanghai and YRP UNL together founded a lab (called uID/RFI Open Lab) in China for R&D and promotion of Ubiquitous ID technology in China.

via ubiquitous id center