Kawasaki and Nagoya, Japan, July 24, 2025 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - Fujitsu Limited and Nagoya University, a member of the Tokai National Higher Education and Research System (THERS), have jointly developed a technology to encourage the use of new transportation services and eliminate transportation gaps. The “social acceptance model-based simulation (SAMSIM)” simulates how psychological factors influence residents' willingness to use new transportation options and combined with AI-powered digital rehearsal technology, it allows for proactive evaluation of strategies to ensure successful service adoption.Ride-sharing and self-driving cars have emerged as ways to address transportation gaps as populations age and driver shortages persist. However, the ease with which these new services are accepted varies depending on various psychological factors such as perceived safety, trust, and usefulness. To promote usage of these services, it is necessary to accurately understand the psychological factors that impact people's willingness to try them create measures that encourage behavioral change.Simulations using this technology showed that strategically timed and targeted public awareness campaigns could increase usage intent by approximately 20%. This research is a key outcome of the Fujitsu-Nagoya University Social Digital Twin Research Division at the Fujitsu Small Research Lab [1]. A demonstration of the technology will be accessible through the Fujitsu Research Portal starting August 1, 2025.Overview and background of the technologyThe "Social Acceptance Model," developed by Nagoya University, provides a framework for understanding the psychological drivers behind transportation choices. By integrating this model with Fujitsu's agent simulation digital rehearsal technology, which accurately reproduces and predicts human behavior on digital twins, the system can assess how various interventions – such as targeted advertising or other service improvements – will affect residents' perceptions and consequently their willingness to use the service.To verify the effectiveness of this technology, Fujitsu utilized the data from a field experiment of an on-demand ride-sharing taxi service conducted by Kawanishi Town in Nara Prefecture and CHUO FUKKEN CONSULTANTS CO.,LTD. in fiscal year 2023. In addition, Nagoya University conducted a 48-point survey to clarify the psychological factors that influence the intention to use on-demand ride-sharing taxis and obtained responses from approximately 1,200 people (15% of the local population).Based on this survey data, the simulation was built to replicate residents' choices regarding the service. The model succeeded in reproducing the actual usage trends of on-demand transportation in Kawanishi Town, achieving accuracy of 90%.Using this simulation, the two parties optimized two key measures – "public awareness activities" and "service expansion by increasing the number of vehicles" – for the two psychological factors that were estimated to have a strong impact on usage intention: "awareness of the service" and " perceived usefulness." The simulation specifically revealed that strategically improving the timing and frequency of the distribution of promotional materials and the increase of the number of available taxis could significantly reduce reservation failures and boost usage intention by approximately 20%, leading to a greater service sustainability.Figure 1: Overview of social acceptance model-based simulationFigure 2: Overview and results of the initiativesIsao Kita, Director of the Comprehensive Policy Division, Kawanishi Town, Nara Prefecture, comments:“I believe that pre-emptive consideration of transportation policies based on digital rehearsal technology will make it easier for local governments to consider measures amidst increasingly complex social issues. The possibilities are fascinating.”Future plansBy fiscal 2026, Fujitsu and Nagoya University will continue to conduct demonstration experiments and aim to develop this technology into a solution that suggests measures to improve adoption of new transportation services using data gained from small-scale resident surveys. Going forward, both parties will apply this technology to the design of public services in a wide range of fields, including healthcare, medicine, urban development, and environmental measures, in addition to the mobility sector, thereby improving people's well-being through converging technologies that combine the digital realm and humanities and social sciences.[1] Fujitsu Small Research Lab:Established in 2023. Fujitsu researchers reside or stay long-term at universities to accelerate joint research, discover new themes, develop human resources, and build medium- to long-term relationships with universities.About FujitsuFujitsu’s purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. As the digital transformation partner of choice for customers around the globe, our 113,000 employees work to resolve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Our range of services and solutions draw on five key technologies: AI, Computing, Networks, Data & Security, and Converging Technologies, which we bring together to deliver sustainability transformation. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$23 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025 and remains the top digital services company in Japan by market share. Find out more: global.fujitsuAbout Tokai National Higher Education and Research System – Nagoya UniversityBoasting a free and vibrant academic culture, Nagoya University has produced prominent leaders in Japanese industry through its globally renowned research and achievements, which have led to the awarding of Nobel Prizes to six Nagoya University scientists.Press ContactsFujitsu LimitedPublic and Investor Relations DivisionInquiriesTokai National Higher Education and Research System – Nagoya UniversityPhone: 052-789-5773kouho@t.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp Copyright 2025 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

TOKYO, Japan, July 24, 2025 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) – Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda) today revealed some details of how it will support the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 (WCH Tokyo 25), which will be held from September 13 through 21, 2025. As an official global partner, Honda will contribute to the sustainability objectives of WCH Tokyo 25 and also by supporting athletes who strive to realize their dreams by pushing beyond their limits at this premier competition in the sport of track and field.The Honda theme for WCH Tokyo 25 is “Maximizing the excitement and inspiration from the athletes’ great performance, through the realization of an environmentally-responsible and safe event by providing a wide variety of mobility products equipped with innovative technologies.” Honda is planning to support the theme by providing its environmentally-responsible vehicles, including electric vehicles, to be used as the official vehicles of the WCH Tokyo 25.One such vehicle will be the Honda CR-V e:FCEV fuel cell electric vehicle, which will serve as the head umpire vehicle for both the men’s and women’s marathon races. The CR-V e:FCEV is a plug-in fuel cell vehicle that combines the benefits of a fuel cell vehicle—long driving range and short hydrogen refueling time—with plug-in battery charging, which further increases the convenience of driving the vehicle. During the WCH Tokyo 25, the CR-V e:FCEV will be fueled with “green hydrogen”—produced using renewable energy that emits no CO₂ even during production—to contribute to the environmentally-conscious event operations.Moreover, Honda will provide the Honda CUV e: for use as camera bikes covering both men’s and women’s marathon races. The electric personal commuter scooter model was designed to realize quiet and clean mobility in urban areas.In addition to these models, Honda plans to support and energize the event with a diverse lineup of Honda mobility products, including electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).Honda CR-V e:FCEV with a special wrap displaying the WCH Tokyo 25 logoFurthermore, as a sponsor of the women’s bibs, the Honda corporate logo will appear on the bibs worn by all participating female athletes—approximately 1,000 in total.Honda special World Athletics websiteHonda today launched its special World Athletics website, within its global corporate website, where it will continuously share Honda stories and passion for supporting athletes who take on challenges in the WCH Tokyo 25, and introduce a wide variety of Honda vehicles serving active roles during the event.URL: https://global.honda/jp/WorldAthletics/ (Japanese) Launched on July 24https://global.honda/en/WorldAthletics/ (English) Launch on July 31Based on the Honda vision for its sports activities – “To increase the number of people who take on challenges through sports activities and make the lives of all people more enjoyable” – Honda will continue to support various athletes who take on challenges toward the realization of their own dreams. Copyright 2025 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

- Rationalization of domestic production technologies and strengthening of the system in Japan for manufacturing divertor outer vertical targets for ITER- Seeking to contribute to the ITER Project and provide components for the prototype reactor for fusion energy and startup machinesTOKYO, July 23, 2025 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, "Hitachi") and the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (“QST”) began developing a second prototype, a full-scale mockup of an outer vertical target*1 which is one of the most important components of a divertor in January 2022. Divertors are important pieces of components used in the ITER fusion*2 experimental reactor that is under construction in Southern France. With streamlining the production method through measures such as the introduction of an automatic welding system as detailed below, we completed the second prototype in March 2025. Furthermore, we today announce that a high-heat-load sample of an outer vertical target has passed the rigorous certification test by the ITER Organization, which constructs and operates ITER as an international organization. Hitachi's production technologies have earned significant recognition following the preceding company which completed the first prototype with QST in July 2024.*1 QST will deliver 58 outer vertical targets to the ITER Organization. The preceding company manufactured 18 of these. The company that will manufacture the remaining 40 targets will be decided later.*2 Fusion is the source of the energy that keeps the sun shining. To realize fusion energy on Earth, it is necessary to use nuclear fusion reactions where deuterium, tritium and other light atomic nuclei fuse in a plasma state and become heavier atomic nuclei such as helium. Lithium, the raw material for tritium, and Deuterium are abundantly available in seawater. Additionally, the generation of fusion energy does not result in the generation of CO₂. For this reason, fusion energy is expected to fundamentally solve energy and environmental issues. See *5 regarding plasma.Utilizing the technologies and knowledge obtained through the production of the prototype, Hitachi and QST will continue to contribute to the promotion of the ITER Project and also cooperate in the development of technologies for realizing fusion energy in the future. In addition, Hitachi seeks to provide divertors and similar in-vessel components to fusion energy-related startups and a prototype fusion reactor for which QST is investigating the design.The second prototype outer vertical targetHigh-heat-load sample of an outer vertical targetOutline of ITER and divertorsTo realize fusion energy, seven regions including Japan, Europe, the United States, Russia, South Korea, China and India are promoting the ITER Project, a large international project aimed at conducting scientific and technological demonstrations of fusion. With the goal of achieving full operation through nuclear fusion burning, the ITER experimental reactor is under construction in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, France. Japan is taking on important roles such as the development and production of major pieces of ITER components including divertors and toroidal field coils (TF coils). QST is the ITER Project's agent in Japan and it promotes the procurement of equipment.The divertor is one of the most important components of a tokamak*3 and other magnetic confinement*4 fusion reactors. Divertors play an important role in maintaining the stability of the nuclear fusion reaction and exhausting impurities such as fuel residue and the helium generated by the nuclear fusion reaction in the reactor core plasma.*5 Divertors are the only tokamak devices capable of directly receiving plasma. They are used in a severe environment where they are exposed to heat load and particle load from the plasma. For this reason, special materials such as tungsten are used to make them. Tungsten has a high-melting-point but it is difficult to machine. Moreover, the plasma-facing surfaces are precisely shaped, requiring high-precision machining and assembly technologies to achieve the correct overall shape, inclination, steps and gaps that are accurate to 0.5 mm or less. It is believed that divertors are the hardest piece of the ITER in-vessel components to manufacture.*3 The method, represented by ITER and JT-60SA, retains an ultra-high temperature plasma that is more than 100 million degrees or higher within a strong magnetic field in a vacuum, and nuclear fusion reactions occur within the plasma. See *5 regarding plasma. See *11 for information about JT-60SA.*4 Fusion plasma is at very high temperature and cannot be kept in a conventional container, but it retains positively or negatively charged ions and characteristically becomes entangled in magnetic fields (lines of magnetic force). Using these characteristics, a magnetic confinement fusion reactor forms a basket-like magnetic field to retain plasma.*5 Plasma is one of the four basic states of matter. It is the fourth state next to solid, liquid and gas. When matter is exposed to very high temperatures or a strong electromagnetic field, atoms break down and separate to positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons, and they form plasma.The heat load on divertors reaches a maximum of 20 megawatts per square meter. This is equivalent to the surface heat load that an asteroid probe is exposed to when entering the atmosphere and much more than the surface heat load the space shuttle was subjected to. Outer vertical targets need to have a strong mechanical structure because they are subject to strong electromagnetic forces that can reach an approx. maximum of 16.5 tons. The establishment of technology for making divertors resistant to high heat loads and huge electromagnetic forces is a very important part of increasing the power output of fusion reactors, reducing the size of the reactors or increasing their magnetic fields in the future.Characteristics of the technology for the production of the second prototypeQST leads the manufacturers' material development efforts, regarding them as key technology for enabling divertors to withstand heat load that can be as high as 20 megawatts per square meter. Consequently, the company established methods of producing tungsten monoblocks*6 which do not break even under heat load, and copper alloy cooling pipes which are kept strong by maintaining high thermal conductivity while limiting the coarsening of their crystal grain. To bond these materials together, a brazing*7 technology that is resistant to high heat load has also been developed.*6 This is one of the components of the outer vertical targets that are a combination of tungsten, a metal that is resistant to heat load, and a copper buffer material.*7 A method of bonding metals. The technology uses a metal called a brazing material to bond base materials to each other. In contrast, welding is a method of bonding metals by welding a base material.By combining technologies and experience which are accumulated over many years in the nuclear energy business, Hitachi has developed a defect-free, high-quality welding technology for special materials and a non-destructive technology for inspecting restricted and complex shapes, and repeated demonstration testing has shown that Hitachi has achieved the high-precision machining and assembly technology that is accurate to 0.5 mm or less, a requirement of the ITER Organization. To rationalize production processes and costs, an automatic welding system optimized specially for divertors was introduced for welding thick, high-strength stainless steel. Instead of manual work, a robotic arm with a welding torch attached is combined with a device that controls the position of the object to be welded in synchronization with the movement of the robotic arm, resulting in higher quality welding at low cost.The special materials necessary for outer vertical targets are procured by QST from material manufacturers and are supplied to Hitachi which uses the special materials provided by QST to machine and assemble outer vertical targets in a strictly quality-controlled process. QST maintains and uses a high-temperature helium leak test facility*8 for the in-vessel components of fusion reactors that is the only one of its kind in Japan, and it independently conducts final tests to ensure the quality of the divertors.*8 The test facility uses helium gas to check for leaks with high precision at a high temperature of 250'C which is the environment that divertors will be used in.Initiatives implemented by Hitachi and QST to dateTo date, Hitachi and QST have been developing and manufacturing an ultra-high-voltage power supply system*9 with a voltage of 1 million volts for neutral beam injectors*10 for ITER. Currently, a system is being tested in Italy. Production of the devices to be delivered to France has commenced at Hitachi's factory. To realize fusion energy quickly, efforts are under way in Japan to reinforce neutral beam injectors for JT-60SA,*11 the world's largest superconducting tokamak device built jointly by Japan and Europe in parallel with the ITER Project.*9 The system supplies the power needed to actuate neutral beam injectors.*10 The device for injecting high-energy hydrogen atoms into plasma to heat the plasma. It heats the plasma to an ultra-high temperature of more than 100 million degrees, the temperature at which a nuclear fusion reaction occurs.*11 For information about JT-60SA, see the explanation about the JT-60SA Project on the website of the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology.Website about Hitachi's fusion businesshttps://www.hitachi.co.jp/products/energy/nuclear/accelerator/index.htmlAbout Hitachi, Ltd.Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB) that brings together IT, OT(Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi contributes to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance. Hitachi operates globally in four sectors – Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries – and the Strategic SIB Business Unit for new growth businesses. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi generates value from integrating data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges. Revenues for FY2024 (ended March 31, 2025) totaled 9,783.3 billion yen, with 618 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 280,000 employees worldwide. Visit us at www.hitachi.com.About LumadaAbout the National Institutes for Quantum Science and TechnologyThe National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) was established in April 2016 to promote quantum science and technology in a comprehensive and integrated manner. QST leads the world in 3 fields of research and development. Research on Quantum Technology Basis aims to create high functionality materials and devices utilizing high end laser technology. Research on Quantum Biological science aims to elucidate biological processes based on quantum science and technology. Research on Innovative Diagnosis and Treatment for Cancer and Dementia and other symptoms aims to realize a society of healthy longevity through heavy ion therapy, high precision diagnosis utilizing PET and treatments using targeted isotope therapy. Furthermore, the operation and maintenance of 3GeV-class synchrotron radiation facility “NanoTerasu” will be conducted as a national center of core high radiation medical assistance with public-private partnership leading technical development and human resource development in radiation medicine. Visit us at https://www.qst.go.jp/Contact information for Hitachi, Ltd.Business ContactTaku OyamaProject Management GroupFusion and Accelerators Development CenterGroup Leader Senior EngineerHitachi, Ltd+81-294-55-3420taku.oyama.ke@hitachi.comContact information for National Institutes for Quantum Science and TechnologyBusiness & Media ContactQST International Affairs and Public Relations Section,Department of International Affairs and Public Relations+81-432-06-3026info@qst.go.jp Copyright 2025 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

Showcasing a prototype LEO satellite communication terminal (*1) enabling high-speed, high-capacity communication in areas with limited cellular coverageTOKYO, July 23, 2025 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - Sharp Corporation (herein after "Sharp") will exhibit at the 2nd SPEXA - International Space Business Expo, held at Tokyo Big Sight (Koto-ku, Tokyo) from Wednesday, July 30 to Friday, August 1. Sharp will showcase a LEO satellite communication terminal under development, leveraging its expertise in compact, lightweight design and communication technologies from smartphone development, along with supporting applications and field trial initiatives.Booth Image - Main Exhibits* LEO Satellite Communication Terminal (Reference Exhibit)Sharp will exhibit the terminal and introduce potential use cases such as real-time data transmission, location sharing, and remote control in areas with limited cellular connectivity, including maritime and mountainous regions. The terminal is also proposed as a solution for business continuity plan (BCP) during disasters. A conceptual ultra-compact model, designed for drone integration, will be presented as part of Sharp's efforts toward next-generation field solutions.* Satellite Operation Application (Reference Exhibit)A dedicated application supports the efficient operation and management of the LEO satellite communication terminal. It allows users to monitor terminal status, nearby obstacles, and satellite positioning. In case of a malfunction, the app provides troubleshooting guidance, streamlining maintenance tasks.* Field TrialsSharp will present field trials conducted using the compact and lightweight LEO satellite communication terminal, installed on vessels and vehicles. Through these tests, Sharp is accelerating development to ensure stable communication under various conditions by evaluating practical performance and identifying technical challenges.*1 A user terminal integrating a LEO satellite communication antenna and modem functions. LEO stands for Low Earth Orbit.- Exhibition LocationTokyo Big Sight, South Exhibition Hall – Satellite Data & Space Utilization Area, Booth No.S6-34- LEO Satellite Communication User Terminal Images *2 A method that enhances system reliability by duplicating the system and keeping one in standby. In the field of communications, it refers to a system that enables bidirectional communication.*3 A type of bidirectional communication in which transmission and reception are performed alternately.*4 The LEO satellite communication terminal supports dual carrier operation.This development has been funded by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) (JP012368G50501). Copyright 2025 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.