Japanese firms are working to improve the lives of people through technological innovations.
NEC Corporation, the Japanese multinational IT services and products provider, recently displayed its products and services at "NEC Innovative Solutions fair 2014" in Singapore.
The company has established the regional headquarters of its Asia pacific operations in Singapore.
Lim Kok Quee, Managing Director, NEC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, said: "NEC will provide safer and more secure social infrastructure to Singapore."
Takayuki Morita, Executive Vice President, NEC Corporation, said: "NEC, together with you, wants to be a social value innovator in the area of safety, security, efficiency and equality. The size of the economy in emerging countries is growing. NEC sees that the world is changing, and how NEC wants to contribute to that world."
Shinya Kukita, Chief Engineer, NEC Corporation, said: "We have expanded the presence in Singapore by introducing the collaborations with Interpol and as well as we established the global safety division, that's also the first division headquarters outside of Japan. We have also established the research lab in Singapore and we have participated to the safe city test bed in Singapore as well. So, in that sense, Singapore is the very focus point for our Asia pacific operations."
In its mid-range plan last year, NEC took up social solutions as a focus area.
Out of various product lines, it picked up two major segments - social solutions and enterprise solutions.
NEC is also very strong in the biometric identification technologies such as fingerprint identification, facial recognition and video analytics.
The company exhibited physical security solutions as well as several vertical solutions such as retail, big data, cloud solutions and space solutions.
Kentaro Sakagami of the Satellite Systems and Equipment, NEC Corporation, said: "According to Japanese government support, we are now trying to export our technologies as a social infrastructure package to Asian areas. This satellite can support for mainly natural disaster mitigation and control."
Shinya Kukita, Chief Engineer, NEC Corporation, said: "Of course, we need to customize the solutions based on the economical development level of each country, but we feel that we can expand our experiences in Singapore to other countries in this region."
It's not just security; Japanese firms are also promoting environment-friendly initiatives in Asia.
In Indonesia's capital Jakarta, MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo visited the official residence of city's governor Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, to promote the "bike to work" initiative.
It aims at encouraging people to use bicycles for short distances.
The governor spends every Friday morning cycling with his colleagues and friends.
MotoGP champion Lorenzo and President of Yamaha Indonesia Kojima joined the governor after being invited by him.
They used Yamaha Pas, an electrically power assisted bicycle, which was first unveiled in Indonesia.
Valentino Rossi, MotoGP World Champion, Yamaha Factory Racing, said: "I think it's a very important message because here in Jakarta traffic is a big problem. Always need a lot of time to make just one kilometer. With the motorcycle, with the scooter, and also with the bicycle is the important methods for all the people who live here in Jakarta, because you can go to work for you can go wherever you want in a lot less time. For this reason, I think that the motorcycle and Yamaha can help Jakarta and all the people that live here, for a lot less time in the traffic."
Yamaha bikes are not only fun to ride but can also be an important solution to urban traffic congestion.
