Keywords and proper nouns concerning Japan's microelectronics industry

Ene-farm
Ene-farm is a pet name for home-use FC cogeneration systems set by the Fuel Cell Commercialization Conference of Japan (FCCJ) in June 2008 to promote them. The Japanese government supports the promotion, claiming it is the world's first fuel cell system for the home. The systems extract hydrogen from city gas, liquefied petroleum (LP) gas or kerosene, which reacts with oxygen to generate electricity. Heat accompanying the electricity generation is used for heating water. Consequently, effective use is made of about 80% of the energy generated. Most systems are based on PEFC technology. Major gas and oil suppliers and homebuilders have joined the bandwagon.
The cost of the home system is still high at 3-4 million yen (US$30,000-40,000). To encourage installation, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) introduced a subsidy system. The affiliated Fuel Cell Association is publicly offering subsidies up to a maximum of 1.4 million yen from May 2009 to February 2010.

Fiscal year
The fiscal year of most Japanese companies begins in April and ends in March, as does Japan's national fiscal year. A few companies are exceptions to this rule. Canon's fiscal year, for example, is the same as the calendar year. That of Seven Eleven and Lawson, the largest convenience store chains in Japan, starts in March. There is an additional complication: although fiscal 2009 of most companies begins in April 2009 and ends in March 2010, some companies call the same term fiscal 2010; that is, their fiscal 2010 begins in April 2009 and ends in March 2010. Whereas companies such as Fujitsu, Sony, and Toshiba employ the former expression, Tokyo Electron, Panasonic and certain others use the latter. NEC uses the expression FY10/3 to indicate the fiscal year ending March 2010. To avoid any misunderstanding, the expression "the 2010/March term" is often used in Japanese-language financial reports for the period from April 2009 to March 2010. In EmergingTech, Fiscal 2009 means the year starting in April 2009 unless otherwise noted.

Grants for young researchers
NEDO awards grants to researchers younger than 40 years old who are affiliated with universities or other research institutions and whose research achievements could lead to industrial applications. The scheme started in 2000 with an annual budget of about 5 billion yen (US$50million*). Applications are invited twice a year. There are five categories: four for domestic researchers and research teams and one for international research projects. Though the official name includes the word "international," only project teams led by a Japanese national are eligible. Each selected project receives 50 million yen (US$500,000) plus 15 million yen (US$150,000) for overhead costs covering a four-year period. About 100 projects have been selected each year.

Japan Broadcasting Corporation: See NHK

Jasdaq
Jasdaq Securities Exchange, run by Tokyo-based Jasdaq Securities Exchange Inc., is Japan's largest stock market for venture companies. Jasdaq, which corresponds to Nasdaq in the United States, opened in 2004.

MIRAI (Millennium Research for Advanced Information Technology)
MIRAI is a national R&D project launched in 2001 in response to the lengthy decline of the Japanese semiconductor industry during the 90s. It is scheduled to be completed in 2010. Based on the Tsukuba Super Clean Room, three organizations are engaged in collaborative research projects for the 45nm-generation and beyond. They are the Advanced Semiconductor Research Center (ASRC), which is a subsidiary organization of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, the Association of Super-Advanced Electronics Technologies (ASET) and Semiconductor Leading Edge Technologies, Inc. (Selete)

NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization)
NEDO is an incorporated administrative agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). It is Japan's largest public R&D management organization for promoting the development of advanced industrial, environmental, new energy and energy conservation technologies. With a budget of 233 billion yen (US$2.3 billion*) for fiscal 2008 ending March 2009, NEDO runs over one hundred projects in eight technology areas: electronics and information, machinery systems, aircraft and space, nanotechnology and materials, biotechnology and medical, chemical substance management, fuel cell and hydrogen, and energy and the environment. Outline of NEDO

NHK(Nippon Hoso Kyokai)
NHK is one of the largest broadcasting companies in the world. It is a public broadcasting organization, neither a state-run broadcaster nor a private broadcaster. NHK is established pursuant to the Broadcast Law of Japan. Everyone who has a TV is required to pay a reception fee. NHK is funded by the reception fees and sidebar income. Its annual budget is subject to approval by the Diet.
NHK's budget for the year to March 2009 is 658 billion yen (US$6.6 billion*), of which 635 billion yen is reception-fee income.
Science & Technical Research Laboratories (STRL), NHK's R&D center is the principal base for broadcasting technology development in Japan. Japan's high-definition TV technology was largely developed at STRL. The labs are proposing a next-generation TV system with 16K-pixel resolution.
NHK currently broadcasts programs through two terrestrial digital TV channels with simultaneous analog channels, two satellite digital channels with simultaneous analog channels, and one high-definition channel. It also provides radio broadcasting throughout Japan. NHK is expanding its multilingual, international radio and TV broadcasting services.
NHK is actively developing new services such as NHK on Demand, an on-demand service for distribution over the Internet of programs aired previously.

Selete (Semiconductor Leading Edge Technologies, Inc.)
Selete is a consortium founded in 1996 by 10 semiconductor manufacturers to develop production technologies using 300mm wafer equipment. Selete plays a major role in semiconductor R&D projects in Japan. Since 2006, Selete has participated in the privately funded Asuka II project and the government-funded MIRAI-3 project. 11 companies – Fujitsu Microelectronics Ltd., Panasonic Corp., NEC Electronics Corp., Oki Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Renesas Technology Corp., Rohm Co., Ltd., Sanyo Semiconductor Co., Ltd., Seiko Epson Corp., Sharp Corp., Sony Corp., and Toshiba Corp. – are shareholders of Selete.

Tsukuba Super Clean Room (or simply Super Clean Room)
Constructed by the Japanese government in Tsukuba, 50 km northeast of Tokyo, at a cost of 25 billion yen (US$250 million*), this is the R&D base for the MIRAI project. It opened in March 2002 and comprises two clean rooms: the 3,000 m2 class 1 Super Clean Room and a 1,500m2 class 100 facility.