Category: 3. Business

[Lima, Peru, December 24, 2025] Claro Peru, one of the country’s leading telecommunications providers, and Huawei successfully deployed the world’s first commercial EcoMatrix site.

Featuring a highly integrated design that enables simplified and green deployment of all sub-3 GHz bands on a single pole, Huawei EcoMatrix outperforms conventional counterparts in actual tests across a host of metrics: 1.8 dB better coverage, 30% less antenna installation space required, and 35% site-wide energy saving. These strengths will help deliver higher-quality mobile network services for Peruvian consumers and drive the country’s digital transformation.

As its services expand, Claro Peru faces mounting challenges in network operations, with OPEX rising year on year. In Latin America, some tower companies calculate lease fees based on wind load area, yet conventional solutions usually have high wind loads due to a large number of devices. Moreover, energy-inefficient base stations consume a lot of energy and raise electricity costs. Claro has also struggled to simplify site deployment and maintenance in multi-band settings.

Supported by multiple innovations, EcoMatrix precisely addresses these challenges and brings operators four core benefits in network construction.

• Simplified site deployment: EcoMatrix allows Claro Peru to deploy the 700 MHz, 850 MHz, 1.9 GHz, and 2.6 GHz bands on a single pole, with only three boxes required per site (compared with 15 boxes previously).
• Extremely low energy consumption: The EcoMatrix radio units integrated GigaGreen RRUs, bringing 35% site-wide energy savings after this commercial deployment in Peru. There is even more energy saving potential, brought by the “0 Bit 0 Watt” deep dormancy feature, and future GigaGreen RRUs which can be flexibly combined into the EcoMatrix solution.
• Superb performance: EcoMatrix integrates true ultra-wideband RRUs and antennas, and leverages innovative signal direct injection feeding (SDIF) technology to eliminate the need for cables, significantly reducing feeder loss and internal insertion loss, maximizing spectral efficiency and network performance.
• Optimal evolution: The solution’s modular design allows operators to flexibly and smoothly scale networks by introducing new spectrum resources, even when the antenna installation space is limited. Operators do not need to erect new poles or modernize installed sites, and can deploy networks in phases according to spectrum availability, to better protect their long-term investments.

Juan David Rodríguez, Chief Technology Officer of Claro Peru, remarked on the solution: “We use Huawei EcoMatrix to deploy more bands at a tower site with a much smaller antenna footprint. Our site and spectrum are now more efficiently utilized, and our network is ready for continuous 5G evolution and flexible spectrum expansion. We are delivering better digital experience to users and contributing to Peru’s digital transformation.”

EcoMatrix is designed to help operators worldwide boost revenue, reduce costs, enhance efficiency, and achieve sustainability. Claro Peru’s successful deployment validates its value and showcases a path to building a lean, green, and efficient network that scales easily.

The Yukon has been grappling with an extreme cold weather system that’s pushing the power grid to the brink because it can’t keep up with demand.

Communities like Faro, about 360 kilometres northeast of Whitehorse, and Carmacks, around 180 kilometres north of the territory’s capital, have been experiencing lows of –50 C since Monday.

Temperatures started to dip below –30 C earlier this month, and there’s been no relief since. Here’s what’s causing this inclement weather to stick around in the Yukon.

What’s behind these extreme temperatures?

“What we’re seeing in Yukon is an Arctic ridge of high pressure,” Environment Canada meteorologist Tanmay Rane told CBC News. “What happens is, once a cold front passes, all the cold air behind it follows the cold front.”

Since cold air tends to sink because it’s heavier than warm air, it sinks down to the surface, pushing the air surrounding it out of the way. 

“When it does that, when [cold air] clears the air underneath it, air from aloft comes down to fill that pocket,” Rane said. 

Air that’s aloft, or higher above the surface, is colder than the air that’s at the surface, so as it fills the pocket left behind, it creates cooler conditions, Rane said.

Alongside that sinking effect, skies have remained clear. Without clouds in the sky to absorb heat radiated from the Earth’s surface and send it back down, Rane said the heat escapes to space overnight, preventing temperatures from rising.

“So night after night, Yukon is getting colder and colder because of the clear skies, and a high-pressure system like that is pretty stagnant.”

How low have temperatures gotten?

Environment Canada issued yellow weather alerts to 11 Yukon communities, including Whitehorse. Here’s how low temperatures have gotten within the past 24 hours:

• Whitehorse: –44 C
• Pelly Ranch (Fort Selkirk): –48 C
• Faro: –50 C
• Dawson: –45 C
• Carmacks: –49 C

Environment Canada’s weather alert issued for Whitehorse has advised that extreme wind chill values can make temperatures feel as low as –50 C, but some moderation of temperatures are expected going into Christmas Day.

What effect does wind chill have on the cold?

Windier conditions tend to make you feel colder, according to Environment Canada. Wind chill values are different from recorded temperatures, because they can’t be measured by a thermometer. Rather, they’re measured by how cold your skin would feel in the wind. 

Wind chill values can tell you how cold you’ll feel outside, which can be different from the recorded temperature. 

It’s included in weather forecasting when wind speed is expected to be 5 km/h or more and when recorded temperatures are zero or below. 

Being exposed wind chill values between –48 C to –54 C comes with a severe risk of frostbite. According to Environment Canada, any exposed skin could freeze in less than five minutes and sometimes faster if winds stay consistently above 50 km/h.

How long could it last?

Although the cold isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, Rane said temperatures could gradually start to rise by next week.

“I don’t think it would get any colder,” Rane said. “This Arctic high that’s sitting over Yukon right now will slowly sink down into northern BC and then make its way out.” 

Once that happens, Rane said he expects that clouds will start coming in, leading to a slow increase in temperature.

Why could there be blackouts?

Yukon’s power grid is nearing capacity as electricity usage surged due to the cold. Demand reached a peak on Monday with 123 megawatts of power being pulled from a system that can accommodate 140 megawatts. 

Ted Laking, the minister responsible for Yukon Energy, said Tuesday that rolling blackouts may be enacted to alleviate the demand, though he added that Whitehorse hasn’t reached that stage yet. 

If rolling blackouts were to occur, they would happen by neighbourhood. To prepare, Laking has urged Yukon residents to compile emergency kits that would last 72 hours with supplies like flashlights, emergency blankets and food.

TOKYO, JAPAN – December 25, 2025 – Blackstone (NYSE: BX) today announced that Real Estate funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Tokyo C-NX (the “Asset”), a Grade A logistics asset located in central Tokyo. Valued at over JPY 100 billion (US$641 million), this marks the largest logistics transaction in Japan this year and underscores Blackstone’s commitment to investing in sectors that support Japan’s economic growth.
  
The Asset – a 1.6 million square feet, 5-story warehouse in Tokyo Bay, within a 15-minute driving distance from the city center – serves as a mission-critical distribution hub. Japan continues to see steady demand for high-quality warehousing solutions, driven by its expanding e-commerce sector – now the fourth-largest globally – and a shift towards a more digitalized economy.
 
Daisuke Kitta, Head of Real Estate Japan, Blackstone, said: “We are pleased to invest in a premium asset in logistics, a fast-growing sector and one of Blackstone’s highest conviction investment themes. This reinforces our focus on investing in critical industries shaping Japan’s future and demonstrates our ability to offer scale, speed, and certainty to Japanese corporates seeking trusted partners to advance their strategic goals. We are committed to partnering with Japanese businesses and continuing to contribute in meaningful ways to the evolution of Japan’s economy.”
  
Japan is a high conviction market for Blackstone, where the firm has built partnerships with leading corporates including Seibu Holdings, Kintetsu Group, and Sony Group. In recent years, it has accelerated its investments across businesses. In Real Estate, Blackstone has built a diversified portfolio across logistics, residential, hotels, data centers, and offices. Earlier this year, Blackstone completed the acquisition of Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho for $2.6 billion (~JPY 400 billion) in the largest real estate investment at the time by a foreign investor. Blackstone is also building its data center presence in Japan through AirTrunk, a leading data center platform in the Asia Pacific region, further strengthening its position as the world’s largest data center provider and a major investor across the AI value chain.
 
Blackstone is a significant investor in logistics globally. Over nearly 15 years, the firm has made investments at scale in the United States, Europe, and in the Asia Pacific region across Japan, India, Australia, Greater China, and South Korea.
 
About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. Blackstone seeks to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which the firm invests. Blackstone’s over $1.2 trillion in assets under management include global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, credit, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, secondaries and hedge funds. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Instagram.
 
Blackstone
Mariko Sanchanta
[email protected]
080 8702 7386
 
Kekst CNC
Minako Otani
[email protected]
090-3239-9348

Nestled away in a small second-storey shop in Perth’s CBD, Clinton Howe dissects an analogue camera as the sound of mechanical whirrs fill the air.

The workshop smells of steel, leather and dust. 

It’s an environment the technician knows well — after all, he’s been fixing cameras for almost half a century.

Mr Howe is one of the last of his generation of analogue camera repairers in Australia, and he’s worried it’s becoming a dying art as he nears retirement next September.

Yet business is booming at the twilight of his career, as more young people discover the joy of using film cameras. 

“They’re tactile, they’re everything. You know, when you pick it up, you just go, oh, god, how good is this?” he says.

Young embrace film

Mr Howe has seen a resurgence in young people using vintage cameras, with most of his customers aged under 35.

“I like the fact that I can deal with people, especially young people. It keeps me young,” he says.

He estimates there are less than a dozen people in his job across the country, and less than five in Western Australia, most of whom are semi-retired.

“It’s a very hard business to get into because there are so many idiosyncrasies, and so many different things to learn, and each camera’s different,” he says.

“Once you learn the basics, it gives you the tools with which you apply to most cameras and that’s why I’ve always been a hands-on repair man.”

His hands have been hard at work since he took a break from university in 1978 to work at his stepfather’s shop in Perth’s picturesque London Court.

Forty-eight years later, Mr Howe is still there, making him one of Perth’s longest-serving repairers still working. 

Film ‘more precise’

Many in the tight-knit film photography industry know of Mr Howe’s work, even if they don’t know his name. 

Among them is 21-year-old music photographer Lizzie Wilkie, who’s been shooting analogue for six years.

“It’s an exciting process, I love it,” she says.

“When it comes to film, I’m a lot more precise and careful with the photo … it’s a stronger memory.”

Ms Wilkie has old cameras from her grandparents, and buys some second-hand from op shops. Not all of them work.

She’s been putting off fixing some, but feels a sense of urgency now knowing that technicians like Mr Howe are retiring.

“My film camera, I use a lot with bands and for my job. If that were suddenly to die, I’d probably not know what to do,” she says.

The new guard

When Mr Howe packs up shop in September 2026, it won’t be the end of his legacy.

Daniel Ward, a 37-year-old camera technician, has bought Mr Howe’s sea of spare parts, and is ramping up work for film camera repairs at the shop he owns in Malaga in Perth’s northern suburbs.

With 19 years of fixing film and digital cameras already under his belt, Mr Ward says he’s “not at all” worried about the future of film, but it might become harder to find camera parts.

Mr Ward has learnt a few things from his colleague — former co-owner of the camera shop in Perth’s north and retiring technician, 69-year-old Nigel Boots.

“I have a lot of confidence in Daniel because he’s been doing film cameras for [more than] 16 years, plus all the other ones,” Mr Boots says.

Mr Boots has been repairing cameras for 53 years, and thinks his former business is in good hands, with plans to train up other young technicians.

Optimism about the future 

While Mr Howe has faith in the younger technicians, he is worried a generation of hands-on experience may become lost.

“Even now I’m getting problems I’ve never ever seen before, and I’ve been in the game for nearly 50 years, so what chance has a kid that’s been in the game for five years?” he says.

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But he remains optimistic about the future of film.

“Honestly, I think film photography will stay. Digital photography will go,” the camera stalwart says.

“I guarantee that there will be certain [film] cameras that will still be going in another 100 years.”

The veteran technician still plans to do the odd repair job after he leaves the workshop, but it’s the relationships he’s fostered with customers that mean the most to him.

“To me they’re part of the family and they always have been,” Mr Howe says, the hint of a tear in his eye.

“I look forward to seeing them again.”

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Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (“Mitsui”, Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Kenichi Hori), together with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (“Mitsubishi Electric”, Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Kei Uruma), SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (“SKY Perfect JSAT”, Head Office: Tokyo, Representative Director, President & Chief Executive Officer: Eiichi Yonekura), Synspective Inc. (Head Office: Tokyo, CEO: Motoyuki Arai), Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (Head Office: Fukuoka, President & CEO: Shunsuke Onishi), Axelspace Corporation (Head Office: Tokyo, President & CEO: Yuya Nakamura), and Mitsui Bussan Aerospace Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Tokyo, President: Morihiro Aoki) was awarded the Ministry of Defense (Japan)’s public tender for the “satellite constellation^* project” on December 24th.

This project is a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) aimed at strengthening the Ministry of Defense’s intelligence-gathering capabilities by building and operating a satellite constellation managed by private companies.

Existing commercial satellite imagery services may not consistently deliver images at the timing required by the Ministry of Defense. Through this project, Mitsui and its partners will aim to ensure stable and timely image acquisition by building and operating a dedicated satellite constellation, granting the Ministry priority imaging rights. Mitsui, Mitsubishi Electric and SKY Perfect JSAT plan to sign a basic agreement with the Ministry of Defense in January 2026. Subsequently, the three companies will establish a special purpose company for this project and, in February 2026, sign a five-year project contract with the Ministry.

Under its Medium-term Management Plan 2026, Mitsui has identified Industrial Business Solutions as a strategic growth area, aiming to build mobility, infrastructure, and digital platforms that support industries. Through this project, Mitsui and its partners will contribute to strengthening national security in the space domain by meeting the Ministry of Defense’s image acquisition needs.

*A system that operates a large number of small satellites in orbit in an integrated manner.

Project Overview

Client	Ministry of Defense (Japan)
Project Name	Satellite constellation project
Bidding Method	Open competitive tender (Comprehensive Evaluation Approach)
Project Scope	Acquisition of image data from satellite constellation Operation of dedicated ground facilities General management and related tasks
Project Duration	From contract signing until March 31, 2031 (approximately 5 years)
Successful Bidders	Mitsubishi Electric Corporation SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Synspective Inc. Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. Axelspace Corporation Mitsui Bussan Aerospace Co., Ltd.

Since 2020, as a part of its corporate information website, Honda has been operating “Honda Stories,” as one of the owned media platforms that communicates the current initiatives and future vision of Honda. It introduces Honda initiatives from the past, present and future, including the underlying thoughts and passions of each initiative, through interviews with Honda associates, executives and other stakeholders.

In addition to Honda Stories, Honda has been communicating a wide range of information through multiple owned media platforms:

• “Honda Technology” introduces Honda technologies with more technical insights.
• “Honda Design” introduces initiatives related to design works
• “Motorsports” and “HRC” introduce various Honda initiatives in motorsports
• “Honda Sports Challenge” introduces various Honda corporate sports activities.

The use of multiple owned media platforms has enabled Honda to present a single theme from multiple perspectives. However, having multiple owned media platforms created a challenge, making it difficult for users to find related articles on the same theme all at once. To address this challenge, Honda launched Discover Honda, a new content curation media platform that enables users to find related articles from multiple Honda owned media while leveraging the unique expertise of each medium.

Initially, Discover Honda will primarily curate content from Honda Stories, Honda Technology, Honda Design, Motorsports, HRC, and Honda Sports Challenge. Moving forward, Honda is planning to expand the range of owned media included in the curation.