Category: 3. Business

Tokyo, December 22, 2025 – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group has set the corporate strategy of Innovative Total Optimization (ITO), which consists of two pillars: “Group-wide optimization” and “scope expansion,” aimed at achieving a “virtuous cycle of high profitability and growth investments.” (Note1) To realize this, MHI Group is accelerating the development of digital innovation (DI) talent to drive its digital transformation (DX).

DI development program for all employees
MHI Group comprises approximately 300 companies in Japan and overseas, encompassing a wide range of businesses from design, manufacturing, and construction, to sales, after-sales service, and general services. For such diverse businesses to grow sustainably, it is essential for MHI to strengthen its competitiveness by utilizing AI and other digital technologies.

Accordingly, MHI Group is implementing a systematic program for DI talent development encompassing all employees at group companies in Japan and overseas, from general employees to senior executives. Furthermore, MHI is actively promoting open innovation by collaborating with external partners and startups to incorporate the world’s leading-edge technologies and expertise. These initiatives will facilitate the formation of a global talent network and contribute to the development of highly skilled personnel.

Tiered certification system to visualize growth
To put this into practice, MHI has established the DI talent Certification System. Based on the Digital Skill Standards established by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), MHI regularly updates the corporate group’s own human resource model to keep pace with the rapid advancements in digital technology and ensure that it always reflects the latest requirements.

There are three levels of certification: Basic, Advanced, and Master. The levels reflect a comprehensive evaluation of each employee’s record of training programs completed, status of qualifications, and project experience. In particular, the Master certification is awarded only after a rigorous review by evaluators established by the Digital Innovation Headquarters.(Note2)

Communities that accelerate transformation
To accelerate DX promotion, MHI has developed communities where employees share knowledge on AI and digital utilization. Specifically, the “Global IT Conference” promotes the use of AI and digital technologies in cooperation with overseas sites; the “AI Salon” holds monthly lectures by experts on AI utilization; and an idea contest gathers innovative business improvement ideas and implements outstanding proposals. As a result, AI and digital utilization are penetrating throughout the company, generating improvement ideas from all business locations.

Putting ideas into practice
Through these community activities, initiatives where employees independently identify issues and shape solutions using digital technologies are expanding. Employees take the lead and work in collaboration with digital specialist organizations to implement an integrated process from problem identification to use case creation, system implementation, and effectiveness verification. Through practice, employees refine their skills and mindset, producing tangible results such as improved operational efficiency and the creation of new business models.

MHI Group is accelerating digital talent development for all employees and building a virtuous cycle of DX promotion and value creation through the certification system, education, communities, and practice. Looking ahead, the company aims for the developed DI talent to become the core of DX promotion across the group, driving new value creation and business transformation.

• 1 Based on MHI Group’s corporate mission of “Combine cutting-edge technology with many years of expertise to provide solutions to the evolving challenges facing the world while enriching people’s lives.”
• 2 MHI Group established the Digital Innovation Headquarters to further accelerate digital innovation to create and provide new value through “smart connections” among its product groups and digital technologies. For more information, see the following press release.
  https://www.mhi.com/news/22062001.html

Related Information

Under the agreed rebate arrangements, pharmacies can claim reimbursement for eligible Vyvanse® stock held prior to the price change, with claims processed through their preferred CSO-accredited wholesaler.

The approach will ensure continuity of patient care while recognising the vital role wholesalers play in Australia’s medicines supply chain.

Pharmacies are advised to contact their preferred wholesaler by 31 December 2025 to confirm stock on hand as of 30 November 2025 for rebate eligibility.

The Guild’s Health Economics and Policy Committee Chair, Anthony Tassone said the outcome reflected constructive engagement focused on fairness and sustainability.

“The Guild appreciates Takeda’s willingness to work with us and acknowledge the real-world impact PBS price reductions can have on pharmacies, particularly when stock is held in good faith to support patients during ongoing ADHD medicine shortages,” Mr Tassone said.

Takeda General Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Dave Peace, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to supporting community pharmacy.

“Takeda values the critical role community pharmacists play in patient care. We recognise concerns raised following the 1 December list price change for Vyvanse® (lisdexamfetamine dimesilate) and are committed to ensuring pharmacies are not out of pocket,” Mr Peace said.

Tassone continued, “We’ve seen great support from Takeda in addressing this issue for community pharmacies across the country and we welcome continued collaboration with manufacturers and wholesalers to support patient access and pharmacy sustainability – this agreement sets a new standard going forward.

“This situation was avoidable. We need better notice periods and better supply chain impact assessments for future PBS pricing changes and policy decisions – and we will continue to advocate for them.”

A Batemans Bay childcare centre has been forced to shut its doors until March after the NSW regulator found there were serious concerns for children’s health, safety and wellbeing.

In an email seen by the ABC, the NSW Early Learning Commission contacted families on December 17 to let them know that the service approval for Surfside Kidz had been immediately suspended as part of an ongoing investigation.

On its website, Surfside Kidz is described as a licensed 46-place early learning centre that is a “welcoming and inclusive space” for children aged six weeks to six years.

In the email, the regulator said there was no current evidence of specific incidents that had caused children direct harm, but that there were “immediate concerns” about the level of risk that children were exposed to. 

These concerns include poor supervision and staffing, maintenance issues and poor cleanliness.

“Based on the evidence available to us, we consider our decision to be appropriate and proportionate,” the regulator wrote.

Surfside Kidz is one of five childcare centres listed as part of the Kidz Childcare Group, with other centres in Nowra, Singleton and Orange.

In May this year, Surfside Kidz was issued a compliance notice by the regulator due to failing to display prescribed information, failing to notify the regulator of certain circumstances and operating without a nominated supervisor. 

Surfside Kidz and Kidz Childcare Group did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Christmas cancelled at centre

A local mother, who wished to remain anonymous, was getting ready for her three-year-old daughter’s Christmas party at the childcare centre the next day when the email landed in her inbox. 

“Santa was arranged to come, so that’s why it felt so out of the blue,” she said.

The seriousness of the email left her feeling shaken and like she was a “terrible parent”.

No response from management

The local mother said the lack of response from centre management, other than one “very blunt message”, had left her feeling “shocked and disgusted.”

“There’s been no communication,” she said.

Because her daughter only spends two days a week at Surfside Kidz, the mother has been able to arrange additional days at her daughter’s other childcare provider.

“A lot of working parents wouldn’t be in my position,” she said. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for the NSW Early Learning Commission said they understood the impact service closures had on families.

While she would not be sending her daughter back to Surfside Kidz, the local mother still wanted an explanation from the centre.

“Just tell us what the issue is so we can sleep easy,” she said.

[ Cautionary Statements with Respect of Forward-Looking Statements ]

This material contains forward-looking statements, including projections, plans, policies, management strategies, targets, schedules, understandings and evaluations, about TDK or its group companies (TDK Group). These forward-looking statements are based on the current forecasts, estimates, assumptions, plans, beliefs and evaluations of TDK Group in light of information currently available to it, and contain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. TDK Group therefore wishes to caution readers that, being subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, TDK Group’s actual results, performance, achievements or financial position could be materially different from any future results, performance, achievements or financial position expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements, and TDK Group undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements after the issue of this material except as provided for in applicable laws and ordinances.

The electronics markets in which TDK Group operates are highly susceptible to rapid changes. Risks, uncertainties and other factors that can have significant effects on TDK Group include, but are not limited to, shifts in technology, fluctuations in demand, prices, interest and foreign exchange rates, and changes in economic environments, conditions of competition, laws and regulations.

Martin Wolf (“How to get the UK out of its economic hole”, Opinion, November 24) quotes a recent US National Bureau of Economic Research working paper in support of his view that Brexit damaged the economy. Yet he and it miss the whole point of Brexit which was to restore full UK self-government after 40-odd years of EU trade protectionism and over-prescriptive regulation.

This would obviously cause short-term disruption as the NBER authors’ business panel of companies confirms. If you examine UK data behaviour from 2016, evidence of this disruption is predictably found linked to the dates of the Brexit referendum and final EU-departure. The evidence also suggests it has steadily disappeared, as one would expect — see my Journal of Forecasting piece in February 2024; and on the trade issue, National Institute of Economic and Social Research authors in winter 2022.

The use of a variety of comparator country-groups or “doppelgängers” to compare UK performance over the past decade on GDP per capita etc is invalid as a way of linking the UK’s supposed weak performance to Brexit. The comparison is primarily the effect of combining a bizarre group of countries such that its average performance happened to be close to the UK’s before 2016, but most of which have no basic similarity to the UK economically (Estonia and Greece for example). As the UK’s relative behaviour since 2016 could be due to numerous differential factors at work both here and elsewhere, there is simply no identifying link to Brexit.

The UK has performed quite similarly to truly similar economies like France and Germany since Brexit, as noted by Julian Jessop in a recent Substack piece and in his letter to the FT on December 3 (“Analysis that Brexit was a disaster fails the smell test”).

So swapping countries on this method can give you virtually any “Brexit effect” you want, revealing its identification failure. The UK is in fact sui generis and has to be explained by its own acts and shocks.

Its growth slowed sharply after the 2008 financial crisis, well before Brexit. Poor UK policies from both Conservative and now Labour governments have failed to restore it to its previous trend of over 2 per cent.

But these policies can be improved in the long term; that improvement can be boosted by moving more quickly on the path to free trade and pragmatic UK common law regulation, which Brexit has made possible.

Patrick Minford
Professor of Economics, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Wales, UK

The comparison of whale oil use decline with today’s projected petroleum oil demand reductions, in Michael Haigh’s guest column, neglects to factor in the devastating effects and subsequent costs of unabated burning of hydrocarbons (“Whale oil’s slow decline carries lessons for today”, Markets Insight, December 12).

Continuing the convenient use of whale oil to keep the parlour lamps lit reduced whale populations and perhaps altered ocean ecology. A bad outcome, but nothing like the catastrophes to come with another 50 years of burning.

In that timeframe, the already frequently flooded city of Jakarta (the most populous settlement on the planet) must be either elevated or relocated.

Where is that cost factored into this economic prediction?

Thomas Paino
Hudson (a former whale oil capital), NY, US

Gas producers on Australia’s east coast will have to reserve a portion for domestic use to shore up supply and put “downward pressure” on prices, the federal government has confirmed.

The long-awaited move was signed off by cabinet in Canberra on Monday and will now be subject to a period of consultation.

After much deliberation about the best model for a reservation scheme, Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Industry Minister Tim Ayres said cabinet had settled on a permit scheme.

That would see exports limited until producers ensured that between 15 and 25 per cent of extracted gas was reserved for local use.

Mr Bowen said the scheme would start operating in 2027 but would apply to any new contracts entered into from today.

“Most Australians think that Australians should have first rights to what’s under Australian soil … and Australians are right about that,” Mr Bowen said.

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