Universal Studios Japan hiking adult admission fees again in 2016

OSAKA -- The operator of Universal Studios Japan will raise admission fees at the newly expanded theme park for a seventh straight year Feb. 1, but not for kids.

     A one-day "studio pass" for visitors 12 and older will cost 7,400 yen ($60.90), up 200 yen, Osaka-based USJ Co. said Monday. Admission for seniors 65 and older will rise 180 yen to 6,650 yen. But for children, defined as those aged 4 to 11, the fee will remain 4,980 yen.

     Admission fees last went up in January. The company seeks to quickly recoup recent investments, including a 3-D "Harry Potter" attraction that opened this year.

     Oriental Land, which runs Tokyo Disney Resort, raised its adult admission price by 500 yen to 6,900 yen in April. This marked its first increase in four years, excluding a bump-up in line with the 2014 consumption tax hike.

Virtual Reality

By 

JACK NICAS and

 

DEEPA SEETHARAMAN

Updated Jan. 3, 2016 7:12 p.m. ET

In 2011, 18-year-old Palmer Luckey built a headset in his parents’ Long Beach, Calif., garage that made virtual reality possible with a relatively small and inexpensive device. In 2014, Facebook bought his company, Oculus VR, for $2 billion.

Facebook Chief Technology Officer Michael Schroepfer said virtual reality is now “the project I personally spend the most time on.”

The Oculus deal ignited a flurry of activity and investment in virtual reality and augmented reality, which displays digital objects in users’ view of the real world. There were 91 investments totaling $1.1 billion in those fields in the roughly 18 months after Facebook bought Oculus, compared with 50 investments of $316 million in the previous period, according to venture-data firm CB Insights.

Thailand Tearing Ads

In Thailand, though, it is a year-round affair. Producing these films now accounts for a sizable chunk of Thailand’s $3 billion-a-year advertising market, with each costing nearly $300,000 to make, according to Thai Life’s president, Chai Chaiyawan, who, along with Mr. Thanonchai, helped pioneer the genre.

Phawit Chitrakorn, managing director at the Bangkok office of ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, said they have to compete for attention with social media. The length of the films, about the length of the average pop music video, makes them ideal for the Web.

2016 Diet

5km run can burn 0.25 kg
3 run per week can burn 0.75 kg
2 weeks burn 1.5 kg
10 weeks - 7.5 kg

Buy slow cooker
Buy FitBit

Dinner - no rice
1. Oden
2. Soup
3. Cabbage

Migrants

The world is on the move. There are 244 million people living outside their country of birth, according to new United Nations data, the highest figure ever recorded and an increase of 71 million since 2000. By 2050, that number could go as high as 590 million, according to U.N. projections, fed by war and economic deprivation in the poorest countries with the highest birthrates.

SCB exch rate

SGD to USD 1.416
USD to SGD 1.393
Spread about 1.6%

Overseas Education OEL

Enrolment 3000 in 2015, capacity 4800
ASP inc 5-10% pa
3# in Singapore with long history (30 competitors)
1/3 of students paid by corporate checks (2/3 a few years ago)
Only 1 of the 4 full IB programs in Singapore

Risks: Competition, loss of status as school moved from Orchard Rd to Tiong Bahru

Relook and Entry Prices

Oriental Land 4000
SAP 50
RB 5500

Alibaba and Wechat

400m users of alibaba spending US$400bn a year
Wechat also has 400m users

Singles day do US$14bn per year, 85,000 txn per sec during peak hours

Invest Plan 2016

100k in stocks - 5 bullets, 20k each
100k opportunistic

Look closely at: OEL IBM Benesse LYV PSON BLN Berkshire, Reckitt

Core stocks
1. Diageo
2. Heineken
3. Unilever
4. Nestle
5. Disney
6. Colgate
7. Adidas
8. Pepsi
9. SIE
10. IBM
11. SATS
12. Coach