If resources and supplies    are scarce these days, and resource supply is causing problems due to the Pendemic and the Russian Ukraine war, electric energy has a profound impact on our homes and industries. High-tech industries such as high industrial growth and telecommunications have developed day by day, and electric energy exists in our daily lives too close to us. Water, air, sun, etc. can be easily thought of to us. However, electrical energy has become inseparable to lead our convenient lives. Nevertheless, I think we need to find efforts and ways to save safe use, short circuits, and electricity.MJENC (CEO: Min-Ju Kim) developed a safe and stable electric outlet by preventing and capturing electric leakage. Electrical leakage breakers are already deployed in many households and industrial groups, but it seems to be the first product that will complete electrical efficiency and safety electric shock accidents with safety and stable electricity supply. In addition, the product is also composed of anti-corrosion components for long use. Electricity also requires a lot of investment and resources to be made into energy.Since the 19th century, when electric energy became practical, mankind has expanded its scope of use indefinitely due to the convenience of operation, ease of conversion to other energy, environmental conservation, and relative safety.

First, electricity eliminated the distinction between night and day to enable 24-hour culture formation, and second, by eliminating the distinction between indoor and outdoor, ground and underground, the efficient use of space and resources, and third, by maximizing machine civilization, it created a change in conceptual culture.The expansion of human time, space, and capacity by electricity has a ripple effect on all sectors of society, and electricity is becoming more important as a driving force for economic development. As information society and advanced industrial society such as computer and semiconductor technology progress, electricity will be the main force to create human culture.

While the need for high-quality electricity will increase due to the advancement of high-tech industries and information societies, the external environment surrounding electricity projects will become increasingly difficult due to changing values, increasing interest in the environment and safety, diversification of service needs, democratization, and localization.

Therefore, the power development plan will be carried out comprehensively from the previous supply and demand to system and stability, facility and reliability, and energy self-reliance, and the establishment of an active service system, such as management computerization and customer convenience-oriented rate system, should be made more effort.

▲MYUNGJANGESD CO.,LTD.

▲ CEO : Min-Ju Kim

▲www.myungjangesd.co.kr

▲ mjesd0603@naver.com

▲ +82-32-575-1601

KS CHOI

ASIA JOURNAL

(Source from Reuters/Alamy)Defining the meaning of image recognition: Importing specific information from image data.

– At this point, image recognition has developed by recognizing the type and location of the object, and the pattern of image data pixel values. Recently, the perception of the object is performing beyond the human level, and various objects and their locations are being studied.Here we learn the basic way to get the type and location data of the object. To find out the above, the most basic way is to identify patterns using filters.

In the field of imaging, even if a filter is considered to be a material for extracting the “similarity” of two images through convolutional operations, the “similarity” of the filter size part is extracted by multiplying the value of the filter by the value of the input image.

If this value is large, it means that the filter and the image are the same, and if it is small, it means that it is not the same, so it can be scaled with probability using a function such as sigmoid

The concept of CNN, a deep learning model, is as above.

A specific filter is compounded into the image, and strides one space at a time.

ConV -> pooling based on the fact that if similar data exists in the space pointed by the filter, the value increases or the value is low

You can extract data by doing.Due to the above process, similarity verification using filters is the main method of image recognition, and among deep learning architectures, there are models that only perform this part of the operation and remove the fully-connected layer.

– You can learn the filter, too.

You can filter representative images for any class.

(Source from Reuters/Alamy)There is also a way to organize and create a system that can be used, i.e., run Conv with various filters and sizes for the entire image, and then select the high-value section, class classification and location navigation are completed.Class and size issues.

Even if it’s the same class, it can have different shapes.

Even if the average value is used, it depends on the angle, so it is necessary to find a method to have a filter for it.If there are N samples, N operations per pixel are required.

Also, size is a problem.Since the size of the image and the size assumed by the pixel are different, the size of the filter is also changed to find the object in it

If you change the size M times, you need another M operations per pixel.

Eventually, the operation NxM per object must be applied to all image data pixels of size WxH, and if there are multiple object classes, the above operation must be repeated as many times as possible. As explained above, image recognition is complicated and diverse. And it’s very important to apply image recognition technology to how and where. These companies are GB SOFT (CEO: Ki-bum Park). This company approaches various fields through artificial intelligence solutions through videos and measures, manages, and develops DBs of general consumers and corporate customers. First of all, it is applied to the safety management of workers in the construction civil engineering field and the access and security of large-scale apartments to deliver and manage software to large construction companies. In addition, it was applied to large-scale production lines as a program to manage the status of workers. Various accessibility is considered an advantage of development companies, so attention is being paid to what kind of moves they will take in the future

▲ GB Soft Co., Ltd.

▲ CEO : Ki-bum Park

▲ http://gb-soft.co.kr

▲ gbsoft@gb-soft.co.kr

▲ +82-53-716-4884

HS HA

ASIA JOURNAL

Tokyo(Reuters)According to Reuters, Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Measurement Analysis (IHME) at the University of Washington Medical School, said, “Up to 1 million new confirmed cases could occur in the U.S. this winter.” He is a person who has been tracking the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reuters reported that Major General Head’s prediction violates expectations that the world will get out of COVID-19. Head predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic will hit once again in the U.S., the U.K., and all over Europe as more people spend time indoors in winter.

However, he predicted that severe patients or deaths will not occur as much as before. Director Murray said, “With the effective development of COVID-19 treatment, hospitalized patients or deaths will not occur as much as before,” adding, “The most high-risk group may be those who have never been exposed to the virus, but such people do not exist.”

(Source from Reuters/Alamy)Meanwhile, in recent weeks in Korea, Japan, and the United States, the number of new COVID-19 confirmed patients has turned to an increase. In Japan, 200,000 new confirmed cases are occurring every day. Experts say it is due to the spread of BA.5, an omicron sub-displacement accompanied by strong infectivity and immune avoidanceThe rapidly increasing number of new COVID-19 confirmed patients in Japan is lowering the approval rating of the Kishida Fumio Cabinet. In addition, voices in favor of using nuclear power generation are increasing at a time when power shortages are expected this winter.

Tokyo(Reuters)According to a poll conducted by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun from the 29th to the 31st of last month, the approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet was 58%, down 2 percentage points from the previous month. The Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating has been on the decline in June and July since hitting a record of 66 percent in May, and analysts say the worsening COVID-19 situation has affected it.
In this poll, 56 percent of the respondents said they were “evaluating” the Kishida Cabinet’s response to COVID-19, down 7 percentage points from last month. 36% of respondents said they were not evaluating (doing it wrong), up 6 percentage points from the previous month. Asked about what the Kishida Cabinet should deal with first, the “COVID-19 Measures” increased by 19 percentage points from the previous month to 35 percent. The number of new COVID-19 confirmed patients in Japan has continued to deteriorate this month, recording the world’s highest level with 233,000 on the 28th of last month. Analysts say that Japan’s COVID-19 confirmed patients went through the 6th wave (the 6th epidemic) in January-March this year and stabilized to some extent in May-June, but turned to the 7th wave from last month. The recent surge in confirmed cases in Japan is attributed to the gradual lowering of the immune effect of tertiary vaccination at a time when BA.5, which is highly infectious, is spreading. Meanwhile, while Japan is expected to suffer from electricity shortages this winter, 51 percent said it was “reasonable” and 19 percent said it should “run more” on the government’s policy of operating up to nine nuclear power plants to overcome it.

The direction of Yoon Seok-yeol’s government, which is the private-market-led growth and labor, education, and pension system reform, is a task that our society has long neglected. It was launched amid a combination of supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and chose the orthodox method as a solution. The goal is to abandon policies that have sealed the crisis by giving taxes and turn the country’s direction even if the pace is slow. The key is ‘private-led’ growth. Moon Jae In In order to correct the side effects of the government’s excessive fiscal expenditure, the government will change the economic system led by the private and market and push for drastic reforms. Regulatory improvement is a representative task, such as changing the old system that blocks private innovation and new businesses and removing customary shadow regulations that are not based on laws.The problem is that the government is being hit by the power of state affairs without properly starting policies with positive intentions. The new government, less than 100 days after its launch, has faced concerns over public sentiment. The president’s support for the implementation of state affairs, which fell to the early 30 percent level, is not due to special policy misconduct, and the president’s aides are also frustrated. Still, the basic perception is that they will work only for the people, not for joy and joy at the approval rating. This is the context of President Yoon’s remarks earlier this month that “the approval rating is meaningless.”

JENNIFER KIM

ASIA JOURNAL

Since the 10th, the Japanese government has announced that it will resume accepting foreign tourists for the first time in two years since the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan compiled guidelines to distribute to foreign tourists and tourism-related workers, and the government distributed guidelines to safely resume the acceptance of foreign tourists.

It has been announced that it will ease regulations on group package tourists, etc., not individual tourists.

However, those who want to travel to Japan and those in the tourism sector are welcoming the deregulation.

“Since the Japanese government announced that it would resume accepting tourists, there have been daily calls, especially in Asia, from Thailand,” a travel agency specializing in travel to Japan said

Due to the phenomenon mentioned by the travel agency above, people currently working in the Japanese tourism-related industry are expecting a lot. This is because more than 31 million foreign tourists came to Japan every year three years (before the pandemic).

Currently, sales and the economy have fallen in the region where foreign tourists have come for two years since the pandemic, but I believe that sales and the economy will gradually grow, starting with partial deregulation, not the whole.

Currently, various regional autonomous districts in Japan are preparing various things for foreign tourists.

In the guidebook or guidebook, it is said that the direction of preparing languages in various languages or supporting various foreign languages is being prepared.

In particular, workers in Fukuoka’s related industries, which were previously famous as tourist destinations, said that for a while, the restaurant and lodging industries were hit hard by the decrease in the number of tourists coming due to regulations.

It was said that the consumption of food and food materials decreased due to the decrease in tourists. However, he said that the economy is revitalizing again due to the deregulation and that he believes it will be more.

And based on the resumption of accepting foreign group tourists, we hope that the number of customers on personal trips will gradually increase.”

In addition, Okinawa Prefecture once saw the number of flights fall to zero due to the Pendemic, and it is currently hoping that such deregulation will revitalize the economy in Okinawa Prefecture.

Package tour fares are expected to be more than 40 percent higher than before the pandemic, but many people are trying to pay the price even if the price is a little high at this time when travel regulations have been eased because of the pandemic.

Currently, Japan-related travel package products are sold out in Korea as soon as they start selling them on the Internet.

Currently, reservations at Hana Tour, one of the travel agencies in Korea, rose 284 percent. Also, people are increasingly interested in overseas travel because it is currently the time for summer vacation and vacation from July to August.

Also, foreigners are not the only ones who like Japanese government deregulation. Fans who like foreign idols and contents in Japan have been suspended or reduced from concerts and music-related events in Japan before due to the pandemic. However, it is said that music-related events, which have been reduced so far due to deregulation from this month, will be held again. In that respect, people who like overseas idols have said they want to see concerts quickly and are showing expectations for it.

Currently, there are various reasons why foreigners want to travel to Japan.

The first reason is that Japanese animation businesses and cultural contents are very good as tourism factors.

Second, we can talk about the yen’s low current depreciation.

The Japanese yen has now fallen very much.

The falling yen value of Japan is an attractive factor for foreign tourists to choose to come to Japan. The reason is that the economic burden caused by consumption activities such as buying goods in Japan is less.

For this reason, the demand for package tours to Japan is increasing in various Asian countries other than Japan.

Currently, the Japanese government also says it expects the economic revitalization of foreigners due to this phenomenon.

SOPHIA KIM

Asia Journal 

Korea’s total credit card approval amount in the first quarter of 2022 increased by 11.2% from the same period last year, the report showed. This is due to the recovery of overall consumer sentiment due to expectations for a daily recovery, such as measures to ease social distancing.  According to the “Analyzing Card Approval Performance in the 1st Quarter of 2022″ released by the Credit Finance Association on April 28, the total amount of card approvals and the number of approvals in the 1st quarter of this year were 249 trillion won and 5.7 billion, respectively. This is an increase of 11.2% and 9.5%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.  The Credit Finance Association explains that consumption recovery has increased significantly following the implementation of measures to ease social distancing, such as the phased lifting of quarantine passes. According to the Bank of Korea, the consumer sentiment index stood at 103.2 last month, up 2.9 points from 100.3 a year earlier.The amount of credit card approvals and the number of approvals were 196.2 trillion won and 35.4 trillion won, respectively, up 12.0% and 10.2% year-on-year. The amount of check card approval was 51.6 trillion won and the number of approval was 21.1 trillion won, up 7.4% and 7.1%, respectively, from the same period last year.  The amount of approval for personal cards in the first quarter totaled 204.9 trillion won, up 10.8% from the same period last year. The number of approvals totaled 53.6 trillion, up 9.6 percent. Corporate credit card approvals totaled 44.2 trillion won, up 13.4% year-on-year and the number of approvals increased 6.6% to 330 million. By industry, eight industries, which are highly related to consumer consumption, saw an increase year-on-year in all industries, including 15.0% in wholesale and retail, 12.1% in business facility management and business support services, and 12.5%.  However, the lodging and restaurant industries increased 5.3% year-on-year due to easing distance, but decreased 13.8% compared to the first quarter of 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19.Companies’ business sentiment rebounded in four months as expectations for a recovery in domestic demand grew due to a decrease in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and the lifting of social distancing. The manufacturing industry has improved due to increased orders for semiconductors, while the non-manufacturing industry has improved as sales of department stores and overseas travel have increased.

According to the April 2022 Business Survey Index (BSI) and Economic Sentiment Index (ESI) released by the Bank of Korea on the 28th, the BSI of the entire industry rose 3 points from the previous month to 86, turning upward for the first time in four months.  BSI is an index of an entrepreneur’s judgment on the current corporate management situation and future prospects, indicating the business sentiment of a company. If the index exceeds 100, it means that more companies have responded that the business situation is good, and if it is less than 100, it means that the business situation is bad, but the BSI for all industries has never exceeded 100 since the statistics were compiled in 2003.Both non-manufacturing and manufacturing industries saw their business conditions improve. The manufacturing industry BSI rose 3 points from the previous month to 87, turning upward for the first time in a month. Non-manufacturing BSI rose 4 points from the previous month to 85. April 2011 (85)Kim Dae-jin, head of the corporate statistics team of the Bank of Korea’s Economic Statistics Bureau, said, “BSI in all industries rose 3 points from the previous month thanks to a decrease in the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases, the lifting of most social distancing measures, recovery in domestic demand and strong exports.” The manufacturing industry rose due to increased sales of automobile-related electrical equipment and semiconductors. Electrical equipment increased by 10 points due to increased demand for industrial cables and automobile-related electrical equipment, while other machinery and equipment rose by 7 points due to increased orders for semiconductors and construction-related mechanical equipment. Electronic, video, and telecommunication equipment are semiconductors and related components

In the non-manufacturing industry, the information and communication industry rose 8 points due to increased software orders, while wholesale and retail businesses such as liquor and food materials and retail sales such as department stores, duty-free shops and convenience stores rose 3 points. Professional, scientific, and technology also increased by 5 points due to increased orders for civil engineering design and supervision and increased demand for tax services.

By company size, large companies rose 2 points from the previous month to 93, and small and medium-sized companies rose 5 points to 81. By type, export companies fell below 100 at 93, up 1 point from the previous month. Domestic companies stood at 84, up 5 points from the previous month.The economic sentiment index (ESI), which reflects the consumer trend index (CSI) in the business sentiment of companies, rose 2.3 points from the previous month to 105.7. ESI is an index that shows the economic sentiment of all private economic players, and if the figure exceeds 100, it is interpreted that the economy has improved from the past average. The circular fluctuation value was 103.1, down 0.9 points from the previous month.BSI for next month’s business outlook also recorded 86, up 3 points from the previous month (83). Both manufacturing and non-manufacturing rose 3 points from the previous month to 88 and 85, respectively.Students from Korean schools have started going to school all the way since May. The self-investigation of COVID-19 in elementary, middle, and high schools has also disappeared. The playground where physical education classes for students without masks were held was lively. Spring picnics and after-school classes, which began in time, were full of heat. College students are giving off their shining youth by participating in department and club activities without hesitation. Youth symbolic terms such as festivals and MT have reappeared. It’s May, everyone’s excited.

Social distancing was lifted except for the mandatory provisions for wearing masks, and even the “liberation of outdoor masks” was declared. Schools are in the normalization stage, and daily recovery is progressing rapidly throughout society. There are voices of concern about the current situation in which quarantine tensions have been resolved, such as the Korean Medical Association issuing a public recommendation that “COVID-19 has not ended.” But I’m having a busy daily life without you. After the pandemic, the landscape of the world will not be the same.

It is new to remember that the entire society has suddenly changed since January 2020, when the COVID-19 infection was first confirmed in Korea. From school, the ‘world of disconnection’ signal was raised. The scene of the front-line school graduation ceremony in February of that year was unique. The graduation ceremony was held in a broadcasting room where only a small part of the student representative, principal, and alumni president participated. Graduates watched it on a monitor screen in the classroom. Parents visited the school with a bouquet of flowers, but they had to wait outside the main gate. The entrance ceremony in March disappeared. College freshmen were entitled “COVID-19″ and could not even face their seniors and colleagues. For them, ‘campus romance’ was a stuffed word.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic in March 2020 as the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, worsened in December 2019. It is the third pandemic in history following the Hong Kong flu and swine flu crisis.

The Hong Kong flu, which was first reported in July 1968, landed in northern Australia, Europe, and California in the United States via Vietnam and Singapore, bothering people around the world. The Hong Kong flu, which spread to Japan, Africa, and South America, was rampant until the end of 1968. It is said that more than 1 million deaths occurred in the mid-20th century Pandemic, where there was no tally of infected people as it is now. In March 2009, the swine flu from the U.S. swept Mexico and spread to the world. At the time, media reports said that as of May 3, 2009, Mexico had more than 150 deaths, and the country was in a state of panic. In April 2010, the WHO announced that the minimum death toll from swine flu was 17,583. The number of confirmed patients is estimated to exceed 251 million.

COVID-19, which has brought about a pandemic 10 years after the swine flu crisis, deserves to be recorded as a powerful virus. Compared to the previous pandemic, the contagiousness and fatality rate are higher, and the duration is already nearly twice as long. Until recently, the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases around the world reached nearly 500 million and the number of deaths exceeded 6 million. As of 0 o’clock on May 2, the cumulative number of confirmed patients in Korea was 17,295,733 (22,958 deaths). As of March this year, Korea’s resident registration population was 51.61 million. There is an “official calculation” that one in three Koreans suffered from COVID-19.

Above all, the daily life of human society has been destroyed in an instant. During the previous pandemic, there were no extreme drugs such as prohibition of movement between countries. Sports events were not suspended. Although there was a temporary restriction on the use of the airport, I was able to travel abroad as usual. On the other hand, in the third pandemic, borders and airports were closed for a long time. Even during the war, the school, which was not official but kept only student classes, was virtually closed. People have experienced a completely different world.

The “post-corona era” is being talked about. This means that the aspects of the world in which people live are clearly distinguished by cutting off before and after the COVID-19 incident. Despite the swine flu crisis, people wore masks, but they were not compulsory and most of them did not wear them. This time, people are making masks that they are forced to wear unconditionally for more than two years. It seems to accept the prospect that telecommuting, online video and performance culture will become daily life without resistance.

Now, it is a path to the daily recovery of self-quarantine. Beyond this, many of the “familiar things” before the COVID-19 incident will be put behind the times. Human society has undergone daily changes after experiencing war, technological development, natural disasters, and revolutionary political situations. However, it is hard to see a sudden change in the world while people cover their noses and mouths around the world. In particular, the world that future generations will set up in the future, when they escape from the painful world of disconnection and travel through the open school site, may be a different look than imagined. It’s a natural phenomenon. It feels like the evolution of daily life that will one day come sooner than expected. It’s a job to adapt actively.

SAM KIM

ASIA JOURNAL

Korea was an exemplary country for COVID-19 quarantine. In addition to identifying and responding quickly to movements, control and response were planned by the state. However, ahead of South Korea’s presidential election on March 9, there is a feeling that some policies and administration are cluttered. Finally, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seems to be shifting its direction from a controlling direction to an autonomous system.

I also think that the increasing mutation of each local health center seems a little irresponsible for uncontrollable virus and policy and administrative changes.

With the spread of the Omicron mutation virus, Korea’s daily number of new confirmed cases soared to the world’s second-largest. The number of confirmed cases per million is the No. 1 among countries with more than 10 million people.

As of the 22nd, the number of confirmed cases in Korea per day was 171,452, the highest ever, and more than 70,000 more than the previous day. The growth rate reaches 72%.

As of 9 p.m. on the 23rd, it recorded 161,382, and if counted by midnight, it is expected to record more than 170,000 people again.

According to statistics site Our World Data, the number of confirmed cases in Korea on the 22nd was 171,452, the second largest in the world after Germany’s 221,478.

In terms of the number of confirmed cases per million, 3,342, beating Germany, which recorded 2,640.

The problem is from now on. This is because the U.S., Europe, and Japan are already at their peak, but Korea is the opposite. In fact, the U.S. fell to 99,820 on the same day. There are 41,353 people in the UK and 69,447 in Japan.

The spread rate is also exceeding the expectations of the quarantine authorities. The quarantine authorities predicted 130,000 people on the 23rd and 180,000 people on March 2nd, but the actual number of confirmed cases on the 23rd easily exceeded 170,000.

At this rate, quarantine experts predict that 370,000 confirmed cases will occur at the end of this month to early next month and that the number of severely ill patients will exceed 3,000.

As of the 22nd, the number of critically ill patients receiving treatment at hospitals was 512, which has been steadily increasing since it surpassed 400 on the 18th.

Park Young-joon, head of the epidemiological investigation team at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a briefing, “The fatality rate of Omicron is similar to that of seasonal flu, but if the outbreak is large, it can lead to an emergency.”

Experts maintain this scale for a week after reaching 300,000 next week. It is expected to turn to a decline after the middle of the year.

A team led by Jeong Eun-ok, a professor of mathematics at Konkuk University, announced on the website of the National Institute of Mathematical Sciences that if the infection reproduction index is 1.67, there could be 213,332 new confirmed cases in one week and 334,228 in two weeks.

Choi Jae-wook, a professor of preventive medicine at Korea University College of Medicine, also said, “It is faster than expected,” and predicted, “There could be about 250,000 to 300,000 new confirmed patients after two weeks.”

Jeong Jae-hoon, a professor of preventive medicine at Gachon University, also said, “After the peak of the epidemic, the number of critically ill patients will be the highest in about two weeks,” and stressed, “Even if beds are secured, it is time to check whether they can actually operate.”

Meanwhile, as the number of confirmed cases increased rapidly, the number of patients treated at home increased to 520,000 that day. Most of the local health centers in charge of home treatment stop working and focus on quarantine.

Sam Kim

Asia Journal

As the COVID-19 virus is spreading, many industries are suffering greatly. It has already been over two years since the pandemic began. The K-POP industry is no exception. Until 2020, world tour concerts accounted for a large percentage of entertainment agencies’ sales. Meeting between stars and fans was considered the essence of this ‘idol’ industry. As governments around the world, including Korea, implemented strong social distancing restrictions, it has become difficult to hold these kinds of events. But Korean entertainment agencies got over these difficulties successfully. The key to their success is digital transformation.

Now most K-POP stars hold online fan meeting when they release a new album. The online fan meeting is an entirely new form of K-POP event. Using Google Meet or Kakao Video Call, the star and fan have a video call for about two minutes. After the event, the album which the star has signed and written the fan’s name and P.S. is delivered to each fan’s home.

Likewise, concerts are being held online, too. Instead of the chance to meet celebrities in person, K-POP fans have the chance to watch their favorite star’s performances with online devices at home. The price for the tickets vary, but some are even free! Dream Maker Entertainment provides a special online concert platform to K-POP agencies which is called Beyond Live. Once the ticket is purchased, fans can enjoy the concert at a certain time and watch the replay anytime. On-site concerts have time and space constraints, but online concerts don’t. That is to say, more people can get an opportunity to enjoy the show and it leads to the growth of the star’s popularity.

DearU Bubble is an app that provides star-fan messaging. SM Entertainment, the most popular Korean entertainment agency, established their subsidiary in 2017 and started the Bubble service in 2020. Not only stars of SM Entertainment but also other famous K-POP stars have joined the service, so people can enjoy communicating with various stars. The stars send text messages, exclusive photos, and videos through Bubble. If got messages, the subscribers can reply to the star. Although it’s not one-to-one communication actually, the app’s UI makes them feel like they’re chatting in private. The price of the service that you can communicate with one celebrity is \4,500 a month. Even though the price is not that cheap, 90% of subscribers keep using Bubble. Also, the number of people using Bubble is about 1.2 million without any special marketing or promotion. It means this service is quite attractive to K-POP fans.

HYBE, an entertainment agency to which BTS belongs, also made a similar service called Weverse. It offers star-fan communication service, exclusive photos/videos, and special MD products. In Korea, these kinds of app services are called fan-platform services. Now it is an undeniable truth that you should use these fan-platform services if you are a great fan of K-POP.

People all around the world are into Metaverse now, and the K-POP agencies are trying to combine the star’s IP (intellectual property) and Metaverse. As many people already know, Metaverse is a combination word of ‘meta’, which means imaginary and abstract, and ‘verse’, which means ‘universe’. ‘BLACKPINK’, YG Entertainment’s famous girl group, have their own Metaverse world with ZEPETO, the Metaverse platform. They hold a variety of fan events in their ZEPETO world. Meanwhile, ‘aespa’, SM Entertainment’s girl group, have their unique background narration related to Metaverse. It is as follows. They have four human members and four AI members called ‘ae-aespa’. The ae-aespa members originally live in a virtual world called FLAT, but aespa members and they meet together to fight against the villain. Therefore, aespa’s songs have unique lyrics implying this epic story.

NFT, non-fungible token, is used to prove the content’s worth and ownership. Korean big entertainment agencies such as SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Plus, and HYBE are continuing to work under the table to combine their celebrities’ IP and NFT. If K-POP agencies use NFT to maximize their celebrities’ IP, they might have tons of ways to create a profit. In Indonesia, a photo card of BTS Jungkook was traded at over $2500. This NFT fever is creating a synergy effect with the Metaverse platform, providing K-POP fans groundbreaking experiences to have chances to own their star’s IP.

K-POP agencies and celebrities are quickly adapting to the COVID Era by creating new business models; online fan meeting, online concert, fan-platform app service, and the convergence of Metaverse and NFT. As of today in Korea, the 4th Industrial Revolution is becoming a real sensation and the K-POP industry is also making big changes by transforming their business into a digital-related thing. People not into K-POP are also focusing on this new trend as it broadens the K-POP industry’s limits and merges into other industries. This trend seems to be accelerated as technology advances.

Han Saem Lee

K-UNIV Reporter

 Despite alleviation of the rules of social distancing, the interest of disinfection for public establishment is rising. Naturally, there are lots of installation inquiries for Nebula, the antimicrobial system of Sung Jin Techwin Co., Ltd.

Nebula offers safety, convenience, and durability. So, it is taking center stage for medical institutions, cultural facilities, public transportations, and any other places that people visit. Nebula is special because it is designed for a place with a large floating population. It can check a passenger’s temperature by just walking through it. The Nebula’s high-speed scanning system is constantly active. As there is no need to queue in a line, multiple users may pass through the gate while avoiding congestion.

Nebula started its test operation in September 2020 with DMETC (Daejeon Metropolitan Express Transit Corporation). Since it was well-received, the Daejeon city government with about 1.5 million populations selected Nebula for a support project of the public testbed. Nebula has played a key role for Covid-19 disinfection by being installed in Daejeon station, City-hall station, and U-sung Hot Spring station, where DMETC is running.

Nebula is being actively wanted by festival committees. Sung Jin Techwin Co Ltd (CEO: Kyea-Kwang, Lee) installed Nebula at Hamyang Wild Ginseng Expo and it has received a good evaluation for giving a sense of safety to visitors and working as a health keeper by raising the standard of disinfection. Also, the company had successfully installed Nebula on the Baekje Cultural Festival which was held from September 25th to October 3rd at Gong-Ju city. The technological gadget played a role as a health keeper again.

Anti-microbial mist ‘KID-Clean’ that Nebula contains is confirmed safe. It is a sterilizing cosmetic mist which is  made of natural ingredients without any chemical composition. It has acquired FDA approval. As it is dispersed directly on the human body walking through the gate of Nebula, it has proved its safety by passing the oral toxicity test, skin reaction test and humidifier hazardous substance test. KID-Clean has not only the function of antibacterial, but also the function of virucidal activity against coronavirus, which is confirmed by the Seoul National University in Korea. It is now sold as a sanitizer in America. It will be a big help in containing the spread of the virus and be widely used in public areas because it can be used for the body directly and safely.

Because it is still necessary to disinfect public places even if we accept the new normal “live with COVID-19”, Kyea-Kwang Lee, the CEO of Sung Jin Techwin Co., LTD, is expecting Nebula to be a global health keeper.

▲ Sung Jin Techwin Co.,Ltd.

▲ CEO : Kyea-Kwang Lee

▲ http://www.switch-vr.com

▲ sjlkk@hanmail.net

▲ 82-42-271-1177

The Korean government will push for a shift to what is dubbed as,“With Corona”. A step-by-step recovery plan which will occur between the end of this month and early November. As the fourth wave continues to spread, the measure takes into account that due to long-term highly intense social distancing the economy, education, and social culture can not function properly and aims to solve these issues. At a Cabinet meeting in the Blue House president Moon Jae In said, “We cannot just slow down the time for phased recovery at a time when damage to small business owners and self-employed people accumulates. They can no longer withstand these conditions. We must improve on the management of the situation and accelerate the rate of vaccination.”

The government has proposed the end of October to early November as the time to change the quarantine system and transition to a phased daily recovery. This is the time when the COVID-19 vaccination completion rate reaches 70% of the population. Health and Welfare Minister Kwon Deok-cheol stated at an invitational debate at the Broadcasting Journalists Club, “It is questionable whether we will be able to maintain the current distance system when referring to other countries with high vaccination rates.” However, even if we try to return to our daily lives it will be difficult to return to before COVID-19. Minister Kwon said, “The medical system cannot handle when the number of confirmed cases is 4,000 and 10,000,” adding, “Basic quarantine rules should always be observed.” Rules such as wearing a mask and social distancing should be observed continuously.

Minister Mr. Kwon then explained, “We are considering regulating private gatherings or easing the distancing of multi-use facilities, focusing on those who have completed vaccination. We will also gradually resolve the quarantine rules by midnight.” In addition, he mentioned that Germany’s “vaccine pass” system which allows those who have completed vaccination, been cured, or those who have tested negative (diagnostic test results) to use multi-use facilities may also be necessary in Korea. The government plans to change major quarantine indicators from the total number of confirmed patients and transition to critical and fatal rate data while  promoting the expansion of home treatment for regularly confirmed patients. It seems that regardless of this change on the economic front the consumer sentiment index rebounded for the first time in three months amid the prolonged COVID-19. Rather than correlating with the number of new confirmed patients, consumer sentiment has elevated due to increased vaccination and strong commodity exports. It is evaluated that the trend of COVID-19 re-proliferation and with COVID-19 policy after Chuseok are variables.

According to the September 2021 Consumer Trend Survey released by the Bank of Korea on the 28th the Consumer Sentiment Index (CCSI) stood at 103.8 this month, up 1.3 points from last month (102.5). Due to the additional fourth wave of COVID-19 the CCSI fell 7.1p and 0.7p in July and August respectively but, it is evaluated that the trend of COVID-19 re-proliferation in addition to new COVID-19 policies after Chuseok are possibly positive variables in relation to the upward trend found in September. The consumer sentiment index is a comprehensive indicator of consumer sentiment about economic conditions, and if it is greater than 100, it means that consumers are more optimistic than the long-term average. If it is less than 100 it means that consumers are overall pessimistic. Hwang Hee-jin, head of the statistical research team at the Bank of Korea’s Economic Statistics Bureau said, “Among the six indexes that make up the consumer sentiment index, three indexes rose,” adding, “The prolonged pandemic crisis seems to have slightly lowered the correlation with the increase in new confirmed cases.” At the end of October the impact on the consumer sentiment index is also expected to change depending on the government’s“With Corona”policy. Consumption impact such as national subsidies, and the trend of the spread of Corona. By item, the interest rate-level outlook CSI (134) rose 8p significantly on expectations of an additional increase in the benchmark interest rate. The employment opportunity net CSI (88) also rose 2p due to expectations of an economic recovery.

Even if the current spread of COVID-19, which has up to 3,000 confirmed cases a day, continues, it is considering promoting a “step-by-step daily recovery” in early November as planned, allowing only limited people, including those who have completed vaccinations, to use multi-use facilities. In addition to quarantine and medical responses, the government has also begun to form a “COVID-19 Daily Recovery Committee,” which includes representatives across society, including economy, education, culture, and autonomy.

Health and Welfare Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said at a debate held at the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club on the 28th, “If the government achieves the inoculation completion rate of 80% of adults and 90% of the elderly by the end of October, our medical response system can respond sufficiently. In the case of the UK, when the inoculation completion rate was 1.6%, the daily recovery rate was 46.6% as of 0 o’clock on the 28th, so it is not premature to switch to the daily recovery.

However, Minister Kwon said, “If up to 4,000 or 10,000 people are confirmed a day, the medical system cannot handle it, so it is necessary to comply with basic quarantine rules such as wearing indoor masks or ventilating frequently. Therefore, we plan to gradually ease them by industry rather than completely.” The government also explained that our medical system can handle up to 3,500 confirmed patients a day based on 976 severe and 12,212 moderate beds currently secured.

Minister Kwon then said he is considering introducing a “vaccine pass” that allows only limited people to use multi-use facilities, including those who have completed vaccinations, along with “relaxing private gatherings centered on those who have completed vaccinations.” According to Minister Kwon’s explanation, Germany allows only those who have been vaccinated, those who have been tested negative, and those who have presented vaccine passes to prove that they have been fully vaccinated may enter multi-use facilities such as indoor events, hospitals, nursing homes, entertainment facilities, and movie theaters. Minister Kwon said, “There are still many confirmed cases, fatalities, and critical situations from those who have not yet been vaccinated, so we are trying to apply this plan to protect them. Restrictions regarding business hours for cafes and restaurants are to be lifted. The construction of the COVID-19 Daily Recovery Committee, which Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom reported to President Moon Jae In the previous day, is also in full swing. The Daily Recovery Committee will play a role in creating a roadmap to practice phased daily recovery at the end of October and early November. Park Hyang, head of the Central Disaster Management Headquarters, said at a briefing that day, “We will organize the Daily Recovery Committee into four areas: economy, people’s livelihood, education, culture, autonomy, safety, quarantine, and medical care to fully reflect the opinions of experts and stakeholders.” A government official said, “The Living Disease Control Committee is a place to judge based on quarantine and medical response, and the Daily Recovery Committee is a place to review quarantine, economy, people’s livelihood, education, and culture at the same level. Local governments should also make judgments on whether it is actually possible, he said. “The formation of the committee will be visible next week.”

Starting with Kim Yoon, a medical professor at Seoul National University (medical management), Lee Jae-gap, a professor of infectious medicine at Hallym University Gangnam Sacred Heart Hospital (infectious medicine), and Yoon Tae-ho, a professor of preventive medicine (prevention medicine), will hold two debates or public hearings in October to collect opinions.

Sam Kim

Asia Journal