Weathernews Inc.

Weathernews, a private weather forecasting company, will provide weather forecast services to about 40,000 people, including participants from participating countries and officials of the Games organizing committee, at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games opening on the 19th of next month. In line with the competition schedule, pinpoint weather forecasts for all 53 venues can be checked on an app, and it is equipped with a question-and-answer function using a multilingual artificial intelligence agent. The AI agent can instantly answer questions like a weather forecaster, such as the impact of an approaching typhoon on competitions or when rain will stop, and it color-codes the probability of competition cancellation due to rain or strong winds in three levels up to 10 days ahead. It also has a function to send safety confirmation based on the app's location information in the event of an earthquake.

Private weather forecasting company Weathernews will simultaneously release its weather app, Weathernews, worldwide starting on the 6th. Supporting 57 languages including English, Chinese, and Hindi, the app assists early evacuation through alerts when rain clouds approach and notifications aggregating warning data from countries around the world. The global version allows users to check weather and rain cloud movements within a one-square-kilometer area every 10 minutes. Basic features are free, while additional features such as three-hour rain cloud forecasts and satellite images from one day prior are paid, priced at 1.99 dollars per month in the United States and 1.99 euros per month in the eurozone. Combined with advertising revenue, the company targets global app revenue of 5 billion yen over the next five years.

After the market close on July 23, several companies announced new or expanded shareholder benefit programs. Among the new launches, K&O Energy Group will offer shareholders who hold at least 100 shares continuously for one year or more as of the end of December each year a selection of electronic gifts worth between 500 and 24,000 yen, depending on the number of shares and holding period. Nihon Nohyaku will present shareholders holding at least 100 shares as of the end of September each year with four rice vouchers worth 1,760 yen. Daikokuya Holdings will give shareholders holding at least 1,000 shares for six months or more as of the end of March each year a 3,000-yen voucher usable at its stores. In terms of expansions, Weathernews is lowering the shareholding requirement from the current 200 shares or more to 100 shares or more.