TOKYO, Nov 26, 2024 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) is set to take on the upcoming Dakar Rally with a strong six-car team, combining the expertise and talent of both TOYOTA GAZOO Racing and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa (TGRSA). Along with TEAM LAND CRUISER TOYOTA AUTO BODY (TLC) and HINO TEAM SUGAWARA, they are ready for the challenge of the 2025 Dakar Rally.TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR)This year, for Dakar 2025, the team’s approach consists of two distinct components. The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing crew, representing Toyota Motor Europe, features rising stars Lucas Moraes with co-driver Armand Monleon, and Seth Quintero with co-driver Dennis Zenz. This youthful duo embodies TGR’s philosophy of nurturing young talent, providing them with unparalleled experience and opportunities to develop in the world of rally-raid.Building on their success in the 2024 World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), where Lucas Moraes and Seth Quintero contributed to Toyota’s victory in the Manufacturer’s Championship, the team heads to the Dakar with a determination to carry the momentum from the W2RC win forward into the new year. As the opening round of the 2025 W2RC season, the Dakar Rally is critical to setting the tone for the championship, making a strong result vital for the team’s title aspirations.The 2025 Dakar Rally also marks a strengthened partnership with Repsol, who remains a key sponsor to TGR. This partnership reflects TGR’s dedication to sustainable innovation. Repsol demonstrates its expertise in renewable fuels playing a key role in Toyota’s multi-path technology strategy. Supporting a future towards carbon neutrality in motorsports. The Repsol brand will be proudly displayed on the TGR cars and team apparel, symbolizing a shared vision for sustainable motorsport that drives forward the pursuit of renewable energy solutions.TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa (TGRSA)TOYOTA GAZOO Racing South Africa (TGRSA) will field a four-car team, including Giniel de Villiers partnered with Dirk von Zitzewitz, Henk Lategan with co-driver Brett Cummings, Guy Botterill with co-driver Dennis Murphy, and Saood Variawa with co-driver Francois Cazalet.Combining the TGR and TGRSA teams brings a comprehensive six-car line-up and forms one of the most versatile and balanced teams to the 2025 Dakar Rally, combining youthful energy with decades of experience in a single outfit.For the full press release, visit https://toyotagazooracing.com/dakar/release/2024/1126-01/.About Toyota Toyota strives to be a strong corporate citizen, engaging with and earning the trust of its stakeholders, and to contribute to the creation of a prosperous society through all its business operations.Our corporate principles form the basis of our initiatives, reflect values that enable action, and drive our mindset.For the latest Toyota-related news and information:https://tinyurl.com/ToyotaPressReleasenewsroom@global.toyota Copyright 2024 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

TOKYO, Nov 26, 2024 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - Eisai Co., Ltd. and Biogen Japan Ltd. announced today that Eisai has entered into a research collaboration agreement with the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry to conduct apolipoprotein E (APOE) genetic testing in the dementia research and development program, “Development and Analysis of a National Clinical Registry of Disease-Modifying Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease” (“AD-DMT Registry”). The research will be implemented by the Japan Agency forMedical Research and Development (AMED), with NCNP as the lead research institution.The APOE gene is known to be a risk factor for the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and is also associated with the frequency of amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) in anti-amyloid β antibody treatments such as lecanemab (LEQEMBI®).(1)In Japan, at present, APOE genetic testing is not available for routine clinical practice under National Health Insurance. For thisreason, by using APOE genetic information collected in the AD-DMT Registry, Eisai and NCNP can further study the relationship between the APOE genotype and the safety and efficacy of treatment with lecanemab.Based on this research collaboration agreement with NCNP, Eisai will cover the cost of the APOE genetic testing conducted in the AD-DMT Registry. The findings, along with data collected from the lecanemab-specific post-marketing surveillance (all-casesurveillance), will be part of the reexamination of lecanemab’s application by the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and MedicalDevices Agency (PMDA) to ensure the label reflects the latest scientific understanding with the goal of improving patientoutcomes.Eisai and Biogen Japan will continue to contribute to the advancement of Alzheimer’s disease treatment through ongoing collaboration with academia.Eisai serves as the lead of lecanemab development and regulatory submissions globally with both Eisai and Biogen Inc. (U.S.)co-commercializing and co-promoting the product and Eisai having final decision- making authority. In Japan, Eisai and Biogen Japan will co-promote lecanemab, with Eisai distributing the product as the Marketing Authorization Holder.(1) Foley KE and Wilcock DM (2024). Three major effects of APOEε4 on Aβ immunotherapy induced ARIA. Front. Aging Neurosci. 16:1412006. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1412006About the “Development and Analysis of a National Clinical Registry of Disease-Modifying Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease”The National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (NCNP) is the lead research institution for the dementia research and development program “Development and Analysis of a National Clinical Registry of Disease-Modifying Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease” under the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). The research is being conducted with the aim of collecting clinical information and test data obtained from routine medical care using treatments including anti-amyloid β antibody drugs such as lecanemab, evaluate the efficacy and safety of these drugs, and perform blood sampling for APOE genotyping and measurement of other biomarkers in patients receiving the drugs. Some of theseresults will be reported to the participating patients, and the safety and efficacy of the drugs will be examined based on APOE genotype and other factors. Eisai plans to conduct large-scale and efficient research by sharing data of patients who have given their consent from the specific post-marketing surveillance.For more details on AMED's dementia research and development program, please visit the AMED website.About EisaiEisai's Corporate Concept is "to give first thought to patients and people in the daily living domain, and to increase thebenefits that health care provides." Under this Concept (also known as human health care (hhc) Concept), we aim toeffectively achieve social good in the form of relieving anxiety over health and reducing health disparities. With a global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to create and deliver innovative products to target diseases with high unmet medical needs, with a particular focus in our strategic areas of Neurology, Oncology and Global Health.Theoria technologies Co., Ltd., a member of the Eisai Group, operates the dementia portal site "Theotol" (https://theotol.soudan-e65.com/), which provides easy-to-understand contents and services for the general public aboutMCI and various types of dementia, their causes, treatments, as well as caregiving methods and personal experiences. (Japanese only)About Biogen JapanFounded in 1978, Biogen is a leading biotechnology company that pioneers innovative science to deliver new medicines to transform patients’ lives and to create value for shareholders and our communities. We apply deep understanding ofhuman biology and leverage different modalities to advance first-in-class treatments or therapies that deliver superior outcomes. Our approach is to take bold risks, balanced with return on investment to deliver long-term growth.We routinely post information on Biogen Japan that may be important to investors on our website at https://www.biogen.com/ and social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, LINE.Media Contacts:Eisai Co., Ltd.Public Relations Department TEL: +81 (0)3-3817-5120Biogen Japan, Ltd.Corporate AffairsTEL: ＋81-70-1501-4315E-mail: Japan-PA@biogen.com Copyright 2024 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

KAWASAKI, Japan, Nov 26, 2024 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - Fujitsu today announced that it has developed Policy Twin, a new digital twin technology to simulate the social impact of local government policies. Fujitsu will start offering Policy Twin to support effective and efficient service delivery in municipal preventive healthcare services on December 6, 2024 via the Fujitsu Research Portal (1), Fujitsu’s environment that offers users the opportunity to try out Fujitsu's advanced technologies.Fujitsu’s newly developed technology recreates previously successful local government policies on a digital twin and uses data to generate new policy candidates and gauge effectiveness.During field trials in preventive healthcare projects, the new technology enabled the creation of policy candidates that doubled both the medical expense cost-savings and the improvement of health indicators achieved through health guidance compared to the previous year, while meeting resourcing requirements. This demonstrated the technology’s ability to create policies that achieve multiple objectives simultaneously, potentially shortening planning times and facilitating consensus building.Fujitsu aims to launch a service for the healthcare and medical sector in Japan utilizing the newly developed digital twin technology by fiscal year 2025. Furthermore, by leveraging this technology in its Uvance Wayfinders consulting services, Fujitsu aims to digitalize stakeholder initiatives and contribute to solving societal challenges, inlcuding service restructuring to address workforce shortages, disaster prevention and mitigation, and enhancing supply chain resilience.Policy Twin OverviewFujitsu has been developing Social Digital Twin (2), a group of technologies that incorporate the latest insights from behavioral economics into ICT, including AI, to support solutions for complex societal challenges. This involves developing digital rehearsal technology capable of accurately recreating human behavior on a digital twin and predicting the effect/impact of policies.Building on this digital rehearsal technology, Policy Twin leverages empirical economics, the science of using data to understand how to best allocate resources, to preemptively assess and compare the effectiveness of digitally recreated local government policies on a digital twin, enabling effectiveness maximization and comparative analysis.The process of using Policy Twin to identify effective policies is as follows:1) Convert written policies into flowchart format: Assisted by large language models (LLMs), publicly available municipal policy documents are converted into a machine-readable flowchart format (Figure 1). This format includes the services provided (health guidance, clinic visit recommendations, etc.) and uses conditional branches to narrow down the target recipients (i.e., conditions related to blood glucose levels or kidney disorders). This allows for comparison of the flow differences between policies of multiple similar municipalities, taking into account geographical characteristics and demographic composition.2) Generate new policy flowchart candidates: As shown in Figure 2, new flowchart candidates are reconfigured by referencing the flowcharts of successful policies from multiple municipalities and combining parts of the conditional branches and services provided. During this process, the resource allocation examination process of empirical economics is referenced, and the combination of flowcharts is selected based on constraints such as the limited allocation range of resources (i.e., service usage capacity).3) Simulate service provision: For each generated flowchart candidate, a simulation is run using techniques including machine learning that considers human behavioral choices (proprietary behavioral choice model) (3) and past data to determine which conditional branches people pass through and what services are ultimately provided. Furthermore, it calculates how target indicators, such as health indicators, medical costs, and resources, will change for the municipalities. When the accuracy of the simulation was verified for a preventive healthcare project in a certain municipality, it was confirmed that the number of health guidance cases calculated by the Policy Twin based on Japanese National Health Insurance data matched the actual values within a 5% margin of error. In this way, multiple indicators are simulated for each of the multiple flowchart candidates, and the flowchart candidate with the maximum indicators is selected.Future ImpactFujitsu anticipates that utilizing the Policy Twin for more effective preventive healthcare policy making allows municipalities to simultaneously achieve improvements in resident health, cost savings, and disease prevention, ultimately contributing to improved well-being. As the Policy Twin can also demonstrate the rationale behind the proposed policies, it can facilitate consensus-building among diverse stakeholders and support its implementation in society. Furthermore, employing this technology across multiple municipalities is expected to lead to best practice creation, mutual referencing of policies between municipalities, and application towards the standardization of policies.(1) Fujitsu Research Portal :Portal site that has been open to the public since June 2023 to provide registered users access to trial versions of Fujitsu’s advanced technologies.(2) Social Digital Twin :Group of technologies to digitally recreate not only the states of both people and objects, but also economic and social activities, based on real-world data. The Social Digital Twin aims to facilitate the understanding of the mechanisms that cause societal problems and solve increasingly complex and diverse issues.(3) Behavioral choice model :The technology combines prospect theory, one of the leading theories in behavioral economics, and machine learning. It can express differences in choices among people while maintaining behavioral characteristics common to many people.About FujitsuFujitsu’s purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. As the digital transformation partner of choice for customers in over 100 countries, our 124,000 employees work to resolve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Our range of services and solutions draw on five key technologies: Computing, Networks, AI, Data & Security, and Converging Technologies, which we bring together to deliver sustainability transformation. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.7 trillion yen (US$26 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 and remains the top digital services company in Japan by market share. Find out more: www.fujitsu.com.Press ContactsFujitsu LimitedPublic and Investor Relations DivisionInquiries Copyright 2024 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

Toyota City, Japan, Nov 25, 2024 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has presented its line-up for the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship season as it further strengthens its squad of drivers with a mix of young talent and title-winning experience.After winning eight out of 13 rallies in 2024 and claiming a fourth consecutive manufacturers’ championship at the season-ending Rally Japan, TGR-WRT will enter 2025 with the mission to defend its crown and fight for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles. It will be able to count on an expanded line-up of cars and drivers, with four or five GR Yaris Rally1 entries set to appear on each event.Joining the team to start his first full season at the highest level will be Sami Pajari, following an impressive 2024 season in which he won the WRC2 drivers’ championship driving the GR Yaris Rally2 car and performed well in his first three outings in Rally1 machinery in Finland, Chile and Central Europe. The 22-year-old from Finland’s promotion demonstrates TGR-WRT’s commitment to developing young drivers as well as the GR Yaris Rally2’s role in providing a pathway to the top of the sport.Pajari, who will confirm the identity of his co-driver in due course, is one of four drivers who are set to feature on every rally.Double world champions Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen will return to competing full-time with the team in 2025 after taking four wins from seven starts during a partial campaign this year. Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin, winners of last weekend’s Rally Japan, continue for their sixth successive season with the team, with Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston also returning for another year. Eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais will once more contest a partial schedule of selected events after scoring three victories this season.TGR-WRT is pleased to confirm that Jari-Matti Latvala will continue in the role of Team Principal. In the last four seasons, in addition to overseeing numerous victories and championship titles, Latvala has been a trusted associate for the team’s drivers while also helping to identify and develop new talent such as Pajari.As part of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s driver-first approach, Latvala has also been given the opportunity by Akio Toyoda, TGR-WRT Chairman, to continue pursuing his first love of driving alongside his duties of Team Principal – for example, competing in Rally Finland with a GR Yaris Rally1 in 2023 and GR Yaris Rally2 in 2024. This will continue in 2025 when Latvala will drive one of the most successful Toyota rally cars – the Celica ST185 – in the FIA European Historic Rally Championship. He will do so in the colours of TGR, helping to connect the eras of Toyota participation in WRC and further share its passion for rallying with fans.In order to best support the team and ensure the continuation of the successful driver-first approach, Juha Kankkunen will take up the role of Deputy Team Principal. A four-time world champion, who won the last of his titles driving the Toyota Celica ST185 in 1993, Kankkunen will bring considerable experience of success to share with the drivers and other team members. He already knows the team well, having attended several events in an ambassadorial role over the past few years.Team nameTOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT (World Rally Team)ChairmanAkio ToyodaTeam PrincipalJari-Matti Latvala (Finland)Deputy Team PrincipalJuha Kankkunen (Finland)VehicleGR Yaris Rally1 (length 4207mm; width 1875mm)EngineGI4BTyresHankookDriver/Co-driverDriverElfyn Evans (UK)Co-driverScott Martin (UK)DriverSébastien Ogier (France)Co-driverVincent Landais (France)DriverKalle Rovanperä (Finland)Co-driverJonne Halttunen (Finland)DriverTakamoto Katsuta (Japan)Co-driverAaron Johnston (Ireland)DriverSami Pajari (Finland)Co-driverTBCQuotes:Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal):“The 2024 season presented new challenges for our team, but we continued to perform at a high level and kept fighting until the final day to successfully retain our manufacturers’ title. For 2025, we are really happy to continue with the same drivers who have been performing strongly for us over recent seasons, and to have more drivers strengthening our efforts for the full championship. It’s also great to welcome Sami Pajari to our line-up thanks to the investment that we are making to develop young drivers. Sami has made great steps this year and we are confident that he’s ready to move up to the highest level. Personally, I’m very excited to have the opportunity to combine my role as Team Principal with my passion for driving, competing with the legendary Toyota Celica, and I’m really pleased that Juha Kankkunen will take on the role of Deputy Team Principal to support me and the team on WRC events: he knows the team well and brings a lot of experience to the role.”Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal):“It is a great pleasure for me to take on this role with the team. During my career I drove with many different teams but I had nine years in total with Toyota: it was the first manufacturer to give me an opportunity in the WRC, and I believe it is probably the best team in the world. There are very good people and the cooperation has always been excellent between Europe and Japan. This team spirit and teamwork is very important and everybody is pushing together. I have a good relationship with Akio Toyoda, having been driving together with him in demonstration events in the last few years, and also with Jari-Matti, who is a great person and very easy to talk with. I’m really happy to work more closely with them and to help the team where I can.”Elfyn Evans:“I’m very happy to continue with TGR-WRT next year. Since 2020 we’ve had some great seasons together, and although 2024 could have been even more successful, I know that there’s still a lot of potential in the team and I feel I have plenty more to give as well. So I’m looking forward to continuing our partnership. We know that we need to keep working hard together and hopefully we can achieve more good results in the future.”Kalle Rovanperä:“I’m really excited that I will be driving in the full WRC season again next year. This year has been quite different for me, driving a few different cars and still winning some rallies at the same time. It’s been a nice year, but it’s also given me a lot of motivation to return for the full season, to push together with Jonne for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles and do our best with the team to win the manufacturers’ championship too.”Sébastien Ogier:“It’s really exciting to remain with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing for 2025. We have already had five very fantastic seasons together with a lot of victories and success and I’m really looking forward to continuing this story. Once again my main goal is to give my support to the team in the manufacturers’ championship in a partial programme, and hopefully we can manage to win all three titles. Let’s keep pushing the limits together.”Takamoto Katsuta:“I’m really happy that I will continue driving with the team in 2025. It has been a challenging season for me this year, and I want to thank the team and everyone who has been supporting me in the difficult moments. I feel I have shown my speed on most of the rallies, so the confidence is growing and I just need to find the right rhythm through every rally: this is my main target next year. If everything goes well, I’m sure I can fight for more podiums.”Sami Pajari:“This is a dream come true for me and I’m really grateful to TOYOTA GAZOO Racing and the team for giving me this amazing opportunity. There have also been many important people who have been helping me and making this possible. It has been an incredible year for us in the GR Yaris Rally2 and in our first events in the Rally1 car, and although we have now reached the place we were aiming for, I also know that this is where the hard work really starts to learn and to push for good results in the future.”TGR WRC Challenge ProgramThe TGR WRC Challenge Program started in 2015 aiming to develop professional rally drivers who can compete on the world stage, following in the footsteps of Takamoto Katsuta. The program’s second-generation drivers Hikaru Kogure and Yuki Yamamoto will both continue in 2025. It will be their second season driving the GR Yaris Rally2 car on events, including WRC2 rounds, after gaining valuable experience this year.A third generation of drivers, Shotaro Goto and Takumi Matsushita, were selected to join the program ahead of 2024. Having now taken part in their first rallies in Europe in Rally4 cars, they will continue their training in 2025 with a step up to four-wheel drive Rally3 machinery.The process to select a fourth intake of young drivers is underway. Following an initial selection event at Fuji Speedway, seven drivers will take part in the final selection in Finland in December.DriverHikaru Kogure (Japan)DriverYuki Yamamoto (Japan)DriverShotaro Goto (Japan)DriverTakumi Matsushita (Japan) Copyright 2024 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

TOKYO, Nov 25, 2024 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) has submitted a progress report on measures to prevent recurrence of model certification application issues to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) today in light of the correction order the ministry issued on July 31. This report, summarizing actions taken to date, is the first of a series of quarterly reports.Response to the correction orderWe are reviewing our mechanisms and systems to increase legal compliance awareness among all employees and to enable them to do their work in a correct manner. This incident prompted management to make more frequent visits to the genba. Through this process, we found that we were not taking the necessary steps at the necessary times, including decisions on managing aging equipment. Going forward, management will make swift decisions on actions required in the medium to long term and will share that information with all employees. Through a series of such initiatives, we aim to be the company of choice for our customers.Specific progress of measures to prevent recurrenceWe are promoting on-site management to drive development and certification work. We have also implemented measures to remedy any issues identified through that process.- To be able to take appropriate actions immediately when abnormalities are found, management is visiting the genba in person to learn about the actual situation to create the appropriate environments and allocate resources needed for Human Development, Monozukuri and Strengthening Foundations.- We have reviewed responsibilities and processes so that appropriate management can be made at each stage of development and certification application.- We have introduced education programs to improve management's understanding of certification rules and its awareness of compliance.- The Legal Supervisor is attending internal certification tests and shares audit results with management.- We have established means for appropriate storage and handling of certification-related data.- We are using digital technology to automatically generate test results (to reduce human errors and workloads, etc.).- We are pursuing improvement of compliance awareness in development and certification departments using educational environments, including the Quality Learning Center, and by offering e-learning opportunities to all employees.Through Toyota's company-wide TPS training program for Certification Work, we are also working to develop a corporate culture across the Toyota Group to address fundamental challenges in development. We are treating this as an opportunity to review not only our development and certification operations but the way we work in every process, from planning to sales. In this regard, we are currently conducting kaizen activities, fully considering the effect on prior to and post processes.To once again gain the trust of our stakeholders, we will make company-wide efforts to prevent the recurrence of these issues.About Toyota Toyota strives to be a strong corporate citizen, engaging with and earning the trust of its stakeholders, and to contribute to the creation of a prosperous society through all its business operations.Our corporate principles form the basis of our initiatives, reflect values that enable action, and drive our mindset.For the latest Toyota-related news and information:https://tinyurl.com/ToyotaPressReleasenewsroom@global.toyota Copyright 2024 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.