Situated within convenient reach of Osaka Metro Subway Namba station, this first venture under the Royal Classic brand will pay tribute to a location that served as a crucible for so much of the distinctive local culture, bringing fresh value to Osaka Minami, and boosting Osaka’s development as an international tourist hub.

Designed by acclaimed architect Kengo Kuma and incorporating the facade of the former Osaka Shin-Kabukiza Theatre, the hotel will offer 150 luxurious guest rooms and suites with dramatic views of the city and the intricate streetscapes, each featuring high-tech tablet-operated fittings and ceilings of different heights.

The former Osaka Shin-Kabukiza was known for its impressive “Karahafu” gabled rooftop, and Kengo Kuma’s groundbreaking design honours this history by incorporating the lovingly restored façade into its lower floors. The upper stories, meanwhile, weave layers of aluminium fins into the structure, adding a dynamic complexity to this synthesis of tradition and modernity.

As a new hub for visitors to the central Osaka Minami location, the first floor will boast a spacious open café facing onto the bustling thoroughfare of Midosuji Avenue. The second- floor restaurant meanwhile will offer buffet-style lunch and dinner.

The new hotel will provide five main function rooms––Uruwashi & Kotohogi, Hiyori, Komorebi, Hanaemi, and Ibuki–– spread across the 3rd to 9th floors, each boasting their own distinctive design concept.

Online booking can be done from today at https://hotel-royalclassic.jp/en/.

“While it’s true that greenhouse gases emissions are the main culprits of climate change, it’s the surge in Internet use that has accelerated the warming to the crisis point,” said Acharavadee Wongsakon, the KBO’s president. “We’re urging you to take four hours to be completely offline. Turn off your router or put your phone on aeroplane mode at least once a week.”

The campaign was launched as part of the climate change seminar, “A Way Out of Climate Crisis: The Unspoken Truth”, organised by KBO Earth, a new unit established by the KBO to work on climate change issues and to share new information through numerous scientific facts and studies presented by prominent scientists and researchers. The event, chaired by Deputy Permanent-Secretary of Digital Economy and Society Ministry Somsak Khaosuwan, was attended by more than 400 participants from the public, private, and civil society sectors.

According to Lt Pitak Tiranakul, KBO Earth executive director, mobile phones, phone mast antennas (base stations), cordless phones, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth have carrier wave frequencies within the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most Wi-Fi computers use 2.4GHz, the same frequency as microwave ovens.

As the laws of physics goes, energy does not disappear but only converts its form. Microwaves, when emitted from its sources, scatter through the atmosphere and can penetrate the surface, the water, ice and objects. There is water vapour in the air everywhere. When the wave travels through the air, the friction causes heating at the molecular level. The process is called Radio Frequency Heating. It is how food is cooked by microwave.

“While a few mobile devices may do no harm, the current number of mobile phone users, which stands at almost five billion so far, can turn the world into a giant microwave. The more digital data generated and stored, the more heated the atmosphere is heated. Data centers never sleep. They have to work 24/7 keeping the data available for us whenever we want it. Not only does the process consume huge amount of energy, but also generates so much heat most data centers are located in cold climate areas or equipped with comprehensive cooling systems all the time,” the radar and microwave expert pointed out.

As for Thailand, Somsak said while Thailand is fully committed to make the Internet accessible to everyone in the country within a few years, the government has also prioritised increasing green areas in the country. So far, it has confiscated hundreds of thousands of acres from forest encroachers nationwide and reforested several areas.

Royal Forest Department Director-General Attaphol Charoenchansa said in his speech that the Thai government has tried to increase forest cover on both public and private land by promoting reforestation that also has economic value.

“The cabinet has recently approved the amendment of forest laws to allow the use of trees grown in these forests. The department has also enforced the law against encroachers more strictly with more severe penalties. Our goal is to turn more than half of the country’s total area into forests.”

Meanwhile, what Thailand and the world can do is to minimise the Internet usage and delete unnecessary digital data from smartphones, cloud system, computers and the Internet system, Acharavadee said, noting these actions could quickly ease the problem. This is deemed necessary in light of the 2018 UN Special Report’s statement that climate change impacts would be irreversible unless the world is able to cap the temperatures to not exceed 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels within 12 years.

The organisation plans to send a letter to Google Inc to ask the tech giant to issue a policy to delete old, unnecessary data from its servers in order to free up space for new data storage and avoid the need to build more data centers. It will also send a letter to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) asking it to look into this issue closely.

Last November, the KBO sent an open letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to call for the international community’s attention to the issue and promote public awareness and encourage people to cut down Internet use while planting more trees in their communities.

“We need to start now because the climate change problem is now at crisis point. Humans must slow down all Internet-related activities and innovation. We have to be less dependent on technology and the Internet and return to more natural living,” the KBO president said.

Like most other Thais, Chutima Dumsuwan has hundreds of images in her smartphone’s photo album. Unlike others though, most of them are portraits of her clients rather than pictures of her friends and family members. That’s because Chutima is a member of a new breed of consultants and her main responsibility is ensuring her clients present themselves properly and smartly and that what they write about on their Facebook and Instagram feeds isn’t going to come back and bite them.

Like a double-edged sword, social networks can be friendly as well as vicious. Just one word or one picture posted on the online platforms can launch you to stardom or catastrophe overnight. And it’s no longer possible to opt out. Everyone needs some kind of social media presence, even more so if they happen to be the top figures in their companies or a celebrity. Traditional media like newspapers and television are all very well but they have limited space to offer.

Executives are concerning about their social media presence and the help of social media manager/consultant is taking into consideration./AFP

The problem lies in the presentation. After decades of experience in communication strategies at such top companies like Jim Thompson and Giffarine, Chutima’s job is to serve as a social media manager to executives.

“My job is to help my clients deliver their personal branding on social media to ensure their own and their companies’ positive reputation. The three keys are to purpose their personality and passion, to show off their expertise, and to echo their voices on current issues to reach a range of readers. They have to agree and approve every visual image and item of content before it gets fed online,” says Chutima who after resigning from her last post as the communication director of Jim Thompson set up her own firm Communicate Different.

Since launching the company a couple of months ago, Chutima, who is in her 40s, has managed digital accounts for two clients – one the chief executive of a top company and the other a business entrepreneur. She also serves as an image consultant for a politician.

Chutima

Chutima conducts extensive interviews and researches her clients’ past interviews with others to get a better understanding of their characters, personalities and passions from the eyes of an outsider. From there, she develops a strategic plan to build up their online reputation.

“What is posted online must be true and consistent with their passion, interest and expertise. It must be a reliable and trustworthy presence on the networks. Basically, I will plan a monthly calendar on the concept and topic on which they should speak in the online world that’s relevant to the current situation. The visual images and their portraits are carefully selected to go well with the content.

“The communication must be consistent. For Facebook, I suggest having about four feeds a week or 15 posts a month while on Instagram, 20 posts are acceptable,” says Chutima whose portfolio includes stints as communication relations officer at Laguna Phuket Hotel and corporate communications executive at Giffarine.

Chutima took a course on Facebook marketing to increase effectiveness and also researched their clients’ followers to find out which topics these people are interested in.

“I keep an eye on global trends to identify interesting topics and design digital content that matches my clients’ expertise to present their potential to a wide range of readers,” she adds. “People today feel unstable due to the uncertainty in the economic and political situations. Therefore, content that is encouraging and inspiring is among the interesting feeds.”

The followers she wants to build up for her clients include the press and the influencers who can help build up their status as opinion leaders.

She is encouraging her two clients to create Facebook live feeds to achieve higher engagement but both feel uncomfortable about appearing in real-time. But Chutima is patient and says when her clients become more comfortable online, her next phase is to set up the YouTube channels and Podcasts.

Rawit

Of course, there are executives quite capable of managing their own online presence and shoring up the positive image of their companies. Take Rawit Hanutsaha, the third generation of the legendary facial powder Srichand, who has successfully rebranded

his family’s old-fashioned product.

Wearing other hats as a marathon athlete, an author and an avid reader, Rawit runs his Facebook page “Mission to the Moon” and the Podcast programme “5 Minutes” to share his thoughts on business, marketing management and life-inspiring ideas. He now has nearly 250,000 followers.

“Consumers today want to see ‘transparency’ in business. If they feel a firm is touchable and reachable, they can see that transparency and that gives them confidence in the brand. By itself, a brand is something abstract and in the past, people didn’t know much about the brand’s chief executive. Today, the ability to communicate with the executive can create a lively connection,” says Rawit, 40.

Over the past several years, Rawit agrees that the executives of the top firms have increasingly presented their roles on online platforms. However, he says social media is just a channel of communication and is suitable for speaking on certain topics. But individuals who are reluctant to use this channel should not even try to do so, as netizens can immediately spot who’s authentic and who’s fake.

AFP

Rawit started using Facebook four years ago, followed by Podcast last year and Twitter just two months ago. Consistency in online presence is vital, he says. His Facebook account is normally updated every three days and he is relatively active in terms of Podcasts, putting out two episodes each of about 5 minutes everyday.

“Twitter is still new to me but it’s an interesting channel. People react promptly to a particular situation or issue so what they write is what they feel. I learn a lot from what they tweet and this data is very useful as it is not something I get from any marketing research tool.

“Consumers sometimes tweet me directly to comment about my products and this helps me improve the products and even get inspired to launch a new product line to meet their needs,” says Rawit.

AFP

He refuses to jump on Instagram because “I’m not keen on photography, so this channel doesn’t suit me.”

Nualphan Lamsam, president and chief executive officer of Muang Thai Insurance, is another businesswoman who successfully presents herself as a potential leader of empowered woman through the online strategies of her communications team.

Known as Madam Pang after her nickname, her insurance company is undergoing rebranding through the “Believe in Pang” campaign, which is centred on her vision and mission to expand the client base to include the young generation. Contacted by The Nation, her team, however, declined to give an interview about their strategic online planning.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is searching for a social media manager to maintain the Queen’s presence in the public eye./AFP

And even the British royal family is keeping up with the trend! The royal household last month advertised an opening for a digital communications officer to find “new ways to maintain the Queen’s presence in the public eye and on the world stage”.

The successful candidate, who will earn an annual salary of around “30,000 pounds (Bt1.17 million) dependent on experience”, will be responsible for managing and overseeing the daily news flow on digital and social networking platforms, researching and writing feature articles.

RETIRING FROM a career can bring on despondency, but more seniors are being given the chance to keep working, albeit in different kinds of jobs.

Thailand will be a full-fledged “ageing society” by 2021, according to the National Economic and Social Development Board. Duangporn Sa-nguanphao, 68, just feels like she’s getting younger.

Standing at the front of the Krispy Kreme branch in the Silom Complex in Bangkok, Duangporn cheerfully welcomes customers inside.

There, she and her colleagues also in their 60s serve pastries and bus the tables, feeling as busy and useful as they ever have and earning much-needed spending money too.

You’re seeing proof of the success of the “Super 60” project Krispy Kreme launched in March to give seniors a chance to get back into the workforce and fend off the creeping boredom of retirement.

Duangporn Sanguanphao and couple Worawut and Ramon Bavornthaweepanya are having fun working at the Krispy Kreme branch in Silom Complex. 

“Seniors can be at risk of suffering major depression after they retire,” says Dr Ausanee Mahagitsiri, president of KDN Co, which operates Krispy Kreme in Thailand. “They feel discouraged and lack specific goals in life. The private sector in many countries is rehiring seniors and I think it’s another way to spread happiness in society.

“We’re wide open to hiring any senior who has a service mind. We started with the Silom Complex branch because most of the customers here are Thai. Actually, I wanted to set up a shop run entirely by seniors but ran into some problems. We need to give seniors more time to learn to use a computer and the advanced coffee machine.”

Krispy Kreme currently employs four retirees at Bt80 per hour, nearly double the minimum wage for general part-time staff. They’re trained on the management system and can claim social insurance, and their shifts can be flexible.

“It’s good to see the seniors working with younger people,” says Ausanee. “They can share their experience with each other and sometimes the elders prod the younger ones to work a little harder too!”

Auntie Duangporn was the first to apply for a Super 60 job at Krispy Kreme. She travels by subway between the store and her home in Lat Phrao every Monday to Friday.

She used to be a provincial manager at AIA Insurance Co.

“I quit my job in 2007 and was getting made-to-order meals like shredded pork and chilli paste at home every day. I’ve been working here for three months and seeing the customers smile makes me very happy. I knew that the heart of selling involves knowing the products, so I spent a few days tasting and memorising all 24 kinds of doughnuts and the seasonal sweet dishes.

“My health is better now because I’m walking and moving around all day. I work six hours a day, 9am to 4pm. It’s good working and seeing my friends every day. My new goal is to earn enough for a holiday in Japan.”

Married couple Worawut and Ramon Bavornthaweepanya – he’s 64 and she’s 62 – are no less enthusiastic about their new work arrangement. Auntie Ramon says she was starting to get anxious when her husband showed signs of depression following his retirement last year.

“He was the manager of a printing house for decades,” she says. “Then all of a sudden after he quit his job he was hardly ever speaking, just stayed quiet for months. So his sister and I persuaded him to apply here. Then he got better and became lively again.”

Every workday from noon to 4, Uncle Worawut cleans tables and keeps the doughnut shelves full.

“My family encouraged me to get back to work,” he says. “It keeps me far away from Alzheimer’s and I’m happy my life has some colour again. I’ve been able to use my experience to adjust in several situations. And I’m strong enough to help carry boxes of doughnuts from Siam Paragon to Silom Complex.

Sathapana Hongsakul is back at work at Tesco Lotus Sukhaphiban 1.

“I run at Benchakitti Park every day to keep fit and firm, ready for work. I’m very happy to wake up and have a job to do every day, and the job lets me balance my life.”

Tesco Lotus, in partnership with the Labour Ministry, set up the “60 Young Jaow” (60 Stay Cool) project in April and has since hired almost 900 retirees around the country for part-time work.

“The seniors can choose which station they work in, whether fresh vegetables and fruit, the clothing department, the bakery or customer service,” says Aurakanda Attavipach, the retail chain’s “people director”.

“The shifts are flexible, running from four to six hours. The seniors are paid Bt50 per hour and can claim welfare including free annual health check-ups, discount coupons and medical treatment.

“Money isn’t the issue,” Aurakanda says of the pay rate. “It’s about living a worthwhile life. We welcome all seniors who love to learn new things and interact with other people, meaning our customers.

“We aim to hire 5,000 seniors over the next three years. We host fun activities to strengthen staff relationships. People of all ages can work together. We have students for whom we pay 10 per cent of their school tuition and we have blind people working in customer service.”

Sathapana Hongsakul, 67, had his own company selling audio-visual equipment before retiring three years ago. Now he works at Tesco Lotus Sukhaphiban 1, just 15 minutes from home, arranging the shelves in the fresh market.

“I applied because I didn’t want to waste my time at home,” Uncle Sathapana says. “I work Monday to Saturday from 9am to 1pm. I’m happy to be back on the job and learning from younger colleagues. We all respect each other.”

Over at the customer service counter, using his computer skills to issue tax invoices, Prachim Phutthikornpanya, 62, worked at a law firm until 2013.

“I have fun learning about life,” he says of his new five-day-a-week job. “We deal with a lot of people, so I teach my younger co-workers how to control their feelings. We should use our brains, not our emotions.

“I wake up early in the morning and do my household chores before driving to Lotus for my 2-to-6 shift. The salary isn’t much, but I’m happy to gain new experience.”

Manthana Phoonla-aor, 68, taps the skills she learned at Osotspa for her new tasks in the clothing department at Lotus.

“It feels good to earn Bt10,000 a month. I work Monday to Saturday from 1 to 5pm. Lotus is close to my house, so it’s very convenient for me,” Auntie Manthana smiles.

“I love fashion. Working here is like exercising. It’s great that they hire retired seniors, because other companies don’t welcome us. We don’t have children, so we need the money just for living.”

Other firms playing leading roles in supporting retirees are HomePro, Thai Toshiba, Phungnoi Bakery, Thai VP Corp and the Thairung Group.