looking at behavioural support and looking up many months up to a year. now we are seeing vaping is more effective than replacement therapy to help people quit. and we are seeing that today's survey that they are popular. they are flavours, that are separate from separate. they are not risk—free.

marking the official launch of the nottingham. the last few days of summer with a dry story. if you shower cropping up here you can see parts of bingen,

rural parts, temperatures dropping 26-27 c. rural parts, temperatures dropping 26—27 c. double figures to start your tuesday morning. the best of the morning sunshine in england and wales. parts of east anglia southeast and a few showers in recent days. the odd isolated shower through scotland towards the isle of man but cloud breaking up through. even with the breeze, we will see temperatures around 23—24 c. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... nasa postpones the launch of the artemis space rocket on its mission to the moon, due to last minute technical issues. the next opportunity for the launch is on friday.

the head of the institute for fiscal studies labels some of liz truss�*s tax cutting policies as �*worrying' and inadequade for dealing with rising energy costs. the ukrainian military has begun its long—awaited offensive on the southern front. it claims to have broken through the first line of russian defence around the main city of kherson. pakistan is making a global appeal for the flooding catastrophe that's killed more than a thousand people and affected 33 million. now on bbc news, the bbc�*s mariko oi travels across japan to see what impact new funding may have on tech and explores whether it has the potential to be asia's silicon valley. home of nintendo and the bullet train, japan was once a pioneer in innovation, but then fresh global competition emerged.

i'm heading home to meet the next generation of entrepreneurs across a country where starting your own business wasn't always seen as an ideal career choice. for many areas, start—ups have kind of disadvantages injapan, but from now it'll be changed. the government is putting its weight behind this and has tapped into its huge pension fund, worth $1.5 trillion, hoping to increase the number of starters by ten fold over the next five years. they want to encourage a spirit of enterprise in every corner of the land. i've come to tokushima. it's a bit of a backwater and hasn't got a reputation of being a thriving area. but it has been trying to reinvent itself as a place for start—ups, and in recent years a local company has hit the jackpot by taking its new venture across the country.

this little truck offers a lifeline to thousands of elderly who live in a remote area like this. it's a supermarket on wheels called tokushimaru, and it's named after the area. junichi kishimoto, one of the company's drivers, is making a regular stop in the small town of kamiyama. fewer than 5000 people live there, and all of his customers are over 75. they no longer drive so a service like this is notjust crucial for their essentials, but also has a big impact on their social lives. translation: he remembers| what i want to buy every week. if my grandkids are coming on sunday, i request something special. it is nice to be able to chat with friends after my shopping. translation: oh, no, no, i cannot use a smartphone! i i have been shopping

with them for five years because it is very helpful. the company was founded a decade ago. initially it only had two trucks in tokushima. today it's got more than 1000 of these on the road across japan, with annual sales topping $150 million. some of the customers live alone after their partners passed away so it is also a nice weekly bit of human interaction. forjunichi, joining the company was more about helping the elderly rather than picking up a wage. translation: | used to work l at a nursing home and i realised some residents came to live there because they were worried about their everyday food. so i wondered how i could help. that's when i found this company. the company's founder, tatsuya sumitomo, is a serial entrepreneur. he has decided to start up

the venture after seeing his own parents struggle with their daily routine. translation: my parents, - in their 80s, lived in a rural area and they were really struggling to get hold of basic necessities. their neighbours were the same. but no one in the society was coming up with a solution. that's when i thought that this could be a good business. he's started many businesses over the past 30 years and has this piece of advice for younger entrepreneurs, firmly believing making mistakes was not necessarily a negative. translation: there is no point in increasing your - knowledge by reading books. you have to go to the field, to the real world. because it's really different from what you can learn at school. you need to fail, you have to struggle, you have to face difficulties and that is how you grow. the japanese government is playing catch up with its economic rivals when it comes to start—ups.

recently it announced that it would tap into the world's largest, $1.5 trillion pension fund to finance the scheme. under current law, 5% of the fund can be used for the new initiative. that is the equivalent of $75 billion. the plan wants to encourage more local companies to think big. but one of the main barriers to innovation might be japan's own lucrative domestic market of elderly customers. up until now they have not demanded cutting edge technology, but that is beginning to change. so will the likes of tokushimaru join the online revolution? the company is also moving with the times. at the moment all of the orders are in the driver's head but it is now testing out an app which it hopes will become available in the next two years. that means that the next

generation of customers will have an option to order online. mr sumitomo is fully aware the company needs to go digital or risk being left behind by its rivals. translation: baby boomers in their late 70s will soon - become our customers. they have better internet literacy. so we're combining our mobile supermarket with online shopping. no matter how much technology is developed, our basic needs to eat and sleep don't change. there will always be customers who want to see fresh produce in person before making the purchase. so i do think there will be demand for our mobile supermarket. the senior citizens of kamiyama may prefer to pay cash for the moment, but this little town has big plans to innovate. like most rural areas injapan, the population has shrunk and aged as young people left for the cities. now it is about to welcome an influx of teenagers dreaming

of running their own businesses. right behind me they are building a brand—new boarding school, which is quite rare and ground—breaking. they are planning on opening in spring of next year, which they hope will produce the next generation of japanese entrepreneurs. the school is for 15— to 20—year—olds. it will costjust over 20,000 us dollars each year to attend. across the river there is an old abandoned school which is being refurbished into accommodation for the 200 plus students and staff. the man behind it is chikahiro terada. he's the boss of tokyo—based start—up sansan, which specialises in digitalisation of business cards. mr terada is not from here, so why did he choose tokushima, and this small town? translation: 12 years ago i set up| a remote office here because i heard that kamiyama is an interesting town with high—speed internet at old houses. mr terada paid a visit and met

with local businessman shinya 0minami, who was behind this town's revival. translation: after sansan, others followed to set - up their remote offices in kamiyama. it was exciting to see the town being rejuvenated. i then wondered what else i could do to contribute back to society. that is when i thought, education. i became an entrepreneur after graduating from university but i don't recall learning any crucial skills i needed to start a business with at school, so that is what i wanted to address. the curriculum will include subjects such as engineering, programming, designing, as well as business skills like marketing. these potential students are here to attend the school's summer camp. translation: this school is - unprecedented and fits my purpose, that is why i chose it. where i live in kanagawa, it isn't very rich in nature, so i thought by coming here it will polish up my creativity.

this school teaches everything from entrepreneurship spirit, i technology and art. i want to start my own business i using ai and the latest technology. there are also 50 entrepreneurs coming here as guest lecturers. i think that is very important for our students, to know that steve jobs, elon musk are normal people and that behind the new revolution is an ordinary person. there is no financial subsidies from the local government, but they gave us an abandoned school and a plot of land. we have also managed to raise $15 million from donations and through a local tax system. more than 30 companies are now behind us, mostlyjapanese, more than 30 companies are now behind this, mostlyjapanese, but also international ones like consultancy deloitte. in a country where most elite students have long aspired to join

large corporates until recently, his ambitions plans have seen some big interest, with more than 500 students from all overjapan attending briefings to find out about the first a0 slots. translation: the japanese children's mentality is definitely changing. - the top—notch elite no longer want tojoin big corporations, they are more interested in started their own business. what they are doing here is exactly what the japanese government hopes to see, with start—ups and entrepreneurship popping up across the country. but the fact remains that japan is still playing catch up against its regional rivals and this changing mindset is not a quick fix. crucially, it is committed to a 50/50 ratio of boys and girls, which is a step in the right direction forjapan, where men still dominate the start—up scene and the workforce. mr terada is hoping to raise more funds so that future students can study for free. he believes that that is the sort of investment required

to train a future generation of forward—thinking entrepreneurs if japan wants to succeed in competing with silicon valley. tokyo tends to get a lot of global attention, especially when it comes to tech start—ups. i am travelling on one of japan's most famous inventions, a bullet train, to another city that wants some of that spotlight. kyoto is the country's ancient capital, known for its centuries—old temples and shrines. but its biggest festival, gion, which started in the ninth century, is now going digital. this shows where all the carriages are. this is machi takahashi, who started this digital map business in 2015. this is a map that is dedicated to gion festival. can you tell me why this house is on your digital map?

so this house is a preservation office for the major carriage of the gion festival. and this street gets really crowded on the day? oh yes, it gets very crowded in the city but it's really fun. so it is really important for us to find where the carriages are. this is where the business idea came to her — at kyoto's movie theme park. we wanted to show where users are. it was really hard to find yourself on, like, these objective maps. so how does it work? who pays you to be on the map, is it users or businesses? we don't charge users, we only ask the businesses to pay to use our service. it is an annual subscription and these businesses are, like, developers, transportation, travels and also theme parks.

because they have these maps that are already there but they are analogue, they are on papers or on the signboards or on pdf on their website and they are not interactive, so they want us to make them interactive, digitised, with gps and up to date information. kiyomizu temple has always been a popular tourist attraction, but it is so crowded today, isn't it? i think it is the first time in three years that is so crowded. is that a relief for you and some of your clients? definitely. because of these visitors coming back, our clients are getting more of their business coming back. what about you being a female entrepreneur? because i have noticed thatjapan�*s start—up scene is still very much male dominated. have you faced more challenges when you wanted to raise money? oh, yeah, definitely. when i started in 2015, thinking about starting my own business, it was more like, there were no

women in this information technology field. so, i had to find my way into this community so that i find vcs or funding and all this support. so i had to actually contact someone in silicon valley instead of in japan. it interesting that you say you had to contact someone in silicon valley. you travel around the world, do you notice the difference between the japanese start—up scene and elsewhere? oh, yes, definitely. there are definitely more female leaders outside ofjapan who are visible in conferences or in, you know, this ecosystem. there are more vcs who are female or more government leaders who are female. but injapan there is hardly any support, especially forwomen, until very recently. but they just started

working on that. if there is one piece of advice for young entrepreneurs, what would that be? jump into that ecosystem. it is very easy to get to know someone in that field. once you know someone it is a network and it is a great network that you need to expand your business. we have 10,000 maps... machi's success is an exception to the rule. one of the reason why female entrepreneurs like herfind it difficult to raise money is because only 1% of funds that lend money, known as venture capital firms, are run by women. kathy matsui is one of them, best known for her womenomics drive since the 90s, which has encouraged the japanese government to improve gender equality. she is still working on the same course, this time helping out a new initiative to increase the number of female politicians. she has also recently started a venture capital fund with two female partners. i would say the vast majority of entrepreneurs and founders we have met so far here injapan,

not surprisingly, are male. when we think about start—ups and what are start—ups really trying to do, they are trying to use innovation, to create disruptive businesses, life changing technologies i would say the vast majority of entrepreneurs and founders we have met so far here injapan, not surprisingly, are male. when we think about start—ups and what are start—ups really trying to do, they are trying to use innovation, to create disruptive businesses, life changing technologies and if you are excluding half of the population from your potential talent pool as a start—up, you are already trying to run a marathon on one leg rather than two. if i think that japan has actually experienced quite a dramatic expansion in its venture start—up ecosystem in the last eight, nine years, we have also seen a visible shift in human capital flow. i think the start—up

ecosystem was perceived as, if you don't work at a big company, you can't fit in a big company, then this is plan b. in other words, not mainstream. but we're now seeing young people coming out of, say, investment banks or consulting firms thinking, "life's short, i want to do something on my own." while we see a lot more entrepreneurs and the entire ecosystem has grown something like sevenfold in the past seven or eight years, which is big, the absolute amount of money going into start—ups is still maybe 1/35th or 1/40th of that of the united states, despite japan being one of the biggest economies in the world, despite having amazing human capital talent, despite having tremendous abundant capital and despite having some leading edge technologies. to change that, japan's elite universities are also setting up their own venture capital firms, in part thanks to government funding. kyoto university has produced 11 nobel prize winners but it wasn't known for producing a lot of start—ups, and that is something the government wanted to change.

today, a department dedicated to innovation is led by koji murota. in 2015, it received $300 million, along with three other universities. the funding allowed the university to set up two funds to invest in its own new ventures. since then the number of start—ups have more than doubled to 242, second only to tokyo university. kyoto specialises in deep tech, that is new technology that has a potential to change the world. this area requires a long time and a large amount of money. so, sometimes it a private investment company hesitates to enter the investment. one of the start—ups which received funding from the university is enecoat technologies. they're developing the next technology of solar cells, called perovskite solar panel, which can create energy,

not just from sunlight but also from artificial light. they are also making this. look how thin it is! it is like a piece of paper. they are hoping to make it printable in the next three years, and they are also making it transparent. so it won't be as dark as this, and you can just put it on your window and create energy without blocking any sunlight. translation: our solar sheets have two sides, l one for sunlight and the other for artificial light. if we make both sides transparent, one sheet can generate energy from both sides. when ready, they are hoping that their solar sheets will have similar efficiency to a regular solar panel. translation: we hope to market them in three to four years _ but to make them outdoors, we need to make them durable, for any kind of weather conditions. so that will take longer. this type of venture is exactly what kyoto university is about. they focus on providing long—term support for the latest innovation

and are prepared to play the long game to get it right. we received a lot of support from kyoto university before we started our business. through their programme we received 30 million yen this year and after our company was founded the university venture capital gave us 500 million yen in total. that is a lot of money. for hard tech manufacturing business like ours, we struggle to raise money, but kyoto university's venture capital focuses on investing in companies like ours, so it matched what we needed. another start—up success story from kyoto university is this chip manufacturer, flosfia. it makes power semiconductors which use energy more efficiently and extend the life span of products such as electric cars. the company's chips are used everywhere, but a recent global shortage caused by the pandemic has suddenly put the company in the spotlight.

kyoto university graduate toshimi hitora founded this company in 2011. translation: the mentality has changed drastically. _ kyoto's uniqueness is being small and yet diverse. kyoto university is at the heart of it and with so many researchers in our community, anyone can access what is needed to start a business. it has been ten years since we started our firm because deep tech takes time and people at kyoto understand this. 30 years ago, japan was a pioneer in the semiconductor industry, now it has less than 10% of the market share, despite having some of the world's largest tech companies. it's firms like this that the government hopes will lead the road to recovery. establishing a significant presence in the highly competitive semiconductor industry, dominated by south korea and taiwan, won't happen overnight. china and the us are also trying to put their stamp on the market,

with washington spending some $280 billion on semiconductor production and research in order to reduce dependence on other nations. translation: semiconductors are needed globally. _ some governments may try to intervene to ensure the supply for their home markets. but it takes a long time to produce semiconductors. to mass produce them, we need a lot of stakeholders, a lot of companies in many countries. that is why the alliance with other companies is important. that is new innovation dealing with current world problems. japan is a country with a rich history. this 400—year—old dance called awa 0dori has found a way to go big outside of the tokushima area. it is now performed in other much bigger cities, like tokyo, every year.

while somejapanese culture and traditions have gone mainstream globally, many businesses and recent start—ups still focus on the domestic industry. its lucrative home market is a blessing and a curse, as companies don't need to expand overseas to become profitable. but if japan wants to move on from relying on its past glory and catch up with its rivals, they too need to step out of their comfort zone. hello there.

most places dry there to start the week and a bank holiday for some of you. sunny conditions towards the south in the west right now. more dry weather to come through much of the working week. still a bit breezy at times across southern areas over the next few days. turning a little warmer midweek. maybe some rain later on. 0ut there today, only a few showers scattered around particularly through eastern parts of england, the north and west of scotland, one or two other ones but most places dry. a cool breeze across some of the eastern coast, plenty of clouds warmest conditions towards the south in the west. even into the evening temperatures into the low 20s. temperatures this evening and overnight showers in western scotland will fade a few more showers starting to crop up in south east england and east anglia. still that wind will be somewhat of a future. feature. it will stop temperatures from cropping much here but we could get down into mid—single figures in some parts of scotland, some parts of north—west england, and north wales. high pressure, that will be dominating the weather charts at the

moment. the core of that with the driest weather centred way to the north of us. so we are on the fringes so that's what we continue to see a few showers started around. a few showers in western scotland most places will be dry, the cloud over scotland breaking up, sunniest conditions in western parts of england, wales. south—west of northern ireland too. the warmest of the weather to be found across southern counties of england and into south wales, 23 or 2a celsius high. warming up a little bit across eastern parts of scotland, north—east england. into wednesday as the breeze eases down a little bit further. there will be a few showers dotted around the pennines, western parts of scotland two. temperatures much like we will see on tuesday, mid teens across some eastern areas, mid 20s across the south. by the time we hit thursday winds that have been quite blustery will start to ease a bit more. a lot more sunshine developing across the uk as well. most places dry few if any showers.

into low 20s across western scotland by the stage. scotland by that stage. with lighter winds across the south temperatures will creep up a little bit more, 25—26 c. as we head to the end of the week low pressure in france towards the north—west start to combined gives us a greater chance of seeing some rain at times especially across parts of the west of uk.

this is bbc news — i'm ben brown — the headlines at 5. nasa postpones the launch of the artemis space rocket on its mission to the moon, due to last minute technical issues. the next opportunity for the launch is on friday. liz truss pulls out of a planned bbc interview tomorrow. it comes as the foreign secretary's team hit back at criticism of her economic plans from the institute for fiscal studies. pakistan makes a global appeal for help — after a flooding catastrophe that's killed more than a thousand people and affected 33 million. the ukrainian military has begun its long—awaited offensive on the southern front. it claims to have broken through the first line of russian defence around the main city of kherson. after a two year pause due

the pandemic, the notting hill carnival in west london is coming to an end this evening.