 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| WNI | |
| Industry | Weather forecasting |
| Founded | June 1986 |
| Headquarters | Chiba City, , Japan |
Key people |
|
| Website | www |
Weathernews Inc. is a Japanese weather forecasting company, whose headquarters and global center are located in Mihama Ward, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture.
Hiroyoshi Ishibashi, who served as the representative director and president of the Japanese subsidiary of Ocean Routes (ORCJ), a marine meteorological research company headquartered in the United States, expanded the company's land and aviation divisions to 180 million yen with the cooperation of financial institutions. Established in 1986 using a management buy-out method, which was extremely rare at the time, to purchase the company for 10,000 yen (the number of employees at the time of establishment was approximately 40). [1]
The background for its establishment was a maritime accident in January 1970 when a cargo ship sank due to a bomb cyclone that hit Onahama Port, killing 15 people. Because it was difficult to predict weather conditions and there was no weather information available for sailors, Ishibashi took this accident as an opportunity to improve weather information, saying, "If there was really useful weather information, this accident could have been prevented". [2]
In addition to being a pioneer in the private comprehensive weather forecasting service in Japan, in 1993 it merged with its parent company, Ocean Routes, and became the world's largest private weather information company and multinational company. [3] [4]
Weathernews was founded in 1986, but including its predecessor ORCJ and its predecessor Pacific Weather Analysis Corporation (PWAC, founded in 1953), the total It has a history of 70 years (as of 2023). PWAC is a company that provides weather route information to ships sailing in the Pacific Ocean, and is the world's first private weather information company. [5]
In April 1983 it started providing weather information to Asahi Broadcasting (currently Asahi Broadcasting Group Holdings) becoming the first weather service provider other than the Japan Weather Association to provide weather forecasts to a broadcasting station. This included providing cloud images for television from Japan's first meteorological satellite Himawari. [6] In October 1991 it provided the world's first weather forecast using entirely 3D CGI graphics to "News Station" (TV Asahi). In 1993 it produced a program for TV Tokyo, Weather Paradise. [7] A dedicated weather channel produced by Weathernews started on PerfecTV! in October 1996. [6]
Aomori Prefecture ([a̠o̞mo̞ɾʲikẽ̞ɴ]) is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, Iwate Prefecture to the southeast, Akita Prefecture to the southwest, the Sea of Japan to the west, and Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait to the north. Aomori Prefecture is the 8th-largest prefecture, with an area of 9,645.64 km2 (3,724.20 sq mi), and the 31st-most populous prefecture, with more than 1.18 million people. Approximately 45 percent of Aomori Prefecture's residents live in its two core cities, Aomori and Hachinohe, which lie on coastal plains. The majority of the prefecture is covered in forested mountain ranges, with population centers occupying valleys and plains. Aomori is the third-most populous prefecture in the Tōhoku region, after Miyagi Prefecture and Fukushima Prefecture. Mount Iwaki, an active stratovolcano, is the prefecture's highest point, at almost 1,624.7 m (5,330 ft).
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Weathernews LiVE (WNL) is a Japanese 24-hour live channel owned and operated by Weathernews Inc. (WNI), the largest privately owned weather company in the world. WNL started broadcasting 16 April 2018, replacing the original BS Weathernews/WX 24 and SOLiVE 24, a similar streaming service also operated by WNI since 27 April 2009.