This is a condominium that's been popular among wealthy Chinese.

The rooftop offers great views, and a luxurious pool.

This high-end condo stands in Chiang Mai province in Northern Thailand.

Its most expensive units go for about 260,000 dollars.

Inquiries have been pouring in from China.

Hello.

Some are being shown remotely to a real estate agent looking for properties for his Chinese clients.

The influx of buyers in China may be due to the country's lackluster recovery from the pandemic,

and the continuing downturn in its property market.

Some Chinese investors withdrew from their domestic assets and used that money to buy properties overseas.

In Thailand, there has been an especially high rate of return.

In the first three months of the year, the number of condominiums in Thailand purchased by foreigners has nearly doubled.

Almost half were bought by Chinese.

The developer of the condo believes there are still ample opportunities.

He plans to start construction of a new building worth tens of millions of dollars.

If we offer rooms at the same prices, I'm sure they'll all sell out.

But there are worries in some parts of Southeast Asia that the market is overheating.

In Singapore, the number of high-end condominiums purchased by foreign buyers in a central area

soared to a 9-year high in the first quarter of 2023.

The boom comes amid a limited supply of new properties due to a slowdown in construction during the pandemic.

The situation has pushed real estate prices and rents through the roof.

This Japanese man living in Singapore says that when it came time to renew the contract on his apartment,

the new rent was 60 percent higher.

He felt he had no choice but to move out.

I was sort of prepared for an increase.

But the jump was so huge...

it went up to a level that I simply couldn't afford.

The Singaporean government has been moving to cool the market.

In April, it doubled a special tax for foreign buyers to 60 percent.

But an analyst says overseas investors with means likely won't stop their shopping spree.

They still feel there will be at least a positive return.

They are wealthy and they can buy luxury homes.

I think many of them will continue to purchase in the long run.

Southeast Asia may be a bright spot in a sluggish global market.

But as foreign investors seeking returns pour in,

the spiking real estate prices could hurt local residents, along with the economy.

This is a sake brewery located in Southern London in the UK.

One of its founders is Tom Wilson, a sake aficionado.

When he visited Japan about ten years ago, the drink's complex flavors left a deep impression on him.

He and his wife were inspired to open their own brewery.

However, he says that making sake in London requires some ingenuity.

Getting the right kind of rice, the main raw ingredient, isn't easy, so he imports it from Japan.

This is Gohyakuman-goku from Toyama Pref.

The rice in sake is broken down with a mold called koji, and then fermented with yeast.

Wilson gets these ingredients from Japan as well.

The water in London also has a high mineral content, making the fermentation process move too quickly.

He had to control the temperature inside the tank to adjust the yeast's activity.

We can artificially cool the tanks very low.

Slow up the yeasts so it's not too excited.

It means we can still make lots of flavor because it's rich hardwater style.

Despite the challenges, Wilson has been able to produce award-winning sake

that's taken prizes at international competitions.

The brewery also promotes sake with workshops featuring guest speakers from Japan.

Daiginjo is a type of sake that's brewed at a low temperature only with rice that is highly polished.

For this event, they've arranged a talk from a highly regarded brewery that's looking to expand into the UK.

For interest in sake to spread, there needs to be more exports from Japan,

but it's also important for there to be sake that's locally made.

With both, the market will expand.

Wilson is constantly creating new products to appeal to those who don't normally partake in the Japanese drink.

This sake is a collaboration with a hard cider brand popular in the UK.

It's re-fermented with sake yeast.

Wilson felt it needed something more, so he added sake sediment to give it a Japanese flavor.

He's also been working with a famous bar in London to make a cocktail.

There we go.

This drink is mixed with a caramel flavored sake liqueur that has a higher alcohol content than usual sake.

The brewery and the Lyaness bar have been working for many years, as I say before,

with mostly koji and discarded products from Koji that we be using in different ways in our menus.

I think it's really important to introduce people to some different styles

and different ways of drinking sake but also in a more familiar setting.

The growing number of sake breweries outside of Japan is building a base of enthusiasm

that may put the Japanese drink on a menu near you.

AI managed aquariums are being used to study and protect delicate coral reefs.

And chicken droppings serve as the main ingredient of a new product that shellfish farmers are using

to release nutrients into seawater.

Today's On-Site Report features new ways companies are working to protect and revive marine resources.

These clams are above average in size and are known for their high-quality meat.

Spread out across the tidal flats of this clam farm, are large circular blocks.

They were distributed across the flats to add nutrients to the sea water.

The blocks are produced by a chicken farm that raises 600,000 chickens a year.

The farm that raises them came up with the idea to produce the blocks

when thinking of cost-effective ways to dispose of the 2,000 tons of waste the poultry produce annually.

Fukuoka Koichi is in in charge of product development.

Initially, he was looking to create fertilizers for agricultural use,

but then realized they might be able to create a similar product for use in aquaculture.

We've now reached the point where we need to provide nutrients to the sea water,

just like we do with the soil in our fields.

Before the chicken dung can be turned into nutrient blocks,

it must first be sanitized to remove harmful microbes, such as E. coli.

After being sprayed with a proprietary bio-extract that was developed by Fukuoka,

the chicken waste is put through a 5-month long composting process.

The next hurdle was figuring out how to control the release of nutrients into sea water.

If the nutrients are released too rapidly,

it could lead to a bloom of dangerous red tide algae which feed on excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the water.

The solution was fairly simple -

he mixed it with a solidifying agent and compressed it into thick circular blocks.

The blocks slowly dissolve in seawater - allowing for a steady and even release of nutrients over a 4-month period.

The company currently sells them for about $10 per block.

Chicken manure is pretty nasty stuff - it smells bad and it's full of germs.

But, once it's treated properly, it can be turned into a nutrient-rich fertilizer.

15-20 years ago, this region suffered a major decline in clam production due to a lack of nutrients in the sea water.

However, 5 years ago, the clam farm that manages this stretch of tidal flats

began using the nutrient blocks to try and improve their harvests.

Every winter, it purchases 600 blocks and distributes them evenly across its harvesting grounds.

Prior to introducing the nutrient blocks, it was harvesting less than 1 ton of clams per year.

This year, however, it is on pace to harvest over 20 tons!

These blocks have really saved us!

Not only are the harvest numbers way up, the shells are healthy and the meat has a nice color to it.

Everyone who tries them say the flavor is unforgettable!

In 2019, Fukuoka began selling the nutrient blocks to fishing co-ops and other seafood companies.

They are primarily being used at clam and oyster farms.

To date, he has shipped over 20,000 blocks to 60 different locations across Japan.

I think the seafood producers who use our product now have really high expectations for positive results.

I hope our nutrient blocks can continue to enrich the waters we use to cultivate seafood.

Inside a building located in the middle of Tokyo...

You'll find an office space filled with aquariums.

The main residents are different types of coral... but...

They are also home to over 100 different types of sea life, including shrimp and tropical fish.

The result - miniature ecosystems that faithfully recreate actual environments that can be found across the world's oceans.

Since raising coral in aquariums is difficult,

research is often conducted in the ocean environments where coral grow naturally.

However, the high costs and risks involved in dealing with unpredictable weather and sea conditions

can make obtaining data extremely difficult.

Takakura Yota, who studied AI in graduate school, decided to take on the challenge of raising coral in aquariums.

He felt that technology could help recreate the ideal conditions required to grow coral in captivity

and allow for the in-depth research needed to protect this important type of sea life.

If the current trends continue, most of the seas that natural coral reefs now call home will become uninhabitable.

Our goal is to make it possible for anyone to conduct research on coral.

The most important feature of Takakura's system, is its AI based aquarium management program.

Special sensors allow the program to keep track of and adjust the amounts of calcium, magnesium,

and other key minerals the sensitive coral need to survive.

The automated system can also control light levels over each aquarium as well as water flow.

The result - a collection of micro-ecosystems that can each be set and adjusted with a high degree of precision.

For example, this type of coral usually only spawns once a year in summer.

However, by carefully adjusting the aquarium's conditions,

researchers were able to get it to spawn in their Tokyo lab in the middle of winter.

Which is thought to be a first for this type of coral when kept in captivity.

This marked a major milestone for Takakura and his team.

We were so happy!

We couldn't have asked for a bigger reward, so we really tried to stop and savor the moment.

Recently, a major steel producer has started using some of Takakura's aquariums

to help it develop a product that can be used to support coral growth.

It's made from steel slag, a byproduct of the smelting process.

In 2021, the company began conducting experiments

to see if its slag-based products could be used as a base foundation for coral.

As you can see, coral that attached itself to the slag is showing signs of healthy growth.

The slag contains high levels of calcium carbonate,

the same chemical compound that coral uses to create the hard, base skeletons they need to protect themselves.

Another surprise - researchers found that the microscopic holes on the surface of the slag

provide an ideal home for the different types of bacteria that coral need to survive...

Only by maintaining proper testing conditions can we verify the quality or the effectiveness of the product we are testing.

So, we're really proud of the results we've achieved so far.

There's still so much we don't know about what is and isn't harmful to different types of coral,

or how we can protect best them.

We're going to do our best to provide the environment and the equipment needed

to support anyone who wants to conduct research that will be beneficial to coral.