TOYOTA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 6, 2026--
SkyDrive Inc. (“SkyDrive”), a leading compact eVTOL (*1) aircraft manufacturer based in Japan, announced that it has launched a joint initiative with leading enterprises in the Kansai region — including MUFG Bank Ltd. (“MUFG Bank”) and key industry leaders across transportation, aviation, infrastructure, energy, tourism and financial services — to evaluate and advance the commercial deployment and operational framework for eVTOL aircraft in Western Japan.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261006319111/en/
Background and Objectives
Driven by its mission “taking the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution” and its vision of making daily air mobility a reality, SkyDrive continues to advance the development of compact eVTOL aircraft. During Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, SkyDrive successfully conducted demonstration flights of its SKYDRIVE (SD-05) eVTOL aircraft (*2).
Following the Expo, advanced air mobility initiatives in Kansai are transitioning from technical validation to commercial integration. Practical steps to incorporate eVTOLs into daily urban transportation are accelerating rapidly across Osaka and the broader Kansai region, bringing commercial operations closer to reality. For example, under a Cabinet Office Super City research project, SkyDrive is collaborating with Osaka Metro and other partners to study converting existing rooftop emergency helipads (“H” marks) on urban buildings into vertiports (*3).
In response to this momentum, leading corporations across aviation, infrastructure, energy, tourism, finance and insurance — led by MUFG Bank — recognized that establishing a sustainable business model requires cross-industry collaboration beyond passenger services to build next-generation transport infrastructure. This shared vision led to the creation of the “Kansai Air Transportation Network Concept,” a collaborative framework designed to support the development of new industry and air mobility infrastructure originating in Kansai.
In parallel with urban infrastructure planning in Osaka, SkyDrive will leverage the strong backing of MUFG Bank and partner companies to accelerate the execution of this network concept and drive the mobility revolution across the Kansai region.
Core Focus Areas
Under this joint initiative, participating companies will combine their industry expertise and operational foundations to address the following key areas:
About SkyDrive Inc.
SkyDrive is a Japanese compact eVTOL company aiming "to take the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution." The company began testing eVTOL prototypes in 2014 prior to official incorporation in 2018. Under its future vision for urban transportation, flying in eVTOLs will become a regular part of city life. In 2019, SkyDrive became the first company to fly a crewed eVTOL in Japan. In 2025, the company successfully showcased SKYDRIVE, the company's first commercial eVTOL product, with demonstration flights at the Osaka Expo witnessed by thousands of visitors over a one-month period. SkyDrive began production of SKYDRIVE in March 2024 at a plant owned by Suzuki Motor Corporation, SkyDrive's official production partner. SkyDrive has been working with civil aviation authorities in Japan and the U.S. to obtain certification for SKYDRIVE, with the aim of launching the aircraft into service in 2028. SkyDrive is headquartered in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture and led by CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa, an engineer and entrepreneur.
For more information, please visit: https://skydrive.co.jp/en/
Editor’s Notes:
(*1) eVTOL is an abbreviation for electric vertical takeoff and landing. As the name suggests, eVTOL aircraft can take off and land without a runway. eVTOLs are powered by electricity and incorporate advanced, automatic, flight control technology.
(*2) Related Press Release: https://skydrive.co.jp/en/news/16292/
(*3) Related Press Release: https://skydrive.co.jp/en/news/73083/
Concept Image of the Kansai Air Transportation Network
From left : Kensuke Nishiji, managing director and head of startup acceleration strategy division at MUFG Bank; Shin Kitamura, member of the board of directors, senior managing executive officer and head of Japan Western Region at MUFG Bank; Taiji Ono, head of global business at SkyDrive; former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida; Hirofumi Yoshimura, governor of Osaka Prefecture; Tamotsu Saito, chairman of NEDO, presenting the joint initiative at the MUFG booth during Global Startup EXPO 2026 in Osaka.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A wealthy couple in suburban Los Angeles recruited women across the country to serve as surrogates, promising them that they were just looking for another child to grow their family.
Instead, prosecutors say, the couple used several surrogates at the same time, amassed a brood of 21 children — some as young as 2 months — and raised them in a “house of horrors” where they suffered daily beatings at the hands of cruel nannies as the couple watched and laughed from a network of surveillance cameras.
Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, were arrested Tuesday at their home in Arcadia, a city about 13 miles (20 kilometers) northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The couple face several counts of child abuse as well as conspiracy to commit child abuse, accessory after the fact and dissuading a witness, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.
“This case is unprecedented. It is horrific,” he said during a morning news conference. “The physical abuse, beating and punishment that these very young children received is despicable.”
Prosecutors were seeking $100 million bail for the couple because of the serious nature of the charges and because they are flight risks, Hochman said. They were scheduled to be arraigned at the Pasadena courthouse later in the day.
Fifteen children were removed from the opulent home last year after an allegation of abuse, and another six living elsewhere were also located. They ranged in age from 2 months to 13 years, with most between 1 and 3. Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children, while the rest were carried and delivered by surrogates.
Hochman said the couple set up an agency, Mark Surrogacy, that they operated from home and used to hire surrogates throughout the U.S. But prosecutors said the couple misled the women, telling some that they could not conceive and others that they only had one child and wanted one more to complete their family.
“The house could only be described as a house of horrors for these incredible young children,” Hochman said.
Zhang and Xuan were first arrested in May 2025 after a hospital reported that their 2-month-old infant had a traumatic head injury, the result of being violently shaken by a nanny, according to Arcadia police.
Police did not file charges at the time, saying they needed to complete the investigation.
Hochman said the couple set up three rooms they called learning centers, where the children spent several hours a day sitting at desks under the supervision of nannies.
Through an extensive surveillance system including motion-activated cameras, the couple watched as the nannies physically abused the children, including daily beatings, he said.
In one video, Xuan is shown entering a room and telling a nanny to strike a child harder, Hochman said, and in another he joins the nanny in hitting the child.
The nannies were allegedly told “not to leave any physical marks on the children,” and when police arrived to investigate in May 2025, the children were told to deny they had been beaten.
After examining the surveillance video, police issued an arrest warrant for Chunmei Li, the nanny seen hurting the 2-month-old infant, but she could not be found.
Hochman said “there will be a reckoning” for the defendants, one of whom faces more than 17 years in prison if convicted.
When asked about the couple’s motivation, Hochman said that was part of the investigation, as was the parentage of each child.
Mitchell Krems, Xuan’s attorney, previously told ABC7 that Xuan’s goal was to raise children who become productive adults.
“The reason he has all these children is because he wants them to contribute to society. He is not a man who is self-indulgent,” Krems said. “Some who are wealthy might spend on jewelry or cars, but he is actually spending his resources to help his children become educated so that they can be the philosophers, the physicians, the researchers and the inventors that help society.”
Krems did not immediately respond Tuesday to an email seeking comment.
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman agrees to carry and deliver a child for another person or couple, often after an embryo transfer.
There is no comprehensive federal law regulating surrogacy, leaving most rules to the states.
California is considered to be surrogacy-friendly because it has clear laws governing the process. Both sides are required to have lawyers, and there must be a written, notarized contract before an embryo transfer takes place.
Investigators have said they were looking into whether the couple misled surrogates around the country and at least eight women came forward to say they were aggressively pursued to serve as surrogates.
The women, many of them first-time surrogates, said they were given misleading or incomplete information about the couple’s family situation and intentions.
At least one, Kayla Elliott, is now trying to get custody of a baby she birthed for the couple.
Marcelo reported from New York.
FILE - An aerial view shows the home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan on July 16, 2025, in Arcadia, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
