Aichi holds dubious distinction as nation’s burglar capital

Security camera footage of one home burglary in Nagoya in July captured the perpetrators, clad in black from head to toe, arriving by car and hunching down low as they approached. They broke into the house in just 60 seconds. Ten minutes later, they got ... ( read original story ...)

Global shares advance; Japan's Nikkei rises on weak yen

TOKYO -- Global shares rose Wednesday as gains in the U.S. and Asian markets carried over into European trading. The Tokyo benchmark jumped in the opening day for 2017, helped by a weak yen. KEEPING SCORE: France's CAC 40 edged up 0.2 per cent to 4,910.99 ... ( read original story ...)

How cute and cuddly mascots generate billions in Japan

HANYU, Japan --They’re kooky, cuddly – and for some – a little creepy. In Japan, mascots aren’t warm-up acts. They’re the main event, reports CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz. It’s been dubbed the capital of cute, and at the World Character ... ( read original story ...)

Nikkei Rises on Weak Yen but Other Asian Indexes Mixed

Other indexes lost some gains from earlier this week. KEEPING SCORE: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 2.2 percent to 19,536.72, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed at 5,734.80. South Korea's Kospi edged up nearly 0.1 percent to 2,045.13. ( read original story ...)

Strong dollar lifts Japan shares, crimps commodities

The strength of the U.S. currency pressured commodity prices and helped drag oil off an 18-month top, but gave Japan's exporter-heavy stock market a fillip. The Nikkei climbed 2.1 percent, recovering from two sessions of losses as domestic data ... ( read original story ...)

Japan Takes On Its Workaholics

Noah Smith is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion. The same problems come up again and again in discussions of what Japan needs to do to revive its economy. The first is ... ( read original story ...)

Japan fund faces big downside trades

The WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund, which tracks the Nikkei index while adjusting for fluctuations in the yen, has been falling since hitting a 52-week high of $51.82 on Dec. 15. Our monitoring program found three strikes with large bearish trades in ... ( read original story ...)

Japan to stay vigilant on forex risks: chief cabinet secretary

One crucial area in which I am charged to manage risks involves foreign exchange. I am making the Finance Ministry, the Financial Services Agency and the Bank of Japan have joint meetings. About forex, many say we had to do nothing [to produce the weaker ... ( read original story ...)

Silicon Valley's obscure unicorns could boost 2017 IPO market

Social media firm Snap Inc may be the highest profile tech IPO planned for 2017, with the potential to raise billions. But more than a dozen expected stock offerings of relatively obscure software firms targeting business customers - little-known names ... ( read original story ...)

Toshiba shares fall on media report of profit padding

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba shares fell more than five percent on Wednesday after media reported that Japan's security watchdog suspects it of padding profits by 40 billion yen ($339.59 million) over three years. Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Tuesday ... ( read original story ...)

Tokyo shares start 2017 on higher note

Tokyo shares opened higher Wednesday on the first trading day of 2017, following rises seen overnight on Wall Street driven by optimism about the US economy. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange rose 0.96 percent or 184.31 points to ... ( read original story ...)