ASEAN-Japan Innovation Network formed to create new linkages

KUALA LUMPUR -- Private business groups from Southeast Asia and Japan sealed a new alliance on Friday in Tokyo to promote economic cross-pollination. The ASEAN Business Club, a group of top companies in Southeast Asia, signed a memorandum of cooperation ... ( read original story ...)

Noah Smith: Japan can teach U.S. how to overcome national rot

There is one large, developed country that has managed to mostly pull itself out of a long period of paralysis. That country is Japan. Much ink has been spilled about Japan’s seemingly endless dysfunction following the bursting of its real estate and ... ( read original story ...)

Abe adviser: Japan should push back any US attack on yen policy

JAPAN should push back against any US suggestion that it is suppressing the yen’s value for trade advantage, an adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, in a bid to pre-empt criticism of Japan’s currency policy. Koichi Hamada, Cabinet adviser and ... ( read original story ...)

Consortium mulled for Toshiba unit bid

Talks about forming a public-private consortium to buy a major stake in Toshiba Corp.’s flash memory business are underway, informed sources said on Saturday. The idea is to secure around ¥500 billion from dozens of Japanese companies through a new ... ( read original story ...)

Japan's megabanks to cut 2018 hiring class by 25%

TOKYO -- Just over 3,300 new college graduates are expected to start working at Japan's three megabanks next April, a roughly 25% decline from the current fiscal year, as financial institutions rethink their hiring priorities in a difficult business ... ( read original story ...)

Fintech spurs rebound in finance job hopping

TOKYO -- Job turnover in Japan's financial sector has rebounded as both domestic and foreign institutions search for talent to meet their increasingly international and technical needs. Tokyo-based JAC Recruitment, a leading recruiter for banks and other ... ( read original story ...)

WHO: Japan needs anti-smoking law ahead of Tokyo Olympics

TOKYO -- A senior World Health Organization official says Japan should ban smoking in all public places if it wants to successfully promote tourism and host the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Japan is often known as a smoker's paradise. The health ministry is ... ( read original story ...)

Nikkei gains limited by U.S. Syria strike; posts 4th weekly drop

TOKYO, April 7 Japan's Nikkei share average edged up in choppy trade on Friday but gains were limited as the U.S. missile strike on Syria curbed investors' risk appetite. The Nikkei rose 0.4 percent to 18,664.63 after traversing positive and negative trade. ( read original story ...)