Tokyo marks 1,000 days to go before start of 2020 Olympics

TOKYO (AP) -- Tokyo marked 1,000 days until the 2020 Olympics on Saturday with a ceremony that included a demonstration of new sports that will debut at the Summer Games. Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike and kabuki actor Ebizo Ichikawa were among the ... ( read original story ...)

Bank of Japan’s Kuroda likely on deck for another term

TOKYO -- Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda looks favored to steer monetary policy for another five years after his current term runs out in April. This month's election victory by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party essentially ... ( read original story ...)

Banking on speed, Japan aim for new ‘heights’

BENGALURU: Basketball is not as popular in Japan as it is in China. It comes a distant third after baseball and football. But with the latter two are mainly male-dominated sport in Japan, women have taken a keen interest in basketball. To top that, there ... ( read original story ...)

A new Ursnif Banking Trojan campaign targets Japan

Crooks continues to target Japanese users, now the hackers leverage the Ursnif banking Trojan, aka Gozi, to hit the country. According to researchers at IBM X-Force group, cyber criminals are delivering the infamous malware via spam campaigns that began ... ( read original story ...)

Geisha-Loans Bank Outshines Japan’s Behemoth Lenders

Lending is based on borrower’s personality rather than metrics Kikuno Kashima, a Tokyo geisha, couldn’t get a bank loan to open a club for her patrons and select guests until a tiny credit union agreed to lend her the money. Now she’s part of a ... ( read original story ...)

Japan: How foreign workers help, and hurt, economy

And that presents a clash between Japan’s short-term and long-term goals — trying to raise wages to help spur spending and growth while expanding the workforce. Business leaders and economists in Japan have called for more immigration, saying it is the ... ( read original story ...)

Scandal-hit Japan automakers eye return to ‘golden age’

Repeated quality scandals, stiff foreign competition and lagging technology have knocked Japan's auto giants off pole position but analysts say the once world-beating sector could yet steer itself to a comeback. Toyota, Nissan and small-car maker Suzuki ... ( read original story ...)

City of Tokyo Announces Blockchain Startup Accelerator

Announced this week, Tokyo Metropolitan Government is working with Japanese think tank Nomura Research Institute (NRI) on the "Blockchain Business Camp Tokyo," the third iteration of a series of accelerator programs that have focused on emerging technologies. ( read original story ...)