Month: August 2024

The convenience store chain has become a cornerstone of Japanese life, but a bid to buy the company by the retail giant that owns Circle K has unnerved its fans. ( read original story ...)

An iconic company appears to be failing an acid test on Japan Inc reforms. Seven & i is seeking a higher level of government protection barely a week after the $38 billion company confirmed Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard had made a preliminary takeover offer. ( read original story ...)

Yoko Ogawa’s novel “Mina’s Matchbox,” in a magnificent translation by Stephen B. Snyder, demonstrates the abiding comfort of fiction that envisions childhood as a time of discovery — without the elevated stakes of being a grown-up. ( read original story ...)

Kirin Holdings Co. again extended its tender offer deadline for Fancl Corp., as the Japanese brewer works to secure a deal for the Japanese skincare and health supplement maker. ( read original story ...)

Japan faces a severe pilot shortage amid a surge in tourism, with a projected need for 1,000 additional pilots by 2030. Efforts to address the shortfall include converting foreign pilots’ licenses and extending pilot working ages, ( read original story ...)

Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino has backed the case for further interest-rate hikes if the economy and prices grow as expected, echoing recent comments from the central bank’s chief. ( read original story ...)

The record high temperatures and sweltering weather that suffocated Japan this summer did not stop 77-year-old farmer Yasuyuki Kurosawa from tending his crops. Kurosawa, who grows rice, cabbage, wheat and corn in Meiwa, ( read original story ...)