AP Explains: American football with niche following in Japan

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan has been absorbed for several weeks by a late hit ... by many who know almost nothing about the American sport. In a nationally televised news conference on Tuesday, linebacker Taisuke Miyagawa bowed deeply and apologized for the ... ( read original story ...)

Earthquake, Tsunami, Dead Schoolchildren: A Lesson for BC

Richard Lloyd Parry’s exploration of Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami — and the aftermath — offers a warning for British Columbians. Photo from DVIDSHUB, Creative Commons licensed. Ghosts of the Tsunami Richard Lloyd Parry Jonathan Cape (2017 ... ( read original story ...)

Tennis: Osaka on the climb, aiming high in Paris

LONDON (Reuters) - Naomi Osaka was ‘freaking out’ when she bumped into Spider-Man actor Tom Holland in a Tokyo hotel gym recently but while still admittedly starstruck off the court, the 20-year-old is no shrinking violet on it. The Florida-based ... ( read original story ...)

Bust reflects Tokyo’s boom in ‘granny hookers’

TOKYO (TR) – Last week, Tokyo police announced the bust of a so-called “delivery health” out-call business in the Uguisudani area of Taito Ward. On April 16, Yumiko Ono, the 70-year-old manager of Teiai Tsukutsuku, allegedly dispatched a prostitute ... ( read original story ...)

Turning Japan’s cultural barriers into a startup gold mine

TOKYO -- Where many see insurmountable hurdles in Japan's falling population, rigid business practices and language barrier, some see opportunity. The number of Japan-based tech startups has been on the rise since 2010, shadowing the advance of ... ( read original story ...)

Central Banking Tragedy: The Case Of Japan

Today I want to talk about one of the real tragedies of monetary policy and inflation: Japan. The tragedy is that the mystery of the deflation in Japan is no mystery at all. The cure also was no mystery. So the tragedy is that these were both treated as ... ( read original story ...)

Japan’s megabanks study shared ATMs and more self-services

TOKYO -- Japan's three megabanks are trying to cut costs by reducing the number of ATMs and full-service branches as country shifts to a cashless economy and the Bank of Japan's negative interest rate policy erodes profits. With banks forced to pursue ... ( read original story ...)

Japanese Bank to Offer Blockchain Payments in 2020

Over the past 18 months, MUFG, the world's fourth-largest bank, has been working with Akamai to design a blockchain built on Akamai's cloud-based Intelligent Platform to handle 1 million transactions per second at latencies of less than 2 seconds. ( read original story ...)

Japan Ministry Releases Scandal Papers It Said Were Destroyed

Japan’s Finance Ministry released records relating to a sale of public ... to a meeting of the directors of the lower house budget committee, according to Seiji Osaka, a director and lawmaker with the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party ... ( read original story ...)

Uber taps into Japan with first taxi-hailing pilot

"I'm very excited that Uber's technology will contribute to further enhancing the transit environment of Awaji Island," Brooks Entwistle, Uber's Chief Business Officer, said in the statement, adding it will be "the first initiative of its kind in Japan". ( read original story ...)

Japan urges more of Latin America to join TPP

Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes Ferreira expressed hopes for greater access to the Japanese market in a recent interview with Nikkei. But with both Mexico and Brazil electing new presidents in 2018, the global trend toward protectionism could spread. ( read original story ...)

Half of Japan’s eateries plan price hikes this year

TOKYO -- Spending more on ingredients and increasingly scarce workers, nearly half of restaurant operators in Japan plan to raise prices this fiscal year, a Nikkei survey shows. The poll from mid-March to late April targeted 551 companies with food service ... ( read original story ...)