On Tuesday, data from Japan’s eight major automakers showed their combined ... buoyed by a pickup in private consumption. Eleven out of 15 business sectors saw industrial production rise. Information and technology as well as paper and pulp sectors ... ( read original story ...)
Japan Tobacco plans to quadruple smokeless tobacco output capacity by 2018: CEO
With more people shifting to smokeless products such as IQOS due to health concerns, Japan Tobacco's domestic cigarette sales volume is likely to fall 9.6 percent this year. "It's shocking. I am doing this business for more than 35 years but I have never ... ( read original story ...)
The $2,500 answer to Amazon’s Echo could make Japan’s sex crisis worse
Japan has a sex problem. The country's birthrate is shrinking year after year, to the point where deaths are outpacing births. Simply put, Japan's population is decreasing. But let's be clear: Population change is a complicated subject affected by many ... ( read original story ...)
Japanese family life is falling apart — and the reasons why go back to World War II
Japan has seen trillions in lost GDP over the past years, in combination with a population decline of 1 million people. Harvard sociologist Mary Brinton puts it bluntly: "This is death to the family," she tells Business Insider. Japan's case isn't just ... ( read original story ...)
Japanese investments are looking up
JAPANESE investments in Malaysia this year may rise by at least 30% after the latest survey shows that the business sentiment of the Japanese has continued to trend upwards on the back of gradual improvement in the local economy. These investments are ... ( read original story ...)
Domino’s to take full control of Japan pizza business
Pizza giant Domino's will take full control of its rapidly expanding Japanese operations, after its minority partner, private equity firm Bain Capital, announced it would pull the plug on its 25 per cent stake in August. The Japanese arm of Domino's ... ( read original story ...)
Japan inflation edges up in April as oil prices rebound
TOKYO — Japan's core consumer price index climbed to a two-year high in April of 0.3 per cent, as costs for energy rose. Economists said the increase reported Friday was not likely to persist and that prices for imported consumer goods actually fell. ( read original story ...)
Japan inflation ticks up in April as oil prices rebound
Japan's core consumer price index climbed to a two-year high in April of 0.3 percent, as costs for energy rose. Economists said the increase reported Friday was not likely to persist and that prices for imported consumer goods actually fell. Inflation has ... ( read original story ...)
Japan lender Mizuho to launch fintech venture
Daisuke Yamada, Mizuho's chief digital innovation officer, said the challenges were cultural as well as technological, as truly new business models required a break from Japanese banks' conservative, overly risk-averse attitudes. For that reason ... ( read original story ...)
Japan Inc sees better opportunities beyond China’s ‘Belt and Road’
TOKYO A vast majority of Japanese companies have no interest to participate in China's sweeping "Belt and Road" initiative, seeing greater business opportunities in other international economic co-operation, a Reuters poll shows. Only 5 percent of 220 ... ( read original story ...)
Japanese women are entering the male-dominated world of hunting — at the government’s request
In Japan, it was once considered taboo for a woman to speak with a man before he went on a hunt. But a rising number of female hunters are taking up arms, at their government's behest. Over the last decade, Japanese farmers have lost up to $170 million ... ( read original story ...)
Bitcoin going mainstream as Japanese business signs on
TOKYO -- Virtual currencies are gaining traction in Japan, with restaurant operators and retailers realizing the benefits of a simple, transnational form of digital payment. At Nippon Gas' headquarters here, customers paying in bitcoin can settle their ... ( read original story ...)
Japan’s manufacturing sector experienced a broad-based slowdown in May
Activity levels across Japan’s manufacturing sector improved at a slower pace in May, according to the lastest Nikkei-IHS Markit “flash” manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) released today. The headline PMI came in at 52.0, down from 52.7 in ... ( read original story ...)
Zespri’s Japanese markets grows by 30 per cent
Kiwifruit sales in Zespri's Japanese market have grown by 30 per cent over the past two seasons and the co-operative plans to keep growth at 25 per cent over the next five years. Zespri sold a record 24 million trays of kiwifruit in Japan last season with ... ( read original story ...)
How Amazon helped push Japan’s famed delivery men to the edge
Person-to-person home delivery sales have been an important cultural feature in Japan for decades. So the growing burdens of e-commerce that threaten it are not just a business story; they are a story about social infrastructure. For the delivery companies ... ( read original story ...)
‘This is death to the family’: Japan’s fertility crisis is creating economic and social woes never seen before
Japan had sunk to a critical threshold known as "replacement fertility," the bare minimum to avoid losing population. "In those days, women's university enrollment rate exceeded 40%," Tokyo University economist Hiroshi Yoshida tells Business Insider. ( read original story ...)