Is Japan’s Finance Ministry at the breaking point?

TOKYO -- Former Finance Ministry official Nobuhisa Sagawa insisted in testimony before both houses of the Diet on Tuesday that there were no instructions to alter documents at the center of a dodgy real estate deal, but offered no insights into the ... ( read original story ...)

Stock rally boosts paper profits at Japanese companies

TOKYO -- Major Japanese companies have seen unrealized capital gains on ... as of Tuesday at 1,701 listed companies that close their books in March, according to a Nikkei survey that excluded financial institutions as well as businesses using international ... ( read original story ...)

Key testimony on Japan land scandal offers little insight

Nobuhisa Sagawa, who was the head of the ministry's Financial Bureau when the changes were made, faced grilling by lawmakers Tuesday about the circumstances and motives. The documents concern the steeply discounted sale of state-owned land in Osaka to ... ( read original story ...)

Tokyo stocks surge on receding trade war woes

Stocks soared Tuesday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with concerns over a U.S.-China ... the Nikkei rose further in the afternoon, after former Ministry of Finance official Nobuhisa Sagawa in a sworn Diet testimony denied there were instructions from the ... ( read original story ...)

Kagoike says detainment is to keep him quiet about scandal

The Asahi Shimbun in February 2017 broke the news that Moritomo Gakuen received a huge discount on its purchase of state-owned land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, in 2016. Kagoike told the politicians that after the report was published, a Finance Ministry ... ( read original story ...)

Kagoike sticks to his guns in interview at detention house

Yasunori Kagoike said his recollections of a remark by the wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as recorded in a formal Finance Ministry document, were “correct.” Three opposition lawmakers traveled to Osaka on March 23 to interview Kagoike at the Osaka ... ( read original story ...)

Tourists’ unpaid medical bills take toll on Japanese hospitals

TOKYO -- As Japan enjoys booming inbound tourism, hospitals are seeing more cases of nonpayment by foreign travelers who fall ill but lack insurance coverage, prompting an alarmed government to consider a response. According to a 2016 survey by the health ... ( read original story ...)

Nikkei drops to 6-month low on global trade worries

Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped to a six-month low on Monday morning while the yen rose to near a 16-month peak, on persistent worries about a global trade war, although some stocks were in demand before they go ex-dividend this week. The Nikkei ... ( read original story ...)

How one woman opened up Vietnam to Japan’s consumer goods

"Many young Vietnamese dream about running their own businesses, rather than becoming employees and doing what they are told to do," Le said in an interview with the Nikkei Asian Review. Her own goal is to enable her compatriots to enjoy Japanese lifestyle ... ( read original story ...)