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Chris Cooper
For Chris Cooper's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 17, 2018
Bargain-hunting Chinese make Japanese retail king Bic Camera a billionaire
Japanese retail tycoon Ryuji Arai can thank a growing flock of Chinese spenders for his swelling fortune.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 13, 2017
Parcel giant Yamato's first price hike in 27 years shows fruits, limitations of Abenomics
By last November, Hirotaka Yokota had finally had enough.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 1, 2017
Japan's most-shorted stock faces AGM pressure as largest shareholder Effissimo looms
The most-shorted stock on Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average, a shipping line, is facing rough seas again.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
May 29, 2017
BITPoint in talks to add bitcoin payments to outlets across Japan
BITPoint Japan, the company behind Peach Aviation's move to let travelers use bitcoin to pay for tickets, is planning to give hundreds of thousands of retail outlets the ability to accept the digital currency.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2017
Automated factories can't solve Japan's productivity paradox
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has cut the number of workers on its turbocharger production lines west of Tokyo by more than 80 percent, as manufacturers from carmakers to electronics producers push further into automation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 3, 2017
Slot machine-maker Konami says Japan casinos will need Vegas-style oversight
Konami Holdings Corp., which supplies slot machines to some of the world's biggest casinos, will participate in Japan's gaming industry if the regulations are as strict as those in Las Vegas.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Mar 30, 2017
American tech icon Westinghouse bet on nuclear, and lost
Westinghouse Electric Co., once synonymous with America's industrial might, wagered its future on nuclear power — and lost.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 13, 2017
Hitachi looks to boost U.S. rail business amid Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure blitz
Hitachi Ltd. is aiming to expand its rail business in the U.S. by bidding for streetcar and light-rail projects as President Donald Trump pledges to spend as much as $1 trillion to upgrade infrastructure across the country.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2017
High school dropout builds bus empire in Japan after selling his car
Kimi Takura quit his fast-paced job as a deliveryman when he was 22 after he was hospitalized for a month with exhaustion. Out of work, he sold his much-loved Jaguar car, bought a secondhand bus and started a one-man business catering to Taiwanese tourists.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 5, 2016
In land of negative rates, Kyushu Railway dangles dividend
In Japan, where bonds can yield less than zero percent, a bullet train operator planning a ¥392 billion ($3.8 billion) share sale is promising investors dividend returns that would beat most of the nation's stocks.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2016
A ski resort success, Niseko defies rural Japan's demographic decline
Japan's shrinking population has weighed on the world's third-biggest economy, alarmed government forecasters and turned some rural communities into veritable ghost towns.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 29, 2016
Inside Hitachi's growth machine: tubes, patents and petri dishes
With its network of tubes and petri dishes, Hitachi Ltd.'s latest gizmo may look more like a mini laboratory inside a refrigerator than the growth engine the technology company envisages.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 14, 2016
Hotel tycoon Horiguchi finds making people happy brings reward
The Buddhist approach to doing business is yielding results in Japan again.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 13, 2016
Kawasaki Heavy looking to buy U.S. train maintenance firm
Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of New York City subway trains, is seeking to buy a train maintenance company in the U.S. to help increase its services lineup and boost profit margins.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jul 5, 2016
Japan Inc. suffers Brexit fallout as resurgent yen threatens profit outlook
Japan Inc. is already counting the cost of Brexit. The yen's extended surge after the United Kingdom voted to exit the EU has turned the outlook for a gain in annual profit to the first decline in four years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 20, 2016
Tokyo's rooftop helipads remain unused
Tokyo's Peninsula Hotel boasts a chauffeur-driven 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom, a celebrity podiatrist studio and an aviation lounge to whisk executives to and from its $1,000-a-night suites by helicopter. Since it opened in 2007, the rooftop helipad has never been used.
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2016
Japan Inc. faces biggest Abe-era profits drop on strong yen
For the past three years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could usually count on surging corporate earnings to back up the case that his policies were turning around Japan, but that is no more.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2016
Japan's carmakers, airlines believe negative rates will help demand
It will not show up in time for this week's earnings release, but Toyota Motor Corp. may have gotten a gift from the Bank of Japan's unconventional policy choices.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Oct 30, 2015
'Star Wars' paint job Show ANA ambition as Japan markets applaud
ANA Holdings Inc.'s bond risk jumped last year as the company announced its biggest-ever order for new aircraft. Now Japan's largest airline is being rewarded for the bravado that saw it give its fleet "Star Wars" paint jobs.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 21, 2015
Season of scandal hits Japan with flurry of corporate confessions
Japan, which prides itself on maintaining propriety and order, has suddenly been hit by a spate of corporate scandals.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world