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April 27, 2024
 

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TELECOMS

Japan's parliament has enacted a bill to ease restrictions on Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, including lifting a ban on being able to appoint non-Japanese directors.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2024
Japan enacts revised NTT law
NTT will be allowed to allocate less than one-third of the seats in its board of directors to foreign nationals.
NTT Docomo's "d Point" reward points can now be earned and used on the Amazon shopping website.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2024
NTT Docomo points arrive at Amazon
NTT Docomo's d Point program had roughly 100 million users as of the end of March.
Rakuten Group's Rakuten Point is the most frequently used reward point service, according to a survey.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Mar 25, 2024
Race to expand corporate economic blocs heats up in Japan
Corporate groups are enticing customers with a variety of services, often bolstered by reward points, primarily geared toward shopping purposes.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West President Masaaki Moribayashi (center) bows at a news conference in Osaka on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 29, 2024
NTT West president to resign over customer information theft
NTT West has been slapped with administrative guidance by the communications ministry for insufficient supervising.
People walk past the booth of an AI chip company at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 27, 2024
SoftBank, Nvidia and Microsoft team up to use AI in mobile base stations
The alliance aims to work together in preventing communications congestion and promoting the use of smartphone apps using generative AI.
The exact timing of the roll out of Rakuten Mobile's commercial satellite-to-mobile service is uncertain, but the plans for coverage encompass mountainous and remote areas across Japan.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 16, 2024
Rakuten plans satellite mobile service across Japan in 2026
The service, to be rolled out in partnership with AST SpaceMobile, will be directly accessible by regular smartphones and won’t require a terminal.
Mitsubishi President Katsuya Nakanishi (left), Lawson President Sadanobu Takemasu (center) and KDDI President Makoto Takahashi wear Lawson uniforms during a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday to announce the carrier's plan to raise its stake in the convenience chain.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2024
KDDI to raise stake in Lawson to jointly run convenience chain
Japan's second-largest mobile carrier currently holds 2.1% of shares but will invest about ¥500 billion to increase its stake through a tender offer.
The Japanese government will provide around ¥45 billion for a cutting-edge semiconductor project promoted by NTT and others.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024
Japan sets aside ¥45 billion for NTT-Intel-SK Hynix joint chip project
The project aims to develop optical semiconductors that allow high-speed data processing with lower power consumption.
Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, was one of the worst-hit areas in the Jan. 1 earthquake.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2024
Still no full recovery prospects for mobile networks hit by Noto earthquake
NTT West expressed eagerness to restore services in two to three months in places where damage is light, but it didn't present clear plans for severely hit areas.
KDDI's au mobile phone services were disrupted across Japan on Monday morning.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2023
KDDI's mobile phone network restored after outage across Japan
The disruption began at 7:18 a.m. across 31 western prefectures including Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka before spreading nationwide.
SoftBank has agreed to buy a majority stake in Irish software developer Cubic Telecom for around €473 million.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 5, 2023
SoftBank buys majority stake in Irish car software developer
SoftBank will acquire 51% of Cubic Telecom, which provides a platform for automakers to update software functions in cars globally and in real time.
KDDI President Makoto Takahashi (left), SoftBank President Junichi Miyakawa (center) and Rakuten Mobile's Hiroshi Mikitani speak during a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 5, 2023
Prospect of NTT Law abolishment unclear amid fierce opposition
The idea was first proposed by a ruling Liberal Democratic Party panel to make the communications giant internationally competitive.
A Rakuten Mobile branch in Tokyo. Rakuten is set for another tough year in 2024, at a time when rivals are on the attack with competitive pricing and reward campaigns.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2023
Rakuten's mobile misadventure: from ambitious plan to millstone
Founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani's vision of a low-cost network using cloud-based software and cheap hardware did not pan out.
Yasuhide Uno, Usen-Next Holdings CEO, has transformed his father’s company into Netflix’s biggest competitor in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2023
Reluctant CEO becomes billionaire at Netflix rival in Japan
Initially wanting nothing to do with his father's cable music company, Yasuhide Uno's faith in video streaming helped him rebuild it for a new era.
NTT plans to roll out a business-use generative artificial intelligence platform in March, aiming to catch up with foreign rivals in the rising market.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 23, 2023
NTT to launch generative AI platform for corporate customers
The new AI model, called tsuzumi, can read documents containing charts and diagrams.
People use smartphones on the street in Tokyo in January 2019.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Nov 20, 2023
The NTT Law — a guard against monopoly, or barrier to innovation?
Some say the law regulating the telecom giant stops it from competing against the likes of Google, but others say it contains vital market protections.
Monday's disruptions, which began around 8:30 a.m., affected SoftBank's "Otoku Line" and "Otoku Hikari Denwa" services in parts of eastern Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 20, 2023
SoftBank's fixed-line phone services disrupted again
Disruption in parts of eastern Japan followed 14-hour outage over the weekend.
A SoftBank store in Tokyo's Ginza district
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 19, 2023
SoftBank landline phone services fully restored after disruption
The disruption impacted mainly business users including retailers and hospitals in parts of the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto and Koshinetsu regions.
A Chinese flag flutters near a Huawei store in Shanghai on Sept. 8.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 21, 2023
German proposal for Huawei curbs triggers telecom operator backlash
Telecom operators swiftly criticized the proposals, while Huawei Germany rejected what it called the "politicization" of cybersecurity in the country.
Akira Amari, a former Liberal Democratic Party secretary-general, addresses a meeting held Tuesday at the party's headquarters to start discussions on whether to allow the government to sell all of the Nippon Telegraph & Telephone stake it owns.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2023
LDP weighs scrapping NTT law to sell off telecom giant shares
The LDP will discuss whether proceeds from a sale of the government's stake should be used to fund planned increases in defense spending.
New JAL chief concerned about yen’s ‘excessive’ weakness
Mitsuko Tottori became Japan Airlines’ first female CEO on April 1, having risen through the ranks as a flight attendant and heading the flight attendant and customer experience divisions.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Yen inches closer to intervention point as BOJ meeting starts
The rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar is displayed in the trading room at foreign exchange brokerage Gaitame.com in Tokyo on Thursday.
Princess Aiko makes debut at imperial garden party
Princess Aiko attends an imperial garden party in Tokyo on Tuesday.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Top U.S. and China diplomats talk tough amid warnings of new ‘downward spiral’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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