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May 05, 2024
 

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Nao Sano
For Nao Sano's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 25, 2016
Boardroom ghosts suddenly under scrutiny at Japanese firms
For as far back as people can remember, they've been there in boardrooms across Japan, the lingering ghosts of past regimes.
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
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 30, 2016
From bit actor ‘bum’ to managing $2.7 billion Japanese fund
Takahiro Kusakari went from being a self-described bum getting by on bit-part acting roles in Tokyo to calling the shots at a $2.7 billion stock fund.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 3, 2016
The Tinder for Japan's aging CEOs posts a 1,170% stock gain
When Masao Takeuchi signed away the company he'd spent 25 years building from scratch, one of his biggest feelings was relief.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2016
Tokyo professor's medicine-making molecules bring new tool to pharma
When he realized he was not going to make it as a guitarist, Hiroaki Suga set out to find the origin of life, and ended up creating a new way to develop medicines.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 20, 2016
Cookpad's maverick founder stirs recipe for unrest
A spat is rocking one of Japan's most popular Internet companies after the founder moved to kick out the board, enraging staff and sending shares tumbling.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 11, 2016
A Tokyo stock picker watches his nation age
It's an early weekday morning in Tokyo and the Japanese pub is already filled with a boisterous clientele, mostly pensioners. Sitting among them is Kengo Kuzuhara, taking notes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2016
Japan's CEOs: underpaid and underwhelming
Atsushi Saito says Japanese corporate heads are underpaid and shun bold decisions for fear of missing out on cushy adviser roles after they retire.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2015
Twenty years in the making, Daiwa-tutored Myanmar bourse fetes baby-steps debut
Starting a stock market is hard. Just ask Ryota Sugishita.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2015
Infamous shareholder activist Murakami returns to fray in league with daughter
Yoshiaki Murakami, Japan's most famous activist shareholder before he was convicted of insider trading in 2007, is once again pressing the nation's companies and this time it's a family act.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 17, 2015
Shouting at Japan CEOs is still a losing strategy, Fidelity says
Foreign activists returning to Japan amid a push for better governance will get no further than they did the last time by shouting for change.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 10, 2015
Japan's budget king turns to robots to revive bubble-era theme park
Light shows and pirate rides helped Hideo Sawada pull a bankrupt theme park in Kyushu back to profitability.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 24, 2015
'Pink flower' stocks aim to change attitudes toward women
Japan's use of the stock market to change companies' attitudes toward women is showing signs it's working. As an investment strategy, it has been less of a success.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 4, 2015
Chinese desire for fancy toilet seats spurs 1,400% rally in Laox shares
Thousand-dollar rice cookers and toilet seats that know when you enter the room.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 20, 2015
Gay marriage push in Japan faces constitutional barrier
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has fought to alter the Constitution on matters of security, is less eager to oppose its principles when it comes to same-sex marriage.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 10, 2015
Robots and foreigners are the answer as Japan's population ages, says investor Sawakami
As Japan's population ages and slowly declines, bring in the robots and foreigners.
Japan says Biden's description of nation as xenophobic is 'unfortunate'
The National Diet building in Tokyo
With eye on China, defense chiefs agree to bolster interoperability
From left: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Australian defense chief Richard Marles, Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro hold a joint news conference in Honolulu on Thursday.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
Japan drops to 70th in press freedom rankings
A businessman reads a newspaper outside a train station in Tokyo.
Traders spooked by intervention risk trim record yen shorts
Traders edged back from record bets on yen weakness this past week, in a period that included a likely bout of intervention by Japan to prop up the currency.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces
By Stephen Mansfield

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