Selling everyday items to bargain hunters has made the founder of Japan's biggest discount store a billionaire. Hirotake Yano, founder and president of closely held Daiso Sangyo Corp., the self-described "Japanese shopping wonderland," was one of the country's first vendors to adopt a single-price model ...

A childhood New Year's holiday spent playing cards with his family planted the seeds of a gambling compulsion that ravaged decades of one man's life. Now 67, the former salesman from western Japan fell into debt time and time again as his addiction drew ...

Embarrassed by the recall of thousands of kitchenware pots after they appeared to leach lead when heated, discount-furniture king Akio Nitori took an unusual step. He hired a team of auto industry engineers to revamp the quality assurance and testing division. Ten years later, every ...

Tokyo, Osaka and Yokohama are emerging as likely candidates for casino resorts under the government's new bidding framework, triggering criticism from smaller cities that say it undermines Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's goal of reviving rural areas. Most global casino operators have indicated an interest in ...

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. Satoshi Sakamoto, a senior executive director at Konami, said an industry with a good ...

Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing Co. is betting that speed, both in supplying its stores with the latest fashion and getting custom-made products to shoppers, will allow it to overtake apparel powerhouse Zara. Fast Retailing plans to shorten the time it takes from design to delivery ...

Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. has upped the ante against its casino rivals to win the chance to build a casino resort in Japan, declaring there's no limit on how much the company is prepared to invest. "This opportunity is priceless and we'll spend whatever it ...

Nitori Holdings Co. is considering buying an apparel chain in Japan, a move that will pit the furniture seller against rivals including Fast Retailing Co., Asia's largest clothier. The home furnishing retailer will look for a company with 100 to 200 stores as cash from ...

Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. wants to grow its overseas business to about a third of sales with more acquisitions as the nation's largest brewer seeks to offset a falling beer market at home. Further acquisitions would follow the company agreeing to buy about $11 billion ...

No-frills fashion. Cheap and cheerful. Call it what you will, Shimamura Co. has a money-making formula for selling clothes in Japan's moribund economy. Growth in operating income at the country's second-largest clothing chain has outpaced bigger rival Uniqlo-owner, Fast Retailing Co., for the past five ...