For Mariko Yasu's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan's biggest companies have a case of SoftBank envy, and that's good for entrepreneurs like 23-year-old Takumi Shimizu. Billionaire Masayoshi Son, 56, has boosted SoftBank Corp.'s market value to $99 billion since founding the business in 1981, partly from outsized returns on investments in companies ...
Kazuo Hirai, who took the helm at Sony Corp. two years ago to revive the Japanese icon, is losing credibility with investors who think he's not up to the job. The chief executive officer pledged when he came in to turn around Sony's ailing consumer ...
Gen Isayama grew up in Tokyo and then spent a decade working in the venture-capital business in Northern California. Now he's starting a $300 million fund aimed at blending the best of Silicon Valley and Japan. The 40-year-old Isayama is chief executive officer of WiL ...
Nintendo Co. shocked investors last week by lowering its profit forecast for the year. Analysts are concerned Sony Corp. could be next. At least nine analysts cut their profit estimates for Sony over the past two months after slow holiday sales of televisions, personal computers ...
Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata, who tripled revenue by introducing hits like the Wii console, is coming under fire from investors and analysts after the company's latest game machine flopped. Though Iwata had vowed to deliver ¥100 billion in operating profit this fiscal year, the ...
For Kazuo Hirai, creating Sony Corp.'s flagship smartphone was too important to be left to the company's mobile phone experts. Taking aim at a $310 billion market dominated by Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy and Apple Inc.'s iPhone, Sony's chief executive officer sent dozens of his ...
Nobuyuki Idei once embodied Japan's corporate establishment, the leader of technology giant Sony Corp. Now 75, he's aiming to reinvent himself as a cross between a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Hollywood mogul. The former Sony CEO describes himself as the "executive producer" behind a ...
Sony Corp. has a hit product on its hands. Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. will be happy to sell it to you. Sony's latest star performer isn't a gadget like the Walkman or PlayStation. Instead, it's a chip found in almost ...
Ritsuhiko Tajima has about 100 CDs by his favorite band, girl group AKB48, many of them copies of the same disc. The attraction? The CDs often include tickets to events where he can briefly meet his idols. "I don't think I'll ever get tired of them," the ...
Even James Bond and Spider-Man can't rescue Sony Corp. In "Skyfall," actor Daniel Craig's 007 uses Sony's Xperia T smartphone, while Andrew Garfield's title character in "The Amazing Spider-Man" wields an Xperia X10 Mini Pro. The two movies, released by Sony this year, have grossed ...
