For Lisa Du's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
The company that brought you milk chocolate, Maggi instant noodles and Rocky Road ice cream is worried about your health. Nestle SA, the world's largest food company, has joined the trend for personalized nutrition with a blend of artificial intelligence, DNA testing and the modern ...
Shiseido Co., the beauty company that's 146 years old, is giving itself one big makeover. To attract more coveted consumers in their 20s and 30s, the company is overhauling its entire Shiseido makeup line and discontinuing almost 100 products. It's being replaced with a new ...
Let the competition begin. Now that Japan has enacted a law outlining a road map for casino resorts, foreign operators from Las Vegas Sands Corp. to MGM Resorts International can start to seek out partners in their bid to tap a gaming market that may ...
Fast Retailing Co. shares climbed the most since January on signs that the retailer's steady expansion in overseas markets, now headlined by the face of Roger Federer, is bearing fruit even in the face of risks from an escalating trade dispute. The Uniqlo operator drew ...
Christophe Weber says growth and innovation are the metrics for success in Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.'s $62 billion purchase of Shire PLC. The first order of business is bringing global shareholders around to Japan's biggest-ever outbound takeover. The Takeda CEO is facing a 21 percent drop ...
Seeking growth beyond a shrinking beer market, Kirin Holdings Co. is turning its attention to making people healthier. The second-largest beer-maker in the country aims to reach ¥100 billion in sales of food and beverages aimed at appealing to wellness concerns in the next two ...
Shiseido Co., the Japanese firm that sells Laura Mercier cosmetics and Dolce & Gabbana fragrances, sold ¥1 trillion ($9.3 billion) worth of beauty products last year, mostly in traditional stores where customers can sample brands in person. That's a problem for Masahiko Uotani, Shiseido's chief ...
The resale of Hermes bags, brand-name jewelry and other luxury items is a thriving industry in Japan, with one critical bottleneck: Building inventory is tough. Sou Inc. offers a solution: pawnshops dedicated only to buying up secondhand merchandise. Business has been so good for founder ...
In a factory surrounded by snow-covered peaks, technicians in lab coats use tweezers to assemble tiny metal parts into self-winding watches. Once they've been checked through microscopes for precision and packed in satin-lined boxes, the timepieces are shipped off to boutiques along Los Angeles' Rodeo ...
Takanori Sakai works the graveyard shift four nights a week at the FamilyMart store he owns in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, because he can't afford the higher pay employees demand these days. "More and more stores can't secure a profit," the 57-year-old said. Problem is, with ...
