Culture Mar 4, 2021
For manga's striving artists, success lurks online
Cartoonist Kamentotsu says the industry has changed from "farming" artists to "hunting" for them.
Business Mar 4, 2021
South Korean tech firms shake up Japan's storied manga industry
Backed by tech giants Kakao Corp. and Naver Corp., Piccoma and Line Manga have become Japan's highest-grossing mobile apps outside of games.
Business Feb 2, 2021
Suzuki halts production in Myanmar after coup as Japan firms scramble to assess fallout
Major Japanese firms including Kirin Holdings have pushed into Myanmar since Suu Kyi's party won a landslide election in 2015.
Business / Corporate Nov 2, 2020
Zozo says new body-measuring suit overcomes flaws of original
The new outfit employs 20,000 markers, up from the previous version's 400, to help gauge people's sizes more accurately.
Business Oct 27, 2020
Japan's unorthodox household goods champion rides a pandemic boom
Iris Ohyama has made a name through reasonably priced electronics, and launches more than 1,000 new products a year.
TV Mar 15, 2019
Japan's Netflix contender bets on youth-driven viral hits
On a Friday night at a downtown Tokyo television studio, 12 teen models with cutesy nicknames like "Ayamin" and "Kyokyo" are waiting nervously to find out who has won coveted spots on the cover of Popteen magazine, a Japanese fashion bible. The girls, sporting a ...
Business | FOCUS Aug 15, 2018
Japan's Don Quijote joins retail's top ranks with rule-breaking approach
Discount retailer Don Quijote has become a role model for other chain stores, defying Japan’s weak retail environment to report its 29th year of unbroken sales and profit growth.
Business Jul 5, 2018
Japan's online fashion revolution gathers speed as brands bid to catch up with industry leader Zozotown
Zozotown, which swooped in as a little-known retail website and prodded once-reluctant Japanese consumers to shop online for clothes, is now facing stiff competition in the industry whose image it remade. Arriving on the scene in 2004, the site made a killing selling clothes from ...
Business / Corporate | ANALYSIS Apr 26, 2018
Shire bid marks Takeda's latest and biggest push for global status
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd..'s $64 billion bid for London-listed rare-disease specialist Shire PLC bolsters its credentials as Japan's most outward-facing drugs firm, a mold-breaking image that has been more than a decade in the making. Under CEO Christophe Weber and his predecessor, Yasuchika Hasegawa, Takeda ...
Business Apr 27, 2017
Convenience stores are part of Japan's 'social infrastructure,' but labor crunch threatening that role
Japan's growing labor shortage threatens the nation's ubiquitous convenience stores, whose business model relies on an army of part-timers packing bento boxed lunches, manning cash registers and delivering goods 24/7. The big three operators 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and Lawson, which have expanded through Japan's long slump, ...