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BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2012

Toyota plans slew of new hybrid models

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that it will introduce 21 new gasoline-electric hybrid models by the end of 2015 to meet the growing demand for fuel-efficient cars.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 24, 2012

Toll of double tax hikes on the economy will be even worse than in '97

The number of people in Japan aged 65 or older has reached 30.74 million, or 24.1 percent of the population, according to a government estimate released on the Respect for the Aged Day last Monday. The numbers are record highs and warn of snowballing health and welfare costs the country will soon have...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2012

Honda aims to double sales by 2017

Honda Motor Co. plans to double its global auto sales to more than 6 million units in the business year to March 2017, compared with 3.12 million last year, on the back of strong growth in emerging markets, President Takanobu Ito said Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2012

Carmakers brace for bashing in China

Two years ago, Sherry Wang bought a Toyota Camry because it offered a comfortable way to commute to her job as a researcher in the Chinese city of Xian. Lately, she's been taking the bus.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2012

Toyota floods China with new models to double sales

Toyota Motor Corp. is adding at least 20 new models in China, where it intends to more than double car deliveries by 2015 from 2011 levels, partly by selling more hybrids and improving customer service.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2012

Toray ups output to meet Daimler, Boeing demand

Toray Industries Inc., the world's largest producer of carbon fiber, plans to increase capacity as customers from Daimler to Boeing. boost the use of the lightweight material to make fuel-efficient cars and planes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2012

Changes afoot as Beijing seeks new economic models to sustain growth

China needs to shift to a new growth model as its cost advantages begin to erode and overseas demand staggers, while cooperation with Japan in future-growth sectors will benefit both countries, Chinese officials and scholars said during a recent symposium in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2012

Spending on drinking hits 14-year low

Japanese men cut spending on drinking to the lowest level in at least 14 years as household allowances remained at about half of what they were during the heyday of the bubble economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2012

Refugee pines to go back to, help Myanmar

When Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi announced her trust in President Thein Sein last August, Tin Win Akbar decided it was time to return home after spending almost 16 years as an exile in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
May 24, 2012

Turkey tacks new foreign policy course

Turkey has recently been at the forefront of international economic and political debates. On the one hand, despite the economic crisis engulfing neighboring Europe, Turkey remains the world's second-fastest growing economy, after China. On the other hand, there is almost no issue on the global agenda...
BUSINESS
May 19, 2012

Resona vows early bailout payback

Resona Holdings Inc., recipient of a ¥1.96 trillion bailout in 2003, plans to pay back most of the money still owed to taxpayers earlier than scheduled thanks to growing profit reserves.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2012

Myanmar business leader woos investors

At a symposium in Tokyo Saturday, a Myanmar business leader encouraged Japanese companies to keep pace with their Chinese and South Korean rivals who are investing in the newly democratizing country or risk missing out on prime opportunities before the 2015 elections.
BUSINESS
Apr 13, 2012

Hirai announces Sony's turnaround strategy

Sony Corp., which expects to suffer a record loss for the latest business year, announced Thursday it is considering tying up with rivals to get its money-losing TV business back into the black by the end of March 2014.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 9, 2012

Consumption tax increase: Fairness is in the eye of the beholder

How will the proposed sales tax increase really affect the average household?
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2012

Japan-like fertility rate, aging population pose threats to China

The rapid aging of China's population poses a serious threat to the country's future growth and social security, and policy actions need to be taken now to deal with the repercussions in the coming decades, said a senior Chinese scholar from Shanghai.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Mar 31, 2012

Passage hinges on Ozawa, opposition

Despite the Cabinet's approval Friday of a sales tax hike bill that sparked months of dissent and resistance from the ruling party's ranks, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may find that in the deadlocked Diet, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2012

Cabinet OKs bill to double sales tax by '15

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his ruling Democratic Party of Japan-led government managed to submit the contentious bill to the Diet on Friday to double the consumption tax to 10 percent by 2015, while junior coalition partner Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) was on the verge of collapsing over...
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2012

Experts: 10% tax too minor to dent deficit

The Cabinet on Friday made good on its vow and moved forward on doubling the consumption tax by 2015, but some experts and lawmakers already see it as only a tiny step in cutting the ever-expanding fiscal deficit.
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2012

Japan's sovereign credit rating has yet to reach downgrade point: Moody's

Japan's sovereign rating has yet to reach the point at which it should be downgraded, a senior vice president at Moody's Investors Service said.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes