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BUSINESS
Jan 25, 2003

Kumagai Gumi ponders spinoff

Ailing construction company Kumagai Gumi Co. plans to spin off its money-losing real estate business and carry out a massive restructuring in the hope of surviving as a slimmer company half its present size, industry sources said Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2002

Nutritional company targets a 'priceless' market

Nature's Sunshine Products, the Utah-based company that revolutionized the nutritional supplement industry, this month celebrated its 30th anniversary with a convention in Fukuoka that brought together top executives and its Japanese "family."
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 18, 2023

What to know about Dominion, the voting machine company suing Fox

The company's highly anticipated case against Fox News is scheduled to go to trial this week, but on Monday the judge delayed the proceedings without citing a reason.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2022

Elon Musk's boring company is feuding with Texas over a driveway

Since Boring Co. bought land last May to create a research and development center in a rural area outside Austin, Texas, the company has skirted requests for proper permits.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
May 29, 2022

To reduce traffic, this company wants cargo e-bikes to replace delivery vans

URB-E, which started out as a company that made mini e-scooters, is pivoting to monetize the demand from companies that need their own low-emissions delivery systems.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 12, 2022

Facebook researchers find its apps can make us lonelier

Facebook researchers struggle to understand why some of its app experiences cause users pleasure while the same content sometimes inflicts pain.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2021

This company helps roughnecks find renewable energy jobs

Alfred Burt grew up following his father across the oil patches of Texas. He carried on the family tradition, working on rigs for 26 years until the pandemic crashed oil prices in April and he lost a drilling job with Apache Corp. that paid $1,600 a day.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 21, 2020

A company made gloves for the world. Now its workers have the virus.

Top Glove's low-paid workers in Malaysia began to suffer from a ferocious outbreak of COVID-19, the result of its own inadequate protections, critics say.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 11, 2020

Founder of software company who turned down SoftBank joins ranks of Japan’s billionaires

Masayoshi Son had offered to buy Shunji Sugaya's business idea for $2.8 million.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jun 7, 2019

Chemical firm hit for punishing worker who took paternity leave with transfer halfway across Japan

Chemical producer Kaneka Corp. faces allegations of harassment after an employee returned from paternity leave to find that he — and, one presumes, his family — was being transferred to a different branch in another part of the country.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / IDEAS IN ACTION
Oct 5, 2018

Company stumbles upon new software to build healthy work environment

Haruki Atarashi never thought his company's flagship software, Recog, which fosters communication between employees within companies, would ever evolve beyond just an internal project.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 20, 2018

My company didn't enroll me in the Japanese social insurance program. What to do?

A non-Japanese worker wrote to Lifelines with some questions about the shakai hoken social insurance system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 2, 2018

A company freshman's sharp learning curve

The first Monday in April — April 2 this year — sees tens of thousands of 生き生きして元気な新入社員 (ikiiki shite genki na shinnyū shain, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed newly hired company employees) — also referred to as フレシュマン (fureshuman, freshmen) — decked out in...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 27, 2017

Nagoya ad startup uses bonus boost to discourage overtime

An online advertising startup has adopted a unique method to achieve zero overtime in its workplace by paying a higher bonus to employees who have reduced their work hours after quitting time, a move likely to draw attention as more Japanese try to achieve a better work-life balance.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / EXECUTIVE DECISIONS
Aug 11, 2014

Takeda Pharmaceutical to stay Japan-based while growing on global basis, new French leader vows

The inauguration in June of Christophe Weber as president of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. invited opposition from a group of its former executives and members of its founding family, but the Frenchman says Takeda will remain "Japanese-based" under his leadership.
Japan Times
WORLD / TICAD V SPECIAL
Jun 1, 2013

Zensho pursues fair trade with small farmers in Africa

Fair trade is a concept widely accepted in the world describing a business practice in which importers provide humanitarian benefits to exporters, who are usually in developing nations. Humanitarian benefits can mean anything from paying proper prices for high-quality products to helping the people in...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 5, 2011

Harmonia Opera marks milestone

Emiko Iinuma's voice has a distinctive sugared drawl, a sweet residue from her early years as a student at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. It is more than the drawl that attracts — her voice dances, leaps across decades, travels up and down pitch, whispers hardship and rises in forthright determination....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2021

Can Moderna buy its way into the $200 billion club?

Moderna's COVID-19 windfall sees its market valuation surged by more than $100 billion since May.
Motosaburo Saito at the headquarters of Oji Holdings, a building that won the Wood Design Award
ESG CONSORTIUM
Nov 6, 2023

Old-growth paper company Oji renews forests, products, vision

Oji Holdings, Japan’s leading paper manufacturer, is also its largest corporate forest owner. It studies and develops paper products and related materials and is committed to the maintenance of healthy forests. In a recent interview with The Japan Times, the general manager of Oji’s department on...
Renesas Electronics will buy software firm Altium in the biggest acquisition yet of an Australian-listed company by a Japanese buyer.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 15, 2024

Japan chipmaker Renesas to buy software company Altium for $5.9 billion

The move marks the biggest acquisition yet of an Australia-listed company by a Japanese buyer.
Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against a U.S. maker of software that allows people to use PCs and smartphones to play video games intended for a specific console.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 1, 2024

Nintendo sues company for piracy on 'colossal scale'

The company is looking to clamp down on the operations of a company called Tropic Haze, which owns and runs a popular video game emulator.
An employee at Otsuka Foods has filed a damages suit against the company with the Otsu District Court in Shiga Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 14, 2024

Otsuka Foods whistleblower sues company for work-related depression

The man has claimed he suffered from depression after being reassigned and given little work following a report over the company's alleged wrongdoing.
Meta’s rapid AI chatbot rollout is raising safety concerns as critics cite inappropriate responses and poor accountability despite its access to vast user data.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 14, 2025

Meta’s defense of its rogue AI sounds painfully familiar

The social media platform Meta is going on the attack instead of worrying about its users. How did that work out the last time?
A screen displays news on Nvidia achieving a $4 trillion market capitalization on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 10, 2025

AI giant Nvidia becomes first company to reach $4 trillion milestone

The achievement marks new milestone in Wall Street's bet that artificial intelligence will transform the economy.
Native Englander Paul Christie now spends most of his time rebuilding declining communities across the rural stretches of southwest Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 29, 2023

One tour company’s mission to ‘revive a small corner of Japan’

Launched in 2007, the “Community Project” was devised to reinvigorate two neighboring valleys on the Kunisaki Peninsula.
An AI-generated model is featured in Ito En's latest green tea brand commercial.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 19, 2023

Beverage company Ito En taps AI actress for TV commercial

The commercial is receiving mixed reviews from netizens, with some praising the quality of the tech while others worry about job loss.
When SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son bought Arm in 2016 for $32 billion, he had grand plans for the company to dominate the nascent market for connected devices, also known as the Internet of Things.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 21, 2024

Softbank’s Arm is not the AI play most people think it is

Today, GPUs are the gold standard for AI development and thus the equivalent of toilet paper during the pandemic.
Nvidia's stock market value on Friday briefly touched $3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple's $3.52 trillion, LSEG data showed.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 26, 2024

Nvidia overtakes Apple as world's most valuable company

Nvidia's stock market value briefly touched $3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple's $3.52 trillion, LSEG data showed.
Alarmo and other recent products reflect Nintendo's strategy of using its iconic intellectual properties to engage users while preparing for the inevitable transition to a successor console after the Nintendo Switch.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 24, 2024

Nintendo’s latest device, the Alarmo, is a $100 wake-up call

Alarmo and other recent products reflect Nintendo's strategy of leveraging its iconic IPs to engage users as it prepares for the successor to the Nintendo Switch.
Tokyo police arrested Yuga Matsuoka, an employee at a leasing company, Wednesday on suspicion of attempted arson after he allegedly tried to set fire to a tourist go-kart company’s property.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 16, 2025

Tokyo police arrest man for attempted arson at tourist go-kart company

Yuga Matsuoka, the 28-year-old suspect, confessed to the crime, calling the sound from the karts’ engines "noisy" and "stressful.”

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight