Search - sales

 
 
Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan plans to introduce several thousand more vending machines with digital price displays that can be controlled remotely to vary prices according to demand.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 15, 2023

Coca-Cola Japan to expand trial of dynamic-price vending machines

The dynamic pricing scheme allows the prices of vending machine items to be raised when demand is high and lowered when sales are low.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Dec 15, 2023

Hokkaido to face issues around Rapidus, seafood and '2024 problem'

An influx of foreign residents is expected in Chitose, while China's ban on marine products continues to hurt the region.
A member of the insurgent Karenni Nationalities Defence Force rescues civilians trapped amid airstrikes, during a battle to take over Loikaw in Kayah State, Myanmar, in November.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2023

Rebel fire and China's ire: Inside Myanmar's anti-junta offensive

Operation 1027 has become the most significant threat to the regime since it seized power in a 2021 coup.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 16, 2023

Kishida losing grip on LDP as funds scandal unfolds

As the Cabinet's approval rate continues to fall, officials and are beginning to discuss a scenario in which the prime minister is forced to step down.
Ten or more lawmakers of the LDP's largest faction, including former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, may have received over ¥10 million each in kickbacks, according to the sources.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 17, 2023

Ten or more Abe faction members may have received over ¥10 million in kickbacks

Among other LDP factions, Shisuikai, led by former party Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, is also suspected of failing to report fundraising revenues .
Packages of tofu on the production line at the Yamami factory in Oyama, Shizuoka Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2023

Tofu-maker Yamami sees shares surge after automating ancient craft

At its newest factory at the foot of Mount Fuji, the company, one of the few that’s listed, can produce 15,000 units of the bean curd each hour.
A worker inspects semiconductor chips at a chip-packaging plant in Ipoh, Malaysia, in 2021. Malaysia currently accounts for 13% of the global market for semiconductor packaging, assembly and testing.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 18, 2023

Chinese firms look to Malaysia to assemble high-end chips

Dearth of advanced chip-packaging services in China leads firms to venture abroad amid U.S. sanctions.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 19, 2023

Prosecutors search sites linked to scandal-hit LDP factions

Prosecutors searched the biggest faction, once led by late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and another led by former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.
Customers browse through items sold as part of the Uniqlo Pre-owned Clothes Project at the brand's Harajuku store in Tokyo in October.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2023

Japan revisits used garments as inflation adds to fashion appeal

Awareness of the sector's huge environmental impact has yet to spark much interest in secondhand options in the world third-biggest clothes market.
Buildings in Xiamen on mainland China across the Taiwan Strait from anti-landing barriers on a beach in Kinmen, Taiwan.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 20, 2023

Taiwan’s ability to defend against Chinese invasion questioned

For all the support given by Washington, the reality is that when it comes to both civil and military defense, Taiwan still has a lot to do.
Sacks of coffee beans at a storage unit in the Sidama region of Ethiopia.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 20, 2023

Coffee firms switch sources, evading impact of EU deforestation law

Under the new law, importers of various commodities and products that use them must prove goods did not originate from deforested land.
Music streaming service Spotify started offering audiobooks in October, but not everyone in the book industry is thrilled.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 20, 2023

Spotify's push into audiobooks sparks concern among authors

Spotify began offering complimentary audiobooks to millions of customers in October as part of their monthly subscriptions.
Tokyo-based Bridgestone decided in March 2022 to suspend all manufacturing activities and freeze new investments in the Russia following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 20, 2023

Bridgestone exits Russia with asset sale to serial buyer S8 Capital

Bridgestone, present in Russia since 1998, decided in March 2022 to suspend all manufacturing activities and freeze new investments in the country.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 21, 2023

Daihatsu offices raided after scandal halts all car shipments

The raid followed revelations that the carmaker and supplier had manipulated the results of various collision safety tests dating as far back as 1989.
Japan's core consumer prices rose 2.5% in November from a year earlier, marking the slowest pace of increase in over a year in a sign of easing cost-push pressures in the world's third-largest economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 22, 2023

Japan’s cooling inflation also offers encouraging signs for BOJ

Consumer prices excluding fresh food items rose 2.5% from a year earlier as falls in energy costs deepened and gains in processed food prices eased.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2023

Embattled LDP's Nikai faction also suspected of logging kickbacks

The faction is suspected of not reporting excess fundraiser revenues as income but reporting the kickbacks as expenditures.
A Tokyo Public Prosecutor's Office vehicle exits the building housing the office of a political faction once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Dec. 19.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 25, 2023

LDP's top faction withdrew decision to abolish kickbacks

A special squad suspects that senior faction officials knew of the apparent mechanism of the kickbacks and attempted to correct the situation.
Former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2023

Japan must further ease arms export rules, ex-defense chief says

Itsunori Onodera said he would press ahead with ruling coalition discussions on broadening the scope of allowable exports.
Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities hopes to record its highest-ever income from Japan in the current fiscal year, and work together with Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities to overtake Nomura Holdings as the top broker in the country.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 25, 2023

Morgan Stanley expects record Japan revenue as BOJ fuels trading

Shift in the nation's monetary policy could spur more client activity, says the CEO of Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities.
An Aladdin X staff member plays Suika Game on its home projector in Tokyo on Friday. Suika Game was originally developed for the company's line of home projectors.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 25, 2023

Suika Game: How a Japanese home projector app became a viral hit

The puzzle game has ranked No. 1 in Nintendo Switch software downloads, topping titles such as Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 25, 2023

Daihatsu halts three assembly plants over testing fraud scandal

It is unclear when the company will resume production, which is expected to be suspended until at least the end of next month.
An electronic board displays various companies' share prices at a business district in Tokyo in October.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2023

Japan’s labor demand holds steady in positive sign for wages

The job-to-applicants ratio eased a tad to 1.28, meaning there were 128 jobs offered for every 100 applicants, the labor ministry reported.
Business service prices for hotels rose 51.8% in November compared with the previous year, on the back of a surge in inbound tourism following the lifting of pandemic controls and domestic demand for travel.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2023

Japan's service price growth holds steady, maintaining 30-year high

Prices for services rising at the fastest pace since April 1992 will likely fuel speculation that the Bank of Japan may normalize policy in coming months.
The Tokio Marine & Nichido Building in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 26, 2023

Japan penalizes biggest property insurers for price fixing

The Financial Services Agency has issued business improvement orders on the core units of Tokio Marine, MS&AD Insurance and Sompo.
A group of 19 host club owners in Kabukicho who own most of the host clubs in the area have pledged to ban the pay-later system by April and prohibit entry to those under 20 years old from January.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 26, 2023

How Japan's host clubs trap young women under mountains of debt

False promises of love — and even marriage — lead to huge bills for some as young as 18, who are often then coaxed into sex work to make repayments.
An image from Dec. 9 appears to show the Russian container ship Angara, sanctioned by the U.S., unloading cargo at Najin port while containers from North Korea await loading at an adjacent pier.
WORLD
Dec 27, 2023

Ghost ships at reawakened North Korea port put Ukraine in peril

The vessels are suspected to be delivering arms to Russia that eventually make their way to the frontlines of Vladimir Putin's invasion.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 27, 2023

Takashimaya apologizes over damaged Christmas cakes

The pricey ¥5,400 cakes were meant to be delivered frozen, but many arrived melted, lopsided or crumbled.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2023

Tokyo court rules executives of spray dryer firm were wrongly indicted

The case involving Ohkawara Kakohki, a Yokohama-based manufacturer, has once again highlighted problems in the nation’s criminal justice system.
Erin Lim, CEO of baby products company Konny, in front of her company's new office in Seoul. Early starts and late finishes to workdays are routine in South Korea, a country notorious for its hard-driving corporate culture, but Erin Lim knew she wanted to do things differently at her business.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 28, 2023

South Korean mother's office-free firm sparks hope amid birthrate woes

South Korea has some of the world's lowest birth rates, and despite government incentives many women choose not to become mothers.
From movies, anime, manga and even to sports stars, 2023 was a year where global audiences demonstrated their increasing fondness for Japanese soft power.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 27, 2023

From Godzilla to Shohei: Japan's soft power had a big year

Little by little, Japan is getting better at pitching its copious wares overseas, and 2023 proved that.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?