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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2014

Top retailers reach crossroads in labor shortage shakeout

Don Quijote and Uniqlo, two of the nation's best-known mass-market retailers, aren't waiting for the government's new growth policies due later this month before implementing their own labor reforms.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2014

'Sad Tea'

Ensemble dramas about the ups and downs of love, and its various substitutes, are popular now — at least with indie filmmakers. (A contrast to Japan's commercial romantic dramas, which still focus on star-crossed couples, one of whom is usually dead by the closing credits.)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 4, 2014

World Cup 2014 views from Tokyo: South Korea, France, the Netherlands and Spain

A South Korean sales rep, two Dutch Embassy workers, a French consultant and a Spanish ventriloquist discuss their teams' chances in the World Cup.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2014

Sex and drugs to be counted in Europe's GDP

In the next few months all EU countries that do not already include illegal and gray-market businesses in their gross domestic product calculations will have to do so. After all, there is no substantive difference between the services of a prostitute and a corrupt bureaucrat.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 2, 2014

SMBC Nikko to boost overseas staff by 25%

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.'s securities arm plans to increase the number of employees abroad by 25 percent in the next three years to expand in areas including securitization, trading and investment banking.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 2, 2014

GPIF's $200 billion push abroad to boost inflation bid

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's inflation drive may get a boost as Nomura Holdings Inc. forecasts as much as $200 billion in foreign asset purchases by Japan's pension funds will weaken the yen.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2014

The call to raise tobacco taxes and save lives

If the government of Japan increased the amount of excise tax on cigarette packs by 50 percent (to 68 percent of the final retail price), there would be 1.5 million fewer smokers and 330,000 smoking-attributable deaths would be averted.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 2, 2014

Japan's Good Design Award hits the mark with new store in Hong Kong

Japan's Good Design Award just got better. Or, at least, broader.
JAPAN
May 30, 2014

New agency to modernize Japanese arms procurement in works

Japan plans to set up an arms procurement agency to streamline Tokyo's spending on defense-related hardware for exports and take charge of advanced weapons research.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2014

The Palestinian city that Pope Francis missed

For a glimpse of optimism amid the deadlocked Mideast peace negotiations, Pope Francis should have visited the emerging Palestinian city of Rawabi, intended to house light industry, high-tech firms and as many as 30,000 residents.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 29, 2014

Farmers find a new cash crop in solar power field

The campaign to boost renewable power supplies since the Fukushima nuclear disaster is producing some unlikely winners: vegetable farmers.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2014

World Cup without succor

International sports events such as the upcoming World Cup Championship in Brazil have become a severe burden on host countries. Haven't we had enough of this slapstick?
BUSINESS
May 27, 2014

Coup fallout: Sony joins Panasonic in avoiding travel to Thailand

Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. are among companies advising workers against traveling to Thailand, as evidence mounts that political turmoil in the country is undermining business activity there.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
May 27, 2014

Confident of recovery, Bank of Japan eyes stimulus exit

The Bank of Japan has begun shifting its focus from supporting growth to phasing out its massive stimulus, taking the first tentative steps toward a potentially momentous move for the world economy.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2014

China and Russia strike a deal

The $400 billion deal that China signed with Russia for natural gas has caused Western handwringing as expected, but a broader view suggests that Beijing has other interests that may outweigh this partnership.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 23, 2014

Mizkan buys up Ragu, Bertolli sauce brands

Mizkan Group has agreed to buy Unilever's Ragu and Bertolli pasta sauce brands for $2.15 billion as Japanese companies continue to diversify by acquiring Western assets.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 23, 2014

Toure's agent not making many friends with attitude

Until last Tuesday, few people in England had heard of Dimitry Seluk. Now we are sick of him.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2014

Hirai refuses to pull plug on Sony TV business

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai said Thursday the company still expects to turn around its loss-making home electronics business, which includes TV sets, this fiscal year after completing restructuring.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 22, 2014

Newly confident Resona bullish on corporate loans

Resona Holdings Inc. is targeting a fivefold increase in corporate loans this year, signaling Japan's fifth-biggest bank is confident that the economic recovery is strong enough to spur business spending.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 21, 2014

Import slowdown narrows trade gap

The trade deficit shrank in April as imports rose the least in 16 months, after the consumption tax hike crimped consumer spending, Finance Ministry data showed on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2014

Narendra Modi: India's Shinzo Abe

Just as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's return to power in late 2012 reflected Japan's determination to reinvent itself as a more competitive and confident country, Narendra Modi's election victory reflects Indians' desire for a dynamic, assertive leader to help revitalize their country's economy and security.
CULTURE / Music
May 20, 2014

Not Yet aren't ready to take the AKB48 crown

Not Yet "Already" (Nippon Columbia)

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan