Tag - companies

 
 

COMPANIES

BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2015
To fuel economic recovery, Abe urges small, midsize firms to hike wages
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday urged small and medium-size companies to raise wages to fuel economic recovery through expanded consumer spending.
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2015
Cabinet members to advise foreign firms investing in Japan
The Abe administration has decided to let Cabinet members directly support foreign companies making large investment in Japan, in a rare move aimed at luring more capital from abroad to help revive the economy.
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2015
Labor law needs sharper teeth
The labor ministry should devise more effective measures to be taken against 'black companies' and more strictly enforce existing labor laws to halt abusive labor practices.
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2015
Uphold safety in gas liberalization
While market liberalization of retail gas sales should be pursued in order to lower fees for consumers, the arguments by major gas suppliers for a safe and stable supply of city gas make sense.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2015
Ending worker exploitation
As part of its effort to stamp out abusive practices against workers, Japan's labor ministry plans to set up a system under which public employment security offices may decline to accept notices of job availability from so-called black companies.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2015
Private sector must do its part
On the campaign trail last month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he saw signs of a 'virtuous economic cycle' emerging, in which improved corporate earnings would create more jobs, leading to higher wages and increased consumption. Can his policies make that happen?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2014
Exploited working students starting to fight 'burakku arubaito' system
The 22-year-old university student was in his fifth day working part time at a Sukiya beef bowl outlet in Tokyo when his boss suddenly told him to run the shop from midnight to 9 a.m. all by himself.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2014
Australia looking less prepared for future
As economists debate whether Shinzo Abe can end Japan's long funk, some wonder if another wealthy, seemingly world-beating economy isn't headed for its own lost decade: Australia.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2014
Battle against Ebola raises ethical questions
The tiny number of Ebola cases in rich countries — and the ensuing panic-inducing headlines and quarantine measures — have brought home the global nature of infectious disease today.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 18, 2014
A dark force targets youth at their jobs
In the ongoing discussion about workplace abuse, the media has advanced yet another new term. "Black baito" modifies the already popular phrase "black kigyō," which are companies that manipulate or ignore labor standards in order to get employees to work overtime without pay. "Baito" is an abbreviation of arbeit, the German word that in Japan stands for part-time work, so "black baito" refers specifically to part-time workers.
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 2014
Don't bank on nuclear restarts
Power companies are moving again to raise their electricity rates to get out of dire financial straits caused by the increased cost of importing fuel to run more thermal power plants while their nuclear power reactors remain idled.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 13, 2014
Japan's foreign trainee program suffering from shocking lack of oversight
Agencies that dispatch non-Japanese as interns under the government's foreign trainee program, as well as a government-commissioned foundation that supervises and instructs them, put corporate profits first and are not fulfilling their oversight responsibilities, lawyers familiar with the program say.
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
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 9, 2014
Mitsui O.S.K. to pioneer Arctic route for LNG
Officials from shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. announced Wednesday their company will begin transporting liquefied natural gas through the Arctic Ocean in 2018 — making it the first company in the world to tap the sea as a regular transit route.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 9, 2014
Goldman's Japan M&A chief sees hunger for more deals
When a 210-year-old vinegar company bought Unilever's Ragu and Bertolli pasta sauce business last month, it showed that Japanese firms are becoming more adventurous in their search for growth, said Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s national head of mergers and acquisitions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2014
Mitsui Fudosan plans big share issue on Olympics
Mitsui Fudosan Co. plans to raise as much as ¥324.6 billion in the biggest share sale by a property company in Japan in at least four decades.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 4, 2014
Don't count on bubbles, wage hikes for more Asian growth
Japanese companies should realize the potential danger in relying on the continued expansion of Asian consumer spending, as it appears the region is headed for a period of economic stagnation.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Apr 23, 2014
Fines, snitching fuel U.S. antitrust blitz against Japan firms
Since 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged two dozen Japanese auto parts companies and 32 of their employees with rigging bids or fixing the prices for their products in what it calls its largest such investigation to date.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 25, 2014
Age brings no respite from hard times for the 'lost generation'
Poverty is a relative term. As with age, you're as poor as you feel. Affluence brings with it rising expectations. Failure to meet them feeds the psychology, if not the dire physical deprivation, of poverty.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 14, 2013
Government to ask firms for turnover data in 'black' company crackdown
The labor ministry will request that businesses disclose their employee turnover data when hiring new graduates as a way to stem abusive employment practices by 'burakku kigyo' (black companies), a ministry source says.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces