Marumiya Corp. announced that it will recall about 15,000 of its pre-packaged ingredient boxes for making kamameshi rice called “Tori Gobo Kamameshi no Moto.”

The recall comes after a foreign object that appeared to be a cockroach was found in one of the products.

The company said no health problems have been reported so far.
The products in question have a best-before date of Aug. 21 and Sept. 3 in 2025. The bag inside the product is marked “U4230N54.”
 


 

Trading house Itochu Corp is considering helping finance the potential buyout of Seven & i Holdings Co by its management, responding to a request from the founding family of the Japanese retail giant, sources close to the matter said Monday.

Itochu, the parent of convenience store chain operator FamilyMart Co, is apparently in the initial phase of the study, the sources said.

The move could complicate the around 7 trillion yen ($45 billion) buyout offer by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc toward Seven & i.

The Seven & i founding family, which anticipates a management buyout worth 9 trillion yen, has also contacted some banks and investment funds, according to the sources.

Alimentation Couche-Tard, the operator of Circle K convenience stores, has raised its buyout offer from the initial offer of around 6 trillion yen.

With its possible participation, Itochu may expect some synergies between FamilyMart and Seven-Eleven, two of the leading convenience store chains in Japan.

But it could also cause antitrust issues because of their dominance in the industry, and Itochu may need to keep its investment ratio low, the sources said.
 

 

Japan's antitrust watchdog conducted an on-site investigation of the Japanese unit of Amazon.com Inc. on Tuesday for allegedly forcing retailers to cut prices of products sold on its online shopping website, sources close to the matter said.

Amazon Japan G.K. is alleged to have violated the antimonopoly law by forcing retailers to reduce prices in return for displaying their products in the most visible positions for users of its platform, with the involvement of its U.S. headquarters also suspected.

The move comes as U.S. and European antitrust authorities are reported to have ramped up their probes into the tech giant over suspicions of pressuring third-party sellers inappropriately by taking advantage of its dominant position.

The Amazon e-commerce site has a "marketplace" for outside retailers to sell their products in addition to selling its own goods. Vendors recommended by Amazon will be displayed in the designated area, which can be easily found by users.

Amazon requires retailers who wish to appear in the area to "sell products at competitive prices," and is suspected of threatening to withdraw their products if they refuse to lower prices below those of rival online shopping platforms, the sources said.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission considers such acts as breaching the antimonopoly law prohibiting companies from abusing their power based on their dominant bargaining position and conducting transactions with restrictive terms.

The watchdog is expected to seek information from retailers about their transactions with Amazon in the near future, the sources said.

Amazon Japan was also probed by the watchdog for violating the antitrust law in 2016 and 2018.
 

 

Marriott has strong growth momentum in Japan, and has just opened its 100th hotel in the country, under it Four Points Flex conversion brand.

​​Marriott International has opened its first Four Points Flex branded hotel in Asia Pacific, also marking the group’s 100th hotel in Japan.

Four Points Flex by Sheraton Osaka Umeda is the hotel that has marked the two milestones in the group’s international expansion across the region.

The hotel is the first of 14 Japanese properties that will convert to the brand, after Marriott signed an agreement with portfolio owner and global investor KKR.



Swift conversions to the Marriott family

By mid 2025, all of the hotels are expected to have converted, adding more than 3,600 rooms to Marriott’s offering in Japan. The Four Points Flex brand will pop up in key destination cities and towns across the country including Hakodate, Utsunomiya, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Hakata.

KKR acquired the hotels in 2023, after the company took over Japanese hospitality business Unizo, lifting it out of bankruptcy. KKR opted to add international branding to the assets, in a bid to improve their trading performance, and also to attract more international travellers as Japan’s tourism volume rebuilds strongly after the pandemic.

Four Points Flex by Sheraton was developed by Marriott as a brand designed for hotels that want to convert quickly and economically to the Marriott family.

Its lower conversion cost, and more flexible brand standards, make for swifter refurbishments, benefiting owners who can start to trade within the Marriott Convoy ecosystem without major downtime.

The brand is proving a hit internationally. In Europe, the first Four Points by Sheraton Flex was delivered in London, with owner Splendid Hospitality converting a 201 room property in the city’s Euston district. Early signings also included two hotels in Turkey, with commitments for conversions in Antalya and Bursa.

Building on this momentum, Marriott recently signed portfolio deals in Denmark and in the UK, immediately adding a strong presence.

An agreement with Danish operator Core Hospitality will see 14 hotels there switch from the Zleep brand over the coming months. And in the UK, new partner Resident Hotels will initially convert its four Sleeperz branded hotels to Flex, while looking for other opportunities to grow the relationship with Marriott in the UK.


A strong momentum in Japan

For Marriott, the Japanese additions build on a strong momentum the company already has in the country.

In an agreement with local company HMI Group, four of that company’s hotels are switching their branding to Marriott, with three more becoming Courtyard by Marriott properties.

Partnership agreements across Japan have also seen Marriott roll out a series of Fairfield by Marriott hotels across the country, designed to appeal to travellers visiting the country’s unique geography.

And the company has not forgotten its luxury brands. In 2025, it will open a 200 room JW Marriott hotel in Tokyo, underlining the breadth of the group’s hospitality offerings
 
 

At a press conference held after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya expressed his displeasure at the committee’s report that recommended the law be amended.

The reverberations from a U.N. committee’s recommendation that the Japanese government amend the Imperial House Law show no sign of abating.

The recommendation by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women showed a clear lack of understanding about Japan’s Imperial system, and the government is concerned that this could spread the misperception that the law entails discrimination against women.

There is a growing view, both in Japan and overseas, that bias and other problems blight the way the United Nations deals with human rights issues.
At a press conference held after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya expressed his displeasure at the committee’s report that recommended the law be amended.

“It is not appropriate for the committee to raise this issue in relation to the Imperial House Law,” Iwaya said. “We will continue to request the deletion of the recommendation.” Iwaya added that the committee raising this issue was “unacceptable for Japan.”

In its report issued on Oct. 29, the committee recommended the law, which stipulates the Chrysanthemum Throne shall be “succeeded to by a male offspring in the male line belonging to the Imperial Lineage,” be amended to “guarantee equality of women and men in the succession to the throne.”

The committee did not accept Japanese government requests to have the reference to the law deleted. This refusal continues to rankle many government officials.

On Oct. 17, the committee held a meeting at the U.N. Office in Geneva to consider the report on Japan’s situation regarding efforts to tackle discrimination against women.

When a committee member asked about the possibility of amending the Imperial House Law, a representative of the Japanese delegation replied that succession to the throne was a “matter related to the foundation of the state” and that it was “not appropriate” for the committee to raise the issue.

However, the committee side did not budge from its position that it had a mandate to raise questions on “any aspects related to the issue of equal women’s rights.”

The committee spent a day discussing and examining issues including allowing married couples to choose to use different surnames, but this was the only exchange on the Imperial House Law.



Inclusion predetermined?

Before issuing recommendations, the committee sends questions to the governments of its member nations on the status of efforts to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

In addition to answers submitted by the government, the committee receives opinions and other information from nongovernmental organizations and other entities in various fields. The committee then conducts in-person meetings to examine the issues raised, before compiling and issuing its recommendations.

A committee member from Nepal played a central role in examining Japan’s situation. Japanese private organizations also submitted opinion papers that claimed the Imperial House Law discriminated against women.

However, there has been no announcement of what discussions took place internally, and it remains unclear to what extent the committee took Japan’s history and traditions into account when compiling its latest recommendation.

The committee also attempted to include a recommendation to change this law in the previous report in 2016. However, the Japanese government objected and the issue was ultimately deleted from the final draft.

“I got the impression that including that issue in the latest recommendation was partly predetermined,” a government source said.

Article 1 of Japan’s Constitution stipulates that the Emperor shall be the symbol “of the unity of the people,” and he derives his position “from the will of the people.”

The government’s position is that eligibility for succession to the throne is not a fundamental human right, so the limitation of eligibility to male offspring in the male line “does not constitute discrimination against women.”

“Succession to the throne through male offspring in the male line is a tradition of our nation’s Imperial household,” said Akira Momochi, a professor emeritus at Kokushikan University and an expert on the Imperial household system and constitutional law.

“It’s a mistake to link this to gender equality and women’s human rights. This interference by an international institution is intolerable.”

The committee was established in 1982 based on the convention, which the U.N. General Assembly adopted in 1979. Composed of 23 lawyers and human rights experts, the organization monitors implementation of the convention. A Spanish woman currently chairs the committee.

Asia University Prof. Hiroko Akizuki is a committee member, but she did not participate in the latest review of Japan.


‘Bias’ in activities

Dealing with human rights issues is a major pillar of U.N. activities. The committee’s recommendations are not legally binding, but content that is not based on facts also could become widely accepted in the international community as the “perception of the United Nations.”

In 1996, the U.N. Human Rights Commission (now the U.N. Human Rights Council) adopted the Coomaraswamy Report that erroneously claimed comfort women were “sex slaves” who had been forcibly taken away by the former Japanese military.

The Japanese government’s position was that documents indicating the women had been taken against their will could not be found, and it was forced to engage in efforts to widely share a correct historical understanding.

The Heritage Foundation, a U.S. think tank, has issued a report that suggested there was “bias” in the council’s activities and called for the entity to be reformed.

“It is possible that the United Nations is being manipulated by foreign countries and groups championing specific assertions,” a Foreign Ministry source told The Yomiuri Shimbun.

A review of Japan’s situation is conducted every few years. If the current situation remains as it is, a similar recommendation on the Imperial House Law could be brought up in the next review.


Money’s influence

Some observers have said that the neutrality and fairness of decisions and operations of U.N. bodies has been compromised in some cases. U.N.

funding relies on voluntary contributions that individual member states make at their own discretion, rather than on assessed contributions determined by factors such as the size of a nation’s economy.

Consequently, U.N. activities could possibly reflect the wishes of China and the United States, which provide significant voluntary contributions.

In 2015, UNESCO added documents relating to the 1937 Nanjing Incident, which China submitted as “Documents of Nanjing Massacre,” to its Memory of the World register.

These documents included inflated victim numbers far beyond the reality of what happened. Some observers have suggested China’s increased voluntary contributions to UNESCO and its dispatch of high-ranking officials to top posts influenced the decision to register these documents.
 
 

Japan's Nikkei share average ended higher on Monday as local investors found comfort from recent U.S. data that signalled strong business activity in the world's largest economy.

A measure of U.S. business activity raced to a 31-month high in November, boosted by hopes for lower interest rates and more business-friendly policies from President-elect Donald Trump's administration next year.

The Nikkei rose 1.3% to close at 38,780.14 on Monday. The index touched an intraday high of 39,053.64, crossing the 39,000 level for the first time since Nov. 15.

The broader Topix gained 0.71% to 2,715.6.

"Overseas factors are important for Japanese stocks now as we have not seen much market-moving catalysts within Japan," said Fumio Matsumoto, chief strategist at Okasan Securities.

Wall Street closed higher on Friday, with all three major indexes posting weekly gains, following the release of the business data.

"But the gains of the Nikkei were capped on concerns about the possible impact of the Republican President-elect Donald Trump's policy on Japanese exporters," Matsumoto said.

Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing jumped 3.5% to give the biggest boost to the Nikkei index.

Shares of chip-making equipment maker Tokyo Electron gained 3.9% and tech start-up investor SoftBank Group added 3.3%.

Keisei Electric Railway and Keikyu surged 13.83% and 11.07%, respectively, after local media reported an activist investor group was increasing its stakes in both railway operators.

Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest slipped 2.3% to weigh the most in the Nikkei. Phone company KDDI fell 1.35%.

Of the over 1,600 stocks on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's prime market, 45% rose, 50% fell and 4% were flat.

Of the 225 stocks in the Nikkei, 143 rose, 79 fell, and three were trading flat.
 
 

Mitsuoka Motor Co. has announced the launch of its M55 concept car with a limited run of just 100 units.

The Toyama-based automaker began accepting orders Friday. The new model is intended to attract middle-aged and older customers with its retro design that evokes the image of Japanese cars from the 1970s.

Based on the Civic made by Honda Motor Co., the M55 has a 1.5-liter engine and a 6-speed manual transmission. Its leather seats create a luxurious atmosphere. Mitsuoka Motor also plans to consider releasing a hybrid version.

The M55 was initially unveiled by Mitsuoka Motor as a concept car commemorating the 55th anniversary of its founding. As the car was well-received, the company decided to go ahead with production.

The model is priced at ¥8.08 million including tax. Orders will be accepted at about 30 dealerships nationwide until Jan. 19. The company plans to only take orders from 350 customers, after which buyers will be selected by lottery.

Mitsuoka Motor is also known as a coachbuilder that remodels the exteriors and interiors of vehicles made by other automakers and sells the revamped cars under its own name.
 
 

Japan has started devising a strategy to strengthen its defense industry and promote exports of equipment, hoping to lay out medium to long-term goals for a sector that has struggled with small market scale and other challenges, government sources said Friday.

The so-called national defense industry strategy may be compiled next year. The planning will involve not only the Defense Ministry but also others such as the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, making the process different from the strategy the Defense Ministry came up with in 2014 on defense production and technological bases.

The new strategy is expected to encourage collaboration among businesses, government and academia by showing the future direction of the necessary technology and production bases, according to the sources.

The move is in line with the 2022 National Security Strategy, which pledged to advance defense production and technology bases, describing them as "defense capabilities themselves."

In the document, which was updated amid the security challenges posed by China and North Korea, the government also said the transfer of defense equipment and technology is "a key policy instrument" to create a "desirable" security environment for Japan and to provide assistance to countries facing the fear of the use of force.

Based on long-term policy guidelines, Japan has gradually eased its strict rules on defense equipment transfers, which had been maintained under its war-renouncing Constitution.

The government's focus on reinvigorating the domestic defense industrial base is a boon for the sector, which has faced low profitability with sales channels limited to the Self-Defense Forces as well as a series of withdrawals from smaller companies.

To forge the new national defense industry strategy, the government also plans to set up a panel of experts to look into issues such as which industrial fields and technologies should be maintained and strengthened, and resilient supply chains should be built, according to the sources.

The strategy is expected to be revised every five years.

Major global powers have renewed their awareness of the importance of the resilience of their defense industries amid Russia's prolonged full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has underscored the importance of weapons and ammunition supplies.

In January, the United States released its first Defense Industrial Strategy, which laid out long-term priorities to shore up its industrial base amid the military buildup seen by its adversaries.

The European Union also announced in March its first-ever defense industrial strategy, setting goals such as procuring at least 40 percent of its necessary defense equipment in a "collaborative manner" by 2030.
 
 

YOTEL debuts in Japan with its Tokyo Ginza hotel, blending smart design, tech-driven features, and modern luxury in the heart of Tokyo’s iconic district.

YOTEL Tokyo Ginza is set to debut this December, marking the brand’s first entry into Japan and further strengthening its presence in Asia.

Strategically located in the heart of Ginza, the flagship hotel is just a 15-minute stroll from Tokyo Station, a major transportation hub offering bullet train connections to cities across Japan, as well as direct links to Narita International Airport.

The hotel boasts a variety of rooms, each featuring YOTEL’s signature amenities, including SmartBeds, high-speed Wi-Fi, wireless charging, rain showers, and floor-to-ceiling windows with sweeping views of Tokyo.

Guests can enjoy modern conveniences such as three self-service kiosks, a 24-hour gym, and dining at Komyuniti, an all-day restaurant concept.

Adding to the futuristic experience, a robotic team will handle tasks like delivering water and towels to rooms. The hotel’s public areas will also showcase artwork by local talent Mio Fukukawa.

This opening marks YOTEL’s third location in Asia, as well as its first venture into Japan.

Founded by Simon Woodroffe OBE, the visionary behind the YO! brand, YOTEL was inspired by the luxury and efficiency of first-class travel, offering compact yet thoughtfully designed spaces that redefine urban hospitality.
 
 

The Japan External Trade Organization, or JETRO, along with the Japanese government and others, has drawn up guidelines on how to apply for wagyu beef made in Japan to be labeled as “wagyu” in the United States, Jiji Press has learned.

U.S. food labeling rules require applications to label beef and other brands. Unaware of the rules, Japanese operators exported wagyu-labeled products, only to be ordered by U.S. authorities to remove the label in 2022. Since then, exports of beef labeled as such from Japan have been suspended.

The JETRO move comes as wagyu beef is not necessarily recognized as being of Japanese origin in the United States, where such beef produced domestically and in Australia is spreading.

According to the organization, 55 pct of wagyu-labeled beef sold in the United States in 2020 was produced domestically, and 40 pct was imported from Australia. Such beef from Japan accounted for only 5%.

Meanwhile, high-end wagyu products from Japan are sold at prices about 2.5 times those of U.S. and Australian wagyu, according to Japan’s Agriculture and Livestock Industries Corp.

While restaurant operators in the United States are allowed to offer unlabeled Japanese beef as wagyu from the Asian country, a JETRO official stressed, “Labeling leads to credibility.”
 

 

Mori Building Co Ltd, Japan's leading urban landscape developer, announced Friday that its U.S. subsidiary Mori Building (U.S.A.) LLC has acquired a stake in the One Vanderbilt from SL Green Realty Corp, New York City’s largest office landlord.

 One Vanderbilt opened in 2020 as a striking addition to the Manhattan skyline. Its prime location at the intersection of 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue is in the heart of the Midtown business district, the epicenter of the city's economic and cultural activity and home to numerous international financial institutions.

The building is directly connected to Grand Central Terminal, a major transportation hub in New York City.

 The 59-story, 430-meter tower was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), the renowned architectural firm that designed Tokyo’s iconic Roppongi Hills Mori Tower and other notable structures.

With a total rental floor area of 142,000 m2, One Vanderbilt combines office, commercial and dining space, including a Michelin-starred restaurant.

A standout feature is the glass-and-mirrored SUMMIT One Vanderbilt observation deck, which attracts a steady stream of tourists with its breathtaking views of the city.
 
 

  
 
Japan’s minority government was expected Friday to approve a $140-billion stimulus drive aimed at putting more money in consumers’ pockets after the ruling party’s worst election result in 15 years.

The October 27 contest saw voters -- angry over corruption in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and inflation -- deprive new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s coalition of a majority in parliament’s lower house.
 
Before a cabinet meeting on Friday morning, Ishiba was quoted by local media as saying the package would be approved later in the day.

The 22-trillion-yen stimulus bundle includes energy and fuel subsidies as well as cash handouts for low-income households in the world’s fourth-biggest economy, according to the media.

The overall impact of the package, set to go before parliament at a later date, is projected to be worth 39 trillion yen when including loans and private-sector investment, the reports said.

Ishiba’s cabinet plans to formalise the measures on Friday and push a supplementary budget to pay for them through parliament by the end of the year, Kyodo News said.

To win enough lawmakers’ support, Ishiba agreed to include the lifting of an income tax threshold pushed by the opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP).

The smaller party says this will ease labour shortages and boost consumer spending by encouraging part-time staff to work longer hours and earn more.

But critics worry that this will reduce tax revenues by trillions of yen, leaving major holes in the national and local budgets.

Japan already has one of the world’s biggest ratios of national debt to output, with state spending predicted to balloon as its population ages and it struggles to find workers.


- ‘Quiet emergency’ -

Tax cuts “must be accompanied by a permanent source of revenue to fill the gap”, said SMBC Nikko Securities economist Yoshimasa Maruyama.
“Excessive” loosening of fiscal discipline would lead to higher interest rates in the financial markets, Maruyama said in a research note.

The package comes a year after Ishiba’s predecessor Fumio Kishida, who resigned earlier this year, announced a stimulus package worth 17 trillion yen ($113 billion at the time).

Ishiba, 67, has promised to revitalise depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s shrinking population with measures to support families such as flexible working hours.

Going forward, businesses worry that the need to curry favour with opposition parties means Ishiba will avoid reforms needed to improve Japan’s competitiveness.

There are also concerns that the government may pressure the Bank of Japan to go slow on raising interest rates, even if this leads to a weaker yen.

The BoJ ditched negative interest rates in March, lifting borrowing costs for the first time since 2007 and then again in July. Another hike may come next month.

Government data showed Friday that inflation in Japan slowed slightly in October, with prices excluding volatile fresh food rising 2.3 percent year-on-year.

Rice prices rocketed nearly 60 percent, with lower harvests caused by hot weather and water shortages, as well as increased demand after a warning of a “megaquake” in August led to empty shelves in some areas.

Separately, Ishiba has promised to spend 10 trillion yen through 2030 to boost Japan’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors and help the nation regain its tech edge.

The new stimulus package may include plans for the government to buy a 200-billion-yen stake in next-generation chip venture Rapidus, according to media reports.

After dominating tech in the 1980s, “Japan had a quite a long period of almost just sitting back and observing a lot of this innovation, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence”, said Kelly Forbes at the AI Asia Pacific Institute.

“What we have seen in the last maybe two to three years is Japan really waking up to the potential” of such developments, she told AFP.
 
 

Japan's core consumer prices in October climbed 2.3 percent from a year earlier, increasing at a slower pace for the second straight month as government subsidies curbed a rise in energy bills, government data showed Friday.

The increase in the nationwide core consumer price index, excluding volatile fresh food, followed a 2.4 percent rise in September and 2.8 percent increase in August.

The inflation rate has remained at or above the Bank of Japan's 2 percent target since April 2022.

The core-core CPI, which strips away both energy and fresh food and shows underlying price trends, was up 2.3 percent, accelerating from a 2.1 percent gain in the previous month, data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed.

"Excluding the effects of the government subsidies, the data likely suggest underlying inflation is persistent," said Koichi Fujishiro, senior economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, adding that the latest data will encourage the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates when the time is right.

BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda has said the central bank will hike its policy rate from the current around 0.25 percent if prices and the economy grow in line with its expectations.

Energy prices gained 2.3 percent, down from a 6.0 percent expansion in September, according to the ministry data.

Among other major items, prices for food climbed 3.8 percent, accelerating from a 3.1 percent rise in the previous month following a historic increase in rice prices.

The price of rice surged 58.9 percent, the biggest increase since comparable data became available in 1971, after last year's unusually hot summer reduced the previous season's harvest and farmers passed on increased costs to consumers for new rice.

The overall rise in consumer prices also came as many companies raised their prices in October, the start of the second half of the fiscal year in Japan.

Chocolate prices rose 19.3 percent, while prices of earthquake and fire insurances saw a 7.0 percent increase.

Service prices, one of the indicators the BOJ is closely monitoring in deciding its monetary policy as it often reflects a rise in wages, rose 1.5 percent, up from 1.3 percent growth in September.
 

 

A Joint Venture, which comprises Tokyo Metro Co., Sumitomo Corp. and a major U.K. passenger transport provider, will be entrusted to operate the Elizabeth line from May 2025, Transport for London announced on Tuesday.

It will be the first time Tokyo Metro takes on the operation of a line outside its own network. The contract will be for seven years and may be extended a further two.

Named after Queen Elizabeth, the Elizabeth line began its service in May 2022.

The line crosses the city of London from east to west, connecting Heathrow Airport with the city center and carrying more than 700,000 passengers every day.
 
 

Forty years after its founding, Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo has more than 2,500 stores worldwide. Sales at its parent company, Fast Retailing Co, recently topped 3 trillion yen annually for the first time.

The name Uniqlo comes from joining the words for “unique” and “clothing.” The chain’s basic concept is “LifeWear,” or everyday clothing. Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co Chief Executive Tadashi Yanai, ranked by Forbes as Japan’s richest man and estimated to be worth $48 billion, spoke recently to The Associated Press at the company’s Tokyo headquarters.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.


What were the biggest challenges over the past 40 years?

Actually 40 years, upon reflection, went by so fast they feel more like three years. You know what they say in Japan: Time flies like an arrow. I started a regional business, then expanded nationwide.

When we became No. 2 or No. 3 in Japan’s casual wear, and being No. 1 was right within reach, we became a listed company in 1994. That was followed by our fleece boom, which doubled our revenue in one year to 400 billion yen.

I’d been thinking about going global when our revenue reached 300 billion yen so we opened 50 stores in Great Britain, hoping to be a winner there just like we had conquered Japan.

Instead, we got totally knocked out.

We opened 21 outlets in a year and a half, but had to close 16 of them, leaving just five. We didn’t succeed as we had hoped. This is not an easy job. It’s very tough.

But these days, our sales are strongest in London, and also Paris. We made progress gradually.


What are some of the sustainability and other key issues you have faced over the years?

We make clothes that last a long time. Not just clothes that last for one season.

The cashmere sweater I’m wearing today is $99. But please don’t say “cheap.” Please call it “reasonable.” We sell quality products at reasonable prices.

We’ve done various sustainability efforts, and we talk only about what we have really achieved.

Sustainability is crucial to our operations. And we’ve done just about everything — recycling, employing the disabled, support for refugees.

The prices may be cheaper at Wal-Mart, but our products offer real quality for the price. We take the greatest care and time, and involve a lot of people. Our rivals are more careless.


What is behind Uniqlo’s success and what resonated with global buyers?

When we say Uniqlo is “made for all,” one might imagine products for the masses, like what’s at a Wal-Mart or a Target.

But what we mean is a high-quality product that appeals to all people, including the extremely rich, not only those with sophisticated taste and intelligence, but also people who don’t know that much about clothes, and the design is fine-tuned, the material fine quality, and sustainability concerns have been addressed.

We were first a retailer, then a manufacturer-cum-retailer. Now we are a digital consumer retailer. That is why we are successful. If we had stayed the same, then we can’t hope to succeed.

Being a digital consumer retail company means we utilize information at a high level to shape the way we do our work. We gain information about our customers, the workers at the store, the market, all that information.

Changing daily is the only way we can hope for stable growth. The world is changing every day.


Are you confident you can keep it up another 40 years?

Of course. We’ve been preparing to reach 3 trillion yen revenue all these years. And we are finally starting to be known. But we still have a long way to go.

We are just getting started, and we are going to keep growing. There is more potential for growth in Europe and the U.S., as well as China and India, given the 1.4 billion population in each country. Clothing is a necessity, so population size is key.
 
 

Indonesia and Japan have agreed to push the ratification of the Protocol to Amend the Indonesia–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) so that it can be implemented in 2025.

This was discussed during a bilateral meeting between Indonesian Trade Minister Budi Santoso and Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan, Yoji Muto, on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders' Week 2024 in Peru on Thursday.

"At this bilateral meeting, both countries agreed to push for the completion of the ratification of the IJEPA amendment protocol. The ratification process is currently underway in both countries with an implementation target of 2025," Santoso informed in a statement issued on Friday.

The Protocol to Amend the IJEPA is an amendment and enhancement of the IJEPA commitment that has been in effect since 2008.

The Protocol to Amend the IJEPA includes chapters on Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Trade Through Electronic Systems (E-Commerce), Movement of Natural Persons (MNP), Cooperation, Intellectual Property, and Government's Goods and Services Procurement.

"Indonesia is hoping for good cooperation and collaboration with Japan for the co-chairmanship of RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) in 2025," he said.

He noted that the RCEP Support Unit (RSU) at the ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta, will be inaugurated on December 9, 2024.

He expressed the hope that the implementation of RCEP can be made more effective and efficient to contribute to economic integration in the region.

Next year, Japan will hold the World Expo 2025 Osaka. Santoso said that Indonesia welcomes the implementation of the Osaka expo and will participate in it through the Indonesian Pavilion.

He also called upon all APEC economies to support multilateral trade and ensure its inclusiveness.

 

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda underscored Monday that raising interest rates would be essential to prevent sharp inflation and ensure long-term economic growth, in remarks that could fuel market expectations the central bank is close to another rate hike.

The BOJ will continue to raise its policy rate if the economy and prices move in line with expectations, Ueda said in a speech, adding it is also closely monitoring the weakening yen. The Japanese currency has been under pressure after Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election triggered a rally in the dollar.

His remarks came amid speculation that the bank may lift borrowing costs as early as December, although Ueda said the BOJ will make policy decisions at each meeting based on its latest assessment and outlook for economic and price activities.

"I think that gradually adjusting the degree of accommodation in line with the improvement in economic activity and prices will support long-term economic growth and contribute to achieving the price stability target in a sustainable and stable manner," he told business leaders in the central Japan city of Nagoya.

If such adjustments are not made, inflation could possibly accelerate rapidly at some point in the future and force the BOJ to raise interest rates sharply, Ueda warned at a press conference later in the day.

On the timing of further increasing the policy rate from the current level of around 0.25 percent, Ueda said the bank also needs to carefully monitor the U.S. and other overseas economies.

The governor pointed out that it has become more likely that the U.S. economy will achieve a soft landing given recent solid economic data, but also noted the possibility of "a resurgence of inflation" as a result of future economic developments and policy conduct.

The U.S. dollar has been strengthening against the yen recently amid speculation that policies proposed by Trump would increase inflation and keep interest rates elevated.

At the press conference, the BOJ chief admitted the yen's depreciation has negatively impacted households and some companies and said the central bank has been paying close attention to economic factors influencing foreign exchange movements.

On domestic economic indicators, the governor said he has seen "some progress," pointing out wages are rising as companies are passing on increased labor costs via higher service prices.

Ueda said that underlying inflation, excluding short-term fluctuations such as a rise in import prices, still remains below the bank's goal of 2 percent, but it is expected to continue to rise gradually, helped by a rise in wages.

"Inflationary pressure stemming from wage increases is projected to strengthen as an improvement in economic activity and solid growth in wages continue," he said in the meeting with local business leaders.

The BOJ ended its negative rate policy in March with the first rate hike in 17 years, followed by another increase in July. It kept its policy rate unchanged at the September and October meetings.

The BOJ expects prices to rise 2.5 percent for the current fiscal year ending March and 1.9 percent for fiscal 2025 and 2026, below the bank's price stability goal of 2 percent, according to its latest outlook on economy and prices released in October.
 

 

Japan’s economy expanded by an annualised 0.9% over the July-September quarter, government data showed on Friday, slowing from the previous three months due to tepid capital spending.

The slower growth data highlights Japan’s frail economic recovery, as domestic demand has not fully picked up while a growing risk of a slowdown in the U.S. and further weakness in China’s economy could weigh on exports ahead.

The increase in gross domestic product compared with a median market estimate of a 0.7% gain, and followed a revised 2.2% growth in the previous quarter, the data showed.

The reading translates into a quarterly rise of 0.2%, versus a 0.2% increase expected by economists in a Reuters poll.

Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of the economic output, rose 0.9%, compared with a market estimate of a 0.2% increase.

It picked up slightly from the revised 0.7% rise of the previous quarter, indicating that rising wages are prompting households to spend more.

Capital spending, a key driver of private demand-led growth, fell 0.2% in the third quarter, matching a decrease of 0.2% in the Reuters poll.

Net external demand, or exports minus imports, knocked 0.4 point off growth, reversing a 0.1 point negative contribution in the April-June period.

The Bank of Japan maintained ultra-low interest rates last month and said risks around the U.S. economy were somewhat subsiding, signalling that conditions are becoming conducive to raise interest rates again.
 

 

The Japanese owner of 7-Eleven is considering going private by buying back its own shares in a bid to avoid a takeover by Canadian rival Couche-Tard, reports said on Wednesday.

Seven & i Holdings is eyeing the move as a countermeasure to Circle K owner Alimentation Couche-Tard's seven trillion yen takeover proposal, the Nikkei business daily said.

The takeover, if realized, would be the biggest ever foreign buyout of a Japanese firm.

With around 85,000 outlets worldwide, 7-Eleven is the world's biggest convenience store chain. Around a quarter of those are in Japan, where the stores are a cherished one-stop shop for everything from rice balls to concert tickets.

Bloomberg News also reported Wednesday that Seven & i was considering a management buyout, or MBO, worth up to nine trillion yen -- above its market cap of 5.7 trillion yen.

A Seven & i spokesman told AFP there was "nothing for public release at this point".

The 7-Eleven franchise began in the United States, but it has been wholly owned by Seven & i since 2005.

Meanwhile, Couche-Tard, which began with one store in Canada's city of Laval in 1980, now runs nearly 17,000 convenience store outlets worldwide.

The Nikkei, citing sources close to Seven & i, said the company had begun talks with financial institutions to procure the necessary resources to buy its own shares.

But it said potential obstacles could include whether the banks would agree to the huge loans required, and also whether Seven & i's founding family would support the plan.

In September, Seven & i rejected an initial takeover offer from Couche-Tard, saying it "grossly" undervalued its business and could face regulatory hurdles.

Then the group said last month it had received a revised offer that reportedly totaled around seven trillion yen.

To boost its share price and fend off Couche-Tard, Seven & i has also announced a major restructuring, including plans to spin off its non-core businesses.

To allow it to focus on 7-Eleven, its new holding company will comprise its supermarket food business, speciality stores and other businesses.
 
 

Measures for economic growth to increase wages and income, as well as ones to deal with rising prices, will be pillars of the government’s comprehensive economic measures to be compiled by the end of the month, according to a draft obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun.

The draft stipulates more than ¥10 trillion in support for the artificial intelligence and semiconductor sectors, as well as the distribution of benefits to households that are exempt from residential taxation.

The draft names three primary goals: national and regional economic growth; overcoming high prices; and ensuring the safety and security of the public.

Regarding economic growth, the draft states the government’s intention to create a framework for strengthening the foundations of the AI and semiconductor industries; at least ¥10 trillion worth of public support will be provided through this framework over multiple fiscal years in the form of subsidies, financial support and other assistance.

The draft says the measure will stimulate public and private investment in the sectors, which are expected to exceed ¥50 trillion over the next 10 years.

The draft also calls for discussions to be held between the government, labor and management at an early stage with the aim of raising minimum wages across the country to an average of ¥1,500 per hour before the end of the 2020s.

According to the draft, among households that are exempt from residential taxation, those which are raising children will receive increased benefits corresponding to the number of children they have.

The government is also looking to quickly reinstate a measure to reduce burden of electricity and gas bills which expired at the end of October.

As for ensuring the safety and security of the public, the draft includes measures to improve living conditions at evacuation centers, which are opened when a disaster strikes.

Measures to deal with the problem of so-called “dark part-time jobs” — through which people have been recruited for robberies and fraud on social media — are also part of the draft, including support for efforts to strengthen local crime prevention capabilities.

The Democratic Party for the People has been calling for a review of the so-called ¥1.03 million barrier, the annual income threshold above which income tax is incurred, among other things, but there was no mention of them in the draft, since concrete measures regarding the issue still have to be discussed with the DPFP.
 
 

Honda Motor Co plans to end production of its iconic Super Cub 50 motorcycle in May 2025 ahead of the introduction of stricter vehicle emissions standards in Japan later that year.

Honda will begin selling the "Final Edition" model of the 50 cc engine motorcycle on Dec 12 at a suggested retail price of 297,000 yen.

The company plans to take orders until Nov 24 and sell 2,000 units, but it could extend the ordering period depending on demand, according to officials.

Production of its Super Cub 110 motorcycle with a 110 cc engine will continue.

Honda, which holds the largest market share of motorcycles with 50 cc or smaller engines, has decided it would be difficult to keep the motorbikes at an affordable price point should the company implement changes necessary to have it comply with new regulations scheduled to take effect in November 2025.

The automaker launched the Super Cub series in 1958 and has since manufactured over 100 million units to make it the most-produced motorcycle in the world.

However, its sales have dwindled in recent years due to the rise in demand for electric bicycles and scooters.

Honda also plans to end production of other motorcycles with 50 cc or smaller engines by October 2025 and will instead increase production of electric scooters.
 

 

Sony's net profit jumped in the second quarter thanks to stronger sales in gaming, music and imaging sensors, the PlayStation maker said Friday but left its annual profit forecasts unchanged.

The yen's weakness against the dollar and euro had a positive impact on takings in those key sectors, the Japanese conglomerate added.

However, Sony Pictures suffered from "lower series deliveries in Television Productions, in part due to production delays related to the strikes in Hollywood".

For the three months from July to September, Sony logged net profit of 338.5 billion yen, up 69 percent from 200.1 billion yen in the same period a year ago.

It still forecasts a full-year net profit of 980 billion yen.
The company also maintained its operating profit outlook, but revised its sales forecast upwards slightly.

Sony's earnings release comes a day after its PlayStation 5 Pro console hit shelves, with a price tag that has raised eyebrows among gamers.

In Europe the device costs an eye-watering 799.99 euros ($860) -- 250 euros higher than the older version -- and almost 120,000 yen ($780) in Sony's home market of Japan.

Yet Sony is not the only tech company making consumers fork out for their latest devices, and growing sticker shocks in the tech industry have yet to deter consumers.

The company said Friday that an increase in sales for imaging sensors -- used in phone cameras -- as well as the "positive impact of foreign exchange rates" contributed to growth in the operating profit for that segment.

The yen hit a four-decade low against the dollar in July, having plunged in value since early 2022.

Music streaming is also a money-spinner for Sony, which has an impressive back catalogue and whose current roster includes top artists such as Beyonce and Lil Nas X.

According to recent reports in Variety and the Financial Times, citing sources, British rockers Pink Floyd have agreed to sell their recorded music and name-and-likeness rights to Sony Music for around $400 million.
 


 

Nippon Steel Corp hopes to complete its planned acquisition of United States Steel Corp by the end of the year, before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, an executive said.

"We are now in a position to make measured discussions," Nippon Steel Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President Takahiro Mori told a press conference. "Make no mistake, we can close this deal within the year" ahead of Trump's January inauguration, he added.

Both Trump, who claimed victory and a nonconsecutive second term as president in Wednesday's election, and outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden have said they would block the takeover of the iconic American firm by Japan's largest steelmaker.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment is reviewing the proposed acquisition until late December.

Mori said the review process was going "smoothly."

But even if the Biden administration had approved of the takeover, a possibility remained of a government under Trump overturning it.

"The previous Trump administration said it would attract foreign investment and create new jobs," Mori said. "This (acquisition) is extremely in line with such a policy."


© KYODO
 
 

Japanese auto giant Toyota kept its annual net profit forecast unchanged on Wednesday, despite logging a 26 percent drop for the first half of this financial year.

The world's top-selling automaker said unit sales were hit by production cuts in its home market, related to a failure to fully comply with vehicle inspection standards.

In April to September, Toyota reported net profit of 1.9 trillion yen, down from 2.6 trillion in the same period a year ago.

Although its second-quarter earnings were far lower than analyst expectations, the company still forecasts full-year net profit of 3.57 trillion yen.

"We will strive to maintain and strengthen our earning power," it said in a statement.

Chief Financial Officer Yoichi Miyazaki said a boost to global production would help the company catch up.

"Our Indiana plant in the United States, which had been partially shut down, resumed operations last month and we will return to a production pace of 10 million vehicles per year globally," he said.

Unit sales fell four percent in the first half of 2024-25, partly "due to the impact of halting production to address certification issues", the company said.

In June, the Japanese government told Toyota and its rivals Honda, Mazda, Suzuki and Yamaha to stop delivering certain vehicle models domestically because of these irregularities.

The automakers insisted that the quality of their vehicles was not in question, arguing that their own testing was in some cases stricter than the official standards.

Miyazaki said Toyota had taken time to rethink its approach so the group can "prioritise safety and quality".

Toyota also said Wednesday that fluctuations in the value of the yen had caused "valuation losses in foreign currency-denominated assets".
But this factor "does not indicate an actual deterioration in business", the automaker said.

In fact at the same time "the effects of foreign exchange rates, cost reduction efforts, and marketing efforts increased operating income", it added.
Toyota lowered its annual group production outlook to 10.85 million vehicles from the previous target of 10.95 million.

The company had reported record bumper results last year, driven by strong sales of hybrid vehicles -- which combine internal combustion engines and batteries -- an area that Toyota pioneered with the Prius.



© 2024 AFP
 
 

Nintendo Co. said Wednesday that the successor to its Nintendo Switch flagship game console will be compatible with existing Switch games.
Nintendo Switch Online, a paid service, will be also available on the successor console, the company said.

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa made the announcement during an online management policy briefing.

Nintendo has sold more than 1.3 billion game units for the Switch as of the end of September since its launch in 2017. This is the highest number of sales among the company’s game consoles.

Nintendo Switch Online — which allows users to save their game data, play online with others and access retro games — has more than 34 million subscribers.

“We’ve concluded that it would be best that the existing games be playable on the successor console,” Furukawa said.

The company is scheduled to make a formal announcement about the successor console by March next year. Furukawa stopped short of providing the details of the successor, only stating, “We will give you more information at a later date.”
 
 

Japan stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Glass, Transportation Equipment and Banking sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 2.16%.

The best performers of the session on the Nikkei 225 were IHI Corp. (TYO:7013), which rose 18.70% or 1,455.00 points to trade at 9,235.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (TYO:7011) added 9.42% or 194.00 points to end at 2,254.00 and Japan Steel Works Ltd (TYO:5631) was up 7.94% or 405.00 points to 5,508.00 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Mercari Inc (TYO:4385), which fell 16.05% or 348.50 points to trade at 1,823.00 at the close. Honda Motor Co Ltd (TYO:7267) declined 5.84% or 88.50 points to end at 1,427.50 and Panasonic Corp (TYO:6752) was down 4.98% or 71.00 points to 1,355.00.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by 2343 to 1270 and 242 ended unchanged.

Shares in IHI Corp. (TYO:7013) rose to 5-year highs; gaining 18.70% or 1,455.00 to 9,235.00.

The Nikkei Volatility, which measures the implied volatility of Nikkei 225 options, was up 1.09% to 26.03.

Crude oil for December delivery was down 1.99% or 1.43 to $70.56 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in January fell 2.00% or 1.51 to hit $74.02 a barrel, while the December Gold Futures contract fell 1.15% or 31.75 to trade at $2,717.95 a troy ounce.

USD/JPY was up 1.67% to 154.13, while EUR/JPY fell 0.34% to 165.16.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 1.74% at 105.12.
 

Japanese textile maker Toray Industries Inc. said Wednesday that it will end the use of promotional models known as Toray campaign girls after 43 years.

The Toray campaign girl program, launched in 1981, will be discontinued in December this year as it has achieved its aims, the company said.

Campaign girls were initially tasked with promoting swimsuit materials produced by the company but have since taken on roles such as appearing in company-related events and engaging in regional exchange programs.

 

Actors Tomoko Yamaguchi and Norika Fujiwara served as Toray campaign girls. The position has been held by Haruka Mase since 2022.

Industry peer Asahi Kasei Corp. ended its promotional model program in March 2022.
 
 

The delegation of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) on Monday called for China to exempt Japanese short-term visitors from visa requirements soon in its first visit to the country in eight years.

Doyukai Chairperson Takeshi Niinami among others met Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on the day and also called for China’s active participation in the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo.

“I expect [Doyukai] to continue acting as a bridge for China-Japan economic and trade exchange and helping the two countries deepen their cooperation,” Han said at the meeting.

Niinami told reporters after the meeting that he felt “a positive will” from China regarding visa exemptions.

On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry added nine countries, including South Korea and Norway, to the list of countries eligible for visa exemptions, but Japan was not included. Neither side is said to have brought up the incident of a Japanese schoolchild and others being assaulted in China.

It was the first Japanese business group visit in four years after the Japan-China Economic Association in January. Business associations in the Kansai region, including the Kansai Economic Federation, are scheduled to visit later this month.
 
 

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has extended its trading hours by 30 minutes starting Tuesday without any trouble on the first day, as it aims to make the bourse more attractive to foreign investors and boost dealing activity.

With the first extension of its closing time in 70 years, the Tokyo market will now operate from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with an hourlong lunch break, according to Japan Exchange Group Inc., the parent of the bourse's operator.

The market's trading hours were last adjusted in November 2011, when the morning session was extended by 30 minutes to end at the current 11:30 a.m.

But it remains unclear whether the latest change will immediately lead to increased trading activity on the Tokyo stock market, analysts said.

The trading volume on the top-tier Prime Market stood at around 1.9 billion shares on Tuesday, less than Friday's roughly 2.0 billion stocks, JPX data showed.

Prior to the TSE, the Korea Exchange extended its market close by 30 minutes to 3:30 p.m. in August 2016.

However, the daily average trading volume in the year ended July 2017 fell 17.5 percent from the previous year. While the volume recovered the following year, it remained below the level seen before the extension.

The longer trading hours at the Tokyo market also aim to give investors more time to trade in case of any trouble, such as a system outage, according to the bourse, which has nearly 4,000 listed companies.

The TSE suffered an all-day system shutdown in October 2020 due to a system glitch, prompting debate about extending the market's trading hours to lessen the impact of a system failure on trading opportunities.

Even after the latest change, the TSE will still offer a shorter trading day than the world's other major bourses, such as the New York Stock Exchange, which operates for six and a half hours, and the London Stock Exchange, which is open for eight and a half hours.

With the extension, the Tokyo bourse also introduced a new "closing auction" system in which buy and sell orders in the last five minutes of trading will only be accepted to determine closing prices.

The TSE hopes the time extension will also prompt listed companies to review their practice of announcing earnings and other important news after the market closes, and to release such information in a timelier manner to avoid a rush of releases at the same time.

Masahiro Ichikawa, chief market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Co., said the measure will likely help attract overseas investors, especially in other parts of Asia, even if the bourse still offers shorter trading hours than other markets.

Meanwhile, Makoto Sengoku, senior equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory Co., said the bourse has taken some positive measures to attract more investment, such as urging companies to increase corporate value.

"To increase trading volume, it is necessary to show that Japan is an attractive market backed by the growth of domestic companies," he said, adding that some years will be needed for the bourse to achieve its goal.
 


 

 

Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. have decided to establish a joint venture by the end of fiscal 2024 to provide services involving self-driving cars and electric vehicles, it has been learned.

The two companies aim to provide a service to transport passengers using Level 4 autonomous driving technology — in which the vehicle under certain conditions does not require a human to be involved in driving — and electric vehicle batteries for at-home energy storage, among other services.

The joint venture will be funded equally by the automaker and the trading company. Verification tests will begin in 2025.

Regarding autonomous driving, Nissan is currently developing the vehicles, while Mitsubishi is working to commercialize a system utilizing artificial intelligence that can figure out optimal routes.

Based on the results of the developments, the joint venture will operate unmanned taxis and other services in accordance with the government’s deregulation measures.

The services will first be introduced in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Namie, Fukushima Prefecture. Nissan is conducting demonstration experiments on automated driving and other technologies in both locations.

In terms of EV batteries, the two companies are looking into a service that would connect EVs to homes and power grids, allowing people to use the electricity stored in their cars at home or sell it to power companies.

They are also eyeing a project that promotes the collection of used EV batteries for secondary use and recycling, as a problem has emerged in which many used EV batteries end up overseas.

Nissan plans to increase sales figures for businesses related to autonomous driving and EVs to ¥2.5 trillion by fiscal 2030, but the automaker had faced difficulties in conceptualizing businesses that would utilize the vehicles themselves.

Mitsubishi is expediting its moves to invest in start-ups and other companies that develop software in autonomous driving, anticipating future expansion in the market for autonomous driving against the backdrop of the declining birthrate, aging population and shortage of labor.

The company is also working with major automakers in the field of EV batteries.
 
 

 

A Japanese trade promotion agency has opened an office in Kyiv to facilitate private businesses' entry into Ukraine, in one of Japan's latest efforts to support the war-ravaged country's economy amid Russia's prolonged invasion.

The government-backed Japan External Trade Organization launched the office on Oct 10, and it has already begun conducting research, providing information on local investment conditions and offering business-matching opportunities for Japanese firms.

At a ceremony held in the Ukrainian capital to commemorate the launch, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a video message that he hopes the JETRO Kyiv Office will "serve as a bridge for the further development and prosperity of our two countries."

"Japan will continue to contribute to the sustainable development of Ukraine through public-private partnership by providing 'uniquely Japanese' support to address the challenges Ukraine faces, such as economic reconstruction and a stable energy supply," said the prime minister, who took office on Oct 1.

The event was attended by key Ukrainian political and business figures, among whom Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal was quoted by JETRO as expressing hope that the office will lead to promotion of investment that will benefit both countries.

Also among the participants were representatives from 10 firms dispatched as part of a Japanese business mission, including agricultural startup Waku Inc, which is developing a new type of organic fertilizer.

The company's CEO Ryosuke Himeno said it hopes to make inroads into Ukraine -- a major agricultural exporter -- faster than other companies, even as the war continues.

The establishment of a JETRO office in Kyiv was part of a series of agreements reached during a Japan-hosted Ukraine reconstruction conference in February.

As of October 2023, 38 Japanese companies were engaged in business activities in Ukraine in the fields of manufacturing, wholesale, information and communication technology and agriculture, according to JETRO.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Japan, in accordance with its war-renouncing Constitution, has primarily provided nonmilitary support to Ukraine, unlike Western nations that have supplied weapons and ammunition.

 
 

Hello Kitty, arguably Japan's best loved creation, is celebrating her 50th anniversary.

But all has not always been well at Sanrio, the Japanese company behind the character. The business has been on a spectacular journey of financial peaks and valleys.

Hello Kitty has been ranked the second-highest grossing media franchise in the world behind Pokémon, and ahead of the likes of Mickey Mouse and Star Wars.

Underscoring her global fame, Britain's King Charles wished her a happy birthday during the state visit to the UK by Japan's Emperor and Empress in June.

In recent years though Sanrio had been struggling to make money, as interest in Hello Kitty waned.

Two previous surges in Sanrio sales, in 1999 and 2014, were both driven by the character's popularity. But these jumps in demand for the firm's products were not sustainable, says Yasuki Yoshioka of investment company SMBC Nikko.

"In the past, its performance had many ups and downs, as if it was on a rollercoaster ride," Mr Yoshioka says.

 

Then, in 2020, Tomokuni Tsuji inherited the role as Sanrio's boss.

 

He is the grandson of the firm's founder, Shintaro Tsuji, and was just 31 at the time, making him the youngest chief executive of a listed Japanese company.
 
His grandfather then became Sanrio's chairman.
 
Under the younger Mr Tsuji's leadership, Sanrio changed its marketing strategy of its stable of other characters.
 
"It is not about lowering Hello Kitty's popularity but it is about boosting others' recognition," he says.
 
This resulted in Hello Kitty losing the position of Sanrio's most popular character.
 
According to a poll of customers, that spot is now held by Cinnamoroll - a blue-eyed white puppy with pink cheeks, long ears and a tail that looks like a Cinnamon roll.
 
Sanrio is also no longer just about cute characters.
 
If Hello Kitty is Japan's ambassador of cute, then angry red panda Aggressive Retsuko - or Aggretsuko - channels the frustrations of an ordinary working woman.
 
The character, which is popular among Gen Zers, first appeared in a cartoon series on Japan's TBS Television before it became a global hit on Netflix.
 
Another unconventional character is Gudetama, or "lazy egg", who is living with depression and fires out cold one-liners that reflect dark realities of life.
As well as diversifying its characters, Sanrio boosted its overseas marketing and is now tackling counterfeits more rigorously.

"We are now using artificial intelligence to detect fake products and to make removal requests," says Mr Tsuji.

For its marketing strategy, collaborations with major brands - including Starbucks, Crocs and the LA Dodgers baseball team - have been key, he added.

 

"In addition to our own promotion, by collaborating with global brands, we are trying to have our characters in the market throughout the year without many breaks."

In a society that puts so much emphasis on seniority, Mr Tsuji's surname was crucial to his ability to make major changes at Sanrio.

Almost a quarter of listed companies in Japan, like car makers Toyota and Suzuki and camera firm Canon, are managed by members of the family that founded them.

The reason is cultural, according to Professor Hokuto Dazai of Nagoya University of Commerce and Business.

In Japan, home to the world's oldest continuous monarchy, "there is strong recognition of families and family businesses," he says.

The master-servant relationship from the samurai period has transitioned into the relationship between founding families and their employees, and "historically commoners never fought over the top job".

"It is also because Japan has a smaller pool of professional executives to choose from," says Professor Dazai.

"Firms tend to look for their next boss internally, including founding family members."

Still, "it would be a lie if I said there was no pushback" from other managers and employees in the company, Mr Tsuji says.

He also says he clashed with his grandfather over how to run the company.
"But one day I realised that I was being arrogant, trying to convince someone 60 years senior," he says.

"After about a year, my grandfather told me to run the company as I see fit - that he will leave it up to me."

The new boss's revamp of the business has been paying off so far.
Within two years of the younger Tsuji becoming chief executive, Sanrio was profitable again, in what analyst Mr Yoshioka calls "a beautiful V-shaped recovery".

Its share price has risen tenfold since 2020 and the company now has a stock market valuation of more than a trillion yen ($6.5bn; £5bn).
Away from the boardroom and stock market, there was also an intriguing incident earlier this year.

While Hello Kitty's true identity is relatively well-known in Japan, some overseas fans were shocked by comments from a Sanrio executive in July.

Speaking on US television, retail business development director Jill Koch told viewers that “Hello Kitty is not a cat” and is in fact a British schoolgirl.

Her comments sparked a flurry of social media posts, with fans expressing their shock and confusion about the revelation.

"Hello Kitty is Hello Kitty and she can be whoever you want her to be - she can be your sister, your mother, it can be another you," Mr Tsuji says.

Pushed on whether he has any idea why his grandfather decided not to make her Japanese, Mr Tsuji concludes: "London is an amazing city and it was the envy of many Japanese girls, so that may be one of the reasons they decided that she’s from London."

It may not be the definitive answer her fans are looking for - but after all, Hello Kitty was created 14 years before the younger Tsuji was even born. Half a century since her creation, it is possible that the beloved character's origin story will continue to be shrouded in mystery for years to come.
 
 

The dollar hit three-month highs against the yen on Tuesday as the loss of a parliamentary majority for Japan's ruling coalition in weekend elections muddied the political and monetary picture, while sterling was firm ahead of a new British budget.

The Chinese yuan, which touched its weakest level against the dollar since mid-August, showed little reaction to the possibility Beijing may issue over $1.4 trillion in new debt as part of a series of measures to shore up the economy.

The dollar is heading for its largest monthly rise against a basket of major currencies in 2-1/2 years, and holding near three-month highs, ahead of a slew of U.S. employment and inflation data this week that could determine the path for Federal Reserve policy.

Recent data have highlighted the resilience of the U.S. economy, which, together with mounting market bets of a win by Republican candidate Donald Trump in next week's U.S. presidential election, have underpinned the dollar and pushed up Treasury yields.

"It's still my view that the FX market is only really thinking of one trade at the moment, which is a strong dollar," XTB research director Kathleen Brooks said.

The dollar index has risen 3.6% so far in October, marking its best monthly performance since April 2022. It is up this year against every major currency except the pound .

This week's data slate includes the September U.S. core personal consumption expenditures price index - the Fed's preferred measure of inflation - on Thursday, as well as a flurry of jobs reports.

With the dollar looking unlikely to budge much from its recent highs, other currencies came under pressure, most notably the yen, which has fallen to its lowest since July after Japan's election on Sunday left the make-up of the future government in flux.

"All up, the risks appear skewed to looser fiscal policy than otherwise under the new government," said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

"Heightened financial market volatility might also encourage the Bank of Japan to keep its policy interest rate unchanged for longer than we currently expect."

The yen has lost nearly 10% in value since September's 14-month high against the dollar . The dollar meanwhile, was last up 0.1% on the day at 153.415 .

The BOJ announces its monetary policy decision on Thursday, and is widely expected to leave rates unchanged.


COUNTDOWN TO BUDGET

In Europe, the pound edged up 0.1% to $1.2983 , a day before the Labour government's first budget.

Finance minister Rachel Reeves, along with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has reiterated the need for tough fiscal measures to help close a hole in British public finances, all while seeking to retain the confidence of investors, two years after then-Prime Minister Liz Truss' tax-cutting plans sparked a crisis in the bond market.

Key for sterling will be estimates from the British Office for Budget Responsibility, which makes the forecasts that underpin the government's spending and tax plans.

"The fact that cable is hanging around at the $1.30 level is a sign that the markets are ready to go after tomorrow," XTB's Brooks said.

"As long as growth is significantly revised up in the longer term, at the same time that debt levels are falling... as long as those two things are good, we could jump back above $1.30."

The euro dipped 0.1% to $1.08 against the dollar and was down 0.2% against sterling at 83.19 pence .

China's yuan weakened to its lowest level in over two months. Two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters China's top legislative body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, is looking to approve a new fiscal package, including 6 trillion yuan which would partly be raised via special sovereign bonds, on the last day of a meeting to be held from Nov. 4-8.

The yuan weakened by as much as 0.26% to 7.165 in the offshore market, while its onshore counterpart bottomed at 7.1419 per dollar.
 
 

West Japan Railway Co. has developed a stab-resistant umbrella that will be used to protect passengers and crew members from knife-wielding assailants on trains.

JR West will from November start placing two of these protective umbrellas in crew cabins on about 600 trains running on conventional lines in the Kinki region, which includes Osaka and Kyoto.

Each umbrella is about one meter long and has a diameter of about 1.1 meters when opened. Covered in a special material that is difficult for blades to cut, the opened umbrella can help protect the holder from being slashed.

The umbrella weighs about 700 grams, which is considerably lighter than shields and other similar protective equipment. The meshed fabric also allows the holder to look through the umbrella and keep an eye on the assailant.

In July 2023, a knife-wielding man stabbed three people, including two passengers, on a JR Kansai Airport Line train in Osaka Prefecture.

JR West has been equipping some of its trains with protective equipment such as shields, stab-resistant vests and stab-resistant gloves, but the railway operator developed an umbrella that will be easier to use.

“We’ll make additional efforts to improve the safety of our passengers ahead of next year’s Osaka-Kansai Expo,” a JR West official said.
 
 

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda on Wednesday warned of the risks of moving too slowly in raising interest rates, saying striking the right balance is crucial for the Japanese economy to grow in a sustainable way.

"Uncertainties are everywhere, any time...when there's huge uncertainty, you usually want to proceed cautiously and gradually," Ueda said at an event in Washington, held on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank's autumn meetings.

But he said it would be problematic "if you proceed very, very gradually" and trigger expectations that interest rates will stay at low levels for a long period.

"This could lead to a buildup of huge speculative positions, which could become a problem later," he said. "We need to strike a balance between the two."

He also said it is "still taking time" for Japan to achieve the BOJ's inflation target in a sustainable manner.

His remarks came after the U.S. dollar hit a three-month high against the Japanese currency, briefly entering the 153 yen range.

The yen's continued weakness, which has increased import costs, reflects expectations that the interest rate gap between the United States and Japan will not narrow significantly anytime soon.

Asked what keeps him awake at night, given that the Japanese economy is at a delicate juncture, Ueda, the first academic economist to lead the BOJ in postwar Japan, said thinking about "what would be the right size of normalization in total going forward and how best to allocate that total rate hikes across time."

While suggesting the need for more rate hikes, he said, "It's very hard to pin down the appropriate size" from hereafter, partly because of uncertain external factors, including the difficulty in predicting the course of the U.S. economy.

On the yen's depreciation, Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato told reporters later Wednesday that he has been seeing "one-sided, rapid moves" lately.

Speaking after participating in the first day of a two-day meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs, Kato said he will "increase my sense of urgency" and closely monitor developments in the currency market.
 
 

Taisei Hikage is fighting a losing battle at his Tokyo ramen shop - not to attract customers, but to keep a lid on the price he charges for Japan's national comfort food in the face of an incessant rise in ingredient and fuel costs.

Since opening his shop in the west of the capital a year and a half ago, Hikage, 26, has raised menu prices three times but still struggles with rising costs. His top-selling "Special Ramen" is up 47%, selling for 1,250 yen ($8).

"Traditionally ramen shops were supposed to offer something cheap and tasty," Hikage said between stirring big pots of broth and blanching noodles. "It's no longer cheap food for the masses."

The problems facing ramen vendors - a record number of shop operators are set to go bankrupt this year - reflect a cost-of-living crunch that has become a top issue for voters in Japan's general election on Sunday.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, a self-described ramen fanatic, and opposition parties have pledged various measures to offset rising costs for businesses and households.

Those efforts to control rising prices, in a land emerging from decades of deflation, could tip an election where opinion polls show the LDP - which has ruled Japan for almost all of the post-war era - might lose its parliamentary majority.

Hikage, who said he will be too busy working in his restaurant to vote, hopes the victors will consider introducing subsidies to offset rising costs.

His award-winning noodles remain in demand despite the repeated price hikes, with long queues in front of his shop day and night.

Some of his competitors are not faring so well: 49 ramen shop operators with debts of at least 10 million yen filed for bankruptcy in the first seven months of the year, on track to exceed the 2020 record of 54 bankruptcies, according to credit research firm Teikoku Databank.


'Weeded out'

Hikage prides himself on using mostly domestic ingredients, but many ramen restaurants rely heavily on imported materials, like the flour to make noodles.

Japan's import costs have risen as the yen has sunk. The currency hit a 34-year low against the dollar this year and has struggled to regain ground. Also boosting costs for ramen shops are higher energy and grain prices, triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as rising labor costs.

The plight of Japan's ramen shops illustrates a larger trend, as companies that fail to adjust to the era of inflation go under.

Nationwide bankruptcies in the six months to September jumped 18.6% from the same period last year to 4,990 cases, with a record number caused by inflation, said Teikoku Databank.

"Just like ramen shops, companies offering goods and services that are in demand are transferring costs to product prices and seeing their sales grow.

Those struggling to pass on higher costs are being weeded out," said Dai-ichi Life Research Institute's executive chief economist Toshihiro Nagahama.

But Nagahama said politicians' tendency to dish out support measures to win votes may be counterproductive in the long term.

"If too many 'zombie' firms, or companies that cannot raise productivity or wages, are kept alive, they could be a drag on the Japanese economy," he said.

For now, Hikage said he will focus on serving quality dishes and hopes the election can bring some kind of positive change.

"Our task now is to endure this and focus on offering something delicious, with our heads bowed to customers," he said.
 
 

The dollar rose above ¥152 to hit another three-month high in Tokyo trading on Wednesday, backed by higher U.S. Treasury yields.

At 5 p.m., the U.S. currency stood at ¥152.35-35 , up from ¥151.00-01 at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Dollar buying was prompted by a widening interest rate gap between Japan and the United States, as Treasury yields rose amid growing views that former U.S. President Donald Trump is more likely to win next month’s presidential election. Trump’s victory is expected to worsen the U.S. fiscal situation and increase inflationary pressures.

“There are moves to price in Trump’s presidential victory,” said an official at a major brokerage firm.
 
 

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its 2024 growth forecast for Japan to 0.3 percent, down 0.4 percentage point from its estimate three months ago, citing negative developments such as temporary auto supply disruptions.

The latest estimate in the IMF's World Economic Outlook report is the lowest since 2020, when the Japanese economy contracted sharply in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The IMF said the Japanese economy has also been affected by the "fading of one-off factors," including a sharp rise in tourism that drove growth in 2023, in addition to the supply chain shortages that widened earlier this year following a safety scandal involving a Toyota Motor Corp. subsidiary.

Japan took a relatively big growth cut among major economies at a time when the country is in the midst of a general election campaign in which a major issue is how to prop up its weak economy.

However, the IMF said Japan's growth will accelerate to 1.1 percent in 2025, up 0.1 point from its July forecast, on the back of wage and consumption increases.

The IMF made almost no changes to its global growth outlook and projections for other major economies. It anticipated 3.2 percent worldwide economic expansion this year, unchanged from three months ago, and also 3.2 percent in 2025, down 0.1 point.

The quarterly report came out two weeks before the U.S. presidential election, with the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, promising to impose steep import tariffs, and as finance chiefs from around the world are now gathering for the biannual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington.

Shortly after the document was released, IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said at a press conference that "the battle against inflation is almost won," but warned that "risks are now tilted to the downside."

Gourinchas said such challenges include many countries favoring trade policies aimed at protecting workers and industries at home.

"These measures can sometimes boost investment and activity in the short run, but they often lead to retaliation and ultimately fail to deliver sustained improvements in standards of living," he said.

"They should be avoided when not carefully addressing well-identified market failures or narrowly defined national security concerns."

While the report said only minimal revisions have been made to the global forecast, a closer look reveals that the broadly flat trend is due to offsetting factors in developing economies.

Because of conflicts and civil unrest, the IMF said production cuts have been seen in regions such as the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, while emerging Asian countries have been growing steadily, thanks to surging demand for semiconductors and electronics.

Despite ongoing geopolitical tensions, the report said global trade volume as a share of world growth has not fallen markedly. But it noted that "signs of geoeconomic fragmentation have started to emerge, with increasingly more trade occurring within geopolitical blocs rather than between them."

For 2024, the U.S. growth forecast was revised upward by 0.2 point to 2.8 percent, backed by brisk consumer spending and capital investment. Growth was projected to slow to 2.2 percent in 2025, though the figure was 0.3 point higher than in the July forecast.

The IMF lowered this year's estimate for China to 4.8 percent, compared with the previous projection of 5.0 percent, amid continued weakness in consumer confidence and the real estate sector. The growth estimate for next year was unchanged at 4.5 percent.

The Washington-headquartered organization said growth in the euro area was also revised lower, with 0.8 percent likely, down 0.1 point, partly due to a slowdown in Germany's manufacturing sector. For 2025, it was projected to be at 1.2 percent, down 0.3 point.
 
 

Tokyo Metro Co. made an impressive debut on the Tokyo stock market on Wednesday, briefly surging 47.3 percent above the offering price of 1,200 yen ($7.9) in Japan's biggest initial public offering in six years.

The IPO put Tokyo Metro's market capitalization at around 1.01 trillion yen, making it the seventh largest railway operator in the country in terms of total market value as of Wednesday.

The share price of Asia's oldest subway operator closed at 1,739 yen after opening at 1,630 yen on the first day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's top-tier Prime Market.

Tokyo Metro, the country's second-largest railway company by passenger volume, drew massive buy orders primarily from individual investors seeking stability and dividends. It took around an hour to reach the initial price after the market opened at 9 a.m.

"We believe the listing serves as a foundation for further management reforms and allows us to enter a new stage," Tokyo Metro President Akiyoshi Yamamura said in a news conference after Wednesday's trading ended.

The subway operator raised 348.6 billion yen in the IPO, with the central government and the Tokyo government selling half of their respective holdings of 53.4 percent and 46.6 percent at 1,200 yen per share.

The central government will use its proceeds from the sale of Tokyo Metro shares to repay bonds issued to fund reconstruction efforts following the devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck northeastern Japan in March 2011.

Tokyo Metro was formed in 2004 from a public sector-backed entity as part of privatization efforts, though all of its shares had been held by the central and metropolitan governments.

Both the market cap and the value of the share offering are the highest in Japan since SoftBank Group Corp. in December 2018 listed its telecom unit, whose market value totaled 7.18 trillion yen, according to data provider Dealogic. SoftBank Group raised 2.65 trillion yen in Japan's biggest-ever IPO.

"Demand for Tokyo Metro's shares among individual investors appears to be robust due to its stable earnings and favorable dividend yield," said Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at the NLI Research Institute.

The dividend per share is estimated at 40 yen for the business year ending in March 2025, setting the dividend yield at 3.3 percent based on the offering price.

In an attempt to attract more individual investors, Tokyo Metro will offer shareholder benefits, including free train tickets, depending on the number of stocks they hold.

However, Ide warned that the subway operator's stock may be sold after initial buying subsides, as the dividend yield has dropped below 3 percent as a result of the price gain.

Tokyo Metro operates nine subway lines connecting 180 stations across the capital and carried 1.9 billion passengers in the year ended March 2022, the second highest after East Japan Railway Co. Its operations also include real estate, retail and telecommunications businesses.

As the railway business accounted for around 90 percent of the company's sales in the business year ended in March, analysts have expressed doubts about its growth going forward.

"We do not expect significant growth potential for Tokyo Metro, as it is challenging to build new lines and boost earnings from its real estate business," Ide said.

Yamamura, however, stressed at the press conference the advantage of Tokyo Metro's railway segment focused on the center of the capital, where the population is expected to grow until 2035 and where development projects are active.

"We aim to grow the non-railway sector by facilitating synergy with the railway business," the president said.
 
 

Sales of used smartphones in Japan are expected to hit an all-time high in fiscal 2024, as rising prices of new devices drive consumers toward more affordable options, a Tokyo-based research company said.

Sales of used smartphones are projected to climb 15.5 percent from the previous year to 3.15 million units, marking a record high for the sixth consecutive year, also lifted by purchases by foreign visitors, MM Research Institute Ltd.

Sales are estimated to further expand in the coming years, possibly hitting 4.38 million units in fiscal 2028, on the back of elevated prices of new devices due to the yen's depreciation and higher material costs, the research firm said.

Although new smartphone models, including Apple Inc's latest iPhone released in September, have attracted attention, many consumers seem to find it difficult to loosen their purse strings, said Hideaki Yokota, vice president of MM Research.

"People are becoming more comfortable with secondhand products, as used smartphones can be utilized without inconvenience," Yokota said.

Visitors from China and other countries are also contributing to the increasing sales, snapping up used iPhones in good condition, the research company said.

Reflecting their popularity, the share of used smartphones in Japan's overall smartphone sales is expected to grow from 9.7 percent in fiscal 2023 to 10.8 percent this fiscal year.

Belong Inc, which specializes in used smartphone sales, said corporate demand is also on the rise, as digital devices are now used for inventory management in restaurants and for electronic medical records in the health care sector.

To support the secondhand smartphone market, an expert panel of the communication ministry proposed in September that telecom carriers should be basically banned from restricting the use of such devices because of previous owners' unpaid bills.


 

Three major Japanese automobile manufacturers, Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., have reached an agreement to promote collaboration on developing in-car software, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. They will consider standardizing specifications for functions of car computers such as window opening and wiper movement.

Suzuki Motor Corp. will work with major chip manufacturers and communications enterprises to develop software for autonomous driving and map information within fiscal 2024.

Japanese companies are accelerating such collaboration to compete against leading U.S. and Chinese manufacturers in automotive technologies.

Executives of the automakers and officials of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry plan to explain the policy on Thursday at the Japan Mobility Show (formerly the Tokyo Motor Show) at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba City.

The three automakers will standardize the basic platform for an application programming interface (API), which serves as the link between the software and other systems, allowing a variety of software from the three automakers to be installed.

This makes it easier for other software firms to participate in development and is expected to strengthen Japan’s competitiveness.

The ministry urges the development of Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs), which are next-generation cars that can add new functions and enhance abilities by updating software via the internet.

In order to boost the development of SDVs, the ministry will launch what it calls the Mobility DX Platform with major automobile manufacturers. The software collaboration is one of the projects of this platform. Toyota, Honda and Nissan also eye cooperating in the self-driving technology field in the future.

The ministry also will strengthen the development of human resources. It will add SDVs to guidelines on the development of human resources in digital fields and nurture talented personnel who are well-versed in automotive software by providing courses. Collaborations with educational institutions such as universities will be promoted as well.

 

The United States and China have taken the lead in the SDV field. U.S. electric vehicle giant Tesla Inc. was the first company to launch SDVs, which enable the company to earn money even after selling the cars. China has boosted the development of leading-edge technologies by standardizing API in its automobile industry since 2021.

The Japanese government is intensifying its sense of urgency regarding this situation. It created a strategy on automotive digitalization in May.

Japan aims to secure a 30% share of the global SDV sales market, urging collaboration among domestic companies to achieve this goal.

For next-generation vehicles, such as SDVs, the superiority of software directly correlates with competitiveness, prompting a unified effort between the public and private sectors to regain ground.
 
 

The price of newly harvested rice has surged 48 percent from a year earlier to the highest level in 31 years, reflecting a shortage caused by extreme summer heat that reduced the previous season's harvest, the farm ministry's data showed Friday.

The average price of unpolished rice sold by the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations and other supplier bodies to wholesalers was 22,700 yen for 60 kilograms in September, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reported.

In Japan, rice from each year's harvest begins appearing on store shelves around September.

This year's price is the highest since 1993 when it reached 23,607 yen, according to data from the National Rice Exchange and Price Formation Center, though the ministry's data only goes back to 2008.

The price surged last month also as rising production costs, driven by inflation, combined with booming inbound tourism that drove up rice consumption.

The sharp rise followed consumer stockpiling that began in August after the weather agency issued its first-ever advisory about the increased risk of a megaquake along the Nakai Trough.

 

 

Japanese inflation slowed in September with prices up 2.4 percent on-year, not including volatile fresh food, official data showed Friday.

The core Consumer Price Index eased from 2.8 percent in August as the pace of increase in electricity and gas prices relented, the internal affairs ministry said.

Despite the slowdown, the rate remained above the Bank of Japan's two percent target, set over a decade ago as part of efforts to boost the stagnant economy.

The target has been surpassed every month since April 2022, although the bank has questioned to what extent that is down to temporary factors such as the Ukraine war.

"The resumption of electricity subsidies resulted in a plunge in headline inflation in September," said Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia-Pacific at Capital Economics.

Thieliant predicted a further deceleration of core inflation in October, but noted that the subsidies "should be phased out completely by December, which should lift inflation".

The Bank of Japan raised interest rates in March for the first time since 2007 and again in July, in initial steps towards normalizing its ultra-loose monetary policies.

New Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said this month that the environment was not right for another interest rate increase.

After Ishiba took office in early October, perceptions that he favored hiking borrowing costs and the possibility that he could raise taxes triggered a surge in the yen and stock market volatility.

One dollar bought 150 yen on Friday morning after the Japanese currency weakened from levels around 149.35 the day before.

Excluding both fresh food and energy, Japanese prices rose 2.1 percent in September.

"We expect inflation excluding fresh food and energy to remain around two percent until early next year, when it should gradually fall below two percent," Thieliant said. "Accordingly, we still expect the Bank of Japan to press ahead with another interest rate hike before year-end."
 
 

Japan's Seven & i Holdings is betting it can boost value by hiving off underperforming businesses and focusing on mainstay 7-Eleven stores. The outcome of its strategy will determine whether it can outmaneuver a $47 billion Canadian takeover bid.

Much depends on the retailer's ability to roll out a new store format in Japan, and improve profit margins overseas, analysts and industry insiders say.

Seven & i plans to split off its supermarket operation and some 30 other "non-core" units into a holding company, York Holdings. It will rename itself 7-Eleven Corp to emphasise its new focus and aims to bring in strategic investors for York and eventually list it.

The shake-up shows Seven & i's determination to ditch the conglomerate discount that has weighed on its shares for years. Poor performance at the supermarket business hasn't helped either, making the Japanese company a ripe target for a takeover bid from Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc, which owns Circle-K.

The Canadian company announced a preliminary bid for Seven & in August, and sources said last week it has since hiked its offer by 22% to around $47 billion. If the deal goes ahead, it would be the largest ever overseas buyout of a Japanese firm.

Given the pressure from Couche-Tard, Seven & i made an "unavoidable decision," to split the business, said veteran independent analyst Akihito Nakai.

"It's the only thing they can do," he said.

Seven & i has said it is "confident" it can unlock shareholder value through a number of strategic actions and has laid out near-term growth targets, including an EBITDA earnings target of 100 billion yen ($670 million) in the next financial year for the York unit.

Still, it's unclear how long shareholders will be willing to wait. Shareholders Artisan Partners and ValueAct Capital have previously called for Seven & i to shed what they said was unnecessary bloat.

The Japanese giant employs some 157,000 people worldwide across a business that spans clothing stores, supermarkets and restaurants.

The change in portfolio strategy underscores Seven & i's "urgency to unlock shareholder value," Jefferies analyst Shunsuke Kuriyama said in a note.

In Japan, 7-Eleven stores have become a cultural touchstone, known for a ready supply of fresh food and everything from toothpaste to socks.

The Japanese stores are also highly profitable: the operating margin is 27%, far above the 3.5% of 7-Eleven stores outside of Japan.

Of 7-Eleven's 85,000 stores worldwide, some 21,000 are in Japan, most of them franchises. The Japanese convenience store market is also saturated: moreover, 7-Eleven faces stiff competition from rivals FamilyMart and Lawson.

Same store sales decreased slightly in the six months to September, compared to the previous year.

Reuters reported last month that some 7-Eleven owners are dissatisfied with the company's current strategy, citing concerns about competition from rivals, among other issues.


FAST ROLL-OUT

One area ripe for growth is mini-supermarkets, which are bigger than convenience stores and stock more fresh food.

Rival Aeon has rolled out more than 1,100 of its My Basket stores, focusing on urban areas where there is demand for the format from single and elderly shoppers. Aeon has said it wants to double the number of My Basket stores.
7-Eleven introduced a mini-supermarket of its own, "SIP", in February.

"The testing of the mini-supermarket SIP format is ongoing and will eventually lead to the creation of a second domestic growth division for the business," said analyst Michael Causton of consultancy JapanConsuming.

"Test results are promising and once all set, it will roll out fast," he said in a note on the Smartkarma investor research platform.

The focus on SIP stores shows that Seven & i will need to retain some kind of relationship with the supermarket business that will be spun off into York, said veteran analyst Nakai.

"If they completely separate themselves from the supermarkets, they will not be able to implement the new strategy," he said. "Regardless of capital ties, they need to continue a relationship of cooperation."


OVERSEAS BUSINESS

Fixing the bigger overseas 7-Eleven business may prove tougher.
Seven & i cut it full-year profit forecast by a quarter last week. That reflects "a more challenging environment with customers downgrading purchases", Morningstar analyst Lorraine Tan said in a note following the earnings.

Seven & i appears unable to cut costs fast enough to mitigate the pressure on its margins, she said, adding that cost cutting is central to plans to boost returns at the U.S. convenience store operations.

So far, the company has announced plans to close some 444 underperforming stores overseas. It is also beefing up fresh food offerings in the United States.

It is targeting a return on invested capital (ROIC), a measure of profitability, of 10% by the 2030 financial year from 6.5% last year.
The question now is whether it can deliver soon enough for investors, especially due to a perception that the firm is slow to respond to calls for change.

Turning overseas convenience stores into higher margin businesses like in Japan will take a lot of work, including on merchandising, locations and marketing, as well as logistics, said JapanConsuming's Causton.

"We might see some nice improvements in three years, but five years is the minimum buy-in for the real gains to start showing through," he said.
 

 

Key Points

• Tokyo Metro’s initial public offering could drive momentum in the Japanese market and attract more companies into the country, analysts said, as China continues to lose steam.
• In Japan’s biggest IPO in six years, Tokyo Metro raised 348.6 billion yen ($2.3 billion) after pricing its shares at 1,200 yen apiece, according to the company’s regulatory filing on Tuesday.
• Ringo Choi, EY’s Asia-Pacific IPO leader, said the success of Tokyo Metro “will attract more companies” to consider the Japanese market as an IPO destination.

 
 
Tokyo Metro’s initial public offering could drive momentum in the Japanese market and attract more companies into the country, analysts said, as China continues to lose steam.

In Japan’s biggest IPO in six years, Tokyo Metro raised 348.6 billion yen ($2.3 billion) after pricing its shares at 1,200 yen apiece, according to the company’s regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Reuters had reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter, that the IPO was more than 15 times oversubscribed. The stock is expected to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 23.

“Everybody knows it, and it’s been priced relatively cheaply,” Mio Kato, founder of LightStream Research, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday. “I think both the Tokyo government as well as the Ministry of Finance, obviously, won’t want the IPO to fail.”

“It’s quite a big banner IPO for the year, and it’s just something that everybody, you know, the entire public, is going to be focused on coming so close to the election,” Kato added. “We think they’re offering very, very good value.”

A recent report published by Dealogic, a financial markets platform, shows that in September, equity capital market issuance in Asia-Pacific was worth just $168 billion, 15% below the first nine months of 2023 and 27% down from the same period in 2022.

The decline in overall Asia-Pacific issuance coincided with a slowdown in China, according to the report. However, India and Japan made up for a lack of issuance in China, it added.

Kato said he thinks the positive trend will continue for Japan, suggesting the country will soon bounce back from years of subdued IPO activity.

“I saw some news about NASDAQ actually trying to attract more Japanese IPOs. Since, you know, the Chinese IPO market has been kind of quiet lately,” he said.

Hyundai India also started taking orders for its $3.3 billion IPO in Mumbai this week, in a deal set to become the country’s biggest listing.

Ringo Choi, EY’s Asia-Pacific IPO leader, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday that both Hyundai India and Tokyo Metro are in “very hot positions” and “with high liquidity.”

Choi predicted that those two IPOs will be bellwethers for their respective markets.

When asked if he thinks Tokyo Metro and Hyundai India’s listings will open the floodgates for more activity, he said, “I do.”

“I do think that after these two IPOs, and if the return of the IPOs [are] reasonably good, it will attract more companies to consider these two markets as the IPO destination,” Choi said.
 
 

Uniqlo's parent company Fast Retailing on Thursday announced "a record high performance in fiscal 2024" with domestic profits in Japan boosted by hot summer weather and a tourism boom.

The company also reported "significant increases in both revenue and profit" for international stores of casualwear giant Uniqlo.

Fast Retailing -- the world's third biggest clothing manufacturer and retailer after Zara owner Inditex and Sweden's H&M -- reported a 25 percent on-year jump in net profit to 371.9 billion yen.

The firm's earnings have hit new records for several years running since the COVID-19 pandemic eased as it pursues an aggressive international expansion strategy.

Warm weather over the winter squeezed sales slightly for Uniqlo stores in Japan, famous for their down jackets.

"However, same-store sales subsequently increased by 11.7 percent year-on-year in the second half from 1 March through 31 August 2024 thanks to consistently high temperatures," the company said in a statement.

Japan's summer this year was its joint warmest on record, and climate scientists predict that 2024 will be the hottest ever for the Earth because of a warming planet.

Domestic Uniqlo stores maintained a "strategic inventory of core summer ranges through the end of the summer season" and enhanced its marketing initiatives, Fast Retailing said.

Japan is also welcoming a record influx of tourists and is expected to have a total 35 million overseas visitors in 2024.

"Buoyant demand from overseas visitors also contributed to the increase in Uniqlo Japan revenue as Uniqlo brand recognition continues to rise worldwide," Fast Retailing said.

For Uniqlo overseas, operating profit margins "improved significantly in both North America and Europe".

Sales in mainland China and Hong Kong were strong in the first half of the business year but more sluggish in the second half, it added.

The company put this down to "a slowdown in consumer appetite, unseasonal weather, and product lineups that did not fully satisfy the needs of local customers".

Fast Retailing also operates the budget GU clothing brand, which reported a jump in revenue and profit for the financial year.
 
 

Seven & i Holdings (3382.T), opens new tab announced on Thursday a roadmap to hive off underperforming businesses and focus on its convenience store operations, as the retailer aims to fend off a $47-billion takeover bid from Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD.TO)
, opens new tab.

The Japanese operator of 7-Eleven stores is facing pressure to convince investors it can enhance value after having rejected ACT's first bid in August, which it said undervalued the company and its growth potential.

Seven & i said on Thursday it will bundle some of its vast network of non-core assets into a holding company for which it will bring in strategic investors. The parent company also plans to rename itself '7-Eleven Corp' to emphasise the focus on its profitable convenience stores.

The new holding company, to be called York Holdings, is set to house 31 subsidiaries, including the group's superstores business, general goods store Loft, baby goods store Akachan Honpo and the operating company of Denny's restaurants in Japan.

Seven & i aims for the new company to become an equity method affiliate by February 2026, with an initial public offering planned for some time thereafter.

Despite divestments of some non-core holdings, such as department store unit Sogo & Seibu last year, Seven & i's operations remain expansive.
Foreign investors such as U.S.-based Artisan Partners have called on the group to shed what they see as unnecessary bloat.

"They are making a clear delineation between core and non-core businesses and that's a good thing," said Travis Lundy of Quiddity Advisors, who publishes on Smartkarma.

But it remains to be seen whether Seven & i's latest moves will satisfy critics calling for the sale of underperforming assets.

"Going forward each business will follow its own growth story," Seven & I CEO Ryuichi Isaka told a briefing, but added that Seven & i would retain a minority stake in York Holdings to continue to collaborate on food product development.

ACT has upped the ante with a revised offer that values Seven & i about 22% above its August initial bid, two sources said on Wednesday.

On Thursday Seven & i gave no additional details on ACT's revised bid but Isaka said the growth and capital efficiency plans unveiled would create more value than what was proposed by ACT.

ACT declined to comment on Thursday's announcements.
Seven & i also revised down its earnings forecast on Thursday, predicting a drop in operating profit for the fiscal year ending February 2025 to 403 billion yen ($2.7 billion) from 545 billion.

The drop is driven by a 24.6% fall in forecast profit from its convenience store business in North America as inflation weighs on consumer spending.
Seven & i’s overseas convenience store business accounts for more than 75% of its consolidated revenue.

($1=149.1700 yen)
 
 

Competition among South Korean and Japanese cosmetic manufacturers is intensifying over so-called “petit price” cosmetics that are inexpensive and high-quality.

With South Korean companies increasing their presence in the Japanese market through social media, and petit price products attracting more attention than before, Japanese firms are trying to regain lost ground.

In July, Kao Corp. opened the flagship store for its makeup brand Kate, which has a young target demographic, at the new commercial complex Shibuya Sakura Stage in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.

Beauty advisors at the flagship store serve customers and an artificial intelligence diagnosis service that recommends products suited to each customer is also popular.

“It’s uncommon to be able to receive a makeup consultation for petit price products,” said a 20-year-old vocational school student said. “It’s fun,” she added.

Kate has drawn attention for its long-lasting “Lip Monster” lipstick series, and its core products are under ¥2,000 and sold mainly at drugstores.
“It is of major significance that we have a base in Shibuya, where many young people gather, to increase brand popularity,” a Kao official in charge of the store said.

South Korean cosmetics, mainly from inexpensive brands, have become more popular in the Japanese cosmetics market. France had been the top exporter of cosmetics to Japan for many years, but was overtaken by South Korea in 2022, according to the Cosmetic Importers Association of Japan.

According to research company Intage Inc., one in three people in their 10s and 20s have bought from at least one South Korean cosmetics brand.

Many inexpensive South Korean cosmetics brands come and go quickly, finding it difficult to establish their positions in Japan. What these brands have in common is the effort they put into advertising on social media with K-pop idols who are popular in Japan.

Cushion foundations, which are marketed as being quick to apply and long-lasting, first became popular with South Korean products and Japanese manufacturers are trying to catch up with them.

According to a senior official at a leading Japanese cosmetics manufacturer, the popularity of these cosmetics was created by South Korean social media, where word of mouth from consumers spread about the products’ low price and good quality.


Reviewing strategies

The size of the domestic market for inexpensive cosmetics in 2023 increased by 7.7% year on year to ¥709.9 billion, according to Fuji Keizai Group Co. This accounts for nearly one-fourth of total cosmetics sales in Japan.

The market is expected to further grow in the future. While Japanese manufacturers have focused on high-end cosmetics with a high profit margin, mainly targeting foreign tourists in Japan, they are now being forced to review their strategies.

Kose Corp.’s Visee brand released a short commercial on social media featuring a male actor popular among young people, with the aim of having it go viral.

Tokiwa Pharmaceutical Co.’s cosmetics brand Excel launched a member-exclusive website that lets users interact and ask about things such as makeup assistance. The company aims to increase the number of fans of its products through the website.

“Companies now need to not only enhance the functions and quality of their products, but also be creative in conveying that to consumers,” said Keiko Yashio, professor of marketing at Toyo Gakuen University.
 

 

Six months have passed since the introduction in April of new overtime restrictions for truck drivers. Despite much concern about the “2024 problem,” which refers to the serious shortage of truck drivers in the logistics industry, there have been few notable cases in which goods could not be transported.

However, maintaining logistics networks continues to be difficult. Small- and middle-sized companies are increasingly struggling to secure enough drivers, and cargo owners are being affected by a surge in labor costs. A growing number of transport companies have gone bankrupt due to driver shortages.


Active headhunting

“We’re facing a serious shortage of workers as fewer and fewer people want to become truck drivers,” sighed Atsushi Setoguchi, the president of Hokushow Corporation Inc. Based in Kita Ward, Tokyo, the company delivers such items as goods purchased from online grocery stores and home appliances. It operates about 150 trucks a day on weekdays.

Now, however, Hokushow has to comply with the new overtime restrictions, even amid the strong demand for deliveries this summer. Many consumers stocked up on food and daily necessities for such reasons as oncoming typhoons and the scarcity of rice.

At the same time, more and more truck drivers are being headhunted by other logistics companies because of labor shortages, so Hokushow is having a hard time securing enough staff.

Aiming to offer their employees better terms, the company is negotiating with cargo owners to increase freight charges.

However, cargo owners are also in a tough position.
According to an agricultural cooperative in Nagano Prefecture, their negotiations over rates with a company that transports agricultural products are running into problems in some regions.

According to the cooperative, the freight charges change several percent every year, but this year the transport company demanded a 40% increase.

“We understand the hard situation faced by the transport company, but we also hope they’ll understand the producers’ situation. It’s hard for us to pass the cost increase on to our customers,” an official at the cooperative said.

A fishermen’s cooperative in Hokkaido said the departure time had changed for trucks that transport marine products landed at a port. “The change made it impossible for us to ship some fish fresh, including Pacific saury. So, we have no choice but to freeze those fish, which reduces their price,” an official at the fishermen’s cooperative said.

However, there does not seem to have been serious disruptions in the transport of goods nationwide.

“We haven’t heard about particular turmoil in the logistics industry,” Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Tetsuo Saito said at a press conference in September,
This is believed to be partly due to joint transportation efforts among companies, as well as shifts to ship and rail transport.

Overtime used up

An upper limit of 960 hours per year was imposed on truck drivers’ overtime in April, but some drivers had already worked many hours of overtime to transport cargo.

“We’re worried about having used up the permitted overtime hours,” an official related to the logistics industry said. There are concerns about potential driver shortages around the end of the year.

Given this situation, the transport ministry has launched a survey concerning the working hours of truck drivers.

According to an estimate by Nomura Research Institute, Ltd., the volume of all domestic cargo that can be delivered will decline by 35% in 2030 from 2015. The transport ministry aims to construct dedicated lanes for self-driving cargo vehicles using highway median strips and other places.

However, these efforts will take a long time to bear fruit, and labor shortages in the logistics industry are expected to continue for a while.


39% go under

A growing number of logistics companies are going under. According to Teikoku Databank Ltd., 186 road transport companies went bankrupt from January to June this year, up 39.8% from the same period in 2023.

This is the second largest figure since the first half of 2009, when 218 companies went bankrupt due to the impact of the Lehman Brothers collapse.

A surge in fuel prices and labor shortages are two of the main factors behind companies shutting down. In addition to higher prices for light oil used for transportation, truck drivers are in short supply due to the limits on overtime.

To deal with the cost increase and raise wages to secure sufficient workers, logistics companies have to increase freight charges.