| Mar 14 | Prada manager in Japan loses her case for unfair dismissal (telegraph.co.uk) |
 A senior manager at Prada who claimed she was ordered to get rid of "old, fat and ugly" staff has lost her case of unfair dismissal. Rina Bovrisse, a senior retail manager at Prada Japan, sued the Italian fashion designers for harassment and discrimination after being placed on involuntary leave last November.
Ms Bovrisse, who oversaw 500 staff in 40 stores across Japan, also claimed that the chief executive wanted her to change her hairstyle and lose weight in order to fit into the company.
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| Mar 13 | Electronics makers' management aware of need for regular wage hikes (AP) |
| The management of six major electronics manufacturers showed an understanding on Saturday of unions' demand for the full implementation of regular wage hikes at this spring's annual labor- management wage negotiations. Kenji Ono of Hitachi Ltd., who represented the management during the day's talks with the Japanese Electrical Electronic & Information Union, told a news conference that as unionists' cooperation with management has been commendable, management intends to study the unions' demand. |
| Mar 13 | ABC admits tinkering with Toyota story: U.S. media (AP) |
| ABC News has acknowledged it used visuals in its story on sudden acceleration problems with Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles that did not show what was actually happening, U.S. media reported. The network's Feb. 22 story illustrated a report by David Gilbert, a Southern Illinois University professor who suggested that a design flaw in Toyotas might trigger a short circuit that would go undetected by the car's computer system, causing sudden unintended acceleration. |
| Mar 12 | Consumer product makers hope ions generate skin-care buzz (Asahi) |
 Claiming their air-purifying ion technologies can also increase moisture in the skin, consumer product makers are keen to spread the news to aging-conscious women.
Several years ago, Sharp Corp. and Panasonic Corp. began selling ion-emitting devices they say help neutralize nasty airborne particles, including viruses and allergens.
The companies have also put the new technologies--"Plasmacluster ion" from Sharp and "nanoe" from Panasonic--in air conditioners, refrigerators and other products.
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| Mar 12 | Foreign financial firms move out (Asahi) |
| Foreign financial companies in Japan are increasingly shedding their local staff and leaving the country for greener pastures elsewhere in Asia, according to a recent report by a human resources company. The report issued by Executive Search Partners Co. said that roughly 4,500 full-time employees at foreign banks, securities companies, investment funds and asset management firms lost their jobs between early 2008 and August 2009. Of that total, only about 900 found new work at foreign financial companies, while the remaining 3,600 landed jobs in other industries or remained more or less unemployed, the report estimated. |
| Mar 12 | Court takes assets from Horie's home (Japan Times) |
 The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday confiscated several items from the home of former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie in connection with a lawsuit filed against him and fellow executives over a window-dressing case involving the once high-flying Internet venture.
The items seized at the upscale Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo included a television set, a shamisen, golf clubs and a wine storage unit, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs. The items are worth ¥330,000 and will be put up for auction on April 7, with the proceeds to be distributed to plaintiffs, including individual shareholders.
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| Mar 11 | Japan steals march on fair value rules (Accountancy Age) |
| While Europe stalls, Japan has raced ahead to become the largest economy so far to take advantage of new accounting rules reformed in the wake of the banking crisis. Japanese companies began using the International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB) new fair value rules yesterday, increasing pressure on other developed nations to adopt as well. It is the first stage of a three-part revision of the fair value standard. The rules, redesigned with banks in mind, use a mixed-measurement model to value assets at either their market price or amortised cost. |
| Mar 11 | Sushi chef charged with serving illegal whale (AP) |
 Federal prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against a sushi chef and a Santa Monica restaurant on allegations that they served illegal and endangered whale meat.
Typhoon Restaurant Inc., which owns The Hump restaurant, and sushi chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, were charged with illegally selling an endangered species product, a misdemeanor.
According to a search warrant, marine mammal activists were served whale during three separate visits to the restaurant. Federal labs confirmed the meat came from a Sei whale, an endangered species protected by international treaties, documents said.
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| Mar 11 | Japanese gaming to profit from child subsidies (Times Online) |
 Japan's gambling industry is expected to be an unlikely beneficiary of a national child subsidy scheme, which aims to shower parents with cash and encourage young couples to start families.
Pachinko parlours - the cacophonous pinball arcades that claim about 23 trillion yen in illegal gambling revenues every year - are expected to perform especially well. The monthly family benefit payments are perfectly suited to fuel a couple of hours' play.
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| Mar 11 | Ibaraki Airport opens with only 1 regular daily flight to Seoul (AP) |
Ibaraki Airport opened Thursday as the third airport in the Tokyo metropolitan area, with a daily flight to and from Seoul by South Korea's Asiana Airlines serving as the only regular flight at the initial stage.
Although domestic budget carrier Skymark Airlines is scheduled to start a daily roundtrip flight between Ibaraki and Kobe from April 16, the need for the 22-billion-yen airport has been called into question as it serves only 600 people a day for the time being, even if both the Asiana and Skymark flights are operated at full capacity.
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| Mar 11 | 61 airports fall short on passengers (Asahi) |
| Sixty-one airports across the nation failed to meet projected demand in fiscal 2008, underlining a widely held belief that many were built on the basis of overly optimistic projections. Actual and predicted passenger numbers at the nation's 98 airports for fiscal 2008 were released by the transport ministry on Tuesday. Of the 69 airports with comparable demand forecasts, only eight, including Haneda, Naha and Kumamoto, cleared their targets. |
| Mar 11 | Digital billboard that watches you shop hits Japan (postchronicle.com) |
| Sci-fi is becoming reality. Did you know they now make digital billboards that capture your expression, response, age, and relevance to their product on the billboard? Digital billboards are new in Japan currently. They want to get to know their audience and consumers better by seeing people's reactions to their advertisements. This way they can create more affective advertisement. Billboards will capture you expression towards the ad. |
| Mar 11 | Yakuza gets bailout for its four-finger economy (BusinessWeek) |
| Japan's gangsters may remember 2010 as a banner year. That's not how the vast majority of Japan's 126 million people will see it. Deflation is accelerating, Japan Airlines Corp. went bankrupt and the hits at Toyota Motor Corp. keep on coming. And the year is barely 2 1/2 months old. Amid such gloom, it will soon be good to be a yakuza, a member of Japan's organized-crime syndicates. We learned this week that almost 3,000 consumer-finance companies risk being shut out of the market by the end of June as stricter rules take effect. It will be a boon for extortionate lenders. It also helps explain why Japan's central bank has virtually no chance of ending deflation. |
| Mar 11 | Call me KIX, not Kanku, Kansai Airport says (Yomiuri) |
| The operator of Kansai Airport off Osaka Prefecture aims to promote the airport code KIX as its nickname, instead of the current "Kanku." Kansai International Airport Co., which will open its remodeled international departure hall on Monday, hopes the new "smarter" nickname will help attract more customers to the airport. The airport firm registered "Kanku" as a trademark before the airport opened in 1994, but it never caught on. A mascot named Kankun was also developed for the airport. |
| Mar 10 | Kansai Int'l Airport to seek gov't support for steep debt cut (AP) |
| Kansai International Airport Co. plans to ask the government to help it trim at least 800 billion yen of its interest-bearing debts totaling more than 1 trillion yen, the president of the Osaka-based airport operator said Wednesday. Drastic improvement of the company's financial structure is the "top priority" for enabling Kansai airport to serve as an international hub for Japan, Shinichi Fukushima, 61, said in an interview with Kyodo News. |
| Mar 10 | Citigroup sells Japan ski resort to Malaysia's YTL (Reuters) |
 Citigroup Inc (C.N) has sold one of Japan's most famous ski resorts, Niseko Village, to Malaysia's YTL Corp (YTLS.KL), with the property and power conglomerate seeking to develop it into a world class summer and winter destination. Niseko Village, sold for 6 billion yen ($67 million), is popular with Chinese and Australian skiers and a mecca for domestic snowboarders due to its quality powder snow.
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| Mar 10 | Japan licks lips over donut duel (independent.co.uk) |
 A battle has broken out for the hearts and minds of Japan's notoriously sweet-toothed consumers as two of the key players in the donut market unleash their new ranges for the spring season.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, the local arm of the US donut giant, is first off the mark with a selection of four new products from March 15.
The new varieties include the Pure Banana, a shell-shaped donut with condensed milk, maple sugar and banana chips, and the Rare Cheese Cake, which comes decorated and topped with lemon sauce. The line is rounded out by the Coffee Beans donut, which has a coffee milk filling and is topped with espresso beans, and the Soy Milk Cake, an old-fashioned Krispy Kreme variety made with soy milk.
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| Mar 09 | Japan's pet food sector: Growing sales volume despite waning ad spend (media.asia) |
 Dogs come to resemble their owners, or so the saying goes. In Japan, the human population is greying, with a record 29 million of the island nation's 128 million citizens now over the age of 65, and with a life expectancy of 86.1 for females and 79.3 for males.
Likewise, more than half of Japan's dog and cats are older than seven years, and roughly 30 per cent are past the 10-year mark.
Here the mimicry ends, however. While the number of Japanese began dwindling in the mid-naughts, the number of pets has swollen. Last year, Japan had 13.6 million dogs and 11.3 million cats, a nine and 29 per cent increase respectively on 2004, according to the Japan Pet Food Association.
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| Mar 09 | Community businesses could revitalize society (Asahi) |
| The latest buzzword in Japan's policymaking circles is "community business." Basically, a community business is a solution to local challenges run as a business by local residents. The concept has recently attracted the attention of government officials and some government-supported community business projects are now up and running. A cynical view might put down the policymakers' interest to their habitual fascination with any concept with a foreign name transliterated into katakana. |
| Mar 08 | Firms in lather over skin-friendly suds (Yomiuri) |
| In a bid to burst rivals' bubbles, a number of consumer goods firms have introduced dishwashing detergents that promise to be gentle on the hands--an idea that has captured the attention of many homemakers keen to protect their skin while washing up. In 2009, domestic shipments of dishwashing detergents increased 6 percent over the previous year to 52.1 billion yen. Despite the economic slump, such shipments remained buoyant, recovering for the first time in 11 years to hit the 50 billion yen mark. |
| Mar 08 | Tokyo gets third airport (Japan Times) |
 Ibaraki Airport held an opening ceremony Sunday ahead of what will be the operational launch Wednesday of the Tokyo metropolitan area's third airport after Haneda and Narita.
The airport, Japan's 98th, was built at the Air Self-Defense Force's Hyakuri base in Omitama, Ibaraki Prefecture, about 80 km northeast of the capital.
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| Mar 06 | BHP in coal deal breakthrough (The Australian) |
BHP Billiton has made a big breakthrough in its drive to overturn the annual coking coal price-setting system, with Japanese steel mills agreeing for the first time to a quarterly contract at a 55 per cent premium to the current rate.
Unable to get BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance to accept a 12-month price, Japanese mills gave ground last night, agreeing to the Queensland producer's offer $US200/tonne for the three months to June 30.
This represents a decisive breakthrough in the BHP-led campaign to force Japanese and Korean steelmakers to give up their jealously guarded annual contract system and move to a pricing system more closely reflecting current market conditions.
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| Mar 06 | Foreign clothes chains head West in Japan (independent.co.uk) |
 Undeterred by the ongoing economic gloom and increasing competition in Japan's clothing sector, two foreign-owned chains are expanding their presence here by opening their first stores in western Japan this weekend.
Barneys New York is opening its first Japan flagship store outside Tokyo in the port city of Kobe Friday, with a special fashion collection designed in collaboration with British supermodel Agyness Deyn. Companies such as Barneys New York and H&M are taking advantage of the newfound popularity of reasonably priced clothing lines in a country that not long ago prided itself on the amount of famous brand-name goods snapped up by consumers. Today, cheaper is chic.
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| Mar 06 | Are you ready for wines from Japan? (FT.com) |
 The words "Japan, wine exporter" have a somewhat unlikely ring but that is the aim of a new organisation, Koshu of Japan, which is keen to shine an international spotlight on a grape variety that is often dismissed within its native country.
I have just made my second visit in 12 years to Yamanashi prefecture, the Bordeaux of Japan in terms of winemaking. Except it reminds me more of Switzerland than Bordeaux. Every square metre in the heavily populated Kofu basin overlooked by Mount Fuji is cosseted. Individual vineyards are tiny, partly thanks to the postwar policy, implemented by General Douglas MacArthur, who oversaw Japan's reconstruction, of weakening the powerful landowners by redistribution. Farmers are protected. Labour costs are high. And the most-planted vine variety, like the Chasselas that is known as Fendant in French-speaking Switzerland, is also a table grape.
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| Mar 06 | Kirin may raise stake to take over San Miguel (Japan Times) |
| Kirin Holdings Co. may seek control of its Philippine beer venture after dropping a planned merger with Suntory Holdings Ltd. that would have created the world's fifth-biggest food and drinks maker. "We'd like to take a majority" of San Miguel Brewery Inc. from the current 48 percent if its parent is willing to sell, Senji Miyake, who will become Kirin's president this month, said in an interview late Thursday in Tokyo. "We're not in a hurry," he said, declining to say whether they're in talks. |
| Mar 06 | Toyota fiasco a wake-up call for Japan's companies (AP) |
 Toyota's poor handling of its massive global recalls has highlighted a glaring weakness in Japan's otherwise sophisticated corporate culture: crisis management know-how.
Major companies have detailed plans for dealing with killer earthquakes or terrorist attacks but are largely unprepared to deal with disasters of their own making like product flaws that could lead to injuries or even death.
Toyota, a brand-name once synonymous with quality, has come under fire for being slow and indecisive in responding to the safety problems that ultimately led to recalls of 8.5 million vehicles worldwide.
The puzzle is why Japanese companies that confidently stride the global corporate stage could set themselves up to fail on this crucial score.
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| Mar 06 | Staggering holiday calendar could be a shot in the arm for tourism (Mainichi) |
| The Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) has compiled a proposal to stagger long holidays by region in the spring and fall, alleviating the overcrowding of transportation services and hotels and stimulating demand for domestic tourism. According to the proposal, which the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) aims to implement in 2012, some of the days that are currently designated as public holidays will be eliminated. Instead, five-day holidays that include Saturdays and Sundays will be allotted to the public by region in both spring and fall. |
| Mar 05 | Soy-sauce-flavored Kit Kats? In Japan, they're No. 1 (adage.com) |
 Western marketers are adept at catering to the tastes of Japanese consumers, with quirky products such as McDonald's Filet-O-Shrimp burgers and a cucumber-flavored soft drink by Pepsi. But Nestle has upped the ante for the most creative only-in-Japan product by creating 19 unique flavors for Kit Kat, one of the best-selling chocolate candy bars in the world and the No. 1 brand confectionery brand in Japan.
Besides the regular chocolate variety, which must seem mundane to Japanese by now, Nestle has come up with variations that reflect the local produce and palate of each region. There are some staple flavors like miso, soy sauce and green tea, but the list doesn't end there.
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| Mar 05 | MMC opts for freedom to move in rejecting Peugeot Citroen deal (Asahi) |
| Cash-strapped Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is facing renewed pressure to improve its financial standing after deciding not to form a capital alliance with France's PSA Peugeot Citroen. Opting for freedom in management, MMC dropped out of the deal because the two companies could not agree on which projects to implement after the tie-up was to take effect. DaimlerChrysler sold its entire stake in MMC in 2005. MMC still has an urgent need to bolster its financial standing, which deteriorated amid a string of defect cover-ups that surfaced in 2000. |
| Mar 04 | Toyota exposed by tactic of protecting its prince (The Australian) |
| Ario Toyoda returned from his "sorry" tour yesterday promising again to restore the automaker's quality reputation, but the question being asked at home is whether he has the qualities to lead Toyota back to the high ground. Toyota sales are recovering and its position at the top of the pile of global car companies remains, but its aura of product quality and management excellence is badly damaged. His last stop in Beijing, where the Chinese had the unusual and gratifying spectacle of a Japanese industry captain bowing in apology, was eased by local executives revealing that Toyota's Chinese vehicle sales grew 30 per cent year-on-year in February. |
| Mar 04 | Small is beautiful: Japan's hand-made electric cars (AFP) |
 While auto manufacturing giants spend millions to develop environmentally-friendly electric cars, one Japanese company has taken a more low-key approach, crafting hand-made "green" cars.
Takeoka Jidosha Kogei may be the antithesis of the world's Hondas and Nissans. The family-run business makes its cars from scratch in a garage workshop in the snowy foothills in the northwest of the country.
There are no industrial robots or assembly lines in sight. Instead just a dozen mechanics crafting each model by hand, right up to the finishing touch of adding a set of beady headlights to their "Milieu" range.
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| Mar 04 | Britain postpones Hitachi train contract (Asahi) |
| Britain has postponed signing a contract with Hitachi Ltd. for a train project worth more than 1 trillion yen ($11.21 billion) until after the general election expected in May. The signing had been scheduled for mid-March, but Britain's Department for Transport cited a deterioration in the environment for borrowing funds and a slowdown in growth of passenger numbers. In February 2009, Hitachi acquired preferential negotiating rights for the Intercity Express Program contract to supply about 1,400 train cars for main trunk lines in Britain between 2013 and 2018, plus up to 30 years of maintenance. |
| Mar 04 | Japanese whisky voted best in the world (oneindia.in) |
 Forget Scotch whisky, for the alcoholic beverage making to the top is Japanese whisky. Yoichi 20 years old, distilled on the shores of the Sea of Japan, has become the first variety produced outside Scotland to win the coveted single malt award in an international competition run by Whisky Magazine, the main industry publication. The whisky, distilled near the city of Sapporo on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, beat dozens of other varieties, including last year's winner, Talisker 18 years old, produced on the Isle of Skye.
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| Mar 04 | Bluefin tuna seen becoming expensive (Yomiuri) |
Atlantic bluefin tuna is one of this country's most popular foods, but it might very soon become too expensive to eat.
It has become increasingly likely that Atlantic bluefin will be designated as an endangered species at a meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Washington Convention to be held in Qatar starting March 13, resulting in a ban on imports and exports of the fish.
Japan currently imports about 80 percent of its Atlantic bluefin catch quota of about 23,900 tons and therefore strongly opposes the plan. However, the international situation is not at all favorable for Japan.
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| Mar 03 | Toyota protecting share of China market (Yomiuri) |
| In the wake of massive recalls of its vehicles worldwide and mounting criticism in the United States, Toyota Motor Corp. moved quickly in China, the world's largest auto market, with President Akio Toyoda offering an apology for mass recalls. Toyoda stopped over in Beijing on his way back home from the United States, where he testified at a congressional hearing, and held a press conference Monday to speak to the Chinese media about Toyota's latest recalls. The beleaguered automaker aims to restore trust in Toyota vehicles, and in his remarks in China, touted the company's corporate principle to make safety its top priority in an effort to stop public concerns from growing. |
| Mar 03 | Department stores struggling / Yet another industrial reorganization appears inevitable (Yomiuri) |
| Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co., a product of the merger of two leading department stores--Daimaru Inc. and Matsuzakaya Co.--began operations Monday, aimed at boosting its purchase of of merchandise and streamlining its operations. Yet a similarly, large-scale reorganization of leading department stores, such as Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings under which Mitsukoshi Ltd. and Isetan Co. have integrated their management, has brought about few tangible effects. As fears have begun to be voiced over the survival of department stores, which have lost the support of many consumers with the rise in popularity of mass retailers selling products such as clothing and home electrical appliances, some experts have said the entire distribution industry will need to reorganize itself. |
| Mar 03 | Home solar panel market heats up thanks to power buy-back deals (Yomiuri) |
| Energy-efficient houses, in particular those equipped with solar panels, are growing in popularity as home buyers seek out environmentally-friendly options. One factor behind the rising demand for eco-friendly houses was apparently the start in November of a system in which electric power companies buy surplus electric power from such households at 48 yen per kilowatt--double the previous price. In June, a 34-year-old company employee in Osaka Prefecture built a two-story house that incorporates light steel bars that he fitted with solar panels capable of creating up to 3.4 kilowatts of electric power. All energy consumed in the house is powered by electricity, most of which is generated by the panels. |
| Mar 02 | Toyota repairing leaky oil hoses in US, Japan (AP) |
 Toyota is repairing more than 1.6 million vehicles around the world, including the U.S. and Japan, for potentially leaky oil hoses - the latest in a spate of quality problems battering the world's biggest automaker.
The fix affects 1.3 million vehicles in North America, including repairs that have yet to be officially announced on 100,000 Highlander crossovers and 215,000 Sienna minivans, Toyota Motor Corp. spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said Tuesday.
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| Mar 02 | City, travel agency agree on financial help for theme park (AP) |
| Sasebo City concluded an agreement on Monday to provide about 900 million yen annually over 10 years to major travel agency H.I.S. Co. to help it rebuild struggling theme park Huis Ten Bosch in the Nagasaki Prefecture city. At a press conference after the ceremony, H.I.S. Chairman Hideo Sawada said he will assume the post of president of a new company to operate the theme park and live in Sasebo to lead the turnaround efforts for the park. |
| Mar 02 | Attorney glut may hit foreign firms (Japan Times) |
 One of the interesting things about being part of Japan's new law school system and its role in greatly increasing the number of Japanese attorneys is this: Nobody seems to have bothered asking the Japanese people if they actually need more attorneys. The original target of increasing the number of people allowed to pass the annual Japanese bar exam to 3,000 by 2010 was based on a government target of achieving an attorney-to- population ratio comparable to France by the turn of the decade. (Why France? Nobody seems to know.)
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| Mar 02 | Retailing giant Daimaru Matsuzakaya opens doors (Japan Times) |
Retailing giant Daimaru Matsuzakaya opened for business Monday, bringing to fruition the 2007 mega-merger between department store chains Daimaru Inc. and Matsuzakaya Co. The new chain, which combined under holding firm J. Front Retailing Co., will take over strategic planning and product procurement duties from J. Front to save costs amid the current deflation.
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| Mar 01 | JAL to solicit record 2,700 applications for early retirement (AP) |
| Japan Airlines Corp. said Monday it will solicit around 2,700 employee applications for an early retirement program as it aims to turn itself around through heavy restructuring under a state-led process. The target is the largest ever for the company's early retirement program. The staged application process will start from Friday. Japan's biggest airline, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19, eventually plans to cut around 15,700 jobs, or about 30 percent of its group workforce, by the business year through March 2013. |
| Mar 01 | Toyota chief apologizes to Chinese consumers for global recall (AP) |
| Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda apologized to Chinese consumers Monday for his company's massive vehicle recalls around the world. The Japanese automaker vows to prevent a recurrence of similar problems, he said at a press conference in Beijing, adding it plans to appoint a chief quality officer for the Chinese market as part of its efforts. "I apologize to you from the bottom of my heart for causing concern and trouble in connection with Toyota's recalls around the world including in China," he said. |
| Mar 01 | Newspapers lead online charge (Yomiuri) |
| An increasing number of domestic newspapers have started charging readers for their online content. The newspapers hope to attract new readers by providing more specialized and detailed articles online, with the aim of making such services a pillar of their business operations. Nikkei Inc., which publishes the Nikkei business daily, will launch a fee-based online service on March 23 in which subscribers can access news flashes and articles carried in the newspaper's morning and evening editions. |
| Mar 01 | Novel car-loan scheme booming (Yomiuri) |
| An increasing number of people are turning to a type of car loan in which the subsequent trade-in price of the new vehicle is deducted from the initial loan, on the condition that the owner sells the vehicle back to the dealer a few years later. To give a concrete example, a buyer will promise a car dealer that he or she will sell the car to the dealer after three years or so, when buying another new car. A loan is then determined based on the price of the new car minus the predicted trade-in price of the car. |
| Mar 01 | Best Denki to slash 1,000 more jobs (Japan Times) |
| Electric appliance retail chain Best Denki Co. plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, or nearly 20 percent of its workforce, by soliciting early retirements and curbing new hiring to aid its restructuring efforts, sources said. The Fukuoka-based retailer has around 5,500 employees nationwide. The plan could be announced as early as Monday. |
| Feb 28 | JAL can't curb business meltdown (Yomiuri) |
| Friday's announcement that Japan Airlines Corp. suffered a record 46.7 billion yen after-tax loss during the October-December period has cast a spotlight on the beleaguered carrier's inability to turn its business around as travelers stay away amid the ongoing economic recession. JAL's consolidated after-tax loss was significantly larger than those it recorded in the previous two quarters. It was mainly attributed to a decline in the average per-passenger revenue from international flights--the company's bread and butter--which dropped 35 percent from the same period in the previous year. The airline said lower fuel surcharges and the yen's appreciation also contributed to the greater loss. |
| Feb 28 | The business of pets (Japan Times) |
 Japan's pet boom over the last decade has brought considerable benefits to the nation's economy. At the same time, however, it has led to problems involving both unscrupulous breeders and traders. While consumer sales in general have remained stagnant through Japan's protracted economic downturn of the last two decades, the pet-related market has been expanding, according to data from market-research firm Fuji Keizai Co.
In fact, according to Shinpei Iwama, a researcher at the company's Osaka branch, the pet industry nationwide topped ¥1 trillion in turnover in 2006 and has now reached ¥1.2 trillion.
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| Feb 27 | Shifting plans for Japan Post (Japan Times) |
| The government plans to modify the process of privatizing Japan Post group, meaning people must continue to wait to find out how the services they rely on will be affected. In October the government outlined a basic policy of requiring Japan Post to make not only postal services but also banking and insurance services available nationwide on an equitable basis. A bill passed in December froze sales of government-held stocks in Japan Post Holdings Co. and its associated postal bank and insurance firms. |
| Feb 26 | Outlet malls gaining popularity in Japan (Channel NewsAsia) |
 Outlet malls have become popular in Japan, as people become more budget conscious.
But the shops are usually located in remote suburbs, and may not be easy to get to. However, one shopping centre in Tokyo has brought outlet shopping to the city.
The shopping complex re-creates medieval Europe. It opened in 1999, with around 160 boutiques and restaurants. But in December, the entire third floor was renovated to accommodate close to 50 outlet shops - a first for Tokyo.
The nearest train station is just a walking distance away. That is the positive aspect of this new outlet mall.
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