Japan's leading lingerie firm Wacoal Holdings Corp., has announced acquisition of Eveden, the UK-based specialist in designing and manufacturing high quality, fashion conscious lingerie and swimwear for D+ sizes, for a sum of around £150 million.
Wacoal said it will utilize its cash reserves and secure bank loans to purchase all shares of the Kettering, Northamptonshire-based company. (fibre2fashion.com)
Japan's Wacoal buys UK lingerie firm Eveden
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Swimming: Kitajima eyes home rivals in Olympics bid
Japan's four-time Olympic swimming champion Kosuke Kitajima thinks the challenge from his compatriots is tougher than ever, as he bids to qualify for the London Games and go for a third consecutive golden double.
The 29-year-old, who retained the 100m and 200m Olympic breaststroke titles at the 2008 Beijing Games, must finish first or second in each distance at the Japanese national championships starting Monday to book a ticket to London.
(Bangkok Post)
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Interactive 'posters' from Japan will react to being kissed
If you've ever been to Tokyo or any other large Japanese city, you'll have noticed the huge variety of billboards plastering the urban landscape, often featuring the month's most popular idol. Now researchers at Keio University are working on a system that will allow passers-by to interact with said posters via an ultrasound sensor setup. (theverge.com)
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Tokyo stocks advance on weaker yen, muted reaction to Tankan survey
Tokyo stocks gained ground Monday, snapping a three-day losing streak, as a weaker yen against other major currencies added to hope for robust corporate earnings, while investors reacted little to weaker-than-expected results of the Bank of Japan's Tankan business sentiment survey.
(Mainichi)
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Firms kick off fiscal 2012 with 800,000 new recruits
An estimated 800,000 new employees marked their first day at work Monday, the first day of fiscal 2012, after prevailing in a difficult job-hunting season exacerbated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
As of Feb. 1, 80.5 percent of college students had found jobs ahead of graduation in March, up 3.1 points from the previous year, when the figure fell to its lowest since 2000, when comparable data first became available, the labor ministry said.
(Japan Times)
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Boy, 3, crushed in Osaka parking elevator accident
A 3-year-old boy died after being crushed in an automobile elevator in a parking garage at an apartment complex in Ibaraki, Osaka, on Monday, police said.
The boy's mother, 40, whose name is being withheld, was operating the elevator to bring their the car up from its underground parking space, police said, adding they are trying to determine how the accident happened.
(Japan Times)
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It's Japan vs. Korea with launch of Samsung Display, Japan Display
On Monday, two newly created juggernauts in the display business, Samsung Display and Japan Display, began operations, each staking a claim to the title of world's largest display maker.
In one stroke of the pen, Samsung created one of the world's largest display companies on Sunday night, spinning off Samsung Display Co. with its inauguration ceremony. The company has begun business operations, representatives said. Samsung announced the decision in February.
(pcmag.com)
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New data show Fukushima radiation moved rapidly out into Pacific Ocean
American and Japanese scientists say they have found elevated levels of radioactive cesium throughout a 150,000 square kilometer area of the Pacific Ocean off Japan.
Scientists say some radioactive cesium levels in seawater are higher farther away than adjacent to Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.
(pcmag.com)
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Japan's untouchable workers
There are actually three types of people discriminated against in Japan's permanent underclass: the Ainu, the Burakumin and Koreans. The Ainu were the indigenous people of the island of Hokkaido who were dominated for centuries by the Japanese. They were officially declared no longer indigenous in 1899, and their land subsumed into greater Japan. Many have assimilated, but thousands remain in ghettos on the outskirts of Hokkaido's cities. (indypendent.org)
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Honda Recalls SUVs
Honda Motor Co. (HMC) revealed that it would recall 554,000 units of CR-V compact SUVs and Pilot large SUVs due to a problem with their headlight wiring. The CR-Vs belong to the 2002-2004 model year and Pilots to 2003.
The automaker detected potential flaws with the headlight switch in some of the vehicles. The flaw could lead to blacking out of low-beam headlights, thereby increasing the risk of a crash. However, the company has not yet received any reports of injuries or crashes related to the problem.
(zacks.com)
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Little houses crammed in a big city
The neighborhood of Minami Senju in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward is serviced by three train lines that provide easy, quick access to all parts of the city and beyond. East of these lines is an area called Shioiri, highlighted by a relatively new urban development complex centered around high-rise condominiums and rental apartments. (Japan Times)
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Taiji museum holds memorial service for dead whale
A whale museum in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, held a memorial service Monday for a whale that died there shortly after its birth in fiscal 2011.
Katsuki Hayashi, the general manager of the museum, said that recent improvements in workers' skills at the facility have minimized the number of animal deaths.
(Japan Times)
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SDF to send 450 to Ishigaki to man rocket interceptors
The Defense Ministry will send 450 Self-Defense Force personnel to Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture to intercept a North Korean rocket if it poses a danger to Japan, ministry sources said Monday.
The government thinks the possibility of the rocket or its debris falling on Japanese territory is low but is taking preparatory steps anyway.
Under the plan, 200 others will go to Miyako Island in connection with the deployment of ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors, mainly in Okinawa, the sources said. (Japan Times)
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Toshiba exits mobile phone business
Toshiba Corp. has pulled out of the mobile phone business by selling its 19.9 percent stake in Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications Ltd. to Fujitsu Ltd., the two companies said Monday.
The company, which sells and markets mobile handsets, was originally set up in October 2010 by taking over Toshiba's mobile phone operations. It has since been renamed Fujitsu Mobile Communications Ltd. and is now under the full control of Fujitsu.
(Japan Times)
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Struggling electronics makers hit reset button
Some of the nation's biggest electronics firms are seeking fresh starts this spring under new presidents brought in to tackle the difficult task of re-establishing their slumping TV businesses in the competitive global market.
Sony Corp., now headed by Executive Deputy President Kazuo Hirai, who replaced Howard Stringer on Sunday, has already begun taking steps to turn around its ailing TV business, which is likely to post its eighth consecutive year in the red.
(Japan Times)
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Keene should engage brain before fueling 'flyjin,' foreign crime myths
Congratulations to Donald Keene, who was granted Japanese citizenship last month with great media fanfare. At 89 years young and after a lifetime contributing to world scholarship on Japan, he truly deserves it.
Unfortunately, while receiving all the kudos, Keene demonstrated that he had fallen for two of Japan's media-manufactured myths about non-Japanese (NJ) residents: 1) that they are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in Japan, and 2) that they fled Japan (as "flyjin") in disproportionate numbers due to the Tohoku disasters.
(Japan Times)
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DPJ lawmaker's resignation reveals divisions
Divisions within the ruling Democratic Party of Japan deepened Monday as a lawmaker resigned in a show of defiance against Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's key bill to double the consumption tax to 10 percent.
Takatane Kiuchi, a DPJ freshman and follower of DPJ kingpin Ichiro Ozawa, said his boss advocated "waiting for a while," but in the end he decided he couldn't stay in a party that was pushing for a sales tax hike without taking other reforms to cut costs.
(Japan Times)
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Gloomy 'tankan' surprises market
The pessimism reigning among large manufacturers remained firmly entrenched in the Bank of Japan's quarterly "tankan" survey Monday, underscoring persistent concerns about the yen's appreciation and Europe's sovereign credit risk.
The business index for major manufacturers - companies capitalized at ¥1 billion or more - remained at minus 4 from the previous tankan in December. A negative number means there is more pessimism than optimism among those surveyed about the state of their business.
(Japan Times)
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Insight: Dynamic CEOs defy Japan Inc's decline
When Yusaku Maezawa quit playing drums in a punk band to devote himself full-time to his business selling Tokyo street fashion on the Internet, his main goal was to have fun.
Twelve years later, Maezawa, 36, is the billionaire CEO of online fashion retailer Start Today, one of a clutch of growing firms led by a different breed of executives determined to avoid the errors of the global Japanese brands whose faltering fortunes are making Japan Inc synonymous with decline.
(Reuters)
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Japan PM to hold off decision to restart reactors
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will meet three cabinet members on Tuesday to discuss restarting two offline reactors amid concern about a summer power crunch but will not make any immediate decision, the top government spokesman said.
Concerns still run deep about nuclear safety in Japan after the Fukushima crisis just over a year ago.
(Reuters)
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