A follow up from last week’s story about SMAP’s big donation. According to Softbank, Japan’s richest man, CEO Masayoshi Son has offered to donate 10 billion yen, or about USD$120 million, to the Japan Red Cross, and other organizations that are working to provide support for those devastated by the recent earthquake and tsunami.

Son [...]

I haven’t seen any figures in the last few days, but up until earlier in the week there were an estimated 350,000 people in North-East Japan who have been evacuated to shelters. Some of these are people in Fukushima prefecture that have been evacuated from their homes due to radiation from the Fukushim Dai-ichi nuclear [...]

Every year, New York based consultants Interbrand release a list of the world’s 100 best brands based on such elements as financial strength, influence on purchasing decisions, and earnings potential. This year, while Coca Cola was the ‘best global brand’, Toyota remained Japan’s top brand around the world, in spite of a drop compared to [...]

The Wall Street Journal reported the other day that the Toyota Prius hybrid will this year become the best selling model in a calendar year, beating out the 20 year record of the Toyota Corolla. The Corolla marked 300,008 vehicles in sales in 1990, and so far this year (to November) the Prius has already [...]

One of the most frustrating parts of living in Japan, especially if you work in a Japanese office, is the fact that 125 million people take their vacations all at the same time. And short ones at that. If you are a foreigner, you may get away with asking for a long vacation at an [...]

Job offers for graduating job seekers as of October 1 were down to 62.5%, which is almost level with the lowest marks of 60.2% and 61.3% from 2003 and 2004 respectively, which were the lowest marks of the last decade and a half. But the rate of decline from a year earlier (7.4%) is greater [...]

Major restaurants always covet Michelin stars, one of the food industry’s premiere signs of success. The latest edition of the Michelin Guide shows that Tokyo restaurants now have a total of 261 stars for 197 different restaurants. Eleven of these restaurants have three stars, and the Tokyo total is triple that of nearest competitor Paris, making the [...]

Japanese electronics company JVC Kenwood Holdings are in talks with software giant Konami to sell their music division, Victor Entertainment. Negotiations are under way for the sale of a majority share to Konami, after JVC had apparently also felt out market leader Universal Music. The deal, [...]

A Kyodo news report yesterday proclaimed that 1 in 7 Japanese people were living in poverty, according to a Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare release. This was the first time that the ministry has released such figures, which were calculated in accordance with the calculation methods used [...]

When workers get their year-end bonuses this year, they are likely to find them a liittle lighter than usual. For the first time in 7 years, companies listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange will cut bonus payments by 13.1%, the steepest such cut since records began in 1970.

Year end bonuses will [...]