Japan

[ad_1] Japan’s major telecom carrier KDDI is planning to raise its stake in Lawson to 50% to jointly run the convenience chain with an aim to take advantage of Lawson’s nationwide retail store network and customer base while offering technology to transform the business model, the two firms said Tuesday.KDDI currently holds 2.1% of Lawson shares but will invest about ¥500 billion ($3.4 billion) to increase its stake through a […]

[ad_1] Karolina Shiino, the Ukraine-born winner of last month’s Miss Japan contest, has relinquished her title, the contest organizer said Monday, following a magazine report that she was having an affair with a married man.It is the first time a Miss Japan winner has relinquished their title. The organizer said the post will be vacant for the year.Shukan Bunshun reported last Wednesday that Shiino, 26, was dating a doctor who […]

[ad_1] U.S. President Joe Biden is winning the trade war with China judging by election campaign rival and former U.S. President Donald Trump’s favorite metric. The rub: It’s an increasingly flawed measure of the world’s most important economic relationship.Figures due Wednesday are set to show the U.S. deficit in goods trade with China in 2023 at its lowest annual level since 2010, when demand was soggy in the wake of […]

[ad_1] Prime Minister Fumio Kishida denied Tuesday that corporate donations to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party had a direct relationship on party policy and argued that the donations are a legal form of political activity under the Constitution.In addition, during Tuesday’s questioning, Kishida’s education minister, Masahito Moriyama, did not deny that he may have received support from a group affiliated with the former Unification Church, an admission that could cause […]

[ad_1] Nintendo has raised its forecast for Switch console sales and profit for the year after reporting better-than-expected earnings for the holiday quarter.The Kyoto-based company now expects to sell 15.5 million Switch units in the fiscal year ending in March, up from 15 million, and it also raised its revenue, operating profit and net income guidance.The December quarter’s operating profit of ¥184.5 billion ($1.2 billion) beat the average analyst estimate […]

[ad_1] Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref. – In the aftermath of a magnitude 7.6 earthquake that rocked central Japan on New Year's Day, uncertainty prevails among foreign residents in the region who have had homes damaged or jobs paused, but widespread support is helping to ease anxiety.Ian Lawrence, an American in his fifth year of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme and a prefectural advisor for Ishikawa, has credited the "phenomenal […]

[ad_1] BEIRUT – Like many fellow residents of a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Shady Choucair despaired when he heard last week that countries had halted their funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)."It's a disaster. We were able to survive off the help we got from UNRWA," he said in his small grocery store in the Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut, where he has lived with his […]

[ad_1] The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden embraced a plan from India’s government last year to edge China out of its position as a leader in making ingredients for generic pharmaceuticals sold in the U.S., but a new report shows that many of those ingredients are likely still coming from China.America’s reliance on China for drug ingredients has raised alarm bells in Congress. House committees will hold two hearings […]

[ad_1] LAHORE/KARACHI, Pakistan – Days before Pakistan's Feb. 8 election, a masked and headscarf-clad Komal Asghar led a team of similarly dressed women through alleys in the eastern city of Lahore.Their mission: to knock on doors and distribute campaign pamphlets adorned with photos of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.Asghar, a 25-year-old insurance company employee, gave up her day job for a month to canvass for Khan's embattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf […]