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84756a7a4c1b0aad0ae062290a566000 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-osprey-crash-idUSKBN14302J | U.S. grounds Osprey aircraft in Japan after Okinawa crash | U.S. grounds Osprey aircraft in Japan after Okinawa crash
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States military on Wednesday grounded its tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey aircraft in Japan after Tokyo called for a halt to flights following a crash southwest of Okinawa island, the first accident involving the aircraft in the Asian nation.
The aircraft has become a lightning rod for opposition to the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, with local groups seeking the closure of American bases saying it is prone to crash and poses a danger to residents.
A U.S.-operated Osprey ditched into the sea on Tuesday, injuring its crew of five after a hose connected to the aircraft broke during a refueling exercise.
Images of the scene aired by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK showed the aircraft broke into several pieces in waters close to the coast.
“No flights in Japan are planned today,” said a U.S. Marine Corps spokesman in Okinawa. The U.S. military was still investigating the cause of the crash, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described as “regrettable” on Wednesday.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
The Osprey, built by Boeing Co BA.N and Textron Inc's TXT.N Bell Helicopter and designed to take off like a helicopter and rotate its propellers to fly like a plane, has suffered a series of incidents in other parts of the world prior to the crash in Okinawa.
The United States says it has two Osprey squadrons in Japan, although it does not disclose the precise number of aircraft. A squadron typically comprises between 12 to 24 aircraft.
“We regret the accident, but we do not regret the work of our young pilots,” Lieutenant General Lawrence D. Nicholson, the USMC commander on Okinawa, told a news briefing on the island broadcast by NHK.
The first Osprey crash in Japan could further delay plans to relocate some U.S. forces on the island and comes amid a surge in resentment over U.S. bases after an American civilian working for the military was arrested this year over the murder of a 20-year-old Japanese woman.
Okinawa, which was under U.S. occupation until 1972, hosts the bulk of the approximately 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan.
Reporting by Tim Kelly, Kaori Kaneko and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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739ea5e0da80c8b28ddfa2681ce0983d | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-panda-idCAKBN1ED0GC?edition-redirect=ca | Lucky lottery winners get first peek at Japan's baby panda | Lucky lottery winners get first peek at Japan's baby panda
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Slideshow ( 2 images )
TOKYO (Reuters) - The lucky winners of a Japanese lottery got their first live glimpse of baby panda Xiang Xiang on Tuesday, but others had to settle for watching the six-month-old cub and her mum on video livestreamed by the capital’s Ueno Zoo.
The zoo’s longest-surviving baby panda in nearly three decades munched bamboo and cuddled with her mother, Shin Shin, while adoring visitors squealed, “She’s cute,” and took pictures with smartphones before being hustled out.
“For me, the panda is the king of the zoo,” said Takamichi Masui, 50, who queued nearly three hours to be the first person to see Xiang Xiang.
The healthy female cub was born in June, five years after her mother lost another cub within days of its birth.
Xiang Xiang, whose name is written with the Chinese character for ‘fragrant’, was small enough at birth to fit in the palm of a hand. She now has typical panda markings and weighs around 12 kilograms (26 lb).
More than 18,000 people applied for 2,000 lottery slots to see the panda on Tuesday, NHK public TV said. There are 144 applicants competing for each available slot on Dec. 23, the first public holiday when Xiang Xiang may be viewed.
Reporting Megumi Lim, Linda Sieg and Olivier Fabre; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b19d06c2ba521c453267d587440d301b | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-pensions-attacks-idUSKBN0OH1OP20150601 | Japan pension system hacked, 1.25 million cases of personal data leaked | Japan pension system hacked, 1.25 million cases of personal data leaked
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Toichiro Mizushima (L), president of the Japan Pension Service, bows as he offers an apology during a news conference in Tokyo, in this photo taken by Kyodo June 1, 2015. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s pension system has been hacked and more than a million cases of personal data leaked, authorities said on Monday, in an embarrassment that revived memories of a scandal that helped topple Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his first term in office.
Japan Pension Service staff computers were improperly accessed by an external email virus, leading to the leak of some 1.25 million cases of personal data, the system’s president, Toichiro Mizushima, told a hastily called news conference.
He apologized for the leak, which he said involved combinations of names, identification numbers, birth dates and addresses.
The pension service was setting up a team to investigate the cause and prevent a recurrence, Mizushima said.
“These are the people’s vital pensions. I have instructed Health and Welfare Minister (Yasuhisa) Shiozaki to consider the pension recipients and do everything possible,” Abe told reporters in brief remarks aired on NHK public television, which featured the data leak as the evening’s top news story.
Separately, Shiozaki apologized for failing to prevent the hacking and told a news conference he had instructed the Japan Pension Service to set top priority on protecting the public’s pensions.
Public outrage over botched record-keeping that left millions of pension premium payments unaccounted for was a major factor in a devastating defeat suffered by Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party in a 2007 election for parliament’s upper house.
Abe, whose first cabinet also lost several cabinet ministers to other scandals and gaffes, including one who committed suicide, resigned in September of that year in the face of parliamentary deadlock and ill health.
Writing by William Mallard and Linda Sieg; Editing by Robert Birsel and Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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a689dfc45293f9250d9ee049a41bd2ec | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-philippines-duterte-idUSKCN12Q09D | Philippines' Duterte tells Japan his China visit was just economics, blasts U.S. | Philippines' Duterte tells Japan his China visit was just economics, blasts U.S.
By Kiyoshi Takenaka, Linda Sieg5 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sought to assure Japan on Wednesday that his high-profile visit to China last week was about economics, not security, and vowed to stand on Tokyo’s side over the disputed South China Sea when the time came.
Earlier in the day, Duterte reiterated his harsh words for long-time ally Washington, saying he might end defense treaties.
The volatile Philippine leader’s visit to Japan comes amid jitters about his foreign policy goals after weeks of verbal attacks on ally the United States and overtures toward China.
Duterte last week announced in China his “separation” from the United States, but then insisted ties were not being severed and that he was merely pursuing an independent foreign policy.
His perplexing comments pose a headache for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has tightened ties with Washington while building closer security relations with Manila and other Southeast Asian countries as a counter-weight to a rising China.
“You know I went to China for a visit. And I would like to assure you that all there was, was economics. We did not talk about arms. We avoided talking about alliances,” he told an audience of Japanese businessmen.
Duterte, speaking through a Japanese interpreter at the start of his talks with Abe, later said he would stand on Japan’s side in the contentious matter of the South China Sea.
Related CoverageJapan PM welcomes Duterte's efforts to improve Philippines-China tiesPhilippines, U.S. to determine fate of joint exercises next month
Describing Japan as a “special friend who is closer than a brother”, Duterte said after the meeting that Manila would work closely with Japan on regional issues of common concern and uphold the values of democracy, the rule of law and peaceful settlement of disputes including the South China Sea.
Reading from a statement, he added: “Today we have taken steps to ensure that our ties remain vibrant and will gain greater strength in the years to come.”
INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY
Both Tokyo and Washington have grown worried that the commitment under Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino, to stand up to China in the South China Sea is under threat, although Japan has no direct territorial row with Beijing there.
Japan has a separate dispute with China over tiny, uninhabited isles in the East China Sea, and has been keen to stress the importance of the rule of law.
Abe, for his part, said he welcomed Duterte’s efforts to improve Manila’s ties with Beijing and - noting the South China Sea issue was one of international interest - said the two leaders had agreed on the importance of settling maritime disputes peacefully.
Slideshow ( 14 images )
Aquino angered China by lodging a case with an arbitration court in the Hague challenging the legitimacy of Beijing’s maritime claims in the resource-rich sea. The court’s ruling in July emphatically favored Manila but was rejected by China, which has warned Washington and Tokyo to stay out of the feud.
Duterte earlier told an audience of Japanese business executives he did not pick quarrels with his neighbors, but had tough words for Washington.
“I have declared that I will pursue an independent foreign policy. I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops. I want them out,” he said.
Slideshow ( 14 images )
“And if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, this shall be the last maneuver, war games between the United States and the Philippines military.”
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion worth of trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims on the sea, believed to have rich oil and gas deposits.
Duterte has threatened to abrogate defense agreements with the United States several times but has yet to take any concrete action beyond cancelling some minor navy patrol exercises.
In a pattern already becoming familiar, Duterte’s foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, tried to soothe concerns raised by the president’s remarks. He told a news conference that Manila would respect treaty obligations as long as mutual interests converged.
Japan and the Philippines also signed notes on two yen loan projects worth up to 21.4 billion yen ($205 million), including one to build two patrol boats for the Philippine Coast Guard to boost its capacity for search and rescue and law enforcement.
Additional reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz and Manolo Serapio Jr in MANILA and Elaine Lies and Minami Funakoshi in Tokyo; Writing by Martin Petty and Linda Sieg; Editing by Michael Perry and Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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68629df909c9e97c3b1546f9370ece3d | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-plutonium-usa-idUSBREA2421A20140305 | U.S. defends Japan against China's plutonium criticism | U.S. defends Japan against China's plutonium criticism
By Fredrik Dahl4 Min Read
VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States and China disagreed over Japan’s plutonium stocks at a U.N. nuclear agency meeting on Wednesday, with Washington saying it did not share Beijing’s concern about the sensitive issue, diplomats said.
China expressed concern about the size of Japan’s plutonium holdings at a board session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), diplomats who attended closed-door discussions at the U.N. body said. Russia voiced similar views, they said.
Like uranium, plutonium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, but can also provide material for nuclear bombs.
The U.S. ambassador to the IAEA made clear his country was not worried about Japan’s treatment of the material.
“We are not at all concerned that the plutonium is either being handled improperly or that there isn’t a plan for disposition,” Ambassador Joseph Macmanus told reporters.
He later told the board, according to one diplomat, that “we do not share the concerns expressed” by China last month.
On February 17, Beijing said it was “extremely concerned” by a report that Japan has resisted returning to the United States more than 300 kg (660 lb) of mostly weapons-grade plutonium.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency said the United States had pressed Japan to give back the nuclear material, which could be used to make up to 50 nuclear bombs. Japan had balked, but finally given in to U.S. demands, Kyodo said.
The material was bought for research purposes during the 1960s and the two governments will probably reach an official agreement on its return at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague in March, an official at Japan’s Education Ministry said.
Nuclear-armed China is involved in a bitter territorial dispute with Japan. It denies Japanese accusations that it is a threat to peace and in turn has accused Japan of trying to rearm and failing to learn the lessons of its brutal behavior during World War Two, when Japanese forces occupied China.
NO IAEA CONCERN EITHER
Japan, the world’s only target of atomic bombs, in the final stages of World War Two, does not have nuclear weapons, and says it will not seek to obtain them.
Japan has plutonium contained in spent nuclear fuel at civil reactor and reprocessing sites, totaling 159 metric tons at the end of 2012, according to Japanese data posted on the IAEA website.
Macmanus said “plutonium and the disposition of plutonium stocks” was a central element of what he called a very successful diplomatic and energy partnership with Japan.
“We are satisfied that Japan understands what the conditions are for the use and the maintenance of those stocks and we are not concerned,” he told reporters.
In his statement to the board, he was quoted as saying that one goal of a U.S.-Japan nuclear security working group was to reduce quantities of weapons-usable nuclear material in Japan, and that this cooperation has been “successfully ongoing for decades”. He said Japan had been “consistently” transparent about its plutonium inventory.
IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano earlier this week also said there was no reason for concern that plutonium held by Japan could be diverted for nuclear arms purposes.
Editing by Alistair LyonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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a3c3b622eb858fec6f7844ea972125e6 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-pokemon/gotta-catch-em-snores-pokemon-sleep-app-to-launch-next-year-idUKKCN1SZ05A?edition-redirect=uk | Gotta catch 'em snores: Pokemon sleep app to launch next year | Gotta catch 'em snores: Pokemon sleep app to launch next year
By Sam Nussey3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s the Pokemon Company said on Wednesday it was developing “Pokemon Sleep”, a mobile app that tracks players’ sleep and uses the data for gameplay, with a release date set for next year.
Tsunekazu Ishihara, chief executive of the Pokemon Company, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan May 29, 2019. REUTERS/Sam Nussey
“We want to turn sleep into entertainment,” said Tsunekazu Ishihara, chief executive of the Pokemon Company, which helps manage the Pokemon franchise, at an event in Tokyo.
At the same event, Kyoto-based Nintendo Co Ltd said it was developing a sleep-tracking successor to its Pokemon Go Plus device, which allows users to “catch” Pokemon without taking out their smartphones.
Augmented reality smartphone game “Pokemon Go”, developed by San Francisco-based Niantic Inc, became a worldwide phenomenon after its launch in 2016 as players spilled out from living rooms onto the streets to hunt for Pokemon.
The Pokemon Company was set up with investment from gaming companies Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures. Spanning products including videos games, movies and soft toys, Pokemon is a home-grown contender for a Disney-style pop culture empire.
The first two Pokemon titles launched on the Nintendo Game Boy handheld console in 1996. Since then, the game series has sold more than 340 million units worldwide.
Pokemon Sleep will use data points like how long the user slept and when they awoke, to change gameplay - though the Pokemon Company did not elaborate on how gameplay would change.
The title could help entrench Pokemon’s appeal beyond core gamers and tap into a growing market for health-tracking services.
Nintendo has been trying to attract casual fans of Pokemon Go to its hybrid Switch games device with two beginner-friendly “Pokemon Let’s Go” titles, which have sold more than 10 million copies as at the end of March.
It will release two fully fledged Pokemon titles for the device in late 2019.
Pokemon’s global appeal is reflected in the success of movie “Pokemon Detective Pikachu”, which has taken more than $120 million at box offices in North America. The move features the yellow Pikachu character - often the face of Pokemon - as a Sherlock Holmes-like crime-buster, complete with deerstalker.
A sequel to the Detective Pokemon game for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console will be released for the Switch, the Pokemon Company said.
Pokemon’s success comes as Nintendo expands the range of outlets for its popular characters, with Italian plumber Mario to feature at a Nintendo-themed land under construction at Osaka’s Universal Studios Japan theme park.
At Wednesday’s event in Tokyo, Chinese partner NetEase Inc - which will launch a local version of mobile game Pokemon Quest - also said it aims to bring more Pokemon games to China.
Nintendo is also working with Chinese gaming leader Tencent Holdings Ltd to launch its Switch device in the country.
Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7ddcf2f65b283a359a45b7dd8d2d9666 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-abe-idUSKBN0LC05N20150208 | PM Abe's approval ratings rise in Japan after hostage crisis | PM Abe's approval ratings rise in Japan after hostage crisis
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe walks to the Lower House of the parliament in Tokyo February 5, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese government scored higher public approval ratings for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s handling of the hostage crisis involving two Japanese captured in Syria and killed by Islamic State militants, polls published this week showed.
Japan’s biggest daily Yomiuri found that support for Abe’s government had risen to 58 percent from 53 percent in January. The paper surveyed 1,054 people by telephone on Friday and Saturday for the poll, which was the first since the hostages were killed.
A separate poll released by Kyodo on Saturday also showed an increase in support for Abe. More than 60 percent of respondents said they approved of the government’s response to the hostage crisis.
Islamic State militants beheaded journalist Kenji Goto last month, a week after the group released footage appearing to show the beheaded body of another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.
Abe has vowed to step up humanitarian aid to the militant group’s opponents in the Middle East and bring the killers to justice. The gruesome executions and the recordings of Goto released by the militant group captured the attention of the pacifist nation.
A majority of the Japanese surveyed by both Yomiuri and Kyodo agreed with Japan’s plan to continue humanitarian aid to regions affected by the Islamic State.
In terms of how Japan should respond to the Islamic State threat, 57 percent of people polled by Kyodo said any response should be non-military.
Abe’s popularity had slipped in more recent polls after the resignations of key cabinet ministers and due to Japan’s floundering economy, though his party won a landslide snap election in December.
The killings of the hostages have fanned calls to allow Japan’s long-constrained military to conduct overseas rescue missions as part of Abe’s push for a more muscular security posture.
Reporting by Mari Saito; editing by Simon Cameron-MooreOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6b68d4da0dd100365e84c02f7de2d21a | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-abe-idUSKBN16308L | Japan PM's wife cuts ties with school at heart of political furor | Japan PM's wife cuts ties with school at heart of political furor
By Kaori Kaneko, Linda Sieg4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife has cut ties with an elementary school involved in a land deal that provoked opposition questions just as the Japanese leader was basking in the glow of a friendly summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The construction site for an elementary school of Moritomo Gakuen, an educational institution, is seen in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan February 18, 2017, in this photo taken by Kyodo. Picture taken February 18, 2017. Kyodo/via REUTERS
Abe has said neither he nor his wife, Akie, was involved in a murky deal for the purchase of state-owned land by Moritomo Gakuen, an educational body in the western city of Osaka that also runs a kindergarten promoting patriotism.
The affair has energized the often-floundering opposition, offering a reminder of the unexpected pitfalls that could still emerge for Abe’s seemingly stable rule, now in its fifth year.
Abe, grilled about the purchase of the land at a rock-bottom price, said on Friday his wife would scrap a plan to become honorary principal of an elementary school the institution will open in April.
Last year, Moritomo Gakuen paid 134 million yen ($1.2 million), or 14 percent of the appraisal price, for an 8,770-sq-m (94,400-square-foot) plot on which to build the elementary school, official data show.
The difference reflects the cost of waste cleanup at the site, officials have said. Finance Minister Taro Aso told parliament this week there were no problems with the deal.
Abe said his wife had tried to refuse the role as honorary principal, and only accepted after it was announced to parents.
“Despite this, she decided that it would be detrimental for both the students and the parents if she continued, and so she told them she would resign,” he added.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
OPPOSITION ENERGIZED
The institution’s president, Yasunori Kagoike, heads the Osaka branch of Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference, a nationalist lobby group with close ties to Abe and his cabinet.
On the school’s website, Akie had said: “I was impressed by Mr. Kagoike’s passion for education and have assumed the post of honorary principal.”
Abe said the comments were removed from the website on Thursday at his wife’s request.
Abe reiterated that he had declined to let his name be used when Moritomo Gakuen sought donations for what it called the “Abe Shinzo Memorial Elementary School”.
He has also denied that either he or his wife was involved in obtaining approval for the school, or in the land acquisition, saying last Friday that he would resign if evidence to the contrary were found.
The main opposition Democratic Party has seized on the affair. “The prime minister is talking as if he were the victim, but it is the people who should be angry,” Democratic Party lawmaker Kiyomi Tsujimoto told reporters.
Abe returned to office in 2012 for a rare second term, promising to reboot the economy and bolster defense policies, after having abruptly quit in 2007, following a year marked by scandals in his cabinet, a big election loss and ill-health.
His cabinet this time has lost several ministers to money scandals, but Abe himself has been untainted by scandal.
Abe’s approval rating rose five points to 66 percent in a media survey after his summit with Trump, where the leaders hugged, golfed and reaffirmed the U.S.-Japan alliance.
But his popularity could take a hit if the scandal continues to preoccupy the media, some political analysts said.
“The thing that makes a scandal really serious is when it keeps getting headlines,” said Chuo University political science professor Steven Reed.
Additional writing by Elaine Lies; Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c2ee872908257f8e4bed5820d7ff4b20 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-abe-olympics-idCAKBN25O1S8?edition-redirect=ca | IOC, IPC thank "Super-Mario" Abe for Tokyo vision | IOC, IPC thank "Super-Mario" Abe for Tokyo vision
By Mitch Phillips3 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - Olympic officials thanked outgoing Japanese premier Shinzo Abe on Friday for his commitment to bringing the Games to Tokyo and said they would work closely with his successor as Japan bids to overcome the coronavirus pandemic to hold the event next year.
FILE PHOTO: 2016 Rio Olympics - Closing ceremony - Maracana - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 21/08/2016. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe takes part in the closing ceremony. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo
Abe, 65, announced his resignation due to poor health on Friday three weeks after the what should have been his crowning glory - the closing ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Games have been postponed for a year and whoever succeeds Abe is expected to maintain the government’s commitment to hosting in 2021, albeit with possibly a slimmed-down version.
The new leader will be at the forefront of discussions with the IOC in regard to dealing with the logistical challenge of putting on the event featuring a monumental influx of athletes, officials and fans if worldwide travel restrictions are still in place.
The government had already tied hosting the games with finding a COVID-19 vaccine, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga telling Reuters this week: “Japan will do whatever it takes to host the Olympic Games next year.”
Abe threw everything he had behind the Games right back to the bidding process and developed a strong relationship with IOC President Thomas Bach.
“First of all, I would like to wish Prime Minister Abe all the very best in his fight against this disease with all the strength we know him to have,” Bach said in a statement.
He also thanked Abe for his leadership in bringing the Olympic Games back to Japan after the Tokyo 1964 Games. His engagement was crucial, he said.
“Throughout these years, Prime Minister Abe was a strong partner who always stood up for the interests of Japan, and who at the same time could always be trusted.”
“In this way, we were able to find solutions, even in the most difficult circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, which allow his vision for Japan to still come true, even if with one year’s delay.”
Andrew Parsons, president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) also wished Abe all the best for his recovery.
“Few will forget his involvement at the Rio 2016 Olympic Closing Ceremony when he appeared dressed as Super Mario,” he said.
“What has impressed me the most during his tenure is his desire to use the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games as a catalyst to drive social inclusion in Japan.”
Parsons paid tribute to Abe’s commitment to the Paralympic Movement, saying that thanks to him “millions of persons with disabilities can pursue their dreams as active members of Japanese society, fully harnessing their potential and capabilities”.
“There can be no better legacy than transforming the lives of millions of people for the better.”
Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski and Karols Grohmann; Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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9bee1cfac6bc420c778a8b5b3fd17cef | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-academics-idUKKBN2780YW?edition-redirect=uk | Japan PM's meddling in science panel a 'dangerous direction': scholars | Japan PM's meddling in science panel a 'dangerous direction': scholars
By Rocky Swift2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Yoshihide Suga speaks during a news conference following his confirmation as Prime Minister of Japan in Tokyo, Japan September 16, 2020. Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS
TOKYO (Reuters) - Scholars excluded from Japan’s top science advisory panel said the move was unconstitutional and a dangerous sign of how newly installed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will wield power.
Suga broke precedent in rejecting membership to six scholars to the Science Council of Japan (SCJ), a body set up after World War Two to provide independent scientific input for policy-making.
The spurned academics had previously criticised government policy, including 2015 laws to allow Japanese troops to fight overseas.
Among the six were legal and constitutional scholars who said Suga’s move was illegal and could prompt both parliamentary and criminal inquiries.
One of them, Ritsumeikan University law professor Takaaki Matsumiya told reporters on Friday that Suga was acting “similar to a dictator.”
“He is reinterpreting Article 15 of the constitution in a way that he will be able to appoint or dismiss all public servants just as he likes,” Matsumiya said. “This is a very dangerous direction that he is moving in.”
Suga has said his decision had nothing to do with the scholars’ positions on government-backed legislation, defending the decision as appropriate without disclosing reasons for their exclusion. Typically the SCJ’s recommendations for membership have been approved by the serving prime minister.
Polls have shown that nearly half of respondents said they didn’t find Suga’s explanation convincing, helping to erode his support rating by seven points to 55% in the second survey since he took office last month following Shinzo Abe’s resignation for health reasons.
Members of Suga’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party met with former presidents of the SCJ on Thursday and voiced doubts about how the group recommends members and whether it should remain a state-affiliated body, the Jiji news agency reported on Thursday.
Reporting by Rocky Swift in TokyoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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d28fd65eec0083eec000a71cc7839c79 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-cabinet-idUSKBN1AJ0DF | Japan PM names safe hands in cabinet reshuffle but makes maverick top diplomat | Japan PM names safe hands in cabinet reshuffle but makes maverick top diplomat
By Kiyoshi Takenaka, Stanley White4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, beset by scandals and falling support, opted for safe hands over fresh faces in a cabinet reshuffle on Thursday but the changes may not boost his support to the extent he seeks.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends a news conference after reshuffling his cabinet, at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan, August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-hoon
Many ministers are being reappointed, such as Finance Minister Taro Aso, or are taking up posts they have held before, some in Abe’s first 2012 cabinet.
One exception is new Foreign Minister Taro Kono, known for his willingness to criticize the ruling party and a frankness unusual for a Japanese politician.
Abe also appointed longtime ruling party policy veteran Toshimitsu Motegi as new economy minister overseeing structural reforms, which are part of the premier’s “Abenomics” stimulus policies aimed at reviving the stagnant economy.
(For a graphic on Japan's Cabinet reshuffle, click tmsnrt.rs/2eSMmzS)
“The economy remains our top priority,” Abe told a news conference after the reshuffle, apologizing for the scandals he described as having harmed public trust in his policy handling.
“We’ll seek to end deflation by accelerating a virtuous economic cycle.”
Motegi lauded the achievements of Abenomics but said more had to be done, especially to raise the potential growth rate.
“We will focus on improving the level of skills in the work force and make investments in the seeds of future growth,” he told a news conference.
Related CoverageJapan PM Abe: Want to hit budget target by revitalizing economyJapan Abe vows to keep economic revival his top prioritySee more stories
Opinion polls show support for Abe has plunged to its lowest since he returned to office in December 2012 with a promise to revive Japan’s stale economy and bolster its defenses, endangering his goal of revising the pacifist constitution.
Abe had until recently also been seen as likely to win a third term as head of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and thus the premiership, putting him on track to be Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.
But support in recent polls has fallen below 30 percent, with the opposition fanning suspicions of Abe’s favoritism to a friend and voters believing that he and his aides have grown arrogant in office. He was also hurt by the LDP’s defeat by a novice political party in a July assembly election.
The market appraisal of the reshuffle was lukewarm.
“Interpreting it positively, he’s re-assembled his first cabinet with hands-on people prioritizing economic revival,” said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, chief executive at Investrust. “But it also seems as if we’ve returned to that time.”
“HUGE ASSET”
New Foreign Minister Kono, a former administrative reform minister, has a degree from Georgetown University in Washington and worked as an aide for several U.S. politicians.
“In the current state of confusion and flip-flop in Washington, Kono’s deep and broad network of personal connections will be a huge asset,” Jesper Koll, head of equity fund WisdomTree Japan, said in an email.
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One of Kono’s major tasks will be to coordinate closely with the United States, Japan’s closest ally, in the face of North Korea’s missile and nuclear development programs.
“As a result of these issues, which have worsened the security environment surrounding Japan, we will have to strengthen our relationship with the United States more than ever before,” he told a news conference.
Besides Aso, Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who has drawn criticism as the face of a cabinet that many voters feel came to take them for granted, will remain in their posts.
Internal Affairs Minister Seiko Noda, often spoken of as a possible future female premier, may have been added in an attempt to woo women voters, who are less enthused by the Abe government than men.
Despite Abe’s promises to create a society “where women can shine,” the cabinet now has only two women, down from three in the last and five in one of his previous cabinets - a sign of how far women still have to go in the LDP, said Misako Iwamoto, a women’s studies professor at Mie University.
Reporting by Leika Kihara, Elaine Lies, Ami Miyazaki and Ayai Tomisawa,; Writing by Elaine Lies and Leika Kihara; Editing by Paul Tait and Matthew Mpoke BiggOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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a647ea2ec7969de8740b2076b5820c6a | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-idUSKCN0ZA2NS | Japan PM: Hard for now to revise arms-renouncing article of constitution | Japan PM: Hard for now to revise arms-renouncing article of constitution
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday it would be difficult for the time being to revise the armament-renouncing article of Japan’s pacifist constitution, an issue drawing attention as the July 10 upper house election approaches.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrives at his official residence for attending a meeting of relevant cabinet ministers to discuss Britain's exit from the European Union, in Tokyo, Japan, June 24, 2016. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Article 9 of the U.S.-drafted constitution renounces war and, if read literally, bans the maintenance of armed forces, although Japan’s military, called the Self-Defence Forces, has over 200,000 personnel and is equipped with high-tech weapons.
Revising the constitution is one of the key policy targets of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
“We are already making clear our view on the constitution, but it is parliament that needs to originate a proposal regarding what part of the constitution should be changed,” Abe told a TV debate program.
“In that sense, no agreement whatsoever has been reached, and I believe it is difficult under the current circumstances to revise article 9.”
The draft of the LDP’s proposed revision, unveiled in 2012, still renounces war but stipulates the maintenance of national defense forces and says Japan must be able to exercise the right of self defense - easing the constitutional constraint on military activities.
A poll by the Asahi Shimbun daily showed last month that 68 percent of Japanese wanted to keep Article 9 unchanged.
A formal amendment of the constitution requires approval by two-thirds of both houses of parliament as well as a majority in a referendum.
Newspaper surveys said on Friday Abe’s ruling bloc along with like-minded allies could get a two-third majority in the upper house as a result of the July election, in which half of the chamber’s 242 seats will be up for grabs.
Abe’s bloc, which comprises the LDP and junior coalition partner Komeito party, already has a two-thirds majority in the lower house.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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fc25038bd425586ee9227f02a5e53c34 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-kawai-resignation/japan-justice-minister-kawai-resigns-second-minister-to-quit-in-a-week-idUSKBN1XA005 | Japan Justice Minister Kawai resigns, second minister to quit in a week | Japan Justice Minister Kawai resigns, second minister to quit in a week
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Japan's new Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai arrives to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's official residence in Tokyo, Japan September 11, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato REUTERS/Issei Kato
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai resigned on Thursday following media reports of election irregularities by his wife, who is a ruling party lawmaker, becoming the second cabinet minister to step down in less than a week.
Kawai told reporters he had offered his resignation and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had accepted it. Kawai said he was stepping down to avoid harm to public trust in the justice system and would be looking into allegations against his wife’s campaign.
Reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Shri NavaratnamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4c96a82c0045f2144e57ff1be68bb057 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-suga-interview/japan-top-government-spokesman-signals-push-to-re-open-economy-and-boost-stimulus-idUSKBN25M12O | Top Japan government spokesman signals push to re-open economy, boost stimulus | Top Japan government spokesman signals push to re-open economy, boost stimulus
By Takashi Umekawa, Leika Kihara4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan wants to avert another state of emergency and needs to consider more stimulus to revive the economy, the government’s top spokesman said, signalling Tokyo’s resolve to focus on re-opening businesses hammered by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga also dismissed speculation that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may step down for health reasons, saying Abe’s comments on Monday that he would continue to do his best in his job “explains it all”.
Suga - widely seen as one of the main contenders to succeed Abe - said he had no intention of pursuing the post, even if urged to do so by associates. He said he “never thought about” taking on the position.
Japan has seen a resurgence of COVID-19 infection numbers after ending nationwide state of emergency measures in late May, posing a dilemma for the government as it struggles to contain the virus without deepening the economic downturn.
“We want to avoid another state of emergency that could have a big negative impact on the economy,” Suga told Reuters on Wednesday, sending a clear message the emphasis was on spurring economic growth over tightening restrictions to contain the virus.
Promoting tourism would be among measures to help revive the economy, Suga said. “Japan will do whatever it takes to host the Tokyo Olympic Games next year,” he added.
The Games had been scheduled to take place in late July and early August this year, but were postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
In his position since Abe became premier more than seven years ago, Suga is now Japan’s longest serving chief cabinet secretary. He spoke to Reuters at his parliamentary office, where a large photograph of him with U.S. President Donald Trump was on display.
BOLDER ACTION
The world’s third-largest economy suffered its biggest economic slump on record in the second quarter as the pandemic hit consumption and exports, keeping policymakers under pressure to take bolder action even after deploying massive monetary and fiscal support this year.
“We need to consider what we can do to prevent the economy from falling off a cliff,” he said, when asked whether Japan may deploy another spending package to cushion the blow from the pandemic.
Suga also said it was “very important” for the Bank of Japan to work closely with the government preemptively, when asked whether any fresh spending measures should be accompanied by additional monetary easing.
He also emphasised the need for Japan’s many regional banks to consolidate, something investors have long hoped for.
A loyal lieutenant of Abe, Suga is considered a key decision-maker on economic policy. He has been seen as a leading candidates to take over from Abe, whose term as head of the ruling party, and therefore prime minister, ends next September.
Abe has been to hospital twice in the last two weeks, sparking concern about his ability to stay on as leader and heightening speculation about the possible transition of power.
“I meet the prime minister twice a day, but I don’t see any change in his health,” Suga said.
Reporting by Takashi Umekawa and Leika Kihara; Additional reporting by Takaya Yamaguchi and David Dolan; Editing by David Dolan and Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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a3b34e51bf98d9f09393dec2e9dee63f | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-suga/support-for-japans-suga-falls-following-travel-campaign-reversal-idUSKBN28A09H | Support for Japan's Suga falls following travel campaign reversal | Support for Japan's Suga falls following travel campaign reversal
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Yoshihide Suga speaks during a news conference following his confirmation as Prime Minister of Japan in Tokyo, Japan September 16, 2020. Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s approval ratings fell five percentage points to 58%, with many unhappy with his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a poll taken over the weekend by the daily Nikkei newspaper.
The dip in ratings follows criticism over his hesitation to suspend a domestic travel campaign as new coronavirus infections rise, and potentially threatens the chances of his premiership extending beyond next autumn, when his current term ends.
Suga’s approval ratings were at 63% in the previous poll conducted in October.
Respondents who disapproved of the government’s coronavirus countermeasures rose 13 percentage points to 48%, topping the 44% who thought the government was doing well, according to the same poll.
In the survey of 993 people, 61% agreed with the government’s decision to partially halt the domestic ‘Go To’ travel campaign, while 25% said the government needed to do more.
Although Japan has been spared the high incidence of the disease seen in Europe and the United State, infections rates are rising as the cold season approaches, with the nation reaching record numbers of daily cases in recent weeks.
New daily infections surged to an all-time high of 2,684 people on Saturday, according to public broadcaster NHK. The number of deaths stands at over 2,100.
The government has been attempting to keep the coronavirus under control while boosting Japan’s hard-hit economy with a national travel campaign that subsidises tourism.
With new cases rising, the government scaled back on the tourism campaign last week by excluding the two cities of Osaka and Sapporo, but has not suspended the programme in Tokyo, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases.
Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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aafae665332221c4b2b0ad47534cb612 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-women-idUSL769448120080907 | Japan PM contender sees "iron" barrier for women | Japan PM contender sees "iron" barrier for women
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Women may face a glass ceiling in their quest to get to the top in the United States but in Japan, an iron plate bars the way.
That was the assessment on Sunday by former Japanese defense minister Yuriko Koike as she prepared to formally launch her bid to become the nation’s first female prime minister.
Koike, a former TV anchor who has also held the environment portfolio, is one of six contenders aiming to challenge the frontrunner, former foreign minister Taro Aso, in a race to become premier after Yasuo Fukuda abruptly quit last Monday.
“Hillary used the word ‘glass ceiling’ ... but in Japan, it isn’t glass, it’s an iron plate,” Koike, 56, told private broadcaster Asahi TV.
“I’m not Mrs Thatcher, but what is needed is a strategy that advances a cause with conviction, clear policies and sympathy with the people,” she said, referring to Britain’s only woman prime minister, known as the “Iron Lady”.
Asked by a male TV anchor if she would fight with strength rather than beauty, Koike replied: “Naturally. In the first place, I’m not beautiful.”
Koike, who said she would shift policy gears and carry out “real reforms”, later told reporters she had lined up the 20 ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers needed to sponsor her candidacy in a September 22 party leadership race.
The winner of the party poll is expected to become prime minister because of the LDP’s lower house majority, and will likely lead the ruling bloc into a snap election which must be held by September 2009 but will likely come sooner.
Hillary Clinton, the early favorite for the U.S. Democratic nomination before losing a bitter race to Barack Obama, ran the most successful national campaign of any woman in U.S. politics, saying her primary contest vote put “18 million cracks” in a “glass ceiling” that has kept women out of the White House.
Republican candidate John McCain surprised the country with his choice of relatively obscure Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, as his vice presidential running mate. Palin would become the first female U.S. vice president if McCain wins.
Japanese women lag women in many other advanced countries in the corridors of power, but Koike faces other obstacles as well, including a history of switching parties.
Her career began in the opposition and she was once a protege of opposition Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa.
Reporting by Linda SiegOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3cac795a8f5511c5356b977e411924f5 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-post-misconduct/heads-of-three-japan-post-firms-to-resign-over-improper-policy-sales-media-idINKBN1YS1H1?edition-redirect=in | Heads of three Japan Post firms to resign over improper policy sales: media | Heads of three Japan Post firms to resign over improper policy sales: media
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
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TOKYO (Reuters) - The heads of Japan Post Holdings Co 6178.T and affiliates Japan Post Insurance Co 7181.T and Japan Post will resign this week over the improper sales of insurance policies, broadcaster TBS reported on Wednesday.
A committee of external lawyers investigating the misconduct said last week the number of cases in which Japan Post Insurance improperly sold policies had reached 12,836, of which 670 involved violations of the law or internal rules.
That was more than double the 6,327 cases disclosed in September in an interim report submitted by the committee, while more cases could be found as it continues its probe.
The committee said last week it had investigated about 82% of the 183,000 policies sold over the five years through fiscal 2018 that may have been disadvantageous to customers.
Revelations of the misconduct have pushed corporate governance to the fore just as the government had been planning to sell $10 billion worth of shares in parent Japan Post Holdings to fund reconstruction in areas devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Japan Post Holdings Chief Executive Masatsugu Nagato, Japan Post Insurance President Mitsuhiko Uehira and Japan Post President Kunio Yokoyama will step down on Friday when the country’s financial regulator would issue administrative punishments to the companies, TBS said.
The three companies declined to comment.
Nagato told a press conference last week he would announce his management responsibility at an “appropriate time” when asked about resignation.
Nagato may be replaced by Hiroya Masuda, a former minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, according to TBS.
Reporting by Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Lincoln Feast.Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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477fce13033f1d283c72ae721f26fbf1 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-power-deregulation-idUSBRE9AC08N20131113 | Japan passes law to launch reform of electricity sector | Japan passes law to launch reform of electricity sector
By Aaron Sheldrick, Osamu Tsukimori4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s upper house passed legislation on Wednesday to start the most ambitious reform of its electricity sector since 1951, a process prompted by the Fukushima nuclear crisis that may end with the break-up of powerful regional monopolies.
The reforms, including the establishment of a national grid and the liberalization of the power market for homes, are central to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to overhaul the economy, as high energy costs threaten to derail efforts to reverse decades of stagnation.
Regional monopolies, including Tokyo Electric Power Co and Kansai Electric Power Co, supply almost 98 percent of Japan’s electricity and terms for access to their transmission lines make it onerous for new entrants.
Wrenching control of transmission from the monopolies to create a national grid became a big issue after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that sparked the Fukushima disaster and highlighted an inability to transfer power to areas suffering shortages.
The power law was passed by Japan’s lower house earlier this month and sailed through the upper house with 202 votes in favor and 29 against, a parliamentary official said by phone.
While the energy companies say they support the thrust of the proposed changes, they have repeatedly urged the government to give priority to stable power supplies and say reform should be slowed down if this cannot be guaranteed.
The utilities have resisted attempts since the 1990s to liberalize the industry. The companies and their affiliates have ties with politicians, fund their campaigns and often give government officials executive roles.
“There are quite a few issues to resolve,” Makoto Yagi, chairman of the Japan Federation of Power Companies and president of Kansai Electric, said in a statement after the vote.
“In the separation of power generation and transmission, in particular, to ensure stable supplies, arrangements and rules to supplement the split need to be in place,” he said.
NATIONAL GRID
The monopolies were set up in 1951 during the American occupation after World War Two and followed the U.S. model at the time, with regional utilities controlling all aspects of generation and transmission.
Tokyo Electric, which before the meltdowns at its Fukushima Daiichi facility was the most powerful utility, is now under government control and being split into separate units. That process will probably be the template for broader change.
The legislation calls for the creation of a national grid company in 2015.
“Ensuring high voltage transmission and distribution assets are optimized across Japan rather than by individual monopolies is key to delivering affordable electricity to Japanese consumers and allowing access to a broad range of generation assets including renewable energy,” said Tom O’Sullivan, founder of independent energy consultancy Mathyos Japan.
The government plans to liberalize the market for homes, an important source of earnings for power companies, by 2016.
The market for customers using more than 50 kilowatts was opened up in 2005 but utilities can still block supplies from independent power producers as they control transmission lines.
The most ambitious phase of the reform envisages breaking the monopolies into separate generation and transmission companies by 2020 and abolishing price controls.
Editing by Alan RaybouldOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b545454290cdfecb12ee007c2e7e727a | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-power-m-a/japans-tepco-chubu-elec-get-regulatory-nod-to-merge-fossil-power-plants-idUKKBN1CI0CT?edition-redirect=uk | Japan's Tepco, Chubu Elec get regulatory nod to merge fossil power plants | Japan's Tepco, Chubu Elec get regulatory nod to merge fossil power plants
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
A worker puts up new logo of TEPCO Holdings and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Group on the wall ahead of the transition to a holding company system through a company split at the TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, March 31, 2016. REUTERS/Masayuki Terazawa/Pool/File Photo
(Reuters) - The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has approved plans by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) and Chubu Electric Power Co to integrate their fossil fuel power plants under their JERA Co joint venture, an official with the anti-monopoly regulator said on Friday.
The JFTC gave the green light in late September after determining that the deal, involving Japan’s biggest and third-biggest regional power utilities, would not have an impact on fair competition in the industry, the official said.
The pair had agreed in March to combine the businesses in April-September 2019, forming a company that will oversee 68 gigawatts (GW) of domestic power capacity, nearly half the country’s power generation.
Tepco and Chubu Electric set up JERA in 2015. It now handles all of Tepco’s and Chubu’s upstream energy and fuel procurement business and is the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyer with annual intake of around 35 million tonnes.
The integration of fossil fuel plants is the last of a three-step plan for JERA, which also handles fuel transportation/trading, upstream energy assets and overseas power generation.
With nearly 8 GW worth of overseas power capacity, the integration of the JERA parents’ domestic plants would propel it to become one of the world’s major power utilities by installed capacity.
Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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66fd9aa7cb33d5159306b28bc480b88b | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-power-m-a/japans-tepco-chubu-eye-910-million-cost-cut-from-merging-fossil-businesses-idUKKBN18Z0Z2?edition-redirect=uk | Japan's Tepco, Chubu eye $910 million cost cut from merging fossil businesses | Japan's Tepco, Chubu eye $910 million cost cut from merging fossil businesses
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) logo is seen on a uniform of an employee at the company's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan, February 23, 2017. REUTERS/Tomohiro Ohsumi/Pool
TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) and Chubu Electric Power Co said on Thursday they aim to cut costs by more than 100 billion yen ($910 million) a year within five years after combining their fossil fuel power plants under their JERA Co joint venture.
The two companies, which had agreed on the integration in March, signed a contract for this on Thursday.
The biggest and the third-biggest of Japan’s regional power utilities aim to combine the businesses in April-September 2019 to form a company that will oversee 68 gigawatts of capacity in the country and account for nearly half of domestic power generation.
One of the sticking points for Chubu was that Tepco was essentially nationalized after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, which may put pressure on JERA to provide ample dividends to help pay for decommission and compensation.
To relieve Chubu’s concerns, the two companies agreed to put in place the measures to limit the dividends to the parents so that JERA would receive enough internal reserves to make its expansion goals possible.
Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Subhranshu SahuOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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11c8fa5cd24a784181f3b4936db3f5d5 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-powerstation-coal/japan-to-accelerate-closure-of-old-coal-power-plants-idUKKBN2440AA?edition-redirect=uk | Japan to accelerate closure of old coal power plants | Japan to accelerate closure of old coal power plants
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will introduce measures to accelerate the closure of old, inefficient coal power plants by 2030, the country’s industry minister, Hiroshi Kajiyama, said on Friday.
FILE PHOTO: Japan's new Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama attends a news conference at the ministry in Tokyo, Japan October 25, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
But he poured cold water on a suggestion by media that the move was a major shift in energy policy, saying Japan will continue to rely on coal power and support the building of newer, more efficient plants.
The Yomiuri reported on Thursday that Japan will close or mothball as many as 100 old coal plants by about 2030, in what Japan’s biggest selling newspaper said was a major turning point for the country on energy.
That sentiment was echoed by some environmental groups, which have long criticized Japan’s strong support for the dirtiest fossil fuel.
“Japan decided in 2018 to phase out inefficient coal power plants, but we did not have any concrete framework, so we will make one,” Kajiyama told a news conference on Friday.
He did not give a number of plants that will be shut and said coal will remain an important power source.
“We will do whatever we can do to cut greenhouse gas emissions, instead of talking about scrapping or not scrapping all coal power plants,” he said.
The ministry will consider new rules, tax incentives and other measures to ensure Japan achieves its goal to lower coal’s share of the country’s power mix to 26% by 2030, from 32% now, Kajiyama said. Industry specialists and academics will start discussions this month.
“While this is a significant step forward ... it is still totally insufficient,” said Kimiko Hirata, International Director of Kiko Network, a non-governmental organization that seeks to end coal use.
Kajiyama also said talks with other ministries on tightening conditions for the export of coal-fired power plant technology are nearly completed.
“We are trying to make things clearer ... toward tightening criteria for our support for exports of coal-fired power plants,” he said.
Reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Ritsuko Shimizu; Editing by Aaron Sheldrick, Shri Navaratnam and Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7ac66bf735f826e8a0c7db055a310ab9 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-priestess/japanese-priestess-stabbed-to-death-at-shrine-in-apparent-family-feud-idUSKBN1E20IY?il=0 | Japanese man kills wife and priestess sister with sword in bizarre family feud: media | Japanese man kills wife and priestess sister with sword in bizarre family feud: media
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man wielding a sword killed his sister, a Shinto priestess, on the grounds of a Tokyo shrine, then stabbed his wife to death before committing suicide, police and media said.
Police declined to comment on a motive for Thursday’s killings or the family feud.
Shigenaga Tomioka, 56, attacked Nagako Tomioka, 58, chief priestess of the Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, as she got out of a car. Media reports said she was his sister.
His 49-year-old wife, Mariko, stabbed and wounded the driver of the car with a sword, police said, before she too was killed.
Shigenaga sent a threatening letter to his sister in 2006, saying he would “send her to hell”, the Sankei newspaper said.
Shinto is the traditional religion of Japan and many shrines dot the country. The Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, established in 1627, has a close link with sumo and the emperor and empress visited in 2012.
Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Malcolm Foster, Richard Pullin and Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b7689d820097d016302d0890648866e1 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-quake-idUSKBN13E04P?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29 | Western Japan jolted by 5.4 magnitude quake | Western Japan jolted by 5.4 magnitude quake
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 shook western Japan on Saturday but there was no immediate reports of damage and a tsunami warning was not issued.
The epicenter of the earthquake, which occurred at 11:48 a.m. (0248 GMT), was in Wakayama prefecture, western Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. Japan accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3f3372cdaed55175632b962ea17eb851 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-quake-radiation/factbox-how-much-radiation-is-dangerous-idUSTRE72Q0HN20110327 | Factbox: How much radiation is dangerous? | Factbox: How much radiation is dangerous?
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
(Corrects to remove reference to MRIs, which do not use radiation, in paragraph 8)
TOKYO (Reuters) - Radiation levels remained a huge worry in Japan on Sunday following a spike in radioactivity in water at the Fukushima nuclear power facility.
But there has been no indication that people beyond the plant’s immediate vicinity have been exposed to harmful doses.
Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said radiation levels were over 1,000 millisieverts per hour at Reactor No. 2 and evacuated workers from the turbine building there. Japan’s nuclear safety agency has said that as emergency workers, they are allowed to be exposed to 250 millisieverts per year.
Experts say the rise in radioactivity in the water at the reactor does not pose much danger to those outside as long as it is contained safely.
“It depends on where this water’s going and what they’re doing with it,” said Murray Jennex, professor at San Diego State University. “If it’s allowed to run off into the ground and stuff, you’re getting a concentration in the ground. If it’s going into the ocean, you’re getting some accumulation in the ocean.”
Here are some facts about radiation and the health dangers it poses:
* Radiation is measured using the unit sievert, which quantifies the amount absorbed by human tissues. One sievert is 1,000 millisieverts and 1 million microsieverts.
* People are constantly exposed to some level of natural radiation. They also get exposed to tiny amounts through sitting in airplanes, routine chest or dental x-rays, and larger amounts through medical tests such as CT-scans. A single-organ CT scan, for example, gives a radiation dose of about 6,900 microsieverts.
* On Sunday afternoon, radiation levels in central Tokyo were around 0.16 microsieverts per hour. That is a level experts describe as minimal, and just below the global average of naturally occurring background radiation of 0.17-0.39 per hour, a range given by the World Nuclear Association. It is also significantly lower than the cosmic radiation of up to 7 microsieverts per hour experienced on a Tokyo-New York flight.
Below are different levels of massive radiation exposure in a single dose -- all measured in millisieverts -- and their likely effects on humans, as published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
- 50-100: changes in blood chemistry
- 500: nausea, within hours
- 700: vomiting
- 750: hair loss, within 2-3 weeks
- 900: diarrhea
- 1,000: hemorrhage
- 4,000: possible death within 2 months, if no treatment
- 10,000: destruction of intestinal lining, internal bleeding and death within 1-2 weeks
- 20,000: damage to the central nervous system and loss of consciousness within minutes, and death within hours or days
Sources: Taiwan Atomic Energy Council, World Nuclear Association, US Department of Transportation, US Environmental Protection Agency
Writing by Chizu Nomiyama; Editing John ChalmersOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3bf15db89e9f60570fab190f4b6d1175 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-quake-shimane-idUSKBN1HF11B | Shallow quakes shake parts of western Japan, more tremors expected | Shallow quakes shake parts of western Japan, more tremors expected
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
A stone torii gate damaged by an earthquake is seen at Karita Shrine in Ohda, Shimane Prefecture, Japan in this photo taken by Kyodo April 9, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
TOKYO (Reuters) - A series of shallow earthquakes shook parts of western Japan on Monday and authorities warned that further strong shaking is possible over the coming days.
A quake at 1632 GMT measured at magnitude 5.8 by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), at a depth of 10 kms (7.5 miles), causing strong shaking in parts of Shimane prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast.
Shaking of that intensity can cause walls to collapse, open cracks in the ground and trigger landslides. The United States Geological Service Survey (USGS) measured the initial quake at magnitude 5.6 at a depth of 7 kms.
A JMA official warned at a press briefing that the region could experience further jolts over the next week, particularly in the coming two or three days.
No injuries have so far been reported as a result of the earthquakes, public broadcaster NHK said.
Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f96fbda00585e8ca842335694b7aaf16 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-quake-toyota/toyota-says-parts-plant-preparing-to-resume-output-after-hokkaido-quake-idUSKCN1LQ01P | Toyota says parts plant preparing to resume output after Hokkaido quake | Toyota says parts plant preparing to resume output after Hokkaido quake
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
Landslides caused by an earthquake are seen in Atsuma town, Hokkaido, northern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 7, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp 7203.T said on Monday its transmission factory in northern Japan was preparing to resume production some time during the night shift starting at 8:30 p.m. (1130 GMT), after a powerful quake halted work last week.
The shutdown of the transmissions factory in Tomakomai on the island of Hokkaido halted production at 16 of Toyota’s 18 domestic assembly plants on Monday. Toyota said it would decide in the next few hours on production plans for Tuesday.
The 6.7-magnitude quake in Hokkaido last Thursday killed dozens of people and temporarily cut off power on the island. Power was restored to Toyota’s transmissions plant on Saturday and production facilities are being checked for a restart, Toyota said.
Reporting by Maki Shiraki; Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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669140bb86b631b6569233f83f173dbb | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-refugees/u-n-urges-japan-to-resettle-more-refugees-after-taking-just-three-in-first-half-idUSKBN1DK0WW?il=0 | U.N. urges Japan to resettle more refugees after taking just three in first half | U.N. urges Japan to resettle more refugees after taking just three in first half
By Thomas Wilson3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.N. refugee agency has urged Japan to resettle more asylum seekers, its chief said on Monday, pressuring the country to help solve a global crisis after giving refugee status to just three people in the first half of the year.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi attends a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Japan, November 20, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
Japan is one of the developed world’s least welcoming countries for asylum seekers. It accepted 28 in 2016, despite applications from a record 10,091 people.
It has since 2008 given home to limited numbers of refugees through a so-called third-country resettlement scheme, resettling a total of 152 people - mostly ethnic Karen people from Myanmar living in Thai and Malaysian camps.
“That program is very small, about 20-30 refugees a year,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told a news conference in Tokyo. “I have asked the government to consider whether it could be expanded.”
Japan’s reluctance to accept refugees mirrors a wider caution towards immigration in a nation where many pride themselves on cultural and ethnic homogeneity.
Its record at home has drawn sharp criticism from international human rights groups, and has been at odds with its traditional status as a major international donor on refugees.
But Japan’s donations to the UNHCR have slipped: in the year to Oct. 2, it was the fourth-largest donor, giving $152 million, compared to the second-largest four years ago.
“Contributions from the government to the UNHCR have been declining a little bit every year since 2013,” Grandi said. “What I asked the government to consider is that the needs of refugees and displaced people are increasing.”
More than 2 million people fleeing wars or persecution have joined the ranks of the world’s refugees this year. At the end of last year, the latest figure available, 17.2 million refugees fell under the UNHCR’s mandate.
Japan says that many people claim asylum in Japan to find work, encouraged by access to renewable work permits for people applying for refugee status.
It officially rejects unskilled migrant workers, even as a fast-shrinking and ageing population blunts the potency of government efforts to rouse the economy from over two decades of sluggish growth and deflation.
The Justice Ministry, which oversees refugee recognition, is weighing steps including restrictions on work permits for asylum seekers to curb what it deems “abusive” applications.
Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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8008196e896a971b22caef6de6b79bc9 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-regulator-japan-post/heads-of-japan-post-group-resign-over-improper-insurance-sales-idINKBN1YV079?edition-redirect=in | Heads of Japan Post group resign over improper insurance sales | Heads of Japan Post group resign over improper insurance sales
By Takashi Umekawa3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - The heads of Japan Post Holdings Co Ltd 6178.T and two affiliates said on Friday they will resign over the improper sales of insurance policies, after the regulator announced administrative punishments against the companies.
FILE PHOTO: A man holding an umbrella is reflected in the logo of Japan Post Group at its headquarters in Tokyo February 18, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo
Japan Post Holdings said it had picked Hiroya Masuda, a former minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, as successor to current CEO Masatsugu Nagato.
Japan Post Insurance Co Ltd 7181.T President Mitsuhiko Uehira will be replaced by Tetsuya Senda, deputy president of the company, while Japan Post President Kunio Yokoyama will be taken over by Kazuhide Kinugawa, senior managing executive officer of Japan Post Holdings.
The changes will take effect on Jan. 6, the companies said.
“I accepted this job because I thought I could contribute to the country but I eventually caused troubles. I feel deep sorrow,” Nagato said at a press conference, adding that he had considered resigning from August.
Japan’s financial regulator earlier in the day ordered Japan Post Insurance and Japan Post to halt sales of insurance products for three months from Jan. 1 through end-March, after they were found to have improperly sold thousands of policies.
The postal service group said this month the number of improper sales cases had reached 12,836, of which 670 involved violations of the law or internal rules.
The two units have set sales goals that lack “feasibility and rationality”, the regulator said in a statement, adding there was dysfunction of corporate governance at the group.
The Financial Services Agency also issued a business improvement order to the two units and the parent.
Revelations of the misconduct have cast a shadow over the government’s plan to sell $10 billion worth of its shares in Japan Post Holdings to pay for reconstruction in areas hit by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Japan Post Insurance said in August it had sold about 183,000 policies over five years through fiscal 2018 that may have been disadvantageous to holders.
A committee set up to investigate the matter said last week it had looked over around 82% of those policies and it would submit an additional report in March.
The three companies have said some of the cases that fell foul of the law involved false explanations provided to clients.
Reporting by Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f67bd71974ded1b52cc52c110d517551 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-restaurants-standing-idUSBRE94C04A20130513 | Michelin for the masses: Japan's standing restaurants head for New York | Michelin for the masses: Japan's standing restaurants head for New York
By Junko Fujita2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s popular standing restaurants, where patrons eat food by former Michelin restaurant chefs for a fraction of the cost at a seated-restaurant, are about to hit New York.
Michio Yasuda, an executive director at ORENO Corporation, which owns and runs 18 restaurants in Tokyo, hopes New Yorkers who are happy to drink while standing at bars will also be happy to eat while standing.
“Only a tiny portion of people can afford to eat at Michelin starred restaurants but those who earn a modest income should also be able to try high quality food,” said Yasuda.
In Tokyo’s standing restaurants, which include French and Italian establishments in the posh Ginza district, diners can enjoy dishes like tender beef tournedos with foie gras, with an average meal costing about 4,000 yen ($39.30), around the cost of drinks and snacks at a simple Japanese-style pub.
Now, ORENO Corporation plans to open a standing, gourmet Japanese restaurant in New York, taking aim at diners who yearn for sushi without the bill climbing into three figures or more.
“Japanese food at a top-rated place in New York is so expensive. We want to completely change that,” said Hiroshi Shimada, a chef who set up a gourmet standing Japanese restaurant in the Ginza after leaving the Michelin three-starred Japanese restaurant Azabu Yukimura.
Shimada said some modifications may be made to the food to suit American tastes.
“For example, we might add just a tiny bit of butter to our ‘dashi’ soup stock. Or take Japanese simmered dishes like ‘niku jaga’ - meat with potatoes - and serve them with bread, like a stew,” he added.
Details remain to be worked out, with the company is looking at sites in midtown Manhattan, with an eye to opening by the end of the year. Despite the pricey real estate, a meal is likely to cost $30 to $40. And there will be VIP seats, but at a cost.
Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6be33399e38620e5f47095a718cf4c8a | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-retail-zozotown/as-zozotown-suits-up-japans-online-fashion-revolution-gathers-speed-idUSKBN1JU0WF | As Zozotown suits up, Japan's online fashion revolution gathers speed | As Zozotown suits up, Japan's online fashion revolution gathers speed
By Sam Nussey6 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Zozotown, which swooped in as a little-known retail website and prodded once-reluctant Japanese consumers to shop online for clothes, is now facing stiff competition in the industry whose image it remade.
Arriving on the scene in 2004, the site made a killing selling clothes from shops such as Japanese boutique United Arrows and minimal French label A.P.C.
Zozotown’s success turned its founder into one of Japan’s richest entrepreneurs, and its name adorns a baseball stadium.
But its dominance is being challenged, with retailers expanding their e-commerce offerings and big names such as Amazon and SoftBank Group Corp eyeing a piece of the growing business.
At stake is a $120 billion fashion market that was almost entirely dominated by brick-and-mortar stores until a few years ago, but is transforming amid the proliferation of smartphones and home delivery.
Online fashion sales have grown to over 10 percent of the total Japanese market in the past few years - with Zozotown at the head of the pack - and are likely to surpass 20 percent in three years, according to Nomura Securities.
“There needs to be a second player, and we are putting up our hand,” said Yusuke Tanaka, founder and chief executive of fashion website Locondo Inc.
To differentiate itself, Locondo specializes in shoes and, unlike Zozotown, offers free returns - still a rarity in Japan. It also shares inventory with fashion site Magaseek.
For now, Zozotown is “totally sweeping the board,” said Yuki Ando, general manager of web business at Sanyo Shokai Ltd, the fashion company behind lines such as Mackintosh Philosophy.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
Zozotown is operated by Zozo, officially called Start Today Co Ltd.
The website set itself apart in its early days with a clean, uncluttered design and a slice of “Ura-Hara” style - the modish fashion of the backstreets that line the trend-setting Harajuku district of Tokyo.
Business took off as fashion-conscious professionals in their late twenties and early thirties started using Zozotown to buy trendy but work-appropriate threads online from labels such as United Arrows and Nano Universe.
Its target is now broader, selling over 6,800 brands including, starting next week, clothes by Shimamura Co Ltd, one of Japan’s largest mass market chains. But industry executives say it still has an enviable cachet.
Zozotown has an “overwhelming ability to attract customers,” says Takahiro Kinoshita, a manager in the digital marketing department of United Arrows.
RISING RIVALS
In February, fashion company Stripe International launched Stripe Department, an online joint venture with SoftBank Group Corp.
The site features recommendations by stylists, and targets a user base that’s slightly older than that of Zozotown, the company says.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
Amazon is trying to raise its fashion credentials in Japan, sponsoring catwalk shows in Tokyo. The head of Amazon Japan’s fashion unit, James Peters, says fashion is one of the company’s fastest-growing areas, but declined to provide figures.
Retailers that had historically focused on expanding their physical presence are also shifting to e-commerce. Japan’s Fast Retailing Co Ltd, which controls the Uniqlo brand, is trying to grow online sales, which are currently less than 8 percent of the company’s total. Chief executive Tadashi Yanai said he wants to see that to rise to 30 percent.
Even the brands that drove Zozotown’s early success are now competing with it.
United Arrows still makes almost 60 percent of its online sales through Zozotown. But sales on the brand’s own website are growing rapidly too - up 35 percent in the last fiscal year, which ended in March.
Fashion company Bay Crew’s Group said 30 percent of its online sales come from Zozotown. But 60 percent are through its own website, generating precious customer data, said Jun Shimada, a senior executive.
EARLY ADOPTERS
Foreign companies are helping Japanese retailers polish their online presence. Sweden’s Virtusize, for instance, adds code that allows users to compare the fit of items to those they already own.
“Our biggest market by far is Japan, where close to 20 percent of all online retailers use Virtusize,” said chief executive Gustaf Tunhammar, adding that Europe was the second-largest market, and that “only a handful” of retailers in the U.S. used the technology.
Japan is also one the largest markets for UK-based 3D-A-Porter, which offers three-dimensional body scanning and virtual clothing try-on, according to CEO Lara Mazzoni.
Zozotown, meanwhile, has deployed its own high-profile technology to fight a slowdown in transaction value growth. Its Zozosuit collects body measurement data that allows users to order fitted clothing online.
The company is breaking new ground in deploying such technology on a large scale, with more than 550,000 suits sent to customers. Success would transform Zozotown, founded by punk rock-loving billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, into a brand in its own right.
But managing all that data in an era where privacy concerns can roil consumers will be crucial, said Ed Gribbin, U.S.-based CEO of apparel business and product development consulting firm Alvanon.
“There is more resistance to providing data to retailers on the one hand, but the bottom line is that finding the right size and a flattering fit usually outweighs the privacy issues,” he said.
Reporting by Sam Nussey; Additional reporting by Melissa Fares; Editing by Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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ef43e0d0a6d58154634b1921efe7c895 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-robot/giant-japanese-robot-spurs-hopes-for-tourism-after-virus-hit-idUSKBN28A1WF | Giant Japanese robot spurs hopes for tourism after virus hit | Giant Japanese robot spurs hopes for tourism after virus hit
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - An 18-metre (60-foot) “Gundam” robot that can walk and move its arms was unveiled in Japan on Monday amid hopes that it will help invigorate tourism hit by COVID-19.
The robot is modelled after a figure in “Mobile Suit Gundam”, a Japanese cartoon first launched in the late 1970s about enormous battle robots piloted by humans. The series spawned multiple spin-offs and toys and gained a worldwide following.
It will be the centrepiece of the Gundam Factory Yokohama, a tourist attraction that opens on Dec. 19 in the port city.
“I hope this will lead to stimulating tourism demand and revitalising local areas,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a news conference.
“Of course, we now have the coronavirus issue. I want people to tackle endeavours like this while making an effort to prevent the spread of infection.”
Reporting by Hideto Sakai, writing by Kiyoshi Takenaka, editing by Giles ElgoodOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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480580186833b2c39e6f2ce26dfcb299 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-robots-elderly/caring-from-far-away-the-robot-that-transmits-touch-idINKBN1YN266?edition-redirect=in | Caring from far away: The robot that transmits touch | Caring from far away: The robot that transmits touch
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Can robots help solve the problem of an aging population in growing need of physical help but lacking the money and carers to provide it?
Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp thinks they can, if they are equipped to mimic the touch and actions of a carer located far away.
Toyota’s latest humanoid robot, T-HR3, demonstrated on Wednesday at Tokyo’s International Robot Exhibition, is controlled remotely by a human operator.
Goggles let the operator see what the robot sees, gloves let them feel what the robot touches - enough for the operator, via the robot, to pour a drink or carry out other delicate manual tasks, all by remote control.
“You can look after someone when you’re not there, or care for someone while you’re working at home,” said the manager of Toyota Motor’s Humanoid Robot Group, Tomohisa Moridaira.
He noted that the carer can also take advantage of the robot’s extra muscle: “People who are not strong can do heavy work from a remote place.”
Another growing care need, keeping the elderly mobile and active, is the job of the ‘Orthobot’, manufactured by Suncall.
A pack worn on the body controls the movements of a long brace that helps the leg to bend and stretch for walking.
“We want to break the barrier of people not wanting go outside because they can’t walk. We want them to have a good social life,” said Suncall’s Rei Takahashi.
About 130,000 people are expected to visit the International Robot Exhibition, which runs until Saturday.
Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7b1133caadb626c4f69d4c57eeb51838 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-royals/japan-formally-proclaims-crown-prince-akishino-heir-to-throne-idUSKBN27O02Y?il=0 | Japan formally proclaims Crown Prince Akishino heir to throne | Japan formally proclaims Crown Prince Akishino heir to throne
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Slideshow ( 4 images )
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan formally proclaimed Crown Prince Akishino the first in line as heir to the throne on Sunday, the last of a series of ceremonies after his elder brother, Emperor Naruhito, became monarch last year following their father’s abdication.
The day-long ceremonies at the palace had been scheduled for April but were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic and have been scaled back as infection keeps rising, although Japan has escaped the explosive outbreak seen in many other countries.
Under Japanese law, only males can inherit the throne, so Naruhito’s only offspring, 18-year-old Princess Aiko, is ineligible. Moves to amend the law lost steam when Akishino’s wife bore a son, Hisahito, in 2006.
“I deeply ponder the responsibility of Crown Prince and will discharge my duties,” Akishino in orange robe said in front of attendees, most of whom were wearing masks, according to footages by public broadcaster NHK.
Akishino, 54, is one of just three heirs to the throne along with Hisahito, 14, and Prince Hitachi, 84, the younger brother of Emperor Emeritus Akihito, who stepped down last year in Japan’s first abdication in two centuries.
Changes to the succession law are anathema to conservatives, but debate over how to ensure a stable succession is likely to intensify.
One option is to allow females, including Aiko and Hisahito’s two elder sisters, to retain their imperial status after marriage and inherit or pass the throne to their children, a change that surveys show most ordinary Japanese favour.
Conservatives want to revive junior royal branches stripped of imperial status after the war.
Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Simon Cameron-MooreOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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988c7c68675f004441305cd20a2d181f | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-russia-syria-idUSKBN1441HE | Japanese spokesman: Putin says ready to work with other countries on Syria | Japanese spokesman: Putin says ready to work with other countries on Syria
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
NAGATO (Reuters) - A Japanese senior government official said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that he is ready to work with other countries for settlement of the Syrian problem.
Abe, meeting Putin in western Japan, conveyed his concern on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria.
Putin is in Japan on a two-day visit ending late on Friday.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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57984430e679998264389db363463f79 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-russia-talks-disputedisles-idUSKBN14417Q | Russian minister: Putin, Japan's Abe discuss Syria, Ukraine and disputed isles | Russian minister: Putin, Japan's Abe discuss Syria, Ukraine and disputed isles
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe leads Russian President Vladimir Putin upon his arrival at a hotel prior to their talks in Nagato, Yamaguchi prefecture on December 15, 2016 while Akie Abe, wife of the Prime Minister looks on. REUTERS/ Kazuhiro Nogi
NAGATO, Japan (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed a range of issues on Thursday including Syria, Ukraine and the disputed islands at the heart of a territorial row between their countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
The two leaders met at a hot spring resort in southwest Japan to seek progress on the feud between Japan and Russia that has blocked a peace treaty formally ending World War Two.
Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c42be522016d3834344d03a5d9e50426 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-security-abe/japan-pm-abe-new-security-legislation-would-boost-deterrence-decrease-risk-of-war-idUSKBN0NZ0QV20150514 | Japan PM Abe: new security legislation would boost deterrence, decrease risk of war | Japan PM Abe: new security legislation would boost deterrence, decrease risk of war
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gestures as he speaks during a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo May 14, 2015. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday that bills approved by parliament earlier in the day allowing the military to fight abroad for the first time since World War Two would boost deterrence and decrease the risk of war.
The planned changes, reflected in new U.S.-Japan defense guidelines unveiled last month, set the stage for Japan to play a bigger role in the bilateral alliance as Tokyo and Washington face challenges such as China’s growing military assertiveness.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Edmund KlamannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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728988c781bdaab6c329aa2e30c485bd | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-shortsellers-idUSKCN10T2IO | Short-sellers smell blood as Japan Inc wounded by accounting scandals | Short-sellers smell blood as Japan Inc wounded by accounting scandals
By Umesh Desai, Michelle Price6 Min Read
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Short-sellers who made their names and fortunes wiping billions off Chinese and Southeast Asian companies are setting their sights on Japan after a series of accounting scandals amplified concerns about weak corporate governance there.
The logos of Japan's robot venture company Cyberdyne are seen on the Lower Limb Model HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) for welfare use at the Cyberdyne studio in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo July 22, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
Until recently, corporate managers in Japan have enjoyed relatively limited scrutiny of their governance standards and accounting rigor, and a cosy tradition of cross-holdings between companies has relegated the status of minority shareholders and the importance of adequate disclosure.
But as the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has tried to clean up corporate culture and activist investors have begun to kick the tires of Japan Inc, short sellers are finding fertile ground for profit.
On Tuesday, prominent U.S.-based short-seller Citron Research launched an attack on Japanese robotics company Cyberdyne 7779.T, claiming it was "the most ridiculously priced stock in the world" and had misled retail investors over its technology assets.
Cyberdyne, which closed down 7 percent on Tuesday, dismissed the report as an attempt to push its stock price down.
It is not known whether Citron holds a short position in Cyberdyne.
It is the second attack on a Japanese company in less than a month and the sixth since December 2015, when Well Investments Research challenged trading firm Marubeni 8002.T, the first such campaign in Japan tracked by Activist Shorts Research.
According to Activist Shorts, the six Japan campaigns, half of them directed at Cyberdyne, have generated average losses of 23 percent, which means profit for short-sellers, who sell borrowed stocks and buy them back more cheaply.
It said that is among the top half of the 46 activist short-sellers to have launched campaigns in the past year and is more than double the year-to-date return of Asia's main benchmark .MIAPJ0000PUS.
The phenomenon of short-sell attacks took hold between 2009 and 2011, with investment and research firms such as Muddy Waters Research and Alfred Little attracting international attention for their campaigns against overseas-listed Chinese companies including Sino-Forest and Silvercorp SVM.TO.
HIGHER STANDARDS
Short-sellers and analysts said they expected more attacks on Japanese companies as regulators in China and Hong Kong fight back against short-sellers, and Abe’s campaign flushes out deficiencies.
“As Japanese markets embrace the values of Abenomics, investors of all types, shareholders, short-sellers will insist that listed companies hold themselves to higher standards of transparency, accountability and corporate governance,” said Soren Aandahl, director of research at Glaucus Research.
“That in turn makes short investment opinions more impactful,” he added.
Glaucus itself sent shares in trading firm Itochu Corp 8001.T tumbling 10 percent last month by claiming it had inflated profits through creative accounting, the biggest attack on a Japanese company by market value so far. Itochu denied the claims.
Aandahl declined to say if Glaucus was preparing more Japan campaigns but confirmed it was conducting research on other Japanese companies.
Revelations last year that Toshiba 6502.T, the laptops-to-nuclear conglomerate, had overstated profits by $1.3 billion over several years sparked a public debate over Japan's inward-looking corporate culture, in which boards have typically held investors at arms' length.
The Toshiba investigation identified a corporate culture in which the management could not be challenged and didn’t always heed its external auditors.
The scandal led the Japan Financial Services Agency to step up scrutiny of auditors, while the Japan Institute of Certified Public Accountants has conducted several quality-control inspections of its members.
In June 2015 the government also implemented a new corporate governance code in a bid to stimulate foreign investment.
“Right now, there’s an interesting mix of factors at play in Japan. The Toshiba scandal could be seen as a blow to investor confidence, but that and Abe’s moves also created the opportunity for short-sellers to spark a conversation on overvalued companies,” said Claire Stovall, research analyst at Activist Shorts.
“In a country where Well Investments has described an acceptance of poor disclosure, partly built on corporate relationships and a laissez-faire trust in management, investors and regulators will likely be sensitive to negative research.”
OPPORTUNITIES
Analysts and short-sellers said they saw ripe shorting opportunities among Japan’s commodities trading companies, which could be prone to aggressive accounting tactics following the global commodities slowdown.
GMT Research, which analyses company accounts for hedge funds, said earlier this year that the book values of Japanese trading companies were overstated by as much as two thirds in some cases.
“Companies reclassify their investments and affiliates all the time. In this case, it is probably the pervasiveness and the magnitude that warrant closer scrutiny on the practice,” said trader and short-selling specialist Laurent Bernut.
Short-sellers burnished their credentials from 2010 onwards by exploiting concerns over poor corporate governance and accounting practices at more than 100 Chinese companies, in some cases exposing outright frauds at the likes of Sino-Forest and China Metals Recycling.
But a crackdown by authorities in Hong Kong, the main market for offshore Chinese stocks, has made such attacks riskier, while investors are increasingly pricing in doubts over Chinese companies, making such attacks less lucrative.
Citron Research's head Andrew Left is currently awaiting a Hong Kong tribunal ruling over allegations by the Securities and Futures Commission he manipulated the market when he targeted Chinese property developer Evergrande 3333.HK in 2012.
Left, whose influence has grown following his campaign against U.S.-listed Valeant, did not respond to a request for comment but has said he does not plan to target more Hong Kong companies, while market conditions in Japan were attractive.
Additional reporting by Emi Emoto in Tokyo; Editing by Will WatermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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427f05c630f131774ec7ef7d4e5530b0 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-southkorea/japan-protests-call-for-emperor-to-apologize-to-korean-comfort-women-idUSKCN1Q10CP?il=0 | Japan protests call for emperor to apologize to Korean 'comfort women' | Japan protests call for emperor to apologize to Korean 'comfort women'
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Tuesday it had lodged a complaint with South Korea and after a Korean lawmaker said the Japanese emperor should apologize to “comfort women” forced to serve in Japanese military brothels in World War Two.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
Relations between Japan and South Korea, both U.S. allies, have amid an intensifying row over their wartime history. That includes Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the Korean peninsula and its use of comfort women, many of them Korean.
South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang said in an interview with Bloomberg last week Japanese Emperor Akihito, “as the son of the main culprit of war crimes”, should apologize to the women before he steps down at the end of April.
That would be a sign that Tokyo wanted to end the prolonged dispute, Moon said.
Japan fought World War Two in the name of Akihito’s father, Emperor Hirohito.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday that Moon’s comments were “extremely regrettable”.
“We strongly protested as his remarks have absolutely inappropriate content and are extremely regrettable,” Suga said. “At the same time, we demanded an apology and withdrawal of his remarks.”
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Moon was highlighting the need for Tokyo to show a “sincere attitude” to heal wounds.
South Korea reached a settlement with Japan to resolve the dispute in 2015, in which Japan apologized to victims and provided 1 billion yen ($9 million) to a fund to help them.
But some victims refused to take the money, saying the apology was not sincere, and Seoul’s current administration said in 2017 that the deal was flawed.
“Our government will continue making efforts to foster future-oriented relations, while promoting a wise solution for historical legacy issues,” ministry spokesman Roh Kyu-deok told a briefing.
Relations between the two East Asia neighbors have also deteriorated since South Korea’s top court ruled last year in favor of South Koreans seeking compensation from Japanese firms for wartime forced labor.
South Korea also complained after a Japanese patrol aircraft made what Seoul described as an “intimidating” pass over one of its warships last month, adding to the tension between the two sides.
Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin in SEOUL; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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ebfcc55852fb9c8c07a364ae50fa0034 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-stocks-boj/boj-may-be-stealth-tapering-in-stock-markets-analysts-say-idUSKBN1L20VS | BOJ may be 'stealth tapering' in stock markets, analysts say | BOJ may be 'stealth tapering' in stock markets, analysts say
By Tomo Uetake4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s central bank appears to be growing more comfortable with larger declines in the country’s stock prices, a sign it may have begun in the share market what analysts describe as “stealth tapering” of its massive monetary stimulus.
FILE PHOTO: A Japanese flag flutters atop the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo, Japan, September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
The Bank of Japan refrained from buying stocks on two days this week when the Topix .TOPX index was down more than 0.4 percent by midday, a departure from a previous pattern in which it bought exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on days when the index fell more than 0.2 percent.
The BOJ already has a precedent of stealth tapering in its bond buying and similar moves in its stock market operations come after it said last month it would make its asset purchases “more flexible”.
That change met stiff resistance from some BOJ board members, highlighting the massive internal challenges it faces in maintaining radical stimulus policies.
At its July 31 decision, the BOJ said it “may increase or decrease its stock buying depending on market conditions”.
The tweak is part of a wider shift to make its reflationist monetary policy, which includes large asset purchases in financial markets, more flexible as it seeks to lift Japan’s stubbornly low consumer prices.
Since the last meeting, the BOJ bought ETFs on only two days -- Aug. 10 and 13 -- when the Topix fell 0.6 percent and 1.7 percent in morning trade, respectively.
For a graphic on BOJ's buying in Japanese shares, click reut.rs/2L1QB6q
It did not step into the market on Wednesday and Thursday this week when the Topix declines in the morning session were 0.43 and 0.42 percent, respectively.
“This is not so much an alert as a red-hot warning that it is going to whittle down its purchase bit by bit,” said Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at NLI Research Institute. “I would say that is the whole purpose of putting that line in the statement.”
It also refrained from buying in when the drop in the Topix was between 0.2 to 0.4 percent earlier this month.
In debt markets, the BOJ has reduced its bond buying over the past two years despite statements that it aims to increase its government bond holdings by 80 trillion yen ($722 billion) a year.
For a graphic on BOJ's JGB buying, click reut.rs/2L0XFQJ
The BOJ dabbled in changing its unwritten policy on stock market support in April and May, allowing greater price declines without buying, though it switched back to its old script in late May.
However, not everyone sees signs that stealth tapering has begun.
“Even if it doesn’t buy when the market is down 0.4 percent, it’s still possible that the BOJ will have bought 6 trillion yen by the end of the year,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
BOJ bought nearly 3.5 trillion yen of stocks in the first half of this year, more than a half of its annual target of 6 trillion yen, meaning it needs to buy less in the second half.
“If the BOJ is really reducing buying, that is going to have a considerable impact. I suspect the BOJ will try to reduce it gradually,” he said.
While a small reduction in market intervention is unlikely to have a tangible impact on inflation, it could reduce support for Japanese share prices and marginally strengthen the yen.
Since 2013m the BOJ has bought almost 20 trillion yen of Japanese stocks, making it by far the biggest buyer of Japanese stocks.
But that has raised concerns among market participants that the BOJ’s ownership of Japanese companies may become too big -- a factor that many investors say prompted the BOJ to make its latest policy modification.
Reporting by Tomo Uetake; Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Sam HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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106ebce272a9b6b8b41d64c49c8ca524 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-stocks-poll/nikkei-faces-correction-before-gains-next-year-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN28501A | Nikkei faces correction before gains next year: Reuters poll | Nikkei faces correction before gains next year: Reuters poll
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese shares will likely see a correction in the near term following a global rally fuelled by coronavirus vaccine hopes, but will rise next year to their highest levels in three decades, a Reuters poll published on Wednesday showed.
FILE PHOTO: A man works at the Tokyo Stock Exchange after market opens in Tokyo, Japan October 2, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
The median estimate in the poll of 26 analysts and fund managers surveyed Nov. 12-23 put the benchmark Nikkei index finishing 2020 at 26,000.
That is slightly below the index’s close on Tuesday of 26,165.59, but nearly 12% higher than the previous Reuters poll in August that forecast the index at 23,300 at year’s end.
The median forecast in the poll expects the Nikkei to remain at 26,000 by next June before rising to 27,350 at the end of 2021, which would be its highest level since August 1990.
On Tuesday the Nikkei marked its highest close since May 1991, joining a global equity rally boosted by a wave of promising developments on coronavirus vaccines.
“Stock prices have been overheated, globally. Considering the recent novel coronavirus infections, some upcoming economic indicators will be inevitably worse,” said Hiroshi Namioka, strategist and fund manager at T&D Asset Management.
“As a result, we predict there will be a revision of forward EPS estimates and a correction in overvalued stocks,” he said.
Ayako Sera, a market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, also warned the overheated market is “overly pricing in hopes that are far from the real economy.”
The Nikkei has surged to levels unseen since the collapse of the bubble economy and is up more than 13.8% this month, even though the world is seeing another wave of infections.
Rising coronavirus cases in several parts of Japan prompted the Japanese government to pause its domestic travel campaign in the cities of Osaka and Sapporo on Tuesday.
Still, some analysts are optimistic stocks will continue to trade near three-decade highs until the end of 2021, on expectations central banks will continue to pursue their easing monetary policy to support pandemic-battered economies.
“The U.S. Federal Reserve is currently speculated to further loosen its monetary policy amid another coronavirus wave. This could result in a ‘money glut’ market and push Japanese stocks higher from year-end to spring next year,” said Hiroshi Watanabe, economist at Sony Financial.
(This version of the story corrects attribution of the poll to Reuters in the headline. The poll was not conducted in collaboration with IPSOS.)
Reporting by Eimi Yamamitsu, additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano, Daiki Iga, Fumiya Mizuno, Mayu Sakoda and Hiroko Hamada in Tokyo; Editing by Susan FentonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f9fa01cd784f8676dea8e9ceefcbb211 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-stocks-tse-suspension-idCAKBN26M4CP?edition-redirect=ca | Tokyo Stock Exchange says to halt share trading all day on Thursday | Tokyo Stock Exchange says to halt share trading all day on Thursday
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) building is seen after the TSE temporarily suspended all trading due to system problems in Tokyo, Japan October 1, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato
TOKYO (Reuters) - The Tokyo Stock Exchange will halt its share trading all day on Thursday due to technical troubles, the exchange said, adding it cannot say at this point when it can recover its systems.
Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Hideyuki SanoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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2db9efc6589f173ca287e3a5a46b2738 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tech-farming-idUSKBN0GJ25C20140819 | Silicon to spinach: Japan tech helps farmers cope with climate shifts | Silicon to spinach: Japan tech helps farmers cope with climate shifts
By Sophie Knight6 Min Read
SHIZUOKA/OSAKA Japan (Reuters) - Japanese technology firms are applying their expertise in energy-saving and cloud technology to help farmers cope with shifting weather patterns, an onslaught of cheaper imports and a shrinking workforce.
Cows are seen wearing Fujitsu's Gyuho, or 'cow step', pedometer anklet, which tracks their fertility window by counting their steps, at a farm on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, in this undated handout photo provided by Fujitsu Ltd. REUTERS/Fujitsu Ltd./Handout via Reuters
Panasonic Corp, Fujitsu Ltd and others, seeking niche business opportunities to offset a downturn in demand for their consumer electronics, are touting automated greenhouses and sensor-controlled fields that ensure constant conditions to produce high-quality vegetables all year-round.
Fujitsu says its Akisai cloud-based farming system means users can sit at a desk in Tokyo or even New York while tending vegetables in Shizuoka, using a tablet to operate sprinklers, fans and heaters in response to changes in heat and moisture tracked by sensors in fields or greenhouses.
Companies are also converting factories into farms: Toshiba Corp is to start growing vegetables at a former floppy disk plant near Tokyo, while Panasonic is growing radishes and lettuce inside a Singapore factory, and Sharp Corp is trialling an indoor strawberry farm in Dubai.
This tech push into farming is endorsed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, which is promoting robotics and sensors to boost farm production and exports – essential if Japan concedes to lower agricultural tariffs in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement.
Domestic demand for farming systems using information technology and the cloud is expected to expand ninefold to 60 billion yen ($586 million) by 2020, according to market research firm Seed Planning, as farmers fret over the impact of climate change on their crops. Last year’s summer was Japan’s hottest on record, with temperatures in Tokyo topping 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) for a week straight in early August.
“For the past 4-5 years, vegetable prices have gone up every year because of the heat,” says Takayoshi Tanizawa, the manager of Panasonic’s greenhouse project. “Farmers are in a bind because they can’t grow summer vegetables any more. They say they’ve never experienced this kind of heat before. There are also many bouts of heavy rain. Unusual weather is becoming more and more ‘normal’.”
JAPANESE MODEL
While indoor farming has taken off in the United States and Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, those systems are designed more for a colder climate and are only equipped with heating, rather than cooling systems. In Japan, rising electricity costs mean that energy-intensive methods, such as blasting out air conditioning, aren’t a cost-effective solution.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
“The Japanese model that deals with high temperatures and humidity is more appropriate for Japan and other Asian countries,” says Yasufumi Miwa, an agricultural specialist at the Japan Research Institute.
Panasonic has developed a “passive”, low-energy greenhouse that uses sensor-activated fans, sprinklers and curtains instead of air conditioning to keep heat and humidity at a constant - whether it’s January or July. Fujitsu similarly offers solar-powered posts equipped with thermometers, humidity sensors and cameras for farmers’ fields.
Greenhouses cover 11 percent of the land used to cultivate vegetables in Japan, but account for 15 percent of total output, or 165 billion yen ($1.6 billion), and farmers who use them can have double the revenue of those who use open fields as they more consistently produce high-quality vegetables.
Although Panasonic’s greenhouses aren’t cheap, at 55 million yen ($540,000) for a set of ten, the company says the cost can be recouped within seven years, and estimates it is half the price of a system using air conditioning. A constant temperature can double harvests to eight a year, says Panasonic, which aims to sell 1,000 of its greenhouses by the year ending March 2017 and hopes the system will eventually be used to produce a tenth of Japan’s spinach output, or 26,000 tons.
High-tech systems that can produce higher-quality premium vegetables could give Japanese farmers the competitive edge they will need if the country joins the TPP, the free trade agreement it’s negotiating with 11 other countries.
“It’s like semiconductors ... the low-cost ones have to be sold at high-volume to keep costs low, whereas Japan’s semiconductor industry is about developing the next generation and to add value,” said Takeshi Sudo, senior vice president of innovative business development at Fujitsu.
YOUNG BLOOD
Low on effort and high on tech, Fujitsu’s Akisai system is designed to attract young blood into a sector where the average Japanese farmer is 66 years old. Using big data to analyze climate against output over a year can help newcomers understand what conditions are ideal: one test user increased his revenue by 30 percent and used nearly one-third less fertilizer.
Fujitsu says it has around 200 customers for the Akisai system which it launched in 2012, including supermarket retailer Aeon Co Ltd, which uses it to grow and time the distribution of perfectly ripe vegetables from 15 farms straight to stores. It aims to reap 15 billion yen ($150 million) in revenue by the year to end-March 2016.
And the system hasn’t ignored the meat industry either.
As Japan’s government hopes to expand beef exports fivefold by 2020, Fujitsu has come up with an anklet for heifers - which could be the world’s first wearable for cows.
The Gyuho, or ‘cow step’, pedometer can pinpoint when a heifer is most fertile based on how much she walks around. The farmer is sent an email alert so he can rush to artificially inseminate the cow and have a higher chance of meeting the target of one calf per year - a big potential improvement when a head of cattle can fetch up to $5,000 at auction.
“Before, you’d either have to get on top of the cow and see if she objected or not, or else check the floor to see if there were a lot of hoofprints,” said Hiroshi Kadomatsu, a beef farmer in Miyazaki prefecture in southern Japan.
“I’m not quite at 100 percent success rate with Gyuho yet, but it’s certainly a lot better than before.”
Editing by Ian GeogheganOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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cc8857560798a15908f99b1bc22a8acd | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-telecoms-apple/japan-pushing-to-end-smartphone-bundling-cut-wireless-fees-source-idUSKCN1L6146 | Japan pushing to end smartphone bundling, cut wireless fees: source | Japan pushing to end smartphone bundling, cut wireless fees: source
By Sam Nussey, Yoshiyasu Shida3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is aiming to force wireless carriers to cut their monthly fees and stop bundling the cost of smartphones with wireless services, a senior telecoms ministry source said on Tuesday, in a move that is likely to hit Apple Inc.
FILE PHOTO: A man looks at Apple's new iPhone 8 (L) and his iPhone 7 at the Apple Store in Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district, Japan, September 22, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
Japan’s top wireless carriers, NTT Docomo Inc, KDDI Corp and SoftBank Group Corp, typically provide phones without upfront charges as part of fixed-term contracts that can cost as much as 10,000 yen ($90.51) a month. Customers effectively pay for handsets in installments.
The government, which sees these contracts as muddying the cost of handsets and mobile fees and creating barriers for entry, wants carriers to charge separately for phones, the senior telecoms ministry source told Reuters.
An end to bundling could hit dominant player Apple’s iPhone sales as consumers opt for cheaper devices.
Iphones account for one in every two smartphones sold in Japan, according to MM Research Institute Ltd, with the device first introduced there by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son in 2008.
Apple may have breached antitrust rules by forcing Japanese carriers to offer discounts on iPhones and charge higher monthly fees, the country’s regulators said last month, giving the U.S. firm an advantage over rivals such as Samsung Electronics.
Shares of Japan’s wireless carriers fell by up to 5 percent earlier in the day, in a steady broader market, after Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was quoted by Kyodo News as saying that they have room to slash wireless fees by 40 percent.
Japan hopes that by reducing the burden of wireless fees on households it can stimulate spending in other areas as the Bank of Japan battles to reflate the economy.
“Wireless costs are suppressing other spending,” the ministry source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Telecoms fees as a percentage of total household spending have continued to rise, government figures show, reaching 4.2 percent last year, driven by higher wireless costs.
A KDDI spokeswoman said the carrier has created plans that separate the cost of the handset and carrier fees, and has lowered fees for customers.
A Docomo spokesman says the firm has cut costs for customers and “continues to consider changes to fees based on the wishes of customers.”
A SoftBank spokeswoman said the carrier continues to examine how to improve services for customers.
Apple was not immediately available to comment outside of U.S. business hours.
Reporting by Sam Nussey and Yoshiyasu Shida; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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1dac812062150ad34aa213d40f94fc42 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tokyo-gas/tokyo-gas-chief-sees-lng-destination-flexibility-spreading-worldwide-idUSKCN1H91KY | Tokyo Gas chief sees LNG destination flexibility spreading worldwide | Tokyo Gas chief sees LNG destination flexibility spreading worldwide
By Osamu Tsukimori3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s biggest city gas seller Tokyo Gas Co expects that contracts for liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes with destination flexibility will spread from the West and Japan to be a common thing worldwide, the company’s new president said.
Japan’s Fair Trade Commission last June ruled that destination restrictions that prevent the reselling of contracted LNG cargoes breach competition rules. The decision is set to shake up the Asian market for the fuel in the same way as in Europe.
LNG exports from the United States are also free from destination restrictions.
“Europe has been free from destination clauses basically, while Japan also issued such a recommendation, and Asia is set to follow up,” Tokyo Gas President Takashi Uchida, 61, said.
“The global trend is clearly toward lifting destination clauses. It is a buyer’s market now, so we can get good conditions, and we would continue to consider taking a long-term deal if conditions were good.”
While seeking to further strengthen destination flexibility in future contracts, Uchida ruled out installing capacity to re-load LNG from storage tanks for export from its four terminals because of the prohibitive cost and as the world is heading toward easing destination constraints.
In Japan, only Shizuoka Gas has the capability to re-export fuel by re-loading LNG onto ships.
“If you don’t need gas, you don’t need to take it and you can bring it to somewhere else,” Uchida told Reuters in an interview last week. “We have no intention at all of doing that,” he said, regarding the re-export capabilities.
JOINT PROCUREMENT
Tokyo Gas and JERA, the world’s top LNG buyer, separately renewed their expiring contracts for the fuel from Malaysia, after decades of jointly procuring gas from the country, due to a difference in procurement strategy, Uchida said.
Thanks to the buyer’s market, Tokyo Gas, Japan’s second-biggest buyer of LNG, renewed long-term contract for LNG from Malaysia with destination flexibility “at good terms” last month, he said.
Tokyo Gas would increase its ratio of short-term and spot LNG cargoes to long-term contracts out of a total of about 14 million tonnes it buys annually.
However, the company would not make a drastic cut in long-term LNG volumes of 50 percent by 2030 as that would be too risky, he said.
Tokyo Gas is expected to take the first delivery of LNG from the Cove Point project in the U.S. state of Maryland some time in April to June. The company has a contract to buy 1.4 million tonnes per annum of LNG for 20 years from Cove Point, its first procurement of U.S. shale gas.
The company has been arranging with Centrica to exchange a part of its Cove Point offtake with LNG that the British firm procures in Asia Pacific markets, under a location swap deal, to cut transportation costs, but the exact volumes have not been fixed, Uchida said.
Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Christian SchmollingerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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556a21da3e304a383c9cfb4bfd461fce | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-toshiba-breakingviews-idUKKCN1QZ0CE?edition-redirect=uk | Breakingviews - Hostile Japanese deal propels Abe’s third arrow | Breakingviews - Hostile Japanese deal propels Abe’s third arrow
By Jeffrey Goldfarb3 Min Read
A man walks past the logo of Japanese general trading company Itochu Corp at the company's headquarters in Tokyo July 27, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
HONG KONG (Reuters Breakingviews) - Things are getting testier at Japan Inc. In a rare act of domestic corporate aggression, trading house Itochu snatched a degree of control over $1.8 billion sportswear maker Descente. Toshiba, meanwhile, faces a shareholder insurrection while electronics group Alps Alpine has been sued over the merger that created the company. These hostilities are helping propel Shinzo Abe’s so-called third arrow.
The prime minister’s monetary and fiscal policies flew fast from his economic quiver after he took office in 2012. Overhauling the way Japanese companies manage their balance sheets and structure themselves, though, has been slower. Revisions to the country’s corporate governance code last year helped, and Abe is pressing the case. Earlier this month, he promised to draft guidelines encouraging listed subsidiaries to have more directors who are independent from the parent companies.
Some boards are already feeling the heat. Frustrated by the leadership and strategy at Descente, which licenses brands such as Le Coq Sportif and Umbro, Itochu took the unusual step of offering shareholders a hefty premium so it could lift its stake to 40 percent from 30 percent. Success, unveiled on Friday, means it will have more clout when it comes to acquisitions and directors. With China’s Anta Sports Products backing Itochu, Descente also may be nudged to accelerate growth plans on the mainland.
U.S. hedge fund King Street is similarly fed up with Toshiba. In an uncommonly pushy move for Japan, it said last week it would nominate a slate of directors to replace a majority of the $18 billion conglomerate’s board. That followed a dramatic profit warning. Likewise, activist Oasis Management has started legal action to unwind the January combination of Alpine Electronics with its larger affiliate, Alps, alleging that shoddy corporate governance trampled on the rights of minority shareholders.
Such actions are apt to rattle those Japanese chief executives who have ignored the changing climate, and even those who have become more receptive to shareholder entreaties. Stock buybacks have increased and in another encouraging sign, many companies have stopped adopting defensive measures such as poison pills. An acceleration of such assertive behavior should help generate better returns and overall growth, hitting Abe’s ultimate bullseye.
BreakingviewsReuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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4aa2b39c34d38c245c98960218e7ecea | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tpp-abe-idUSKBN13G2IK | Japan PM says TPP trade pact meaningless without U.S. | Japan PM says TPP trade pact meaningless without U.S.
By Kiyoshi Takenaka2 Min Read
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be meaningless without U.S. participation, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he would withdraw the United States from the pan-Pacific free trade deal.
Abe, who attended a gathering of TPP leaders in Lima on Saturday, said there was no discussion at the meeting that other members should try to put the TPP into effect without the United States, Abe told reporters in Buenos Aires.
“The TPP would be meaningless without the United States,” Abe said.
Trump released a video on Monday laying out actions he would take on his first day in office on Jan. 20, including withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Trump campaigned for the U.S. presidency on a promise to pull out of the 12-nation trade deal, calling it a job-killing “disaster.”
Abe, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to discuss economic cooperation and a decades-old territorial row, stressed at the Buenos Aires news conference his resolve to put an end to the island dispute under his leadership.
“This is the problem that cannot be solved without the relationship of trust between leaders,” Abe said.
“I will be directly communicating with President Putin and make progress one solid step at a time.”
The territorial row over the chain of western Pacific islands, seized by Soviet troops at the end of World War Two, has upset diplomatic ties ever since, precluding a formal peace treaty between Tokyo and Moscow.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Andrew Hay, Bernard OrrOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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d6b167497aa3f76e0f13177a4cdd199a | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tpp-idUSKBN0KY01N20150125 | Japan offers compromise on rice in Asia-Pacific trade talks: Nikkei | Japan offers compromise on rice in Asia-Pacific trade talks: Nikkei
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has offered to import more rice from the United States in a compromise aimed at pushing forward the Asia-Pacific regional trade talks, the Nikkei reported on Sunday.
A stand-off between the United States and Japan over access to farm and auto markets has been holding up negotiations over the 12-nation trade pact, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The Nikkei business daily, citing unidentified sources, said Japan was offering to increase its tariff-free quota for imported rice and import some “tens of thousands” of tonnes of additional rice from the United States. It plans to maintain existing rice tariffs, it said.
In turn, the United States has dropped its request that Japan ease safety standards on car imports, the report said, adding that such moves were likely to help the two countries reach an agreement in the spring and conclude the TPP deal.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s top Asia adviser said on Wednesday the administration’s goal was to complete the trade pact this year.
In his State of the Union address, Obama called on Congress to approve “fast track” authority for big trade agreements with Asia-Pacific and European countries, which allow only a “yes” or “no” vote on the finished product.
Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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0731024f1fb5cae73d55001810013ad8 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-trade-uk/japan-unsuccessful-in-lifting-auto-tariffs-early-in-uk-trade-deal-media-idINKCN255042?edition-redirect=in | Japan unsuccessful in lifting auto tariffs early in UK trade deal: media | Japan unsuccessful in lifting auto tariffs early in UK trade deal: media
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and Britain agreed to lift auto tariffs for a post-Brexit trade agreement in 2026 despite Japan’s push to lift the tariffs earlier, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on Sunday.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi is currently in negotiations with British Trade Minister Liz Truss in London.
British Trade Minister Lizz Truss said in a statement that they “have reached consensus on the major elements of a deal,” and both have announced that they will agree on the principles of a trade deal by the end of August.
However, despite reassurances that the two countries had by and large reached an agreement, auto tariffs and agricultural products have proven to be a sticking point in the negotiations.
Japan had hoped to lift tariffs on auto and auto parts earlier than in the current trade deal between the EU and Japan, which will phase out import tariffs on Japanese vehicles by 2026.
“Japan agreed to phasing auto tariffs on Japanese vehicles out in 2026 in line with the EU trade deal, despite asking to hasten the timing,” Nikkei reported on Sunday.
Britain, on the other hand, is hoping to secure better terms on agriculture, Financial Times reporter George Parker tweeted on Friday.
“UK-Japan trade talks close to agreement but @trussliz said by Brits to be holding out on agricultural access,” he said, referring to Truss’s Twitter handle.
Britain, which left the European Union in January, is seeking to clinch a trade agreement with Japan based on the 2019 EU-Japan agreement by the end of the year, when Britain’s no-change transition arrangement with the EU will expire.
The Japanese Trade Ministry and Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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48b3ae5cfc030c785baf1a98cabb5025 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tsmc-idUSKCN24K03B?via=indexdotco | Japan plans to invite TSMC to build joint chip plant: Yomiuri | Japan plans to invite TSMC to build joint chip plant: Yomiuri
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is seen at its headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan August 31, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is aiming to invite Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd 2330.TW or other global chipmakers to build an advanced chip manufacturing plant jointly with domestic chip equipment suppliers, the Yomiuri daily reported on Sunday.
The Japanese government hopes to tap the expertise of global chipmakers to rejuvenate the lagging domestic chip industry as advanced chip technologies have become a focal point in national security issues, Yomiuri said.
The government is planning to offer a total of several hundred billion yen, or equivalent to several billion dollars, over multiple years to overseas chipmakers who join the project, the daily said, without citing sources.
The report gave no timeline for the project.
A TSMC spokesperson denied there was any such plan at the moment when contacted by Reuters but said the company would not rule anything out in the future. The Japanese industry ministry did not answer calls.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, in May unveiled plans for a $12 billion plant in the United State in an apparent win for the Trump administration’s efforts to wrestle global technology supply chains back from China.
Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Elaine HardcastleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3827bbfb2246d834c24828c04566c7a7 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-tvshow-death-idCAKBN23003F?edition-redirect=ca | Sudden death of popular Terrace House star shocks Japan, fans | Sudden death of popular Terrace House star shocks Japan, fans
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - The sudden death of Hana Kimura, a 22-year-old professional wrestler and a cast member in the popular Netflix reality show “Terrace House” shocked fans and raised concerns over cyber-bullying after reports she was harassed on social media.
Kimura was one of six residents in the most recent season of Terrace House, an internationally popular show that follows the lives of young men and women living together. The show suspended filming in April due to the coronavirus.
Stardom, a pro wrestling organisation that Kimura was affiliated with, confirmed her death in a statement posted on Twitter on Saturday, adding that details remained unclear.
Kimura was a fan favourite on the show, with her signature pink hair and shy personality contrasting with her persona in the wrestling ring. Fans flocked to Twitter after news reports of her death, applauding Kimura’s work on the Netflix show.
“I’m sorry Hana that this world was cruel to you and that you could not find your peace,” one user wrote.
Celebrities also weighed in on the topic of online harassment after since-deleted social media posts from Kimura mentioned how she was affected by a torrent of negative opinions from strangers online.
Yukio Hatoyama, Japan’s former prime minister, also posted about Kimura’s death on Twitter, saying Japan should consider penalties for those who target individuals for severe online harassment.
Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Lincoln Feast.Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4569415d5d0cd55c22276e44b10903c3 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-uranium/japan-police-catch-three-trading-uranium-online-report-idUSKBN1YE0L0 | Japan police catch three trading uranium online: report | Japan police catch three trading uranium online: report
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police have caught 3 people, including a teenager, trading uranium online in violation of laws on nuclear materials, Kyodo News said on Tuesday.
A 17-year-old high school student and 61-year-old pharmacist are suspected of buying uranium in an online auction for sums between 5,000 yen ($46) and 30,000 yen ($276), the paper said, adding that the substances emitted minute amounts of radiation.
The seller, a 24-year-old man, was selling small amounts of depleted uranium and natural uranium on a Yahoo online auction site, it said, citing unidentified investigative sources.
All three have been referred to prosecutors, and have admitted to the charges, the sources were quoted as saying.
They said they were motivated by an interest in chemistry, with no intention to use the material for unlawful purposes, it quoted the sources as saying.
Japanese law allows only those with approval to trade nuclear materials such as high-grade uranium.
Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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22fa1e3ec93dff38a8a401284b6d77f8 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-usa-defence/japan-and-u-s-begin-major-military-exercise-as-concern-about-china-grows-idUSKBN27B1HM?edition-redirect=in | Japan and U.S. begin major military exercise as concern about China grows | Japan and U.S. begin major military exercise as concern about China grows
By Tim Kelly3 Min Read
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ON BOARD JS KAGA (Reuters) - Japan and the United States on Monday began air, sea and land exercises around Japan in a show of force in the face of increased Chinese military activity in the region.
The Keen Sword exercise is the first big drill since Yoshihide Suga became Japan’s prime minister last month with a vow to continue the military build-up aimed at countering China, which claims Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea.
Keen Sword, which is held every two years, involves dozens of warships, hundreds of aircraft and 46,000 soldiers, sailors and marines from Japan and the United States. Running until to Nov. 5 it will include cyber and electronic warfare training for the first time.
“The security situation around Japan has become increasingly severe. This gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance,” General Koji Yamazaki, Japan’s top military commander said on board the Kaga helicopter carrier in waters south of Japan.
Japan’s biggest warship was accompanied by U.S. aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan and its escort destroyers. The 248 metre (814 ft) Kaga, which was returning from patrols in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, will be refitted as early as next year to carry F-35 stealth fighters.
Suga this month visited Vietnam and Indonesia as part of Japan’s efforts to bolster ties with key Southeast Asian allies. That followed a meeting in Tokyo of the “Quad”, an informal grouping of India, Australia, Japan and the United States that Washington sees as a bulwark against China’s growing regional influence. Beijing as denounced it as a “mini-NATO” aimed at containing it.
Japan has grown particularly concerned about an uptick in Chinese naval activity around the disputed islands in the East China Sea that Tokyo claims as the Senkaku and Diaoyu in Beijing.
Accompanying Gen Yamazaki on the Kaga, Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider, commander of U.S. Forces Japan pointed to recent activity by China that worried Washington and Tokyo, including new security laws in Hong Kong that had undermined the territory’s autonomy, China’s military build up in the South China Sea and harassment of Taiwan by the Chinese military over the past few months.
China has said it intentions in the region are peaceful.
Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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39a23792ef8f539f4cfdcac86255b6b8 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-usa-investment/trump-urges-greater-japanese-investment-in-u-s-criticizes-trade-advantage-idUKKCN1SV08J?edition-redirect=uk | Trump urges greater Japanese investment in U.S., criticises trade advantage | Trump urges greater Japanese investment in U.S., criticises trade advantage
By Jeff Mason4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump urged Japanese business leaders on Saturday to increase their investment in the United States while he chided Japan for having a “substantial edge” on trade that negotiators were trying to even out in a bilateral deal.
Trump arrived in Japan on Saturday for a largely ceremonial state visit meant to showcase strong ties even though trade relations are problematical. In the evening, the Tokyo Sky Tree tower was lit up red, white and blue in Trump’s honor.
Shortly after arriving at the airport to a red-carpet welcome, Trump attended a reception at the residence of U.S. Ambassador William Hagerty that the White House said included Japanese business executives from Toyota, Nissan, Honda, SoftBank and Rakuten.
Trump told the company officials there had never been a better time to invest in the United States and repeated a complaint that the Federal Reserve’s policies had kept U.S. economic growth from reaching its full potential.
With trade talks ongoing, Trump also got in a dig at Japan and said he wanted a deal to address the trade imbalance between the two countries.
Related CoverageJapan and U.S. must work to narrow differences on trade - economy minister Motegi
“Japan has had a substantial edge for many, many years, but that’s OK, maybe that’s why you like us so much,” he said.
“With this deal we hope to address the trade imbalance, removing barriers to United States exports and ensure fairness and reciprocity in our relationship,” Trump said.
Trade is one of Trump’s signature issues, and encouraging foreign investment in the United States is a hallmark of his trips abroad.
Trump will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday for a round of golf, a sumo tournament and a private dinner.
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The two men share a warm relationship, which the Japanese leader aims to emphasize as Washington considers tariffs on Japanese auto exports that the Trump administration views as a potential national security threat.
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STILL GAPS
Trade is likely to be addressed during a formal meeting on Monday between Trump and Abe, but even a partial trade agreement isn’t expected, said Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi after meeting his counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, in Tokyo on Saturday.
Motegi said there was no discussion of Trump’s decision to declare some auto imports a national security threat.
“We deepened our understanding of each other’s positions on trade. However, we’re not in complete agreement,” Motegi told reporters following the talks. “There are still some gaps. We need to work to narrow our differences.”
The United States is in the middle of an expensive trade war with China, and trade tensions are also simmering with Japan and the European Union.
Trump’s Japan trip is largely ceremonial in nature. The president will become the first foreign leader to be received by new Japanese Emperor Naruhito since he inherited the throne earlier this month; he and Harvard-educated Empress Masako will host an elaborate dinner for the Trumps on Monday night.
A medium-strength earthquake hit eastern Japan, causing buildings to shake in Tokyo, hours before Trump’s arrival. The epicenter was southern Chiba, southeast of the capital, the prefecture where Trump is due to play golf on Sunday.
No tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage.
Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Jeff Mason and Malcolm Foster; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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ac69713fc75fca5363661c9de2bcd09d | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-usa-iran-idUSKCN1SX0VF | Trump says Iran nuclear deal achievable as sanctions sting | Trump says Iran nuclear deal achievable as sanctions sting
By Jeff Mason, Malcolm Foster4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday a deal with Iran on its nuclear program was possible, crediting economic sanctions for curbing activities Washington has said are behind a spate of attacks in the Middle East.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo, Japan, May 27, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“I really believe that Iran would like to make a deal, and I think that’s very smart of them, and I think that’s a possibility to happen,” Trump said during a news conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
“It has a chance to be a great country with the same leadership,” Trump said. “We aren’t looking for regime change - I just want to make that clear. We are looking for no nuclear weapons.”
In Tehran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons, which its supreme leader had banned in an edict, adding on Twitter that U.S. policies were hurting the Iranian people and causing regional tensions.
“Actions—not words—will show whether or not that’s @realDonaldTrump’s intent,” Zarif said.
President Hassan Rouhani said in October the United States was seeking “regime change” in Iran, adding that the current U.S. administration was the most hostile that the Islamic Republic had faced in its four decades.
Tensions have risen between Iran and the United States after this month’s attack on oil tankers in the Gulf region.
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Washington, a firm backer of Tehran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, has blamed the attacks on Iran, which denies the accusations.
The United States has deployed a carrier strike group and bombers to the and announced plans to deploy 1,500 troops to the Middle East, prompting fears of a conflict.
Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton said on Saturday that the United States had “deep and serious” intelligence on threats posed by Iran, without providing details.
Trump, on a four-day visit to Japan, welcomed Abe’s help in dealing with Iran after broadcaster NHK said Japan’s leader is considering a trip to Tehran as early as mid-June. Iran said a visit was unlikely in the near future.
“I know for a fact that the prime minister is very close with the leadership of Iran, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
At his joint news conference with Trump, Abe said Japan would do what it can on the Iran issue.
Trump last year withdrew the United States from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran, and is ratcheting up sanctions seeking to end Iran’s international sales of crude oil and strangle its economy.
Japan was a major buyer of Iranian oil for decades before U.S. sanctions which Trump said were taking effect.
“They were fighting in many locations,” he said of Iran. “Now they are pulling back because they have serious economic problems.”
Bolton, who has spearheaded an increasingly hawkish U.S. policy on Iran, described recent bomb attacks on tankers off the United Arab Emirates and a pipeline pumping station in Saudi Arabia, as well as a rocket attack in Baghdad’s Green Zone, as “manifestations of concern” about Iran.
Iran has distanced itself from the bombings and on Sunday, Zarif said his country will defend itself against any military or economic aggression.
Additional reporting by Tim Kelly, and Dubai newsroom; Writing by Tim Kelly and Malcolm Foster; editing by Darren Schuettler and Howard GollerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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edc2568899e0b891aecf38b61bcb082d | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-usa-mattis-abe-idUSKBN15I0ZG?il=0 | Abe says Japan to show 'unwavering alliance' with U.S. under Trump | Abe says Japan to show 'unwavering alliance' with U.S. under Trump
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
A worker adjusts the U.S. flag before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addresses media following a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he was convinced that together with U.S. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, they would be able to demonstrate an ‘unwavering alliance’ between the two countries.
Abe was speaking at the start of a meeting with Mattis.
Mattis, who arrived in Japan after a visit to South Korea, is on his debut trip as defense secretary. U.S. officials said his choice of destination was meant to reaffirm ties with the two Asian allies after Trump appeared to question the cost of such alliances during his election campaign.
Abe is set to meet Trump on Feb. 10 in Washington.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Chris GallagherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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938a66e43294b5447402bb1422a5046f | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-usa-okinawa/japans-pm-vows-to-proceed-with-us-base-relocation-in-okinawa-after-poll-idUSKBN1FP03J | Japan's PM vows to proceed with U.S. base relocation in Okinawa after poll | Japan's PM vows to proceed with U.S. base relocation in Okinawa after poll
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed on Monday the victory of a ruling party-backed candidate in a mayoral election on Okinawa, vowing to press ahead with a controversial plan to move a U.S. Marines air base on the southern island.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gestures as he makes a speech at an opening of a new session of parliament in Tokyo, Japan January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
The candidate, Taketoyo Toguchi, backed by Abe’s ruling coalition, defeated incumbent Susumu Inamine, who opposed moving the U.S. Marines’ Futenma air base to his city of Nago in Okinawa’s north from a more populous part of the island.
The victory by Toguchi - who stressed boosting Okinawa’s economy in his campaign - is expected to give impetus to the long-stalled plan to relocate the base.
The election came just days before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to visit Japan this week on a trip expected to focus on security ties in face of North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat.
“I would like to proceed (with the relocation) based on a ruling by the Supreme Court of Japan, while seeking understanding of the public,” Abe told reporters.
He said he wanted to support Okinawa’s development.
Japan’s Supreme Court ruled in 2016 in favor of a government plan to relocate the U.S. military base, dealing a blow to islanders’ efforts to get rid of the base altogether.
Japan’s central government and authorities on Okinawa - reluctant host to the bulk of U.S. military forces in the country - have bickered for years over the plan, first agreed between Tokyo and Washington in 1996.
Many Okinawa residents have long associated the U.S. military presence with crime, pollution and accidents, and resentment was rekindled by a spate of incidents involving U.S. military aircraft. In December, a window fell from a U.S. helicopter onto a school sports field, fanning safety concerns.
The Nago result could bode ill for Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga, another base opponent who is up for re-election later this year.
Reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Linda Sieg; Editing by Paul TaitOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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af5033486ff9ef25ecc8cd6d3ab4df0c | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-usa-okinawa/u-s-marine-accused-of-drunk-driving-after-japanese-man-dies-in-crash-idUSKBN1DK0DV?il=0 | U.S. marine accused of drunk driving after Japanese man dies in crash | U.S. marine accused of drunk driving after Japanese man dies in crash
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man was killed in a truck collision involving a 21-year-old U.S. marine who was well over the legal alcohol limit for driving, police said of a case that was likely to stoke resentment over the U.S. military presence on the southern island of Okinawa.
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In response to the Sunday’s fatal accident, U.S. forces in Japan banned, until further notice, all personnel in the country from drinking of alcohol.
“The Defence and Foreign Ministries have lodged a stern representation to the U.S. forces in Japan and the U.S. embassy in Japan, asking for the enforcement of discipline, prevention of recurrence and sincere response to the bereaved,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference on Monday.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan William Hagerty expressed his condolences and offered an apology, Suga said.
The accident occurred at an intersection in the city of Naha early Sunday morning. The marine was driving a military truck, and the 61-year-old crash victim was in a light truck.
The Japanese man was later pronounced dead, while the U.S. serviceman, who was arrested for the fatal accident and driving under the influence of alcohol, suffered scratches, a police official in Naha said.
The official said a breath test showed the marine was as much as three times over the legal limit for alcohol.
“When our service members fail to live up to the high standards we set for them, it damages the bonds between bases and local communities and make it harder for us to accomplish our mission,” a statement from the U.S. forces in Japan said.
Last year, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe protested to then-U.S. President Barack Obama about the killing of a young woman in Okinawa, for which a U.S. base worker had been charged.
Obama, who was visiting Japan for a Group of Seven summit, expressed “deepest regrets.”
The case is under trial.
Residents in Okinawa, a reluctant host to the bulk of U.S. bases in Japan, believe that they shoulder an unfair burden in supporting the U.S. military presence in Japan.
Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Simon Cameron-MooreOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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a9fd4b578e674cf0228b02ce9cecbc39 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-volcano-idUSKCN12804E | Japan's Mount Aso volcano erupts, no injuries reported | Japan's Mount Aso volcano erupts, no injuries reported
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Mount Aso, a volcano on Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu, erupted early on Saturday, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said, spewing volcanic ash 11,000 meters (7 miles) into the sky.
Police and municipal governments said there were no reports of injuries from the eruption, which began at 1:46 a.m. local time (1646 GMT Friday) on one of the peaks of the 1,592-metre (5,222 feet) mountain in Kumamoto Prefecture.
It was the first “explosive eruption” at the peak since January 1980, according to the meteorological agency.
The agency raised the alert level for the volcano to level 3 on a scale of 5, telling people not to approach the mountain and warning of falling rocks. It also warned of falling ash in 10 prefectures.
TV footage showed volcanic ash had accumulated on cars, houses and roads in the city of Aso and ash was falling as far as 320 km (200 miles) away, Japanese media said.
Farmers have reported that some vinyl greenhouses where tomatoes and asparagus were being grown 6-8 km (4-5 miles) away from the crater had been broken by ash and small rocks.
A window was cracked by a falling rock at an Aso youth center about 5 km (3 miles) away from the crater but there were no reports of injuries, an official at Aso city hall said.
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“We are concerned that more damage on crops will be reported,” the official said.
Kyushu Electric Power Co said the eruption had no impact on its Sendai nuclear plant, which is about 160 km (100 miles) south of Mount Aso and is one of the two reactors that are online in Japan.
Up to 29,000 households lost power shortly after the eruption but the problem was fixed in less than two hours, a spokesman at Kyushu Electric said.
Mount Aso is one of the most active peaks in Japan but is also a popular hiking spot.
Japan lies on the “Ring of Fire”, a horseshoe-shaped band of fault lines and volcanoes around the edges of the Pacific Ocean, and is home to more than 100 active volcanoes.
Mount Ontake in central Japan erupted unexpectedly in 2014, killing 63 people in the worst volcanic disaster in Japan for nearly 90 years. Mount Aso also erupted in September last year, blasting a plume of black smoke 2 km (1.2 miles) high.
Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Paul TaitOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3bb3f2dd63d512b88d5ee89ecc1c6ed2 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-walmart-rakuten/japans-rakuten-walmarts-seiyu-to-open-logistics-site-as-online-sales-jump-idUSKBN1ZF0D7 | Japan's Rakuten, Walmart's Seiyu to open logistics site as online sales jump | Japan's Rakuten, Walmart's Seiyu to open logistics site as online sales jump
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese online retailer Rakuten 4755.T and Walmart's WMT.N Seiyu said they plan to open a new logistics site in Yokohama later this year to deal with growing sales from their joint online supermarket business.
Rakuten Seiyu Netsuper’s sales between late October through the end of December rose 30% from a year earlier, the companies said in a joint statement on Thursday.
Internet grocery shopping has been slow to take off in Japan, where consumers are accustomed to shopping daily for fresh produce. But Seiyu and bigger rival Aeon Co 8267.T expect change ahead due to growing numbers of working women, and advancements in technology and logistics networks.
Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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89fdaac4d6ff59d4ef47e2361e481447 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-weather/japan-set-for-warmer-than-usual-weather-in-january-march-government-agency-idUKKBN1YT07G?edition-redirect=uk | Japan set for warmer than usual weather in January-March: government agency | Japan set for warmer than usual weather in January-March: government agency
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Much of Japan is expected to have warmer than normal weather between January 2020 and March 2020, a government agency said on Wednesday.
Eastern Japan, including the country’s most densely populated city Tokyo, has a 50% chance of higher-than-average temperatures during the period, Japan Meteorological Agency said in its three-month forecast.
The following table gives the temperature forecast for the coming months in terms of the percentage below-average, average or above-average, with Okinawa, Amami referring to the islands in southwestern Japan.
Reporting by Fumika Inoue, Editing by Lincoln Feast.Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3253b2fc7ee989a7ecb54fdba8aaf580 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-whaling-defiance-explainer/explainer-whats-behind-%20japans-support-of-whaling-idUSKCN1TP015 | Explainer: What's behind Japan's support of whaling? | Explainer: What's behind Japan's support of whaling?
By Elaine Lies4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has for decades been steadfastly defiant about hunting whales despite widespread anger, including from key allies like the United States.
FILE PHOTO : Captured short-finned pilot whales are seen on the deck of a whaling ship at Taiji Port in Japan's oldest whaling village of Taiji, 420 km (260 miles) southwest of Tokyo June 4, 2008. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
After roughly 30 years of what it has called scientific research whaling, which saw several hundred minke whales taken annually in the Antarctic and North Pacific, Japan in December announced it would leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling on July 1.
HOW LONG HAS JAPAN BEEN WHALING?
Some areas whaled in prehistory, and in modern times eating them has been mostly confined to specific regions. Whaling historically thrived in the western Japanese town of Taiji - made notorious for the dolphin hunts featured in the Oscar-winning movie “The Cove” - until its whaling fleet was devastated in an 1878 storm. They currently have a ship that takes part in coastal whaling and will join the July 1 fleet.
Though Japan’s government insists eating whale is an important part of the country’s food culture, consumption did not become widespread until after World War Two, when the occupation authorities encouraged it to feed the impoverished population.
Eating whale peaked in the early 1960s, falling off as other meat became more available. Many older Japanese nostalgically recall eating fried or stewed whale in school lunches.
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE IWC?
Japan joined the IWC in 1951, six years after the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling was signed to found the group, aimed at sustainably managing commercial whaling. But a growing environmental movement shifted the group’s emphasis toward conservation.
Japanese politicians, scientists and government officials regarded that as betraying the group’s founding principles and ignoring the fact that not all whale species were endangered.
In 1988, two years after an international moratorium on commercial whaling began, Japan started scientific research whaling in the North Pacific and the Antarctic. Japanese officials asserted that it provided vital population information, but anti-whaling nations said it was commercial whaling in disguise.
In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled Japan’s whaling plan was unscientific, forcing it to call off the 2014-2015 hunt. Japan returned the next season with a re-tooled plan to take several hundred Antarctic minkes. But in following years it threatened to leave the IWC, saying the group had become paralyzed.
“We had no choice,” Japan’s retiring IWC Commissioner, Joji Morishita, told Reuters, noting that hundreds of meetings over years failed to find any middle ground.
Japan will remain an observer on the group’s Scientific Committee.
WHY INSIST ON WHALING?
Roughly 300 people are directly involved in whaling. Demand for whale has been stagnant for more than a decade at roughly 5,000 tonnes annually. That breaks down to roughly 40 grams per person a year, or half the mass of a medium-sized apple.
Nobody in the industry expects demand or profits to grow rapidly when commercial whaling resumes.
But Japan has long felt vulnerable about food security. For the last 20 years, according to Agriculture Ministry data, only about 40 percent of the calories the average Japanese person consumes every day is domestically produced.
As competition for marine resources heats up, Japan - one of the world’s largest consumers of fish - feels the pressure. Some, including conservatives in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party, worry that if Japan stops whaling, it may next be asked to stop fishing for something else, such as tuna.
Others say whale provides protein with a smaller carbon footprint than beef or pork.
Both Abe and the policy chief of his Liberal Democratic Party, Toshihiro Nikai, are from whaling districts. Abe’s includes Shimonoseki, where the factory ship for scientific whaling was based, while Taiji is part of Nikai’s home base.
(This story removes extraneous words in paragraph 14)
Reporting by Elaine Lies; editing by Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e50f71d32c288c881417f2ec23fff883 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-whaling-idUSKCN1B90YS | Japan won't lower guard of whaling as Sea Shepherd changes tactics: official says | Japan won't lower guard of whaling as Sea Shepherd changes tactics: official says
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will not lower its guard over its whaling even though its biggest foe - the Sea Shepherd conservation group - has said it will not send ships to disrupt its fleet this year, a government official said on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: Activists on a rubber dinghy belonging to Sea Shepherd throw a rope onto the bow of the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru in the Southern Ocean in this handout photo taken by the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) on February 23, 2014 and released on February 24, 2014. REUTERS/Institute of Cetacean Research
Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said in a statement on Monday the group’s limited resources made it difficult to compete with the military technology Japan employs to guard its whaling fleet and it would not send ships to the Southern Ocean this year.
But an official at Japan’s Fisheries Agency was skeptical.
“It’s not clear what the real intention of their statement is and we don’t know whether the organization will stop its anti-whaling actions this year,” the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
Japan defies international protests to carry out what it calls scientific research whaling, having repeatedly said its ultimate goal is to whale commercially again. In the 2016-2017 season, its fleet took 333 minke whales in the Antarctic.
“We can’t deny the possibility that other anti-whaling groups may take action, so we continue to closely monitor the situation and we’re not making any predictions,” the Japanese official said.
Watson said his group had discovered Japan was employing military surveillance to monitor their movements by satellite and Japan’s whaling vessels could easily avoid them.
“We cannot compete with their military grade technology,” Watson said.
He said Japan had “escalated their resistance” with a new anti-terrorism laws “some of which are specifically designed to condemn Sea Shepherd tactics”.
“The Japanese whalers not only have all the resources and subsides their government can provide, they also have the powerful political backing of a major economic super-power,” Watson said.
His group had to decide whether to spend limited resource on another campaign in the Southern Ocean with little chance of success or “regroup with different strategies and tactics?”, he said.
“We will not be sending ships to the Southern Ocean this year, but are not abandoning the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. We need to cultivate the resources, the tactics and the ability to significantly shut down the illegal whaling operations of the Japanese whaling fleet,” he said.
Japan has long maintained that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its culture. It began scientific whaling in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium began.
Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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01d3e02e28ccf1e33b14d19235556d59 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-whaling-idUSKCN1OP03O?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5c22e7d004d30158213a5c79&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter | Japan to resume commercial whaling after pulling out of IWC | Japan to resume commercial whaling after pulling out of IWC
By Linda Sieg, Kiyoshi Takenaka6 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will resume commercial whaling from July in its waters and exclusive economic zone while ending its controversial hunts in the Antarctic, it said on Wednesday, as it announced its withdrawal from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
Australia and New Zealand welcomed the decision to abandon the Antarctic whale hunt, but expressed disappointment that Japan would engage in any killing of the ocean mammals.
The decision, some experts said, allows Japan to save the money it spends to support Antarctic whaling while taking a tough pro-whaling stance - a matter of national pride for some conservatives.
But doubts exist about whether Japanese commercial whaling can be economically viable, especially as fewer people than ever are eating whale meat, they said.
“From July 2019, after the withdrawal comes into effect on June 30, Japan will conduct commercial whaling within Japan’s territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, and will cease the take of whales in the Antarctic Ocean/the Southern Hemisphere,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a statement announcing the decision.
“The whaling will be conducted in accordance with international law and within the catch limits calculated in accordance with the method adopted by the IWC to avoid negative impact on cetacean resources,” Suga said.
Japan, which says most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of its culture, has long campaigned without success for the IWC to allow commercial whaling.
Some influential lawmakers’ constituencies include whaling communities, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s election district is home to the whaling port of Shimonoseki.
The decision to withdraw from the IWC followed its latest rejection of Japan’s bid to resume commercial whaling at a September meeting, which Suga said showed it was impossible to bridge the gap between whaling advocates and anti-whaling members.
The resumption of commercial whaling is an unusual decision for Japan, which stresses multilateralism in its diplomacy, and it sparked swift criticism from environmental groups and others who believe all whales should be protected.
International Whaling Commission: tmsnrt.rs/2QOH7Ub
FILE PHOTO: A humpback whale slaps its tail on the surface of the water off the shore of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa March 8, 2008. REUTERS/Issei Kato
‘OUT OF STEP’
“The declaration today is out of step with the international community, let alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these majestic creatures,” international conservationist group Greenpeace said.
“The Japanese government needs to recommit to the IWC and prioritize new measures for marine conservation.”
Yoshie Nakatani, an official at the foreign ministry’s fisheries division, said Japan would still attend IWC meetings.
“It’s not like we are turning our back on the IWC and abandoning international cooperation,” she said. “There is no change to our country’s respect for the rule of law and multilateralism.”
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters welcomed Japan’s decision to halt Antarctic whaling but said he was disappointed with the decision to resume any commercial whaling.
“Whaling is an outdated and unnecessary practice. We continue to hope Japan eventually reconsiders its position and will cease all whaling in order to advance the protection of the ocean’s ecosystems,” Peters said in a statement.
Australia urged Japan to return to the IWC.
“Australia remains resolutely opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called ‘scientific’ whaling,” its environment minister, Melissa Price, and foreign minister, Marise Payne, said in a statement.
Japan has long defied such protests to conduct what it calls scientific research whaling, having repeatedly said its ultimate goal was to whale commercially again.
In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan should halt its Antarctic whaling.
Japan suspended its hunt for one season to re-tool its whaling program with measures such as cutting the number of whales and species targeted, but resumed hunting in the 2015-2016 season, capping its Antarctic catch with a quota of 333 whales annually.
Whales hunted: tmsnrt.rs/2iwNhlM
Japan began scientific whaling in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium began. Its aged whaling mothership is in need of a costly replacement or refit.
Much of the meat ends up in shops, even though most Japanese no longer eat it. Whale consumption accounted for 0.1 percent of all Japanese meat consumption, according to the Asahi newspaper. That works out to 35 grams per person per year, according to a whale meat shop owner Koichi Matsumoto.
“We ate whale meat in the old days but there are lots of other things to eat now,” said a 75-year-old woman shopper.
“But if we don’t explain internationally that whales are increasing ... people won’t understand,” she added.
The ever-dwindling demand means an uncertain outlook for Japan’s whaling.
“It could persist as a small-scale activity. There are still whale meat restaurants and I think some people will keep eating a small quantity,” said Yoichiro Sato, a professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.
“(But) if it’s too expensive, people will not eat it. As an industry, its prospect is very grim.”
Additional reporting by Mayuko Ono and Kaori Kaneko; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Darren Schuettler, Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b7bdcfc74d859360bdd4c4cc33ad5a2f | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-women-high-heels-idUSKCN1T50G5 | #KuToo no more! Japanese women take stand against high heels | #KuToo no more! Japanese women take stand against high heels
By Malcolm Foster4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - A social media campaign against dress codes and expectations that women wear high heels at work has gone viral in Japan, with thousands joining the #KuToo movement.
Nearly 20,000 women have signed an online petition demanding the government ban companies from requiring female employees to wear high heels on the job - an example of gender discrimination, says Yumi Ishikawa, who started the drive.
The #KuToo campaign is a play on the word for shoes, or “kutsu” in Japanese, and “kutsuu” or pain.
Ishikawa, a 32-year-old actress and freelance writer, hopes the petition she submitted to the health ministry on Monday will lead to changes in the workplace and greater awareness about gender discrimination.
She launched the campaign after tweeting about being forced to wear high heels for a part-time job at a funeral parlor - and drew an overwhelming response from women.
“After work, everyone changes into sneakers or flats,” she wrote in the petition, adding that high heels can cause bunions, blisters and strain the lower back.
“It’s hard to move, you can’t run and your feet hurt. All because of manners,” she wrote, pointing out that men don’t face the same expectations.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
While many Japanese companies may not explicitly require female employees to wear high heels, many women do so because of tradition and social expectations.
‘THICKHEADED’
Ishikawa said her campaign had received more attention from international media outlets than domestic ones, and there was a tendency in Japan to portray the issue as a health one, not a gender one.
“Japan is thickheaded about gender discrimination,” she told Reuters in an interview. “It’s way behind other countries in this regard.”
Japan ranks 110th out of 149 countries in the World Economic Forum’s gender-equality ranking.
“We need people to realize that gender discrimination can show up in lots of small ways,” Ishikawa said, from how women are treated by their bosses to expectations that women will do all the housework and child-rearing even if they work.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
In decades past, businessmen were expected to wear neckties, but that has changed since the government started a “cool biz” campaign in 2005 to encourage companies to turn down air-conditioners and reduce electricity use.
“It would be great if the country had a similar kind of campaign about high heels,” said Ishikawa.
She said she had been the target of online harassment over the campaign, mostly from men.
“I’ve been asked why I need to make such a big deal about this - can’t I just work this out with your company?” she said.
“Or that I’m selfish, that this is just part of etiquette.”
The health ministry said it was reviewing the petition and declined to comment further.
In Britain, Nicola Thorp launched a similar petition in 2016 after she was sent home from work for refusing to wear high heels.
A subsequent parliamentary investigation into dress codes found discrimination in British workplaces, but the government rejected a bill banning companies from requiring women to wear high heels. (reut.rs/2wKhU0J)
Reporting by Malcolm Foster and Elaine Lies; Editing by Darren Schuettler, Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3aa18e513cf26678a5dd428d6ad6dcd1 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japancasinos-yokohama-breakingviews/breakingviews-underdog-will-take-home-japans-casino-jackpot-idINKBN1Z204S?edition-redirect=in | Breakingviews - Underdog will take home Japan’s casino jackpot | Breakingviews - Underdog will take home Japan’s casino jackpot
By Katrina Hamlin3 Min Read
Students practice on a black jack table at Japan Casino School in Tokyo, Japan August 4, 2018. Picture taken August 4, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
HONG KONG (Reuters Breakingviews) - Betting group Genting is not the bookies’ favourite as it competes for a coveted casino licence in Japan. The Malaysian outfit lacks the scale or the glitz of rivals in Las Vegas and Macau but it has an ace up its sleeve to enter the hotly anticipated new market in 2020.
The prize is tantalising. The Japanese enjoy a flutter: Pachinko parlours rake in around $30 billion each year. Now the country, eyeing a gaming-economic uplift, will introduce three casino resorts to open a new market. The initial opportunity is worth a potential $10 billion, according to Bernstein estimates.
The biggest names in the business are readying their bids. Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands seems like a shoo-in, and rival MGM Resorts International boasts both deep pockets and extensive experience. With three spots up for grabs, an Asian operator could get lucky too.
Though their Chinese heritage could be a disadvantage given sometimes tense relations between Tokyo and Beijing, Macau’s homegrown operators, Galaxy Entertainment and Melco International Development, will be worthy competitors.
Genting boss Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay is vying for a chance in Osaka or Yokohama, and plans, through a Singapore unit, to raise $3.2 billion for expansion. The group has experience in smaller markets, including its native Malaysia and the Philippines, and a new project under development in Las Vegas lends some street cred. The Malaysian group will also wow wary rookie regulators with the success of its resort in Singapore. Japan studied Asia’s strictest gambling jurisdiction to prepare their own regime.
Officials in Tokyo have expressed admiration for the robust rule book in the city-state where locals must pay to merely enter the gaming floor. That’s because ordinary folk are fretting over unsavoury side-effects on society: two-thirds of respondents in an October poll said they oppose gambling resorts, according to the Japan Times.
That makes the underdog a more palatable winner too. Genting Singapore’s share price hovers at around 17 times its 2019 earnings, consistently below those of rival bidders in recent years. If the Malaysians play their cards right in Japan, they might hit the jackpot in multiple ways.
This is a Breakingviews prediction for 2020. To see more of our predictions, click here: bit.ly/2QCkYW5
BreakingviewsReuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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8e78806401ebf46e6e95080a86a67dfd | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-java-security/u-s-warns-on-java-software-as-security-concerns-escalate-idUSBRE90A0S320130111 | U.S. warns on Java software as security concerns escalate | U.S. warns on Java software as security concerns escalate
By Jim Finkle5 Min Read
(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged computer users to disable Oracle Corp’s Java software, amplifying security experts’ prior warnings to hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses that use it to surf the Web.
Attendees walk down branded steps at the 29th Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco October 2, 2011. REUTERS/Susana Bates
Hackers have figured out how to exploit Java to install malicious software enabling them to commit crimes ranging from identity theft to making an infected computer part of an ad-hoc network of computers that can be used to attack websites.
“We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem,” the Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team said in a posting on its website late on Thursday.
“This and previous Java vulnerabilities have been widely targeted by attackers, and new Java vulnerabilities are likely to be discovered,” the agency said. “To defend against this and future Java vulnerabilities, disable Java in Web browsers.”
Oracle declined on Friday to comment on the warning.
Java is a computer language that enables programmers to write software utilizing just one set of code that will run on virtually any type of computer, including ones that use Microsoft Corp’s Windows, Apple Inc’s OS X and Linux, an operating system widely employed by corporations.
Computer users access Java programs through modules, or plug-ins, that run Java software on top of browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.
The U.S. government’s warning on Java came after security experts warned on Thursday of the newly discovered flaw.
It is relatively rare for government agencies to advise computer users to completely disable software due to a security bug, particularly in the case of widely used programs such as Java. They typically recommend taking steps to mitigate the risk of attack while manufacturers prepare an update, or hold off on publicizing the problem until an update is prepared.
In September, the German government advised the public to temporarily stop using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser to give it time to patch a security vulnerability that opened it to attacks.
Java is so widely used that the software has become a prime target for hackers. Last year Oracle’s Java surpassed Adobe Systems Inc’s Reader software as the most frequently attacked piece of software, according to security software maker Kaspersky Lab.
Java was responsible for 50 percent of all cyber attacks last year in which hackers broke into computers by exploiting software bugs, according Kaspersky. That was followed by Adobe Reader, which was involved in 28 percent of all incidents. Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer were involved in about 3 percent of incidents, according to the survey.
The Department of Homeland Security said attackers could trick targets into visiting malicious websites that would infect their PCs with software capable of exploiting the bug in Java.
It said an attacker could also infect a legitimate website by uploading malicious software that would infect machines of computer users who trust that site because they have previously visited it without experiencing any problems.
They said developers of several popular tools, known as exploit kits, which criminal hackers use to attack PCs, have added software that allows hackers to exploit the newly discovered bug in Java to attack computers.
Security experts have been scrutinizing the safety of Java since a similar security scare in August, which prompted some of them to advise using the software only on an as-needed basis.
At the time they advised businesses to allow their workers to use Java browser plug-ins only when prompted for permission by trusted programs such as GoToMeeting, a Web-based collaboration tool from Citrix Systems Inc.
Java suffered another setback in October when Apple began removing old versions of the software from Internet browsers of Mac computers when its customers installed new versions of its OS X operating system. Apple did not provide a reason for the change and both companies declined to comment at the time.
Adam Gowdiak, a researcher with Polish security firm Security Explorations, told Reuters he believes that Oracle fails to properly test its software fixes for security flaws. “It’s definitely safer for users to stay away from Java ‘til Oracle starts taking security seriously,” he said.
Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Dan GreblerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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8e8a3b66f6a1fb5ab99e5c08fd0b66d0 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-javelin-m-a-bats-global-idUKKCN10M2EU?edition-redirect=uk | Exchange operator Bats to buy swaps trading platform Javelin | Exchange operator Bats to buy swaps trading platform Javelin
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bats Global Markets BATS.Z, the No. 2 U.S. stock exchange operator by volume, said on Thursday it would acquire Javelin SEF LLC, a swaps exchange, for an undisclosed sum to enhance its foreign exchange trading operations.
Bats said the deal would help speed up its plans to begin offering trading of non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) for the foreign exchange (FX) market. The Kansas City-based company entered the FX market in January 2015 with its $365 purchase of currency trading platform Hotspot from KCG Holdings KCG.N.
NDFs allow investors to hedge against exposure to restricted foreign currencies against freely traded currencies. Certain market participants are required to trade NDF contracts, which had a daily turnover of $127 billion in 2014, on exchanges under Dodd Frank regulations.
“Our acquisition of Javelin underlines our commitment to the FX market and is an acceleration of our FX product rollout plans,” BATS Chief Executive Officer Chris Concannon said in a statement.
The transaction is pending regulatory approval.
Bats also runs two U.S. options exchanges and the largest pan-European stock exchange.
Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Tom BrownOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7900a13ba55b1783d6dd03669ccd4609 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jazz-amneal-patent/u-s-court-denies-jazz-pharma-bid-to-revive-narcolepsy-drug-patents-idUKKBN1K326D?edition-redirect=uk | U.S. court denies Jazz Pharma bid to revive narcolepsy drug patents | U.S. court denies Jazz Pharma bid to revive narcolepsy drug patents
By Jan Wolfe2 Min Read
(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled invalid patents owned by Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC covering its narcolepsy drug Xyrem, giving Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc a boost in its effort to launch a generic version of the medicine.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a series of rulings in favor of Amneal that the Jazz patents described obvious ideas. Shares of Jazz fell 2.5 percent to $175 in morning trading, while Amneal was up 1 percent to $18.50.
Jazz said in a statement it was disappointed in the ruling but that it only involves a “subset” of its patents covering Xyrem.
“We remain confident in the strength of our remaining patent estate for Xyrem,” Jazz said.
Amneal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Amneal had asked an administrative court run by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the patents in hopes of bringing a generic version of Xyrem to market.
The patent tribunal sided with Amneal in 2016, prompting an appeal by Jazz.
Xyrem generated more than $1.1 billion in sales in 2017, accounting for about 70 percent of Jazz’s revenue.
Xyrem is an approved treatment for both excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy in patients with narcolepsy, a chronic neurological disorder.
Amneal has sought to invalidate other Jazz patents covering Xyrem through litigation in federal court in New Jersey. That case remains pending.
Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Dan Grebler and David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4024b2ebcb39a3a5a7eae6b981cabc00 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jazz-phrmt-settlement/jazz-pharmaceuticals-to-settle-u-s-probe-for-57-million-idUKKBN1I93IK?edition-redirect=uk | Jazz Pharmaceuticals to settle U.S. probe for $57 million | Jazz Pharmaceuticals to settle U.S. probe for $57 million
By Nate Raymond2 Min Read
BOSTON (Reuters) - Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc said on Tuesday it had agreed to pay $57 million to resolve a U.S. probe into its financial support of charities that offer assistance to Medicare patients seeking help to cover out-of-pocket drug costs.
The drugmaker said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it reached an agreement in principle with the U.S. Justice Department to pay the sum as part of a civil settlement.
Jazz, which produces the expensive narcolepsy drug Xyrem, said in the filing it could not guarantee its efforts to reach a final settlement would be successful.
The drugmaker has a program aimed at ensuring its compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements for pharmaceutical companies, including requirements relating to support of organizations providing financial assistance to Medicare patients, Jazz told Reuters in an emailed statement.
The company is among more than a dozen pharmaceutical manufacturers that have disclosed receiving subpoenas seeking for information related to their support of patient-assistance charities.
Drug companies are prohibited from subsidizing co-payments for patients enrolled in the Medicare government healthcare program for the elderly. But companies may donate to nonprofits providing co-pay assistance as long as they are independent.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts has been leading the industry-wide investigation.
In December, it announced a $210 million settlement with United Therapeutics Corp to resolve claims it used a charity as a conduit to illegally cover Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket costs in order to eliminate price sensitivity and boost sales.
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; additional reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru Editing by Sandra Maler and Peter CooneyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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152e6aaba8938a3b74d23464b292b7cf | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jbs-beef-exports/jbs-says-brazil-beef-exports-to-u-s-competitive-despite-tax-idUSKCN11T2OO | JBS says Brazil beef exports to U.S. competitive despite tax | JBS says Brazil beef exports to U.S. competitive despite tax
By Roberto Samora2 Min Read
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian fresh beef exports to the United States will be competitive even if subject to a 26.4 percent duty when shipped outside of a tax-free quota, Miguel Gularte, the head of JBS Mercosur, said on Friday.
The official, who is in charge of meatpacker JBS SA’s division for the trade bloc formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, believes the United States will be among the five key markets for Brazilian fresh beef as soon as 2017.
Brazil and the United States last month concluded a deal to allow for bilateral trade of fresh beef. As part of the deal, Brazil was included in a duty-free quota of 64,800 tonnes per year with other countries.
“When the quota is over, deals will still be made on a regular basis,” said Gularte, adding that sellers and buyers might adjust prices given the 26.4 percent tax to be charged.
Brazilian meatpacker Marfrig Global Foods SA, a JBS rival, announced on Sunday that it had shipped its first cargo of fresh beef to the United States, saying it was the first trade of that type ever done.
One day later, JBS SA said a container had left one of its plants heading to the American market.
Gularte said he expects Brazil to ship some 20,000 tonnes of beef to the United States this year.
“Next year, when more plants would be cleared to export, the quota should be filled,” he said.
The JBS official believes Brazilian producers will have a larger market selling beef for companies making hamburgers in the United States, since there is no shortage of that type of meat in Brazil.
He said JBS’ presence in the U.S. market should favor a larger trade flow between the two countries.
“We have a consolidated operation in the U.S., a varied and important client base. Clearly it will be easier for us to sell Brazilian fresh beef in that market,” Gularte said.
Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira, editing by G CrosseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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54c8dfc4c9b0593e72f6333509266582 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jbs-newissues-bndes-idUKKBN20S2A8?edition-redirect=uk | Brazil meatpacker JBS plans U.S. listing as BNDES sells stake: sources | Brazil meatpacker JBS plans U.S. listing as BNDES sells stake: sources
By Tatiana Bautzer, Aluisio Alves, Carolina Mandl2 Min Read
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA JBSS3.SA and state development bank BNDES are planning a simultaneous listing of JBS international operations in the United States and the sale of the bank's stake in the company, five sources with knowledge of the matter said.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA is seen in the city of Jundiai, Brazil June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo
Sources close to the company say JBS is working on a transaction that is different from the one proposed in 2016.
The U.S. listing would be simultaneous with the partial or full sale of BNDES’ 21.3% stake in JBS, two of the sources said.
The transaction model is not yet final, as discussions are ongoing. But JBS expects to spin off its international operations to be listed in New York as a separate company with the same shareholders, but not a subsidiary. Operations in Brazil will continue under JBS SA, currently listed at the Sao Paulo stock exchange.
Around 75% of JBS’ revenue is obtained outside Brazil, mostly in the United States, but also in Australia and Europe.
JBS and BNDES declined to comment on the matter.
Last November, BNDES hired the investment banking units of Banco Bradesco SA, Banco BTG Pactual SA, Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Bank of America and UBS Group.
One of the sources said the company still expects to list in the United States in the second quarter of the year, but the roadshow dates are being pushed back by the volatility related to the coronavirus outbreak. JBS will report its fourth-quarter earnings on March 25.
JBS management would join BNDES executives in the roadshow to sell their stake, the sources added. The company will probably not hire a bank, but only lawyers, for the spin-off and listing of its international operations, according to two of the sources, since the company is not planning a primary offering.
A listing of JBS in the United States would face pressure from lobbyists and lawmakers that have recently demanded investigations about the company and its shareholders, brothers Wesley and Joesley Batista.
Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Aluisio Alves and Carolina Mandl in Sao Paulo; Editing by Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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57b8c1b2c434a5e88d95f988f90b5887 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jbs-operations/brazils-jbs-shuts-seven-plants-after-230-million-asset-freeze-idUSKBN1CN1WZ | Brazil's JBS shuts seven plants after $230 million asset freeze | Brazil's JBS shuts seven plants after $230 million asset freeze
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
The logo of Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA is seen in the unit in the city of Jundiai, Brazil June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA shut down its seven slaughterhouses in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul due to a court-ordered $230 million asset freeze, a press representative said on Wednesday.
The asset freeze, which affects JBS SA and the group’s holding company J&F Investimentos, is related to a tax matter in Mato Grosso do Sul.
Shares of JBS fell almost 2 percent to 8.12 reais in early afternoon trading at the São Paulo Stock Exchange following news of the plant closures.
The company, whose owners face corruption and insider trading charges, said a combined 730 million reais ($230.64 million) had been frozen by a lower court in the state.
In an emailed statement, the world’s largest meatpacking company said the plants will stay closed until the matter is resolved.
JBS said it is working to restore operations and maintain 15,000 direct and 60,000 indirect jobs in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. It will continue paying employees normally, the statement said.
Brothers Wesley and Joesley Batista, owners of JBS, were arrested last month in connection with insider trading and other offenses related to their plea deal.
Wesley, the elder of the brothers and also JBS’s former chief executive, quit as a result.
Reporting by Roberto Samora; Writing by Ana Mano; Editing by Bill TrottOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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5cdf3e87cafa58cd9b33d5abb7e3dd7c | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jbs-outlook/brazilian-meatpacker-jbs-sees-demand-rising-after-hog-virus-outbreak-in-china-idUSKCN1SK1R1 | Brazilian meatpacker JBS sees demand rising after hog virus outbreak in China | Brazilian meatpacker JBS sees demand rising after hog virus outbreak in China
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - JBS SA, the world’s largest meatpacker, is poised to reap the benefits from additional demand after an outbreak of African swine fever in China reduced pork output.
FILE PHOTO: Employees are seen at the Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA in the city of Lapa, Parana state, Brazil, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino/File Photo
In the first four months of the year, its Australian unit’s beef sales to China soared by 80%, JBS executives said on Tuesday during a conference call about first-quarter results.
“In Brazil, we are already seeing a rise in pork exports, both in terms of volume and price,” Chief Executive Officer Gilberto Tomazoni told analysts.
Executive said they expect sales of all proteins, not just pork, to increase due to the deadly hog virus.
The recent outbreak of the disease in China will boost the company’s cash-flow generation in the coming quarters, Itaú BBA analysts wrote in a note to clients.
Itaú believes the hog disease could lead JBS to generate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of operating income known as EBITDA, of as much as 21 billion reais ($5.3 billion) in 2020.
JBS shares rose 3.6% on Tuesday, a day after the firm reported that net profit soared nearly 116% in the quarter.
Overall net revenue rose 11.5% in the period to 44.37 billion reais on strength in its U.S. beef division and Pilgrim’s Pride Corp.
In each of those divisions, net revenues rose more than 15%, JBS reported.
($1 = 3.9766 reais)
Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Jeffrey BenkoeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7fb6323761b71c3cdf1062a3d488f1a0 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jbs-outlook/chinas-swine-fever-outbreak-may-benefit-brazil-u-s-exporters-jbs-executive-idUSKBN1OH1AB | China's swine fever outbreak may benefit Brazil, U.S. exporters: JBS executive | China's swine fever outbreak may benefit Brazil, U.S. exporters: JBS executive
By Ana Mano2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA is seen in the city of Jundiai, Brazil June 1, 2017. Picture taken June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - An outbreak of a deadly virus threatening pork production in China may be a boon to Brazilian and U.S. exporters, meat processor JBS SA’s chief executive said in a live webcast on Tuesday.
Gilberto Tomazoni said the swine fever outbreak could change the overall landscape for protein trade, affecting not only pork markets but potentially other meat types like poultry and beef.
“China has already significantly increased pork imports from Brazil due to the outbreak,” said Tomazoni, who was appointed chief executive of JBS earlier this month.
As China scrambles to control what he called a sanitary crisis, Brazilian and U.S. meat exporters stand to benefit, Tomazoni said in answer to questions from two analysts at Brazilian brokerage XP Investimentos.
China, already the destination for roughly half of Brazilian pork exports, produces close to 55 million tons of the meat annually, compared with close to 4 million tons for Brazil.
The fever, which first broke out in early August, prompted a Chinese campaign to curb illegal hog slaughtering and build more large-scale slaughterhouses.
The campaign will last from December to May next year as Beijing tackles the highly contagious disease that threatens the world’s largest pig herd.
“In our industry, food security and sanitary issues have a big impact,” Tomazoni said referring to problems in China, the world’s top pork producer and consumer.
Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Nick ZieminskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3aa53a50bf59c3abef933b86f3995db8 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jbs-us-listing/brazils-jbs-reiterates-plans-for-potential-u-s-share-listing-idUSKBN1X01AD | Brazil's JBS reiterates plans for potential U.S. share listing | Brazil's JBS reiterates plans for potential U.S. share listing
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA JBSS3.SA on Monday confirmed internal studies were underway for a potential listing of the company's shares in the United States, according to a securities filing.
The company has been considering such plans since late 2016, according to the filing, which came in a response to Brazilian securities regulator CVM after a local newspaper article about the potential listing last week.
JBS said the internal studies involved an analysis of the different options related to the legal structure and timing of the potential deal.
The decision whether to list JBS shares in the United States hinged on the conclusion of the studies, the company said.
Reporting by Ana Mano; editing by David EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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d8cc3bffbbb02baf5ab7ace5bfef19b7 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jbs-us-meatpacking/jbs-usa-to-remove-growth-drug-from-supply-chain-opening-door-for-more-pork-sales-to-china-idUSKBN1WJ1YB | JBS USA to produce pork without growth drug banned by China, seeking more exports | JBS USA to produce pork without growth drug banned by China, seeking more exports
By Tom Polansek3 Min Read
CHICAGO (Reuters) - JBS USA will remove a growth drug banned by Beijing from its U.S. hog supply, the company said on Friday, accelerating the competition for pork exports as China grapples with a devastating pig disease.
The meat packer’s move away from the drug ractopamine, a feed additive, shows how companies are maneuvering to take advantage of an expected shortage in China, the world’s largest pork consumer, due to African swine fever (ASF).
Though not harmful to humans, the disease is deadly to pigs, with no vaccine available. It surfaced for the first time in Asia more than a year ago in China, and has now spread to over 50 countries, according to the World Organization of Animal Health - including those that account for 75% of global pork production.
“Here’s a major packer that says ASF is important enough that we’re going to get in a position to serve that market,” said Steve Meyer, economist for U.S. commodity firm Kerns and Associates.
JBS USA, owned by Brazil’s JBS SA, said it removed ractopamine from internally owned production systems in August 2018. Now the company will also prohibit the drug from diets of hogs owned by farmers who sell livestock to JBS USA.
The Colorado-based JBS unit sells pork under brands including Swift and Swift Premium.
“Early on, basically JBS said, ‘You guys chase that export stuff. We’re going to serve the domestic market,’” Meyer said. “It’s pretty much an about face on that.”
Rival U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods [SFII.UL], which is owned by China’s WH Group, already raises all of the hogs on its company-owned and contract farms without the drug.
Tyson Foods Inc previously told Reuters it was looking at diversifying its pork supply to include ractopamine-free hogs as demand expands.
“We are confident this decision will provide long-term benefits to our producer partners and our industry by ensuring U.S. pork products are able to compete fairly in the international marketplace,” JBS USA said in an emailed statement.
Ractopamine is used in some countries to raise leaner pigs, but China does not allow its use or tolerate residues in imported meat. The European Union also bans ractopamine.
Elanco Animal Health, the manufacturer of Paylean, its brand name for a ractopamine feed ingredient, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Beijing blocked pork imports from a Canadian company this summer because China’s customs agency said a shipment contained ractopamine.
Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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cb75327ec57516d3b1b8c79999749d03 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jc-penney-sale-bankruptcy-idUKKBN27E07T | J.C. Penney enters asset purchase agreement with Brookfield, Simon | J.C. Penney enters asset purchase agreement with Brookfield, Simon
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A J.C. Penney Company Inc. store is pictured at a mall in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 17, 2018. Picture taken November 17, 2018. REUTERS/Suzanne Barlyn
(Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc said on Wednesday it has entered an asset purchase agreement with Brookfield Asset Management Inc, Simon Property Group and a majority of the company’s first lien lenders.
The iconic 118-year-old retailer had filed for bankruptcy in a Texas court in May after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to temporarily close its then nearly 850 stores.
The company said it expects to operate outside Chapter 11 before the holiday season.
Under the agreement, Brookfield and Simon, which are the retailer’s two biggest landlords, will buy substantially all of J.C. Penney’s retail and operating assets through a combination of cash and new term loan debt.
“Signing a definitive APA (asset purchase agreement) with Brookfield, Simon and our Majority First Lien Lenders allows us to move forward towards the completion of our financial restructuring,” J.C. Penney said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that talks between J.C. Penney’s lenders and the would-be buyers, Simon and Brookfield, had broken down after the lenders missed several deadlines.
Reporting by Aishwarya Nair; Editing by Amy Caren DanielOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c7fae7122fc2528be376321342307dc9 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jc-penney-sale-bankruptcy-idUSKBN2702XS | J.C. Penney sale talks stall: Bloomberg News | J.C. Penney sale talks stall: Bloomberg News
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: The sign outside the J.C. Penney store is seen in Westminster, Colorado February 20, 2009. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo
(Reuters) - Talks between J.C. Penney Co's lenders and the would-be buyers, Simon Property Group Inc SPG.N and Brookfield Property Partners LP BPY.O, broke down in recent days, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the negotiations.
Simon Property and Brookfield Property, which are also the retailer’s two biggest landlords, missed several deal deadlines as communication between the parties lapsed, according to the report.
The two sides may turn to mediation to help them determine if they can complete the deal, and on what terms, Bloomberg reported.
Creditors say J.C. Penney’s original sale plan called for the deal to close around Oct. 3, Bloomberg reported, citing a regulatory filing.
J.C. Penney declined to comment, while the two mall owners did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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eb280f403e241565d93f6684ddf1ec92 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jcpenney-ackman-idUSBRE97P0TA20130827 | Ackman turns back on J.C. Penney, sells entire stake in retailer | Ackman turns back on J.C. Penney, sells entire stake in retailer
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss4 Min Read
(Reuters) - Hedge fund manager William Ackman, the biggest shareholder in J.C. Penney Co Inc JCP.N, said on Monday he had sold his entire stake after his campaign to overhaul the retailer failed.
Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management sold 39.1 million shares, or 18 percent of the company, to Citigroup Inc C.N, which is now offering the shares to other investors, the company and the $11 billion hedge fund said in separate announcements.
The decision by Ackman, who stepped off the board two weeks ago amid a growing rift over corporate strategy, to dump his stake pushed Penney’s shares down 2.6 percent to $13 in after-hours trading.
Pershing Square said in a statement Citi’s offering of J.C. Penney common stock was priced to the public at $12.90 per share and was expected to close on August 30.
The sale marks the end to Ackman’s three-year campaign to breathe new life into the Plano, Texas-based retailer. He recruited a new chief executive to upgrade merchandise and make stores more attractive to shoppers.
But store sales fell 25 percent in the last fiscal year and the company’s share price has dropped 32 percent since January.
For Ackman’s hedge fund, which had boasted average annual returns of 20 percent over the last decade, the Penney investment weighed on performance, prompting some institutional investors to seek meetings with the manager so he could clarify his plans.
Customers ride the escalator at a J.C. Penney store in New York August 14, 2013. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Ackman has lost hundreds of millions of dollars on his bet since first buying the shares when they traded at $20.01.
Last week, Ackman acknowledged that retail investing has not been his strong suit and categorized the Penney investment as one of his fund's three failures, along with failed bets on Borders Group and Target Corp TGT.N.
BLOCK TRADE
In order to get out quickly, Ackman relied on Citigroup to buy the entire stake in a so-called “block trade” and to then sell it to other investors.
Hedge fund managers including George Soros and Richard Perry already have large stakes in J.C. Penney. It was unclear who might buy the stake that Ackman’s funds sold.
“Ackman bought his stake in order to influence the board to make big changes, not as a passive investment. Now it makes no sense to hold the position. It’s time to move on to another company,” said Erik Gordon, a law and business professor at the University of Michigan.
The 47-year-old billionaire is leaving three years after he built his position and then wooed Ron Johnson to join Penney from Apple Inc AAPL.O and overhaul the company. Johnson was forced out in April with his vision to revive the company in tatters.
Ackman’s is now making a complete exit because of a disagreement with the Penney board over strategy, a person familiar with his thinking said.
After Johnson was forced out, the company brought back Myron Ullman, a former CEO, with whom Ackman had disagreements.
Last week, Penney adopted a one-year “poison pill” to prevent any coercive takeover attempts by limiting a single investor’s stake to 10 percent.
Analysts widely interpreted the policy as a move by Penney to avoid another distracting fight with an activist investor at a time it is trying to win back shoppers after sales fell hard last year and are continuing to fall this year.
Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in Boston; Additional reporting by Phil Wahba in New York and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Gary Hill, Matthew Lewis and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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a914e7d2d387687f2bf88d3d9066efd2 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jcpenney-johnson-idUSBRE93713C20130408 | J.C. Penney ousts CEO, Mike Ullman returns | J.C. Penney ousts CEO, Mike Ullman returns
By Phil Wahba5 Min Read
(Reuters) - Attention J.C. Penney JCP.N shoppers: Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
The struggling department store chain parted ways with Chief Executive Ron Johnson, who failed to win over shoppers and investors with his everyday-low-price strategy, and rehired former CEO Mike Ullman to revive the company.
Shares in J.C. Penney rose nearly 11 percent in afterhours trade after a CNBC report that Johnson was out, but then fell 7 percent after the company disclosed full details of the move, including Ullman’s return.
William Frohnhoefer, an analyst at BTIG, said that while “certain investors had beaten the drum saying that a change was needed and Johnson wasn’t the guy,” he believed Ullman would not please the company’s critics.
“Investors are concerned about Ullman,” Frohnhoefer said, adding that Penney’s sales notched “a decline, on a relative basis to other retailers, while he was at the helm.”
Johnson, former chief of Apple’s retail unit, tried to turn around Penney by revamping the department stores and replacing its traditional coupons and sales events with everyday low prices. But sales plunged 25 percent last year, and the company must now try to woo back shoppers it lost.
Johnson’s ouster had been rumored for months, but Ullman’s return came as something of a shock, considering how he had been publicly condemned by Penney’s largest shareholder, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.
In a May 2012 presentation, Ackman’s Pershing Square called Penney “chronically mismanaged” and noted the stock’s declines during Ullman’s tenure. Its shares fell about 15 percent while he was CEO from 2005 to 2011. Still, when Ullman left, the share price was double the current price.
Penney Chairman Thomas Engibous said in a statement that Ullman was “well-positioned to quickly analyze the situation ... and take steps to improve the company’s performance.”
Ron Johnson testifies in New York state Supreme Court in Manhattan March 1, 2013. REUTERS/Thomas Iannaccone/Pool
At least one retail expert said Ullman’s return might presage a sale of the retailer.
“Ullman ... he didn’t really go out on the wings of glory, and now they bring the guy back? I honestly think no one else wanted the job,” said Brian McGough, managing director and head of the retail group at Hedgeye Risk Management.
“The only reason why I would name Ullman as the CEO would actually be as a temporary fix just because he does know so many people inside the company, and they have faith in them, and he could calm waters and he could help to put lipstick on the pig and get it sold,” said McGough.
‘DISASTER’
Johnson was initially seen as such a positive change from Ullman that shares rose nearly 18 percent the day his hiring was announced in June 2011. But sales plunged 25 percent during the first year of his plan to reinvent the department store chain.
Shares of J.C. Penney, which had closed up 2.7 percent in regular trading, fell 4.7 percent o $15.12 in extended trade.
Last week Ackman - who handpicked Johnson to lead the company - said the CEO had made “big mistakes” and that the impact of those mistakes had been “very close to a disaster” for the retailer.
The company has now brought back its old pricing strategy to try to bring shoppers back. Executives have acknowledged their first challenge is to get the chain’s old customers back into stores.
Ullman’s base salary of $1 million is less than the $1.5 million a year that Johnson received. The company said it has not signed an employment agreement with him.
Last week, Penney said Johnson did not get a stock award or bonus after the retailer’s weak 2012 results. The company also said at the time that Johnson would get an exit package of less than $150,000 if he quit or was fired.
“The positive thing is that (Ullman) knows the company and the organization - so not someone trying to learn it from scratch - but he is also the one who left Penney in this situation, who brought it to the point they felt they needed a radically new approach,” said Kathy Gersch, co-founder of strategic advisers Kotter International.
“The risk is that they over-correct and throw out everything Ron did.”
Reporting by Phil Wahba; Additional reporting by Dhanya Skariachan in New York, Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Edward Tobin, David Gregorio and Tim DobbynOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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d2fd75f2ebe1a4e094c4a36c6f1b4753 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jcrew-debtrestructuring-blackstone-idUSKBN17X1KD | Exclusive: Blackstone's GSO snaps up J. Crew debt in restructuring gambit | Exclusive: Blackstone's GSO snaps up J. Crew debt in restructuring gambit
By Jessica DiNapoli5 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) - GSO Capital Partners, private equity firm Blackstone Group LP's BX.N credit arm, is acquiring more of J. Crew Group Inc's debt, hoping for a profitable trade that could also give the U.S. fashion retailer more time to stave off bankruptcy, people familiar with the matter said.
Sales have been declining as J. Crew, whose ballet flats and cashmere cardigans were once a staple of middle-class U.S. wardrobes, struggles to keep abreast of changing tastes and faces fierce competition from cheaper online retailers. It now has $2.1 billion in debt.
Most pressing is $567 million in unsecured bonds coming due in 2019. To cut that burden, J. Crew is trying to slash more than half the bonds’ value by placing the intellectual property of its eponymous brand into a new company, but holders of other debt are resisting the move.
J. Crew has said it will then offer to exchange the bonds, which are backed by no collateral, for those from the new company backed by the brand. It will also offer equity to those bondholders.
Other indebted retailers will be watching the restructuring closely as competition from online rivals like Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O has driven Aeropostale Inc AROPQ.PK, Payless ShoeSource and other chains into bankruptcy.
“I imagine a lot of companies that have the ability to do this in their credit agreements are talking to their attorneys and thinking about creative options,” Moody’s Investors Service analyst Raya Sokolyanska said.
But holders of a $1.53 billion loan to J. Crew, including investment firms Eaton Vance Management and Highland Capital Management LP, have told the company its bond exchange would remove the intellectual property as their collateral, and they would consider that a default, the sources said. Eaton Vance and Highland did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
J. Crew has filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court to prevent them from thwarting the exchange.
What is more, some J. Crew bondholders have themselves been holding out for a better exchange offer, according to the company’s public disclosures.
To try to resolve the impasse and increase its own chances of a profitable outcome, GSO, which owns some of J. Crew’s bonds, has been buying chunks of the company’s loan in the secondary trading market, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because the trade is not public.
GSO wants to amass a controlling position in the loan, which would allow it to give J. Crew a waiver to carve out its intellectual property without risk of any legal challenge, the sources said. The Blackstone unit is working with other creditors, including hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group LLC, which focuses on distressed debt.
FILE PHOTO: Models pose during a presentation of the J. Crew Spring/Summer 2017 collection during New York Fashion Week in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 11, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
J. Crew, GSO and Anchorage declined to comment.
GSO’s plan could determine whether J. Crew manages to avoid bankruptcy. The company cannot afford to pay the bonds at face value when they come due in 2019, and credit rating agencies have warned it could face a liquidity crunch before then.
The proposed exchange would push back the maturity of J. Crew’s bonds by two years, to 2021. This could give the company’s private equity owners, TPG Capital LP and Leonard Green & Partners LP, enough time to turn the business around.
TPG offered no comment, and Leonard Green did not respond to requests for comment.
In return for facilitating the exchange, GSO will ask J. Crew for an improved offer for its bonds, the sources said.
Reuters was unable to determine what GSO and Anchorage paid for their J. Crew debt. J. Crew’s bonds trade at about 50 cents on the dollar, and the loan, which matures in 2021, trades at about 66 cents on the dollar, according to Thomson Reuters data.
PROS AND CONS
GSO and Anchorage may fail to amass a controlling position in the loan, the sources cautioned.
While buying J. Crew more time to try to fend off bankruptcy, the carveout would burden the company with sizable licensing payments to use its own brand, Moody’s has warned.
Without GSO’s intervention, however, J. Crew could be left in limbo as it battles its other lenders over the use of its brand, and it may end up in bankruptcy if it cannot cut a deal. Just the fact-discovery period in J. Crew’s lawsuit could take more than six months, according to court filings.
TPG and Leonard Green took J. Crew private in 2011 in a $3 billion leveraged buyout. They subsequently added to the company’s debt pile by having it borrow more to fund $787 million in dividends to them, according to Moody’s.
The company sells its merchandise through its 281 J. Crew retail stores, 113 Madewell stores and 181 factory stores, as well as through websites and catalogs. It generated $2.4 billion in sales in the 12 months to the end of January, down from $2.5 billion in the prior year.
In its latest belt-tightening effort, J. Crew said last week it would eliminate 150 full-time and 100 open positions, primarily at its New York headquarters. It expects annualized savings of about $30 million from the job cuts.
Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in New York; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Lisa Von AhnOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7ff5415d1440fc1783ea35f68be42e4a | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-ceo-petition-idUSKCN1RW048 | Hundreds sign online petition supporting woman suing JD.com CEO in rape case | Hundreds sign online petition supporting woman suing JD.com CEO in rape case
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Hundreds of people have added their names to an online petition in support of a University of Minnesota student who said she was raped last August by Richard Liu, the chief executive officer of China’s e-commerce retailer JD.com Inc.
FILE PHOTO: JD.com founder Richard Liu attends a Reuters interview in Hong Kong, China June 9, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo
The student, Liu Jingyao, from China, filed a civil lawsuit against JD’s CEO in a Minneapolis court on Tuesday, nearly four months after prosecutors declined to press criminal charges against him.
The law suit identified the student for the first time. The two Lius are not related.
Richard Liu, through his lawyers, maintained his innocence throughout the law enforcement investigation, which ended in December. The company did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
It was unclear who launched the petition, which carried the hashtag #HereForJingyao, although signatories included Chinese students at foreign universities as well as in China. On Saturday, it was gathering momentum on the social media platform WeChat, with more than 500 names attached.
“To Liu Jingyao: You are not alone. We believe in survivors, we believe in your bravery and honesty, we will always stand with you. We must join hands and march together in the face of the challenge of a culture of blaming the victims of rape,” the petition said.
A Chinese-language translation of the indictment was also circulating online.
Liu Jingyao first accused Richard Liu of rape in August when he was visiting the University of Minnesota to attend a program directed at executives from China.
Liu, 46, who started JD.com as a humble electronics stall and expanded it into an e-commerce company with 2018 net revenues of $67 billion, was arrested on Aug. 31 but released without charge about 17 hours later.
A fledgling #MeToo-style movement in support of women’s rights has been slow to gain wide traction in China, where issues like sexual assault have traditionally been brushed under the carpet.
China’s ruling Communist Party, wary about grassroots organizing, has also in recent months put pressure on activists focused on issues like sexual assault on campuses and workers’ rights.
Reporting by John Ruwitch and Shu Zhang; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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d8b813a9a68f6673b5c2c66f850ba275 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-ceo-profile/richard-liu-high-flying-ceo-of-jd-com-has-fostered-clean-reputation-idUSKCN1LJ0YJ | Richard Liu, high-flying CEO of JD.com, has fostered 'clean' reputation | Richard Liu, high-flying CEO of JD.com, has fostered 'clean' reputation
By Cate Cadell, Adam Jourdan5 Min Read
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Richard Liu, founder and chief executive of JD.com, has kept tight control of the business as he takes aim at the likes of Amazon.com AMZN.O, but faces a battle on a new front after being arrested in the United States following an accusation of sexual misconduct.
FILE PHOTO: Richard Liu, CEO and founder of China's e-commerce company JD.com, attends a France-Chinese forum on the applications of artificial intelligence at SOHO 3Q in Beijing, China January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
The Chinese company has said the accusation against Liu, 45, is unsubstantiated. Police in Minneapolis say they are investigating, though Liu was released after a night in jail, and JD.com said on Monday he had returned to China.
But the case is likely to put pressure on Liu, who has a reputation for a luxurious lifestyle but insists on a “clean” company, cracking down on counterfeit goods and corruption.
“I think there is a feeling in the company that we are morally superior to Alibaba,” a company insider said, adding that Liu was “aggressive” but “generally very well liked.”
Liu started the company that would become JD.com JD.O in 1998, spending 12,000 yuan ($1,760.54) of his savings to lease a 4-square-meter retail space in Beijing's technology hub of Zhongguancun.
The firm, also known as “Jingdong,” got its name from a combination of part of Liu’s Chinese first name, Qiangdong, and that of his girlfriend at the time, Xiaojing.
Liu frequently talks up his rags-to-riches story of growing up poor in Jiangsu province. He has said on several occasions that part of his motivation for setting up the firm was to help buy medicine for his grandmother.
At first, the business was focused on opening brick-and-mortar stores selling mostly electronics. But Liu shifted online in 2004 after a SARS epidemic that forced him to shut down many of the locations.
That proved key to JD.com’s rise, culminating in its listing in the United States in 2014. JD.com is now China’s second-largest e-commerce player behind Alibaba, and Liu’s net worth is $7.9 billion, according to Forbes.
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He has properties overseas and is married to Chinese internet celebrity Zhang Zetian, often referred to by her nickname, Sister Milk Tea, reported to be about 20 years his junior. They met when Zhang was studying in the United States, married in 2015, and now have a daughter.
LIVELY, COMPETITIVE
A second JD.com insider said Liu was “lively” and highly motivated by competition. The person, who asked not to be named because of the risks of speaking publicly, added that Liu traveled a lot and his lifestyle was seen as “very luxurious” to staff.
In July, he lost a court battle in Australia to keep his name out of a sexual assault trial in which a guest at a party Liu had hosted at his luxury Sydney home in late 2015 accused another guest of sexually assaulting her at a hotel.
Liu was not accused of wrongdoing, according to a court document. The defendant was found guilty of seven offences.
A China-based venture capital manager who has dealt directly with Liu said that “there was nothing in his business dealings that would cause concern” but that Liu had “a high-profile private life.”
JD.com, backed by Walmart Inc WMT.N, Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google, and China's Tencent Holdings 0700.HK, did not respond to requests for comment on Liu. Liu could not immediately be reached.
FAMILY MAN
The arrest does underscores a potential fault line in JD.com’s corporate governance. Liu owns a 16 percent stake in the company but controls 80 percent of the board vote, leaving investors with little say.
There is also no clear successor to Liu, who is both chairman and chief executive, even as JD.com faces an escalating battle with Alibaba and has seen its shares fall 24 percent this year. The company posted a second quarter net loss in August.
Liu has long fostered a reputation for good behavior, playing up JD.com’s tough stance on counterfeits. He has also said he enjoys hard work and dislikes relaxing too much, often working 16-hour days.
He has a sociology degree from Beijing’s prestigious Renmin University and is a delegate to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an important advisory body to the government.
The University of Minnesota said Liu was a student in its China-focused doctor of business administration program for senior executives.
Liu said in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he enjoys swimming, fast walks and trips into China’s deserts. Once a year he dons a JD.com uniform and delivers packages himself.
He added that integrity was very important to him and that family was one of the things that made him most proud.
“For my parents I want to be a good son, for my wife a good husband and for my daughter I want to be a good father,” he said at Davos. “I hope that one day when I retire that my workers will all be able to say ‘He was a good guy’.”
($1 = 6.8161 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI and Cate Cadell in BEIJING; Additional reporting by Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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37273cd9426926415d79c0dfb4e36a2e | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-divestiture-breakingviews-idUSKBN26K0GW | Breakingviews - JD's hyped-up spinoffs leave its basket light | Breakingviews - JD's hyped-up spinoffs leave its basket light
By Robyn Mak3 Min Read
A JD.com Logistics self-driving truck is displayed at China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, China, May 28, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
HONG KONG (Reuters Breakingviews) - JD.com might look slightly unloved after completing its hyped-up spinoffs. The Chinese web retailer’s market cap has more than doubled to $117 billion this year. That has been helped by expectations for listings of its health, financial technology and logistics units which might account for almost half of JD’s equity value. The downside is it prices up a so-so worth for its outperforming e-commerce business.
Shares of New York-listed JD are up 116% in 2020, smashing the gains of the S&P 500 and most Chinese technology peers including e-commerce rival Alibaba. A secondary Hong Kong listing in June helped, as has the company’s Amazon-like pandemic-resilient business. Investors are also pricing in boss Richard Liu’s more exciting ventures in financial technology and healthcare.
JD Digits, the 37%-owned affiliate that specialises in consumer credit and supply-chain financing, has filed to raise 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) in Shanghai by selling 10% of its enlarged share capital. Meanwhile, JD recently confirmed plans to list its e-pharmacy in Hong Kong, and is targeting a $20 billion valuation, Refinitiv publication IFR says. JD’s promising logistics arm might be next too. The company has already tapped banks for an up to $10 billion IPO that could value the subsidiary at over $30 billion, Reuters reported in December, citing sources.
JD’s stakes in the three businesses could be worth $53 billion combined, based on the mooted valuations. What’s left, after backing out the group’s $8 billion-plus net cash pile, is JD’s core business. Analysts at HSBC reckon the segment will generate roughly $3 billion in adjusted earnings next year. That implies investors are valuing the rump, JD Retail, at 17 times forward earnings - a discount to Alibaba’s 23 times multiple, Refinitiv shows.
It looks especially light because it implies no value for the minority stakes JD holds in companies including UK-based deluxe clothing website Farfetch and Chinese supermarket chain Yonghui Superstores. Moreover, JD’s e-commerce business - more capital intensive and costly than Alibaba’s - has outperformed rivals during the pandemic and is improving its profitability. Liu needs to ensure his new outlets don’t leave the main shop window looking tired.
BreakingviewsReuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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17d31496493b8813eff7b7385ecd3a2a | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-logistics-fundraising-exclusiv/exclusive-chinas-jd-com-targets-2-billion-fundraising-at-logistics-unit-sources-idUSKBN1F4109 | Exclusive: China's JD.com targets $2 billion fundraising at logistics unit - sources | Exclusive: China's JD.com targets $2 billion fundraising at logistics unit - sources
By Julie Zhu, Kane Wu3 Min Read
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's second-biggest e-commerce firm JD.com JD.O has kicked off a fundraising round at its logistics unit with a target of at least $2 billion, and eventually plans to list the business overseas, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
A JD.com sign is seen during the fourth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song
JD.com, which only trails Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA.N in China's e-commerce market, has invited a select group of investors to join the funding round that values its logistics business, JD Logistics, at around $10 billion, two of the people told Reuters.
The move comes as China’s major e-commerce companies are looking to bulk up their logistics businesses to support their global expansion ambitions and boost revenues by offering services to third-party entities.
Chinese investment firm Hillhouse Capital Group and Sequoia Capital China will likely be lead investors of JD Logistics’ funding round, while a number of state-owned and international investors have also shown strong interest in the deal, according to the people.
Demand could be strong enough that smaller investors putting up just $100 million - the floor for investments, according to two people - would have to prove they could help the logistics unit to bring in new business, one of them said.
JD.com declined to comment. Hillhouse and Sequoia did not respond to requests for comment. The sources could not be named as the information is confidential.
JD Logistics is currently 100 percent owned by JD.com. It is not clear when and where the IPO process will be undertaken.
Hillhouse Capital is the second-biggest equity investor in JD.com, according to Thomson Reuters data. Alibaba rival Tencent Holdings 0700.HK is also a top-10 investor in JD.com, the data shows.
The fundraising and any ensuing spin-off would give JD Logistics - set up as a separate entity within the company last April - some independence and help it offer services to third-party clients as well as to compete with Alibaba’s logistics network Cainiao and delivery services firms such as SF Express, the people said.
Logistics groups have increasingly sought investments to fund work on solutions to supply-chain issues, including autonomous driving, automated warehousing, cross-border logistics and smart logistics services. JD.com, being aggressive in that push, was the first one in China to invest in drones.
Last year, JD.com invested in logistics infrastructure in Southeast Asia, expanding from existing commitments in Indonesia. It also announced a partnership with Japanese delivery firm Yamato Holdings 9064.T last month to ship products from Japanese retailers to China.
JD.com posted net earnings of 1 billion yuan ($151 million), its highest-ever quarterly profit, in the three months to September 30, confounding analysts’ forecasts of a 213 million yuan loss.
The company has a current market cap of $66 billion.
Reporting by Julie Zhu and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Cate Cadell in Beijing; Editing by Jennifer Hughes and Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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cbeb6c95d0b18ef1e93b2229ec2827f5 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-results-idUKKBN27W1B8?edition-redirect=uk | China's JD.com beats estimates on online sales boom | China's JD.com beats estimates on online sales boom
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Delivery workers move parcels from an automated sorting belt to carts at a JD.com's smart logistics center on Singles Day shopping festival, in Beijing, China November 11, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
(Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce company JD.com Inc posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday as online sales remained strong even after coronavirus-led restrictions were lifted in the world’s second-largest economy.
The Beijing-based company, which recorded growth across a wide range of product lines, joined competitors Pinduoduo and Alibaba Group in racking up double-digit growth as China’s economy recovers from COVID-19 damage.
JD.com Chief Executive Officer Richard Liu said its business partners are recovering rapidly as well.
Last month, data showed that China's retail sales edged (here) up 3.3% in September from a year earlier, beating analysts' forecast for a 1.8% growth.
Sales in JD.com’s product segment, which includes online retail sales, rose 27% to 151.4 billion yuan ($22.99 billion) in the quarter.
JD.com’s net revenue rose 29% to 174.21 billion yuan in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Analysts had expected revenue of 170.2 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Excluding items, JD.com earned 3.42 yuan per American depository share (ADS) while analysts had expected a profit of 2.65 yuan per ADS.
Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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10379fcf1930ac393f3c9269c04dd139 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-com-results-idUSKCN1V30WL | Chinese online retailer JD.com beats estimates on strong sales | Chinese online retailer JD.com beats estimates on strong sales
By Reuters Staff4 Min Read
(Reuters) - China's JD.com Inc JD.O reported better than expected second-quarter revenue on Tuesday, boosted by stronger sales in its online retail business, sending its shares 5% higher in pre-market trading.
FILE PHOTO: A JD.com Logistics self-driving truck is displayed at China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, China, May 28, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
The company’s net revenue rose 23% to 150.28 billion yuan ($21.28 billion) in the second quarter ended June 30. Analysts were expecting revenue of 147.49 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The online retailer’s upbeat results provided a bright spot in China’s e-commerce industry and wider tech sector which is slowing down after years of growth.
Companies like JD.com and bigger rival Alibaba BABA.N are seeking to diversify beyond online shopping to deal with the slowing growth.
JD.com has entered new businesses, such as convenience stores and supermarkets. It is also investing in AI to improve its logistics and advertising capabilities.
Last week the company announced it led a $142 million funding round in Xinchao Media, which runs ads in elevators across China.
The company has also sought outside funding for several of its subdivisions, including its health division, its finance division, and its logistics division.
On a company earnings call, executives noted that JD Logistics, JD’s business unit which oversees warehousing and delivery for itself and other merchants, broke even during Q2.
Industry analysts say that Chinese ecommerce firms have largely tapped China’s online spenders in the country’s first-tier cities, and must aggressively court consumers in less affluent parts of the county.
Jerry Liu, who tracks China’s internet sector at UBS Investment Research Securities, says that China’s e-commerce industry has performed better than others anticipated since the start of the year, as online consumption growth is still relatively stronger despite the economic slowdown.
“Big ticket items, like cars or smartphones, might be more challenging,” he told Reuters.
“But if you look at smaller ticket, higher frequency products, that’s still doing well.”
On an earnings call, the chief strategic officer elaborated on how the company would attempt to attract customers from lower-tier cities in China.
Initiatives include working directly with manufacturers to offer private-label goods, and revamping the site’s accessibility on WeChat, China’s most popular mobile chat app.
JD has endured its troubles over the past year. At the start of 2019, it laid off a number of mid- and senior-level employees. Founder Richard Liu, meanwhile, fought allegations of sexual harassment against a Chinese national which first surfaced in the United States one year ago.
JD.com’s shares rose to $28.49 in premarket trading on Nasdaq.
Net income reached 618.8 million yuan ($90.1 million), up from a net loss of 212.4 million the year prior. The company posted non-GAAP EPS of 2.30 yuan, trumping estimates of 0.46 yuan.
Sales from its product business, which includes online retail sales, rose about 21% to 133.52 billion yuan.
For the third quarter, JD expects revenue between 126 billion yuan and 130 billion yuan, the mid-point of which was above analysts’ estimates of 126.21 billion yuan.
Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Editing by Jane Merriman and David EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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05fbf2e786731f746d230493c9d5ddf2 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-hlth-intl-ipo-breakingviews/breakingviews-healthcare-ipo-examines-value-of-chinas-big-tech-idUSKBN28C097 | Breakingviews - Healthcare IPO examines value of China’s big tech | Breakingviews - Healthcare IPO examines value of China’s big tech
By Sharon Lam3 Min Read
A doctor reads medical images on a screen during a diagnostic competition between an AI machine and human experts at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, China, June 30, 2018. Picture taken June 30. China Daily/via REUTERS
HONG KONG (Reuters Breakingviews) - JD.com is offering a timely reminder of why big technology firms are valuable to Beijing. The e-commerce giant’s healthcare arm has priced shares in its initial public offering at a reasonable 13 times sales. The $3.5 billion deal is set to be the biggest IPO in Hong Kong this year after an abrupt regulatory halt to the debut of Ant, the Alibaba payments affiliate, in November. As Chinese officials also scrutinise competitive practices of internet platforms, the healthcare sector underscores a symbiotic relationship.
The pandemic has boosted demand for digital, contactless medical services. JD Health International was China’s largest online retail pharmacy by revenue in 2019, according to its prospectus, and was the first to offer online appointments for Covid-19 nucleic acid tests. Daily online consultations leapt to nearly 90,000 in the first half of 2020, almost six times more than the same period last year. The company’s topline grew 33% year-on-year in 2019 and accelerated to 76% in the six months of 2020, roughly the same pace of its closest rival, $39 billion Alibaba Health Information Technology, in its interim period. The bulk of JD Health’s business is in direct sales of medicines and other products. Other services include an over-9,000-merchant-strong online marketplace and digital marketing.
Assume JD Health’s enterprise value reaches $28 billion at the high-end of the range, after subtracting some $486 million in cash and cash equivalents as of June. Its roughly $2.2 billion in revenue for trailing twelve months implies a sales multiple of nearly 13 times, below Alibaba Health’s 18 times and in line with Ping An Healthcare and Technology, which runs the Good Doctor app, per Refinitiv data. Alibaba Health has more annual active users and turned a net profit in the six months ended September, while JD Health was loss-making in the first half of this year.
It’s a smart area for JD.com and its peers to tap into: China’s National Development and Reform Commission supports the buildout of internet healthcare in a country where overcrowded hospitals and long wait times are a problem. Given the sensitive nature of the sector, there will perhaps also be less regulatory surprises than there have been of late in e-commerce and payments. Big traditional companies in China have long served official goals, and it helps internet companies to play the part too.
BreakingviewsReuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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42d0847b411153d76f2b3cc2cd1ffe0b | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jd-sports-outlook/jd-sports-sees-profit-at-upper-end-of-market-view-on-overseas-demand-idUKKBN1Z90N6?edition-redirect=uk | JD Sports sees profit at upper end of market view on overseas demand | JD Sports sees profit at upper end of market view on overseas demand
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: People pass a JD Sports store in London, Britain April 11, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo
(Reuters) - Britain's JD Sports JD.L said on Friday it expected annual profit towards the upper end of the current market view on stronger demand for its gym clothing and premium-branded fashion overseas, defying the gloomy UK retail sector once again.
The company’s shares were seen rising as much as 5%, according to traders.
JD, the country's biggest sportswear retailer, has successfully targeted younger consumers with athleisure products as sports clothing becomes more acceptable. It sells premium ranges from the likes of Nike NKE.N and Adidas ADSGn.DE, and often uses exclusive products to set itself apart from rivals.
The owner of Footpatrol and Cloggs expects annual headline pretax profit to be in the upper quartile of 403 million pounds ($527.16 million) and 433 million pounds after adjusting for the impact of transitioning to IFRS 16.
“Against a backdrop of widely reported retail challenges in the Group’s core UK market, it is encouraging to report positive like-for-like trends in the Group’s global Sports Fashion fascias, particularly overseas,” the company said.
Founded in 1981 with a single store in the North West of England, the firm now has more than 2,400 stores across Europe, Asia Pacific and the United States.
The upbeat outlook comes against the backdrop of a struggling UK retail sector, caused by weakening consumer spending as Brexit looms, higher costs and more people shopping online.
British fashion brand Superdry SDRY.L warned on its full-year profit on Friday after Christmas sales fell short of its expectations.
JD also said its key overseas markets have different post-Christmas sale timings and the ultimate outrun will be reflected in these markets through the rest of January.
Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.VOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3da97b485852d791ec7e4a1684443afe | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jet-airways-debt-lessors-insight/the-downfall-of-jet-airways-how-indias-premium-airline-crumbled-idINKCN1RL1UC?edition-redirect=in | The downfall of Jet Airways: How India's premium airline crumbled | The downfall of Jet Airways: How India's premium airline crumbled
By Anshuman Daga, Aditi Shah8 Min Read
SINGAPORE/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - In early January, Jet Airways and its main lender, State Bank of India, met with aircraft lessors to assure them there was a plan to rescue the debt-laden carrier so it could pay them, sources familiar with the matter said.
FILE PHOTO: Workers cover the cockpit window of a Jet Airways aircraft parked at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, India, March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo
The idea was to shore up confidence in one of India’s biggest brands, squeezed by low fares and high costs. But some lessors quickly lost patience as the bank did not provide details and Jet’s founder angrily defied them to take back planes.
At one point, the airline’s usually jovial founder and chairman, Naresh Goyal, banged his fist on a table, jarring some of the lessors who had flown to Mumbai from Dublin, Singapore and Dubai, said one person who attended the discussions. “That meeting went horribly wrong,” recalled the executive from a global leasing firm, who did not want to identified because the meeting was not public.
Goyal’s emotional outburst and Jet’s subsequent failure to pay up as promised may have pushed the relationship between the airline and its lessors to a breaking point, two other executives who were at the meeting said, prompting some to take the drastic step of pulling their planes from its fleet.
That has led Jet, which blazed trails in one of the world’s fastest-growing air travel markets, to cancel hundreds of flights. Saddled with more than $1.2 billion in debt, and with dwindling revenue, the airline has said it also owes money to banks, pilots and suppliers.
It was not immediately clear how much money Jet owes.
Jet did not respond to multiple requests for comment but has said it is “actively engaged” with all its lessors. Goyal did not respond to requests for comment.
“Aircraft lessors have been supportive of the company’s efforts in this regard,” Jet said in its most recent statement to the Mumbai stock exchange on April 2.
The loss of aircraft and friction with lessors is just the latest major setback for Jet, which has been struggling for years, beset by an insurgent group of low-cost Indian competitors.
Purchases of wide-body aircraft 13 years ago and ambitions for the international market may have set Jet on its current course, industry insiders say.
The 26-year-old airline has posted losses in eight of the past 10 years and its share of the domestic passenger market has fallen to about 15.5 percent in 2018 from 22.5 percent in 2015.
About 60 percent, or more than $600 million, has been wiped off Jet’s market value over the past year.
Now, with the airline’s running out of ways to make money, state-run banks, led by SBI, took a temporary stake in Jet, promised a new loan of 15 billion rupees ($216 million) and forced 69-year-old Goyal to resign as chairman.
On Monday, Jet’s lenders laid out terms for potential bidders to buy up to 75 percent stake in the carrier. Expressions of interest are due on Wednesday, with final bids due on April 30. [L3N21Q14Z]
But lessors remain concerned, and some, such as Avolon, SMBC Aviation Capital, Aircastle and a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp, have asked India’s aviation regulator to de-register a combined 18 planes, according to the regulator’s website.
“Despite Goyal’s departure from Jet, lessors don’t seem to think the carrier can be rescued, judging by the urgency in repossessing aircraft,” said Shukor Yusof, the head of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.
That adds complications for any potential new investor, two industry sources said.
“How we do business with Jet in the future will depend a lot on the new investor and how they manage the relationship,” said one of the executives who was at the January meeting.
Aercap Holdings, GE Capital Aviation Services, Avolon and BOC Aviation are among the big lessors grounding Jet’s aircraft, leasing and industry sources say. Aercap, Avolon and BOC Aviation declined to comment. GE Capital Aviation Services said Jet was a long-standing customer and it remains in regular contact with the airline.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
The humbling of one of India’s most successful international brands illustrates the challenge of making money in the country’s aviation sector, dominated by low-cost carriers such as IndiGo and SpiceJet Ltd.
The Indian market is also highly price-sensitive, and airlines compete to keep fares low, even at a loss, to continue expanding. The domestic market has seen around 20 percent growth in the number of passengers over the past few years.
Carriers including IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara, a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata Sons, have over 1,000 planes on order from Boeing Co and Airbus SA.
“India’s aviation market is cut-throat and it is survival of the fittest. One needs not only deep pockets but a deep threshold for pain,” said Yusof, adding that lessors will still seek business in the country despite the inherent risks.
When India’s Kingfisher Airlines went bankrupt in 2012, lessors were forced to write off millions of dollars in losses and thousands of people lost their jobs.
FALL FROM GRACE
When Goyal and his wife, Anita, started Jet in 1993, state-run Air India was the only formidable opponent, and the country’s aviation market was just taking off.
Goyal’s pitch was ensuring the country’s biggest private carrier had impeccable service - a world-class product built in India, industry executives said.
Jet’s problems began when it embarked on an aggressive international expansion plan, said an industry executive who has been associated with the airline.
The carrier ordered 22 wide-body aircraft for delivery over about 18 months, starting in 2006, depleting cash, the executive said.
Then Jet bought a struggling Indian airline called Sahara for 14.5 billion rupees ($209 million) in 2007 that had an ageing fleet and did not fit Jet’s corporate culture, the industry executives said.
Meanwhile, a newcomer, low-cost carrier IndiGo, had begun chipping away at Jet’s market share with cheap fares, one of the executives said.
In 2013, Jet was close to running out of cash, but survived collapse when Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways bought a 24 percent stake in the Indian airline. As part of the deal, Etihad also bought three pairs of Jet’s landing slots at London’s Heathrow airport and 51 percent stake in its frequent flyer program.
To compete with low-cost carriers, Jet has lowered prices without reducing its expensive services. High fuel prices and hefty taxes have compounded the spending issues, industry executives said.
Goyal, however, said in a statement last week after stepping down that the airline will “regain its rightful place in the company of global greats.”
HUMONGOUS TASK
Goyal’s penchant for control, which helped him build the airline, has been a stumbling block for potential investors. Tata Sons was in talks with Jet in November for a deal that never materialized, sources have said.
Etihad has also been reluctant to increase its stake in the carrier for similar reasons, sources have said.
If no suitable investors turn up at the auction, lenders will pursue alternative plans, they said, without specifying what those might be.
SpiceJet has been in talks with lessors to take some of Jet’s aircraft, a source has said.
Indian rules cap foreign airline investment in domestic carriers at 49 percent, and the government is eager to see Jet remain with an Indian entity, sources have said. That narrows the list of potential investors, aviation financiers and leasing executives said.
“It will be a humongous task for whoever comes in,” one of the industry executives said.
For an interactive link on the biggest airlines click tmsnrt.rs/2I7ITuI
For an interactive link on Jet's average daily flights, click tmsnrt.rs/2FeFDel
For an interactive link on Jet's grounded planes, click tmsnrt.rs/2HTmgKl
Reporting by Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE and Aditi Shah in NEW DELHI; Additional reporting by Tanvi Mehta in MUMBAI and Gaurav Dogra in BENGALURU; Editing by Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4d1616219cd552753a248ad0a1616455 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jet-airways-debt-shutdown/jet-airways-to-temporarily-suspend-operations-after-banks-reject-funding-request-sources-idUSKCN1RT1FY | India's Jet Airways finds itself out of runway as funds dry up | India's Jet Airways finds itself out of runway as funds dry up
By Tanvi Mehta, Promit Mukherjee, Aditi Shah6 Min Read
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Embattled Jet Airways halted all flight operations indefinitely on Wednesday after its lenders rejected its plea for emergency funds, potentially bringing the curtains down on what was once India’s largest private airline.
FILE PHOTO: Jet Airways aircrafts are seen parked at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, April 13, 2019. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File Photo
The carrier, saddled with roughly $1.2 billion of bank debt, has been teetering for weeks after failing to receive a stop-gap loan of about $217 million from its lenders, as part of a rescue deal agreed in late March.
“The airline has been left with no other choice today but to go ahead with a temporary suspension of flight operations,” the company said in a two-page statement late on Wednesday.
At its peak, Jet operated over 120 planes and well over 600 daily flights. The airline, which has roughly 16,000 employees, has in recent weeks been forced to cancel hundreds of flights and to halt all flights out of India, as funds have dried up.
Intense competition from low-cost carriers, like Interglobe-owned IndiGo and SpiceJet Ltd, together with higher oil prices, hefty fuel taxes and a weak rupee have piled pressure on the airline in recent months.
For an interactive graphic, click tmsnrt.rs/2Wz3rQ5
In its statement on Wednesday, the airline thanked its loyal customers for their support over 25 years and said it “sincerely and profusely apologises for the disruption to the travel plans of all its guests.”
“Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going,” the airline said.
Two sources at state-run banks told Reuters that the banks had rejected a request for 4 billion rupees ($58 million) from Jet to keep itself temporarily afloat.
“Bankers did not want to go for a piecemeal approach which would keep the carrier flying for a few days and then again risk having Jet come back for more interim funding,” said one of the bank sources directly involved in Jet’s debt resolution process.
Related CoverageJet Airways: How the 'Joy of Flying' airline's dreams soured
SALE PROCESS
The airline said it would continue to work with its banks, who are trying to identify an investor to buy a majority stake and try to turn Jet around. Jet said that it hopes to resume flying soon.
Its lenders, led by State Bank of India (SBI), last week accepted expressions of interest for an up to 75 percent stake in the airline.
In a tweet, India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation said it would support the bank-led resolution process to rescue Jet, adding it expects the process to end by May 10.
CNBC-TV18 reported on Tuesday that Jet’s lenders were set to invite binding bids from four shortlisted suitors that include private equity firms TPG Capital and Indigo Partners, Indian wealth fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), and Etihad Airways, which already owns a minority stake in Jet.
It is still far from clear though, whether a firm bid will emerge and if a buyer will be identified in time.
Shares in the company, which have tumbled about 60 percent in the last year, closed on Tuesday at 240.50 rupees a share. Indian markets were closed on Wednesday due to a public holiday. Jet still has a market capitalization of nearly $400 million, as investors have clung onto hopes of a rescue deal being clinched.
Jet’s CEO Vinay Dube, in a letter to employees on Wednesday that was seen by Reuters, warned that the sales process would take some time and could throw up several more challenges, but he added that he was confident Jet Airways would fly again.
EMPLOYEE ANGER
If Jet fails to attract a buyer and collapses that would put thousands of Jet’s employees out of jobs, many of whom have been unpaid for weeks or months, and affect thousands of others whose jobs are tied to the fortunes of the airline.
Jet’s failure would also be a blow to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently seeking re-election in a weeks’ long general election. Modi’s critics blame his government for rising unemployment.
Some employees on Wednesday also blamed the government for failing to do enough to rescue Jet.
“We had appealed to everyone, including the prime minister,” said Asim Valiani, vice president of Jet’s main pilots’ union, the National Aviators’ Guild. “At least now we know the talk about caring for employment and creating jobs was all eyewash.”
He said the guild was exploring dragging Jet to a bankruptcy court over unpaid dues.
Jet employees are expected to hold a demonstration in New Delhi on Thursday, while the union representing its ground staff is expected to host a press conference in Mumbai.
LESSORS FLEE
A Jet collapse would also be a potential blow to Boeing Co, which is already grappling with the fallout of two recent fatal crashes involving its 737 MAX aircraft. Jet has more than 100 of the 737 MAX planes on order.
The crisis at Jet, which owes vast sums to suppliers, pilots, lessors and oil companies, deepened in recent weeks as its lessors scrambled to de-register and take back planes, in a sign the bank rescue plan failed to assuage their concerns.
India’s aviation regulator said on its website on Wednesday that lessors had applied to de-register another four Boeing Co 737 planes. Overall, Jet’s lessors have, so far, sought to deregister and repossess at least 48 planes operated by Jet. Once deregistered, lessors are free to reclaim a plane and lease it to another airline.
The rapid exodus of planes risks further eroding value from the carrier, even as lenders scurry to find an investor to pour new money into the airline.
For an interactive link, click tmsnrt.rs/2HTmgKl
Reporting by Tanvi Mehta and Promit Mukherjee in Mumbai and Aftab Ahmed and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Writing by Euan Rocha; Editing by Louise Heavens and Susan FentonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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590280142ecb7a755c9bb9fedd89be9c | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jet-airways-debt/jet-airways-founder-naresh-goyal-and-wife-stopped-from-leaving-india-airport-official-idUSKCN1SV0LS | Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and wife stopped from leaving India - airport official | Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and wife stopped from leaving India - airport official
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
(Reuters) - Indian carrier Jet Airways (India) Ltd founder Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita Goyal were stopped from leaving India on Saturday at Mumbai airport, according to an airport official who asked not to be named.
Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways speaks during a news conference in Mumbai, November 29, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo
The couple were taken into custody by immigration officers, the Indian Express reported, citing sources.
The airport official did not confirm that the couple had been detained.
It was not immediately clear why the couple had been prevented from traveling, or whether it was related to reported regulatory probes into the airline.
It was not immediately possible to reach either the Goyals or Jet for comment late Saturday.
Local media said the Goyals had been traveling to Dubai for a connecting flight to London.
Local media, citing sources, reported earlier this month that the ministry of corporate affairs had been looking into Jet’s books and had asked for a corporate fraud investigation into the airline, suspecting that its promoters siphoned off funds.
Jet said at the time that it had complied with all regulations. The Goyals did not comment on the reports at the time.
Once one of India’s largest carriers, Jet was forced to ground all flights last month after running out of money and failing to secure funds, crippled by mounting losses as it attempted to compete with low-cost rivals.
The carrier is saddled with some $1.2 billion in bank debt, and Goyal and his wife stepped down from the airline’s board in March amid the crisis.
Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath, Rajendra Jadhav, and Zeba Siddiqui; Editing by Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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15bdd56ddd7c0d665f50ea4ded5b3785 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jetblue-airways-fares-idINKBN1XM1KX?edition-redirect=in | JetBlue enters basic economy battle with new fare options | JetBlue enters basic economy battle with new fare options
By Tracy Rucinski2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A Jet Blue airplane is seen at Los Angeles International airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California, U.S. March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake
CHICAGO (Reuters) - JetBlue Airways Corp JBLU.O on Tuesday became the latest U.S. airline to launch a low-fare option in an effort to rival basic economy offerings from major airlines and meet competition from ultra low-cost carriers.
The new fare, to be called “Blue Basic,” will allow one carry-on bag - space permitting - and free seat selection 24 hours before the flight, but those passengers will be the last to board the plane.
“There is a growing customer segment that really values low fares and that are willing to trade off certain benefits,” JetBlue President Joanna Geraghty told Reuters.
The three biggest U.S. carriers - American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O, Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N and United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O - have all rolled out basic economy fares in reaction to the growth of no-frills carriers Spirit Airlines SAVE.N and Frontier Airlines, even as they court higher-paying passengers with new premium fare options.
“Basic economy has proven to be a revenue driver for airlines that have implemented it and should drive incremental revenue growth in 2020 despite expectations for industry unit revenue to decline,” Cowen analyst Helane Becker said in a recent note about JetBlue to investors.
For travelers willing to pay for early boarding, free advanced seating and flexibility with travel changes, JetBlue is launching a separate fare option called “Blue Extra.”
New York-based JetBlue, which boasts that it has the most leg room in coach, has said it expects its new fare options to add about $150 million to revenue in 2020.
The “Blue Basic” fare can first be found on routes like Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas or New York’s JFK to Long Beach, California before being rolled out to most of JetBlue’s other routes over the next month or two, a spokesman said.
Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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548103c10d78240ff93de3f987868338 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jetblue-airways-results/jetblue-reports-loss-revises-airbus-orders-to-save-1-billion-through-2022-idUKKBN22J1PS?edition-redirect=uk | JetBlue posts quarterly loss, scales back Airbus orders | JetBlue posts quarterly loss, scales back Airbus orders
By Tracy Rucinski3 Min Read
(Reuters) - JetBlue Airways Corp JBLU.O on Thursday posted a $268 million quarterly loss as the coronavirus pandemic hurt air travel demand, and cut its order book with Airbus SE AIR.PA by about 34% through 2022 to save $1.1 billion in aircraft spending.
FILE PHOTO: A JetBlue passenger jet lands with New York City as a backdrop, at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, U.S. December 6, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
Under a delivery schedule set on May 7, JetBlue said it now plans to receive a total of 40 Airbus SE AIR.PA jets through 2022, down from 61 that filings show it had contracted over that time period as of last year.
The new schedule includes one A220 and seven A321NEO jets this year, it said.
JetBlue shares rose 4.9 percent.
Since cases of the novel coronavirus began accelerating in March, U.S air travel demand has sunk by about 95%, forcing airlines to shift their focus from growth plans to parking planes and minimizing their daily cash burn.
While the overall number of bookings was “extremely limited,” New York-based JetBlue said it believed demand had reached a floor around mid-April and it expected to have a better sense of the third and fourth quarters by early summer.
Meanwhile, its second-quarter flight capacity will be about 80% lower than what it had originally planned.
Following measures to boost its liquidity, JetBlue expects its daily cash burn to fall to just below $10 million in May from an average of $18 million in the second half of March, excluding government assistance under the CARES Act.
The airline is set to receive $936 million in government payroll assistance, which bans companies from reducing their workforce until Sept. 30, and said it has applied for an additional up to $1.14 billion government loan that it can draw if needed and was evaluating additional capital raises including secured debt and sale leasebacks.
Liquidity totaled $3.1 billion in April.
Revenue declined 15.1% to $1.59 billion in the first quarter from a year earlier, including a 52% decline in March as the pandemic hurt demand and fares.
Net losses reached $268 million for the first quarter ended March 31, compared with a profit of $42 million a year earlier.
Excluding special items, the net loss was $116 million, or a loss of $0.42 per share.
Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick ZieminskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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8d4fb798b4da6c5df0608e9fd4843259 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jetblue-environment/jetblue-to-become-carbon-neutral-in-2020-idINKBN1Z5237?edition-redirect=in | JetBlue to become carbon neutral in 2020 | JetBlue to become carbon neutral in 2020
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A JetBlue aircraft comes in to land at Long Beach Airport in Long Beach, California, U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake
(Reuters) - JetBlue Airways Corp on Monday said it plans to become carbon neutral on all domestic flights by July 2020 and would use an alternative fuel source for flights leaving from San Francisco amid rising pressure to cut greenhouse emissions.
The aviation industry has been trying to combat climate change by trying to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 compared with 2005 levels and sees the emergence of lower-carbon biofuels as a vital step towards meeting this goal.
The industry’s plan rests on a mix of alternative fuel, improved operations such as direct flight paths, new planes and other technologies.
JetBlue in its attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will favor renewable sources and will start using sustainable aviation fuel in mid-2020 on flights from San Francisco International Airport.
“By offsetting all of our domestic flying, we’re preparing our business for the lower-carbon economy that aviation – and all sectors – must plan for,” Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes said in a statement.
JetBlue declined to give details about the cost of the exercise. It did not disclose if any other airports will be a part of the plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Sustainable-fuel, derived from sustainable oil crops or from wood and waste biomass, would have the single largest impact in reducing emissions from each flight by around 80%, but is in short supply, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel and Aditya SoniOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4f70089af5800b9b3452d4a200ba6f49 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jetblue-results-idUKKBN27C1KN?edition-redirect=uk | JetBlue Airways eyes booking uplift after 76% revenue slide | JetBlue Airways eyes booking uplift after 76% revenue slide
By Tracy Rucinski2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A JetBlue passenger jet lands with New York City as a backdrop, at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, U.S. December 6, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
(Reuters) - JetBlue Airways' JBLU.O third-quarter revenue plunged by 76% as the COVID-19 pandemic hammered travel demand but the New York-based budget carrier expects an upturn in bookings for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, it said on Tuesday.
The airline said the quarterly revenue decline is expected to narrow to 65% in the final three months of the year, though uncertainties remain in light of the evolving coronavirus crisis.
Daily cash burn is expected to hover between $4 million and $6 million per day in the fourth quarter. That compares with about $6.1 million per day in the third quarter, which the company said was better than forecast thanks to a modest improvement in demand and cost savings.
JetBlue reported a net loss of $393 million, or $1.44 per share, for the three months to Sept. 30, against a $187 million profit a year earlier.
The company, which expects fourth-quarter capacity to be down about 45% from a year earlier, said it reached a second deal with Airbus SE AIR.PA this month to defer additional jet deliveries and payments over the next few years.
Since the beginning of the crisis, it said it has reduced capital expenditure for the 2020-2022 period by $2 billion dollars and ended the quarter with $3.1 billion of liquidity.
JetBlue is among airlines that received federal aid to covered payroll expenses through the third quarter and has separately secured $1.95 billion in U.S. Treasury loans.
Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by David GoodmanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b48d4e36283511da29f1960b39f3ea85 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jfe-holdings-results-idUSKCN1N41D1 | Japan's JFE, Kobe Steel cut profit outlook on glitches, higher costs | Japan's JFE, Kobe Steel cut profit outlook on glitches, higher costs
By Yuka Obayashi3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese steelmakers JFE Holdings 5411.T and Kobe Steel 5406.T cut their annual profit forecasts on Tuesday due to technical glitches at their plants and higher costs of electricity, distribution and subsidiary materials.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of JFE Holdings Inc is seen at Keihin industrial zone in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo January 30, 2013. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
Japanese steelmakers are enjoying solid local demand from automakers and machinery manufacturers as well as the construction sector, which has been in full swing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But natural disasters and glitches at their old facilities have prevented them from producing as much steel as they had planned.
JFE, Japan’s No. 2 steelmaker, trimmed its recurring profit forecast for the year to March 31 to 250 billion yen ($2.2 billion) from an earlier estimate of 260 billion yen. The revised figure missed a consensus forecast of 274.9 billion yen from 10 analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
The reduction comes as JFE now expects to produce 28 million tonnes of crude steel for the year, down from its previous plan of 29 million tonnes, due to severe rains in July and September and technical trouble at one of its three blast furnaces in western Japan.
“The No. 2 furnace in Kurashiki steelworks has been shut since Oct. 23 due to technical trouble, but we expect the furnace to resume operation in November and return to full operation in late December,” JFE Executive Vice President Shinichi Okada told a news conference.
JFE’s recurring profit for the six months to Sept. 30 grew 41 percent to 143.5 billion yen, helped by higher product prices.
Kobe Steel, Japan’s third-biggest steelmaker, also cut its full-year recurring profit guidance by 10 billion yen to 25 billion yen, blaming higher electricity costs in light of rising oil prices and bigger-than-expected compensation costs on its data-tampering scandal.
The revised forecast fell short of a mean estimate of 45.4 billion yen among 9 analysts.
Kobe Steel’s data-tampering scandal, which affected more than 600 customers and occurred over nearly five decades, shook global faith in Japanese manufacturing prowess.
Its recurring profit for the April-September period plunged about 80 percent to 9.3 billion yen.
The company’s data scandal cut its profit by 6 billion yen during the six months and the company expects the issue will have a profit impact of 11 billion yen for the year, 1 billion yen more than its earlier estimate, said Kobe Steel Senior Managing Executive Officer Yoshihiko Katsukawa.
JFE Holdings' and Kobe Steel's bigger rival Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal 5401.T is due to announce its earnings result on Friday.
($1 = 112.8100 yen)
Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3039074e392c0808ca5c29e6e22f0c29 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jfe-holdings-strategy-idUSKCN1FY0GO | Japan's JFE to focus on lighter steel in $6 billion upgrade, warns on U.S. trade policy | Japan's JFE to focus on lighter steel in $6 billion upgrade, warns on U.S. trade policy
By Yuka Obayashi, Ritsuko Shimizu4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - JFE Holdings Inc, parent of Japan’s second-biggest steelmaker, plans to spend more than 650 billion yen ($6 billion) over the next three years upgrading domestic production facilities in a bid to raise productivity and competitiveness.
Eiji Hayashida, CEO and President of JFE Holdings Inc., speaks during an interview with Reuters at the company's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, February 14, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
A key goal of the capital expenditure plans, outlined by JFE Holdings President Eiji Hayashida in an interview on Wednesday, will be to help the firm meet growing demand from the auto industry for lighter steel and new materials to make electric and other cars of the future more fuel-efficient.
The pivot comes as Asia’s steelmakers seek to make the most of still-robust demand from China. But while sales in the world’s second-biggest economy offer hope, festering tensions on global trade as U.S. President Trump ponders tariffs and quotas on imports of steel and aluminum are becoming a major headache for industry executives like Hayashida.
“We’ve spent a bit more than 650 billion yen in the past three years on domestic facilities and we will need to do it again for the next years, which would give us a very competitive foundation,” Hayashida told Reuters.
“We may even increase spending,” he said, with Japan home to most of JFE’s crude steel manufacturing. Details of JFE’s new business plan through March 2021 will be announced around April.
“I think we don’t have to worry about China (economic) risk, at least this year,” Hayashida said, warning he sees slower Chinese demand from next year.
“My biggest fear is how far President Trump will close down trade,” the executive said. “If the U.S. takes action (to curb imports), it may trigger retaliation by other countries. What is most troublesome is to see the world heading to protectionism.”
AUTOS CHALLENGE
Japan’s steelmakers, including JFE’s bigger rival Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, are making hefty investment in ageing domestic plants. Glitches at the plants - some more than 40 years old - have prevented them from manufacturing as much steel as they would have liked, as well as more modern products.
Steel has dominated car material usage for over a century, but it now faces fierce competition from rivals such as aluminum and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) as automakers turn to lighter materials to make more fuel-efficient cars.
“For both electric vehicles and gasoline-powered cars, demand for shedding weight will only get stronger,” Hayashida said.
“Automakers see there is still room to cut the weight of gasoline car by 10-15 percent. We will mainly pour resources into such efforts,” he said, pointing to advanced high-tensile steel and new components to be created through cooperation with chemicals manufacturers.
JFE said in December that it and a unit of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings have jointly developed lightweight car door panels by combining steel and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP).
“We want to accelerate similar collaborations with multiple partners,” Hayashida said.
Outside Japan, Hayashida said JFE may build new lines at its automotive steelmaking plants in China and Thailand - if demand picks up.
Meanwhile Hayashida said there were no plans for JFE to increase its 15 percent stake in Indian partner JSW Steel Ltd to capitalize on potential market growth in India.
“I don’t see any benefit from raising our stake from the current 15 percent,” he said. “I feel comfortable with the current level.”
Reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Ritsuko Shimizu; Editing by Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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260662e428ad849ab10c1a9e133f3d92 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jobs-obit/steve-jobs-may-never-be-equaled-idUKTRE7950CE20111006?edition-redirect=uk | Steve Jobs "may never be equaled" | Steve Jobs "may never be equaled"
By Poornima Gupta, Peter Henderson14 Min Read
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Passionate, prickly, and deemed irreplaceable by many Apple fans and investors, Steve Jobs made a life defying conventions and expectations.
And despite years of poor health, his death on Wednesday at the age of 56 prompted a global gasp as many people remembered how much he had done to transform the worlds of computing, music and mobile phones, changing the way people communicate and access information and entertainment.
“The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come,” said Microsoft co-founder and long-time rival Bill Gates.
“For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor.”
The founder of Apple Inc died on Wednesday in Palo Alto, surrounded by his family. The circumstances of his passing were unclear, but Jobs has had a long battle with cancer and other health issues.
Jobs’ family thanked many for their prayers during the last year of Steves illness.
A college dropout, Jobs floated through India in search of spiritual guidance prior to founding Apple - a name he suggested to his friend and co-founder Steve Wozniak after a visit to a commune in Oregon he referred to as an “apple orchard.”
With his passion for minimalist design and marketing genius, Jobs changed the course of personal computing during two stints at Apple and then brought a revolution to the mobile market.
The iconic iPod, the iPhone - dubbed the “Jesus phone” for its quasi-religious following - and the iPad are the creation of a man who was known for his near-obsessive control of the product development process.
“Most mere mortals cannot understand a person like Steve Jobs,” said bestselling author and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee, in a recent interview. He considers Jobs “the greatest CEO in the history of man”, adding that he just had “a different operating system.”
Charismatic, visionary, ruthless, perfectionist, dictator - these are some of the words that people have used to describe Jobs, who may have been the biggest dreamer the technology world has ever known, but also was a hard-edged businessman and negotiator through and through.
“Steve was the best of the best. Like Mozart and Picasso, he may never be equaled,” said Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist and co-founder of Netscape Communications.
Microsoft’s Gates had called Jobs the most inspiring person in the tech industry and President Barack Obama held him up as the embodiment of the American Dream.
It’s hard to imagine a bigger success story than Steve Jobs, but rejection, failure and bad fate were part and parcel of who he was. Jobs was given away at birth, driven out of Apple in the mid-80s and struck with cancer when he finally had regained the top of the mountain.
He resigned as CEO of Apple Inc on August 24 - saying he could no longer fulfill the duties - and briefly served as chairman before his death.
Jobs grew up with an adopted family in Silicon Valley, which was turning from orchards to homes for workers at Lockheed and other defense and technology companies.
Electronics friend Bill Fernandez introduced him to boy engineer Wozniak, and the two Steves began a friendship that eventually bred Apple Computer.
“Woz is a brilliant engineer, but he is not really an entrepreneur, and that’s where Jobs came in,” recently remembered Fernandez, who was the first employee at Apple.
Wozniak earlier this year said that his goal was only to design hardware and he had no interest in running Apple.
“Steve Jobs’ role was defined -- you’ve got to learn to be an executive in every division of the company so you can be the world’s most important person some day. That was his goal,” joked Wozniak, who is still listed as an employee, even though he has not worked at Apple for years.
Related CoverageFans lay tributes of apples for Steve Jobs
AWFUL-TASTING MEDICINE
Jobs created Apple twice - once when he founded it and the second time after a return credited with saving the company, which now vies with Exxon Mobil as the most valuable publicly traded corporation in the United States.
Every day to him was “a new adventure in the company,” Jay Elliot, a former senior vice president at Apple who worked very closely with Jobs in the eighties, said earlier this year, adding that he was “almost like a child” when it came to his inquisitiveness.
He was highly intolerant of company politics and bureaucracy, Elliot noted.
But the inspiring Jobs came with a lot of hard edges, oftentimes alienating colleagues and early investors with his my-way-or-the-highway dictums and plans that were generally ahead of their time.
Elliot was a witness to the acrimony between Jobs and former Apple Chief Executive John Sculley who often clashed on ideas, products and the direction of the company.
The dispute came to a head at Apple’s first major sales meeting in Hawaii in 1985 where the two “just blew up against each other,” Elliot said.
Jobs left soon after, saying he was fired.
“It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life’s gonna hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith,” Jobs told a Stanford graduating class in 2005.
He returned to Apple about a decade after he left, working as a consultant. Soon he was running it, in what has been called Jobs’ second act.
Jobs reinvented the technology world four or five times, first with the Apple II, a beautiful personal computer in the 1970s; then in the 1980s with the Macintosh, driven by a mouse and presenting a clean screen that made computing inviting; the ubiquitous iPod debuted in 2001, the iPhone in 2007 and in 2010 the iPad, which a year after it was introduced outsold the Mac.
LESS IS MORE
How did he do it? Design fans, Apple employees and Jobs acquaintances credit a natural design-sense drive to simplify. Jobs’ return to Apple was a study in reduction.
Ed Niehaus, who was wooed and hired by Jobs to do public relations for resurgent Apple, remembers an elevator ride that everyone in Silicon Valley has heard of, but seemed more myth than reality. It was soon after Jobs’ triumphant return and he was axing product plans -- and people.
Niehaus recalled: “I once rode down an elevator, not that many floors. We got in the elevator and the next floor a young woman got in, and I could see her go, ‘oops, wrong elevator.’ And Steve said, ‘Hi, who are you?’ and introduces himself to her - ‘I’m Steve Jobs’ and turned on the charm and said, ‘What do you do?’ and all this sort of thing. And the door of the elevator opens at the bottom, and he says, ‘We are not going to need you.’ And we walk away.”
Apple was bloated, Niehaus added, and Jobs was bringing back simplicity and focus.
“He always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do - but the things that you decide not to do. He’s a minimalist,” former CEO Sculley - who was recruited by Jobs, watched him build the Mac, and then helped throw out the Apple founder in a boardroom battle - told the CultofMac news website in 2010.
A few steps in the Apple design process have leaked out over the years, despite the obsessive secrecy that is part of the company culture. An Apple engineer outlined a long development process at a conference blogged by Businessweek in 2008.
A new product or feature begins with 10 ideas -- good ideas, no also-rans, which are presented as “pixel-perfect” mockups. Apple culls the 10 to three, which are tried out for months more, before a final star is chosen.
Meanwhile, the design team meets for two types of weekly meetings -- one to brainstorm with no limits, and one to focus on getting the product out the door, BusinessWeek described.
When Steve Jobs weighed in, it was with a simple set of verdicts: “insanely great,” “really, really really great,” and “shit,”, Niehaus recalled.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up the new iPod Nano after introducing it at an event in San Francisco, California in this September 7, 2005 file photo. REUTERS/Lou Dematteis
“Basically Steve tells you exactly what he wants and you just go build it,” said one former iPhone engineer, who declined to give his name.
He remembers working on one project for two months. “Steve said ‘What is this shit? Why are you wasting my time?’” he recalled.
Being chewed up and spat out by Jobs is an experience most Apple employees who have come in contact with Jobs can relate to. And Jobs was known to like people who stood up to him.
“I never asked you to start, so why should I ask you to stop?” Jobs told another former Apple employee, who wanted to know whether he should continue to work on a project that was being questioned by the forceful CEO.
Jobs liked to push. From the very start, people told tales of him putting his - often dirty - feet on the table in meetings. Others tell of Jobs putting down their company, making them defend themselves in interviews.
“He was clearly looking for someone who could stand up to him,” said another former member of the top team. He remembers Jobs and Tim Cook, who is taking over as CEO, as the “metronome” of the company, with vastly different personal styles and exactly the same “insane” attention to detail.
Jobs, in fact, reveled in details, many a time irking everyone around him with his obsessiveness.
Apple’s first CEO Michael Scott has said that Jobs spent weeks contemplating how rounded the edges of the Apple II case should be.
“He put white earbuds in the ears of everyone on the planet, and shut us all in to our own little pods of experience,” said Niehaus, who is in awe of Jobs’ taste and talent.
Jobs, given a Gulfstream jet by his appreciative board, probably didn’t fly commercial in years, and anyone who sits down with an iPod next to someone they don’t want to acknowledge gets a little bit of that experience.
He understood envy “as well as anybody on the planet” and carried it around with him, triple parking his car because he could, said Niehaus, adding that part of what he sold was envy.
THE REAL STEVE JOBS
Even Jobs’ appearance simplified over the years. When he returned to Apple after his decade away, he wore fancy white shirts and vests and even a pin stripe suit to introduce new products.
The black mock turtleneck and jeans that became the defining Jobs outfit showed up at more comfortable settings, when Jobs wooed developers, in the late 1990s. But he pulled the iPod out of a jeans pocket to introduce the music player in 2001. From then on, he barely seemed to take off the outfit.
The jeans and running shoes flashed under his academic gown when he gave the Stanford commencement speech in 2005, and he wore a black mock turtleneck sitting next to President Obama at a 2011 dinner with Silicon Valley titans. On Obama’s other side was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who wore a jacket to the event.
Jobs himself described his world as very simple.
“For the past 33 years I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, ‘if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘no’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something,” he told Stanford University students in the soul-baring commencement address.
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart,” he said.
That kind of earnest, almost naive hope, combined with ruthless dismissal of whatever missed his lofty standards, were a potent mix for those around him.
His approval was “an addictive drug,” said Niehaus. “I think that most people would knock themselves out to have that experience again, once they’ve had it. It’s that defining. It is a really tremendous experience.”
APPLE 3.0
Jobs had been on leave three times since 2004, and he clearly thought about an Apple without him. Jobs had a liver transplant and a rare form of pancreatic cancer.
His own mortality was a major driver in his life and work.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” Jobs said in the commencement speech. “Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”
Jobs and the Apple board had a succession plan -- put Cook in charge -- and he has left a well-respected team. Jobs put extraordinary effort into finding people who he said are 10, 20, 50 times better than average, he told Time magazine, adding that there were no prima donnas when great people got together.
“Having a close circle of people was really important to him,” Elliot said.
Many Apple watchers and investors say that the company has a deep bench, led by Cook. But for others, that just doesn’t ring true.
The former engineer whose months of works was dismissed by Jobs with a single curse doesn’t see much strength in the ranks, saying that it was always a case of “Steve is the visionary,” and if something happened it was always a case of “Let’s ask Steve”.
Apple itself marked the death of Jobs by placing a simple black-and-white picture of the founder on the front page of its Web site, with his name and the dates 1955-2011.
Editing by Tiffany Wu, Ted Kerr and Martin HowellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e06334d6345abb490281301417d414c3 | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-babypowder-idUKKBN22V32U?edition-redirect=uk | Johnson & Johnson to stop selling talc baby powder in U.S. and Canada | Johnson & Johnson to stop selling talc baby powder in U.S. and Canada
By Carl O’Donnell, Lisa Girion7 Min Read
(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson will stop selling its talc Baby Powder in the United States and Canada, it announced on Tuesday, saying demand had fallen in the wake of what it called “misinformation” about the product’s safety amid a barrage of legal challenges.
J&J faces more than 19,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors claiming its talc products caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos, a known carcinogen. Many are pending before a U.S. district judge in New Jersey.
“I wish my mother could be here to see this day,” said Crystal Deckard, whose mother Darlene Coker alleged Baby Powder caused her mesothelioma. She dropped the suit filed in 1999 after losing her fight to compel J&J to divulge internal records. Coker died of the cancer in 2009.
In its statement, J&J said it “remains steadfastly confident in the safety of talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder,” citing “decades of scientific studies.”
J&J has faced intense scrutiny of the safety of its baby powder following an investigative report by Reuters here in 2018 that found the company knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its talc.
Internal company records, trial testimony and other evidence show that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, the company's raw talc and finished powders sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos. (here)
The Reuters article prompted a stock selloff that erased about $40 billion from J&J’s market value in one day and created a public relations crisis as the healthcare conglomerate faced widespread questions about the possible health effects of one of its most well-known products.
J&J has also been the target of a federal criminal investigation into how forthright it has been about its talc products’ safety, an investigation by 41 states into its baby powder sales, which it disclosed in April, and an investigation into health risks of asbestos in talc-containing consumer products by a Congressional subcommittee.
U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who led the Congressional inquiry, described J&J’s decision to stop selling talc baby powder as “a major victory for public health”.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
“My Subcommittee’s 14-month investigation revealed that Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that its product contains asbestos,” he said.
In response to evidence of asbestos contamination presented in media reports, in the court room and on Capitol Hill, J&J has repeatedly said its talc products are safe, and do not cause cancer.
The company said on Tuesday that its decision to discontinue talc-based Baby Powder in North America was not connected to any of those investigations.
FAMILY-FRIENDLY IMAGE
Apart from the baby powder controversy the company, one of the most trusted brands in America, more recently has faced a series of legal and reputational challenges.
J&J has said it has been named as a defendant, along with other drugmakers, in more than 2,900 lawsuits alleging the companies improperly promoted addictive opioids.
In August, an Oklahoma judge rendered the first verdict in that litigation, ordering J&J to pay $572.1 million to the state for its part in fueling an opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing addictive painkillers.
J&J is appealing the Oklahoma judge’s ruling and has denied it caused the opioid crisis.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
The company said on Tuesday said it had stopped shipping talc baby powder when the COVID-19 crisis led to limits on shopping and manufacturing, and that now it would wind down North American sales.
“Demand for talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in North America has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising,” it said in a statement.
Sold continuously since 1894, Johnson’s Baby Powder now accounts for only about 0.5% of its U.S. consumer health business, the company said. But it remains a symbol of the company’s family-friendly image.
An internal J&J marketing presentation from 1999 refers to the baby products division, with Baby Powder at the core, as J&J’s “#1 Asset,” grounded in “deep, personal trust” and a 2003 internal memo described it as a “sacred cow,” Reuters reported.
Christie Nordhielm, a professor of marketing at Georgetown, said it appears J&J made its decision to withdraw from the market while consumers were preoccupied with the pandemic. “It’s a nice time to quietly do it,” she said, adding “it will minimize the reputational hit.”
Shares of J&J were up 0.35% at $149.31 on Wednesday morning after the disclosure.
“We will continue to vigorously defend the product, its safety, and the unfounded allegations against it and the Company in the courtroom,” Johnson & Johnson said. “All verdicts against the company that have been through the appeals process have been overturned.”
‘STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION’
Krystal Kim, one of 22 women with ovarian cancer whose case in St. Louis resulted in a 2018 jury verdict of $4.69 billion against J&J, said the decision to discontinue the products was “a step in the right direction.” J&J has appealed that verdict.
Nevertheless, J&J’s legal challenges likely will continue, some lawyers said.
In April, a New Jersey judge ruled that thousands of plaintiffs who allege J&J’s talc products caused cancer can go forward with their claims, but face limits on what expert testimony would be allowed in trials.
“Just taking it off the shelf today doesn’t end the litigation by a long shot,” said Loyola Law Professor Adam Zimmerman.
Asbestos is known to cause cancer that emerges decades after exposure. Cases involving asbestos-containing products removed from the marketplace long ago “continue to be litigated very actively to this day,” Zimmerman said.
Alexandra Lahav, a law professor at the University of Connecticut, said J&J’s decision could help the company reduce the amount of punitive damages by jurors in future trials, however, as those awards are frequently driven by jurors’ desire to punish a company’s ongoing conduct.
J&J said it will continue to sell cornstarch-based baby powder in North America, and will sell both its talc and cornstarch-based products in other markets around the world.
Reporting by Carl O’Donnell in New York and Lisa Girion in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Tina Bellon and Sheila Dang in New York; Editing by Peter Henderson/Bill Berkrot/Rosalba O’Brien,/Lincoln Feast/Pravin CharOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Subsets and Splits