Since the beginning of the century, Sharp has found itself increasingly trapped in a single incredibly competitive business. (Asianometry)

Japan's consumer inflation rate hit a 41-year high of 4 per cent in December, as prices for everything from burgers to gas surged. (devdiscourse.com)

This is Shibasaki, your painting instructor. Today, I tried drawing on a denim jacket using "Sharpie," an oil-based marker pen born in the United States. (Watercolor by Shibasaki)

Japanese policymakers will move forward with a proposal for a minimum income tax rate targeting high earners making more than 3 billion yen ($22 million) a year, Nikkei has learned. (Nikkei)

Official data issued by the Japanese government revealed on Friday that the prices of basic commodities of interest to consumers in the capital, Tokyo, rose by 3.6% in November compared to the same period in the previous year, recording the largest increase since 1982 amid the rise in energy and food prices, which have increasingly put pressure on household budgets. (see.news)

Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. reported on Friday a 3 trillion yen ($21 billion) profit for the July-September quarter, a sharp reversal from its loss a year ago. (AP)

The Bank of Japan decided to maintain its ultraloose monetary policy on Friday as Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda highlighted downside risks to the economy and indicated his willingness to accept a weaker yen. (Nikkei)

Tokyo police will step up security in the bustling Shibuya district from Saturday, as a large number of people are likely to gather there in the run-up to Halloween on Monday. (NHK)

The Japanese currency could weaken even further to 170 levels against the U.S. dollar next year, according to Japan’s former vice minister of finance for international affairs, Eisuke Sakakibara. (cnbc.com)

Japan's government and central bank intervened in the currency market early Saturday to support a falling yen, sources told Nikkei, triggering a dramatic rebound against the dollar. (Nikkei)

Food prices in Japan rose at the fastest pace since July 1991 during the past week, Nikkei data shows, as producers scramble to pass on the impact of a softening yen and high commodity costs. (Nikkei)

One of Asia's largest high-tech trade shows kicked off on Tuesday. (NHK)

The yen's sharp drop against the dollar and other currencies is making Japan less attractive to foreign workers, at a time when the average wage of Japanese workers in dollar terms has fallen 40% over the past decade. (Nikkei)

Toyota Motor said it would restart production of its first electric vehicle, the bZ4X, on Thursday after fixing potential safety problems that had halted sales of the new battery-powered model for more than three months. (Nikkei)

Japan's depreciating yen made the reopening of the country's borders inevitable. While the move will allow dealmaking to be smoother, new overseas investments will be a costly affair for Japanese asset owners. (asianinvestor.net)

Japan will ask foreign guests attending the state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next week to wear protective face masks to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the top government spokesman said Thursday. (Kyodo)

Japan will see a sharp increase in convenience store robots over the next year, with the addition of drink-stocking robotic assistants at 300 FamilyMart convenience stores across metropolitan areas. (Artificial Intelligence News Daily)

Japan’s finance minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday that he would not rule out any action options in the currency market if the yen continued to weaken strongly. (bollyinside.com)

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said rapid yen moves were undesirable after a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday, joining a chorus of policymakers lobbing verbal warnings over the currency's recent sharp drop to 24-year lows. (Nikkei)

Pretax profits among nonfinancial Japanese companies jumped 17.6% from a year earlier to a record 28.32 trillion yen ($203 billion) in the April-June quarter, government data showed on Thursday, boosted by a weak yen and the waning impact of the COVID-19 pandemic despite surging commodity prices. (Nikkei)

Given the general rarity of firearms in Japan, knives are frequently used by those looking to intimidate others or inflict violence. (Japan Today)

The small factories in the western Japanese city of Higashiosaka for decades fuelled the thundering rise of the country's biggest brands - but a weak yen and rising costs have accelerated a slow decline, and are reshaping the industrial heartland. (Reuters)

Core consumer prices in Japan rose 2.4 percent in July from a year earlier, marking the sharpest increase in about seven and half years amid surging material and energy prices, government data showed Friday. (Japan Today)

A campaign by Japan’s tax agency to prop up alcohol revenue by encouraging young people to drink up has met fierce backlash on social media, with users criticising the taxman for dictating people’s lifestyle choices. (indianexpress.com)

SoftBank has raised as much as $22bn in cash from deals that would sharply reduce its stake in Alibaba over the coming years, as the Japanese investor responds to a market downturn that has ravaged its technology portfolio. (Nikkei)