Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank Corp said Thursday it will launch its super-fast 5G services on March 27, becoming the first of the country's three major mobile carriers to release details of its next-generation telecommunications service. (Japan Today)
Rakuten Inc.’s mobile phone unit will charge less than half the fees its rivals do for high data usage, hoping to entice subscribers when it launches services next month as Japan’s fourth entrant to the market, sources close to the matter said Monday. (Japan Times)
Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten on Thursday said it sold $1.4 billion worth of shares in its technology holdings, including its entire stake in U.S. social networking service Pinterest, underlying growing concerns about overvaluations in the sector. (Nikkei)
SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son said he is considering a new type of fund for startup investing, showing his determination to keep cutting deals after missteps with WeWork and several other companies. (Japan Times)
Hall of Famer slugged 657 homers in 26-season career, won 1,565 games as longtime manager (Japan Times)
A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the $26 billion merger between wireless carriers T-Mobile and SoftBank Group-owned Sprint, giving the Japanese conglomerate a much-needed boost after a series of investment flops. (Nikkei)
Japanese fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has pulled out of a documentary search for a girlfriend to take on his voyage around the moon with Elon Musk's SpaceX, citing his "mixed feelings" about participating. (iol.co.za)
A former SoftBank Corp. employee was arrested Saturday for allegedly passing proprietary information from the major phone carrier to officials at Russia’s trade representative office in Tokyo. (Japan Times)
Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. has offered to invest between $30 billion and $40 billion in the development of the new Indonesian capital on Borneo Island, a close aide of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Friday. (Kyodo)
Applications to become Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa's girlfriend have topped 20,000, streaming service AbemaTV said on Thursday, ahead of its documentary on his search for a "life partner" to take on his moon voyage. (Japan Today)
In the latest attention-grabbing stunt by Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, his search for a girlfriend to join him on a voyage around the moon will be the subject of a new documentary program. (Japan Times)
Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. plans to invest in the development of the new Indonesian capital on Borneo Island, the tech giant's founder and Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son said Friday. (Kyodo)
Commercial services using next-generation 5G networks will begin this year in Japan. (NHK)
SoftBank Group Corp Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday Japan should make artificial intelligence (AI) a mandatory subject for college entrance exams, to counter the yawning gap with the United States and China in the nascent field. (Japan Today)
In Japan these days it seems that conservatives want to change things and progressives want to cling to the status quo. An apparently minor, but highly symbolic, example is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government's proposal to change the order of Japanese names when written in the Latin or Western alphabet. (Nikkei)
SoftBank Corp. and the University of Tokyo have agreed to open artificial-intelligence centers staffed with specialists from the university and around the world, to swiftly turn research into profitable business ventures so Japan can keep up with the U.S. and China. (Japan Times)
Soon the Japanese capital's trendsetting Shibuya district will boast a cafe staffed by humanoid robots that can recommend perfect desserts for customers. (Nikkei)
Top Japanese mobile carrier NTT Docomo will offer customers a free year of Amazon Prime as telecom and tech companies form alliances ahead of next spring's rollout of ultrafast 5G wireless service. (Nikkei)
SoftBank Group Corp. will this week launch a previously agreed tender offer for as much as $3 billion of WeWork shares, including up to $970 million owned by the office sharing company’s cofounder, Adam Neumann, two people familiar with the matter said. (Japan Times)
Undeterred by a huge loss on U.S. office-sharing platform WeWork, SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son has set his sights on a new big plan: building a sweeping online ecosystem akin to China's Alibaba Group Holding. (Nikkei)
Yahoo Japan under Softbank Group and messaging app Line are negotiating toward a tie-up, according to sources close to the matter. (NHK)
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son said Wednesday he made a "poor" decision investing in U.S. office sharing company WeWork at a $47 billion valuation, which led to the worst financial performance in the company's history. (Nikkei)
WeWork announced on Wednesday that it had accepted a $9.5 billion rescue package from Japan's SoftBank Group that would give its biggest investor an over 80% economic interest in the troubled office space company but not voting control. (Nikkei)
The board of WeWork decided Tuesday to accept a $9.5 billion rescue package from SoftBank Group that would offer the coworking startup a much-needed lifeline, but also put the Japanese conglomerate on an unprecedented quest to restructure and revive a battered unicorn. (Nikkei)
Masayoshi Son’s startups have had a rough few months, from a botched initial public offering by WeWork to a sharp decline in shares of Uber Technologies Inc. (Japan Times)