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Yahoo Japan, PayPay merge malls against Amazon, Rakuten

Jul 06 (Nikkei) - Z Holdings will merge Yahoo Japan's online shopping platform with its subsidiary's e-commerce service to step up competition with rivals Rakuten and Amazon, Nikkei has learned.

Yahoo! Shopping will take over PayPay Mall services in October to facilitate the speedier trade and delivery of a predicted 400 million items.

PayPay Mall was launched in 2019 with sellers trading electronics, cosmetics, apparel and luxury brands among other items. The merger will broaden the Yahoo! Shopping range and increase its appeal.

Tie-ups between Yahoo! Shopping and messaging app Line, a subsidiary of Z Holdings, will also be strengthened. Yahoo! will provide official Line accounts to businesses that open stores on the platform, boosting product awareness and customer access.

Yahoo has 86 million users, PayPay 47 million and Line 92 million. The three services have hitherto been poorly connected.

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Nissan Motor is implementing a workforce reduction plan involving 9,000 employees, with over 70% of the cuts concentrated in production sites, according to a JNN investigation.

The Osaka-Kansai Expo is three months away and challenges remain in areas such as pavilion construction and ticket sales.

Cedar pollen dispersal in Tokyo began on January 8th, marking the earliest start since monitoring began in 1985, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

The Japan Foundation has announced a joint research project with a UK research group to investigate the mysterious oxygen produced in the lightless depths of the ocean, known as 'dark oxygen,' which forms through methods other than photosynthesis.

Nintendo announced on January 16th that it will release the successor to the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch 2, sometime in 2025.

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Young Japanese workers in their 20s and 30s are increasingly resistant to taking on managerial roles. According to a recent survey, Japan ranked lowest among 18 major countries in the percentage of workers aspiring to become managers.

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Fallout continues from a scandal involving a woman and popular TV personality Nakai Masahiro, who is best known as a former member of the disbanded pop idol group, SMAP. (NHK)

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced on January 17th that the average agreed amount for last year's winter bonuses at major private companies reached 891,460 yen, an increase of 4.93% compared to the previous year. This marks the first record high in five years, surpassing the previous peak set in 2019.

Corporate bankruptcies in Japan rose for the third straight year in 2024. It is the highest number since 2013. Rising prices and labor shortages were to blame in many cases. (NHK)

Kobe is set to become the first city in Japan to consider imposing a tax on vacant units in high-rise condominiums. Mayor Hisamoto expressed strong support for the measure, stressing that the city will avoid repeating the situation seen in Tokyo’s Harumi Flag development.

Japan’s largest non-life insurer, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, has decided to raise the starting salary for university graduates joining the company in April next year. The salary for general positions will increase from approximately 280,000 yen to a maximum of about 410,000 yen.

The deadline for the U.S. presidential order, which demanded the termination of Nippon Steel’s planned acquisition of U.S. Steel within 30 days, has been extended.