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Firms on TSE forecast losses, lower profits

Oct 31, 2020 (NHK) - About two-thirds of corporations listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section are forecasting losses or a fall in profits for fiscal 2020.

SMBC Nikko Securities has analyzed the earnings reports from 236 of the companies that have announced their first-half financial results. It says 36 percent have reported gains, and 63 percent have reported losses.

Twelve percent of the companies that announced their forecasts say they expect to book a net loss, and 54 percent expect losses.

SMBC Nikko Securities strategist Yasuda Hikaru says the aviation and land transportation sectors will continue to be badly hit by the pandemic.

He says companies that are better fitted to so-called "coronavirus lifestyles" will continue to see brisk business.

Yasuda also says the key will likely be cost-cutting, improving work efficiency, searching for new ways to work, and developing new products.

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Large Typhoon No. 25 was moving northwest over waters south of Japan at 3 p.m. on September 19 and is forecast to strengthen as it approaches Kanto and the Izu Islands from September 20 through September 21, bringing the risk of torrential rain, violent winds and further damage in areas still recovering from last year's typhoon.

A black bear has been spotted near one of the most popular hiking trails on Mount Takao in western Tokyo, prompting authorities to urge visitors to take precautions ahead of the five-day Silver Week holiday and the approaching autumn foliage season.

Starbucks is considering selling a majority stake in its Japanese business, potentially valued at as much as $3 billion, or about 470 billion yen, as the U.S. coffee chain seeks to concentrate management resources on its struggling North American operations.

Japan's Halloween Jumbo Lottery went on sale nationwide on September 16, offering a combined top payout of 400 million yen for the first prize and its adjacent-number prizes.

A new top-tier "Supreme Class" offering fully private compartments above the level of Green Car service will debut on the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen on October 1, with passengers able to experience the new seating at a demonstration booth at Shin-Osaka Station.

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Anonymous and fluid criminal groups known in Japan as "tokuryu" are adopting increasingly elaborate tactics, including a scheme in which elderly victims are persuaded to hide cash inside refrigerators before thieves enter their homes, as authorities struggle to combat networks whose members often have no direct contact with one another.

A luxury mansion in Bangkok described as resembling a palace was being used as a base for a specialized fraud operation targeting Japanese people, with Thai authorities detaining 14 people, including four Japanese men.

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The number of people aged 100 or older in Japan has exceeded 100,000 for the first time, reaching a record 107,677 as of September 1, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.