News On Japan

Japan bank CEOs are paid a fraction of what global rivals make

Jun 29 (themalaysianreserve.com) - The chief executive officers of Japan’s deal-hungry megabanks are earning a fraction of their global peers, showing how the nation still frowns upon outsized pay packages even with profits forecast near a record.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. CEO Hironori Kamezawa’s total compensation was 257 million yen ($1.8 million) for the year ended in March, including stock awards, according to a filing by Japan’s largest bank. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. CEO Jun Ohta received a total of 186 million yen, while Mizuho Financial Group Inc.’s chief Masahiro Kihara was paid 146 million yen.

The size of their paychecks is dwarfed by compensation in the US and other major markets. JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon was paid $34.5 million last year, while HSBC Holdings Plc CEO Noel Quinn took home $7.1 million. In Singapore, DBS Group Holdings Ltd.’s Piyush Gupta was awarded about $11 million.

The Japanese banks’ relatively meager pay came after they posted some of the highest profits in recent years and embarked on a string of deals to beef up their presence across Wall Street. Culture plays a role in Japan, as lenders tend to be viewed as semi-public entities, while the infusion of government funds during the nation’s financial crisis in the late 1990s has left its mark. ...continue reading

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Bear sightings across Japan have already climbed to nearly twice the level recorded during the same period last year, prompting entry bans in mountain areas behind Kyoto’s Ninna-ji Temple and the cancellation of hiking events in Kansai, while new research suggests that the key to reducing encounters may lie in understanding what bears eat in each region.

Copper roofing panels were stolen from several shrines in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, including a city-designated cultural property, in the latest case amid a nationwide surge in copper thefts targeting shrines and temples across Japan, where soaring metal prices have fueled crimes that leave historic religious buildings damaged, exposed to the elements, and facing repair costs of millions of yen.

Flames broke out on the morning of May 20th on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Prefecture, home to one of Japan's World Heritage sites, destroying Reikado Hall near the summit of Mount Misen.

Uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East is beginning to affect daily life in Japan, as concerns over crude oil supplies spread to restaurants, cleaning services and even household garbage disposal systems across the Kansai region.

A 25-year-old woman arrested as a suspected ringleader in a robbery-murder case in Tochigi Prefecture once posted cheerful dance videos on social media and was remembered by those who knew her as an energetic and outgoing young woman.

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The impact of tensions in the Middle East is spreading to familiar snacks in Japan, with Morinaga & Co. temporarily suspending sales of some caramel products, including its long-selling Hi-Soft brand, after difficulties emerged in securing certain raw materials.

The Nikkei Stock Average rebounded sharply on May 21st after falling below 60,000 at the previous day's close, briefly rising more than 2,200 points as hopes grew for progress in talks toward ending the fighting between the United States and Iran, while SoftBank Group gave the market a major boost following reports that OpenAI was preparing to file for an initial public offering.

Japan’s imports of crude oil from the Middle East plunged 67.2% in April from a year earlier, as the impact of the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz began to ripple through the country’s trade and energy supply chains.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Toshiba announced on May 20th that they had jointly developed a new stock index utilizing quantum technology.

TOTO, a major Japanese manufacturer of housing and bathroom equipment, reopened its showroom in London, England, on May 20th after undergoing its first major renovation in 16 years.

Uncertainty surrounding the situation in the Middle East is beginning to affect daily life in Japan, as concerns over crude oil supplies spread to restaurants, cleaning services and even household garbage disposal systems across the Kansai region.

U.S. President Donald Trump was found to have traded large amounts of stock, including shares in Kura Sushi USA, in a wave of more than 3,700 transactions over a three-month period that has sparked criticism over possible conflicts of interest.

As conflict in the Middle East drags on, shortages of naphtha — a key raw material used in a wide range of petroleum-based products — are beginning to affect even Japan's traditional cheap snacks, with manufacturers facing steep rises in packaging and material costs while trying to keep products affordable for children.