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About 1,000 Nissan employees in US accept early retirement offers

Nov 23, 2024 (NHK) - Struggling Japanese automaker Nissan Motor says about 1,000 of its employees in the United States have accepted early retirement offers. That figure represents 6 percent of the firm's US workforce.

Earlier this month, Nissan reported a more than 90 percent drop in its operating profits and net income for the six-month period that ended in September.

The precipitous fall primarily stemmed from weak sales in the US, where purchases of electric vehicles have been sluggish, while demand for hybrids has been growing rapidly.

Nissan does not sell hybrid models in the US market. Its efforts to shore up sales led to an increase in expenses, and that weighed on the firm's profitability.

Nissan plans to turn its business around by cutting its global production capacity and reducing its workforce by 9,000 people worldwide. The company also intends to try to enhance the competitiveness of its products.

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A very strong Typhoon No. 18 is approaching the Daito Islands and is expected to move toward Okinawa's main island and the Amami Islands, while two other typhoons and a new tropical depression are active across waters south of Japan and near Southeast Asia. As of 3 a.m. on August 24, Typhoon No. 18 was over waters south of Japan and moving west-northwest at 30 kilometers per hour. As of 9 p.m. on August 23, Typhoon No. 18 was moving west-northwest at 30 kilometers per hour over waters southwest of the Ogasawara Islands.

Kyoto is stepping up efforts to capture Japan's growing nighttime economy, with Toei Kyoto Studio Park extending its hours to 9 p.m., a new theater drawing visitors near Kyoto Station and nighttime tours expanding in Gion as the city seeks to encourage tourists to stay out longer and explore more areas after dark.

A 39-year-old woman from Taiwan has been arrested on suspicion of pouring an oil-like liquid on the national treasure Buddha Footprint Stone at Yakushiji Temple in Nara in April, police said.

Japan executed 58-year-old death row inmate Sunao Takami on August 21 for setting fire to a pachinko parlor in Osaka in 2009, killing five people and injuring 10 others, in the first execution carried out under the Takaichi administration.

Japan's government is moving toward abolishing the Cool Japan Fund, a public-private investment vehicle created to support the overseas expansion of Japanese anime, food culture and other industries, after its cumulative losses reached 54 billion yen.

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China's exports of rare-earth magnets to Japan fell by more than half in July from a year earlier, while shipments of tungsten carbide remained at zero for a sixth consecutive month, according to trade data released by Chinese customs authorities.

Japan's nationwide core consumer price index rose 1.8% in July from a year earlier, with the pace of inflation accelerating for a second consecutive month as higher food prices and a rebound in energy costs outweighed a sharp decline in rice prices.

Mitsubishi Electric said on August 20 that it will acquire U.S.-based PCI Energy Solutions, a developer of software used to manage electricity trading and other energy operations, in a deal worth about 220 billion yen, the largest acquisition in the Japanese company's history.

Tokyo stocks rebounded on August 20, with the Nikkei 225 closing at 66,216.79, up 890.37 points, or 1.36%, as gains in U.S. equities, a sharp rally in South Korean semiconductor shares and easing global bond-market stress encouraged investors to buy back Japanese shares after two days of heavy selling.

Japan's labor ministry will revise its guidance on overtime from September 1, moving away from a uniform recommendation that workplaces keep overtime within 45 hours a month and placing greater emphasis on whether employers have adequate measures in place to protect workers' health.

Whistleblowers who expose suspected wrongdoing at companies and other organizations in Japan are increasingly finding themselves targeted by multimillion-yen damages claims, raising questions over whether the country's legal system adequately protects people who report misconduct.

Small businesses across Japan—from Tokyo tech startups to traditional long-standing shinise enterprises— are increasingly becoming targets for sophisticated digital scams.

Catalog House, the operator of shopping catalog magazine Tsuhan Seikatsu, has announced it will stop selling through Rakuten Market in protest over Rakuten Group's partnership with a German military drone company and its plans to support the introduction of the drones to Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force.