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Starbucks Mulls Sale of Japan Business

TOKYO - U.S. coffee giant Starbucks is considering selling its Japan business, with Bloomberg reporting that the company has begun preliminary talks with investment banks and that any deal could be worth between 400 billion yen and 500 billion yen.

Starbucks' operations in Japan are regarded as performing strongly, benefiting from steady demand and continued growth. In contrast, the company's U.S. business has been struggling, prompting store closures and workforce reductions as part of broader restructuring efforts.

The reported review comes as Starbucks seeks ways to improve performance and address challenges in its core U.S. market while evaluating the value of its overseas assets.

Source: TBS

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Typhoon No. 31 remained a very strong storm over the western Pacific as of 3 p.m. Japan time on October 27, with forecasts indicating that it could approach Japan's Ogasawara Islands around November 1, bringing potentially violent winds, dangerous waves and disruptions to maritime transportation, while uncertainty over its northward turn raised concerns about prolonged storm conditions.

Travel disruption continued into Tuesday, October 27, as Japan began recovering from heavy rain and rough seas caused by the remnants of Typhoon No. 30, with ferry cancellations confirmed in Nagasaki Prefecture and railway operators monitoring the effects of overnight rainfall in central and eastern Japan.

A controversial penalty shootout decision during the Tokyo qualifiers for Japan's National High School Soccer Championship on October 24 has sparked debate after a team that believed it had secured victory was forced to continue playing and eventually lost, raising questions about whether a hole in the goal net contributed to an incorrect ruling.

The underground platform of the planned Kanagawa Prefecture Station on Japan's Chuo Shinkansen maglev line was opened to the public for the first time on October 24, offering visitors a rare glimpse of the high-speed railway project under construction in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, with demand for the tour exceeding available places by approximately 12 times.

Japanese drone manufacturer Terra Drone has delivered interceptor drones to Ukraine's Ministry of Defense for the first time, prompting Russia to threaten retaliatory measures on October 21, as Japan considers expanding domestic drone production and strengthening its coastal defenses through thousands of unmanned aircraft.

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