BUSINESS NEWS

A range of price changes will take effect in Japan starting Thursday, from alcoholic beverages to minimum wages, as revisions were made to the tax and social welfare systems. (Kyodo)

Japanese telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has announced a takeover bid worth about 40 billion dollars to acquire a 100 percent stake in its wireless subsidiary NTT Docomo. (NHK)

Honda Motor is introducing work-from-home allowances and rearranging its office spaces in the latest sign that large Japanese companies confronting COVID-19 are making gradual but permanent revisions to their corporate cultures. (Nikkei)

Japan will consider easing a rule on eating at movie theaters, economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said Monday, in an additional relaxation amid a recent decline in the number of novel coronavirus infections. (Kyodo)

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. is planning to turn Japan's largest mobile carrier NTT Docomo Inc. into a wholly-owned company through a takeover bid, sources close to the matter said Monday. (Kyodo)

Growing numbers of Tokyo-based companies are considering relocating some of their functions to other parts of Japan, spurred by a desire to minimize risks in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. (Nikkei)

The world’s first shipment of blue ammonia is on its way from Saudi Arabia to Japan, where it will be used in power stations to produce electricity without carbon emissions. (Bloomberg)

Cases of fraudulent receipts of subsidies designed to support small businesses and self-employed people hit hard by the pandemic are increasingly being found across Japan. (Japan Times)

Japanese household consumption is likely to be boosted by a spending spree before too long, as the government introduced cash handouts after the pandemic hit the economy. But in the meantime, statistics show that Japan's consumption has plunged the most among advanced economies. (Nikkei)

The new coronavirus has people everywhere avoiding crowded spaces, and in Japan that includes temples. The number of services for the traditional Buddhist holidays of Bon and Higan has fallen, putting some temples under financial strain. (Nikkei)

Former Toshiba memory unit Kioxia Holdings, the world's second-largest maker of NAND flash memory chips behind Samsung Electronics, will postpone plans for an initial public offering, Nikkei learned on Sunday. (Nikkei)

The key inflation gauge went negative again last month, driven down by government discounts meant to boost consumer spending and help the pandemic-hit travel industry. (Japan Times)

The former chairman of Japan Life Co, a now-bankrupt company, was arrested Friday along with 13 others on suspicion of running a "rental owner" investment scam involving clothing, jewelry and other goods it claimed had health benefits, police said. (Japan Today)

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga hit the ground running on day one, meeting with ministers in charge of top policy goals from cutting red tape and digitizing the government to combating the new coronavirus. (Nikkei)

Policymakers at the Bank of Japan have decided to keep their current monetary-easing policy unchanged. (NHK)

Developers have released the details of a major construction project that's underway in central Tokyo. (NHK)

Two of Japan's largest rail operators now expect to report their largest full-year net losses since their 1987 privatization, as the coronavirus pandemic brings a deep and potentially long-lasting slump in passenger traffic. (Nikkei)

Fraudulent e-money withdrawals in Japan have expanded to five other service operators in addition to NTT Docomo Inc, internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi said Tuesday. (Japan Today)

A former aide to Carlos Ghosn has fronted a Japanese court over allegations of financial misconduct related to the under-reporting of pay promised to the ex-Nissan chief. (FRANCE 24 English)

Gambling and casinos in Japan have not been legal for all that long. When looking at the history of casinos, it is easy to say that the future should be brighter than the past. (newsonjapan.com)