Japan Business News

Dokkyo Medical University and the World Heritage-listed Nikko Toshogu shrine are teaming up to help the nation's tourism agencies and hospitals cash in on the growth of medical tourism. The university in Mibu, Tochigi Prefecture, and the shrine in Nikko in the prefecture will jointly establish the International Society of Tourism Medicine (ISTM) to look into ways of attracting people to visit Japan for medical checkups. Every year, about 60,000 foreigners visit Nikko, which counts the shrine and the Kinugawa onsen resort among its top tourist attractions. Hotels in the resort offer medical service packages, which include a hotel stay and a complete medical checkup. (Yomiuri)

Only two Japanese firms made it onto Forbes magazine's list Thursday of Asia's 200 top small and medium-size companies. The number of Japanese firms dwindled from 24 last year, according to Forbes' latest annual "Best Under a Billion" list that picks 200 firms from 13,000 listed Asia-Pacific companies with sales below $1 billion. Japanese firms lag far behind those from other Asian economies, including China, India and South Korea, in the ranking. (Japan Times)

Takeshi Niinami, president of Lawson Inc., said Thursday the convenience store chain operator intends to raise the number of its stores in China to as many as 10,000 from some 300 at present over the next 10 years. The company, currently operating in Shanghai and Chongqing, hopes to expand into seven to 10 more cities, he said, citing Beijing, Tianjin and Guangzhou as possibilities. (Japan Times)

How well is Twitter's monetization going? Other than to say it's going "better than expected" COO Dick Costolo and company are fairly tight-lipped. Luckily, Twitter Japan - run by Tokyo-based Digital Garage Inc.- is not so discrete. Digital Garage predicts ad sales will generate around $20 million in 2011. The Wall Street Journal reports that this year, 82 different companies have run ads on Twitter Japan, generating approximately $2.4 million sales. (sfgate.com)

Several Japanese steelmakers have agreed a lower coking coal price with supplier BHP Billiton amid a slowdown in Chinese steel demand. The move could also flow over to iron ore prices. UBS analysts and Japan's Nikkei financial newspaper reported that the mining giant had reduced its coking coal price by 7 per cent for Japanese steel mills for the three months to the end of December. BHP, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation and Japanese steel mill Nippon Steel declined to comment on the reports. (The Australian)

Lehman Brothers Holdings' Japanese subsidiary is one of the first major units to get going with its liquidation process, after it got court approval for its debt repayment plans, the Nikkei business daily reported. Lehman Brothers Japan Inc got approval for liquidation from the Tokyo district court and secured support for the plans from a majority of its creditors on Wednesday, and is expected to start repaying its debt by late November, the paper reported. (Reuters)

Electric sportscar maker Tesla Motors Inc. got its Roadster put on a list of green vehicles in Japan, a move that could cut its price there by a quarter. Even so, a rebated Roadster ain't cheap in Japan -- the government rebate will lop 3.24 million yen, or $38,360, off the $152,100 price tag. Rebates and tax breaks are an important part of Tesla's marketing. Early on, Tesla factored a $7,500 tax credit into the prices for its sedan, the Model S. (bizjournals.com)

Against the backdrop of intensifying Japan-U.S. trade frictions in the 1980s, it was considered for some time that Japan's economic power was a threat to the United States. This country's high rating has since declined, however, giving way to comments like "Japan has disappeared from the world's radar screen." Over time Japan had boasted of its excellent manufacturing skills. But in recent years, China has replaced Japan as the leader in the production of traditional industrial goods while South Korean and Taiwanese makers have overtaken Japanese counterparts in the output of LEDs, 3-D products and other high-tech items. In addition, Japan now lags behind the U.S. in the development of trendy products, such as the iPhone, iPod and iPad. (Japan Times)

Coca-Cola Co. drinks made from kale -- a nutritious but not very tasty leafy green vegetable -- could soon turn up on store shelves. Coca-Cola West, the Atlanta-based beverage giant's largest bottler in Japan, said this week it will spend $425.6 million to buy Q'Sai Co., a major Japanese health-food producer whose main product is a green juice called "aojiru" made of kale. Q'sai, a Fukuoka-based company that also produces supplements, soap and cream made of collagen, was put up for sale earlier this year by owners Daiwa Corporate Investment. (adage.com)

Japan Airlines on Tuesday submitted its bankruptcy plans for approval, a proposal that includes slashing roughly one-third of its workforce. The plan includes the loss of roughly 16,000 jobs; a 521.5 billion yen ($ 6.2 billion) debt waiver, mainly from financial institutions; and a 350 billion yen ($ 4.2 billion) investment in the airline by the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan. (CNN)

Impressed by the success of the Better Place experiment with electric taxis in the city of Tokyo, an increasing number of Japan's taxi operators are adopting electric vehicles (EVs). Nissan Motor Co. has received advance orders for around 6,000 orders for its Leaf electric car, which will go on sale in Japan in December, with several hundred of those orders from taxi companies. Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s i-MiEV is also proving popular with drivers. Many of those firms are based in Yokohama, which is one of two local authorities in Japan to introduce subsidy programs for anyone who purchases an environmentally vehicle. Similar schemes are due to be introduced in other cities around Japan in the near future, including Tokyo. (independent.co.uk)

The specialized foods available at the Japanese version of McDonald's are pretty incredible. The Japanese have strange tastes, and the things they associate with America are even stranger once filtered through the Japanese culture. However, it's still McDonald's. That's what makes it so fascinating. It's as familiar as the restaurant down the street and as weird as all get-out. Now, McDonald's Japan is back to celebrate the anniversary of a uniquely Japanese food item: the Moon Burger. (popfi.com)

About 80 percent of the lumber generated by the Forestry Agency's green owners' system--a scheme to get people to invest in wood produced from state-owned forests--went unsold at auctions in fiscal 2009, causing many investors to lose their money, it was learned Monday. Under the government-run investment scheme, the agency invited investors to put money into lots of cedar and cypress lumber produced from state-owned forests in 4,700 locations across the nation. The unsold wood from the investments that matured last year came from 417 sites covering 2,200 hectares. (Yomiuri)

Mitsui Fudosan Co. plans to open more shopping centers in China as the company bets consumer spending will spur demand even as the government attempts to cool the housing market. Japan's largest property developer plans to build "several" shopping centers in cities including Beijing starting in 2014, after completing its first mall in Shanghai by 2013, said Takehito Fukui, a project manager of the retail properties division at Mitsui Fudosan. The plan will depend on the completion of the Shanghai project. (Japan Times)

Japan's tightly regulated skies have been seeing some changes in recent years, with a wave of low-cost carriers from Asia entering the market and domestic budget airlines rising to intensify the competition. Observers are looking carefully at the impact on the Japanese airline industry, especially what it means for All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Corp. When JAL filed for protection from its creditors in January, transport minister Seiji Maehara said he would take a close look at whether Japan will need two megacarriers in the future, when competition will only grow more intense. (Japan Times)

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it will recall about 1.13 million Corolla and Matrix vehicles because of an engine defect that federal regulators said could cause cars to stall "at any speed without warning." Toyota said in a statement it will recall the vehicles for the model years 2005 to 2008 in the United States and Canada following at least three reported accidents due to the defect. The action adds to record recalls in the past year by Toyota, including more than 8 million vehicles worldwide for flaws tied to unintended acceleration. (Japan Times)

Kirin Holdings Co. said Friday it will turn its winemaking subsidiary Mercian Corp. into a wholly owned unit on Dec. 1 by acquiring all shares through a stock swap. After receiving approval at a meeting of the winemaker's shareholders, Kirin plans to complete the swap at a ratio of 0.14 Kirin share for one Mercian share. Kirin plans to issue 9,336,502 new shares through the stock swap, the holding company said. (Japan Times)

Japan attracted some 879,000 visitors to its shores in July, including about 165,000 from China, marking record highs for the month in both categories. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the figures broke previous July records for total visitors -- 825,000, set in 2008 -- and visitors from China -- 101,000, marked in 2007. (Mainichi)

In spite of Japan's rising yen, computer manufacturers Fujitsu and Sony, which have a strong overseas presence, are strengthening their domestic production of high-performance computers. The electronics giants have determined that the power of the "made in Japan" label remains strong for high-performance models competing in design, weight and processing power. They have also concluded that having domestic planning and design divisions will enable them to quickly respond to changes in consumers' preferences -- a key factor in maintaining a competitive edge. (Mainichi)

Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA) became the nation's top air carrier in June, dethroning flagship carrier Japan Airlines Corp. (JAL) on passenger volume and cargo, the Nikkei reported Thursday. ANA's passenger figures for both domestic and international flights in June reached 3.65 million, up 10 percent from a year ago, the business daily said. JAL, going through a court-led restructuring process after filing for a bankruptcy protection, carried 3.55 million passengers in the month, marking a one-percent decline on-year, according to the Nikkei. (AFP)