If Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and their Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) members play their cards right, their gamble on casino legalization could hit the jackpot. (Japan Times)

The popular Japanese manga character Doraemon will make his debut on a US TV series next month. (NHK)

Nissan Motor Co. said it will expand the number of sales outlets designed for female customers who are increasingly calling the shots in auto purchases. (Asahi)

Sagawa Express is planning to employ about 10,000 housewives as part-time delivery staff over the next two years to offset a manpower shortage in the logistics and package delivery industry. (Japan Today)

The Diet, Japan's parliament, enacted on Friday legislation requiring the government to take measures to prevent deaths from overwork. (Jiji Press)

SoftBank Corp.'s Masayoshi Son said he wants to improve wireless connection speeds and lower monthly bills for U.S. customers as he pursues the acquisition of T-Mobile US Inc. (The Japan News)

The International Olympic Committee said Thursday it has awarded a consortium of Japanese broadcasters the exclusive rights in the country to four Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024. (The Japan News)

Sapporo Holdings said Friday that it will pay billions of yen in additional liquor taxes on past shipments of Goku Zero, a popular drink that looks and tastes rather like beer but occupied a lower tax bracket. (Nikkei)

Kanebo Cosmetics Inc. has decided to make lump-sum payments as compensation to customers who have suffered unwanted white blotches caused by its skin-whitening products, it was learned Friday. (Jiji Press)

The Supreme Court has decided to suspend a permit for the sale of the Tokyo headquarters building and land of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, sources close to the matter said Friday. (Kyodo)

Harry Potter fans helped increase attendance by 50 percent at Universal Orlando Resort in the past few years, and interest in a second Harry Potter park opening there July 8 could keep numbers going up. But even if the new park doesn't lead to the surge in visitors that accompanied the original Harry Potter park, Universal's cash registers will surely be ringing. (Japan Today)

Smartphone messenger application Line, which has hundreds of millions of users across Asia, on Thursday urged people to change their passwords as Japanese police investigated the hacking of hundreds of accounts. (Japan Today)

A special committee set up by Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party decided Thursday to scrap a plan to regulate the bitcoin virtual currency. (Jiji Press)

Sony shareholders have criticized the company's executives after it announced losses for the second year in a row. The management promised to change Sony's money-losing structure. (NHK)

Billionaire Masayoshi Son wants to create Android for robots. A unit of Son's SoftBank Corp. has unveiled an operating system that purports to offer a way to control robots just as Google Inc.'s software runs smartphones and tablets. (Japan Times)

Tokyo prosecutors indicted the chairman and the president of failed Japanese game software developer Index Corp. on Tuesday for alleged accounting manipulation. (Jiji Press)

Japanese businesses are pulling their employees from Iraq as the country's security situation deteriorates. (NHK)

Major retailing group Seven & i Holdings Co. announced June 17 that it will open a 7-Eleven convenience store in Dubai in the summer of 2015, the first 7-Eleven outlet in the Middle East. (Asahi)

Japan's National Diet Library filed a criminal complaint with police against two employees of Hitachi Ltd. <6501> on Monday, accusing them of illegally obtaining internal information and obstructing bidding. (Jiji Press)

Bridgestone Corp. has signed an agreement with the International Olympic Committee to become an official worldwide Olympic partner. (The Japan News)