Do you have a business idea and the desire to try yourself in entrepreneurship? Then you should consider starting a company in Azerbaijan. Why Azerbaijan? (News On Japan)

A government–ruling party panel is preparing to expand the Nippon Individual Savings Account so that even those under 18 can regularly invest in mutual funds, with the goal of making it easier for households to allocate money for education and other expenses and thereby supporting a broader shift from savings to investment; the proposal will be written into the tax reform outline for fiscal 2026, with the revised scheme expected to begin as early as 2027, and Monex Research Institute analyst Naoko Shinoda joined the program to discuss how a child-focused NISA might be used and what it means for Japan’s ambition to become an asset-management nation. (News On Japan)

Asahi Beer announced on December 10th that its sales in November fell by roughly 20 percent from a year earlier, marking a deeper decline than in October, as the company continues to feel the impact of a system outage caused by a cyberattack on Asahi Group Holdings in late September that forced restrictions on shipments of gift items such as year-end offerings, while a spike in orders when the company resumed taking requests in October is also believed to have contributed to the downturn. (News On Japan)

JR East announced that it will begin operating the nation’s first cargo-only Shinkansen on March 23rd 2026, running between Morioka and Tokyo with loading and unloading carried out on dollies directly at the rail yard. (News On Japan)

Rakuten Mobile continues to draw attention every earnings season, and while its losses have been narrowing, the pain it inflicts on the Rakuten Group’s overall performance has not fundamentally changed. Even so, chair Hiroshi Mikitani describes the mobile business as contributing “more than expected,” and insists the company will maintain its stance of keeping low-price, unlimited data plans even as other carriers move to raise fees. (News On Japan)

The Fair Trade Commission issued a warning to four livestreamer management agencies after finding that performers on the Pococha streaming app were bound by contracts that restricted their activities, including clauses requiring them to refrain from livestreaming for a certain period after leaving their agency. (News On Japan)

Japan’s real GDP for the July–September quarter was revised downward to a 0.6% decline from the previous three months, equivalent to an annualized drop of 2.3%, according to updated Cabinet Office data released on December 8. (News On Japan)

Long-term interest rates continued their rapid ascent on December 8th, reaching their highest level in 18 years and six months in the latest sign of tightening financial conditions. (News On Japan)