The government has drawn up a roadmap to reach zero effective greenhouse gas emissions by 2050...

Workman is expanding into low-priced outdoor wear. It plans to double its current number of stores, to 2,000 by 2040...

Sony are buying US companies and movie companies are joining in, to counter Netflix...

The number of large startup companies, dubbed "unicorn companies", has grown to 500 worldwide. Their number has doubled in the last two years, backed by IT mergers with existing companies and the advance of artificial intelligence...

Governor Yuriko Koike has presented the policy of switching to hybrid vehicles (HV) and electric vehicles (EV)...

The growth of unlisted startups continues, even amid the Covid-19 pandemic...

Hayabusa 2 Asteroid Probe achieved seven world firsts before returning its capsule safely to Earth...

It is becoming increasingly common for company workers to have a second job outside the company. The proportion of companies allowing side jobs has risen to 30%, and 70% or more of company employees are interested...

Nippon Yusen is going to switch 40 ships, roughly half of its fleet of specialized car transporter ships, to burn liquefied natural gas (LNG) rather than fuel oil by as early as 2030...

The Japanese government is scheduled to sign a memorandum with the Indian government in December on comprehensive collaboration in the data communications field...

Reflecting ruefully on its late start with 5G, NTT Group is consolidating the technologies that are scattered across the Group, and aiming to take the lead in 6G, the next high-speed communications standard...

Virtual Youtubers (V-Tubers), who take the appearance of anime-like characters in their streamed video, are expanding their economic reach...

Walmart is stepping up its service which allows shoppers to place orders online and pick up their goods in store parking lots, without getting out of their cars. It will double the number of "picker" employees in readiness for the end of year sales season...

Shobunsha Holdings has begun a service that uses maps and data to predict and analyze the behavior of travelers in tourism spots...

A succession of regulations on gasoline vehicles is coming into effect around the world, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions...

Fugaku, the super-computer developed by Riken and Fujitsu, has kept its top spot in the latest global ranking of computation speed competition published on 17 November...

According to a "SDGs Management Survey” by the Nikkei Shimbun, 60% of Japanese companies take the view that environmental action will be important for both future growth and maintenance of existing business...

Major aluminum roller UACJ aims to expand its worldwide production capacity of aluminum sheet by 40% from the 2019 level by 2022. It is expanding production in expectation of global demand growth...

Japanese chemical manufacturer Kuraray has started developing biodegradable fishing gear. It is looking to expand this business to Western countries with high environmental awareness, and elsewhere...

Hydrogen is becoming a rapidly growing presence amid decarbonization moves, which are accelerating around the world. The use of hydrogen is essential for honoring the Paris Accords, which set the path for climate change countermeasures...

Bentall GreenOak (BGO) acquired a large office building in Tokyo in April this year. In 2017, the company attracted attention by spending JPY20 billion to buy the whole of the 8th floor of the Ginza Six building...

Within FY2020, Onward Holdings will open new bricks-and-mortar stores that are only for trying clothes on. Purchases are made online and the products are delivered...

From November, Ministop, the mid-range convenience store chain, will roll out around 1,000 compact stores, where customers process their own payments. The stores will be in locations such as corporate offices...

According to Refinitiv, the total value of M&A worldwide from January to September was around USD2.32 trillion, down 20% from the same period of last year...

In the food service industry, the novel coronavirus is causing ongoing restaurant closures and employee layoffs, prompting people to migrate to home delivery in search of work. The home meal delivery business is starting to change the nature of the food service industry...

East Japan Railway will increase business-use private spaces both inside and near the station. Currently, there are about 30 hubs such as Tokyo Station, which will be expanded to major stations in the suburbs of Tokyo...

Public support for recurrent education (re-education) that fosters digital human resources is spreading in Europe and the United States...

The balance of power among Japanese-affiliated retailers in Southeast Asia is shifting from department stores to discount stores. Mitsukoshi Isetan Holdings has closed its flagship branch in Bangkok, Thailand...

Saizeriya, an Italian restaurant chain with over 1,500 branches, is opening compact branches with around 60% the floor area of its ordinary branches....

It's increasingly likely that the digital society that semiconductor technology has supported will be followed by quantum technology as the driver of innovation in the 21st Century...

Glass is non-porous and more hygienic than plastic, giving it an advantage amid the coronavirus pandemic...

The market for solid soap was worth JPY22.9 billion (USD215 million) in 2019. In 2020, sales are expected to increase due to the impact of the coronavirus...

Apparel retailers and supermarkets, which had been lagging in moving online, have started devising new policies with their eyes on the “post-coronavirus” situation...

Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association is the largest group in Japan’s alcoholic beverages industry, with 1,691 member breweries and distillers. It disseminates information, inside and outside Japan, about the appeal of Japanese sake, its trends, new ways of drinking it, and more...

The products and services that consumers are looking for have been transformed by the behavior of avoiding contact with other people. Revenues in land and air transport are down by 70%...

On August 7th, the research agency of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced that China had overtaken the USA to take first place in the number of papers published in natural science fields...

Global food manufacturers like Nestle, the world’s largest food company, as well as new companies, are competing to develop artificial meat. With the impact of the novel coronavirus, artificial meat is also attracting attention for its health aspects...

"Tea cafe", which provides black tea, Japanese tea and Chinese tea is growing rapidly. In July, Starbucks Coffee Japan and a major Chinese tea company opened their first stores in Japan one after another...

Yoshinoya is a major gyudon (rice bowl topped with beef) chain. It is also known overseas as a symbol of Japanese-made fast food. When in lived in the USA, I often ate at Yoshinoya when I missed the tastes of Japan...

Wine market in Japan is now expanding. According to statistics, the total taxable volume for domestic and imported wine amounted to 377,430 kiloliters in 2019, up 4% from the previous year...

With the coronavirus crisis causing sharp declines in demand for products such as cars, “factory sharing” is advancing as a way to apply the resulting surplus factory capacity to new purposes...

Automakers are expanding subscription services which allow users to use cars by paying a flat fee. Nissan will extend their service nationwide by September...

The fusion of the Internet and the real world is proceeding in the sluggish apparel industry. Onward Holdings and ZOZO will tie up in the manufacture and sale of clothing using digital technology...

As digitalization moves forward in government administration and in companies, online identity authentication services are starting to spread. Until now, such services have been used for identity checks when opening bank accounts, for e-commerce payments, and the like...

Responding to the spread of the novel coronavirus, Fujitsu, including its Group companies in Japan, will be halving its office space. Fujitsu aims to complete the process in three years and has started working towards...

The latest global ranking of supercomputers contending over computation speed was published on 22 June. It showed Fugaku, developed by Riken and Fujitsu, in the top spot....

Remote working has become the new norm due to the growing impact of COVID-19 and there is a growing trend in the manufacturing industry to utilize virtual reality (VR) and other remote technologies...

In response to the heightened awareness of hygiene due to the spread of Covid-19, textile manufacturers and others will expand sales of products that have antimicrobial properties....

Japan’s Labor Standards Law, enacted after the war, has asked companies to manage the working hours of workers. With the shift to job-description employment...

Amid the stream of stories about companies reeling from the coronavirus shock, like department stores slumping and a famous long-established apparel company collapsing, home centers are increasing sales...

The industry faces losses of around USD1.2 trillion if countries maintain their travel bans to December in response to the spread of novel coronavirus infection...

There are expanding business opportunities associated with developing new materials and technologies in the move away from plastics...

Getting past the current situation is not the most important thing for the tourism industry today. It will take at least a year and a half to establish a vaccine or treatment method for the novel coronavirus...

Startups are developing IT-based services. They include services to tell customers how crowded the interior of a store is before they enter, or to stream video of store interiors, while taking...

Subscription services, such as movie and music streaming, were directed first at general consumers. In contrast to leasing, subscriptions have short-term contracts that can be easily...

The novel coronavirus state of emergency was fully lifted on May 25. But, the impact, economic as well as medical, has been enormous, and the social chaos looks set to continue...

The spread of the novel coronavirus has prompted a succession of new entries into the online medical treatment field, particularly from new companies. From April, such treatment was allowed for even first-time examinations...

Yano Research Institute has announced its estimate that the size of the home remodeling market in FY2019 (April 2019 through March 2020) was JPY6.557 trillion...

When the novel coronavirus infection was spreading in China, and Wuhan and many other areas were in lockdown, it was still possible for apparel imports from China to pass....

The novel coronavirus has thrown everyday life into turmoil and greatly changed product consumption trends....

According to the Japan Association of Chain Drug Stores, total sales revenue of its 401 companies nationwide grew by 5.7% in FY2019...

Japan’s industries are tabulated below by genre. There are a total of 136 genres. We plan to compile summaries of the current situation, trends, and future outlook in key industries..

The following is an excerpt of information and data presented in “Foreign Trade 2020”, published by the Japan Foreign Trade Council, Inc. (JFTC). The reader should note that it was prepared before the spread of coronavirus infection...

Numbers of bankruptcies related to the novel coronavirus have started to be reported since February 20th, caused by a sharp drop in inbound demand as the entry restrictions etc. that began in February...

People wearing masks has been an everyday sight in Japan before, and doesn’t feel strange to anyone. Masks are essential for hay fever sufferers and people with colds...