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Rakuten Group said it no longer plans to list its securities arm on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and will instead focus on deepening its partnership with Mizuho Securities. The Japanese e-commerce pioneer had planned an initial public offering for Rakuten Securities Holdings, part of a push to shore up finances depleted by a foray into Japan’s hyper-competitive wireless carrier market. In late 2023, it temporarily withdrew that application, stating that it would reapply for a listing at a later date. But in November, Rakuten reported its first quarterly operating profit since 2020 after losses in its mobile segment shrank. That segment is now profitable, discounting marketing costs to win new customers, Rakuten founder Hiroshi Mikitani told Bloomberg TV in a recent interview. Source link

Cheap houses in the Japanese countryside have recently become a hot topic among non-Japanese, particularly those who are priced out of their own country’s housing market. Likewise, many Japanese who are fed up with city living long for a rural retreat where the pace of life is slow and the locals follow traditional ways. But as Hideo Jojo’s slow-burn psychological thriller “Welcome to the Village” illustrates with the clarity and starkness of a folktale, cheapness comes at a price, and tradition can be constricting — or devastating. The screenplay by Jojo and Eisuke Naito is based on actual incidents of murahachibu — the ancient practice of ostracizing villagers considered outcasts by the community. But in the film, this custom takes on a disturbingly contemporary twist. Source link

Riyoko Ikeda’s “The Rose of Versailles,” which ran from 1972 to 1973, is one of Japan’s seminal works of shōjo manga (comics traditionally aimed at a young female audience). Through her fictionalized account of the French Revolution, Ikeda explored themes of political and sexual upheaval, bringing new levels of complexity to the genre. A successful anime adaptation, which aired for 40 episodes between 1979 and 1980, plus spinoffs, sequels and multiple musical adaptations by the all-female theater troupe Takarazuka Revue, have further cemented the reputation of Ikeda’s tale. Now comes a new adaptation, an animated theatrical film — and even days after seeing the movie, I’m struggling to figure out why it exists. “The Rose of Versailles” begins a few years before the revolution and centers on two women: the real-life Marie Antoinette (voiced by Aya Hirano), the Austrian princess sent to marry the future king of France to foster peace between their two nations, and the fictional Oscar Francois de Jarjayes (Miyuki Sawashiro), raised by her father as a man to become commander of the royal guards. At first, Oscar protects the young Marie with fierce loyalty, but as the years go by and the people of France suffer under the oblivious Marie and Louis XVI (Fukushi Ochiai), Oscar begins to sympathize with the country’s revolutionary elements. Source link

Washington – More than 60 people were feared dead after an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport. “At this point we do not believe there were any survivors,” District of Columbia fire chief John Donnelly said at a Thursday press conference at the airport. Donnelly said 28 bodies had been recovered from the river so far, in what was shaping up to be the deadliest U.S. air disaster in more than a decade. “We will work to find all the bodies and reunite them with their loved ones,” he said. Source link

In Japan’s animation industry, the road from obscurity to renown is a long one. At least, it is for most. Indie creator Gensho Yasuda, however, is a young Japanese animator who has quickly amassed a legion of followers by embracing technology and creating his own animated shorts that he posts online. Yasuda’s videos, which usually have a running time of just a few seconds to about a minute, feature cute 3D-rendered characters and dialogue-free, visual punchlines. The videos’ combination of high-quality animation, charming character designs and comic timing puts them in the same league as content from major anime studios — but, aside from sound, they’re entirely created by Yasuda alone. His constant stream of uploads has earned the creator over 6 million followers across major social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, and he has been hired to produce short ads for the likes of McDonald’s and Intel. Now, Yasuda (who doesn’t disclose his real name and age for privacy reasons) has taken on a much larger project: “Make a Girl,” which expands the indie creator’s 2020 short “Make Love” into a full-length feature film. After its Asian premiere at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, the film is set for release in theaters across Japan on March 31. Source link

The Osaka High Court on Thursday revoked the Finance Ministry’s decision not to disclose documents related to a document-tampering scandal that led to the suicide of a ministry official. The high court, presided over by Judge Kenji Maki, overturned an Osaka District Court ruling dismissing a petition by Masako Akagi, the widow of the late ministry official, Toshio, to nullify the ministry decision. Masako argued that it was illegal for the ministry not to disclose administrative documents it had voluntarily submitted to prosecutors regarding the scandal related to the discount sale of state land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen. The Finance Ministry has refused to disclose even the existence of such documents, saying that doing so would impede investigations. The district court found the nondisclosure legal. The Osaka High Court said that prosecutors are not aware of what documents the Finance Ministry possesses, and it is up to the ministry to decide which documents to submit. Even if it becomes widely known what documents were submitted by the ministry, “hindrances to future investigations of crimes in general cannot be recognized,” the high court concluded. Japan’s Information Disclosure and Personal Information Protection Review Board said last March that the Finance Ministry should revoke its decision not to disclose the documents. But the ministry decided against disclosure again that May. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a news conference Thursday that the government will respond appropriately after relevant government bodies review the latest ruling. Source link

Seoul, South Korea – While the second season of “Squid Game” has new plot twists, one element of the Netflix mega-hit series where contestants down on their luck risk their lives to play children’s games for the chance of winning cash prizes, has remained constant. That is Young-hee, an innocent-looking robotic doll who has a deadly role to find contestants to gun down playing the game “Red Light, Green Light” if she spots them moving. The doll, who is clad in a simple orange dress and a hair clip, has become a viral meme on social media and the centerpiece of the streaming giant’s promotional campaign. Chae Kyoung-sun, the production designer for “Squid Game,” says the doll’s appearance is partly inspired by her own daughter. Source link

Japan’s real rates clearly remain in negative territory even with last week’s interest rate hike, and the Bank of Japan will keep raising rates if its economic outlook is realized, according to Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino. “Given that real rates continue to be very much in the red, an easy monetary environment’s been maintained,” said Himino, in the first public speech from a board member following the BOJ’s latest rate hike. “Looking ahead, it depends on the economy, prices and financial circumstances, but if our economic and price outlooks are realized, we’ll hike rates accordingly,” he said in a speech at a conference hosted by Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo on Thursday. Source link

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered advertising giant Dentsu Group to pay ¥300 million in fines as sought by prosecutors over bid-rigging related to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2021. The court also sentenced Koji Henmi, 57, former assistant head of the sports department of core subsidiary Dentsu, to two years in prison suspended for four years. The prosecution had demanded a two-year prison term. In past court hearings, the prosecutors said that Henmi played a central role in coordinating orders with a 57-year-old former senior official of the Tokyo Games organizing committee already found guilty over the bid-rigging case. According to the indictment, Henmi conspired with the former organizing committee official and others to decide in advance the winners of contracts for planning Tokyo Games test events and managing venues for actual competition events between February and July 2018. They also conspired to have only the preselected companies take part in the bidding. The defense argued that Henmi was not guilty because there was no agreement among the companies on the operations to manage Games competition events, which were outsourced under discretionary contracts. Dentsu Group and five other companies as well as seven individuals, including Henmi and the former organizing committee official, have been indicted in relation to the case. Of them, officials at ad agency Hakuhodo and event company Cerespo were found guilty last year. Their lawyers have appealed against the rulings. Source link

Japan Exchange Group, which operates the Tokyo Stock Exchange, said Thursday that Group CEO Hiromi Yamaji will take a 50% cut in monthly compensation for two months over an insider trading case involving a former TSE employee. TSE President and CEO Moriyuki Iwanaga will also face a 50% compensation cut for two months. TSE Senior Executive Officer Katsumi Ao will take a 20% compensation cut for two months, while Koji Watanabe, head of the TSE’s Listing Department, was issued a stern warning. JPX and TSE also submitted a report following a Financial Services Agency order. Also on Thursday, JPX released a report compiled by an independent directors’ investigation committee tasked with looking into the scandal. The committee described it as “an unprecedented case,” saying that it was “completely incompatible with the essential values and philosophy of JPX, which operates Japan’s capital markets.” The former employee was indicted without arrest in December last year for allegedly leaking undisclosed information on tender offers to his father while working at the TSE division that handles the disclosure of important information by listed companies. Source link