http://www.japaneconomynews.com News and Reports on the State of Japan's Economy - With Links to Sundry Resources Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:03:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There's no real way to describe this other than quoting the Nikkei: 60% Favor No Lunch Break At TSE: Poll About 60% of Japan's retail investors support scrapping the noon recess for trading shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, a poll taken by kabu.com Securities Co. (8703) shows. The survey of the online ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/09/05/the-nikkei-reports-on-a-bizarre-poll/ According to data released earlier today by the Japan Chain Stores Association, supermarket sales in Japan fell 1.2% to 1.05 trillion yen in July. Supermarket sales have now fallen for 20 consecutive months on a year-on-year comparison, though the rate of decline is slowing somewhat. Here is a breakdown of July’s ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/08/23/japan-supermarket-sales-fell-12-in-july/ According to data released today by the Japan Franchise Association, convenience store sales rose 0.5% in July, showing an increase for the first time in 14 months. The hot weather appears to have helped convenience store sales in July, as sales of cold drinks, ice cream and processed food ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/08/22/japan-july-2010-convenience-store-sales/ Ito En is currently Japan's fourth ranked soft drink manufacturer. In third place is Kirin (Coca-Cola and Suntory, respectively, are #1 and #2). However, Ito En has slowly been sneaking up on Kirin's market share and when private label production is included, Ito En actually outsold Kirin in the January-June ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/08/21/whats-kirin-going-to-do-about-ito-en/ I've been working with Yahoo Pipes to create a single RSS feed that should provide coverage on Japan news without having to use multiple feeds and/or feed readers. This is obviously a work in progress and will be developed more in the weeks to come, but it's a start: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=f058da8a147191a9489391d3648f7e80&_render=rss It's also ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/08/20/japan-news-rss-feed/ The Nikkei is reporting that both Sony and Panasonic have seen about a 20% decrease in prices since launching their 3D television sets this past Spring. 3D televisions still cost about 30-50% more than their 2D flat screen counterparts. In terms of sales, 3D tellys account for 2.6% of sales ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/08/12/deflation-watch-3d-tvs-already-20-cheaper/ Although Apple's iPhone has thus far been sold exclusively in Japan by Softbank, Japan Communications intends to launch a service that will allow the iPhone 4 to tun on DoCoMo's wireless network, according to various sources. This is good news, until one looks at the price tag. While a new ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/08/06/iphone-japan-softbank-docomo/ ‎"(There is) a growing recognition that the dispersion of credit risks to a broader and more diverse group of investors...has helped make the banking and wider financial system more resilient. The improved resilience may be seen in fewer bank failures and more consistent credit provision." From the IMF's (shortsighted) Global Financial ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/07/31/so-much-for-the-imf/ A Nikkei report published today told us that Japan's convenience stores experienced their second lowest annual growth in financial 2009 since 1978 as sales booms derived from the introduction of the TASPO card wore off. According to the paper: Overall sales at domestic convenience stores edged up 1.1% in fiscal 2009 ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/07/27/cracks-re-emerging-in-japans-convenience-store-industry/ Earlier today, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Treasury David Cohen visited Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group to outline US financial sanctions against Iran. These sanctions were signed into law by US President Barack Obama on 1 July. The fact that Japan's megabanks have yet ... http://www.japaneconomynews.com/2010/07/14/japan-megabanks-irresponsible/