Hampered by its pacifist Constitution on offering military assistance, Japan is instead focusing on providing Ukraine with economic support from both the public and private sectors.
Mobile carrier KDDI Corp. will acquire a 50-percent stake in Lawson Inc. for nearly 500 billion yen ($3.37 billion) to help the nation’s third-largest convenience store chain incorporate digital technologies and offer new services.
In a rare display of unity in lifting Japan out of its prolonged deflation, leaders from labor and management jointly called for pay hikes exceeding inflation, during the annual “shunto” wage negotiations.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged an additional 20.7 billion yen ($141 million) to help the fishing industry cope with China’s blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports, but the plan was immediately met with skepticism.
A Japanese national taken into custody in China in March was reported to be in good health by a Japanese Embassy official in Beijing who was finally allowed to meet with him, according to the government s most senior spokesman.