Business

(AFP)

(Reuters)

Barclays PLC said on Friday it has hired 10 investment bankers in Japan but cut 30 jobs elsewhere in the region as part of the British bank's efforts to cut costs and reshape itself in the wake of acquiring parts of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (Wall Street Journal)

Seven & I Holdings, the largest Japanese retailer and the operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, reported Thursday a 7.9 percent rise in operating profit for the quarter ended in November and kept its forecast for the year, as its stores attracted thrifty consumers in an economic slump. (International Herald Tribune)

(Yomiuri)

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) plans to promote Akio Toyoda to president, marking the first time in 14 years that a member of the company's founding family will lead the automaker, the Nikkei business daily reported. (Reuters)

(AP)

One out of every four companies in Japan has cut jobs or plans to do so due to the economic downturn, according to a survey released Thursday. (Kyodo)

(Kyodo)

(Kyodo)

The latest weight-loss craze sweeping fad-loving Japan has made Japanese women go bananas over Philippine bananas. The Philippine government is cashing in on the popularity of bananas as it is seeing record-high consumption of the fruit in Japan, where supermarkets have been reporting banana shortages lately, the Tourism department said recently. (Inquirer.net)

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2008 turned downward for the first time in five years, totaling about 9.15 million, down 5,800, or 0.1 percent, from the previous year when it marked a record high, the Justice Ministry said Thursday in a preliminary report. (Japan Times)

(Sydney Morning Herald)

Japan's government will seek to introduce new guidelines on mobile phone connection fees as early as 2010, which may lower rates for consumers, the Asahi newspaper reported on Thursday. (Reuters)

Nearly half of the open tenders conducted by state- administered independent institutions in fiscal 2007 received bids from only one company, according to a survey by an internal affairs ministry panel released Wednesday. (Kyodo)

(Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg)

Japan aims to expand the "green business" market and create up to 1 million new jobs, the environment ministry said on Wednesday, to simultaneously fight climate change and boost the economy amid a global downturn. (Reuters)

(Kyodo)