A survival skill in shrinking Japan: Learn English

Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani decided two years ago that the employees at his company, Rakuten Inc., should work almost entirely in English. The idea, he said, was a daring and drastic attempt to counter Japan's shrinking place in the world. "Japanese people think it's so difficult to speak English," Mikitani said. "But we need to break the shell."

Lessons from Japan: Not all companies sink in hard times

Japan and its stock market have been a tough sell for the better part of two decades - and with good reason. Nearly a generation after the collapse of its property and market bubbles in the late 1980s, the country remains hobbled by soaring deficits, debt and periodic bouts of deflation and despair. There was a time when economists regarded Japan as an anomaly among developed countries - a thankfully rare example of what can happen when timid politicians face an overwhelming financial and economic crisis armed with ineffective policies and an unwillingness or inability to tackle contentious fiscal, banking and market reforms.

German customs demand $475,000 for Japanese musician's violin

German customs seized a $1.2 million violin from a Japanese professional musician and are demanding she pay almost $475,000 to get it back, reports said on Wednesday. Belgium-based Yuzuko Horigome was transiting through Frankfurt Airport last week after performing in Japan, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said. When she tried to walk through the green gate for travelers arriving in the EU with nothing to declare, customs officers stopped her and said she needed to pay 190,000 euros in duty on her 1741 Guarnerius violin.

Airport Automated Face Recognition Tests Begin

A facial recognition test program began at automated gates for immigration at Narita and Kansai airports on Monday. In the tests, the faces of incoming and outbound travellers will be automatically checked against passport photographs at the immigration gates. The tests target Japanese travellers and are intended to improve the performance of the automated gate system. One such gate is installed at each of four international airports--Haneda, Narita, Central Japan and Kansai. The system has so far checked travellers’ fingerprints for identification.

Low Number of Babies Born in Japan Recorded

Fewer babies were born in Japan in the last year than any other on record, pulling down its population for the third year in a row, according to government statistics released this week. As of the end of March, Japan had more than 260,000 fewer people than a year earlier, the biggest drop of the Japanese population yet, according to Japanese media. The baby bust has continued year after year despite Japanese efforts to nudge up the numbers: The government has doled out payments for couples with children and subsidized daycare. Japanese towns publicly herald the number of local births in city signs. Engineering students even crafted a cooing robotic baby years ago in hope of setting biological clocks ticking.