From Nikkei:
Japanese online marketplace Mercari has laid off nearly half of the employees from its U.S. subsidiary, Nikkei has learned, as it struggles with falling sales and competition from low-price Chinese e-commerce rivals like Temu.
The June layoffs have apparently reduced the workforce to a little over 100 people. The subsidiary had 226 employees at the end of June 2023, excluding temporary workers, a securities filing showed.
From Kyodo:
Potential new hires will receive training required to work in the Mos Burger chain, such as how to speak to customers and handle ingredients, at an educational institution it has tied up with in Vietnam.
The company expects to begin recruiting workers next spring in accordance with the needs of franchisees, with the chain already having applied for approval with related agencies.
More private business are realizing that an increasing immigrant workforce is necessary to survive in the near future.
From Kyodo:
The result means the support rate of Kishida's Cabinet has remained below 30 percent nine consecutive times since November last year, amid continued public dissatisfaction with his leadership.
The disapproval rate for Kishida's Cabinet fell to 60.7 percent, 1.7 percentage points down from a previous 62.4 percent in June, according to the nationwide telephone poll conducted over two days from Saturday.
とても人気ね。
From Kyodo:
Japanese airlines, restaurants, railway and theme park companies, among others, reported system disruptions on Friday in a global technology outage linked to Microsoft services that has affected a wide range of industries.
Nipponica is proudly running on open source software without trash like what took down worldwide tech infrastructure yesterday.
From The Yomiuri Shimbun:
They said that the explosion occurred in a building on the premises where biomass fuel is brought in. It is said the employee taken to the hospital suffered burns on his hands but was conscious when being transported.
Mia Glass from The Japan Times:
The government will introduce a new preclearance system from next January, starting with tourists from Taiwan, NHK reported. Visitors will be able to complete most of their immigration screening before departure to help shorten the time taken for entry procedures on arrival, according to the report.
There are not much details on how this will function, but I doubt it will mean that Japanese immigration officers will be deployed to foreign airports like the US version of this program. I assume it will just be a more rigorous check of paperwork and perhaps receiving your passport visa sticker before boarding. Perhaps using automated immigration gates in foreign airports?
Rei Kubo from The Mainichi:
On the morning of April 10 this year, when a chill remained in the air, Muslims gathered in a residential district of the Osaka Prefecture city of Ibaraki. They were there to celebrate Eid, marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Altogether, about 300 people from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and other regions visited the two-story Osaka Ibaraki Mosque, which is adorned with golden decorations. During prayer, the mosque was so full that some prayed on the rooftop.
A good story of local residents accepting and befriending members of a minority community. More of this needs to happen throughout the country.
From The Japan Times:
It can pull up to six containers at a time, trundling between aircraft and airport buildings over a distance of around 2 kilometers with no driver in the cab.
The Level 4 vehicle, meaning that it does not require human interaction in certain settings — although a human driver can still request control — has been in operation since July 1.
Hiroaki Homma from The Mainichi:
A memorial marking 79 years since the Nemuro air raid by U.S. military planes near the end of World War II, which claimed the lives of approximately 400 people, was held in this north Japan city on July 15
About 30 people, including bereaved families and others concerned, gathered at Narumi Park in the center of Nemuro, where the largest number of people were killed by the bombardment, to pray for the souls of the victims and to think about the importance of peace.
You rarely hear about how the Second World War affected Hokkaido but citizen did suffer from similar raids than those in the rest of the country.
From The Yomiuri Shimbun:
The rainy season appears to have ended in the Kanto-Koshin and Tokai regions, the Japan Meteorological Agency announced Thursday.
And now the Sun rules over us all...