Nipponica

PayPay Corp., a SoftBank Group Corp. firm, said it chose South Korea in its outward debut as the neighboring country was the most popular overseas destination among Japanese travelers and cashless payment is prevalent there, making it easier to gain cooperation from local merchants.

"We hope to further expand PayPay use abroad in places popular with Japanese tourists," such as Taiwan, Hawaii and China, said Masayoshi Yanase, head of the finance business strategy division of PayPay, which now has over 70 million users.

Rather than this being a service for Koreans, they are taking the Chinese strategy of forcing national payment systems on other country’s infrastructure. Not a fan of this approach to exporting black boxes offshore.

Kyushu is where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's top contract chipmaker, opened its first Japanese plant. The island sees Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park, which brings together TSMC and other companies and universities in the semiconductor sector, as a model for building a cluster for technology research, development and manufacturing.

The vision is for Kyushu to not only manufacture semiconductor devices, but also use them to create new industries.

Yet finding a single site the size of Hsinchu Science Park's 1,471 hectares is not realistic for Kyushu. Instead, the Kyushu Economic Federation is promoting the idea of a network of science parks with locations across the region.

This is the ongoing problem for a mountainous island nation but one that major urban areas are attempting to solve with land reclamation. The question is whether they can create land fast enough to sate the appetite of industry.

"They deleted all necessary data upon leaving" or "sent a farewell email filled with sarcasm" are some of the troubling situations experienced by about 10% of workers in Japan when their bosses or colleagues have left their jobs, according to a survey conducted by the Tokyo-based management consulting firm Scholar Consult Co.

This retaliatory behavior when leaving a job is known as "revenge quitting." With job switching becoming less of a hurdle than before, what is happening in workplaces today?

Sarcasm: the nuclear option in Japanese communication.

The major Japanese air carrier has in recent years faced multiple similar drinking incidents involving its pilots, and it comes after a previous warning given to JAL in December by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

The ministry said JAL employees lacked due consideration for safety, urging the company to compile measures by the end of the month to prevent a repeat.

“We take this issue very seriously and deeply apologise for causing trouble and worries,” JAL president Mitsuko Tottori told a press conference, adding that her company will fire the pilot.

The fact that this pilot stayed employed this long is outrageous. This guy should have been fired on the spot for putting himself and hundreds of passengers and crew in danger.

Japan's JR East looks to roll out an autonomous train-operating system by 2035 on its Yamanote line, which loops around the heart of Tokyo, with plans to bring similar systems to shinkansen bullet trains around the same time.

The company, officially called East Japan Railway, seeks to fight growing labor shortages by enhancing operational efficiency and optimizing staffing under a business plan unveiled Tuesday.

"Driving jobs will be eliminated, but tasks that need to be performed by humans will only increase," President Yoichi Kise told a news conference the same day.

Now this has a great chance of success. Rail has less variables to deal with compared to free range vehicles (but still a complicated problem). Once Yamanote is perfected, this can be debuted anywhere.

Can they do it? Sure. Will it be successful? I have my doubts. 7-Eleven has an image problem in the States and overcoming that is going to be the biggest issue to face.

Over the next five years, Seven & i is considering investing more than $13 billion to expand overseas. In the United States, this means initiatives like refreshing existing sites, adding more than 1,000 in-store restaurants and building a network of companies to provide more of its 7-Eleven brand prepared foods.

“And we’re launching the egg sandwiches,” Mr. Dacus said. They are, he noted, the top item purchased by the millions of American visitors descending on Japan each year and visiting 7-Eleven stores.

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. on Tuesday introduced worker robots to one of its convenience stores in Tokyo, with the trial part of an automation push necessitated by Japan's worker shortage.

One robot will take over tasks such as stocking bottled drinks and canned alcohol, while others will clean the store's floors and windows.

One way of dealing with a shortage of workers. Might work in low traffic stores but packed ones in tourist heavy areas would probably not allow for enough maneuvering space for a robot. But who knows, Japanese robot innovation has surprised me before.

Two branches of the Japanese convenience store chain Ministop in Kyoto Prefecture are suspected of falsifying expiry dates on foods prepared in their kitchens for several years, the local health center said Tuesday.

The revelation comes after operator Ministop Co., a subsidiary of retail giant Aeon Co., said Monday it had found such misconduct at 23 stores in Tokyo, Saitama, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures.

This may be my own bias but I’ve always considered Ministops to be a lesser konbini in the great hierarchy so I’m not too surprised. Long live the king, long live Seicomart.

Japanese trading house Itochu will begin discussions with the banking unit of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain on a capital and business alliance, as it looks to increase its consumer financial service offerings.

The Japanese trader has "agreed to commence discussions" with Seven Bank on the tie-up, "including collaboration across a wide range of financial fields," it said on Monday. Nikkei understands that Itochu is considering acquiring not only Seven Bank's treasury shares -- stock bought back from shareholders -- but also shares held by institutional investors. Combined, they would potentially amount to a 20% stake.

Worth noting that Itochu owns FamilyMart. Compared to the failed Couche-Tard deal, increased domestic partnerships like this seem like a better way to grow.

The new yen-denominated stablecoin will be named JPYC. To peg its value to the yen, it will be backed by such highly liquid assets as deposits and government bonds. Sales are expected to begin in the weeks after registration as a money transfer business is established.

Individuals, corporations and institutional investors wanting to use the new JPYC stablecoin will be able to apply to purchase it and transfer the payment, after which it will be transferred into their electronic wallets. Uses will include such international remittances as sending money to students abroad, as well as corporate payments and the blockchain-based asset management services known as decentralized finance.

For reasons still unknown, we are being dragged into this world against our will.