Latest news with #Osaka-based
Yomiuri Shimbun
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Parties See Tokyo Election as Bellwether for Upper House Election; Results Expected to Impact Ishiba's Administration
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday. The outcome of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, for which campaigning kicked off Friday, is expected to impact Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's administration. Parties are focusing on increasing their support for their candidates running in the Tokyo election while having their sights set on the House of Councillors election this summer. 'We are fully committed to making sure all [Liberal Democratic Party] candidates are elected,' said Ishiba, who is also the president of the LDP, at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday morning. The LDP is likely to face headwinds over such issues as party members not reporting their incomes from political fundraising parties. The LDP did not plan to have Ishiba make a speech to the public on the first day of campaigning. Komeito, the LDP's coalition partner, is appealing to voters by highlighting its ability to realize its policies while taking a tough stance on the LDP's issue of politics and money. Opposition parties are putting as much effort into the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election as they would a national election. Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda has made stump speeches even before campaigning officially began. Noda spoke to voters about measures to tackle soaring prices, such as cutting consumption tax on food – one of the party's pledges for the upper house election. The Japanese Communist Party also views a consumption tax cut as a key issue for the Tokyo election, aiming to build momentum for the upper house election. As the Japan Innovation Party, an Osaka-based party, hopes to increase its presence in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, JIP chief Hirofumi Yoshimura and coleader Seiji Maehara will split up to cover more ground while campaigning.
11-06-2025
- Business
More Moritomo Documents Disclosed to Widow of MOF Official
News from Japan Jun 11, 2025 19:02 (JST) Tokyo, June 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Ministry of Finance disclosed Wednesday another set of documents related to the dubious sale of state-owned land to Moritomo Gakuen to the widow of MOF official Toshio Akagi, who killed himself after being ordered to tamper with official records on the sale. The newly disclosed 8,800-page documents, kept by the ministry's Kinki Local Finance Bureau, where Akagi was working, contain his handwritten notes as well as emails and other internal records associated with his job. They are the second set of "Moritomo documents" voluntarily submitted to prosecutors and disclosed to the widow, Masako Akagi, by the ministry after a bunch of some 2,200 pages made available to her in April. In response to an Osaka High Court ruling revoking the ministry's decision not to release the documents, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato in March promised their full disclosure. The papers that were handed to the widow side in April unveiled the process of the land plot in question being sold to the Osaka-based private school operator at a substantial discount as the construction site for an elementary school. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
SoraNews24
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Japan's cute/creepy mascot character Myaku-Myaku can now appear in your drinking glass【Photos】
You can turn any beverage into the Osaka Expo mascot. Unique drinkware is an easy way to make your beverage break more enjoyable, whether it's a stylishly shaped glass or a coffee mug with cute illustrations or quirky philosophical mottos on it. And yes, there's no denying that this glass mug, from Osaka-based Heso Production, is very unique. Right away, you can see that there's something strange going on with the design, and things get even stranger when you turn it around and see multiple eyeballs staring…well, not so much back at you, but in a number of different directions. Everything starts to make sense, though, when you realize that this is a double-wall drinking glass, with its inside contoured to form Myaku-Myaku, the mascot of the 2025 World Expo currently taking place in Osaka. Though Japan is a country with a well-known love of orthodoxically cute character design, the World Expo organizers decided to go a different route with their mascot, creating not a cuddly fantasy forest critter or an earnestly endearing schoolgirl. Instead, Myaku-Myaku is a creature with a blue humanoid body and a ring of writhing…something that encircles its head, with five eyes laid out in an asymmetrical array. As is usually the case with negative-space artistic drinkware, the Myaku-Myaku that forms in the glass is upside down, but that's not particularly distracting, seeing as how the character's head is an irregularly undulating circle that doesn't really have a conventional this-end-up aesthetic. Similarly, while the official color of Myaku-Myaku's head is red, the uniqueness of its anatomy means that it doesn't look any more (or less) off-putting with drinks of different colors. ▼ Left-to-right: Myaku-Myaku made of tomato juice, 'blue Hawaii,' green tea, and orange juice The Myaku-Myaku glass is priced at 3,500 yen (US$24) and goes on sale in mid-June at the official Osaka World Expo Kintetsu West Gate, JR West West Gate, Maruzen Junkudo East Gate, and Daimaru Matsuzaka East Gate stores inside the event venue. Meanwhile, if you'd like a double-wall drinking glass with a more traditionally cute design, Pokémon's Snorlax is standing by. Source: PR Times Myaku-Myaku statue photo ©SoraNews24 All other images: PR Times ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
The Mainichi
07-06-2025
- Business
- The Mainichi
Japan brokerages donating shareholder perks to help kids in poverty
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese securities firms are donating the food and beverage gifts they receive as shareholder perks through their trading activities to nonprofit organizations to support children living in poverty amid inflation. The Japan Securities Dealers Association started the program in 2020, and around 2,300 donations had been made by March this year. Under the program, a list of shareholder perks is presented to registered organizations channeling the goods to recipients each week and the organizations then convey their requests to the securities firms. As of April, 61 companies and 48 organizations had registered with the program. Around 11 tons of rice and 8,600 liters of beverages have been donated, with rice and ready-made foods such as curry among the popular products. IwaiCosmo Securities Co. previously distributed shareholder perks to younger employees via a lottery as part of its welfare program, but now donates rice and canned goods to organizations. The Osaka-based brokerage has received feedback that its donations were delivered to single-mother households and served at a gathering of children. "We feel it is significant that goods are being used by people who really need them," a company official said. Monex Inc. has been donating shareholder perks to various organizations across the country since 2024, with an official saying it intends to continue using the program as it is difficult to find recipients on its own. NPO Bridge for Smile, which supports children and young people who cannot rely on their parents, receives donations of food and disaster stockpiles on a regular basis through the program. "As there are some people who only have one meal a day due to soaring rice prices, we are grateful that it helps them survive," said Ryuta Suzuki, a member of the group.
Kyodo News
07-06-2025
- Business
- Kyodo News
Japan brokerages donating shareholder perks to help kids in poverty
KYODO NEWS - 1 hour ago - 09:55 | All, Japan Japanese securities firms are donating the food and beverage gifts they receive as shareholder perks through their trading activities to nonprofit organizations to support children living in poverty amid inflation. The Japan Securities Dealers Association started the program in 2020, and around 2,300 donations had been made by March this year. Under the program, a list of shareholder perks is presented to registered organizations channeling the goods to recipients each week and the organizations then convey their requests to the securities firms. As of April, 61 companies and 48 organizations had registered with the program. Around 11 tons of rice and 8,600 liters of beverages have been donated, with rice and ready-made foods such as curry among the popular products. IwaiCosmo Securities Co. previously distributed shareholder perks to younger employees via a lottery as part of its welfare program, but now donates rice and canned goods to organizations. The Osaka-based brokerage has received feedback that its donations were delivered to single-mother households and served at a gathering of children. "We feel it is significant that goods are being used by people who really need them," a company official said. Monex Inc. has been donating shareholder perks to various organizations across the country since 2024, with an official saying it intends to continue using the program as it is difficult to find recipients on its own. NPO Bridge for Smile, which supports children and young people who cannot rely on their parents, receives donations of food and disaster stockpiles on a regular basis through the program. "As there are some people who only have one meal a day due to soaring rice prices, we are grateful that it helps them survive," said Ryuta Suzuki, a member of the group. Related coverage: FEATURE: Japan's childless elderly turning wealth into goodwill Entrepreneur launches support service for int'l school kids in Japan
