India briefs Japan on LAC, Tokyo says it opposes any change in status quo

Japan on Friday communicated trust in a quiet goals of the progressing stalemate among Indian and Chinese soldiers and attested that it restricted any endeavors to change the norm on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
New Delhi has informed Tokyo in regards to the circumstance on LAC following a significant confrontation among Indian and Chinese soldiers a month ago in Galwan Valley territory. Following the go head to head, India had said that Chinese soldiers endeavored to singularly change business as usual during the de-heightening.
"Had a decent talk with Foreign Secretary (Harsh Vardhan) Shringla. Valued his preparation on the circumstance along LAC, including GOI's approach to seek after serene goals. Japan additionally seeks after serene goals through discoursed. Japan restricts any one-sided endeavors to change business as usual," Japenese emissary Satoshi Suzuki tweeted on Friday.
Strains have been raising along the LAC since May. The Chinese and Indian soldiers got occupied with various encounters along the LAC.
The fringe pressures among India and China uplifted after 20 Indian officers lost their lives in a vicious go head to head in Galwan Valley on June 15-16 after an endeavor by the Chinese soldiers to singularly change business as usual during the de-acceleration. Indian captures uncovered that the Chinese side endured 43 losses including dead and genuinely harmed in the go head to head.

India and China have been engaged with converses with facilitate the progressing outskirt pressures since a month ago.

ValueAct eyes stake of over $1.1 billion in Japanese gaming major Nintendo

Activist investor ValueAct Capital Partners LP has built a stake of over $1.1 billion in Nintendo, according to a letter seen by Reuters, a bet that digital software distribution and the development of new entertainment products will fuel growth at the Japanese gaming company.
ValueAct, which first began buying the stock in April 2019, grew the position in Nintendo, known for its gaming consoles and for having turned characters like Mario and Donkey Kong into international hits, during the stock market sell-off in February and March, according to the letter sent to its investors.
Nintendo's future is bright, ValueAct wrote in its letter, adding there is potential for growth both in the software business and room for the company to transform itself into a broader entertainment company.
ValueAct has picked up about 2.6 million shares, or about a 2% stake, in Nintendo. Shares of the Japanese company rose more than 2% as trading started in Tokyo.
"We are aware that ValueAct is holding a stake and we've been engaged in dialogue with them. We don't disclose content of our dialogue with our investors," a Nintendo spokesman said.
A spokesman for ValueAct declined to comment.
San Francisco-based ValueAct said it has had several meetings with members of Nintendo management and that it believes in the vision the company's chief executive, Shuntaro Furukawa, has shared with ValueAct and with others.
Unlike other investment firms that push for change publicly and often ask for board seats at target companies, ValueAct prefers to work with management behind the scenes.
Its partners could offer relevant guidance and experience to help Nintendo after having served on boards at Adobe and Microsoft, the firm's letter said, stopping short of asking for board representation.

U.S. activist investors are increasingly looking to target Japan's cash rich companies and this marks the third investment ValueAct has made in Japan in the last four years.

Coronavirus outbreak: 4 more Indian on-board Diamond Princess test positive

Current Affairs
Four Indian crew members who underwent tests for coronavirus on board the Diamond Princess moored off the Japan coast, have tested positive, taking the number of Indians infected with the virus on the vessel to 12, the Indian embassy said on Sunday. “Unfortunately, the results received include four Indian crew members having tested positive,” the Indian embassy tweeted. “All 12 Indians are responding well to treatment.”
Passengers showing no signs of the deadly disease started deboarding the ship after the quarantine period ended last week.
The death toll from China’s coronavirus epidemic has shot to 2,442, while confirmed cases rose to 76,936, officials said on Sunday. Aviation regulator DGCA has ordered screening of passengers from four more countries — Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia — as part of efforts to prevent spreading of coronavirus. Now, fliers from as many as 10 countries would be screened.
Maharashtra on Sunday said 81 out of 83 people admitted in isolation wards for suspected exposure to the novel coronavirus have tested negative. While 80 of them have been discharged, three others continue to be hospitalised.
The industry body Assocham said the industry and trade, including pharmaceuticals, are ready to manage the “evolving” coronavirus situation without causing any major impact on the supply chain and no major challenge is foreseen in the near term. Stating that there is no need for panic, Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said the government and industry have been reacting in a pro-active manner in close coordination with each other.

Meanwhile, the IMF warned that the deadly coronavirus epidemic could put an already fragile global economy recovery at risk...READ MORE

Japan braces for Q4 GDP slump, decline in output on coronavirus fears

Current Affairs
Japanese policymakers on Friday supported for a sharp withdrawal in October-December development and cautioned of the hit to yield and utilization from the coronavirus episode, flagging alert over an obscuring standpoint for the world's third-biggest economy.
Bank of Japan Executive Director Eiji Maeda said (GDP) may have endured a "major withdrawal" in the last quarter of a year ago because of lazy abroad interest and harm to utilization from a year ago's business charge climb.
"Japan's economy is relied upon to keep extending modestly as a pattern," because of strong capital consumption and government spending, Maeda told parliament.
"Be that as it may, we should be watchful against different dangers, for example, the effect the coronavirus flare-up could have on yield and spending by inbound sightseers," he said. Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura additionally told correspondents the infection flare-up, just as abnormally warm climate that harms offers of winter apparel, were "new factors burdening the economy."
Examiners surveyed by Reuters anticipate that Japan's economy should have shrank an annualized 3.7% in the October-December quarter, which would be the quickest pace of decrease since 2014. The GDP information is expected 8:50 a.m. Monday (2350GMT Sunday). Japan is among nations most exceedingly terrible influenced by the pandemic outside China, with 251 affirmed cases including those on a journey deliver.

A few examiners anticipate that Japan's economy should endure another withdrawal in the flow quarter as China's infection episode harms fares, yield and utilization through a sharp drop in abroad voyagers. The legislature settled on Friday to burn through 10.3 billion yen from spending stores to react to the coronavirus....READ MORE

Japan minister warns coronavirus outbreak may rattle profits, production

Current Affairs
Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Tuesday cautioned that corporate benefits and industrial facility creation may endure a shot from the coronavirus episode in China that has shaken worldwide markets and chilled certainty.
Asian stocks expanded a worldwide selloff as the flare-up in China, which has killed 106 individuals and spread to numerous nations, fuelled worry over the harm to the world's second biggest economy - a motor of worldwide development. "There are worries over the effect to the worldwide economy from the spread of contamination in China, transportation disturbances, crossing out of gathering visits from China and an extention in the Lunar Holiday," Nishimura told a news gathering after an ordinary bureau meeting.
"In the event that the circumstance takes more time to die down, we're concerned it could hurt Japanese fares, yield and corporate benefits through the effect on Chinese utilization and generation," he said. China is Japan's second biggest fare goal and a gigantic market for its retailers. The Chinese make up 30% of all vacationers visiting Japan and spent about 40% of the all out whole outside sightseers utilized a year ago, an industry overview appeared.
The flare-up could hit Japanese retail chains, retailers and inns, which rely on a lift to deals from an inflow of Chinese sightseers visiting during the Lunar Holiday. Automaker Honda Motor, which has three plants in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei territory and the focal point of the episode, plans to empty some staff. Age will close its shopping centers in the city until Thursday.

Financial experts at SMBC Nikko Securities gauge that if a boycott China has forced on abroad gathering visits keeps going an additional a half year, it could hurt Japan's monetary development by 0.05%...Read More

SoftBank's Yahoo Japan confirms merger talks with messaging app Line

International News
SoftBank's Yahoo Japan, one of Japan's top internet firms, confirmed it is in talks to merge with Line Corp, a $27 billion union that would bring the messaging app operator under the SoftBank umbrella in a major tech shake-up.
Yahoo Japan, which last month changed its name to Z Holdings , said on Thursday discussions were underway with Line but nothing had been decided. SoftBank Corp, which owns almost half of Z Holdings, also acknowledged the talks.
Shares in Z Holdings, which had a stock market value of about $17 billion at Wednesday's close, jumped 14.8 per cent.
Shares in Line, which is valued at about $10 billion, were untraded with a glut of buy orders.
Sources told Reuters the previous day a deal was likely by month-end and could see SoftBank Corp and Line's parent Naver Corp form a 50/50 venture that would control Z Holdings, which would in turn operate Line and Yahoo.
Line said in a statement it was true it is considering ways to improve its corporate value but nothing had been decided.
A deal would bring together the operators of two of Japan's biggest QR code payment apps as the country belatedly shifts to cashless payments. SoftBank's PayPay recently hit 19 million users through aggressive marketing, while Line Pay can tap the 82 million Japanese users of the Line app.
Line, which last year sold a majority stake in its mobile unit to SoftBank, has reported three consecutive quarters of operating losses as the company tries to jump-start growth.

Z Holdings made a move in September to take control of fashion e-tailer Zozo Inc in a $3.7 billion deal, as it bulks up against rivals such as Amazon.com. ...READ MORE

iPhone's LCD panel supplier JDI sees OLED screens sweeping market by 2021

Technology
Japan Display Inc., the struggling supplier of mobile screens to Apple Inc., says it has about a year before it needs to decide on whether to take a plunge on next-generation organic light-emitting diode displays.
While OLED panels are slimmer, more energy-efficient and offer higher contrast, JDI’s liquid crystal displays will retain a price advantage that keeps them competitive in smartphones through 2021, the company’s new Chief Executive Officer Minoru Kikuoka said in an interview. He anticipates a more decisive shift to the new technology may occur in that time period, declining to elaborate on plans of specific customers.
When Apple launched its first OLED iPhone in 2017, it was seen as the beginning of the end for the LCD’s long reign. For Japan Display, which relies on Apple for a large portion of its revenue, that spelled trouble because the company was falling behind in the development of the new screens. But the iPhone X, which used an OLED display from Samsung Electronics Co., didn’t sell as well as anticipated, and Apple followed up a year later with an LCD-based addition to its lineup with the iPhone XR -- giving the Japanese company some breathing room.
With the smartphone market plateauing and fancier screens failing to ratchet up demand from users already content with their existing devices, value for money has once again risen in importance for people considering a new purchase, according to the CEO.

 “We are seeing consumers put more emphasis on affordability when it comes to their smartphone preferences,” Kikuoka said. “The industry is now gaining a new appreciation for the kind of price competitiveness offered by the LCDs.”Apple’s 2019 phone lineup includes one LCD model -- the iPhone 11, which Apple launched at a starting price $50 lower than its predecessor -- and the company plans to add a second one in the first half of next year to replace the aging iPhone 8....Read More

Malaysian PM Mahathir accepts failure of the boom he launched 30 years ago

International News
Peter Barbey’s great-grandfather John started the Reading Glove and Mitten Manufacturing Co. 120 years ago. Known today as the VF Corp., it owns outdoorsy brands like Timberland and North Face. In its last fiscal year, VF reported nearly $14 billion in revenue and $1.5 billion in net income. Its market cap hovers around $35 billion. The Barbeys, who still own around 20 per cent of the company, are very rich.
Barbey, 62, went to the University of Arizona. He met his wife, Pam, there. They planted roots in Phoenix, where he invested in commercial real estate while also running the city’s most beloved independent bookstore, Houle Books. But in 2011, Peter and Pam moved to Reading, Pennsylvania, to take charge of another property that had been in the Barbey, DuPont and Flippin families for over a century: the Reading Eagle. With a Sunday circulation over 70,000, a team of sports writers as good as any in Pennsylvania, and a news staff that took seriously its watchdog role, the Eagle was one of the best medium-sized newspapers in the state, if not the country.
When I asked Barbey recently how he felt about leaving behind his life in Arizona to become president of the Eagle, he shrugged. “I’d been on the board since 2000,” he said. “I knew the company well. And I felt it was my duty to my family’s legacy, and to this community, to take this on.”
Eight years later, the Barbey, DuPont and Flippin families no longer own the Reading Eagle. In May, the paper was sold to MediaNews Group Inc., the newspaper company owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital LLC, which has a well-deserved reputation for asset stripping and layoffs. Barbey cared deeply about the Eagle; he sold it with great reluctance, helpless to reverse the paper’s economic decline.

 You sometimes hear journalists saying that if only their paper’s owner had beefed up the staff, had given reporters more time to do better stories, had made the paper indispensable to its community...Read More

G7 unity under stress as it wrestles with Iran, Amazon fires and trade

Current Affairs

G7 leaders close their summit on Monday with discussion of world problems including the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest, but overshadowed by President Donald Trump's trade wars and questions over the group's unity.
The summit in Biarritz, a high-end surfers' paradise in southwestern France, saw a dramatic shift of focus Saturday when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew in to discuss the diplomatic deadlock on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.
Zarif's presence had not been expected and it represented a gamble by French host Emmanuel Macron who is seeking to soothe spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States.
The Iranian top diplomat didn't meet Trump, French diplomats said, but the presence of the two men in the same place at least sparked hopes of a detente. Just this July, the US government imposed heavy sanctions seeking to hamper Zarif's travel, and effectively banning him from the United States.
"Road ahead is difficult. But worth trying," the US-educated Zarif tweeted after meeting Macron and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, as well as British and German representatives.
French officials said Trump, who has imposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian economy over its nuclear programme, had been aware of the arrival.

 The sources suggested that the secretive visit had also been discussed during an impromptu two-hour lunch between the US president and Macron on Saturday."We work with full transparency with the Americans," one diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity, despite US media reports that the White House had been taken by surprise...Read More

No easy exit in sight from worst Japan-South Korea spat in decades

International News
Japan and South Korea plan to meet over Tokyo’s move to restrict vital exports to its neighbor, but neither has much political incentive to climb down from their worst dispute in decades.
Decades of mistrust make it difficult for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in to retreat from their budding trade feud. A series of looming deadlines, including a Japanese upper house election on July 21, are only raising the political pressure on both men, who can’t afford to look weak dealing with disagreements rooted in Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the Korean Peninsula.
On Wednesday, Moon, who was elected in 2017 on a promise to reconsider his predecessor’s moves to ease historical spats with Japan, warned business leaders in Seoul of a “prolonged” battle. At an election debate last week, Abe accused South Korea of reneging on its promises.
“The leaders on both sides are incompatible with any sort of political rapprochement,” said Jonathan Berkshire Miller, a senior fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo who specializes in Northeast Asian security issues. “The sense on Moon here is negative and Abe is obviously persona non grata in South Korea.”

 The flare-up stems from a series of South Korean court decisions ordering the seizure of Japanese corporate assets as compensation for Koreans conscripted to work in factories and mines during the colonial era. The issue escalated from a regional diplomatic spat to a global trade worry last week after Abe’s government moved to curb the export of specialty materials vital to South Korea’s technology sector.The restrictions give Japan a mechanism to slow production by chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix, squeeze the South Korean economy and disrupt supply chains dependent on their memory chips and components...Read More

This is going to be prolonged war with Japan: Korean Prez warns biz leaders

International News

South Korean President Moon Jae-in warned top business leaders of an extended battle with Japan over its export controls on vital manufacturing materials, raising concerns their latest fight could disrupt global supply chains.
On Wednesday, Moon told executives from companies including Samsung Electronics Co., SK Group, Hyundai Motor Co. and Lotte Group, that he saw Japan targeting South Korea’s economy for political gains. Japan last week imposed curbs on highly specialized products needed to make semiconductors and computer displays, and could also remove its neighbor from a list of trusted buyers.
“Our government is forming a response system demanding Japan to withdraw its unfair export limit measures with a sense of urgency,” Moon said in Seoul, calling the current situation an “unprecedented emergency.”
Japan has said it made the move to ensure proper security and questioned its trust of South Korea after courts there last year ruled that Japanese companies needed to pay compensation to Koreans conscripted to work at mines and factories during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. Tokyo said all claims were settled by a 1965 treaty and that it didn’t see the court decisions as valid.

 The dispute has moved into the economic arena what the two see as proper contrition for Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. Past fights have mostly kept industries on both sides out of the fray but the worry now is that tensions between the major trading partners and U.S. allies could spiral out of control.Moon on Wednesday proposed an “active support” from the government’s end for companies to diversify importers and expand local production, adding that the export curbs would be reflected in an upcoming extra budget bill proposal within the National Assembly.

How will Trump's trade war end? The US-UK war of 1812 may have the answer

International News
President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war against China has drawn plenty of historical parallels.
The Chinese like to invoke the 19th-century Opium Wars and the national humiliation that followed.
In the U.S. the comparison is increasingly to the Cold War against the Soviet Union, or the 1980s trade wars against Japan.

Ask Douglas Irwin, author of “Clashing Over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy,” however, and he argues the most accurate comparison from an American perspective is the War of 1812.
That conflict was born out of a trade war (a British embargo of France) and fought at least partly as a trade war (a British blockade of America). It also yielded another trade war.

Once the war was won, it prompted calls for a decoupling from a British economy with which America’s was deeply integrated, Irwin said. And like the current calls related to China, that was based on a bigger existential question for the U.S.

“We wanted to reduce our dependence on Britain, which was viewed as an enemy power,’’ said Irwin, a professor at Dartmouth.

Higher Stakes

In response, Washington began imposing higher tariffs on British goods to protect what it declared to be strategic U.S. industries.


 That action grew into manufacturers’ calls for protection from cheap British imports that would become a feature of political debate through the 19th century...Read More

Surprise! India has the third highest expat salary packages in Asia

International News

With Hong Kong and Singapore routinely topping the charts as the most expensive places to live and play, it may come as some surprise that Japan offers the best pay packets for expats in Asia.

The average expatriate pay package provided by companies in Japan to mid-level employees is $386,451 a year, eclipsing what’s on offer anywhere else in the region, according to a report by consultancy ECA International. Japan also saw the biggest increase in expat package values last year, thanks to a stronger yen and steeper housing costs, said Lee Quane, a regional director at the firm.
ECA's annual MyExpatriate Market Pay Survey measured expat packages by cash salary along with other perks including accommodation allowances and international school subsidies. It also took the various countries’ tax systems into account.Perhaps because of some of the challenges living in India entails -- think bad traffic, overcrowding and pollution -- it came in at No. 3, with companies offering mid-level staff an average package of $299,728 to attract overseas talent.

Hong Kong, the world’s least-affordable city, took the No. 4 slot in Asia, with firms shelling out $276,417 to international employees. Add-on benefits over and above salary were the highest in the region.Singapore only just squeezes into the top 10. The city-state, known for its low taxes, good schooling and easy outdoor lifestyle, mean companies don’t need to offer as many other bells and whistles.

On balance, it’s still better to be based in Asia as an expat, the ECA study found. Packages in the U.S. averaged just $250,028. In Australia, seen as a


 dream destination for many because of its wide open spaces and coastal cities, packages were $266,848.Topping the list globally was the U.K., with an average expat package of $421,798....Read More

Ex Nissan boss Ghosn gets $4.5m bail, may soon walk out of detention centre

Carlos Ghosn Photographer: Keith Bedford/Bloomberg

Company News

A Japanese court granted Carlos Ghosn bail Thursday, meaning the former Nissan boss could soon walk out of his Tokyo detention centre to prepare his defence against multiple charges of financial misconduct.

The Tokyo District Court set bail at 500 million yen ($4.5 million) as the 65-year-old auto sector legend faces four charges ranging from concealing part of his salary from shareholders to syphoning off Nissan funds for his personal use.

Prosecutors are likely to appeal the court's decision, delaying his immediate release but public broadcaster NHK said he could walk out of his detention centre "as early as Thursday".
Ghosn denies all the charges, with a spokesperson for the executive saying on Monday he would "vigorously defend himself against these baseless accusations and fully expects to be vindicated".
The spokesperson said Ghosn was being detained "under cruel and unjust conditions, in violation of his human rights, in an effort by prosecutors to coerce a confession from him".

On Monday, he was hit with what experts have described as the most serious charges yet as prosecutors accused him of syphoning off $5 million of Nissan cash transferred from the company to a dealership in Oman.

He also faces two charges of deferring some $80 million of his salary and hiding this in official documents to shareholders and seeking to shift personal investment losses to the firm during the 2008 financial crisis.


 Ghosn has already been granted bail once, posting $9 million and vowing not to leave Japan and to live in a small court-appointed apartment in central Tokyo -- a far cry from his former luxury suite...Read More

Honda to shut down its only UK car plant in 2022 putting 3,500 jobs at risk

International News:
Japanese carmaker Honda is set to announce the closure of its only British car plant in 2022 with the loss of 3,500 jobs, a lawmaker told Reuters, in the latest blow to the UK car industry as Brexit approaches.

Honda built just over 160,000 vehicles at its Swindon factory in southern England last year, where it makes the Civic and CV-R models, accounting for a little more than 10 percent of Britain's total output of 1.52 million cars.

But it has struggled in Europe in recent years, and the industry faces a number of challenges including declining diesel demand and tougher regulations alongside the uncertainty over Britain's departure from the European Union, due next month.
Justin Tomlinson, a Conservative lawmaker for Swindon who voted for Brexit in 2016, said he had met with the business minister and representatives from Honda who had confirmed the plans.
"They were due to make a statement tomorrow morning, it's obviously broken early," Tomlinson, lawmaker for North Swindon, told Reuters.

"This is not Brexit-related. It is a reflection of the global market. They are seeking to consolidate production in Japan."

Honda said it would not be providing any comment at this stage.
Japan has repeatedly warned it could pull investments in Britain, which it had seen as a gateway into Europe, if London does not secure a Brexit deal favourable for trade.

 The recently agreed EU-Japan trade agreement means tariffs on cars from Japan to the continent will be eliminated, while Britain is struggling to make progress on talks over post-Brexit trade relations with Tokyo...Read More

5 factors that drove Sensex 500 points higher ahead of Interim Budget 2019

Interim Budget 2019:

Markets gained ground on Thursday with the S&P BSE Sensex rallying over 500 points, or around 1.5 per cent, in intra-day deals. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the Nifty50 moved up around 1.3 per cent, or 140 points, to hit an intra-day high of 10,813.
Here are five factors driving the markets:

Status quo by the US Federal Reserve: The US Federal Reserve held rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting, which ended Wednesday. The Federal Open Market Committee “will be patient as it determines what future adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate may be appropriate,” the central bank said in a statement Wednesday.

“FOMC statement and Powell’s press conference confirm our view that the Fed’s pause is, in reality, the end of the hiking cycle. We expect the Fed’s target range for the federal funds rate to remain unchanged for the remainder of the year, followed by rate cuts in 2020 as the economy starts to slide into a recession," said Philip Marey, senior market strategist at Rabobank International.

Supportive global cues: Asian stocks rose to a four-month high on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve pledged to be patient with further interest rate hikes, signalling a potential end to its tightening cycle amid signs of slowing global growth. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose to its highest since October, while Japan's Nikkei moved up 1 per cent.


 Interim Budget & fiscal prudence: Finance minister Piyush Goyal will present the Interim Budget 2019 on Friday. Though markets expect the proposals to have a populist undertone ahead of general elections scheduled for April / May 2019, they do not expect the government to sway significantly from the path of fiscal prudence.