The Indonesian coal mining conglomerate Adaro Energy, which is allied with the Japanese companies J-Power, Itochu, as well as a number of public and private Japanese banks, has been avoiding local taxes for more than a decade, depriving the Indonesian government of about US$125 million in income from 2009 to 2017, and has even been accused of provoking human rights abuses in the country.
The World Health Organization estimates that there will be a shortage of 18 million healthcare workers by 2030. This equates to a 20% gap in the global capacity to provide healthcare services. Japan, which is already grappling with an aging society and its attendant problems, is at the forefront of this crisis.
The company Sumifru, affiliated with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, has found itself in hot water over its alleged human rights violations against banana plantation workers in the Philippines.
Instead of the open discord over tariffs and trade that many had been bracing for, the main headline story from this weekend’s G20 finance ministers meeting in Fukuoka was the broad agreement on the need for more effective taxation of the global technology firms.
Mark Karpeles, former CEO of the now-bankrupt Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, expressed his belief in the potential of cryptocurrency as a viable method of payment while recognizing that there is still serious work to be done regarding security.
After fifty days, former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn has finally been able to speak. In a Japanese court, he publicly denied all of the prosecutors’ charges against him.
Labor exploitation has reached epidemic proportions within both the anime and manga industries, and it may require bold—indeed radical—measures to truly address the roots of the problem.
Japan wants to make the move to cashless payments.
The now ubiquitous Japanese messaging app LINE has unveiled it’s “LINE Pay” service in June, and announced that it would be expanding its financial services. LINE is partnering with megabank Mizuho to offer banking services: LINE will own 51% of the bank and Mizuho will own the other 49%. Additionally, it was announced that LINE Pay services will now work cooperatively with Chinese financial giant Tencent’s WeChat Pay.
Japan’s aging population has led to a decline in the workforce and the Abe government has determined that the best solution is to import foreign workers, but the administration is remarkably clear about the specifics of what it is proposing.