NHK reported this morning that a cargo ship carrying MOX fuel to be used for Reactor No. 4 at Takahama Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui, which resumed operations in May, left France for Japan on Thursday. The network said the MOX fuel, nuclear fuel that contains plutonium blended with uranium, was manufactured by French company Areva for KEPCO, and will….Read more

BRUSSELS — The European Union said Tuesday it will hold a summit meeting with Japan on Thursday to discuss an economic partnership agreement, stressing that a broad agreement will likely be announced.   Prior to the summit meeting, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Brussels to attend ministerial negotiations with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom to make final adjustments.  ….Read more

A group of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers, led by former Agriculture Minister Koya Nishikawa who heads a LDP task force for Japan-EU economic partnership agreement (EPA), met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Prime Minister’s Office on July 4 ahead of a summit over Japan-EU EPA negotiations to be held in Brussels on July 6. Nishikawa asked the….Read more

TOKYO – Japan’s transport ministry said Tuesday it has selected a number of regional airports across the country to take part in a tourism promotion incentive program, which includes lowering landing fees for international flights.   Airports in Niigata, Shizuoka, Kumamoto and six others in Hokkaido are among 32 designated to be involved in the program aimed at increasing foreign visitors and….Read more

The government is considering collecting some of the revenue from casino operators mainly to finance measures to help prevent gambling addiction, sources said.   The Diet enacted a law to legalize casinos in December amid ongoing public concerns over potential social ills, including surges in gambling addiction and organized crime.   The nation is plagued by high rates of gambling….Read more

TOKYO — Japan’s corporate tax revenue in fiscal 2016 reached its lowest level in four years, falling by 500 billion yen ($4.41 billion) from the previous year to 10.3 trillion yen as a larger portion of corporate profits were booked overseas.   Fueled by rising earnings, corporate tax receipts had been growing since Shinzo Abe returned to the prime minister’s office and ushered….Read more

When Donald Trump, in one of his first acts as president, announced that the United States would not participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, many assumed that the mega-regional trade deal was dead. But such assumptions may have been premature.

The Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) announced on July 3 that Akio Mimura, chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a member of the INCJ’s policymaking body Innovation Network Committee, has replaced Hiroyuki Yoshikawa as the committee’s new chairman.   Takashi Muraoka, managing partner of Industrial Growth Platform, Inc., will join the committee as a new….Read more

On July 3, it was announced that the Japan Patent Office and the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) will introduce the “Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH),” a system that shortens the examination process for corresponding patent applications. For Japanese companies, this means a shorter examination period for applications they submit to IPONZ regarding patents they have already received in….Read more

Nikkei wrote that during the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the Trump administration’s idea on limiting foreign steel imports for national security reasons may become a focal point of discussions. The paper noted that Japan, Europe, and Canada are strongly opposed to the protectionist move, which is based on Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, on the grounds….Read more