Tokyo prosecutors on Wednesday charged Olympus Corp and six key figures in the $1.7 billion accounting fraud at the camera and endoscope maker, tightening their case in the investigation of one of Japan’s biggest corporate scandals.
Prosecutors charged ex-chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former executive vice-president Hisashi Mori and former auditor Hideo Yamada with inflating the company’s net worth in financial statements for the fiscal years ended March 2007 and 2008, in violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law.
Also charged were former bankers Akio Nakagawa, Nobumasa Yokoo and Taku Hada, prosecutors said …

Standing before fellow lawmakers in a recent appearance, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda urged on Japan’s “rebirth” in much the same way the nation rebuilt from the “burning fields” of a war-torn land more than 60 years ago.
It was one of several instances in which the natural disaster that struck Japan one year ago was compared with the man-made devastation of World War II. In the year since the monster earthquake last March 11 set off a chain reaction of tragic events, Japan has showcased how far it has rebounded from …

Shareholders of Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan, are suing the utility’s executives for a record 5.5 trillion yen ($67.4 billion) in compensation, lawyers said.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant was wrecked by a quake and tsunami last March, triggering the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century and swamping the firm with huge clean-up, compensation and decommissioning costs.
In the biggest claim of its kind in Japan, 42 shareholders filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court on Monday accusing …

One of Asia’s youngest self-made billionaires, 35-year-old Yoshikazu Tanaka looks the part of a young internet tycoon.
The Japanese founder and CEO of mobile social gaming business Gree arrived for his CNN interview wearing a hooded sweatshirt, ripped jeans and a pair bight red shoes. His personal wealth is valued at $2.2 billion so he can afford to wear whatever he wants to the office.
Gree has grown from Tanaka’s self-financed project into a company with a market value of around $7 billion. The share price is more than sevenfold what it …

When should dismay give way to distress?  When does disfunction trip into crisis?I really detest writing–much more thinking–like this, but the politics now prevailing in Tokyo are driving me to distraction.Being debated this week in the Diet are three urgent issues:  1 formal entry into TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks that would open Japanese agriculture to foreign competition, 2 proposed legislation to increase consumption tax from 5% to 10% by 2016 to fund Japan’s old age security system; and 3 the FY2012 budget, including authorization to issue new debt to …

The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Japan’s biggest yakuza group, an organized-crime syndicate that operates with relative impunity there and whose far-ranging criminal activity has become a significant concern in Washington.
In an announcement on Thursday, the department said it would freeze the American-based assets of the group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, and two of its leaders. It will also bar any transactions between Americans and members of the penalized crime syndicate. Yakuza have been tied to drug trafficking and other crimes in the United States, with particular prominence in Hawaii and …

SBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank, will withdraw from consumer banking in Japan, closing down six branches four years after starting the business.HSBC will stop selling new investment products, including mutual funds, from March 8, and it will end operations in its branches in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya by July 31, the London-based bank said in the memo e-mailed to its customers yesterday and obtained by Bloomberg News. A spokesman in London confirmed the details of the e-mail.The U.K. lender is scaling back in parts of Asia, including Japan, South …

Japan on Monday approved a fresh $8.9 billion in aid for the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant as the company said it expected to lose a similar amount this year.
The decision means TEPCO stays solvent, but continues to run up costs as it struggles to clean up the mess left behind by reactor meltdowns and meet claims for compensation following the March 11 quake disaster and resulting nuclear crisis.
The 690 billion yen aid package was announced after Tokyo Electric Power revised up its estimate of what it would need …

What if the vice president of your university were a genius producer who had put together an insanely successful pop group of 90 singers and then approved the creation of identical doll versions of them?
Weird? Not for Kyoto University of Art and Design and Yasushi Akimoto, the Steve Jobs of otaku (supergeeks) in Japan. The school just hosted a hit exhibition of dolls based on the gals in the band he produces, AKB48.
At 90 members, AKB48 is the Guinness-certified world’s largest pop band. Its members are all females in their …

Three of Japan’s biggest electronics companies are to join forces in a chip-making venture, according to reports, days after a swathe of dire results from a sector struggling to compete globally.
Panasonic, which earlier said it expected to lose more than $10 billion this year, is set to hook up with Renesas Electronics and Fujitsu as they look for economies of scale in an increasingly difficult marketplace.
The three companies will spin off their system chip design and development divisions to create a new company in an effort to ensure the survival …