A horse-led vintage cart, once used to deliver tea to households in Newcastle, has been transported to Japan to promote Ringtons, the North East’s newspaper, The Journal, reported on 16 September.

The family firm, which was established in 1907, has an annual turnover of £50mn and plans to introduce the brand to Japan at a trade fair in Osaka.

“For one of our original carts to travel to Japan is an historic event for us”, said Simon Smith, chief executive of Ringtons. “Not only is it the first time a Ringtons cart has left the country, but it is also a very exciting time for the business’ export arm”.

A British firm that supplies Japan-inspired sweets for catering is expanding into retail after securing deals with Whole Foods Market and Selfridges & Co., The Daily Express reported on 9 August.

Little Moons’ products include ice cream, truffles and cheesecake based on mochi (rice cakes). They are currently on menus in wagamama, YO! Sushi and Nobu.

Co-founders Vivian and Howard Wong, who gave up careers in the City to start the business, said the firm is aiming to supply a major supermarket within 12 months and secure 50% of its revenue from the retail sector within five years.

Due to the strength of the pound and price falls in Tokyo of 21.5% this calendar year, costs for UK visitors are now 50% less than in 2013, The Mirror reported on 26 September.

The Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer 2015, produced by Post Office Travel Money, surveyed the cost of 10 tourist staples—including an evening meal for two with a bottle of wine, soft and alcoholic drinks, water and sunscreen—in 33 long-haul destinations.

The report found that, in Tokyo, food and drink prices, in particular, are now reportedly much more reasonable than in 2013.

Princess Mako of Akishino has said at a press conference that she is a student at the University of Leicester, The Independent reported on 20 September.

The Imperial Household chose to make her presence known because the princess has finished her course and will graduate in January.

To date, she reportedly has been living the life of a normal student, without intrusion from media or her Japanese peers. She has been staying in a hall of residence and completed a two-month work experience programme at a museum in Coventry.

Nissan Motor Corporation is to invest £100mn in its Sunderland plant in Tyne and Wear, for manufacture of the next generation of its Juke Crossover model, The Daily Telegraph reported on 3 September.

The move is expected to guarantee 6,700 jobs at the plant and support 27,000 positions in the supply chain.

Paul Wilcox, European chairman of Nissan, said: “This announcement gives security to our Sunderland plant beyond 2020, which the team has earned through many years of hard work and their ability to continually raise the bar on quality”.

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy Amlin plc in the face of slow growth in its home market, The Guardian reported on 8 September.

While both firms have a portfolio of non-life insurance businesses in the marine, aviation, property and liability sectors, the British firm also offers a type of insurance bought by insurers. The £3.47bn cash deal is expected to be complete by the end of March 2016.

Yasuyoshi Karasawa, president of Mitsui Sumitomo, said that “the combination will accelerate [the firm’s] strategy of growing its international business”.

The Mayfair restaurants of two Japanese chefs have been awarded two Michelin stars in The Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland 2016, the Financial Times reported on 18 September.

Sushi chef Mitsuhiro Araki, who closed his famous sushi bar in Ginza, Chuo Ward, to establish The Araki in London, offers an 11-course omakase (chef’s special) menu at a cost of £300 per person.

Meanwhile, Kyoto-inspired restaurant Umu, which is home to executive chef Yoshinori Ishii, includes a £115 course menu that features charcoal-grilled game with foie gras and aged sake puree, topped with matcha green tea sweet soy sauce.

The UK has been ranked second out of a total of 141 economies in the Global Innovation Index (GII), while Japan came in 19th place, economia magazine reported on 18 September.

The UK has had the most rapid progress in innovation among the top 10 GII nations, moving from 10th place in 2011 to second in 2014. It scored well in infrastructure, market sophistication, knowledge, technology and creative outputs.

In terms of innovation quality—measured by university performance, the reach of scholarly articles and the international dimension of patent applications—the top performers are the US, the UK, Japan, Germany and Switzerland.

The British Museum in London is celebrating the 10th anniversary of sponsorship by the Asahi Shimbun with a special display of manga, ukblouinartinfo.com reported on 4 September.

Exploring the appeal and evolution of the art form, “Manga Now: Three Generations” features newly commissioned and recent works by celebrated artists Tetsuya Chiba, Yukinobu Hoshino and Hikaru Nakamura. The exhibition is designed to show the original artwork that forms the basis for mass-printed manga.

The highlight, “Fair Isle Lighthouse Keepers Golf Course, Scotland”, depicts a young player considering his next shot.

The UK and Japan have scored second and third, respectively, in a global league table of 21st century Nobel Prize winners released by the Times Higher Education weekly magazine, The Japan Times reported on 6 August.

The index examines the nationalities at birth of 146 laureates, who have received awards since 2000, in the fields of economic sciences, physiology/medicine, physics and chemistry.

In first place was the US, the top field of which was economic sciences. The UK and Japan’s strongest categories were physiology/medicine and physics, respectively.

Japanese convenience stores are not generally associated with offering options for a healthy diet, particularly one that caters to the nutritional needs of senior citizens. But perhaps their image is due to change. An article in Nikkan Gendai (28 August) stated that compared with 1989, when customers aged 50 and over accounted only for 9% of convenience store patrons, in 2013 the figure had risen to 30%, exceeding those of the teenage and twenties demographics.

A growing perception that convenience stores are strict in terms of their quality control and that they place high emphasis on freshness were the reasons given for the upsurge in older patrons.

The chain stores have upped efforts to target seniors. In April 2014, Lawson, for example, opened its first branch containing a nursing care consultation desk in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture.

To facilitate readability, larger, more readable printing is featured on a greater number of product labels. These give detailed information on price, volume and nutritional content, such as “sugar free” or “uses no preservatives or food colouring”.

A spokesperson for the firm said Lawson stores are stocking bread with bran, which appeals to dieters due to its low carbohydrate and high dietary fibre content.

“We’re working to support more middle-aged customers concerned with lifestyle-related diseases”, the spokesperson said. He added that some baked goods are topped with quinoa, a gluten-free grain native to South America said to be high in essential amino acids and so-called rare sugars.

“Our stores offer about 10 varieties of products. Over the past several years, sales have been increasing”, he said.

Likewise, a Family Mart spokesperson told Nikkan Gendai: “In Kansai, we have launched sales of grilled salmon with Okinawan-style goya-champuru (tofu combined with egg, pork and bitter melon) each month. The recipe was developed under the supervision of a nutritionist at a Kobe hospital. To appeal to the healthy eating trend, we are also reducing the salt in the broth of oden (a hodgepodge of ingredients) and mixing vegetables into the fish cakes and tofu in the dish”.

The term point-of-purchase (POP) display refers to the explanatory panels or stick-on labels that adorn displays in shops to catch the eye of browsing customers. According to an article in the Nikkei Marketing Journal (18 September), publisher Takarajima-sha has begun to promote one of its magazines using multilingual POP displays.

For reasons not fully explained in the article, it appears that visiting tourists who cannot read Japanese nevertheless like to purchase certain publications to take home.

One such magazine is InRed, a monthly from Takarajima-sha aimed at women in their thirties.

The POP displays—in English combined with French, and in Chinese with Korean—will initially be appearing in some 27 retail outlets at airports and major railway stations in the Tokyo area. The magazine’s October issue, including a cloth tote bag giveaway, went on sale on 7 September at a price of ¥720.

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Confronted with a rapid appreciation of the yen, low birth rate and the ageing of Japan’s labour pool, Japanese manufacturers began moving production offshore in the mid-1980s, to take advantage of the availability of low-cost labour. But now, according to Nikkei Business (7 September), their far-flung factories are having difficulty recruiting and retaining workers on a global basis.

Earlier this year, Japanese auto and parts manufacturers based in Mie and Gunma prefectures began circulating what it described as “peculiar” position-wanted ads. What made the ads receive this description was their targeting of foreign workers who had come to Japan in search of manufacturing jobs. The place of employment, for those who qualified, was to be in Mexico, a country in which four Japanese firms—Honda Motor Company, Mazda Motor Corporation, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corporation—are confronting an acute shortage of capable staff.

Thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico—with a population that this year is predicted to reach an estimated 120mn—has become the base for 12 foreign manufacturers that are competing for skilled workers and supervisors. US and European manufacturers have been luring away experienced local staff.

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British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has joined a Japan–UK strategic dialogue in Tokyo, Japan News reported on 8 August.

Hammond met Fumio Kishida, foreign minister, to discuss measures to boost bilateral cooperation, and confirmed the need for close cooperation between the UK and Japan to ensure the rule of law is observed in East Asia.

He said Japan’s national security bills, currently under debate in the Diet, are expected to allow the country to play a greater role in world peace and prosperity.

The UK and Japan have concluded a contract whereby a portion of the land leased by Japan for the British Embassy Tokyo premises will be made into a public park, according to a press release issued 31 August.

Ichiro Miyashita, state minister for finance, said the land was first leased to the British government in 1872 and it is hoped its transformation into a park will “become a symbol of continued exchange and friendship between Japan and the UK”.

A rare taihaku cherry tree, planted by Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge in February, will be replanted in the park.

Hiroshima-based Mayors for Peace has presented the Shetland Islands Council with seeds from trees that survived the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, according to a press release issued 5 August.

The global organisation, working towards the total abolition of nuclear weapons, made the move as part of commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings.

Schoolchildren on the islands have been asked to consider the most appropriate sites for the 25 gingko seedlings, which have been germinated in greenhouses and are growing well.

An England-based former banker, who missed drinking traditional matcha, has set up a firm to bring an affordable version to the UK, Cambridge News reported on 29 July.

Tomo Nakamura, co-founder of Goen Matcha, aims to cut costs by importing directly from a tea plantation in Kyoto. He will stock the type used in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, as well as that used by chefs for cooking.

While Goen Matcha, building on the growing interest in the drink as a super-drink, will largely target consumers, the firm also aims to educate businesses on how to use matcha to make drinks such as matcha latte.

A food futurologist has predicted hot snack vending will become more widespread in the UK, and the country is looking to Japan for expertise, The Daily Mail reported on 19 July.

The world leader in the area, Japan offers everything from noodles to pancakes in its vending machines.

Experts believe the increase in demand is due to the UK population’s move away from having three meals a day to eating more often, and eating while on the go.

Rakuten has acquired London-based virtual fitting room business Fits.me, Drapers reported on 13 July.

The Japanese e-commerce marketplace aims to grow the business, which is used by a number of British brands including Thomas Pink and Pretty Green, as a standalone entity, while developing its technology.

Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten founder and chief executive, said: “Fits.me represents both the fun and functionality of shopping online and is a natural complement to our growing portfolio of e-commerce and marketing services”.

An Edinburgh-based travel search firm and Yahoo! Japan have entered a joint venture aimed to improve travellers’ planning, Japan Today reported on 19 July.

Skyscanner will share its application-programming interface with the Japanese firm and power its flight search results, allowing users to compare millions of flight options, for both travel in Japan and internationally.

Gareth Williams, co-founder and chief executive of Skyscanner said: “Skyscanner Japan is a start-up backed by a leading global travel search engine and the biggest search engine in the world’s third-biggest travel market”.

Leicester City Football Club’s Shinji Okazaki has adapted to the demands of Premier League football, Japan Today reported on 20 August.

The 29-year-old, who scored 37 goals in over four years in the German Bundesliga league, said his first goal for the club was the result.

“Prior to coming to the Premier League, I would have trapped the ball, but my instinct told me that I needed to react quickly at this level and I took the chance and volleyed the ball instead”, he said, adding that he wants recognition as a goalscorer.

Kindness shown by a Japanese soldier to a British prisoner of war, captured during the fall of Singapore in 1942, has brought their families together, The Guardian reported on 16 August.

A devout Buddhist and pacifist, Kameo Yamanaka used his army allowance to buy food for Bill Norways—and other prisoners—and smuggled in pencils so the artist could continue drawing.

After the war, the two men exchanged letters for more than 30 years. In August, Norways’ son met the daughter, granddaughter and other relatives of Yamanaka in an emotional meeting.

Callum Farquhar, of the 83rd Fife (Cairneyhill) Scout Group, has been given a Point of Light award by Prime Minister David Cameron for promoting cultural relations with Japan, Dunfermline Press reported on 24 July.

Farquar has spent 25 years building links with scout groups and raised £10,000 in Scotland to help Scout groups in Iwate Prefecture following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

In addition to bringing Scottish Scouts to Japan, he hosted groups of Japanese scouts, for which he was awarded the Silver Cuckoo, the highest award in Japanese scouting.

“Pizza prices collapsing” reads the front-page headline of the Nikkei Marketing Journal (10 August). Home-delivery pizza chains such as Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Pizza-La, which generally offer products in the range of ¥2,000 to ¥4,000, are finding themselves confronting new competition in the form of low-cost, take-away items that require virtually no waiting time.

The first of the new “one-coin” pizza shops, so named because their products sell for around ¥500 each, began springing up around 2008. Shibuya-based Endo Holdings Co., Ltd., which sells pizzas for as little as ¥350 each, opened its first Napoli’s Pizza & Caffé restaurant in April 2012, and has been opening new outlets at the rate of more than two per month.

Aeon Supermarkets have stepped up plans to open take-home pizza counters on their premises from an initial 20 to 100. Ready, it pledges, in 90 seconds, they will sell for ¥594 each. The low-budget pizzas address a different demographic, including single females and teenagers.

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In June, an Osaka-based company employee, whose name was not given, was making appointments for an upcoming business trip to Tokyo. Everything was falling into place until a search for overnight accommodation resulted in problems, reports Nikkei Business (24 August). While the firm’s travel allowance provides for a maximum of ¥8,000 per night for hotel outlays, there wasn’t a room to be found for under ¥20,000.

In desperation, he found lodgings for ¥8,700 in an unfamiliar suburb called Akishima, but confused the name with Showajima (since two of the three characters in the names are the same). The latter is near Haneda Airport and just 20 minutes from the city centre; Akishima, meanwhile, is close to the Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo and a 90-minute train ride from the city centre. By the time things had been straightened out, he was a nervous wreck.

The supply–demand situation for hotel accommodation has been skewed by the high demand for hotel rooms, resulting from the number of foreign visitors soaring on the back of the favourable yen exchange rate and the loosening of short-term visa restrictions. Business hotel occupancy rates in Osaka, for instance, soared from 78.6% in 2013 to 85.4% in May 2015. It has also made finding rooms at short notice or the same day much more difficult, and it has had a pronounced effect on room rates.

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While legislation recently passed by the Diet, concerning the use of temporary staff from worker dispatch firms, has raised objections over reduced responsibilities by the firms that employ them, Nikkan Gendai (25 August) notes that hourly wages have been steadily rising.

According to Recruit Jobs, a publisher that circulates position-wanted data, the average hourly wage for staff reached ¥1,600 an hour for the first time in July, and held that figure for two consecutive months.

Depending on the job category, hourly wages for some workers have exceeded ¥2,000. So, while such workers may still lack the perks of regular company staff, at least in monetary terms things are looking up.

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Consul General of Japan in Edinburgh Hajime Kitaoka has visited the Outer Hebrides on a fact-finding mission for the country to harness wind and wave power, The Scotsman reported on 4 July.

In addition to looking at small-scale renewable energy projects, he saw some local cultural and heritage sites.

Before departing, he said the visit could be one of the most significant he has undertaken. “I am very much looking forward to visiting sites relating to renewable energy, which is now of the utmost importance for the future of Japan since the nuclear disaster caused by the tsunami in 2011”, he added.

The UK has been ranked first, and Japan eighth, in the world in terms of soft power according to a study by Portland Consulting Engineers, The Japan Times reported on 15 July.

The firm defined soft power as a country’s ability to harness attraction and persuasion to pursue foreign policy objectives. It analysed soft power resources in 50 countries across six categories: government, education, culture, enterprise, engagement and digital.

Japan ranked third in enterprise and fourth in education, while the UK scored particularly well in culture, education and digital.

Industrial group Horiba has acquired Mira, a partner in UK Autodrive—one of the groups carrying out tests of driverless cars under a £19mn government scheme—for an undisclosed sum, the Financial Times reported on 14 July.

Mira operates one of the largest independent testing grounds in the world, used by manufacturers of motorised vehicles.

George Gillespie, chief executive of Mira, said the deal would allow the firm to invest in its facilities, including a technology park in the Midlands that it wants to turn into Europe’s biggest transport hub by 2022. “Having a parent who is global will accelerate the globalisation of what we do”, he added.

Honda Motor Europe Ltd. is to export the firm’s Civic Type R hot hatch to Japan from its manufacturing plant in Swindon, Auto Express reported on 6 July.

The Wiltshire facility is the only one in the world to produce the hot hatch, Honda’s flagship performance model in the Civic range.

The export news builds on the announcement that the plant is set to receive £200mn in investment to enable it to become the global production hub for the next generation Honda Civic 5-door.