A buyout of UK-founded, Ireland-headquartered pharmaceuticals firm Shire by Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical was agreed, after the former had rejected a cash and stock offer in mid-April, the BBC reported on 8 May.

The original offer, worth £43bn, would have given Shire shareholders ownership of about half of the new group. However, Shire claimed the offer undervalued the firm and its growth prospects, the report said. The accepted offer involved a £46bn deal. The news of the rejected offer and the continuing talks saw Shire share prices rise over the following days.

Meanwhile, Takeda’s shares tumbled on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while talk of further offers continued, with the figure increasing each time until the deal with announced.

Team GB’s hopes of entering a team in the skateboarding events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games may have been dashed by a funding crisis after Skateboard England lost its Sport England backing, according to Japan Today on 19 April.

Skateboarding is set to make its debut in Tokyo, with four medal events in the two categories of park and street. The report says that other Olympic skateboarding hopefuls in countries such as Australia, Spain and Germany are receiving government funding.

PHOTO: ELEN SEIBERT

In its roundup of Japanese-to-English translations for the upcoming months, Nippon.com reported on 10 April that the latest novel by celebrated author Haruki Murakami will be released in English in the UK on 9 October.

The eagerly-awaited Killing Commendatore, translated by regular Murakami collaborators Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen, tells the story of a painter of portraits who finds an undiscovered piece by a famous artist.

The website says F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has influenced Murakami’s book.

In tennis, Japan beat the UK in the Fed Cup promotion play-off, dashing hopes of being able to play in the World Group, the BBC reported on 22 April.

The deciding doubles rubber saw Miyu Kato and Makoto Ninomiya beat Johanna Konta and Heather Watson 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 with Watson having earlier lost to Kurumi Nara and Konta beating Naomi Osaka.

The last time Britain competed in the World Group was 1993.

Most people who engage in commercial transactions in Japan will agree that the saying “genkin banno”—cash is king—still applies. Use of personal cheques is a rarity, while credit cards and other money substitutes, which have made gains over the past several decades, still tend to be utilised considerably less than in other advanced economies.

But this may be changing. An online survey of 1,676 adults conducted by the Asahi Shimbun vernacular newspaper (21 April) reveals that the ratio of respondents preferring cash to cashless was split precisely down the middle. The former gave such explanations for favouring cash as “being accepted anywhere”, “keeping one more aware of the value of goods and services”, and “making one less concerned about overspending” (as opposed to when using e-money or credit cards).

Meanwhile, those preferring to eschew cash gave as their reasons that they liked being credited with shopping points, don’t need to go to a bank to get money, and find it troublesome to walk around carrying large sums of money.

The most popular cash substitutes mentioned (with multiple replies given) were credit cards (827 people), prepaid cards such as Suica and PASMO issued by railways (661), WAON issued by the AEON retail chain (313), other types of prepaid cards (150), Rakuten Edy (132), debit cards (77), and smartphones (27).

Despite the low ranking of smartphones, a front-page story of the Nikkei Marketing Journal of 23 April forecasts that smartphones soon will be used instead of cash.

While just 20% of consumers used cash substitutes in 2011, the percentage has been rising sharply since. Surveys by ePayments Laboratory Inc. and other organisations are projecting it will approach 40% by 2025.

As a walletless society emerges, new ways to spend money will inevitably be developed. A smartphone app now facilitates splitting the restaurant tab after lunch for instance. When an establishment called Café de K opened for business last November in Sapporo, it posted a sign at the entrance stating, “Cash not accepted.” Payment there can be made only using e-money or a credit card, meaning a walletful of cash will be all but useless.

A survey conducted in 2017 by Dentsu Inc., Japan’s largest advertising agency, found that 78.3% of respondents agreed that they preferred cashless transactions. According to another survey, 53.8% of teen respondents said they prefer making cashless payments—1.5 times more than the respondents in their 20s.

PHOTO: CUSTOM MEDIA

The drugstore—a term used in Japan to indicate what is essentially a variety store with a licence to dispense prescription pharmaceuticals—continues to nibble away at supermarket sales.

Shukan Jitsuwa (12 April) reports that the Japan Chain Drugstore Association last year realised total retail revenues of ¥6.5bn, a gain of 5.6% over the previous year. The number of outlets nationwide increased 2% over the 2016 figure, to reach about 20,000 nationwide.

“About 10 years ago, annual sales by drug­stores were around ¥5tn, which means over the past decade they’ve grown another ¥1.5tn”, according to a retail industry source. “The industry expects that, by 2025, the total will reach around ¥10tn, bringing it within striking distance of supermarkets’ revenues of ¥13tn. It’s even possible that drugstore sales will exceed those of supermarkets.”

A number of factors are seen as supporting their growth.

“One is the addition of food and beverages to their product mix”, according to the afore­mentioned source. Drug stores “are located on main streets near or leading to residential neighbourhoods, and offer extensive parking space, which consumers appreciate. While only a few of them carry perishable items such as fish or meat, recently they’ve begun carrying fresh produce such as potatoes or onions”.

A reporter who covers the retail trade said that the Aeon Group, Japan’s largest retailer, reported operating losses of ¥1.65bn for its fiscal year ending February 2015. In the period ending February 2018, the losses had risen to some ¥2.16bn.

In recent years, Aeon has sunk large invest­ments into shopping malls, which appeal to customers who drive. The product mix at these shops largely overlaps that of its drugstores.

“Roads accessing malls are frequently jammed, and even at those malls with large parking areas, drivers often have to wait for a parking space”, the retail industry source pointed out. “Initially, they were seen as a curiosity and attracted customers. But their congestion has alienated many, who stopped going there. The drugstores are now exploiting a niche linked to neither supermarkets nor convenience stores”, he offered.

Another development of interest is the Don Quixote discount chain’s acquisition of a 40% interest in Uny Co., Ltd., Japan’s third-largest supermarket chain. With some 200 outlets, mostly in Aichi and Shizuoka Prefectures, its annual revenues of around ¥800tn were third nationwide behind Aeon and Ito Yokado. 

Competition among drugstore chains has been intense, with revenues of the long-running former leader, Matsumoto Kiyoshi, dropping to third place overall in 2017. It was supplanted by Tokyo-based Welcia Holdings Co., Ltd., which achieved year-on-year growth of 17.9% for the fiscal year to February 2017.

Sales of food accounted for 21.2% of total revenues, a level roughly the same as for medica­tions, sundries and health foods. Sapporo-based Tsuruha Holdings Inc., in second place, last year grew 9.4%.

Hiroshima-based Times Mobility Networks Co., Ltd. announced on 18 April through its website that between that day and 13 July, 2018, it would start short-term rentals of Jaguar and Land Rover models, including the Range Rover Evoque and four other sports-SUV versions, and the Jaguar F-type. Those holding a Times Club card will be able to rent vehicles starting from as little as ¥7,900 for six hours.

The campaign was timed to attract drivers during the holiday-studded Golden Week period of consecutive national holidays and two weekends, between 28 April and 6 May.

According to the firm’s website, on reserving a car arrangements easily could be made to take delivery of the vehicle at an airport, a shinkansen or other railway station, or at a Jaguar Land Rover dealership.

Times operates more than 400 motor rental outlets, with a fleet of 28,956 domestic and imported models (as of October, 2017), plus another 20,033 vehicles available for car sharing.

One of Scotland’s most established exporters of craft beer and spirits J.W. Filshill International Limited has secured a Japanese export deal. The contract is worth £100,000 and involves four import partners, according to a press release issued on 4 April.

The distributor’s exports include those by such craft distillers as Summerhall, Orkney and Glasgow, as well as craft brewers Williams Brothers, West Beer and Filshill’s own Clan Brewing Co.

Filshill has enabled 20 craft distillers to export a total of 35 products to Japan.

The Marmalade Festival at Dalemain, near Penrith, Cumbria, has attracted 2,700 entries from more than 30 countries, including Japan, where the preserve is popular, the BBC reported on 18 March.

Visitors to the festival included a delegation from Japan, with the Mayor of Yawatahama, Ehime Prefecture, announcing plans to host a sister festival in his home city in 2019.

“I look forward to seeing the ways in which this festival will be both a showcase of Japanese–British friendship, and a wonderfully unique Japanese event”, said the festival’s founder Jane Hasell-McCosh.

Japan’s largest supermarket chain Aeon Co., Ltd. will be arranging Scottish-themed tasting promotions at about 90 of its stores across Japan, Undercurrent News reported on 29 March.

The promotion will showcase various types of Scottish seafood, including Mirinboshi mackerel, lightly salted mackerel, lightly dried mackerel, brown crab and whole langoustine. This will mark the first time AEON has expanded its Scottish range beyond mackerel by including shellfish.

Previous figures show that Scottish seafood exports to Japan increased from £3.7mn in 2015 to £5.4mn in 2016.

Japanese individuals and firms have set a goal to plant 1,000 cherry blossom trees across parks in Britain as part of a fundraising project meant to symbolise bilateral friendship between the two countries, The Japan Times reported on 28 March.

The initial plan is to plant between 50 and 60 trees in four major parks in London next autumn.

“We want to honour the Japanese and the British predecessors who built cultural ties between our countries”, said the creator of the project Sandy K. Sano.

Mitsubishi Corporation will acquire a 33.4% stake in Moray Offshore Windfarm (East) (MOWEL) in an agreement with Spanish energy company EDP Renewables S.A., Power Technology reported on 27 March.

The wind project is scheduled to begin construction later this year and to be commissioned in 2022. It is expected to be capable of supplying power to 1mn households.

The shares will be bought through Mitsubishi’s UK-based subsidiary Diamond Generating Europe.

According to professional services firm EY, the 2019 Rugby World Cup will boost Japan’s economy by £1.5bn, CITY A.M. reported on 21 March.

It is estimated that the World Cup will create 25,000 jobs and attract 400,000 visitors to the country for the 44-day tournament. Tourists are expected to contribute £720mn in direct expenditure across the 12 host cities.

“The findings of the report outline the enormous economic, sporting and social benefits of Rugby World Cup 2019”, said World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont CBE DL.

Two new Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd. trains have arrived in Teesport, Middlesbrough, completing a two-month journey from Japan, Railway Technology Magazine reported on 21 March.

The five-car trains will form part of Virgin Trains’ new Azuma fleet, which will consist of 65 trains and provide an additional 12,200 seats in total.

The Azuma trains have the potential to reduce travel time on the east coast and increase through services from London to Bradford, Harrogate and Lincoln.

Jim Wood MBE from West Fife, Scotland, has been awarded the Shihan title—one of the highest honours—from the Japan Karate Association (JKA), Dunfermline Press reported on 20 March.

Wood, who has studied for 50 years, spent 25 years teaching the martial art and built the first custom JKA Dojo in Dunfermline. He has also become a member of the prestigious Shihan Kai in Japan.

He teaches traditional Japanese karate in Western Australia and is president and chief instructor of JKA Karate-Do Australia.

The Japan Cricket Association (JCA) has published its new five-year strategy “Building a Brighter Future”, the organisation announced on 13 March.

The strategy involves developing national teams, administrators, coaches, scorers, umpires and volunteers; educating the Japanese public about cricket; offering a foundation of junior development; creating modified formats of cricket to create a unique social experience; and creating “Cities of Cricket”.

The JCA aims to reach five Cities of Cricket and 5,000 players.

The Nikkei Marketing Journal (5 March) reports that last year, Japan’s consumption of cheese grew 6%, making it the third straight year of increased demand.

According to data supplied by the US Department of Agriculture, the 320,000 tonnes consumed by Japan represents a 13% increase from five years earlier. Japanese statistics for 2016 show that daily per capita consumption of cheese had reached 6.5g, a rise of about 50% from 1996.

While Japanese people tend to favour consuming their Camembert accompanied by wine or in the form of party titbits, in recent years cheese, with its high protein and low levels of carbohydrates, has also been popularised as a food for dieters. At the same time, more firms have been pushing it as a dessert food: from last autumn, Megmilk Snow Brand Co., Ltd. launched cheese items flavoured with apple or berries.

The article also points out that recipes for the use of cheese have been rapidly increasing on social networks. A user hashtag #chiizutakkarubi focusing on Korean-style dishes prepared with cheese currently boasts 160,000 followers a day.

Deli-style items and sandwiches featuring cheese have also reportedly been selling well at FamilyMart Co., Ltd. and Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd. convenience store chains.

The growing demand for cheese (as well as butter) is occurring in the face of falling production of raw milk products, as more of Japan’s family-owned dairy farms have been shutting down due to the ageing of the farm household population. As a result, costs for raw materials this year are projected to increase from ¥4 to ¥5 yen per kilogram of raw milk.

It’s been a popular tradition in Japan to welcome the arrival of a new monarch by incorporating the nengo (era name) into a firm’s name or brand. Examples include Meidi-Ya Co., Ltd. (a confectionary firm), Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K.

Online newspaper J-Cast News cited a survey from Tokyo Shoko Research, Ltd., which has found that Japan has 1,270 firms beginning with Heisei—the current nengo—in their names. Of these, 653 firms, or 51.4%, were established in the first nine years of Heisei, which began in January 1989. The number of firms with Showa in their name is currently 2,640—more than twice the number with Heisei. However, this is not surprising since the 62 years of the Showa era are more than double those of Heisei.

The article also points out that small individual enterprises not officially registered as firms are not included in the count of firms using Heisei.

In addition, another 143 firms that had previously existed under a different name had changed their names to include Heisei.

Broken down by prefecture, Tokyo had the largest number of firms beginning with Heisei in their name, at 139, followed by Osaka (104), Saitama (63) and Fukuoka (61). The prefecture with the fewest was Tottori, with just five.

One of the star retail players in Japan’s deflation-ridden economy has been the ¥100 shop. Referred to in the trade as hyakkin (“100 average”, referring to the retail price of most items) for short, the firms are regarded as the winners in the long-running deflationary spiral, as opposed to the nation’s department stores, the main losers.

While total department store revenue is in the neighbourhood of ¥5.95tn—10 times that of the hyakkin—Shukan Jitsuwa (29 March) reports that, with sales last year of around ¥420bn, Hiroshima-based Daiso Industries Co., Ltd. is ranked number one overall, with 3,150 outlets in Japan and nearly 1,900 overseas, giving it an approximately 60% share of the market. In second place is Seria Co., Ltd., based in Gifu Prefecture, whose revenues increased from ¥20.4bn in 2000 to ¥145.3bn at the end of fiscal 2016. In third and fourth places, respectively, are Can Do Co., Ltd. and Watts Co., Ltd.

The writer expresses concern about the hyakkin’s future, however. For one thing, from 1 March, 75-year-old Hirotake Yano assumed the post of Daiso’s chairman, effectively passing control of the company to his son Seiji, who became president. An unnamed business consultant noted that Daiso appears to be planning to go public, and with its large number of stores overseas, expects to face more severe governance requirements.

There is a view that the lifespan of firms whose business model undergoes minimal evolution—such as hyakkin shops—may only last 20 to 30 years. Already there have been recent examples of diversification, such as “leisure lands” that allow visitors to enjoy themselves for ¥500 for 30 minutes. Some 90% of the 70,000 items on display are said to be original products not sold in rival stores. The huge Arukukitto store operated by Daiso in Kinshicho, Sumida Ward in Tokyo, is said to average a turnover of ¥120mn per month.

An authority on retailing told the magazine, “Overall, the hyakkin stores are enjoying a huge level of support from foreign tourists. They particularly appreciate the cheap prices for fans, handkerchiefs and other items bearing motifs from old woodblock prints.

“The current number of inbound visitors is about 28mn a year, accounting for an economic boost of ¥5tn, and by the year of the Olympics—
2020—these figures are projected to jump to 40mn and ¥8tn, respectively. The hyakkin shops are certain to be one of the main beneficiaries, and the ones that will do the best will be those putting proactive policies in place to meet the demand”.

Another authority on business management, however, noted that consumers who patronise the hyakkin tend to be fickle and that the business can be unusually capricious.

“We’re already seeing a tendency towards merchandise with greater value-added, with the product mix including items for ¥200 each”, he noted. “A business that succeeds thanks to deflation is also one that depends on deflation, and that will place even greater demands on the people at the helm of such retailers”.

Aeon Co., Ltd. has begun to scrap poorly performing subsidiaries due to a missed profit target in its most recent mid-term business plan. One of those to be scrapped is Laura Ashley Japan, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on 19 March. AEON announced in February that it would not renew its licence to operate the brand.

AEON currently owns more than 70% of Laura Ashley’s operations in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and 120 of the shops in these markets will close by September.

AEON missed its operating profit target by ¥100bn.

In an article published on 27 February, dance music magazine Mixmag put the spotlight on the Japanese take on grime, a genre originating from London in the early 2000s that combines fast rapping with bass-heavy beats. The music has enjoyed considerable global success in recent years.

Speaking to leading DJs, MCs and producers in Tokyo such as Pakin, Double Clapperz and ONJUICY, Mixmag looked at how the artists discovered the genre and the challenges of introducing this foreign sound to Japan.

“We all express our frustrations and rebellious spirit in the same way”, said Pakin, commenting on the similarities between grime in the two countries.

The former British ambassador to Japan (2008–2012) Sir David Warren KCMG has written in an essay for The Royal Institute of International Affairs that Brexit could have a “grave” impact on UK–Japan relations, The Guardian reported on 15 February.

Warren writes that Japanese policy analysts are confused by UK government rhetoric surrounding the global opportu­nities offered by Brexit. In Japan, power projection is seen as heavily dependent on economic strength, and thus leaving a large economic bloc is seen by many officials as constituting political self-harm.

The British and Japanese prime ministers have agreed to work together to stop North Korea evading tough UN Security Council sanctions through ship-to-ship transfers of certain goods, the South China Morning Post reported on 27 February.

During a phone conversation between them, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stressed the need to apply the maximum pressure on North Korea so it would abandon its nuclear weapons development.

Prime Minister Theresa May agreed, expressing her readiness to cooperate in dealing with the North Korea issue.

Japan’s consumers are showing a revived interest in the importance of health. Responses to a survey, received from both adult men and women in all age groups, express the intention to increase health-related expenditure, for example through food, leisure and other pursuits.

The Nikkei Marketing Journal (NMJ) dated 4 February published the results of a nationwide poll in September conducted by Recruit Lifestyle Co., Ltd.’s Jalan travel website. It obtained 2,582 valid responses.

In descending order, the items in which participants said they had recently taken a new interest or about which they had developed concern (with multiple responses given), included diet (82.2%), travel (79%) and health and relaxation (74.7%). When asked, “In what topics have you taken more interest than you did previously?” the top responses were health and relaxation (62.8%), travel (61.8%) and food (59.5%).

Somewhat unusually for a survey with a wide age spread, it found almost insignificant differences in the intention of different age groups to devote more time and spend more money on health. Among men in their sixties, 65.3% planned to do so, followed by men in their thirties (62.5%) and boys in their teens.

Compared with a current average monthly expenditure of ¥3,541 for health-related activities (not including medical treatment or medication), future spending is expected to rise by an average of ¥855 to ¥4,396. The sharpest increases are among men in their thirties (¥1,379) and females in their teens and twenties (¥1,060), respectively.

Asked if they have an interest in travel that promotes better health, 70.9% gave positive replies. The term “health tourism” might, in the Japanese mind, include therapeutic mineral spring bathing, specially prepared “slow food” or macrobiotic diets, as well as trips including yoga sessions or Pilates.

On 5 November while on a state visit to Japan, US President Donald Trump was treated to a full-course teppanyaki dinner at the Ginza branch of Ukai-tei, a three-star Michelin establishment where, as a saying attributed to another wealthy American, J.P. Morgan, goes, “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it”.

The next day, a Monday, wire services reported the shares of the restaurant’s parent company, Ukai Co. Ltd., had risen 7.3%.

The house speciality at Ukai-tei is steaks from pampered wagyu steers. The streaks of marbled fat in the beef—which imparts an extra-tender consistency to the meat—are referred to in Japanese as shimofuri (fallen frost).

While Japanese understandably take pride in the quality of their meat, when the daily Asahi Shimbun (24 February) posed the question of beef preference to 1,626 people in its weekly “be between” survey, the results were precisely 50–50, with lean cuts of beef just as popular as the marbled variety, although for different reasons. Shimofuri was favoured for its tenderness and melt-in-the-mouth consistency (541 and 536 respondents, respectively, followed by its sense of balance between soft and firm 449). Leaner beef cuts are more appreciated for their good flavour (421 responses); straightforward simplicity (398); and being better for health (376).

Among both groups, the four most popular styles of beef dishes named were sukiyaki, steak, shabu-shabu and Korean-style barbecue.

In terms of dining frequency, 25% of shimofuri consumers said they indulged “several times a month”, whereas among those favouring the lean cuts, over twice that percentage, 51%, said they consumed them several times a month.

Individual preferences, of course, change with the times. Speaking as a recent convert, a 75-year-old man from Shizuoka Prefecture admitted he thought shimofuri beef tastier, yet added, “but to reduce my fat intake, I recently switched to leaner cuts”. Overall, older respondents tend to associate beef with their first encounters, beginning in the 1950s, with high-quality meat. They still regard beef as a special treat to be consumed on celebratory occasions such as at New Year.

A series of six articles in Shukan Gendai (3 March) looked at what changes are occurring at Japan’s universities in the current era of low birth rates.

In the fifth article in the series, the magazine voices a surprisingly negative view of so-called kikoku shijo, the term used to describe Japanese returnees, who have been raised and educated abroad. Its eye-catching headline, quoting a human resources manager at a major corporation, reads, “If English is the only thing they’re good at, we don’t need them to work here”.

The article begins with a quote from an individual identified only as “Mr A” at a car dealership that has hired new sales staff to work at its headquarters. Problems, he says, have repeatedly cropped up with one particular new arrival, who was brought up in the United States, concerning her way of interacting with potential customers.

“‘Is there something with which you’re dissatisfied?’ she asked an indecisive customer”, reported Mr A. “Even after I warned her about using that tone, she asked me, po faced, ‘Did I say something wrong?’

“It was clear she wasn’t being malicious, but in a situation where a customer is considering purchasing a car, it would have been more appropriate to adopt a more humble tone and ask, ‘Might there be something that’s not clear to you?’. The problem is, her Japanese just isn’t very good”.

According to “Mr B”, who works in human resources for a major trading firm, “The policy of hiring candidates who are adept at English (scoring 900 or higher in the TOEIC examination) typically involves top-down directives from upper management who are promoting globalisation. But human resources departments are concerned that new staff are unable to meet Japan’s societal requirements, and when this becomes a problem in the organisation, the responsibility invariably falls on their department”.

In terms of general knowledge, their shortcomings are often evident from written tests. “They can’t solve maths problems for maths learnt at the primary school level and can’t even correctly write the name of the current prime minister”, said “Mr C”, a human resources manager at a major manufacturing firm. “In total, their English ability makes up for the shortfall, but their ability is below that of graduates from top schools, such as Keio and Waseda”.

Nor are the Japan offices of foreign businesses an exception. At one firm, “complaints were circulating from the US headquarters that this particular Japanese staff member ‘couldn’t understand English’”. What they meant in this case was that he lacked a specialised understanding of finance and securities.

The article doesn’t go quite as far as suggesting the returnees’ acquisition of foreign language skills overseas is of little benefit, but it is clearly critical of their weakness in working with others as a close-knit group—an attribute to which great importance is attached in Japan.

This is by no means a new debate, but the Shukan Gendai’s writer weakens his argument to some extent by extolling “traditional Japanese corporate hiring practices”, since “lifelong employment” and related traditions in the Japanese workplace have been eroding since the 1990s.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO) has invested an undisclosed sum into the energy firm Electron (Chaddenwych Services Limited), according to a 19 January report by The Energyst.

Electron, which is building a blockchain system covering trading, meter registration and data privacy, believes that by cutting out middlemen it can reduce costs.

TEPCO has said it plans to gain additional blockchain knowhow from the investment.

Last year Electron received £640,000 in government funding.

The London-based smart battery maker Moixa Energy Holdings Ltd. will launch its GridShare technology in Japan in partnership with the trading house Itochu Corporation, Moixa announced in a press release on 29 January.

Starting in summer, the Japanese firm will install GridShare—which uses artificial intelligence to improve the performance of batteries—in its Smart Star home battery products as standard.

Itochu will also invest £5mn in the British firm to help with the expansion.

NEC Corporation has purchased Hemel Hempstead-based IT firm Northgate Public Services (UK) Limited for £475mn, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review on 10 January.

Northgate provides software to police departments for managing crime data and reading licence plates. The acquisition is part of NEC’s effort to boost UK sales of its facial recognition technology.

The Japanese multinational also plans to use the purchase to help Northgate expand into other markets.

Asahi UK Ltd. has announced that its namesake Super Dry beer will be relaunched in Britain in its authentic Japanese form, Bar Magazine reported on 15 January.

As a result of increased investment and improved technology, brewing will be brought in-house to replicate the same standards achieved in Japan. In addition to being available in 330ml bottles, the beer will also be served on draught using Japanese bar tap technology.

Asahi Super Dry was previously brewed by the UK’s oldest brewer, Shepherd Neame Limited in Kent.