Lawson Inc

Nearly three-quarters of Japanese companies expect the economy to keep expanding at least another year, extending an already strong run, although they were not as bullish as market estimates, a Reuters poll showed.

Kobe Steel Ltd <5406.T>, at the centre of a data-falsification scandal that has shaken Japan's manufacturing industry, admitted for the first time that executives were aware of the cheating, and reassigned three senior officials.

* Says it and new unit, which will be established in November, will take over partial convenience store business from CVS Bay Area Inc for 4.83 billion yen in total, effective March 1, 2018

Japanese stocks yet again scaled a 21-year high on Wednesday, cheered by booming profits for Japan Inc. including exporters such as Sony and Nitto Denko.

Japanese stocks scaled a fresh 21-year high on Wednesday morning, cheered by booming profits for Japan Inc. including exporters such as Sony and Nitto Denko.

A series of safety scandals at Japanese companies have put the country's lionized factory floor under scrutiny as manufacturers struggle with increased pressure on costs, stricter enforcement of standards and growing competition.

* Lawson Inc's net profit likely grew 4 percent on the year in the six months ended August - Nikkei

* Lawson Inc could report just over 16 billion yen in group operating profit for the first quarter ended in May, down 7% on the year - Nikkei

Japanese firms say shrinking domestic demand is their biggest worry over the next three years while labor shortages are a close second, a Reuters poll found, highlighting the difficulties of coping with a dwindling and rapidly aging population.

A vast majority of Japanese companies have no interest to participate in China's sweeping "Belt and Road" initiative, seeing greater business opportunities in other international economic co-operation, a Reuters poll shows.

* Says it will issue 1.7 million shares to Lawson Inc and 227,000 shares to current chairman of the board of the company Shunji Meguro, or 1.9 million shares in total, at the price of 530 yen per share, to raise 997.5 million yen, with a payment date on June 30

Investors are wary of a new blot on Japan Inc's image. Camera and photocopier-maker Fujifilm said on Thursday it had uncovered some dodgy accounting abroad. The negative stock market reaction to a $200 million flub is telling.

Japan's plans to implement more employee-friendly laws are set to prove painful for many companies, with half saying labor costs will rise and two-thirds considering ways to lift productivity to offset the impact of the reforms, a Reuters poll showed.

* Says the company enters into a business combination contract with Lawson, as a step of capital and business alliance formed with Lawson Inc previously

* Says it will take over part of convenience store business from Three F Co Ltd

* Says Mitsubishi acquired 16.6 million shares of Lawson Inc through its takeover bid during the period from Dec. 22, 2016 to Feb. 9, 2017