The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is to urge companies to hire volunteers dispatched to developing countries on JICA projects; this move is aiming at boosting volunteer numbers by proving that it could lead to a job at a time when the employment market is grim.

 

Since many firms are trying to explore fast-growing markets in emerging nations, JICA’s efforts is likely to be warmly received by firms that are looking for staff who have lived and worked overseas. JICA plans to establish a list of recommendations as early as next spring to call on companies to employ new graduates and university graduates who have lived or studied overseas.

 

 

 

 

With the introduction of new attractions at both theme parks in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, ticket prices for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea will go up from April 23.

 

According to sources, In the first change to ticket prices since September 2006, one-day tickets for adults will rise 400 yen to 6,200 yen, those for people aged between 12 and 17 will rise 300 yen to 5,300 yen and those for children aged from 4 to 11 will rise 200 yen to 4,100 yen.

 

 

 

 

Fast Retailing Co. plans to open more than 200 Uniqlo stores in the U.S. by 2020 as it aims to raise sales sixfold in a decade.

 

As the biggest clothing chain in Asia, Uniqlo is planning to launch its second U.S. store in New York next year. Also the company is considering opening stores in other major cities with an aim to be the No.1 retailer in the world. In cooperation with its plan, the company will hire 50 U.S. college graduates this year and send them to Japan for six months of training to be managers.

 

 

 

 

Hilton Worldwide is planning to offer in Japan a service that will bring people who are unable to attend a wedding reception at its hotel and those present at the party together through live video service. The U.S. hotel chain operator’s new service, due to begin in Tokyo in January, will target especially the grandparents of a bride and groom, who are in frail health and would be unable to attend their relatives’ wedding.

 

Hotel staff will visit the grandparents’ home to cook a meal and set up an iPad tablet computer, which will allow them to view the wedding reception, while those at the reception will also be able to watch the relatives at their home to enable two-way communication.

 

 

 

 

A government advisory panel basically approved a plan to tolerate the unlicensed use of copyrighted works unless the use unduly infringes on the interest of the copyright holder.

 

The plan says unlicensed use of a copyrighted work may be tolerated if the use itself is not the main purpose and the dependence on it is light, if the use is minor and reasonably required in the course of a legal use, or if the use is not aimed at seeing or hearing copyrighted expressions.

 

More specifically, it says there may be no problem if art shown at a film location site is filmed accidentally, or if video software is copied as a sample for technology development purposes.

 

 

 

 

The Asahi Shimbun Co. will stop printing on Feb. 28 its English section that currently occupies the last four pages of the International Herald Tribune's Japan edition.

 

The Asahi Shimbun's English news will only be available on its website as well as on Apple Inc.'s iPad and Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle services from March 1. Asahi will notify the readers in January 2011 about the details of new subscriptions to the IHT newspaper, including how the IHT newspaper will be published solely by the International Herald Tribune and will be printed and distributed by The Asahi Shimbun, and the method by which current subscription contracts to the IHT/Asahi will be handled.

 

 

 

 Maggie Zhang joined iTV-Asia in September 2010.  She is originally from Henan, China and is “Content Coordinator” for Japan.  She is focused on a number of industries including advertising, energy, entertainment, finance, food & beverage, media and real estate.  Maggie is new to Shanghai and is exploring and learning about this great city.  She can be reached at maggie.zhang@itv-asia.com.