Economic analysts are expecting Japan to post growth for its gross domestic product in the July-September period despite a historic downturn in the previous quarter.
Japan's Cabinet Office announced on Monday that GDP shrank at an annualized 27.8 percent in real terms in the April-June period compared with the previous quarter.
Toyota Motor has managed to weather the global financial downturn of the coronavirus pandemic, posting a profit in the latest quarter.
The automaker's earnings report shows the group stayed in the black for the April-to-June period, despite recording a 40-percent decline in sales from a year earlier in yen terms.
Officials at Honda Motor reported a net loss in the April-to-June quarter. The coronavirus pandemic weighed heavily on global sales of cars and motorbikes.
Executives say the company lost 80.8 billion yen or around 760 million dollars in the quarter.
Nissan has secured $7.8 billion in financing from its creditors since April in a bid to shore up its cash position in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sony is rolling a new firmware update for the Xperia XA2 range (XA2, XA2 Plus and XA2 Ultra) – the first firmware update that the handsets have seen in over five months. The new update moves the build number from 50.2.A.3.22 to version 50.2.A.3.55, adding the 1 April 2020 Google Android security updates. This is a minor update, with no other tangible improvements reported.
Sony fans are eagerly awaiting the launch date for its latest flagship, the Xperia 1 II (Mark 2). Sony has been vague about the release date ever since it was announced – the official launch date is ‘late Spring'. We understand that a late May/early June has always been in the offing, which is why we were surprised when Japanese carrier NTT docomo flagged an April release date for Sony's flagship.
Sony is rolling new firmware updates which add the 1 April 2020 Google Android security patches to a variety of devices. The Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 flagships get new build number 55.1.A.3.149, while the Xperia XZ2, XZ2 Compact, XZ2 Premium and XZ3 get build number 52.1.A.0.672.
Toyota will extend the current shutdown of all its plants in North America for an addition two weeks due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and decline in vehicle demand. The Japanese automaker will keep all assembly and component parts plants in Canada, Mexico and the United States closed through April 17.
"The manufacturing facilities will remain closed through April 17, resuming production on April 20," the company said in a statement. "Our service parts depots and vehicle logistics centers will continue to operate. We will continue to monitor the situation and take appropriate action in a timely manner."
Japanese operator NTT docomo has announced that Sony's latest handsets, the Xperia 1 II (Mark 2) and Xperia 10 II (Mark 2) will both land on the network. The interesting news from a western perspective is that docomo has confirmed that the Xperia 1 II flagship will be launching in Japan in late April – this is earlier than expected, and would be great news if it had a similar launch window in Europe and North America.
GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE will release their new single "Hira Hira" on April 15.
With this song, GENERATIONS hope to send the message that they will be starting anew, utilizing the experiences from each of the members. The black-and-white PV shows the 7 members hanging out at a recycle factory for motorcycles.
King & Prince's fifth single "Mazy Night" will be released on April 29.
The title track, along with Sexy Zone's new song, will be used as the theme song for Nakajima Kento and Hirano Sho's starring drama 'Miman Keisatsu Midnight Runner.' Both groups are scheduled to appear on NTV's music program 'Premium Music' on March 25 to perform the songs on TV for the first time.
The Japanese government is expected to carefully review arrangements with China for a planned visit by President Xi Jinping, including a possible postponement due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The Japanese government maintains that at this moment it doesn't expect any changes in the schedule.
Last year, Square Enix finally announced that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake would be released in March 2020. Unfortunately, if you were looking forward to playing the game, you might be disappointed to learn that Square Enix has since announced that the game will be delayed, although not by too long.
In a post made on Twitter, the company announced that they will be delaying the release of the game from March 2020 to April 2020. Like we said, it’s not too long of a delay which means that gamers will only need to wait an extra month. According to the company, they claim that this is due to needing more time to polish up the game.