Japan firm supporting refugees to donate glasses to war-torn Ukraine
MOSCOW (Kyodo) -- A Japanese company that makes glasses will donate 5,100 pairs of spectacles to people displaced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Fuji Megane Co., which has been supporting refugees for more than 40 years, will distribute the glasses through the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The glasses, which include 1,670 pairs for children, will be given to the beneficiaries following an onsite eye examination.
The Sapporo-based company's dedication to helping refugees stems from the experience of its 82-year-old president, Akio Kanai.
Born in Japan-ruled Sakhalin, Kanai was 2 years old when on Aug. 16, 1945, the day after Japan's surrender in World War II, he, fled to Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido along with his mother and older brother due to an advance by the Soviet military on Sakhalin.
In a recent telephone interview, Kanai said, "I want to support people in Ukraine," citing his experience as an evacuee.
Fuji Megane has supported refugees around the world since 1983, donating a total of 180,000 pairs of glasses to people in countries such as Thailand, Nepal and Azerbaijan.
Kanai became the first Japanese person to receive the Nansen Refugee Award, dubbed the Nobel Prize for refugee support, from the U.N. refugee agency in 2006. The prize honors individuals and groups that have taken extraordinary actions to protect refugees.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NHK
37 minutes ago
- NHK
Nippon Steel completes 'momentous' US Steel deal
Japan's Nippon Steel announced it has completed the necessary procedures to buy US Steel for 14.1 billion dollars. The American company is now a wholly owned subsidiary. Nippon Steel Chairman and CEO Hashimoto Eiji cited "freedom of management and profitability" as necessary for business investment. He described the agreement with the US government as "fully satisfactory." Hashimoto called the acquisition "a necessary and effective strategy for the company to return to the world's top position." He added that it is the only measure that will enable US Steel to recover and develop at the same time. "We will invest to boost added value and expand the product range. We will also build a strong and advanced supply chain for high-grade steel, which is necessary to revive the US manufacturing industry." Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Mori Takahiro, one of the main negotiators with the US government, will also serve as Chairman of the Board of the American firm. The deal followed negotiations with the Trump administration, which gave its approval last week. The two firms said they had entered into a national security agreement with the administration. It includes commitments related to domestic production, trade matters and governance. A so-called golden share allows officials in Washington to veto management decisions. Hashimoto said Nippon Steel accepted the US government's intention to supervise the implementation of the investment. He added he expects "strong support from the Trump administration for the early implementation of capital investment." Meanwhile, US Steel CEO David Burritt called the signing of the deal "a momentous day for our country, our communities and the American steel industry."
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
Japan firms exit Tokyo exchange at record pace in delisting rush
Japanese companies are leaving the Tokyo Stock Exchange at the fastest pace in over a decade, reflecting a surge in deals and management buyouts as they face more pressure to make better use of their capital. The number of firms that delisted their shares from the TSE or announced plans to do so has reached 59 in the first half, rising from 51 a year earlier and marking the most on record for a comparable period, according to exchange data going back to 2014. If firms continue to exit the TSE at this pace, the figure for 2025 will exceed last year's annual record of 94 companies. The trend reflects the Tokyo bourse's broad push to make the Japanese market more appealing for foreign investors by ensuring that listed companies offer high shareholder returns, while firms that aren't meeting their goals face the threat of being taken off the exchange. The TSE has called on companies to pursue goals including improving their valuations and cutting overly close ties with other companies in the form of cross-shareholdings. Those reforms made Japanese shares one of the world's best performers in recent years, while encouraging activist shareholders to demand even more changes from company managers. For investors, increased activism has boosted calls to raise returns with measures such as stock buybacks, while mergers and acquisitions have soared. "The decrease in the number of listed companies as a result of the activation of the capital market is a welcome development,' said Hiroshi Matsumoto, senior client portfolio manager at Pictet Japan. Japan is following in the footsteps of overseas markets like the U.S. and U.K., where more companies have gone private over the last 20 years on stricter rules to stay listed as well as growth in private market financing. The Tokyo exchange has emphasized since last year that its priority for listed firms is quality rather than a big numbers of companies. "The TSE's intentions are going as planned,' said Hajime Nakajima, managing director at Deloitte Tohmatsu Equity Advisory. Companies whose shares are considered cheap will increasingly become targets of M&A and management buyouts, and "more and more of them will exit the market,' he said. The number of listed companies on the Tokyo bourse fell to 3,842 last year, marking the first decrease since the merger of the TSE and the Osaka exchange in 2013, according to TSE data excluding figures from the Tokyo Pro Market. The number will likely fall further to 3,808 by the end of June, based on Bloomberg calculations of data including figures from the exchange. The TSE reorganized in 2022 its equity market into Prime — with the biggest firms, Standard, and Growth — listing the smallest companies. Since then, the TSE has urged listed companies to improve corporate governance and take steps to bolster their value. In addition, the transition period for companies that fail to meet listing standards expired at the end of March, and if they continue to fall short, they're scheduled to be delisted in October 2026 at the earliest. Many companies left the Tokyo exchange after getting bought out by other firms and investment funds. ID&E, a construction consulting firm, became a wholly owned subsidiary of non-life insurer Tokio Marine, who saw business opportunities in its new unit's disaster prevention and mitigation tactics. Guidelines that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released in 2023 suggesting best practices for corporate takeovers have helped fuel the M&A boom. In cases where both a company and its subsidiary were listed, a not uncommon arrangement in Japan's share market that's been criticized as leading to conflicts of interest, parent firms have bought out units to steer clear of governance concerns. The planned takeover by Japan's biggest telecom firm, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, of its unit NTT Data Group is one example of that. As the costs of maintaining a public listing rise and activist shareholders push for more payouts and policy changes, takeovers of companies by management are climbing. I'rom Group, a company that supports clinical trials, teamed up with U.S. investment firm Blackstone to take its shares private, in one such instance. Tao Zhiyuan, a portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein Japan, said that Japan's chemical sector has "many interesting niche-top stocks,' but a lot of them are too small for global funds to invest in. If Japan as a whole "sees an increase in the number of large, strong companies through M&A, the number of investment targets from a foreign perspective will increase,' he said.
Japan Times
2 hours ago
- Japan Times
Tepco to cut household electricity bills in July
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings is expected to lower its electricity rate for a standard household by ¥616 from the previous month to ¥8,236 in July, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday. The reduction is largely as a result of subsidies that the Japanese government plans to provide for three months starting next month to lower electricity and city gas bills in an effort to mitigate the impact of higher prices on households. Nine other major power suppliers and four major city gas providers in Japan are also likely to considerably reduce their rates. The government will pay subsidies of ¥2 per kilowatt-hour of electricity in July and September, and ¥2.4 in August, when power consumption usually grows because of more people using air conditioners. For city gas, the government will spend ¥8 per cubic meter in July and September and ¥10 in August. Tepco assumes that a standard household consumes 260 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month. The company expects the subsidies to lower the bill for a standard household by ¥520 in July. Its July rates will also reflect lower costs for coal and liquefied natural gas that are used for power generation.
