SENDAI -- Cushions made of subway seat cloth have gone on sale at a station here.
The Sendai City Transportation Bureau and a workshop for the handicapped in Sendai have jointly produced the orange, smooth-textured cushions out of material used for repairing seats on Sendai municipal subway trains.
The cloths became available after the city recently renovated the subway cars and changed the colors of the seat cloths.
Members of a local handicappe [...]
A 7-piece cosplay Char Aznable suit from the enormously popular "Mobile Suit Gundam" series will be put on sale by major cosplay retailer Cospa Inc. in June, it has been learned.
The suit will retail for 13,440 yen and features a cape, shirt, trousers, gloves, boot covers, belt and Char's trademark eye mask.
It will be sold in four sizes of small, medium, large and extra large.
The cape is embroidered while the shirt and trousers are made of a st [...]
NAGOYA -- Failed theme park-cum-shopping mall Villaggio Italia opened its doors one last time for a bankruptcy sale at the weekend, in an attempt to raise enough cash to cover ex-employees' back wages.
Goods were marked down by 50 to 90 percent, and around 2,000 visitors queued up before the gates opened at 11 a.m. on Saturday, in a scene reminiscent of the facility's opening in April 2005.
It's the first time Villaggio Italia has opened its gates since Ma [...]
TOKYO (AP) -- Midsize Japanese lender Shinsei Bank Ltd. raised its profit outlook for the current fiscal year by 30 percent, saying Thursday that the sale of its headquarters to a Morgan Stanley real estate fund will help it ride out the global credit crisis.
The Tokyo-based bank, 33 percent owned by U.S. investment fund J.C. Flowers, said it now expects consolidated net profit for the fiscal year to March 31 at 65 billion yen (US$632 million), up from the 50 billio [...]