A recent survey of Japanese 16- to 19-year-old girls shows a big gulf in career ambitions according to Chinese girls, according to a Financial Times report. While the top five desired careers for Chinese girls include CEO, president and senior management positions, Japanese girls place housewife, flight attendant and child-care worker in their top five.

The AP reports that Mazda is ironically encouraging its employees in Japan to walk rather than commute by car. Those who walk at least 4 kilometers a day for 15 days a month will receive a paltry ¥1500 (US $12.41) a month for their efforts.

Coins will depict Hello Kitty characters enjoying Paris, reports Kyodo News.

The National Post, hailing from Canada, has a piece taking a look at Toyota’s growth, and why they are likely to avoid the same pitfalls that have been plaguing General Motors.

Long-standing Japanese business practices such as lifetime employment and seniority-based promotion have been slowly changing to adopt more American-style practices in certain companies, according to a brief article in Asahi Shimbun. While largely a response to the rough economic times Japan entered in the ’90s, it is noted that changing traditional practices has often failed to produce success, and conversely, successful companies aren’t always adopting American practices.

On the tail of Sanyo’s huge losses and subsequent plans to deal with unprofitable elements of the company, Sanyo has announced a 5 percent salary cut for employees of the company and subsidiaries, according to Asahi Shimbun. About 40 executives will get hefty compensation cuts as well, and 10,000 jobs at Sanyo’s group companies will be cut by January.

In response to huge estimated losses, Sanyo plans to greatly reduce the size of its television and appliance operations, reports Kyodo News and The Japan Times. The company may also spin off or sell its semiconductor division, the most unprofitable part of the company.

Nowadays, in the face of offshore production ‘Made in Japan’ is commonly associated with Japanese consumers (and many Westerners as well) with high-quality merchandise. Aside from the marketing advantage, however, in many cases domestic production in Japan still makes good business sense for technology products, Asahi Shimbun reports. This has been the experience of Hewlett Packard, largely due to failure rate: computers often develop problems when put through the rigors of shipping long distances, and HP has been able to cut the failure rate in half by switching to domestic production for the Japanese market. Greater ease of parts inventory management is also cited as an advantage.

Mainichi reports that Yuke’s, maker of pro wrestling video games, will actually take control of New Japan Pro Wrestling, the largest pro wrestling organization in Japan, by buying 51.5% of the shares in NJPW.

Daily Yomiuri has a commentary on the recent problems that Japan Airlines and Meiji Yasuda have been facing in the wake of mismanagement and scandal. Good reading with insights extending beyond the particular circumstances of these two companies to anyone in management.