Toshiba beat out GE and Mistubishi in a bid of nearly $5 billion to purchase Westinghouse, an American nuclear-engineering company owned by the British government, according to a story from Times Online. If nothing else, this is instructive on the international scope of large-scale business today: A Japanese company buys an American firm from the British government, eying China’s demand for nuclear reactors. And the only other company that offers a pressurized-water design that China’s government supposedly favors is French company Framatome.

The Financial Times, Asahi and Mainichi all report on the planned resumption of US beef imports on Monday, following a Thursday report concluding that US beef is generally as safe as Japanese beef. The deputy chairman of the panel behind the report has criticized media and political misuse of the findings, however, stating that the report does not recommend resumption of imports.

Hello Kitty is not the only cutesy animal character plastered all over Japan. Miffy, a cartoon rabbit created by Dutch illustrator Dick Bruna, may not rank quite as highly as Sanrio’s character in terms of brand recognition and earnings, but she still manages to make Bruna and friends over ¥40 billion (US $332 million) a year on products not including the picture books where she got her start.

Yomiuri Shimbun recently reported on Miffy, and Wikipedia has a brief article with some links.

Kyodo News reports on Frisk, a Belgian mint maker that has captured nearly 50% of the market in Japan, making for their biggest market. Though success is partially attributed to their pocketable packaging design, as this is true of many other breath mints, the bulk of the credit is probably rightfully attributed to their partnership with Kanebo Foods, which handles distribution and advertising.