BUSINESS Major automakers and electronics companies said Wednesday they will raise base wages and bonuses for a third consecutive year but the increases will be moderate this time because of global economic uncertainties. [http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20080313a1.html]

BUSINESS Some of the most famous names in the world of fashion, including Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Bulgari, Rolex and Cartier, are losing an estimated Y500bn ($4.3bn) a year in Japan from the sale of fake designer goods over the internet. [FINANCIAL TIMES]

BUSINESS The 28.5 billion yen of irrecoverable loans at Shinginko Tokyo accounts for around 10 percent of the overall loan amount of the bank, which is backed by the Tokyo metropolitan government, informed sources said Sunday. [KYODO]

BUSINESS As the Beijing Olympics approach, domestic TV makers are stepping up production of new products, banking on viewer interest in the event to create demand for new TVs. [ASAHI]

BUSINESS ShinGinko Tokyo, the teetering bank established by the metropolitan government for small businesses, has accumulated 8.6 billion yen in uncollectible loans, some of which were likely extended to fraudulent businesses, officials said. [ASAHI]

BUSINESS The Japanese government on Wednesday rejected a report by the Financial Times that said Japan has introduced further barriers to foreign investment, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman describing the article as “misleading” and “sensational.“ [KYODO]

BUSINESS Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has called for crisis talks with opposition leaders in an attempt to agree on a candidate to replace Toshihiko Fukui as Bank of Japan Governor amid warnings that further stalling could damage international confidence in the country’s monetary policy. [THE GUARDIAN]

BUSINESS Pioneer Corp. will end more than a decade of plasma panel manufacturing by outsourcing production of all plasma display panels to rival Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., sources said Tuesday. [ASAHI]

BUSINESS Ski resorts across the country are finding that attracting Australian skiers could be their salvation. [YOMIURI]

BUSINESS A former employee of a leading auditing firm is suspected of using information obtained from work for insider trading, firm officials said Monday. [MAINICHI]

BUSINESS With world stock markets volatile and the US economy teetering toward recession because of the sub-prime crisis, one of the many consequences of Japan’s divided Diet is that partisan politics has for the first time entered into the selection of a new Governor of the Bank of Japan. [ASIA SENTINEL]

BUSINESS Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will seek to boost trade with Japan during a visit to Tokyo this week while holding out the opportunity for his hosts to play a more prominent role in Middle East peacemaking. [BLOOMBERG]

BUSINESS Duskin Co., which operates the Mister Donut chain, and Mos Food Services Inc. said Wednesday they will form a capital and operational alliance to enhance mutual competitiveness. [ASAHI]

BUSINESS The nation’s economic growth accelerated during the last three months of 2007 as gross domestic product rose 3.7 percent on an annual basis, according to a Cabinet Office preliminary GDP report released Thursday. [YOMIURI]

BUSINESS Bridgestone Corp. may have given about 150 million yen in bribes to government officials of countries in South East Asia and Central and South America, according to recently released results of the firm’s in-house inspection. [YOMIURI]

BUSINESS A company in the Aomori prefecture town of Takko, one of Japan’s top garlic producing regions, is testing the limits of good taste ahead of Valentine’s Day with an unusual product — garlic chocolate. [MAINICHI]

BUSINESS Japan’s national wealth as of the end of 2006 increased 2.9 percent from a year earlier to 2,716.6 trillion yen, up for the first time in nine years, due to higher land prices, the Cabinet Office said Friday. [KYODO]

BUSINESS In a bid to take the global lead in the production of NAND-type flash memory chips, widely used in cellphones and digital cameras, Toshiba Corp. will build a 700-billion-yen ($6.58 billion) plant in Iwate Prefecture, sources said. [ASAHI]

BUSINESS URL.TV Inc. has been slapped with back taxes as well as a ¥13.4 billion penalty for filing a false claim for a consumption tax refund for the year ended December 2006, tax authority sources said Sunday. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

BUSINESS Japanese industrial materials makers are increasingly shifting production to developing countries to evade their expensive obligations of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Japan. [ASAHI]