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]

BUSINESS Clouds are beginning to gather over this year’s labor-management pay-hike talks known as shunto, falling stock prices worldwide combine with worries about a slowdown in the global economy to hurt corporate earnings and make prospects for pay rises look less certain. [YOMIURI]

BUSINESS Electronics giant Sharp Corp. was warned that it was using a yakuza-linked construction company in the construction of a new LCD panel factory it is building in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. [MAINICHI]

BUSINESS A minor rebound Wednesday in stock markets will likely provide only temporary relief for export-oriented companies, which could spell big trouble for the overall economy in the long run. [ASAHI]

BUSINESS A total of 522 NHK employees traded stocks over the past year, including two who did so on office time, according to an in-house investigation the broadcaster carried out in response to recent allegations of insider trading involving its employees. [YOMIURI]

BUSINESS Sanyo Electric Co. said Monday it will sell its troubled mobile phone operations to Kyocera Corp. [MAINICHI]

BUSINESS NHK said Saturday that it will ask each of its 11,000 employees about their stock transactions — including whether they trade based on unpublished information obtained through their work — after two reporters and a director were accused Thursday of engaging in insider trading in 2007. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

BUSINESS The cute cuddly white cat from Sanrio Co., usually seen on toys and jewelry for girls and young women, will soon adorn shirts, bags, watches and other products targeting young men. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

BUSINESS Hiroko Ota, state minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy, said in her Diet policy speech Friday that Japan was no longer a top-tier economic power. [YOMIURI]

BUSINESS Department store sales in Japan fell 0.5 percent in 2007 from the previous year to 7.71 trillion yen on a same store basis, extending their losing streak to 11 years. [KYODO]

BUSINESS Public broadcaster NHK is considering requiring all employees to notify their bosses before trading in shares, NHK officials said. [MAINICHI]