News Headlines - 28 June 2013

▽'Poor English saved Japan's banks from crisis' - Telegraph

Japan's banks emerged from the global credit crisis largely unscathed because managers did not speak English well enough to have got them into trouble, the country's finance minister has claimed.

▽Japan prices stop falling but Bank of Japan inflation goal seen a tall order | Reuters

Japan's consumer prices stopped falling in May and labour demand reached its strongest level in five years, but the Bank of Japan's time frame for achieving a 2 percent inflation target still appears unlikely.

▽Japan June manufacturing PMI shows fastest growth in over two years | Reuters

Japanese manufacturing activity expanded in June at the fastest pace in more than two years, a survey showed on Friday, in a positive sign that domestic demand is picking up pace in the world's third-largest economy.

▽Japan eyes switch from western white wheat for 1st time in 53 yrs | Reuters

Japan is offering to buy wheat used for making cakes that is not the U.S. western white variety for the first time in at least 53 years, seeking to avoid a shortage of confectionary flour after a scare caused by genetically modified wheat found in Oregon.

▽In Japan, a Mushroom Becomes a Videogame Star - WSJ.com

But in the world of smartphones, this slimy mushroom—often found in miso soups and soba noodles—is an unlikely videogame star. The trilogy of games entitled "Nameko Saibai Kit," or "the kit for cultivating nameko," is one of the most popular smartphone games since its June 2011 debut with 32 million downloads. That falls well short of Angry Birds levels of more than one billion downloads, but it is about twice the level of its nearest Japanese competitor.