News Headlines - 06 August 2020

▽Japanese population shrinks by record 500,000 - Nikkei Asian Review

The number of Japanese citizens fell by 505,046 last year, the steepest decline in data going back to 1968, official figures released Wednesday show.
The tally sank for an 11th consecutive year in 2019 to 124.27 million as of Jan. 1, according to an annual government survey based on the national resident registry. The natural decline, or the difference between deaths and births, came to an all-time high of 511,998.
Just 59.3% of Japanese nationals were in the working-age range of 15 to 64, the smallest share on record. With the population steadily graying, measures by both the public and private sectors -- such as higher retirement ages -- that encourage seniors to continue working will be needed to keep the economy growing.

▽U.S. didn't have to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win war - Los Angeles Times

The accepted wisdom in the United States for the last 75 years has been that dropping the bombs on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki three days later was the only way to end the World War II without an invasion that would have cost hundreds of thousands of American and perhaps millions of Japanese lives. Not only did the bombs end the war, the logic goes, they did so in the most humane way possible.
However, the overwhelming historical evidence from American and Japanese archives indicates that Japan would have surrendered that August, even if atomic bombs had not been used - and documents prove that President Truman and his closest advisors knew it.

▽Nintendo profits jump 400% thanks to the Switch and 'Animal Crossing' - CNN

The company said it made 145 billion yen ($1.37 billion) in operating profit for the quarter ended June, marking a 428% surge compared to the same time a year ago. That blew away expectations from analysts, who had estimated about 62 billion yen of profit, according to data provided by Refinitiv.
Nintendo also doubled sales from a year ago, taking in about 358 billion yen ($3.4 billion).
The results show that months into the pandemic, people are still turning to the Nintendo Switch game console in droves. Nintendo sold about 5.7 million of the devices from April through June, marking a 167% increase year-over-year.

▽Sony to develop satellite with University of Tokyo and JAXA | The Japan Times

Sony Corp. said Wednesday that it will develop a satellite jointly with the University of Tokyo and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.
The Japanese company will develop a camera for use in a satellite that can be controlled remotely from Earth in real time.
It aims to use images captured by the camera, such as those of outer space and Earth, in its entertainment business.

▽News Corp posts wider loss as coronavirus pummels advertising revenue | Fox Business

The New York-based company, which owns the Journal, HarperCollins Publishers and newspapers in the U.K. and Australia, said its fiscal fourth-quarter loss was $397 million, or 67 cents a share, compared with a loss of $51 million, or 9 cents a share, a year earlier. The wider loss was partly due to noncash impairment charges of $292 million and higher restructuring costs related to the coronavirus crisis, News Corp said.