News Headlines - 29 September 2020

▽Funeral of Ex-Japan PM Nakasone to Cost 190 M. Yen - JIJI PRESS

The funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone to be held jointly by the cabinet and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will cost some 190 million yen, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato.
The cost will be split evenly between the government and the LDP.
Earlier, the government approved the use of 96.43 million yen from its reserve funds for fiscal 2020 to pay for the funeral of Nakasone, who died last November. The spending plan has been drawing criticism especially on the internet for being too costly.

▽NTT to take over wireless unit Docomo for $38bn - Nikkei Asian Review

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone will turn listed wireless carrier NTT Docomo into a wholly owned subsidiary via a tender offer expected to be worth around $38 billion, the largest ever for a Japanese company, Nikkei has learned.
The telecommunications group will seek to purchase the roughly 34% of outstanding Docomo stock held by other shareholders and will delist the carrier once the transaction is complete.
Adding the typical 30% premium for a tender offer to the current share price puts the value of the deal at over 4 trillion yen ($37.9 billion). The bid will be announced soon.

▽Kioxia delays listing on Tokyo bourse amid U.S.-China tensions

Kioxia Holdings Corp. said Monday it will delay what would have been Japan's largest initial public offering this year amid heightened U.S.-China tensions that have hurt the outlook for the semiconductor industry... Kioxia was expected to raise 330 billion yen ($3 billion) in the IPO scheduled for Oct. 6 and have a market capitalization of more than 1.5 trillion yen... Kioxia, bought by a consortium led by U.S. private equity fund Bain Capital and still 40.6 percent owned by Toshiba Corp., became the latest company sucked into the rivalry between the United States and China.

▽Japanese expats warned not to drink moonshine | NHK WORLD

The Japanese Embassy in Indonesia says a Japanese man has died and others have suffered from poisoning symptoms after drinking moonshine in the country.
Embassy staff say the reports started coming in this month. They found several Japanese nationals living in and around the capital Jakarta vomited and suffered other poisoning symptoms after consuming illegal alcohol. One, a man in his 40s, has been confirmed to have died.
The victims are thought to have acquired illegal liquor in plastic bottles from acquaintances.

▽Mini nuclear reactors with key South Korean parts cleared by US - Nikkei Asia

Miniature nuclear reactors that use key components from South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction have won first-of-its-kind certification for use in the U.S.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late August approved the use of small reactor modules, or SMRs, for a project being undertaken by the American company NuScale Power in the state of Utah. Doosan agreed to provide NuScale with enough reactor and turbine parts to build a 12-module plant under a $1.3 billion contract.
The project, commissioned by Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, is due to break ground in 2023 with the plant slated to start up in 2029.