Sony, which made its name as the electronics company that produced the Walkman portable music player and Trinitron television, is straying further from its roots into real estate. On Thursday, the firm said it’s venturing into the real estate brokerage business in Japan, hoping to create new revenue as it continues to struggle with losses from its flagging consumer electronics businesses.

Singapore’s public transport operator for the rail system, may want to take a leaf out of Japan’s book on how to improve train arrival times. ‘Super Japan: On-time Metro’, gives an inside look on how trains are run in Tokyo. The video by Discovery Channel Asia is available on YouTube. At the start of the video, a driver is seen being timed while driving from one station to the next. The time taken to reach each station is calculated down to seconds.

Japanese casual wear chain Uniqlo opens its first store in Germany on Friday, as it accelerates expansion in Europe in a bid by its parent company Fast Retailing Co Ltd (9983.T) to become the world's top fashion retailer by 2020. Fast Retailing wants to open more stores abroad as it sees turnover growth slow in its home market, where the population is ageing and declining and where it lowered forecasts for Uniqlo's sales on Thursday.