According to The Nikkei Asia, Japan's food exports soared to a 10th straight annual record in 2022, as the economic reopening from the pandemic in many countries sparked renewed interest in dining out.
A weaker yen helped make foodstuffs from Japan competitively priced for international buyers as well.
Exports rose 14.3% to an all-time high of 1.41 trillion yen (US$10.9 billion), the government said Friday, as shipments topped 1 trillion yen for a second consecutive year. Japan now aims to reach 2 trillion yen sooner than its projected time frame of 2025.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/Japan-s-food-exports-hit-new-high-on-seafood-whisky-demand

According to The Australian Financial Review, the record-breaking rate of house price declines has finally eased, with values slipping by just 0.7 per cent across the combined capital cities in the December quarter as buyers adjust to higher interest rates.
The rate at which prices fell in the final quarter last year is six times less than the 4 per cent drop recorded in the preceding three months, which was the largest ever quarterly fall, according to Domain data.
 
https://www.afr.com/property/residential/property-price-slump-slows-from-record-speed-20230123-p5ceow

According to The Asahi Shimbun, buildings in the capital’s Otemachi business district are looking increasingly green and lush, as developers turn to plants, trees and even farms to win over office workers seeking more refreshing work environments.
Mitsui & Co. and Mitsui Fudosan Co. are at the forefront of the trend, having made available one of the largest green spaces in the district.
Soon after the Otemachi One Garden opened near the Imperial Palace at noon on Dec. 16 in the northwestern area of Otemachi, it quickly filled with visitors on their lunch breaks.
The 6,000-square-meter green zone is located where there used to be an open space beside Mitsui & Co.’s previous headquarters. The land was developed alongside Mitsui & Co.’s new main office building and the Otemachi One Tower complex, which was constructed in 2020.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14811957

According to The Australian Financial Review, Canada’s Brookfield and US private equity group EIG Partners have held talks to re-price their $9 a share joint bid for Origin Energy, to reflect what they see as heightened risk since due diligence started in November.
It is understood Brookfield and EIG Partners have discussed lowering their offer below the $9 mark with Origin Energy and its advisers in the past week, to gauge the ASX-listed giant’s willingness to recommend a lower offer.
Brookfield and EIG Partners believe changes in the regulatory environment - particularly the gas price cap which impacts earnings at Origin’s Australia Pacific LNG project - have created material uncertainty around the group’s long-term earnings outlook.

https://www.afr.com/street-talk/brookfield-eig-turn-screws-on-origin-energy-price-talks-heat-up-20230201-p5ch2m
 

According to The Statement, ENEOS Corporation announces that it has constructed a demonstration plant in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, to produce MCH, a type of hydrogen carrier, using its proprietary low-cost “electrochemical synthesis of organic hydride” method (Direct MCH). The opening ceremony was held on 30 January, and the plant will begin operation in February.
The demonstration plant will produce green MCH by combining the medium-sized electrolyzer with a 250-kilowatt solar power system in Queensland, which is ideal for solar power generation. With the aim of maximizing production efficiency, the plant will confirm the durability of the electrolyzer under subtropical conditions as well as develop optimal operation and control technologies for it when plant operation is adjusted to match fluctuations in solar power during the approximately eight-month-long demonstration period from February to September 2023. 
 
https://www.eneos.co.jp/english/newsrelease/2022/pdf/20230130_01.pdf
 

According to The Australian Financial Review, Sydney-based biotech EnGeneIC is tapping investors to raise $20 million in bridging funding to buy time until the IPO market reopens and the company can undertake a Nasdaq listing next year.
The company, which was founded in 2001 by former CSIRO scientists Jennifer MacDiarmid and Himanshu Brahmbhatt, who still serve as co-CEOs, has created a new way of delivering cancer drugs that is more potent and less toxic than existing treatments.

https://www.afr.com/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/cancer-biotech-raising-20m-after-delaying-nasdaq-float-20221111-p5bxgo

According to The Australian Financial Review, auction volumes jumped 4.4 per cent to 2266 nationwide this week – the biggest auction weekend since late June, as vendors rushed to sell ahead of the Christmas holiday period, data from CoreLogic shows.
Melbourne hosted the busiest auction market last week with 981 auctions, up by 4.6 per cent from a week ago, although still 59.2 per cent lower than the same time last year.
Of the collected results, 65.5 per cent were successful, up by 3.2 percentage points from last week.
Sydney’s clearance rate also rebounded to 67.5 per cent from a week ago amid early signs of confidence slowly returning into the market.

https://www.afr.com/property/residential/clearance-rates-rebound-despite-higher-volumes-20221120-p5bzp6
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According to The Nikkei Asia, Japan welcomed nearly 500,000 visitors from abroad in October, more than double the figure in September, after the country fully opened its borders last month.
Figures released by the Japan National Tourism Organization -- the first since the government restored visa-free entry for individual travelers on 11 Oct -- show 498,600 visitors entered the country, up from 206,500 in September.
Still, Japan has a long way to go to revive an industry that saw nearly 2.5 million arrivals in October 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Travel-Leisure/Japan-visitors-doubled-to-500-000-in-October-after-full-reopening

 

According to The Australian Financial Review, an army of householders in the suburbs of Adelaide helped stabilise a creaking electricity grid in South Australia.
Their residential storage batteries on the outside walls of homes with rooftop solar panels are part of a “virtual power plant” set up by AGL Energy six years ago, and were utilised by authorities to help stop the local grid overloading with too much electricity.

https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/hundreds-of-home-batteries-helped-stabilise-grid-agl-20221117-p5bz1g

According to The Asahi Shimbun, Japanese trading and other companies outside the manufacturing sector benefitted enormously from the steep fall in the value of the Japanese currency in recent months, whereas the performance of manufacturers was patchy due to a surge in prices of materials caused by the cheaper yen.
But overall, bottom-line profits posted by Japanese companies listed in the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange before the regrouping of the TSE this spring, are projected to be a record for any six-month period, according to SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14764902