1. The US government has entered a partial shutdown from early Wednesday as the federal budget expired without new legislation being passed. The partial closure is the first in about seven years since December 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term. His Republican Party and the Democratic Party clashed over funding for the construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border.
2. Japanese retail giant Aeon is tapping technology to improve efficiency as labor costs rise. Japan’s minimum wage hikes for fiscal 2025 started to kick in on Wednesday, adding to the company’s overheads for its 400,000 part-time workers nationwide. Aeon’s supermarket subsidiary started use of a hand-held device in June to speed up restocking of shelves. The device reads bar codes to tell a staffer where a product is displayed in a store. The company says this assists workers who are unfamiliar with the floor layout. Aeon plans to introduce the device at all of its outlets in Japan next fiscal year. Officials say efficiency gains will give it room to further increase wages.
3. A closely-watched survey of business sentiment in Japan shows a slight improvement among major manufacturers for the second straight quarter. The Bank of Japa’s latest “Tankan” survey was released on Wednesday. The sentiment index for manufacturers came in at plus 14. That is 1 point higher than in the previous poll. A positive number indicates there are more companies feeling optimistic about business conditions than pessimistic. Sentiment improved at nine of the 16 manufacturing sectors monitored.