from today's Nikkei

イラン原油　輸入滞る恐れ　ＥＵ制裁、再保険認めず　政府、適用除外を要請

According to sources familiar with the matter, there has occured a possibility that crude oil import from Iran to Japan will be delayed, because Japanese indemnity insurance companies will have difficulty in making a reassuarence of the import deal of crude oil by a Japanes firm with an European insurance company due to the EU sanctions against Iran. Under the EU sanctions all insurance companies in its region are banned to make reassurance of Iran-related deals.

Considering the matter very serious, the Japanese government has asked EU exemption of such kind of sanction for Japan. But it is not clear how the situation is going.

from the March 17 Nikkei

丸紅、豪で鉄鉱山開発　　韓国ポスコと　　事業費８４００億円　　資源メジャーに対抗

It is learned that Marubeni Corporation will take part in the iron ore mine exploitation project in Australia.It will buy 12.5 perecent of the intersts of a iron ore mine from an Australaian resource company. Acoording to its plan, Marubeni will start production there in 2014, with about 840 invested and on a basis of joint venture with South Korean POSCO and others. With this deal, Marubeni is ceratin to secure more than 10 million tons of iron ore, or about 10 percent of Japan's imports.

Marubeni's intention is to secure a stable supply of iron ore, pushing ahead with the project with a Japan-South Korea alliance, while international resource majors are having more and more share of supply of iron ore from them.

from the March 19 Nikkei

大卒採用２．１％増　　製造業は伸び鈍化　　厳選姿勢強く計画割れも

According to the data comipled by the Nikkei Shimbun on the employment schedules by Japanese companies of college or university graduates in the spring season next year, the number of their employment is up 12.1 percent, compared with that in the spring of this year, marking the second consecutive two-digit increase over the previos year. Sentiment of securing an incresed number of people is conspicuous among companies, especially among those in the non-manufacturing industries intending to expand their businesses overseas. However, it is noted that the increse rate in the manufacturing industries will decline next year. In the spring this year, too, real number of their employment has bacome smaller than their initial planned one, reflecting their attitudes of hiring really good freshmen.

from today's Nikkei

FTA活用　海外生産拡大　第三国への輸出拠点に　競争力強化へ最適地移管　東芝インドから東南アジア向け　トヨタ米国製「カムリ」韓国へ

Japan's major manufacturing companies have been acceleraing their efforts to make the best use of the framework of the FTAs (Free Trade Aagreement) in expanding their overseas productions. Specifically, Toshiba Corporation has a plan to double the production capability by fiscal 2015 of its Indian plant where they are manufacturing turbines used for thermal power plants, intending to expand its exports to the Southeast Asian and the Middle East countries.
In case of Toyoto Motor Corporation, they have initiated the exports of their products such as Camry and others to South Korea from their U.S. facrories. The amount of this kind of exports, the exports to the third-party countries from overseas factories,have come to be 188.8 billion dollars (about 15.8 trillion yen) in fiscal 2010, increasing more than three times in the past decade.

Like these examples,they are shifting their export startegies from conventional ones to from-the-optimum-point export one in order to strengthen their competitiveness, as the FTAs have been increasing in the world.