Japan

Toshiba Corp.’s problems threatened to spiral out of control as the electronics giant projected a $6.3 billion write-down, postponed its earnings report because of allegations of impropriety and said its chairman was resigning—all in the space of a day, The Wall Street Journal reported. The delay in the earnings report sent Toshiba shares down 8% in Tokyo trading Tuesday, and its president said he was willing to sell most or all of Toshiba’s profitable flash-memory business to help the company survive past the March 31 end of its fiscal year.

Investors in Takata have begun to price in the growing risk of a court-led bankruptcy after Chinese-owned Key Safety Systems emerged as the leading bidder for the Japanese automotive supplier mired in a global recall crisis over exploding airbags, the Financial Times reported. In a statement, Takata said a steering committee of outside experts, commissioned by the company, had recommended KSS, a US airbag manufacturer owned by China’s Ningbo Joyson Electronic, as the preferred financial sponsor, although a final decision has yet to be made.

A year ago, Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp. would have been an unlikely name on a shortlist of candidates to rescue Takata Corp., the Japanese air-bag maker that’s behind the biggest safety recall in automotive history. The Chinese components supplier, founded by a former TRW Automotive Inc. executive, made less than a quarter of Takata’s annual revenue, employed a workforce that’s less than half the size of its peer, and was about 70 years younger, Bloomberg News reported.

Takata Corp. shares fell sharply Monday as investors rushed to sell ahead of a possible bankruptcy filing for the company, which faces a potential multibillion-dollar bill for recalls related to its faulty air bags, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company’s share price closed down 18% at 467 yen, the third consecutive day of double-digit declines and the sixth straight day of declines overall. Trading volume was thin as buyers of the stock were scarce, accelerating the declines.

With a $1 billion fine and a criminal guilty plea, Takata, the Japanese auto parts maker, took a major step on Friday toward putting the scandal over its deadly airbags behind it, the International New York Times reported. Next up: a sale of the financially hobbled company. And in a turnabout for Japan, Takata’s new owners could be from abroad — underlining a shift in the country’s once-hostile attitude toward outside buyers. American officials said on Friday that Takata had agreed to plead guilty to charges of wire fraud for providing false data and would pay a $1 billion fine.

Takata Corp.’s selection of a potential buyer will miss the year-end target as the shortlisted bidders need more time to review the air-bag maker pummeled by a record auto-safety recall of its products, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported. The successful bidder may be named in the January-to-March quarter, the people said, asking not to be identified as the negotiations are private. Takata and its financial adviser Lazard Ltd. have asked prospective buyers to complete the due diligence in February, two of the people said.

Despite Japan’s reputation for economic sluggishness, Tokyo is flooded with help-wanted signs. The unemployment rate has fallen to 3%, and on Tuesday the government said the number of unemployed people fell below two million for the first time since 1995. It also said there are 140 jobs for every 100 people looking for work, the highest level in a quarter-century, The Wall Street Journal reported. If the economy expands in the current quarter, as economists expect, it would be the longest growth stretch in six years. The growth is still sluggish, less than 1% expected this year.

U.S. buyout firm KKR & Co is no longer in the bidding to buy Takata Corp, the Japanese parts maker at the center of the world's biggest auto recall, according to a person briefed on the bidding process. KKR did not attend meetings last week between bidders and the carmakers key to Takata's survival, the source told Reuters. The four other bidding groups include Bain Capital, a U.S. buyout firm that teamed up with Japanese chemical maker Daicel Corp, sources have said.

In a fresh sign of the economic fallout from weaker global trade, Japan’s three largest shipping companies agreed on Monday to merge a major portion of their businesses, saying they needed to join forces to survive, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The president of one of the companies, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, said the groups faced bleak prospects on their own.

Parliament passed an extra spending package Tuesday to get Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic-revival plan back on track, but the Japanese leader is already facing calls to do more, The Wall Street Journal reported. A leading Abe adviser and some economists say the Bank of Japan is essentially offering unlimited funds to the government interest-free, and he shouldn’t let the opportunity pass. Opponents of ramping up such borrowing say that issuing more debt to finance more stimulus could send a signal that the nation has lost its fiscal discipline.