Skymark Airlines Inc's biggest creditor, aircraft leasing company Intrepid Aviation Ltd , plans to try to block ANA Holdings Inc from taking a 16.5 percent stake in the failed Japanese discount carrier, two people said. The decision by Intrepid to try to stop ANA from becoming a sponsor for Skymark's revival from bankruptcy comes after ANA, Japan's biggest carrier, withdrew from an agreement with Intrepid to lease up to seven jetliners, said the people, who have direct knowledge of the talks. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks weren't public.

Lixil, the Japanese bathroom fittings group, faces losses of at least Y41bn ($337m) after a China-based, German-listed subsidiary filed for insolvency and announced it was considering legal action against its former chairman and his son, the former deputy chairman, the Financial Times reported. The case could revive investor concerns about transparency at China-based companies with foreign listings following other problems in recent years, including the 2012 bankruptcy of Sino-Forest, the Canadian-listed Chinese forestry group.

Sharp Corporation of Japan said it had secured a $1.7 billion bailout from banks, its second major rescue in three years, after its smartphone display business came under intense pricing pressure from Asian rivals, the International New York Times reported. Mizuho Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ will inject a combined 200 billion yen in a debt-for-equity swap, Sharp said in a statement, a move that will buy it time but is unlikely to allay worries about the long-term viability of its display business.

Fitch Ratings lowered Japan’s credit rating as the country continued to wrestle with staggering debt, the International New York Times reported. The rating agency said Monday that the government did not include sufficient measures in its budget to replace a sales tax increase it delayed in the current fiscal year, which ends next March. Japan’s debt, more than twice the size of its economy, is the largest among developed nations. The country has struggled to find a way to cover rising costs for health and elder care.

ANA Holdings Inc said it has agreed to acquire a stake of up to 19.9 percent in bankrupt budget carrier Skymark Airlines Inc, gaining access to highly coveted landing slots and strengthening its lead over rival Japan Airlines Co., Reuters reported. Under the deal, Japanese private equity firm Integral Corp, which has provided funds to keep Skymark in business since its bankruptcy in January, will hold just over 50 percent. An ambitious expansion programme, including plans to fly Airbus A380 superjumbos on overseas routes, stretched Skymark's finances, leaving it vulnerable to competition.

The Bank of Japan stuck with its monetary stimulus program on Wednesday, brushing off a lack of inflation two years after it vowed to pull the economy out of more than a decade of falling prices, the International New York Times reported. As its initial deadline for stoking inflation passed, the central bank maintained that consumer prices were temporarily depressed by cheaper oil, and would gradually rise as consumers and businesses spent more and the economy recovered further.

Japan’s drift back toward deflation, two years after launching a radical monetary policy experiment to cure the affliction, underscores the continuing difficulties in pulling the world’s third-largest economy out of its long slump, The Wall Street Journal reported. The government said Friday its most closely watched price gauge was flat in February from a year earlier, far below the 2% target that the central bank had aimed to hit by this spring. It was the lowest level since May 2013 for the consumer price index, excluding fresh food prices and the effects of a tax increase.

The country’s savings rate, long one of the highest in the world, is now below zero. In short, Japan’s citizens are spending more than they earn, the International New York Times reported. By comparison, the rate in the United States, where consumers have a reputation for living beyond their means, is on the rise, hitting 5.5 percent in January. The reversal is stark. For decades, many Japanese hoarded cash, a habit that took hold in the years after World War II, when government protections like unemployment insurance and public pensions were scarce. Today, Japan is in a bind.

For most of her career, Mana Nakazora has taken a pre-dawn train to work regardless of whether she arrived home just hours earlier, Bloomberg News reported. Her colleagues describe BNP Paribas SA’s Tokyo head of investment research as a powerhouse, and she was Japan’s No. 1 bond picker from 2010 to 2012 and No. 2 for the last two years in Nikkei Veritas newspaper polls. Making it to the top in an industry whose corporate bond sales exceeded $70 billion last year can be tough.

Japan's biggest airline, ANA Holdings Inc, said it was considering injecting capital into Skymark Airlines Inc as part of a rehabilitation plan for the bankrupt domestic budget carrier, Reuters reported. Besides ANA, other investors have also expressed interest in participating in a rescue package for Skymark, according to media reports and sources. Skymark holds valuable slots at Tokyo's crowded Haneda airport, making it attractive to potential investors. Skymark last month sought protection from creditors, blaming a weak yen and a dispute with jet maker Airbus Group for its financial woes.