Nintendo raised its fiscal year profit forecast by 26 percent from an earlier figure yesterday, citing healthy sales of its Wii home console and DS hand-held game machines.
Nintendo Co also credited a recovering US dollar for its new projection of a ¥410 billion (US$3.8 billion) profit for the fiscal year ending March next year.
The Kyoto-based company had previously forecast a ¥325 billion profit for the fiscal year. The revised projection would mark a 60 percent jump in profit compared with last fiscal year.
The Japanese maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games also raised its sales forecast for the fiscal year ending March next year to ¥2 trillion from an earlier ¥1.8 trillion.
Nintendo said it expects to sell 26.5 million Wii machines in the fiscal year ending March next year — better than the initial estimate of 25 million and the 18.6 million sold the previous fiscal year ending last March.
Nintendo revised its forecast for DS sales upward to 30.5 million units for the fiscal year through March next year, from 28 million. It sold 30.3 million DS machines the previous fiscal year.
Favorable exchange rates are also expected to help earnings, Nintendo said in a statement. Nintendo now expects the US dollar to cost ¥105, higher than the previous estimate of ¥100.
A stronger US dollar boosts the earnings at Japanese exporters like Nintendo by lifting the value of overseas earnings translated into yen.
Last month, Nintendo reported a 34 percent jump in April-June profit at ¥107.27 billion.
Behind the stellar performance is the hit Wii and its game software, including “Wii Fit,” which has drawn the health-conscious to simple exercises like yoga and aerobics.
The company has now sold worldwide a cumulative 29.6 million Wii machines, which has a trademark wand-like remote controller.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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