TOKYO—Major Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota and Panasonic, said they would boost employees’ salaries for the first time in years, heeding a call from the prime minister ahead of a sales tax rise next month.

WASHINGTON—Japanese auto parts maker Bridgestone Group has agreed to pay a fine of $425 million to the U.S. Department of Justice over anti-trust allegations related to the sale of anti-vibration rubber products for vehicles.

TOKYO—After three decades as one of the world’s biggest exporters, Japan is now a net importer, due to outsourcing and energy-related imports.

SAITAMA, Japan—People and humanoid robots are working side by side on an assembly line at an assembly plant here that makes money-handling machines.

KAWAUCHI, Japan—A Tokyo-based manufacturer will open a factory in this village that was up until this April completely evacuated due to the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster.

TOKYO—Japanese manufacturers are doing more assembly jobs by hand in an effort to slash power consumption in the face of possible electric shortages.