SAN FRANCISCO >> Netflix will expand into Japan next month to give the Internet video service its first presence in Asia.

Japanese subscribers will be able to start watching Netflix on Internet-connected devices beginning Sept. 2.

Netflix already sells its services in dozens of other countries outside the U.S. as part of its ambition to be available throughout the world by the end of next year.

The costs of the international expansion have been holding down Netflix’s profits, but investors haven’t minded because the company has been quickly winning over new customers. Netflix now has about 65 million subscribers, more than twice as many as it had three years ago.

McDonald’s culls corporate positions

NEW YORK >> McDonald’s says it is cutting about 225 corporate jobs as part of a push intended to revitalize its flagging business.

The world’s biggest hamburger chain says the cuts include about 135 positions at its corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., where it has about 2,100 employees. An additional 90 positions are being cut overseas, the company said. It says employees were notified last month.

The move comes as McDonald’s Corp. CEO Steve Easterbrook has said he will target $300 million in cost cuts by 2017 and reorganize the company so it can react more quickly to the changing industry. McDonald’s has conceded that it failed to keep pace with changing tastes. In the U.S. market the company last month reported its seventh straight quarterly decline in sales at established locations.

McDonald’s also cut 63 jobs in December and 65 more in January at its headquarters, related to the removal of a management layer between U.S. franchisees and the corporate office.