DETROIT >> With just a week left before contracts expire with Detroit’s three automakers, the United Auto Workers union says it hasn’t chosen a target company.

But President Dennis Williams said Monday he will choose Ford, General Motors or Fiat Chrysler before the contracts end Monday.

A target company becomes the focus of bargaining and could be hit with a strike if negotiations stall. A deal with one company also sets a general pattern for the others, although there currently are substantial differences among the three automakers.

This year’s talks are expected to be the most contentious in years because all three companies are healthy and making money. The union wants a piece of the profits in the form of hourly pay raises for longtime workers who haven’t had one in a decade.

Companies, meanwhile, want to cut labor costs to stay competitive with foreign automakers. They prefer continuing profit-sharing to increasing hourly labor costs. During the past four years, workers at all three companies have gotten healthy annual checks.

Williams has said he doesn’t want a strike, but unlike four years ago, the union can stop work at any of the three companies. In 2011, strikes were prohibited at GM and Chrysler under the terms of their government-funded bankruptcies.

Low investment inhibits Japan’s economy

TOKYO >> Japan’s economy contracted at a minus 1.2 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, according to revised data released Tuesday that show persisting weakness in corporate investment is still hindering a recovery.

The revised growth figure was better than some economists had anticipated. A preliminary estimate last month showed the world’s third-largest economy contracting at a minus 1.6 percent annual rate.

But economists said much of the change stemmed from an upward revision in private inventories, and the general trend is weaker than expected. Corporate investment fell 0.9 percent in a much larger drop than the 0.1 percent decline earlier reported.

Still, the higher inventories and a revision in consumer spending to minus 0.7 percent instead of minus 0.8 percent as earlier estimated helped to offset weaker government and corporate investment.

“The details were hardly reassuring,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary. He expects growth to be positive but tepid in the current quarter, based on the data seen so far.

The government hopes to boost growth through inflation, but sluggish wages and exports have frustrated that effort.

International insurer could be sold

TOKYO >> Japan’s Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. is in talks to buy Lloyd’s of London insurer Amlin Plc in a deal that could be announced as soon as Tuesday, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The acquisition could cost the Japanese firm more than $4.2 billion, Nikkei newspaper has reported.

Yuki Fujikawa, a spokesman for Mitsui Sumitomo, would not confirm or comment on talks. “There is no fact that anything has been decided,” he said. A spokesman for Amlin declined comment.

Amlin provides reinsurance to firms around the world, and has businesses focused on property and casualty coverage and policies for the marine and aviation industries. Beyond the U.K. it has offices in Continental Europe, Bermuda, the U.S. and parts of the Middle East and Asia, according to its website.

Chief Executive Officer Charles Philipps said two weeks ago that the company was not for sale.

Nissan recalls vehicles over safety issue

Nissan is recalling nearly 300,000 of its Versa and Versa Note vehicles to adjust a console panel that could catch the driver’s shoe and slow braking speed.

The carmaker says it received a report of an accident involving injury, but no deaths have been tied to the issue.

It says in rare cases the right edge of a driver’s shoe might catch on the center console’s lower trim panel.

Nissan North America Inc. says it will notify owners and dealers and modify the console trim panel for free.

The company expects to start the recall by mid-October.

It involves Versa sedans made between June 9, 2011, and March 11, 2015, and Versa Note vehicles made between April 23, 2013, and March 11, 2015.

ON THE MOVE

Hawaiian Host has hired Verna Wong as its vice president of Human Resources in Honolulu. She has more than 15 years’ experience in professional management and development from various companies in Honolulu. Wong previously was in charge of graduate career services and development at Shidler College of Business at University of Hawaii.

Central Pacific Bank has promoted Adrienne Chee to vice president and division manager of Information Technology & Deposit Operations. Chee previously served as vice president and division manager of Information Technology Solutions and has been with CPB since 1986.

Glenn Yabuki has become an Ameriprise Financial Private Wealth Advisor. Yabuki, with an office in Honolulu, is one of approximately 12 percent of the nearly 10,000 Ameriprise financial advisers to achieve this status. To become eligible for this status, advisers must be experienced in serving affluent clients, maintain high client satisfaction scores, complete specialized training and achieve superior business results. Yabuki is knowledgeable on a variety of topics and strategies including retirement, tax and estate planning, insurance and asset management.