The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan continued to rise in the first half of this fiscal year to over 5,100, the highest level in 12 years for the April-September period, as labor shortages and rising prices weighed on small businesses, a credit research company said Wednesday. The failures, involving debts of at least 10 million yen ($66,000), rose 1.5 percent from the same period a year earlier to 5,172 cases, according to Tokyo Shoko Research. It was the fourth straight rise for the fiscal first half. With smaller businesses particularly struggling, companies with less than 10 milli...