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October 05, 2025
 

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Hideyuki Sano
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda announces the central bank's plan to start offloading its massive exchange-traded fund holdings, at a news conference in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 23, 2025
BOJ seeks to remove stocks overhang with slow sell-down of ETFs
The century-long plan to offload its massive holdings of ETFs, through which it indirectly owns about 7% of Japanese stocks, could begin in early 2026.
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son’s bets on artificial intelligence have fueled a 146% surge in the stock since the fiscal year began in April.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 22, 2025
SoftBank’s heavy weight forces skeptical stock investors to buy
SoftBank shares provided almost 10% of the increase in the Topix’s market capitalization since the end of March.
Drawn by reforms and growing shareholder focus, activist investors are ramping up buying Japanese stocks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 16, 2025
Activist funds ramp up Japan bets after record bids last year
The 10 largest activist investors in Japan put an estimated ¥890 billion into Japanese stocks in the first half of this year.
Chugai Pharmaceutical shares sank as much as 20% in Tokyo on Friday after a study revealed that an obesity drug it licensed to Eli Lilly & Co. resulted in lower weight loss and higher rates of nausea and vomiting than anticipated.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 8, 2025
Chugai stock drops the most since 1977 on disappointing obesity drug data
A study showed the drug, which it has licensed to Eli Lilly & Co., resulted in lower weight loss and higher rates of nausea and vomiting than anticipated.
Government Pension Investment Fund President Kazuto Uchida says there is no need to change the fund's portfolio even after a trade deal was reached between Japan and the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 25, 2025
Japan’s top pension fund keeps strategy amid volatility
As it seeks to ride out the turmoil, the Government Pension Investment Fund aims to enhance portfolio rebalancing with futures and analyze correlations between different assets.
Analysts say the failure of Alimentation Couche-Tard’s attempt to acquire the operator of 7-Eleven stores runs counter to the broader trend in Japan's investing landscape.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 18, 2025
Couche-Tard’s failed bid for Seven and I sparks debate over foreign acquisitions
Couche-Tard's acquisition failure is seen as running counter to the broader trend in the investing landscape in Japan.
The Government Pension Investment Fund suffered a loss in the January-March quarter as a global trade war due to higher U.S. tariffs hurt equities and the outlook for interest-rate cuts dragged down the dollar against the yen.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 4, 2025
GPIF logs $61 billion loss as weak dollar hits overseas assets
The pension fund incurred losses on all four of its asset classes in the January-March period, the first time this has occurred since July-September 2022.
Foreign investors bought Japanese stocks for 13 straight weeks to June 27, their longest buying spree since 2013, data from Japan Exchange Group showed.
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2025
Foreign buying of Japan stocks hits longest spell since 2013
The persistent buying — despite lingering concerns over U.S. tariffs and still sluggish domestic consumption — likely points to diversification away from U.S. equities.
Foreign investors bought a net ¥88.4 billion of Japanese equities in the week that ended on June 20, data has shown.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 26, 2025
Foreign buying of Japanese stocks marks 12-week streak, TSE data shows
According to data, foreign investors bought ¥88.4 billion of Japanese equities in the week that ended on June 20.
An Aeon store in Osaka. Aeon, the country’s largest supermarket chain operator, last month said it will launch a tender offer to make Tsuruha a consolidated subsidiary at ¥11,400 per share.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 23, 2025
Tsuruha shareholders to vote on criticized Aeon merger plan
The chorus reflects rising shareholder activism in Japan in recent years as the country’s governance reforms embolden investors.
Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda. Toyota Industries investor Zennor Asset Management said a plan by Toyoda to take over the Japanese auto parts maker raises governance issues and may undermine minority shareholders’ interests.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 21, 2025
Toyota Industries investor Zennor says it wants minority safeguards
A founding partner of Zennor said the buyout plan would benefit the founding family and may undervalue the target’s stock and real estate holdings.
NTT said last week it will take its data service unit NTT Data Group private. That followed its acquisition of its mobile service arm, NTT Docomo, in 2020.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2025
Listed subsidiaries get the ax in Japan after investor pressure
The trend stems from pressure on firm to cater to shareholders in response to activist campaigns, demands from the stock exchange and hostile takeovers.
Toyota vehicles bound for shipment at the Port of Nagoya. Japan’s 3-year-old corporate governance campaign has more room to grow and unlock value in Japan’s industrial heartland of Aichi Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2025
Japan’s corporate governance wave reaches the industrial heartland in Nagoya
The city of Nagoya and the area around it are home to manufacturing giants including Toyota and Toyota group auto parts maker Denso.
Akio Toyoda’s $42 billion plan to buy Toyota Industries is one of the examples in a recent wave of management buyout ambitions in Japan.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2025
Japan’s tycoon families seek buyouts to evade investor pressure
The desire to delist stems from mounting pressure public companies face from investors and the threat of being acquired.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's Economic Revitalization Minister and top tariff negotiator with the U.S., speaks to the press upon his arrival at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 20, 2025
Japan mulls reviewing car safety rules to strike deal with Trump
The report comes after Japan’s chief negotiator Ryosei Akazawa kicked off tariff discussions with U.S. counterparts in Washington last week.
The Government Pension Investment Fund will have Kazuto Uchida, a former Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group economist, as its new head on April 1.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 25, 2025
Japan names former MUFG economist to lead huge pension fund
Bond market veteran Kazuto Uchida will take over from current President Masataka Miyazono on April 1 for a five-year term to manage one of the world’s largest pension funds.
Nintendo shares sank as much as 9.8% in Tokyo Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump doubling levies on China means game consoles, mostly made in China, could have higher selling prices in the United States due to heftier import costs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025
Nintendo shares plunge on tariff fears as foreign investors retreat
Nintendo sank 9.2% in Tokyo, its biggest intraday drop since the stock market rout on Aug. 5.
Seth Fischer, chief investment officer of Oasis Management, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2025
Oasis says investors back its proposed board changes at Kao
Oasis, which holds a 5.2% stake in Kao, has presented five candidates to become outside directors of the company.
An electronic board in Tokyo shows the 225-issue Nikkei average dropping over 1,000 points on Friday morning.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 28, 2025
Asian chip shares tumble on Nvidia earnings and tariff fears
A Bloomberg gauge of 25 Japanese chip-related stocks sank as much as 4.5%, the biggest intraday fall since September.
Japan’s robo-adviser market, estimated to be worth around ¥3 trillion, has massive room for growth, says the CEO of robo-adviser Folio Holdings.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2025
SBI-backed Japan robo-adviser Folio targets swing to profit and IPO
Japan’s robo-adviser market is estimated to be worth around $19.8 billion.
Takaichi poised to become Japan's first female PM after winning LDP poll
Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, holds a news conference after the LDP presidential election in Tokyo on Saturday.
A Japanese ski resort town is roiled by a debate over immigration
A Swedish snowboard instructor works at the Niseko ski resort area on Hokkaido, in Kutchan, in December 2022
Tokyo's newest stationery store sells 'a slower, more human rhythm'
Plotter's signature customizable leather binder is just one of many products contributing to the ongoing boom in the popularity of Japanese stationery.
One dead, one missing in Japan after bear attack
A bear warning sign. More and more wild bears have been spotted in Japan in recent years, even in residential areas, due to factors including a declining human population and climate change.
Japan’s jobless rate edges up to highest in over a year
August’s unemployment figures showed a slight tempering of Japan's job market, but the data still points to overall firmness amid an ongoing labor shortage.
The summer kabuki came roaring back
Kabuki has been trying for years to attract a new generation of fans. One way to do this has been to adapt manga and anime franchises, such as “Naruto,” for the stage. 
Tea ceremony experts see matcha boom as a big opportunity
Atsuko Mori, founder and director of Kyoto-based tea salon Camellia Tea Ceremony, prepares matcha during a tea ceremony in Kyoto.
Japan's far-right party courts Trump allies and vows not to get 'wacky'
Sanseito party leader Sohei Kamiya speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Sept. 25.
How Ohtani has boosted Japan's soft power and made LA even more baseball-obsessed
Fans at Dodger Stadium pose in front of a mural highlighting the Dodgers' Japanese stars from past and present during a game earlier this year.
Japan faces fresh energy challenge as it seeks to expand power-hungry data centers
Data storage tapes at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center facility in Berkeley, California. Data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, and that will only rise as generative artificial intelligence takes off in earnest.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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