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October 13, 2024
 

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Elizabeth Beattie
Traders borrow in currencies where rates are low and put that money to work in economies where rates are high, pocketing the difference.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Oct 2, 2024
Massive carry trade still lurks in the shadows and looms over markets
Trillions might remain, slightly different, less obvious and all but forgotten by a market eager to move on.
Shigeru Ishiba speaks at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo after being elected the party's new leader Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 30, 2024
Tokyo stocks fall 4.8% in first day of trading after Ishiba's victory
The surprise result in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election “contributed to meaningful volatility” in the markets.
Kioxia Holdings was reportedly planning an initial public offering in October valuing it at $10 billion.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 25, 2024
Kioxia reportedly pulls IPO as AI winter looms
The IPO delay comes as the chip business globally faces a number of challenges related to possible overcapacity in some products.
Catherine O’Connell has achieved a number of notable firsts in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024
Pioneering foreign female attorney stresses pragmatism within Japan Inc.
Catherine O’Connell was the first foreign woman to establish a law practice in Tokyo and to sit on the audit and supervisory boards at Toyota Motor and Fujitsu.
Pedestrians cross an intersection in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Japan has experienced a postpandemic travel boom, with tourists pouring back in after restrictions closed the country’s borders to travelers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 12, 2024
Japan jumps to No. 2, from sixth place, in Best Countries index
It jumped from 6th place on the 2023 list as a post-COVID boom and reforms helped bump it up on the subindexes used to calculate the overall score.
Seven & I Holdings, operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, said on Friday it has rejected Alimentation Couche-Tard's takeover bid as not being in the interest of shareholders.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 6, 2024
Seven & I pans value of offer as it rejects Canadian takeover bid
Seven & I said that Alimentation Couche-Tard had “grossly” undervalued the target company and that the takeover attempt was timed “opportunistically.”
Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel is opposed by politicians across the political spectrum, including both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 5, 2024
Japan miffed but reaction muted after shocking twist to U.S. Steel deal
U.S. President Joe Biden is set to reject Nippon Steel's acquisition of the American steelmaker, according to multiple unconfirmed reports released in recent days.
U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Works steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 4, 2024
U.S. Steel to remain American-led, Nippon Steel says
The Japanese firm said post-acquisition the majority of U.S. Steel's board of directors and all members of core senior management would be U.S. citizens.
An abandoned house in Urayama, Saitama Prefecture. Buying an <i>akiya</i>, which means empty house in Japanese, can be a rewarding experience that yields a unique space and a livable home, competitively priced. Or it could turn out to be a money pit.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 2, 2024
First lesson of Japan’s akiya gold rush: No such thing as a free house.
Renovations are usually the most expensive part of the journey and the laundry list of what needs to be done is long and tends to get longer after the process starts.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a Lower House hearing on Friday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 23, 2024
Ueda promises better communication as he sticks to the script
Ueda took extra care with his comments to an extraordinary session of parliament called to discuss the market turmoil sparked by the central bank's surprise rate hike.
Seven & I Holding’s logo is seen at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Tokyo on Aug. 19. Apart from 7-Eleven, Seven & I also owns, has stakes in or operates a number of other iconic properties, including Denny’s, Tower Records and Ito-Yokado.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 22, 2024
Japan warms to audacious Canadian bid for 7-Eleven operator
The deal might just work if Alimentation Couche-Tard lets the convenience store chain get on with business and continue to develop and expand globally.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida leaves at the end of a news conference, in which he announced he is stepping down, at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 14, 2024
Kishida's shock announcement shakes already unsettled Japanese markets
The prime minister's decision to step down follows the Bank of Japan's surprise rate hike just two weeks earlier.
An electronic board displaying Topix and the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar outside a brokerage in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2024
Tokyo’s Monday stock crash an afterthought by Friday
Concern remained, and the search for a coherent explanation as to why Tokyo stocks crashed and shook investors globally was ongoing.
The 225-issue Nikkei stock average dropped more than 4,000 points on Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 5, 2024
Nikkei plunges by 12% as it registers largest-ever point fall
The drop exceeds the point fall recorded Oct. 20, 1987, the day after Black Monday in New York.
The Nikkei 225 fell more than 2,000 points on Friday, capping a volatile week in the financial markets.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 2, 2024
Japanese stocks fall almost 6% just days after shock rate rise
In the span of less than a month, the 225-issue Nikkei average went from all-time records to a shocking rout.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris might maintain some of the economic policies of former President Donald Trump.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jul 30, 2024
A President Harris might be decidedly Trumpy in approach to Asia trade
The efforts to contain China economically is a common theme that is likely to be maintained after the election.
Japanese stocks are down 10% from their July peak as the yen strengthens.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 26, 2024
Yen melt-up nudges Japanese stocks into correction territory
Japan’s benchmark index is now down 10% from its July peak, meeting the textbook definition of a market correction.
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018, before being dethroned by Singapore on the 2024 list.
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2024
Japan loses top spot on strongest passport list to Singapore
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018.
The Nishiki market in Kyoto. June’s inflation report shows extraordinary jumps in the prices of some items favored by households, including cabbage (27.6%), potatoes (28.5%) and tomatoes (15.6%).
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 19, 2024
Households struggle as Japan’s inflation rises near U.S. levels
Consumer prices in Japan rose 2.8% on the year in June, close to the 3.0% in the United States.
An empty street in Fukiya, Okayama Prefecture. Japan may be both experiencing overtourism in some places and witnessing the opposite in others.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2024
Japan doesn't have too many tourists, statistics suggest. It just feels that way.
The country received 0.2 tourists per capita in 2023, compared with France's 1.5, Greece's 3.4, Portugal's 2.5 and Spain's 1.8.
17-year-old girl found dead in Osaka hotel room was strangled
A security camera footage shows a 17-year-old girl and a man entering a hotel in the city of Osaka on Saturday. She was found dead in the hotel room several hours later.
Ban on dual nationality is constitutional, Fukuoka High Court rules
Yuri Kondo (center), who filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Japan's ban on dual nationality, speaks at a news conference in the city of Fukuoka in December 2023.
Nihon Hidankyo awarded Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to achieve nuclear-free world
Toshiyuki Mimaki, the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, speaks at an event held in November at United Nations headquarters in New York on the sidelines of the second meeting of state parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Nobel Prize is a warning to a world on the nuclear brink
The remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima in September 1945.
Dodgers drop Padres in historic Japanese pitchers' duel to advance in MLB playoffs
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto pumps his fist during the fourth inning of Friday's series-clinching win over the Padres at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Nihon Hidankyo members hope surprise Nobel win cements nuclear taboo
Toshiko Hamanaka (left), the assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, and the organization's co-chair, Terumi Tanaka, during a news conference in Tokyo on Saturday, the day after the group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Bank of Japan vows better messaging to avoid more market turmoil
The Bank of Japan's surprise rate increase on July 31 led to Japanese stocks plummeting into bear-market territory, with the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei average falling 12.4% on Aug. 5 alone.
Peter Barakan’s Live Magic! takes its final bow
Annual festival Peter Barakan’s Live Magic! was born a decade ago when Barakan (left) decided to create a platform to share his love of roots music, which he attributes to growing up in 1960s England.
Spate of sumo tour dropouts highlights need to rethink wrestlers' health
Shonannoumi hits the dirt at the hands of Kotozakura during a bout in Tokyo in May. Shonannoumi is among the many top wrestlers who have dropped out of this month's regional tour due to injury.
Japan pushes fossil fuel tech in Asia carbon neutrality initiative
Coal-fired power plants in Bataan, the Philippines, in June 2023. A third of the 158 agreements signed under the Japan-led Asia Zero Emission Community are linked to fossil fuel technologies, a recent study by a climate research group has found.

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