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October 17, 2025
 

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Nicholas Takahashi
Toyota sold 10.8 million cars in 2024, a slight drop from the previous year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 8, 2025
Toyota arm that keeps 150 million cars on road also top-earning
Toyota’s value chain arm is set to exceed operating profit from new car sales during the fiscal year ending March 2026 after reaching a record ¥2 trillion the previous year.
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda's ¥4.7 trillion buyout plan for Toyota Industries is delayed due to slower-than-expected antitrust reviews overseas.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 7, 2025
Toyota Industries $31 billion buyout plan faces antitrust delays
The regulatory hurdle could be the first of many as Toyoda attempts to tighten his family’s grip on Toyota in a deal that would rank among the biggest buyouts on record anywhere.
A Toyota dealership in Beijing. Toyota’s record sales run, including steady growth in China and North America, lost steam in August.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2025
Toyota buoyed by China and North America as Japan sales slump
The world’s biggest carmaker has seen steady growth throughout the year in most major markets despite the recent downturn in Japan and trade turmoil.
Toyota's autonomous e-Palette electric vehicle in Woven City in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Thursday
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 26, 2025
Toyota opens Woven City as doubts swirl over cost and purpose
Demonstrations included electric scooters, and automated robots that deliver groceries or park cars.
Nissan’s ProPilot navigates traffic while under human supervision during a test drive in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 22, 2025
Nissan revamps ProPilot to rival Tesla's driver-assist technology
The next version will be able to take on complex city streets using fewer cameras and monitors thanks to artificial intelligence software.
Ivan Espinosa, CEO of Nissan, poses for a photograph inside a Fairlady Z vehicle at the company's headquarters in Yokohama on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 11, 2025
Nissan CEO wants company to launch new cars faster
Pressure is mounting on Ivan Espinosa to overhaul the firm as its financial position continues to deteriorate.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries CEO Eisaku Ito at the firm's headquarters in Tokyo on Friday
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 1, 2025
Mitsubishi Heavy to double gas turbine capacity in two years as demand soars
Demand for the turbines has increased globally due to the proliferation of data centers, new manufacturing and continued electrification.
Nissan workers walk outside its Oppama plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. Nissan plans to shut the plant by the end of fiscal 2027.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Aug 18, 2025
A factory town in crisis shows Japan’s fading manufacturing era
Nissan directly employs almost 10% of Oppama’s 29,700 residents, but its factory is set to shut down by 2028.
Honda said its net profit halved in the first quarter because of U.S. tariffs, but upgraded its annual profit forecast after Tokyo finally hammered out a trade deal with Washington.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 6, 2025
Honda raises annual profit guidance despite U.S. tariff impact
The upward revision to operating profit was because of the tariff level and foreign exchange outlook, according to Honda.
New vehicles for sale at a Toyota dealership in California
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 30, 2025
Toyota logs record global sales despite Trump tariff turmoil
The carmaker’s sales were bolstered by a last-minute rush from customers to lock-in purchases before U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened 25% tariff on car imports.
The dashboard screen of a Toyota RAV4 compact crossover vehicle at an event in May
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Jul 28, 2025
Toyota’s internal inertia stifles digital transformation effort
Inside Toyota, a group of employees are worried about the company’s future in an era when a car’s software matters just as much as its sheet metal.
Car dealerships in Tokyo. Some of Japan's automakers are raising loan rates amid higher costs for servicing loans.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 23, 2025
Japan carmakers put squeeze on households with higher loan rates
More than a year after the Bank of Japan’s first interest rate increase in 17 years, the volatile march higher in superlong bonds is raising the cost of servicing loans.
Toyota’s global sales that include subsidiaries Daihatsu and Hino reached 955,532 vehicles last month, up 8% from a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2025
Toyota sales hit third monthly record on Japan and U.S. demand
Toyota’s global sales — including subsidiaries Daihatsu and Hino — rose 8% from a year earlier to reach 955,532 vehicles in May.
"I am confident that we have what we need to rebuild our company," said Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa at its headquarters in Yokohama on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 24, 2025
Investors grill new Nissan CEO over job cuts, losses and mounting debt
"We understand your frustration,” Espinosa told stakeholders. "It will not be easy to deliver. But I am confident that we have what we need to rebuild our company.”
Japanese companies are rushing to protect their employees and brace operations in the Middle East for the fallout from U.S. strikes on Iran.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2025
Japan’s banks pull staff from Middle East after U.S. strikes Iran
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has started to pull staff out of locations including Dubai, and halted unnecessary travel in and out of the region.
An electric motor, jointly developed by Honda and Daido Steel, for hybrid cars that uses no heavy rare earth metals is displayed at an unveiling in Tokyo in July 2016.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2025
Honda supplier rethinks China relationship as trade war bites
For Daido Steel, the trade war has meant renewing a push to build rare earth supply routes outside of China.
KG Motors CEO Kazunari Kusunoki with the ultra compact electric vehicle Mibot
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2025
This $7,000 single-seat electric car has become a hit in Japan
In the rural suburbs of Hiroshima, a Japanese startup is trying to kick-start the nation’s electric vehicle market with the smallest, cheapest car it can possibly make.
Mitsubishi Motors is raising prices on some of its models, including the gasoline version of Outlander Sport sold in the U.S. market.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 18, 2025
Mitsubishi Motors raises U.S. prices as tariffs roil carmakers
The new prices will affect vehicles delivered after Wednesday and won’t be applied to cars currently on display in showrooms.
The all-electric Nissan Leaf has sold almost 700,000 units since it was originally released in 2010, making the Japanese carmaker an EV pioneer.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 17, 2025
The world’s first mass market electric car is getting a facelift
Nissan Motor's push to breathe new life into its lineup will see the debut of an updated version of the Leaf.
Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda’s reelection garnered almost 97% of voted shares during the carmaker’s annual meeting, the company said in a statement Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 13, 2025
Toyota chair reclaims support after scandals that hurt last vote
The rebound in Toyoda’s popularity suggest tacit shareholder approval of how he handled the certification issues.
Coalition talks could bring Takaichi closer to being PM
Nippon Ishin no Kai leader and Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura meets with Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Trump declares U.S.-China trade war as Bessent floats long truce
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a press conference in Washington on Wednesday.
Asia can learn from Europe’s immigration mistakes
Refugees and migrants, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, crowd a platform at a train station in Budapest in September 2015. Hungary's focus on pro-natalist policies and minimal immigration has led to a significant improvement in its fertility rate compared to Japan.
Singapore thrived in a U.S.-led world. Now what?
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt moors at Changi Naval Base in Singapore in April 2018.
Sumo is about to hit London and the West with a force previously unseen
Preparations advance on Monday for the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Sumo is about to hit London and the West with a force previously unseen
Preparations advance on Monday for the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Number of scenarios now on the table for who might be Japan’s next prime minister
Newly-elected leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party Sanae Takaichi (right) celebrates with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after winning the LDP leadership election in Tokyo on October 4.
Pace eyes great strides for Japan’s art market
Pace Japan Vice President Kyoko Hattori, the de facto head of the nation’s business, believes a larger, more lucrative art market will allow Japan to be more attractive for collectors.
A frenetic diplomatic schedule looms for Japan’s next leader — whomever that may be
As horse-trading and speculation surge over who will be elected the next prime minister in parliament — the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Sanae Takaichi or a possible candidate put forward by a unified opposition — Japan’s next leader will be confronted with a quick succession of key diplomatic events.
Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.

Podcast

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

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building
By Patrick St. Michel

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