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August 23, 2025
 

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Momoka Yokoyama
Emily Badger, a co-manager of the Man Japan CoreAlpha Fund
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 13, 2025
Man Group’s Japan fund buying bank stocks in bet on inflation
An investment manager at the world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund is adding Japan’s financial shares to her portfolio.
A monitor in Tokyo shows the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average dropping on Monday morning.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 4, 2025
Stocks in Japan slump after U.S. data spark growth worries
The broader Topix Index and the blue-chip 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average pared some of their earlier losses but closed down 1.1% and 1.2%, respectively.
While shareholders in general still support company management, the notable break from their passive stance is seen as a boon for funds looking to invest in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 14, 2025
Corporate Japan’s shareholders show more clout this AGM season
The notable break from a passive stance is seen as a boon for funds looking to invest in Japan.
Nissan plans to sell convertible bonds and use the proceeds to invest in new products and technologies such as electrification and software-defined vehicles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 7, 2025
Nissan to sell ¥150 billion of convertible bonds to fund turnaround
Proceeds of the sale will be used to invest in new products and technologies such as electrification and software-defined vehicles.
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.
Data compiled by the Japan Department Stores Association shows that tax-free inbound sales at over 80 department stores across the country fell by 41% in May from a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 3, 2025
Japan’s department store shares lag as tourist splurge slows
Tax-free inbound sales at over 80 department stores across the country fell by 41% in May from a year earlier.
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.
Shareholders enter a venue of Honda's annual general meeting in Tokyo on Thursday. Companies are seeking to build shareholder support as activists inundate them with an unprecedented number of proposals.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2025
Japanese companies offer gifts to boost their ranks of loyal retail investors
A survey by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank showed 11% of firms gave out gifts at shareholder meetings in 2024, up from 4% in 2021.
Shareholders arrive at Toyota's annual shareholders' meeting on June 12 in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 18, 2025
Record demands from activist investors driving focus on governance and efficiency
The country’s jammed annual general meeting season matters more than ever this year as investors seek signs that Japanese stocks can get out of a rut.
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.
Toyota’s announcement to hand out perks to its shareholders comes as some Japanese firms begin reintroducing perks to attract retail investors.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2025
Toyota to hand out shareholder perks to entice retail investors
Some Japanese firms have begun reintroducing perks to attract retail investors, a practice that has drawn criticism from some global funds.
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.
With mergers and acquisitions reaching a record of more than $230 billion last year in Japan, and activists exerting greater influence on corporate Japan, investors from Sparx Asset Management to UBP Investments and Sigmoid Capital are becoming warier of nonearnings factors that may boost shares.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 20, 2025
Activist boom in Japan is upending long-short stock strategies
Japan’s percentage of short-selling to total trades is at the lowest since July last year, in terms of the 60-day moving average.
Fuji Media's headquarters in Tokyo's Minato Ward
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2025
Fuji Media shares rise to 17-year high on Rheos’ 5% stake
Rheos, which manages a popular fund called Hifumi, holds 5.12% of Fuji Media shares after building its stake from Jan. 20 to Thursday.
Most market players expect shareholder activism to be as frenetic, if not more, next year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 17, 2024
Activist investors set record with $6.6 billion spree in Japan
Activists have taken stakes in at least 146 companies, successfully demanding disposal of real estate, changes in strategy and stock buybacks.
While unlikely to revisit the record hit in July, the 225-issue Nikkei average may finish this year up 1.3% from its current level, according to a forecast by analysts.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 8, 2024
Solid earnings will spur hope Japan stocks hold onto 2024 gains
While unlikely to revisit the record hit in July, the 225-issue Nikkei average may finish this year up 1.3% from its current level, according to a forecast by analysts.
Analysts say Warren Buffett may be looking to buy Japanese financial firms and shipping companies.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 3, 2024
Buffett may target Japan banks or insurers for next purchase, analysts say
The billionaire’s company this week mandated banks to manage a yen bond sale in the global market, in a sign he may increase holdings in Japan.
An electric stock board displays the rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in early August.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 31, 2024
Yen’s rapid advance pressures earnings once thought easy to beat
With stronger signals coming from the Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve, the yen has gained 3.5% against the dollar since the end of July.
A monitor in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward displays a news headline reporting the Nikkei stock average plunging on Aug. 5.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 16, 2024
Foreign investors buying Japanese stocks after recent slump, Goldman says
The investment bank's chief Japan equity strategist notes that interest levels from certain segments of the foreign investor community have grown noticeably higher.
The rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar is displayed in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2024
Foreign funds sell Japan’s stocks, longest run in 15 months
Foreign investors sold net ¥21.4 billion ($133 million) of cash equities in the week that ended June 21.
Japan to revise romanization rules for first time in 70 years
The Agency for Cultural Affairs is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings.
JR East cancels luxury train run over crew's boozing
East Japan Railway said Thursday that it will cancel one trip of a luxury overnight sleeper service, which was originally scheduled to depart from Ueno Station in Tokyo on Aug. 30, after crew members were found to have been drinking alcohol on duty.
Women-only communities flourish in China
Chen Yani (right), nicknamed "Keke," eats lunch with friends and guests in a female co-living space she founded called "Keke's Imaginative Space" in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province, on July 14.
Demystifying the manufacturing success of China
China’s massive scale, strong education system and competitive local governance have enabled it to reach the technological frontier and dominate high-tech manufacturing despite its low per capita gross domestic product.
Infectious diseases to watch for in Japan this summer amid surge of cases
An illustration of a colony of the Bordetella pertussis bacterium that causes pertussis, or whooping cough. As of Aug. 10, there were 64,467 cases reported this year, according to the latest data from the Japan Institute for Health Security.
As farm minister, Koizumi is held ‘hostage’ by Ishiba
Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi (center) attends a Lower House session on Aug. 1. Locking Koizumi into the Cabinet is Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s way of turning a potential rival into a team player, according to one expert.
Big burgers and bigger ambitions for Japan's Burger King
Kazuhiro Nomura, president of BK Japan Holdings, which operates Burger King in Japan
Tokyo crowned No.1 'workation' spot
Workations were a burgeoning trend in the corporate world for years before the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged it.
Atsushi Kitagawara’s exhibition finds poetry in architecture
The inverted cone, one of Atsushi Kitagawara’s six signature elements in architecture, is a key feature of the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection museum building.
Candidates preparing to make final pitches for Sawamura Award
Hawks pitcher Livan Moinelo has a 1.13 ERA in 19 starts this season.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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