author

 
Menu
Search
 
August 23, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Francis Tang
Nippon Steel is buying United States Steel in a deal that gives the U.S. government a golden share in the U.S. steelmaker.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 16, 2025
Nippon Steel may have gotten the deal it wanted all along
The Japanese company has already committed to heavy investment in U.S. Steel and a U.S.-controlled board of directors at the American steelmaker.
Rare earths from Australia's Mount Weld mine. Japanese companies have a supply agreement with a company that sources rare earths from the mine.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jun 16, 2025
Japan and the U.S. face challenges in economic security discussions
In their trade negotiations, the subject is much discussed, especially as rare earths become an issue.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a joint news conference with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House in February.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2025
In phone talks, Ishiba and Trump confirm meeting next week to discuss tariffs
The call came as Japan's top tariff negotiator gets set for a sixth round of discussions with his U.S. counterparts over Trump's tariffs.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, is expected to head to Washington soon for a sixth round of high-level trade talks with the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 10, 2025
Akazawa talks of 'dense fog' in U.S. trade talks ahead of G7 summit
Japan is sticking to its demand that all new tariffs be removed, the country's tariff czar insists.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick held a 110-minute meeting on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 6, 2025
In tariff talks with the U.S., Japan may have blinked
Tokyo is backing off from its insistence that all new tariffs be removed, according to a Friday report by the Asahi Shimbun.
The streets of Dalian, China, in 2017. A business dispute is believed to be behind the killing of two Japanese nationals in the city on May 23, according to local authorities.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 4, 2025
Suspect in Dalian murder of Japanese nationals identified
The suspect, a 42-year-old Chinese man with the surname Yuan and a long-term resident of Japan, is believed to have had a business dispute with the victims.
Japan and the United States are aiming for a meeting between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and President Donald Trump at the Group of Seven leaders summit on June 16 and 17.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 4, 2025
U.S. doubles steel and aluminum tariffs as Japan counts on a breakthrough
The United Kingdom is exempt from the higher rates because it struck an early trade deal with the United States.
A case in which two Japanese nationals were killed in China’s northeastern city of Dalian last month is still being investigated, with local police saying the incident arose from a business dispute between acquaintances.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 3, 2025
Two Japanese nationals killed in Dalian, China
Local police have told the Japanese consulate that the incident arose from a business dispute between acquaintances, and a Chinese national has been taken into custody.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's economic revitalization minster, speaks to members of the media at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 31, 2025
Japan says progress made in U.S. tariff talks, but details are scarce
The two sides are eyeing the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in June as a possible setting to announce a trade deal.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, is in Washington again for a fourth round of high-level negotiations with the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 30, 2025
Tariff talks with U.S. a mix of slow progress, ever-present uncertainty 
Japan's chief negotiator is back in Washington for another round of high-level negotiations.
A seafood market in Beijing. China has agreed to lift a ban on Japanese seafood imports that has lasted for 21 months.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 30, 2025
China agrees to lift ban on Japanese seafood imports
The prohibition was imposed in response to the release of treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the ocean.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters after his phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday night.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 30, 2025
Ishiba and Trump talk tariffs in second phone call this month
Ishiba described his 25-minute call with Trump as “a very meaningful conversation” that allowed them to deepen their "mutual understanding."
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (second from left) chairs a meeting of the government's cybersecurity strategy panel in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 29, 2025
Government to formulate new cybersecurity strategy amid rising threats
The new strategy includes a change in cryptography systems to better protect the government's internal communications against cyberattacks from quantum computers.
Nippon Steel headquarters in Tokyo. The U.S. government is poised to receive a so-called golden share in U.S. Steel as a condition for approving Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of the American company.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025
Golden share fix proposed for knotty Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel deal
The plan would give the U.S. government a veto over certain company decisions.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a meeting of the government's advisory Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Monday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 27, 2025
Japan private sector backs 1% real wage growth per year over next five years
The plan was first mentioned by the government’s "new capitalism" panel earlier this month.
A United States Steel plant in River Rouge, Michigan. The guessing game continues as to what a "partnership" between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, as announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, actually entails.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 26, 2025
Even Nippon Steel is unsure about what a ‘partnership’ with U.S. Steel means
U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for the steelmakers has left the markets guessing and the participants keen to remain mum.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, shakes hands with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 24, 2025
U.S. and Japan eye June G7 leaders’ summit for possible tariff deal
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, met separately with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington.
U.S. President Donald Trump points as he boards Air Force One en route to New Jersey, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 24, 2025
Trump announces Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel ‘partnership’ deal
Media reports said the agreement signaled the approval of a takeover of the iconic American company by the Japanese steelmaker.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba briefs reporters after his call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 23, 2025
Ishiba and Trump speak as Akazawa heads to Washington
The call raised hopes for a breakthrough as Japan's chief tariff negotiator heads to the U.S. for a third round of high-level negotiations.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato (right) and Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda wait for a group photograph to be taken at a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors’ in Banff, Canada, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 22, 2025
Japan and U.S. reaffirm commitment to letting markets set currency rates
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have made a point of not discussing a target yen-dollar rate.
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.
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.
103-year-old remembers Soviet attack right after WWII
Shoichi Takahashi holds a photo of himself when he was younger, in Otaru, Hokkaido, on May 17.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER