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April 24, 2024
 

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Yasutaka Tamura
For Yasutaka Tamura's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Berkshire Hathaway's latest yen debt deal is the biggest since its debut sale in the currency in 2019, raising bets it may boost holdings of Japanese stocks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 18, 2024
Berkshire sells ¥263.3 billion of bonds in its biggest yen debt deal since 2019
The seven-tranche deal priced at tighter premiums than Berkshire’s deals over the past two years.
Pressure from the Tokyo Stock Exchange has amplified the voices of fund managers calling for listed companies to increase their valuations.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 18, 2024
Improved corporate governance in Japan is paying off, Amundi says
Some of the top holdings of Amundi’s Japan target strategy include Toppan Holdings, Ricoh, Shizuoka Financial Group, Kyoto Financial Group and TS Tech.
In Japan, there’s a huge gap between how companies value their real estate assets on their books against what those same properties would fetch if sold in the market.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 16, 2024
Hidden billions in Tokyo real estate lure activist hedge funds
Billions in value can be unlocked by pressuring companies to sell off holdings, a tactic that activist funds are now employing.
The New York Stock Exchange in New York. Japanese startups have been turning to the United States where institutional investors are more willing to bet on innovative technologies.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 10, 2024
New York Stock Exchange trying to get Japanese companies to list in the U.S.
South Korean, Indonesian and Singaporean companies from across various sectors are also looking to list in the U.S..
Investors will be heaping ever more scrutiny on Japanese assets, with negative rates potentially relegated to history.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 15, 2024
BlackRock and Man Group reveal big Japan bets before BOJ decision
Snap up more Japanese stocks and keep buying the yen — these are some of the most popular calls from big-name money managers.
Pedestrians look at an electronic board displaying the Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on a street in the Japanese capital on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 24, 2024
Record-high Nikkei’s rise just getting started on foreign demand
Investors and strategists are also watching for a broadening of equities gains that may take the wider Topix index to an all-time high this year.
The volume of mergers and acquisitions linked to Japan has grown 43% so far this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 22, 2024
Japan sees dealmaking boom as mergers and acquisitions rise 43%
A strong stock market is giving companies more scope for acquisitions at a time when the government and investors are pressuring firms to bolster growth.
Teamshares, an American startup, is bringing its employee ownership succession model to Japan in its first overseas foray to offer employees path to buy small businesses.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 21, 2024
MUFJ-backed startup gives employees route to take over small firms
The Teamshares model could help 2.45 million small business owners who will be 70 or over by 2025, almost half of whom have yet to identify a successor.
The National Stock Exchange of India building in Mumbai, India. Japanese investors are increasingly shifting their focus to the Indian stock market on bets that the South Asian nation will be the next China.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 2, 2024
Japanese retail investors pile billions into Indian equities
In contrast, flows into Chinese shares have dropped the most among 14 emerging markets covered by Japan’s data on international investment positions.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is one of the largest shareholders in all five of Japan's biggest trading companies.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024
Buffett reversal risk pushes Japan firms to diversify investors
Berkshire is one of the largest shareholders in all five of Japan’s biggest trading companies.
The Nikkei will rise to 37,750 and the benchmark Topix to 2,650 by the end of next year, suggesting another 12% to 15% of upside for the country’s stocks, according to a median estimate of analysts.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 14, 2023
Bears vanish as world-beating Japanese stocks set for more gains
The Nikkei and Topix are on track for the biggest increases of any major benchmark stock index globally this year.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange. The volume of management buyouts in Japan has increased to the highest on record this year, jumping 170% from a year earlier to at least ¥870 billion.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2023
Surge in management buyouts gives extra boost to Japanese stocks
The volume of management buyouts has increased to the highest on record this year.
Yasuhide Uno, Usen-Next Holdings CEO, has transformed his father’s company into Netflix’s biggest competitor in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2023
Reluctant CEO becomes billionaire at Netflix rival in Japan
Initially wanting nothing to do with his father's cable music company, Yasuhide Uno's faith in video streaming helped him rebuild it for a new era.
An electronic stock board in Tokyo. Kokusai Electric is set to go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 24, 2023
KKR poised for Kokusai payoff with largest Japan IPO since 2018
The American private equity firm acquired the business from Hitachi Kokusai Electric through a tender offer in 2018.
Thanks to a rally in Japanese stocks, even some "bad governance” companies have been unfairly benefiting from the wave, a fund manager has said.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 16, 2023
Time to short Japan’s ‘bad governance’ stocks, hedge fund says
A rally in Japanese stocks has unfairly benefited companies that are flouting the bourse’s campaign to boost valuations, according to a fund manager.
A weak yen, ultraeasy monetary policy and hopes for stable inflation have helped push the Topix to its highest level since 1990.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 26, 2023
Japan’s stock boom to drive equity sales through 2024, BofA says
A weak yen, ultraeasy monetary policy and hopes for stable inflation have helped push the Topix to its highest level since 1990.
Banks have surged more than 50% over the past year on speculation gains in prices and wages will become sustainable enough for the Bank of Japan to end years of rock bottom rates.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 12, 2023
Top fund managers pile into Japanese banks on BOJ tightening bets
Fund managers are piling into Japanese banks on the possibility the Bank of Japan is preparing to end its ultraeasy monetary policy.
Actively managed exchange-trade funds are set to debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange next week.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 31, 2023
Active ETFs cash in on corporate reform in Japan
Actively managed exchange-trade funds are set to launch in Tokyo next week.
Some strategists think that foreign investors, who had helped drive one of the world’s biggest rallies so far this year, may pose risks for Japan’s stock market in the second half.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 9, 2023
Global funds that drove Topix rally may now threaten Japan gains
A lack of bold policy measures by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and China's economic slowdown are also seen as curbing the bullish trend.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2023
Mitsui Fudosan displaces Mitsubishi Estate as Japan's top real estate developer
Recovering tourism, after the lifting of pandemic controls, and work-from-home habits have altered investors’ views of hotels and offices, in which Mitsui is more heavily invested.
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
Japan’s cannabis market growing rapidly amid regulatory shift
The legality of products that contain cannabinoids, a group of substances derived from the cannabis plant, has been somewhat murky in Japan.
An AI star seeks to bring self-driving cars to Japan by 2030
Japanese startup Turing plans to unveil a self-driving car with at least 30 minutes’ driving range next year and develop a fully autonomous car by 2030.
Tokyo issues strong warning on yen intervention as currency dips further
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki speaks during a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and South Korean Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok on the sidelines of IMF and G20 meetings in Washington last week.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
A craft beer crawl through Tokyo’s top bars, brewpubs and dives
If all you drink is Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin, you're depriving yourself of some of the best craft beer Tokyo has to offer — and there sure is a lot of it out there.
'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
Tsukiji 2030s: A stadium, culinary center and transportation hub
A computer-generated image shows redevelopment plans for the former site of the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.
Hearing the impact of climate change in Okinawa, one bird call at a time
Toshihiro Kinjo (center), a research support technician at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, inspects an audio recording device in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on April 3 as Masako Ogasawara, a research support specialist at OIST, looks on.
Japan’s cannabis market growing rapidly amid regulatory shift
The legality of products that contain cannabinoids, a group of substances derived from the cannabis plant, has been somewhat murky in Japan.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

A young restaurant leads the way in Karuizawa
A young restaurant leads the way in Karuizawa

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