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November 21, 2025
 

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BUSINESS

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Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says he will step back from all public commitments, adding the move is to allow him "to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me."
BUSINESS / Companies
Larry Summers to leave positions at Harvard and OpenAI after Epstein emails
Summers has been under fire since the U.S. House Oversight Committee released documents detailing an ongoing personal correspondence between Summers and the convicted sex offender.
BUSINESS / Companies
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
They are being told to take action now or risk missing out on big opportunities.
BUSINESS / Companies
China tour groups start canceling Japan trips amid spat
In the days after the safety warning, at least two state-owned Chinese travel agencies scrapped group bookings made months in advance.
A Toyota manufacturing plant in Kentucky, U.S.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 19, 2025
Toyota lays out $912 million plan to boost U.S. hybrid production
By Reed Stevenson
The plan forms part of a broader $10 billion commitment in the United States over the next five years.
Auction house Christie's in New York. DIC is selling some of its holdings of valuable artworks at the auction house.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 18, 2025
Japanese ink maker sells off Monet and Renoir paintings as activists circle
By Takako Taniguchi
Oasis Management, DIC’s second-largest shareholder, has called on the company to sell off its holdings, saying that paintings aren’t part of the firm’s core business.
Nigo in Tokyo in 2021
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 17, 2025
Nigo’s streetwear brand Human Made prices Tokyo IPO at top end
By Yasutaka Tamura
The company sold shares at ¥3,130 apiece, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.
David Ha, CEO of Sakana AI, is one of the founders of the startup, which was established in 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 17, 2025
Sakana AI targets defense and banking markets after big funding round
By Himari Semans
The startup has achieved a ¥400 billion valuation and notes a “tailwind” from Japan’s new government.
Digital shelf displays recommend complementary products in real time at a Lawson pilot store in Tokyo’s Minato Ward.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Nov 17, 2025
Lawson taps AI and Asia growth as convenience store sector undergoes shift
Changes come as store expansion is slowing at home and inbound tourism is increasingly driving consumption.
Hinako Mori, 22, arranges products at a Don Quijote outlet in Tokyo in October. The Japanese retailer, which relaxed its rules concerning hair and nail polish three years ago, says nearly a quarter of its employees sport brightly colored hair.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 17, 2025
More Japanese firms relax rules in tussle for workers
By Satoshi Sugiyama
The country's labor shortage has led companies to ease up on various aspects, such as hair and nail polish color, to secure enough part-timers.
A customer holds a paper cup with the logo of coffee house chain LAP, which stands for Life Among People, in front of one of the chain's cafes in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district on Oct. 28.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 17, 2025
Budget coffee start-up leaves bitter taste in Berlin
By Edouard MERLO
Critics accused LAP of squeezing out local cafes with its €2.50 cappuccinos and aggressive expansion in the German capital.

Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Beware of China’s strategic distortion of reality
China holds a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Sept. 3. 
Yen rout brings talk of ¥160 to the dollar and possible intervention
The yen has been weak against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks, with some analysts expecting the retreat to continue.
China to reimpose ban on Japanese seafood imports amid row over Taiwan, reports say
A sign reading, "Suspend the sales of all fish products imported from Japan" is displayed in an area home to Japanese restaurants in Beijing in August 2023. China will reimpose a ban on imports of Japanese seafood, media reports in Tokyo said Wednesday, as a diplomatic spat between the two countries deepens.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
Munetaka Murakami headlines quartet looking to move to MLB via posting system
The Swallows' Munetaka Murakami has 246 career home runs in eight NPB seasons.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.

Podcast

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

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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