Twelve months on from Aug. 5, 2024, when Japan’s stock benchmarks plummeted 12%, the broader Topix index is once again hovering near record highs.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Aug 5, 2025
A year after Japan's stock meltdown, markets show resilience and promise
Clearer BOJ messaging, corporate reforms and a better-than-feared U.S. tariff deal has traders in Japan's markets betting against a repeat of last year's crash.
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.
Workers carry solar panels to install them at a solar farm in the desert in Lingwu, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, on April 14.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 4, 2025
China's solar giants quietly shed a third of their workforces last year
The trend shows how one of Beijing's hand-picked industries to drive economic growth struggled with overcapacity and tepid demand.
A drone view shows the Zubair Oil Field in Basra, Iraq, on January 16.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 4, 2025
China's independent oil firms elbow into Iraq's majors-dominated market
Smaller Chinese producers are on track to double their output in Iraq to 500,000 barrels per day by around 2030.
A container ship approaches the Busan Port Terminal in Busan, South Korea, on July 23. Seoul's trade agreement with the U.S. brings one of the world’s biggest exporters into Washington’s emerging trade framework just a day before the deadline.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 31, 2025
U.S. sets South Korea tariff rate at 15% with energy and shipbuilding investment
The agreement brings one of the world’s biggest exporters into Washington’s emerging trade framework just a day before the deadline.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, speaks to reporters at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday. The party’s loss in the July 20 Upper House election has become the defining factor for the yen.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 30, 2025
Yen option traders brace for more weakness ahead of BOJ decision
Analysts warn that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba may resort to populist spending to shore up support for his weakened coalition.
An advertisement for Louis Vuitton in Kuala Lumpur on Friday
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 29, 2025
U.S. tariffs to test pricing by luxury brands already paying for dramatic hikes
Estimates suggest big luxury companies already raised prices by 33% on average between 2019 and 2023.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person