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Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his visit to TSMC's new plant in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Saturday
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 7, 2024

TSMC’s first Japan plant to hit 60% local procurement by 2030

Japanese officials are hoping TSMC’s arrival will help boost local suppliers’ technology and business.
The V.Stella generative AI assistant at the Integrit booth on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) at the Fira de Barcelona venue in Barcelona on Feb. 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 8, 2024

Wall street hunts AI winners beyond Nvidia in emerging markets

Analysts see a 61% increase in earnings for emerging-market technology companies as a whole
James Manyika, who heads Google’s technology and society team, delivers the keynote address at Google I/O in Mountain View, California, in 2023. OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 8, 2024

How tech giants cut corners to harvest data for AI

The companies’ actions illustrate how online information has increasingly become the lifeblood of the booming AI industry.
A street in Ota Ward, Tokyo, on March 15. In the year through March, bankruptcies mainly rose among small and midsize companies.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 8, 2024

Japan's business failures top 9,000 for first time in nine years

In the year through March, bankruptcies mainly rose among small and midsize companies as they struggled to raise prices to reflect higher costs.
The assembly line at the Volkswagen factory in Zwickau, Germany, on March 14. The factory stopped producing gasoline-powered Golfs and switched to electric vehicles, illuminating the risks and opportunities for factory towns and cities.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 11, 2024

What happened when a German car factory went all electric?

The city of Zwickau, where more than 10,000 people work for Volkswagen and tens of thousands more for suppliers, seems to have avoided dire consequences.
A brine pool at an SQM lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat in the Atacama Desert, Chile. The industry that deals with one of the world’s most important commodities is asking whether it's doomed to repeat a boom and bust cycle again and again.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 12, 2024

Lithium industry braces for long-term oversupply after price instability

Those involved with the commodity are asking whether they're doomed to repeat a boom and bust cycle again and again.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tours a new Toyota battery factory in Liberty, North Carolina, with state Gov. Roy Cooper (second from right) on Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 13, 2024

Kishida touts Japan’s investments in U.S. with visit to swing-state Toyota plant

The prime minister visited the North Carolina plant where Toyota last year injected an additional $8 billion to make batteries for electric vehicles.
Masayoshi Matsumoto
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2024

Osaka Expo legacy could bolster Kansai's economy

Kansai accounts for about 5% of Japan’s GDP, but by utilizing the new technologies to be showcased at the expo, it could possibly increase the size to 20%.
Signage for MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking in Tokyo. A coalition of climate groups filed shareholder proposals with the three banks calling for stricter board oversight of climate-related risks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024

Climate investors target board oversight of top Japan banks: sources

The proposal marks the first time climate groups have targeted bank boards as a way to pressure the lenders on climate change.
Yukio Kani, chairman and global CEO of Jera
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024

Japan’s top power producer Jera considers IPO to fund green push

The Tokyo-based company plans to develop 20 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity by fiscal 2035.
Max Lange, 19, a plant mechatronics engineering trainee from Oederan, stands next to a solar panel rolling off the assembly line as part of the last production of solar modules at the Meyer Burger Technology AG plant, due to an announced closure of the plant, in Freiberg, Germany, on March 12.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 16, 2024

Lacking support in battle with China, European solar firms head to U.S.

This week the European Commission has launched a voluntary charter for governments and companies to sign in support of solar manufacturing plants.
Japan's Fair Trade Commission may take administrative action against Google over its digital advertising business.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2024

Japan FTC may take administrative action against Google

The FTC suspects that Google is unfairly restricting transactions on Yahoo Japan and messaging app Line, in violation of Japan's antimonopoly law.
Junji Ito
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 17, 2024

Ex-Kanebo chief and JAL Chairman Junji Ito dies at 99

Ito, who served as president of Kanebo, currently Kracie, and chairman of Japan Airlines, died in December 2021.
Bank of Japan board member Asahi Noguchi says the pace of future rate hikes will likely be much slower that of the central bank's global peers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 18, 2024

BOJ rate hikes likely to be slower than those of peers, says board member

Asahi Noguchi, known for his dovish policy views, said the impact of rising domestic wages had yet be fully passed on into prices.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda hinted at a chance of a rate hike in the second half of this year by highlighting the likelihood of improvement in the price trend.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 18, 2024

More economists see BOJ rate hike in October, flag July risk

All 54 economists except for one predict no policy change at the central bank’s two-day meeting ending on April 26.
Japan's core inflation slowed in March and an index gauging broader price trends fell below 3% for the first time in over a year, as analysts try to gauge when the Bank of Japan will move again.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 19, 2024

Japan’s inflation cools ahead of BOJ policy board meeting

Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.6% in March from a year ago, cooling from February’s 2.8% gain.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as he announces a preliminary agreement with Intel for a major CHIPS and Science Act award, during a visit to the Intel Ocotillo Campus in Chandler, Arizona, on March 20.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Apr 19, 2024

Latest Biden chip deal highlights U.S. semiconductor successes

Samsung is the latest beneficiary of Washington’s efforts to shore up precarious supply chains and protect its national security interests.
A gallery of cars at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama. The carmaker revised downward its profit and sales forecasts for the fiscal year that ended in March.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 19, 2024

Nissan cuts sales and profit forecasts

The firm said the revision was made because of lower sales volumes and higher costs paid to suppliers, among other factors.
Delfin Lorenzana
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2024

Philippines wants U.S. and Japan to take over rail deal eyed by China

The $868 million Subic-Clark railway will link former U.S. military bases turned commercial hubs and form part of the planned Luzon Economic Corridor.
Many U.S. lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties and the Biden administration say TikTok poses national security risks because China could compel the company to share the data of its 170 million U.S. users.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 22, 2024

TikTok braces for U.S. divest-or-ban law — and a fresh legal fight

The legislation has been fast-tracked and tied to a crucial aid package for Ukraine and Israel, which the Senate is set to vote on in the coming days.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk gets in a Tesla car as he leaves a hotel in Beijing in May last year.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Apr 22, 2024

Elon Musk’s robotaxi dreams plunge Tesla into chaos

The idea of creating an autonomous taxi service has been kicking around Tesla for at least eight years.
Home electric vehicle chargers during the Montreal Electric Vehicle Show in Quebec, Canada, on Friday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is offering more tax breaks to automotive firms to put their electric vehicle factories in Canada.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2024

Honda nears deal with Canada to boost electric vehicle capacity

The auto sector is particularly important to Ontario, Canada’s largest province by population and home to assembly plants.
A dealer works in the trading room at a foreign exchange brokerage in Tokyo on March 28. An overwhelming majority of respondents who currently work remotely in some capacity say they wish to continue to do so.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2024

Hybrid work takes root in Japan, survey finds

While remote working has declined with the end of the pandemic, many of those who adopted a hybrid work model are sticking to it.
Daihatsu President Masahiro Inoue
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2024

Daihatsu’s new president sees potential in Africa and South America

Masahiro Inoue pointed at strong demand for compact cars in those markets due to a prevalence of narrow roads.
Japan's stock market attention is shifting to whether domestic market-oriented firms can bring some bullishness back to the market.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 25, 2024

Revival in Japanese stock market hinges on domestic demand taking hold

Attention has shifted to whether domestic market-oriented laggards may be able to bring some bullishness back to the market.
While some publicly traded bitcoin mining companies release details of their energy use, there is no reliable data on exactly how much electricity the industry as a whole consumes.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Apr 25, 2024

Bitcoin miner environmental battles heat up in U.S.

As cryptocurrency groups work to shield mines from local regulations, U.S. President Joe Biden proposed an excise tax on bitcoin energy use.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (left), Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe (center) and Ontario Premier Doug Ford walk in the company's automotive assembly plant in Alliston, Ontario, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2024

Honda to spend $11 billion on electric vehicle strategy in Canada

The move is meant to tap long-term demand in North America and pushes the automaker toward having electrified cars account for 100% of sales by 2040.
More investors are calling on Japanese firms to abolish cross-shareholdings, a practice that has been criticized as undermining discipline in corporate governance and leading to anti-competitive behavior.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2024

Investor group calls for zero cross-shareholdings at Japanese firms

"Strategic shareholdings," where companies hold stocks in businesses they have ties with, have decreased slightly, but progress is slow.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Apr 28, 2024

When will Japan intervene to support the yen?

The yen hit a 34-year low past ¥158.40 per dollar in U.S. trading on Friday, after the BOJ announced a decision to keep its monetary policy unchanged.
The combined market capitalization of shares listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Prime section stood at roughly ¥970 trillion at the end of last month.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2024

TSE Prime's market cap nears ¥1 quadrillion two years after shake-up

The total market capitalization of the new top tier has grown some 40% while the number of companies fell 10%.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years