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Kazuto Oku in Tokyo on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 19, 2024

Norinchukin loss to exceed $9.7 billion as bank dumps foreign bonds

Traders and investors are closely watching how Norinchukin plans to reallocate its $304 billion investment portfolio.
Japan's exports rebounded in October, led by a pickup in chip equipment demand in China.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 20, 2024

Japan’s exports grow, helped by China even as global risks rise

Exports rose 3.1% from a year ago, led by strong growth in shipments of chip-making equipment, especially sales to China.
Pudong's Lujiazui Financial District in Shanghai, China
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 20, 2024

Japanese businesses grow more pessimistic on China’s economy

About 64% of Japanese companies said the Chinese economy is faring worse than last year.
Nissan has warned that missing a British government target on electric vehicles would lead to significant fines for manufacturers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 21, 2024

Nissan urges U.K. to ease EV targets amid weak demand

A British mandate requires at least 22% of an automaker's new car sales in 2024 to be purely EVs, or they face hefty fines.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 22, 2024

Nissan’s overly ambitious goals fuel investor and supplier distrust

Nissan’s latest outlook downgrade has shined a light on the Japanese carmaker’s tendency to overpromise and underdeliver.
The private equity landscape is rapidly changing in Japan, where more than $12 billion in such transactions have been announced this year, after reaching a record in 2023.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 22, 2024

KKR-Bain brawl worth $4 billion highlights Japan private equity boom

The saga shows how fast the private equity landscape is changing in Japan, where more than $12 billion in such transactions have been announced this year.
The Northvolt facility in Skelleftea, Sweden.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 23, 2024

Northvolt crisis may be make or break for Europe's EV battery ambitions

Europe's biggest hope for an electric vehicle battery champion filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday after talks for funding failed.
Fujikura's headquarters in Tokyo's Koto Ward. The company's share price has surged by more than 400% this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 25, 2024

AI boom makes 139-year-old cable maker Japan’s hottest stock

Fujikura, which makes narrow wire cabling, is the best performer on the Nikkei stock index this year due to a boom in demand for data centers.
Amazon Japan allegedly pressured sellers to lower prices of their products in exchange for advantageous placement on their “Buy Box” system, which highlights one seller’s product as the preferred choice on a product page.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 26, 2024

Antitrust watchdog raids Amazon Japan over alleged price-fixing

The investigation is focused on potential breaches of antitrust laws, including abuse of a superior bargaining position and restrictive trading practices.
Scale is becoming important even for distributors like Macnica Holdings, which sells chips made by the likes of Intel’s Altera.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2024

Japan’s top chip distributor eyes acquisitions in China and India

Macnica Holdings is eyeing an overseas acquisition to better hold its own against bigger competitors.
An Iranian woman, in her house in Tehran while the electricity is cut off due to energy savings in 2021
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2024

Iran's businesses bear brunt of daily power blackouts

Iran, despite holding some of the world's largest natural gas and oil reserves, has grappled with massive energy shortages in recent months.
Employees work on assembling vehicles at a SAIC Volkswagen plant in Urumqi, in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in September 2018.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2024

VW confirms plans to exit controversial Xinjiang operation

The decision to free itself from the plant comes as the firm is battling to boost flagging sales in China.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is examining allegations that Microsoft is potentially abusing its market power in productivity software, sources have said.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 28, 2024

Microsoft faces wide-ranging U.S. antitrust probe

The FTC is examining allegations the software giant is potentially abusing its market power in productivity software, sources have said.
SoftBank Group will make a tender offer allowing OpenAI employees to cash in shares if they choose.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024

SoftBank seeks to buy $1.5 billion OpenAI shares from employees

SoftBank will make a tender offer for the stock, allowing OpenAI employees to cash in shares if they choose.
In the United States, Temu has bid on keywords including "Walmart Black Friday deals," "Kohls Black Friday," and "Bed Bath Beyond." Shein has bid on keywords including "Walmart clothes," "Zara jeans," and "Mango dresses."
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 28, 2024

Online marketing costs jump amid bidding war by Temu and Shein

Both platforms' aggressive bids on search keywords used by competitors make it more costly for other retailers and brands to reach shoppers on Black Friday.
The industry ministry plans to provide aid of up to ¥70.5 billion to auto parts maker Denso and Fuji Electric for the joint production of power semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024

Denso and Fuji Electric to get government aid for power chips

Although Japanese companies have a large share of the global power semiconductor market, production volume per maker is smaller compared with European and U.S. peers.
In an interview in Tokyo with the BBC that was published on Thursday, Fast Retailing CEO Tadashi Yanai said the company does not source cotton from China's Xinjiang region.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024

Uniqlo criticized in China after CEO says retailer does not use Xinjiang cotton

Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing, said it does not source cotton from the region, which has faced allegations of forced labor.
A sign at the entrance to the Vauxhall van factory in Luton, England, on Nov. 27. Stellantis plans to close the factory, and has made efforts to pin the blame on the government's mandate for more electric vehicle sales.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 2, 2024

The EV transition is leaving the U.K. auto industry behind

The country wants to be a leader in EVs but has lagged others in establishing the necessary plants and battery factories.
The goal of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, building on years of evolving trade restrictions, is to slow China’s domestic development of advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence systems that may help its military.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 3, 2024

U.S. tightens curbs on China’s access to AI memory and chip tools

The new measures included exemptions for key allies such as Japan and the Netherlands.
Customers walk past an Apple logo inside of an Apple store in New in 2018.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Apple accused of silencing workers, spying on personal devices

Apple is also facing at least three complaints from a U.S. labor board
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he will "block" a planned takeover of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 3, 2024

Trump says will 'block' Nippon Steel from taking over U.S. Steel

Days after the U.S. election last month, Nippon Steel said it expected to close its takeover of the company before the end of the year.
A screen displays market data at Hana Bank in Seoul on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 4, 2024

Yoon’s gambit a tempest in a teapot for financial markets

Tokyo stocks opened flat and the yen was little changed from a day earlier, when the South Korean president declared martial law in a late-night address.
Panasonic CEO Masahiro Shinada (far right) and others cut the ribbon at the unveiling of a facility to be run solely on renewable energy in Cardiff, Wales, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2024

Panasonic plant in U.K. to go fully renewable

The firm has installed a system to generate power using green hydrogen, produced without causing carbon dioxide emissions.
Bank of Japan board member Toyoaki Nakamura's cautious stance on raising interest rates indicates that the idea of a December hike may not have unanimous support.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 5, 2024

BOJ’s leading dove calls for careful approach to tweaking easing

The board member's remarks indicate that the idea of hiking interest rates this month may not have unanimous support.
The Topix and the yen have been largely moving independently over the past two months, shifting away from Japanese stocks’ past tendency to rise on a weaker yen.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 6, 2024

Cheap yen boost for Japan’s stocks shrinks to nil on hawkish BOJ

The Topix and the yen have been largely moving independently over the past two months.
Starbucks Coffee Japan will replace paper straws with plant-based biomass plastic straws from next month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 6, 2024

Starbucks in Japan to ditch paper straws for plant-based biomass plastic in 2025

The coffee company says the new straws are fully biodegradable in seawater and soil, and will not soften like paper ones.
Shoppers wait at the checkout lines at an Ito-Yokado shopping centre after a sales tax hike in Tokyo April 1, 2014. Big firms expect to increase capital spending only modestly, the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) tankan quarterly survey showed on Tuesday, reflecting uncertainty over how much a sales tax hike that kicked off on Tuesday could hurt a fragile economic recovery.   REUTERS/Toru Hanai (JAPAN - Tags: BUSINESS)
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 6, 2024

Ito-Yokado to reduce headcount of permanent employees by 1,000

The Seven & I Holdings unit will implement the reduction through personnel relocations and natural reductions, mainly through mandatory retirement.
Shareholders board a HondaJet for a sightseeing flight at Oita Airport in Kunisaki, Oita Prefecture, on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 8, 2024

HondaJet flies with shareholders aboard

Eight passengers, including shareholders chosen by lottery from 6,846 applicants for the shareholder benefit program and their families, enjoyed a 30-minute flight.
Insurance tycoon Douw Steyn’s 250 million rand home overlooks the luxury residential estate bearing his name near Johannesburg, South Africa.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2024

Luxury estates for the rich are a booming business in South Africa

Despite a 20% decline in South Africa’s millionaire population over the past decade, it remains a hub for the continent’s high-net-worth individuals.
A TikTok creator and advocate wears a button showing support outside of the U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 16 in Washington, D.C.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 9, 2024

‘It’s for real this time’: TikTok creators react to potential ban

Many of TikTok’s users seemed to have only just begun to grasp that the app could be on its last legs in this country.

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A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami