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Medipal is expanding into areas such as animal health products and drug development as margins from selling pharmaceuticals become squeezed in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 1, 2025

Medipal seeks to diversify amid falling drug margins

Japan’s largest drug wholesaler is seeking to boost profit, excluding extraordinary items, to ¥100 billion by March 2027 from ¥65 billion in the latest fiscal year.
Matcha is added to beverages on offer at Kettl Tea in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on May 20.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2025

Global matcha 'obsession' drinks Japan's tea farms dry

The boom is having to contend with a declining number of tea plantations in Japan and the threat of tariffs from the United States.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 2, 2025

Trump doubles down on Japan again by threatening 35% tariff

Japan is currently subject to 25% auto tariffs and a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum, as well as a 10% reciprocal tariff that could return to 24% if no deal is struck by July 9.
A delivery driver takes a break in the shade during high temperatures in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 21, 2024.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2025

How much does a heat wave cost? Insurers and CEOs want to know.

Some believe a new market for heat insurance — driven in part by artificial intelligence and the need to cool data centers — is around the corner.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 2, 2025

Trump hammers away at Japan for a third day, threatening 35% duties 

The U.S. president said he might simply end negotiations and set a tariff rate for Japanese products.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) meet with Nippon Steel Chairman and CEO Eiji Hashimoto (center), President and Chief Operating Officer Tadashi Imai (second from left), and Vice Chairman and Executive Vice Present Takahiro Mori (left) at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2025

Nippon Steel aiming to prove value of Japan-U.S. cooperation, chairman says

PM Ishiba explained that Tokyo is continuing to urge the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to review its high tariffs.
Microsoft’s gaming division began cutting hundreds of employees on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 3, 2025

Microsoft makes deep Xbox job cuts and cancels games

Microsoft announced Wednesday that it’s eliminating 9,000 workers companywide in its second wave of layoffs this year.
Bank of Japan policy board member Hajime Takata says the central bank is continuing to look for further opportunities to raise rates.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 3, 2025

BOJ rate hikes to resume after temporary pause, policy board member says

Hajime Takata said authorities "may need to nimbly shift back to the rate hike cycle in response to policy changes” in the U.S.
The U.S. Commerce Department has told the world’s top semiconductor design software companies that government license requirements for business in China are no longer in place.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 3, 2025

U.S. lifts chip design software curbs on China in trade deal

The move is a sign that an accord reached by both countries in London is indeed being implemented.
Search and rescue members scour a flood-damaged area in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene along the Swannanoa River in October 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 4, 2025

A majority of companies are already feeling the climate heat

Its growing financial impacts are a key reason some companies are continuing to pursue emissions cuts even amid political turbulence.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 2020
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2025

Ex-Sumitomo Mitsui Trust official guilty of insider trading

Hajime Katayama, 55, was also fined ¥2 million and ordered to pay ¥61.4 million in additional penalties for his violation of the financial instruments and exchange law.
Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, has repeatedly declined to say whether he will step down when his four-year term as chair expires in May.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 5, 2025

Powell's silence on his future complicates Trump Fed chair search

The Fed chief has repeatedly declined to say whether he will step down when his four-year term as chair expires in May, or remain on the Fed board.
One of Aigen's solar-powered autonomous AI Element robots demonstrates how it can hammer down on specified targets at Bowles Farm in Los Banos, California, on June 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 6, 2025

AI robots fill in for weed killers and farm hands

Weeds are becoming immune to herbicides, but a shortage of laborers often leaves chemicals as the only viable option.
Yamanashi Chuo Bank's Tokyo office. The regional bank has set up an "investment advisory firm” to get around internal salary limits and attract talent.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 8, 2025

Rural bank in Japan finds novel way to attract talent with higher pay

Yamanashi Chuo Bank has set up an "investment advisory firm” to get around internal salary limits, showing the lengths it's willing to go to bolster its ranks.
Items made using plastic recycled from CDs and DVDs, such as storage baskets, smartphone stands and business card holders, are sold at some Bookoff outlets.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 8, 2025

Bookoff plans to step up recycling of unsold CDs and DVDs

The secondhand goods retailer disposes of 1,700 tons of discs and cases from some 800 outlets across the country each year.
Vast improvements in AI-generated video is shaking the foundations of the creative industry.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 8, 2025

AI video becomes more convincing, rattling creative industry

To measure the progress of AI video, you need only look at Will Smith eating spaghetti.
A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, in Ahmedabad, India, on June 13.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 9, 2025

Fuel switches in focus as preliminary crash report of Air India jet nears

It is not clear how much information would be available in the report, which comes about 30 days after the June 12 tragedy.
A screen displays news on Nvidia achieving a $4 trillion market capitalization on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 10, 2025

AI giant Nvidia becomes first company to reach $4 trillion milestone

The achievement marks new milestone in Wall Street's bet that artificial intelligence will transform the economy.
Nissan Motor has raised $4.5 billion through a junk bond sale in U.S. dollars and euros, part of which carries a record-high coupon rate.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 11, 2025

Nissan clinches $4.5 billion bond deal after orders soar

The automaker is offering a record-high coupon on at least one part of its dollar- and euro-denominated junk bond sale to drum up demand.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speak at the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, on June 16.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jul 12, 2025

Canada just can't win in trade war with Trump

The giant North American neighbors are rushing to conclude a new trade accord by July 21 but the process is proving painful for Canada.
Copper rods are wound at a workshop that recycles the metal in Anqing, China, on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Jul 12, 2025

Trump's copper tariffs pile more metal misery on U.S. auto industry

The duties on their own may be manageable, but prices of the red metal vital for making cars have soared to record highs.
Orders from the automobile and auto parts industries decreased 7.1% in May after a 20.3% drop the previous month.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 14, 2025

Japan core machinery orders down 0.6% in May

The government kept its basic assessment unchanged, saying that machinery orders are showing signs of picking up.
FamilyMart's operating profit grew 17.9% from a year before to ¥27.8 billion, as advertisements featuring Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani helped attract more customers and boost sales of onigiri rice balls.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2025

Three convenience store operators log profit growth from March to May

FamilyMart attracted budget-minded consumers thanks to its discount sales of food items such as eggs and milk while Lawson's new bread products captured demand.
One of the early exemplars of Chinese innovation is a cell therapy that has shown promise to potentially cure a deadly blood cancer.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 14, 2025

China biotech’s stunning advance is changing the world’s drug pipeline

The number of novel drugs in China entering into development ballooned to over 1,250 last year, far surpassing the European Union.
Kioxia is rated BB+, one step below investment grade, by both S&P and Fitch.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 15, 2025

Chipmaker Kioxia plans debut bond abroad, joining Japan peers

Kioxia plans to raise as much as $3 billion via a dollar bond sale that would be its first corporate debt issuance, in the latest sign of investor appetite abroad.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been frustrated by the quality of his company's past AI efforts, so has been investing heavily in the energy, computing power and talent needed to compete in the fast-moving AI race.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 15, 2025

Meta to spend billions building gigawatt-size data centers for AI

Frustrated by the quality of Meta’s past AI efforts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been investing heavily in energy, computing power and talent to compete in the fast-moving AI race.
Mizuho CEO Masahiro Kihara is interviewed in London on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 15, 2025

Mizuho CEO confident of meeting ¥1 trillion profit target

Japan’s third-largest lender forecast in May that net income will likely climb 6.1% to ¥940 billion in the fiscal year started in April.
Yahoo News was Japan’s fourth-most visited website overall.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 15, 2025

Yahoo News Japan beats NYT and BBC as most popular news website worldwide

While traditional media are still viewed as the most trustworthy sources, news aggregation site Yahoo New Japan nets the most eyeballs in Japan and abroad.
The Nissan Motor Oppama Plant in Yokosuka. The company will wind down production at the plant and transfer assembly of vehicles to a factory in Kyushu.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 15, 2025

Nissan to close Oppama plant as part of wider restructuring push

Oppama, which has been in operation since 1961 and employs roughly 2,400 workers, will cease production by March 2028.
The IPC Container Terminal at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta in April last year
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 16, 2025

Trump says Indonesia goods to face 19% tariff under new pact

Indonesia also agreed to purchase $15 billion in U.S. energy, $4.5 billion worth of agricultural products and 50 Boeing jets, many of them 777’s.

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