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Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Norikazu Toyoda in Osaka on May 30
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2025

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical vows never to repeat health crisis

In March 2024, the drugmaker, based in Osaka, announced that it had received a series of reports about such symptoms as kidney disease from users of its supplements.
Toyota Industries' Nagakusa plant in Obu, Aichi Prefecture. Toyota group's tender offer to privatize Toyota Industries represents an 11.4% discount to its closing price before the plan was announced.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 5, 2025

Toyota Industries buyout hinges on squeezing minority investors

In order for the buyout to work, the ¥16,300 per share tender offer will need to attract enough minority shareholders to cross a 42% threshold.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a speech during the Meta Connect event at in Menlo Park, California, in September 2023. The partnership between Zuckerberg's Meta and defense firm Anduril to build battlefield XR gear underscores how working with the military, once taboo in Silicon Valley, is now actively embraced.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2025

Mark Zuckerberg finally found a use for his Metaverse — war

Anduril and Meta are partnering to design, build and field a range of integrated XR products that provide warfighters with enhanced perception on the battlefield.
Tesla’s shares dropped 14% on Thursday in New York, erasing about $150 billion from the electric vehicle maker’s market value.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 6, 2025

Tesla plunges after conflict between Musk and Trump spills into open

The electric vehicle maker's shares dropped 14% on Thursday in New York, the stock’s biggest decline since March 10.
Many curry shops are going bankrupt in Japan as prices of mainstay ingredients have gone up due to a rice shortage, adverse weather and a weak yen.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 6, 2025

Soaring rice prices take a bite out of Japan's beloved curry shops

A total of 13 shops with more than ¥10 million in debt filed for bankruptcy in the year ended March — a record high for a second consecutive year.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 28.
BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2025

Trump says China's Xi agreed to let rare earth minerals flow to U.S.

Trump's comment came one day after a rare call with Xi aimed at resolving trade tensions that have been brewing over the topic for weeks.
Akihiko Ogino, president and CEO of Daiwa Securities Group, says Japan should press ahead with diversity initiatives as he attends the Tokyo Pride parade in the capital's Shibuya area on Sunday.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2025

Top banker vows loyalty to DEI at Tokyo Pride Parade as Trump’s pushback rages

Few Japanese executives have spoken out on U.S. backlash to DEI, though many firms seem to be quietly maintaining their initiatives.
Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Jan. 28
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 8, 2025

Meta in talks for Scale AI investment that could top $10 billion

The financing could exceed $10 billion in value, some of the people said, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time.
Japan's gross domestic product shrank at an annualized pace of 0.2% in the three months through March, the revised data showed, confirming the country's economy shrank even before U.S. President Donald Trump amped up tariff pressure in April.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 9, 2025

Japan confirms GDP contraction, backing BOJ’s cautious stance

GDP shrank at an annualized pace of 0.2% in the three months through March, a less severe drop than the initial estimate of a 0.7% decline.
The BYD Han full-size luxury sedan. EV industry analysts say a combination of weaker demand and extreme overcapacity will slice into profits at the strongest brands and force feebler competitors to fold.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 9, 2025

BYD unleashes an EV industry reckoning that alarms Beijing

The price war engulfing China’s electric vehicle industry has sent share prices tumbling and prompted an unusual level of intervention from Beijing. The shakeout may just be getting started.
Alexandr Wang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Scale AI, has emerged as an influential force in the artificial intelligence industry. His company's army of contractors label the data that tech firms use to train and improve their AI models.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 9, 2025

Meta set to throw billions at startup that leads AI data market

Scale AI uses an army of contractors to label the data that tech firms use to train and improve their AI models
The Japan Securities Dealers Association sent questionnaires to major Japanese and foreign brokerages asking about bond selling irregularities.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 9, 2025

JSDA said to probe brokerages on unsuitable Japanese bond sales

The probe marks a step toward ridding Japan’s primary bond market of opaque sales practices as rising interest rates boost investor appetite for debt with higher yields.
U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent (L) and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (R) shake hands as they pose for a photo during trade discussions at the Lancaster House in London on Monday.
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2025

U.S.-China trade and minerals talks in London set to extend to second day

Washington and Beijing are trying to revive a temporary truce struck in Geneva that had briefly lowered trade tensions and calmed markets.
Kenji Shimizu, the incoming president of Fuji Media Holdings, said in an interview in Tokyo on Monday that the company has yet to finalize its long-term strategy.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 10, 2025

Fuji Media keeps real estate spinoff in play as activists circle

"All options” remain on the table, says incoming President Kenji Shimizu.
A customer poses with a Nintendo Switch 2 console at a Bic Camera electronics store in Tokyo on June 5.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2025

Nintendo's Switch 2 sets sales record in boon for gaming sector

The numbers bode well for its target of selling 15 million units by March next year.
The logo of South Korea's biggest automaker company, Hyundai Motor, is pictured in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on April 15.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2025

Hyundai Motor has a rare earths stockpile that can last about a year, source says

The stockpiling indicates Hyundai is better-placed than many competitors to withstand restrictions that have already impacted production for many companies.
Shareholders passed a motion to reappoint Chairman Akio Toyoda during Toyota Motor's general shareholders' meeting on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 12, 2025

No mention of buyout as Toyota shareholders reappoint Chairman Akio Toyoda

Questions about the privatization of Toyota Industries and Toyoda’s role in it never came up, in stark contrast to earlier this week at Toyota Industries’ annual meeting.
A 250-meter-long bus stop roof using perovskite solar cells in the city of Osaka
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2025

Government paper seeks to link next-gen energy tech to business opportunities

The white paper stated that Japanese products are leading the world in terms of their durability and larger sizes, which are key features for commercialization.
Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda’s reelection garnered almost 97% of voted shares during the carmaker’s annual meeting, the company said in a statement Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 13, 2025

Toyota chair reclaims support after scandals that hurt last vote

The rebound in Toyoda’s popularity suggest tacit shareholder approval of how he handled the certification issues.
The Nippon Steel logo is displayed at the company's East Nippon Works Kimitsu Area plant in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, last month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 14, 2025

Trump gives formal blessing to Nippon Steel's $14.8 billion bid for U.S. Steel

The approval capped a tumultuous 18-month effort by the companies, beset by union opposition and national security reviews.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking will be one of the funding sources for a wealth management joint venture by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and SBI Holdings.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 16, 2025

Sumitomo Mitsui and SBI to launch wealth management joint venture

Policymakers in Japan are encouraging individual investors to put more of their money in riskier assets such as equities.
A man checks a mainboard at an assembly line to produce ventilators at a Vsmart factory outside Hanoi in 2020.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 16, 2025

U.S. pushes Vietnam to decouple from Chinese tech, sources say

Local firms have expressed a general willingness to adapt, but many warned that instant changes "would destroy business."
People shop at a covered market in Suva, Fiji, on Sept. 5.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2025

Pacific Islands should boost women's participation in work, says World Bank

Six countries did not have paid parental leave, often forcing women to leave the labor force when they started families, a report said.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters after holding talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 18, 2025

Trump calls Japan 'tough' trade negotiator and complains EU not being fair

U.S. President Donald Trump also said there was still a chance of a trade deal between Washington and Japan.
Shareholders arrive at Toyota's annual shareholders' meeting on June 12 in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 18, 2025

Record demands from activist investors driving focus on governance and efficiency

The country’s jammed annual general meeting season matters more than ever this year as investors seek signs that Japanese stocks can get out of a rut.
The Financial Services Agency headquarters in Tokyo. The regulator has called on regional banks to disclose the amount and market value of their high-yield loans backed by government bonds.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2025

Regulator to ramp up scrutiny of banks’ repackaged JGBs

A senior official at the Financial Services Agency called on lenders to disclose the amount and market value of their holdings, sources said.
Unicharm and Toyota Tsusho will together launch a company called Sofy East Africa in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in December to manufacture and sell sanitary products.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2025

Unicharm and Toyota Tsusho to set up sanitary goods joint venture in Kenya

The two companies aim to launch the new company, Sofy East Africa, in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in December.
Many Japanese firms are delisting their shares from the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the  bourse’s broad push to make the market more appealing for foreign investors by ensuring that listed companies offer high shareholder returns.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2025

Japan firms exit Tokyo exchange at record pace in delisting rush

If firms continue to exit the TSE at this pace, the figure for 2025 will exceed last year’s annual record of 94 companies.
Nippon Steel Chairman and CEO Eiji Hashimoto leaves a news conference, at which he discussed the acquisition of United States Steel, on Thursday
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2025

Nippon Steel completes U.S. Steel acquisition after 18-month slog

The firm now owns all the stock of the American steel-maker, other than a "golden share" that gives the U.S. government a degree of control
Iyogin Holdings is ready to jump back into buying Japanese government bonds once a rise in yields runs its course.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 20, 2025

Rural bank plans its return to Japan bonds after winning on Nvidia

Once yields become attractive enough, Japanese government bonds could make up as much as half of the bank's portfolio.

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