Search - business

 
 
The Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington on Thursday. Republicans are seeking to use the threat of permanent cuts to the federal bureaucracy to encourage Democrats to vote to reopen the government.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2025

Trump eyes firing thousands of federal workers over shutdown

Some budget experts have argued that spending money to conduct permanent layoffs during a shutdown is illegal.
An aerial view shows the contrast between the green zone and the desert landscape of the Kubuqi Desert, in Ordos, in China's northern Inner Mongolia region.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 3, 2025

China's 'Great Green Wall' brings hope but also hardship

While the project has been credited with "greening" over 90 million hectares, it risks erasing the traditional nomadic practices of ethnic Mongolians.
The government's revised action plan for preventing human rights violations linked to corporate activities is likely to focus on small companies as a "priority area."
JAPAN / Society
Oct 7, 2025

Japan's revised corporate action plan on human rights to prioritize small firms

The government aims to accelerate efforts across entire supply chains by encouraging small businesses, which have been slower to adopt human rights measures, to make improvements.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 8, 2025

Trump says U.S. and Canada working on formula for tariff deal

The U.S. president described the two North American nations as being in "natural conflict” because they’re competing for the same business.
A crime scene technician prepares to document evidence at the site of a shooting in West Baltimore in May 2015. U.S. cities are seeing murder rates fall sharply from post-2020 highs thanks to local violence-reduction efforts and pandemic-era investments.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2025

What’s behind the great American murder decline?

Homicides are plummeting in many places. The explanation may be the sheer volume of different efforts to reduce violence.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (center) gestures as he meets Indian traditional dancers during a ceremony for the upcoming Diwali festival in Mumbai on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 9, 2025

Starmer looks to India for example on U.K. plan for digital ID

Starmer said his proposed smartphone-based ID was needed to "address the fact that too many people can come to this country to work illegally.”
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim will have the full three years of his contract to prove himself, according to the club's co-owner.
SOCCER
Oct 9, 2025

Manchester United co-owner says Ruben Amorim will get full 3 years to prove himself

Amorim was Ratcliffe's choice to replace Erik ten Hag last November.
Officials from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office's special investigation squad conduct a search of Alt's headquarters in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 10, 2025

Former executives of AI developer Alt arrested for window-dressing

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission searched locations related to the company in April over the alleged window-dressing
Alleged victims of Myanmar's scam centers in the process of repatriation on Feb. 12. Fraud factories in Myanmar blamed for scamming Chinese and American victims out of billions of dollars are still in business and bigger than ever.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 14, 2025

Myanmar scam cities booming despite crackdown — using Musk's Starlink

China, Thailand and Myanmar had pressured militias into vowing to "eradicate" the compounds in February, releasing around 7,000 people from a brutal call center-like system.
Brooklyn Nets' Cam Thomas dribbles past Phoenix Suns' Oso Ighodaro during the NBA pre-season basketball game at the Venetian Arena in Macau on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 14, 2025

The NBA’s return to China is no slam dunk

From a commercial point of view, re-engaging with its second-biggest market is an obvious move.
Ferries cross the Mekong River in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Oct. 8. U.S. prosecutors have charged Chen Zhi, the chairman of Phnom Penh-based Prince Group, with engaging in a wire-fraud conspiracy and operating a money-laundering scheme.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 15, 2025

U.S. seizes $15B in bitcoin and charges Cambodian mogul with cyberfraud

Prince Group Chairman Chen Zhi, who was born in China but emigrated to Cambodia, is not in custody and remains at large.
Komeito chief representative Tetsuo Saito speaks during a debate with leaders of other political parties at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo in July. His party exited the ruling coalition with the ruling-LDP after 26 years, citing concerns over political donations and transparency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 17, 2025

Is Komeito’s split with the LDP really about political funding?

Was Komeito negotiating in good faith or looking to undermine the Takaichi administration before it even commenced?
Shohei Ohtani lacks the advantages that made NBA legend Michael Jordan a global icon: a unified mass media landscape, broad commercial appeal and a sport built to show off individuality.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 24, 2025

Why can’t Shohei Ohtani truly be like Michael Jordan?

The challenge begins with baseball itself. The game is played at a high level throughout the Americas and parts of Asia-Pacific, but remains a niche sport elsewhere.
Japan's consumer prices rose 3.3% year-on-year in June, with the pace of inflation accelerating from the 3.2% recorded in May.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023

Japan's price growth accelerates ahead of BOJ inflation update

Prices excluding those for fresh food gained 3.3% from a year ago, accelerating a little from the rise in May as energy prices were less of a drag on inflation.
Clothes displayed at Shein’s headquarters in Singapore
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023

Fast fashion report cards show what’s really in your clothes

Consumers’ drive for quantity over quality is transforming the world’s textile industry, sparking an almost doubling in global fiber production over the past two decades.
Members of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild take part in a picket line outside Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California, on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2023

AI shines a spotlight on Hollywood hypocrisy

Studios haven’t informed or paid background actors properly for being digitally scanned, yet they want the same courtesy from AI companies.
Fast fashion concept. Woman chooses jeans in a store. Lots of clothes in the store. Fast Fashion Destroying Planet
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 21, 2023

Fashion, fast and slow: Discussing shopping ethics in Japanese

Whether it’s a trendy top from a chain store in Shibuya or a vintage piece from the backstreets of Kichijoji, know how to shop with a mind to sustainability in Japanese.
The community pool is a great place for exercise and meeting your neighbors.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jul 31, 2023

Figuring out the rules at a Japanese community pool can be an ongoing education

If you’re headed for the community pool, be prepared: Japanese pool rules are an ongoing education.
Nissan will adopt Tesla's electric-vehicle charging technology in the U.S. and Canada, becoming the first Japanese carmaker to take up the technology.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 20, 2023

Nissan to adopt Tesla EV-charging design from 2025 in U.S. and Canada

Starting in 2025, the firm will equip its electric vehicles with the Tesla-developed North American Charging Standard (NACS) port.
Rengo members cheer during their annual May Day rally to demand higher pay and better working conditions, in Tokyo on April 29.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023

Japanese unions urge employers to continue wage hikes next year and beyond

Rengo made the demand as it reviewed the results of its annual spring wage talks that concluded earlier this month, which saw major companies agree to the largest raises in 30 years.
Residential buildings in the Kachidoki area of Tokyo. The average unit price of newly supplied condominiums in the greater Tokyo area in the first six months of this year reached the highest level for the six-month period due to rising material and labor costs and higher land prices.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2023

Tokyo's new condo prices surge 60% to a record in first half of year

The average price of a new apartment in central Tokyo jumped 60% to ¥129.6 million ($930,000) in the January to June period.
The No. 1 Poultry building, left, in the City of London
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2023

South Korean investors stung as bet on offices in financial centers turns sour

With a growing need for environmental credentials for corporate renters and downsizing due to the pandemic, office real-estate markets are seeing a "flight to quality" — leaving some exposed
The financial district of San Francisco in May 2022
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2023

Not all firms are ready for a four-day week — yet, says expert

The largest-ever trial of the four-day work week found that most U.K. businesses participating don’t want to return to the five-day standard.
Tony Bennett at the Apollo Theater in the Harlem neighborhood of New York in 1997
CULTURE / Music
Jul 21, 2023

Tony Bennett, masterful stylist of American musical standards, dies at 96

Bennett vaulted to fame in the early 1950s with a string of emotional hits, including "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams," "Because of You" and "Blue Velvet."
Director Hirobumi Watanabe (second from left) stars alongside his brother Yuji (far right), who has served as composer on all of his films, in his new feature “Techno Brothers,” which follows a sibling trio on the road to Tokyo to find success in the music business.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 21, 2023

Foolish Piggies Films keeps humor at its heart

Indie director Hirobumi Watanabe looks back on 10 years of making distinctive, micro-budget films with his brother and seeking out new challenges on and off screen.
The Central Business District on a rainy day in Beijing. Both U.S. and European companies with exposure to China could be hit by its sluggish growth as its post-COVID-19 momentum has faltered rapidly.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 21, 2023

China's sagging economy looms over quarterly results around the world

Both U.S. and European companies with exposure to China could be hit by that economy's sluggish growth as its post-COVID momentum has faltered rapidly.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 22, 2023

Toyota eyes lunar rover powered by regenerative fuel-cell tech

Toyota has teamed up with JAXA since 2019 to develop the manned lunar rover — which it dubbed the Lunar Cruiser — that they hope can be put on the moon in 2029.
Icons of Google's Artificial Intelligence app BardAI (or ChatBot), OpenAI's app ChatGPT and other AI apps are displayed on a smartphone screen.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 20, 2023

Google tests AI tool that is able to write news articles

Some executives who saw Google’s pitch described it as unsettling, and two people said it seemed to take for granted the effort that went into producing accurate and artful news stories.
Nikko Asset Management is ditching its bearish view on the yen, and now has a ¥135 target against the dollar by year-end.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 20, 2023

Nikko Asset shifts to bullish yen slant as Ueda bides his time

The shift in his view highlights potential upside for the yen, where inflation-adjusted interest rates have exacerbated its decline to multidecade lows.
A friendly between England and the United States drew a crowd of 78,000 at Wembley Stadium on Oct. 7, 2022.
SPORTS
Jul 20, 2023

Women's sports experiencing steady growth in popularity and value

Women's sports are growing in popularity and value. Better yet, that growth is no longer dependent upon quadrennial events like the Olympics or World Cups.

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.