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Tourists at a viewpoint near the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 1, 2025

Here’s the few foreign markets set to win on Trump’s return

As some countries are rattled by tariff fears, assets of nations seen as benefiting from close ties with the U.S. leader are getting an extra lift
Technicians at work in the clean room of a semiconductor manufacturing facility in Ibaraki Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 1, 2025

Japan plans to curb exports of chips and quantum-computing tech

The government is expanding its list of export-controlled items to include advanced chips, lithography equipment and cryocoolers needed for the manufacture of quantum computers.
Government officials and energy executives from countries such as India, Kuwait and Japan have been holding talks about procuring more U.S. gas, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 1, 2025

From India to Japan, specter of Trump tariffs spurs interest in U.S. gas

Trump’s tactics, however, are pushing away some other buyers, like those in China, the world’s top importer.
Supply ships that service the offshore oil rigs on Canada's east coast load cargo in in St. John's, Newfoundland, on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025

To Trump, tariffs are not a means but an end

What makes U.S. President Donald Trump’s move against Mexico, Canada and China different compared with past uses of tariffs is that he seems uninterested in pursuing deals.
A crater in Philadelphia on Saturday, the day after a deadly plane crash that also killed one person on the ground
WORLD
Feb 2, 2025

Small plane crash in Philadelphia leaves seven dead, 19 injured

The jet was headed to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri to refuel before heading to Tijuana in Mexico.
Visitors attend the Myanmar Power and Solar Energy Storage Expo 2025 in Yangon on Jan. 10. Power outages are common across Yangon, a result of rolling blackouts scheduled by the country's junta government.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 2, 2025

Seeking light in dark times four years after Myanmar coup

The country has fossil fuel reserves and strong potential for renewables but is crippled by instability, investor flight, a lack of infrastructure and other problems.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato holds a virtual meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025

Japan to closely monitor impact on yen of Trump tariffs, Kato says

Kato spoke as the world braces for first salvo in Trump's tariff war, with general levies of 25% on Canada and Mexico and 10% on China.
Chevy and GMC pickup trucks at a General Motors facility in Silao, Mexico, in 2022. The automaker produces more vehicles in Mexico than any other American manufacturer.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025

Trump stretches trade law boundaries with tariffs

Experts say the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is untested for Trump's actions and will likely face swift court challenges.
A container ship at Lianyungang Port in China on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025

China vows measures against U.S. tariffs and threatens WTO action

While the 10% levy falls short of Trump's earlier threats, the tariffs target a nation already battling a grinding slowdown.
The 225-issue Nikkei stock average loses more than 1,000 points Monday ahead of steep U.S. tariffs taking effect on imports from Mexico and Canada.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 3, 2025

Nikkei sheds over 1,000 points as markets react to Trump's tariffs

The trend among investors in Tokyo is to lower risks by reducing their holdings and selling futures for now, a Japanese brokerage house official said.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 3, 2025

BOJ discussed worries about price upward deviation in January

One member referred to "a growing possibility that underlying CPI (consumer price index) inflation will rise steadily toward achieving the price stability target of 2%."
The Hyatt Regency hotel in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 3, 2025

KKR and Gaw look to sell Tokyo Hyatt Regency for over ¥100 billion

The two investment firms bought the hotel in the Shinjuku area for an estimated ¥60 billion less than two years ago.
Masahiro Tanaka signed with the Giants in December.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Feb 3, 2025

Star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka looking to revive glory days with Giants

Masahiro Tanaka is one of the most recognizable faces in Japanese baseball, but sightings of the new Giants pitcher were few and far between in 2024.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2025

Trump's tariff reversal shows how he's wielding bombast on trade

The U.S. leader has pledged to remake the global economy with tariffs. So far, it’s been more Art of the Deal than a revolution.
The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, also called the Chinese Six Companies, formed in San Francisco in 1882, was a unifying umbrella organization for immigrant associations, becoming one of the first such influential community advocacy groups in America.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025

America versus China, the troubling prequel

A forthcoming book details the horrific experience of Chinese immigrants in the U.S. in the 19th century. Is it an omen for the future?
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2020
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2025

Modi’s Trump strategy sees quick concessions to avoid trade war

Trump has repeatedly singled out India and its high trade barriers, and has pledged reciprocal duties on the South Asian country.
Nippon Steel and United States Steel said in an opening brief Monday that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States violated their due process rights last year by allowing "virtually no substantive engagement” with the companies.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2025

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel blast Biden's 'sham' merger block

While Biden is no longer in office, President Donald Trump has expressed his own opposition to the deal.
The current government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer has resisted calls for a national inquiry focused on the grooming gangs in Rotherham, and says it will conduct a series of local probes.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025

'Life's ruined' in U.K. town broken by grooming gangs

Rotherham, once a producer of some of the world's finest steel, is now the epicenter of a major U.K. scandal that has left the town angry, ashamed and needing answers.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters Tuesday about the idea of revising the companies law to fully allow businesses to hold online-only shareholders' meetings.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2025

Japan to allow firms to hold online-only shareholder meetings

Online-only shareholders' meetings are currently permitted only in exceptional cases under the industrial competitiveness enhancement law.
The United States was the biggest food export destination for Japan, with shipments totaling ¥242.9 billion, up 17.8%, helped by efforts to diversify scallop export markets following China's fishery import ban.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025

Japan's food exports hit record high for 12th straight year

The United States was the biggest food export destination for Japan.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (left) speaks during an executive order signing ceremony with U.S. President Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald and U.S. commerce secretary nominee, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2025

Trump orders creation of U.S. sovereign wealth fund and says it could buy TikTok

The text of the executive order was sparse on details, and simply directed the Treasury and Commerce Departments to submit a plan for such a fund within 90 days.
Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly in his Tokyo apartment in February 2020. He returned to the United States after the first verdict nearly three years ago in which he was given a suspended prison sentence.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 4, 2025

Tokyo court upholds suspended jail term for former Nissan exec

Greg Kelly was found guilty in 2022 of helping the automaker's fugitive ex-CEO, Carlos Ghosn, underreport his income.
Nintendo announced in January that it will release the console's hotly anticipated successor — the Switch 2 — in 2025, but stopped short of revealing details such as pricing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2025

Nintendo cuts net profit forecast as Switch sales slow

Nintendo said it will release the console's hotly anticipated successor — the Switch 2 — in 2025 but stopped short of revealing details such as pricing.
A passenger plane for Japan Airlines sits on the tarmac at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2025

Two ex-Japan Airlines pilots grounded after lying about drinking

JAL said last month its two most senior executives would take a 30% pay cut for two months over the incident.
Talks by Honda and Nissan to create the world’s third-largest carmaker have gone haltingly since the plans were first announced in December.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2025

Nissan shares plunge, Honda's rise as end to merger talks reported

Shares in Nissan slid more than 4% before trade was suspended by the Tokyo Stock Exchange following the Nikkei report.
A surge in management buyouts has come amid increasing pressure from activist investors to improve corporate value, and the burden of maintaining a listing.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 5, 2025

Japan weighs tougher management buyout rules to protect minority shareholders

A surge in buyouts has come amid increasing pressure from activist investors to improve corporate value.
Based on his own assessment, Hideo Hayakawa, a former Bank of Japan executive director, says he sees the BOJ’s terminal rate in this cycle somewhere around 1.5%.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025

BOJ’s rate likely to go higher than consensus, ex-official says

"My base view is that there is a lot more coming,” the former director said. "There is little logical reason to believe that rate hikes will stop early.”
A statue of the founder of the International Olympic Committee, Pierre de Coubertin, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland
OLYMPICS
Feb 5, 2025

The closed-door battle to lead the Olympics

For such a consequential election, much of it is taking place in the dark, away from any form of public or private debate.
Protestors gather outside of the headquarters for United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Monday ahead of a news conference by Congressional Democrats.
WORLD
Feb 5, 2025

U.S. aid agency places global staff on leave as part of Trump's purge

The move is part of the Trump administration's radical drive to shrink the U.S. government, which has shocked Washington and caused angry protests.
Founded in Hangzhou only 20 months ago, DeepSeek’s technology made waves in January with a new mobile app featuring its reasoning AI chatbot.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 5, 2025

Australia bans DeepSeek from government tech, citing security

A threat assessment by the country’s intelligence agencies found the technology posed an unacceptable risk.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.