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People rest inside the sports hall of an elementary school that was transformed into temporary accommodations for people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Przemysl, Poland, in March 2022. Geography and geopolitical interests mean that Japan could find itself assuming a supporting role similar to Poland's should China ever attack Taiwan.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 10, 2025

Poland’s role in Ukraine war offers lessons for Japan, top envoy says

Geography and geopolitical interests mean that Tokyo could find itself assuming a supporting role similar to Warsaw’s should China ever attack Taiwan.
Japan logged a deficit of ¥257.6 billion in the current account, a measure of trade and investment flows, compared with a surplus of ¥334.3 billion a year before, according to the Finance Ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 10, 2025

Japan logs its first current account deficit in two years in January

The nation logged a deficit of ¥257.6 billion in the current account compared with a surplus of ¥334.3 billion a year before.
JX Advanced Metals plans to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 19.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 10, 2025

JX Metals raises $3 billion in Japan's biggest IPO since SoftBank

The semiconductor materials supplier, whose clients include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Intel, plans to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 19.
Boxes of imported pork from the U.S. at a cold storage warehouse in Shanghai
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 10, 2025

China deploys food as a high-impact, low-cost weapon in tariff fight

China’s willingness to use food as a countermeasure against the U.S. underscores the impact of a slowing economy on demand.
India, the world’s third-biggest emitter, wants to more than double clean-power capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030. That won't be easy.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 10, 2025

Eyeing short-term savings, India’s utilities put green energy boom at risk

A federal auction model that helped the country add more than 130 gigawatts of renewables projects over the past decade is under threat of circumvention.
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell in New York on Monday, when stocks plummeted as investors fretted that uncertainty over President Donald Trump's tariff policy could tip the world's biggest economy into a recession.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 11, 2025

Markets rocked by Trump show economic fear across Wall Street

What had been a steady pullback from the U.S. stock market accelerated sharply Monday as investors retreated from virtually every type of risk.
Elon Musk, head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, wears a shirt that says "Tech Support" as he speaks during a Cabinet meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Feb. 26.
WORLD
Mar 11, 2025

Elon Musk says X hit by major cyberattack

The attack raises questions as to whether the politically divisive billionaire — and top adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump — is being targeted.
Canadian Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney speaks during the Liberal Party’s gathering in Ottawa, Canada, on Sunday. Carney will most likely be in power just a few weeks before a federal election is held.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 11, 2025

Carney gets down to work as Canada election drumbeat grows

The prime minister-designate promises a speedy transition to a new administration that he says will focus on the economy and fighting back against U.S. tariffs.
An election campaign banner is attached to a rock ahead of Tuesday's general election in Nuuk, Greenland, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 11, 2025

In wake of Trump's threats, Greenland holds parliamentary election

Independence has been a key campaign theme in the semiautonomous territory of Denmark after the U.S. president said he wants control over the island.
Kazuo Momma, a former executive director in charge of monetary policy at the Bank of Japan, says June is the favored option for the central bank's next rate hike.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 11, 2025

BOJ’s next rate hike likely in June, former executive says

Kazuo Momma, a former executive director in charge of monetary policy, says the central bank is likely to move roughly every six months to maintain expectations.
A woman visits a grave in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, on Tuesday on the 14th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Populations in the hardest hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima are sharply falling.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025

Post-disaster Tohoku struggles with population decline

The number of people aged 20 to 39 in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures fell by about 20% to 30% between 2010 and 2024.
A tank holds untreated waste from plutonium production at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a site that was integral to the nation’s nuclear arsenal after World War II, north of Richland, Washington, in March 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Mar 11, 2025

Most contaminated U.S. nuclear site is set to be the largest solar farm

Plans to transform Hanford had just begun inching forward when U.S. President Donald Trump started his second term.
A man walks past an electronic board showing the Nikkei 225 index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in the capital on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 11, 2025

Asian stocks slide as U.S. growth worries grip markets

In Asia, stocks were battered across the board with Japan's Nikkei and Taiwan stocks hitting their lowest levels since September.
Fertility rates remain low across much of Asia, with past policies to curb population growth proving difficult to reverse, while governments explore adaptation strategies like immigration and AI.
COMMENTARY
Mar 5, 2025

It’s time we adapt to low fertility rates

South Korea’s fertility rate saw a slight increase, but experts doubt it signals a long-term reversal. Similar trends are seen in Singapore and Japan.
Investigators from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police examine the scene where a woman in her 20s was stabbed on Tuesday morning in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 11, 2025

Man arrested after fatal stabbing of woman in Shinjuku Ward

The suspect is said to have approached the woman in her 20s near Takadanobaba Station and stabbed her without warning as she walked, apparently livestreaming, investigators said.
Makoto Uchida, CEO of Nissan, will step down from the post at the end of this month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 11, 2025

Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida to step down

Current Chief Planning Officer Ivan Espinosa will be assuming the role starting in April in a bid to turn around the struggling Yokohama-based automaker.
Air Canada has collaborated with chef Masaki Hashimoto (center) of Toronto's one-Michelin-starred restaurant Kaiseki Yu-zen Hashimoto to create its new in-flight menu for its Signature Class.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 12, 2025

Air Canada has a new 'kaiseki'-inspired menu

The airline wants to give its customers ‘a real Japanese experience’ before they land in Japan.
A sign featuring the logo of Germany's Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action, at the construction site of the Northvolt Drei EV battery gigafactory in Heide, Germany, on Oct. 15, 2024
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 12, 2025

If Europe builds the gigafactories, will an AI industry come?

The hope is that local firms like France's Mistral will use the factories to create AI models that operate in line with EU safety rules.
Demonstrators demand justice for drug war victims, after the arrest of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, in Manila on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 12, 2025

Duterte arrest raises stakes in clash for control of Philippines

The push by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to sideline his main political opponents marks a gamble that could easily backfire.
Nisssan Chief Planning Officer Ivan Espinosa speaks during an online news conference on Tuesday. Espinosa will take over as CEO in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 12, 2025

Ivan Espinosa to take over as new Nissan CEO in April

Espinosa, the automaker's chief planning officer, joined Nissan in 2003 and has been working on product strategy and planning.
A Bloomberg survey said almost three quarters of Bank of Japan watchers who responded said that U.S. tariffs could exert enough of a drag on Japan’s economy to delay the central bank’s rate hike path.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 12, 2025

BOJ watchers see gradual rate hikes with higher terminal rate

Economists now anticipate the terminal rate to be 1.25%, up from 1% in the previous survey.
Protesters demonstrating in front of the Supreme Court in Tokyo on Tuesday against court rulings acquitting two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings over the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2025

Acquittal of two former Tepco executives finalized

Lawyers acting as prosecutors did not file an appeal against the Supreme Court's decision last week that upheld the not-guilty verdicts against the executives.
An official from the Japan Council of Metalworkers' Unions writes down the results of this year's "shuntō" annual spring labor negotiations on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 12, 2025

Major Japanese companies agree to solid pay and bonus hikes

Toyota, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Hitachi, Fujitsu and NEC are among companies that say they have agreed to their respective labor unions' demands.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up a piece of paper with information about tariff rates at the White House on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2025

The U.S. says Japan has a 700% tariff on American rice. Is that the case?

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's accusation describes only a small portion of U.S. rice imported by Japan.
Secondhand clothing store "Onward Reuse Park Kichijoji" in December in the city of Musashino in Tokyo
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2025

Eyeing waste, Japanese apparel industry pushes sustainable fashion

About 60% of the clothes sold in Japan are thrown away, according to the Environment Ministry.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda has indicated he has little problem with the recent rising yield trend.
BUSINESS
Mar 13, 2025

Shift in BOJ stance favors free market functioning over intervention

People familiar with the central bank's policy approach say the market should decide rates, and that investors need to get used to a world without yield curve control.
Nomura Holdings is withdrawing from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 13, 2025

Nomura exits bank climate group, joining Wall Street exodus

Nomura said it will stick to its target set four years ago, to deploy $125 billion of sustainable financing through March 2026.
Rolled steel is stored at a Hyundai Steel plant in Dangjin, South Korea, in 2011.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 13, 2025

South Korean steelmakers eye U.S. investments as Trump tariffs kick in

Posco and Hyundai Steel say investments in operations in the U.S. are among their options. Meanwhile, European steel mills warn of a flood of surplus metal.
Alimentation Couche-Tard founder and executive chairman Alain Bouchard (left) and President Alex Miller hold a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 13, 2025

Alimentation Couche-Tard ramps up campaign to take over Seven & I

The Canadian convenience store giant and owner of Circle-K has sought to combat skepticism surrounding the deal, most recently with a news conference in Tokyo.
Microchips are a major source of "forever chemicals” that are linked to cancer and other health problems.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 14, 2025

As chips race spews ‘forever chemicals,’ startups emerge to destroy them

A wave of companies are offering potential solutions that won’t cut the chemicals out of the supply chain but destroy them.

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What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji