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KDDI President and CEO Hiromichi Matsuda is interviewed in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2025

KDDI aims to use direct satellite link for drones

A direct link with satellites will make it easier to operate drones in mountainous areas and other regions where radio waves are hard to reach
Panathinaikos BC celebrates after winning the Euroleague title in Berlin on May, 26, 2024.
BASKETBALL
Apr 24, 2025

Euroleague CEO pushes back as NBA ponders new league in Europe

Motiejunas said the Euroleague is staunchly opposed to a new operator in the region.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato is is expected to meet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 24, 2025

U.S. indicates no hard target for yen ahead of key trade talks

The United States has argued that the yen is too weak, making its value against the dollar a top agenda item in trade discussions.
Fiscal 2024 supermarket sales in value terms grew on higher prices including for food, especially rice and vegetables, but sales in volume terms continued to decline as consumers remained reluctant to spend.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2025

Japanese supermarket sales up for fifth straight year in fiscal 2024

Sales in value terms grew on higher prices including for food, especially rice and vegetables, but sales in volume terms continued to decline.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025

No discussion of yen target, Kato says after Bessent meeting

The two countries possibly committing to a specific number in terms of the yen-dollar exchange rate has helped drive up the value of the Japanese currency.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in Tokyo gained 3.4% in April from a year earlier, as a mixture of impacts from last year’s school fee cuts and higher food and energy costs accelerated inflation, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025

Tokyo prices rise most in two years, backing central bank's hike path

Consumer prices excluding fresh food gained 3.4% in April from a year earlier. Tokyo's figures are a leading indicator for national price gains.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025

Trump’s trade whiplash sinks world into dreaded ‘uncertainty’

"The worry I hear more often is actually not even tariffs, it is uncertainty,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters Thursday. "Let’s have clarity.”
The activity represents the continuing evolution in the sprawling North Korean efforts to target the cryptocurrency sectors in a bid to raise cash for the North Korean government.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Apr 25, 2025

North Korean cyber spies created U.S. firms to dupe crypto developers

The activity shows the continuing evolution in North Korea's efforts to target the cryptocurrency sectors to raise cash for the North Korean government.
Amid U.S.-China trade tensions, the U.S. may be looking at Japan as a potential country to make up for a drop in corn exports to China.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025

Japan looks to increase U.S. corn imports ahead of more tariff talks

The idea appears to be aimed at appeasing U.S. President Donald Trump's criticisms about Japan's tariffs and could be used as leverage in next week's bilateral negotiations.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks about U.S. tariffs in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025

Japan doubles down on stimulus to counter effects of Trump tariffs

The government will implement measures that build on ones announced earlier with the aim of boosting domestic spending and shoring up corporate balance sheets.
A Maruti Suzuki concept electric SUV at a trade show in Gandhinagar, India, last January
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 25, 2025

Maruti Suzuki profit misses estimate on higher input costs

The disappointing earnings for the sector leader come amid a broader consumption slack in the world’s most populous country.
U.S. President Donald Trump uses a cellphone aboard Marine One before it departs Leesburg Executive Airport in Leesburg, Virginia, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 26, 2025

U.S. officials adopt ‘organized’ framework to handle trade talks

Under the blueprint, U.S. negotiators will use a template that lays out common areas of concern to help guide the discussions.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato listens to a question during an interview at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo on April 17.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Apr 26, 2025

Yen and BOJ's rate policy may remain focus in Japan-U.S. trade talks

A look at finance officials' descriptions of a recent meeting suggests currencies and the BOJ's interest rate policy may remain key factors in broader trade negotiations.
U.S President Donald Trump meets with Japan's Ryosei Akazawa, who is in charge of trade negotiations with Washington, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on April 16.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Apr 26, 2025

Japan is a test case for Trump's tariff deals. But talks may be tortuous.

While some expect an agreement at the June G7 summit in Canada in June, others say it will be risky for Tokyo to cede ground before Upper House elections expected in July.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga speaks during an interview at the IMF-World Bank Group spring meetings at IMF headquarters in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 26, 2025

Developing countries should fast-track U.S. trade deals, World Bank chief says

"You need to negotiate trade systems with the U.S. at the earliest possible (opportunity)," Ajay Banga said. "If you delay, it hurts everyone."
A broken Buddha statue inside a damaged pagoda following a strong earthquake in Amarapura township, Myanmar, on April 4.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 26, 2025

Myanmar junta defies quake ceasefire to continue deadly attacks, data shows

The military launched at least 207 attacks, including 140 airstrikes and 24 artillery barrages, according to data from the U.N. Human Rights Office.
Pope Francis leads a prayer in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Dec. 31, 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Apr 26, 2025

Pope Francis saw defending the climate as an urgent priority for the world

Pope Francis spoke and wrote often about climate change, telling oil and gas executives in 2018 that transitioning to clean energy was a "duty” to humanity.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at Rengo's May Day event alongside the union's chief, Tomoko Yoshino, on Saturday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2025

Ishiba vows wage hikes that keep up with inflation at May Day event

Ishiba's participation marks the third year in a row for a Japanese prime minister to attend Rengo's May Day event.
Vehicles travel along the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles. California's GDP has overtaken Japan's to become the world's fourth largest economy, according to the U.S. state.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 27, 2025

California says it overtakes Japan to become world’s No. 4 economy

Japan's annual GDP was surpassed by China in 2010 and Germany in 2023, positioning the country in fourth place.
The Bank of Japan will release its quarterly report on the Japanese economy and prices at its two-day policy meeting from Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 27, 2025

BOJ may lower economic and price forecasts

Amid Trump's global trade war, the central bank is also likely to keep its monetary policy unchanged.
Trumpism is attacking America's core institutions to gain unchecked power, and only a united civic uprising that defends and reforms these institutions can stop it and build a better future.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2025

Time for a civic uprising

What’s happening is not normal. America needs an uprising that is not normal.
A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / Longform
Apr 28, 2025

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

Last year the government issued its first "megaquake" advisory. Ever since, those living in the areas it's expected to hit have been preparing for the worst.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda. The BOJ is getting into a tough spot between high inflation and a likely economic slowdown.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 28, 2025

BOJ to hit pause on rate-hike path as economic risks mount

Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s board is poised to keep the benchmark rate at 0.5% at the conclusion of the two-day gathering on Thursday, according to all 54 economists surveyed.
A Wall Street sign near the New York Stock Exchange on April 21
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 28, 2025

Trump promised a markets boom. 100 days in, stocks have only seen damage.

The S&P 500 Index is down about 8% since his inauguration and on track for its worst run during a president’s first 100 days since Gerald Ford.
Tesla's store in Tokyo's Shibuya district. While sales of American cars in Japan appear to be shrinking, Tesla's presence in the country is growing.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 28, 2025

Counting the reasons why there are so few American cars in Japan

One reason is size, with American cars tending to be larger and not generally suited for driving in busy cities with many narrow roads, such as Tokyo.
There is strong demand for funding from Japanese companies as the economy emerges from years of deflation, and issuers are trying to pinpoint the best time to sell bonds before the Bank of Japan raises interest rates again.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 28, 2025

Revived corporate bond deals in Japan underline need for funding

Volatility is particularly tricky for Japan to navigate given that the market has been less exposed to extreme swings after years of rock-bottom interest rates.
People gather to protest outside the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) headquarters after the Elon Musk-led "department of government efficiency" (DOGE) was charged with oversight of OPM, in Washington on Feb. 2.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2025

100 days of DOGE: lots of chaos, not so much efficiency

"DOGE is not a serious exercise," said Jessica Riedl, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a fiscally conservative think tank that supports streamlining government.
Jera, the world's biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, sees U.S. President Donald Trump's pet project in Alaska one of the promising procurement sources.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 28, 2025

Japan’s top gas buyer mulls procuring LNG from Alaska export project

"We see Alaska as one of the promising procurement sources,” Naohiro Maekawa, an executive officer at Jera, said at a news conference on Monday.
Apartments in the district of Miyazato in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, where many students live
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
May 12, 2025

Rents soar in northern Okinawa ahead of Junglia theme park opening

While large-scale hiring may help to revitalize the area, it is also creating a housing supply shortage, affecting students and others who are moving in.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (center) welcomes Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to the Government Office in Hanoi on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 28, 2025

Ishiba pledges deeper economic ties with Vietnam as Trump tariffs bite

Both countries face unprecedented economic turmoil as a result of the U.S. tariffs and are seeking ways to mitigate potential damage.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past