Search - company

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 27, 2022

One missile shook Ukraine’s grain trade. Another might kill it.

If Russia doesn't renew a grain deal that allowed Ukraine back into global markets, it could send prices soaring again and savage Ukrainian farms.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 18, 2022

Sanctioned Myanmar tycoons find shelter in Singapore, but for how long?

Most Asian countries, including Singapore, don't support the sanctions on Myanmar. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said they would only hurt the country's people.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 30, 2022

Secret data, tiny islands and a quest for treasure on the ocean floor

Mining firm The Metals Co. has worked hard to gain access to mineral-rich sea beds it says will help power the EV revolution, but its proposed operations worry environmentalists.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 25, 2022

Nidec’s COO to resign after being sidelined by founder Shigenobu Nagamori

The move underscores the Japanese company's struggles to put a succession plan for its aging founder in place.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 17, 2022

Big Tech helps Big Oil pump more, belying climate pledges

The tech giants began courting oil companies several years ago, eager for business from a lucrative but technologically backward industry.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jul 25, 2022

After 10 years, 'Toyota-ism' takes root in Tohoku as force for reconstruction

Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda has said, “There will be no recovery of Japan without the recovery of the Tohoku region.”
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 6, 2022

Failed ‘Captain Tsubasa’ NFT offers window into the risks of crypto

While Japan has not yet experienced a large NFT boom, some of the country's most famous pop culture staples have been appropriated for dubious 'Web3' products.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 21, 2022

Netflix rout is worst since 2004, punishing Roku and Disney, too

Shares of the streaming leader have plunged 35%, erasing $54 billion of market value in its biggest drop since 2004.
WeWork sought U.S. bankruptcy protection on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 7, 2023

SoftBank's WeWork, once most valuable U.S. startup, goes bankrupt

The company reported estimated assets and liabilities ranging from $10 billion to $50 billion, according to a bankruptcy filing.
The Humane Ai Pin’s interface is projected onto the hand of company co-founder Bethany Bongiorno in San Francisco on Oct. 27. Humane, a company started by two former Apple employees, says its new artificial intelligence pin can stop all the scrolling.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 13, 2023

Silicon Valley’s bet on the device that comes after the smartphone

Humane's Ai Pin is being billed as the first artificially intelligent device.
Sam Altman participates in an event at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders week in San Francisco on Nov. 16.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 20, 2023

OpenAI appoints ex-Twitch boss as CEO, while Altman joins Microsoft

The decision not to reinstate Altman as CEO has confounded efforts by investors and employees of the firm to steady the ship by bringing him back.
Cabs not in operation are parked at a taxi company in Naha in October. Finding a taxi in parts of Okinawa Prefecture is becoming increasingly difficult because of a shortage of drivers.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Nov 27, 2023

Getting a taxi in Okinawa harder than ever amid driver shortage

The number of cab drivers working in the prefecture peaked at 10,041 in 2009 and declined to 5,246 in 2021.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak addresses a news conference during an artificial intelligence safety summit in Milton Keynes, England, on Nov. 2.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2023

Foreign policy and defense concerns in the age of AI

Researchers warn of the potential 'signaling risks' artificial intelligence poses to global politics and military conflict.
From left: Naho Sato, President Masamichi Idemitsu and Naoki Tajima
ESG CONSORTIUM
Dec 18, 2023

Mita Kosan develops real estate, community in central Tokyo area

Mita Kosan Co. Ltd., a real estate developer and leasing company, is housed in an office building right across the road from Keio University’s East Gate in the Mita district of Tokyo’s Minato Ward. The area has a uniquely mixed atmosphere: premium and academic, yet homey with a lot of small local...
Kokusai Electric CEO Fumiyuki Kanai foresees sustained investment in China and plans to increase staff there.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2023

Japan’s Kokusai aims to build on 66% rally as China demand booms

The producer of chip fabrication equipment will enlarge its Chinese footprint to tap the growing market, according to CEO Fumiyuki Kanai.
Takahito Tokita, chief executive officer at Fujitsu, speaks during an interview at the company's headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 22, 2023

Fujitsu speeds aircon deal as it aims for ¥700 billion boost from AI

The urgency to close the deal rises amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
A woman points at a Glock handgun during the annual National Rifle Association convention in Dallas in 2018.
WORLD / Society
Dec 28, 2023

Gaston Glock, inventor of cult guns, dies at 94

His gun, wielded by police and outlaws alike, certainly made its mark worldwide, matched by few other weapons.
Kotaro Seki, CEO of Ellange, in front of the truck that he uses to collect nets from fisheries
JAPAN / Society / OUR PLANET
Jan 7, 2024

Trash into treasure: Can fishing net waste be the future of fashion?

A pair of Japanese startups are looking to solve a problem for the nation's fisheries: What to do with old fishing nets.
A bottle of Bayer AG Roundup brand weedkiller concentrate
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Bayer faces billions in Roundup claims as legal strategy falls short

In the firm's biggest courtroom loss so far, a jury awarded $2.25 billion to a former user who blamed his cancer diagnosis on exposure to the herbicide.
Elon Musk has gone as far as to say that with technological advances, “there will come a point where no job is needed.” Musk revealed his own artificial intelligence chatbot, dubbed Grok, last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 9, 2024

Firms pausing hiring and axing staff quietly as AI craze persists

While some industry leaders have been outspoken about AI’s potential to transform work, there is caution over citing the new tech as a reason for cuts.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 9, 2024

OpenAI’s Sam Altman returns to board after probe clears him

Altman was cleared of any wrongdoing that would have mandated being fired, according to a report based on a monthslong investigation.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2024

Tepco profit goal remains elusive, 13 years after triple meltdown

The total costs related to the nuclear crisis are estimated at ¥23.4 trillion, including ¥8 trillion for decommissioning the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 26, 2024

Will Boeing leadership shake-up redeem plane-maker with airlines and fliers?

The embattled manufacturer has announced one of the most dramatic overhauls in its century-long history, with three top executives set to depart.
The OpenAI offices in San Francisco. The high-profile tech startup is allowing a small group of businesses to test a new system, Voice Engine, that is said to be able to recreate a person’s voice from a 15-second recording, OpenAI announced Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 30, 2024

OpenAI previews new audio tool that can read text and mimic voices

All the software needs is 15 seconds of recorded audio of a person speaking to re-create their voice.
Arthur Mensch, the chief executive and one of the founders of Mistral, a French artificial-intelligence startup, at the company’s offices in Paris in late March.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 14, 2024

Europe’s AI ‘champion’ sets sights on tech giants in U.S.

As Europe vies for AI leadership, Mistral, under Arthur Mensch, is emerging as a formidable contender against U.S. and Chinese giants.
Laxman Narasimhan has been CEO of Starbucks for just over a year.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 2, 2024

Sales slump and shares dive at Starbucks as inflation cuts thirst for treats

The global chain expressed confidence in its forecast as recently as November, saying that demand for iced shaken espressos was resilient.
Attendees at the Leap technology conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 6, 202. The oil-rich country is plowing money into glitzy events, computing power and artificial intelligence research, putting it in the middle of an escalating U.S.-China struggle for technological influence.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

‘To the future’: Saudi Arabia spends big to become an AI superpower

Saudi Arabia was long a financial spigot for tech, but is now building its own industry.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the United Steelworkers Union headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 17. Biden made clear that he does not want the proposed takeover of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel to happen.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 4, 2024

Political furor over Nippon Steel's U.S. Steel bid puts investment panel in spotlight

Backlash over the deal has echoes of the 1980s when Nippon Steel tried and failed to buy another American metal company.
Nawaf Al-Osimy, chief technical officer of the Jazlah Water Desalination plant, which draws vast quantities of water from the Persian Gulf and makes it drinkable, in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, on March 4.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
May 30, 2024

Saudi Arabia eyes a future beyond oil

The kingdom is trying to juggle its still-vital petroleum industry with alternative energy sources like wind and solar as it faces pressure to lower carbon emissions.

Longform

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