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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2021

Palm oil giant’s industry-beating ESG score hides razed forests

In the impoverished West African country of Liberia, a unit of the world's second-largest palm oil company has admitted to destroying forests and violating the rights of indigenous people.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 3, 2021

The man behind the Olympic 'anti-sex' beds speaks out

The Airweave beds at Tokyo 2020 have taken a pounding on social media, but CEO Motokuni Takaoka says they can handle it all.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2021

The recycling myth: Big Oil’s plastic waste solution littered with failure

While residents have dutifully packaged up their trash, expecting it to be put to a green use, many have been left disappointed.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 23, 2021

China weighs unprecedented penalty for Didi after U.S. IPO

Regulators see the ride-hailing giant's decision to go public despite pushback from the Cyberspace Administration of China as a challenge to Beijing's authority.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 16, 2021

Japan’s cult outdoor brand wants you to test its high-end tents

Snow Peak's president acknowledges the company's price point may deter some shoppers, but says it reflects the goods' quality and lifetime warranty.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 8, 2021

China's gene giant harvests data from millions of women

The U.S. has warned that the firm is amassing and analyzing data that could give China a path to economic and military advantage.
Japan Times
WORLD
May 11, 2021

U.S. pipeline hack exposes brutal vise of cyberextortion schemes

Colonial said Monday it expects service to be mostly restored by the end of the week.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 1, 2021

Vietnam's answer to Tesla has U.S. in its electric sights

A recent arrival on the automotive scene and the No. 5 car brand in Vietnam, VinFast is not short on ambition.
Fujikura's headquarters in Tokyo's Koto Ward. The company's share price has surged by more than 400% this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 25, 2024

AI boom makes 139-year-old cable maker Japan’s hottest stock

Fujikura, which makes narrow wire cabling, is the best performer on the Nikkei stock index this year due to a boom in demand for data centers.
The Google campus in Mountain View, California, on May 2
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 26, 2024

Google arguments draw skepticism from judge in ad tech case

The case is one of several against Google over antitrust issues.
Vehicles pass in front of an Exxon service station in Bethesda, Maryland, on Monday. Material stolen from the company's critics in a hack-and-leak operation continues to be used today to counter litigation claiming the oil giant misled the public and its investors about the risks of climate change.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024

Exxon lobbyist probed over hacked papers that disrupted climate lawsuits

The stolen material continues to be used today to counter litigation claiming the oil giant misled the public and its investors about the risks of climate change.
A 40-year-old house in the city of Fukuoka that has been renovated by Katitas, a company that buys up secondhand houses for resale. The company retained the house's original wooden ceilings and window frames to preserve the property's vintage look.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Dec 9, 2024

As demand rises for abandoned houses, so do cases of hidden defects

Industry experts recommend prospective buyers conduct thorough inspections before concluding transactions for akiya.
"Agent" technology goes further than chatbots, not just performing parlor tricks and spitting out plausible responses to queries but actually doing the kinds of repetitive tasks that today are handled by millions of humans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 14, 2024

Big Tech's new AI obsession: 'Agents' that do your work for you

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls agents "the next giant breakthrough," while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the shift "is really the rise of digital labor.”
Bain Capital said it had "strong concerns” about Fuji Soft’s process to go private, and decided to proceed with its bid to buy shares of the software company without the support of the its board.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2024

Bain to make $4.2 billion hostile bid for Fuji Soft against KKR

Shares of Fuji Soft rose 1.1% to ¥9,756 on Wednesday morning in Tokyo.
Toshiba's Corporate Senior Executive Vice President Koji Ikeya speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 20, 2024

A year after going private, structural reforms bearing fruit for Toshiba

Before going private last December, Toshiba had long struggled to deal with activist investors, from whom the company accepted investments to stabilize its finances.
A message welcoming users back and thanking U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is displayed on the TikTok app on a smartphone Sunday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 20, 2025

TikTok restoring U.S. service after Trump says he will stall ban

Trump said he would "extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security."
The Tiffany & Co. store on Fifth Avenue in New York in 2023
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Tiffany workers mock forced 'joy' that exacerbated staff exits

When Tiffany & Co. executives were looking for ways to boost staff morale, they rolled out an internal social app called "Tiffany Joy.” It didn’t take long to turn into a chore.
Underneath the praise, Washington, Wall Street and Silicon Valley are aligned in their view of DeepSeek as a key competitor to Meta’s Llama.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 29, 2025

DeepSeek tests Meta’s ambition for U.S. open-source AI dominance

Mark Zuckerberg has long championed Meta’s open-source approach to artificial intelligence software as key to ensuring U.S. dominance over China in AI.
The koji room at Fukuwagura brewery in Mie Prefecture, where metals such as stainless steel, which are easy to manage for hygiene, are widely used
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 30, 2025

Japanese food makers step in to preserve sake breweries' legacy

The initiatives by food companies coincide with a growing recognition of traditional sake-making techniques.
Panasonic, whose sprawling operations include hairdryers, PCs and lithium-ion batteries used by the likes of Tesla, will restructure or streamline businesses with low growth potential, according to a statement released on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2025

Tesla supplier Panasonic to cut costs to support shift into AI

One target may be the company’s long-standing TV operations.
Panasonic will restructure low-growth businesses and make changes to its employment structure, according to a recently released statement.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2025

Panasonic shares jump most in 11 years on restructuring plans

The Osaka-based company will restructure low-growth businesses and make changes to its employment structure.
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, speaks at a White House event with President Donald Trump, left; Softbank chief executive Masayoshi Son, third from left; and Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, at the White House on Jan. 21.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 9, 2025

How Sam Altman sidestepped Elon Musk to win over Donald Trump

After helping President Trump get elected, Elon Musk was poised to dominate the nation’s AI policies. But someone got there before him.
On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters that U.S. Steel would remain American.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2025

Nippon Steel goes quiet after U.S. Steel deal seemingly nixed for good

Comments over the weekend by U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba point to the U.S. steelmaker remaining American.
An Apple store in Walnut Creek, California, on Monday. Apple Inc. Apple investors rejected a proposal to end the iPhone maker’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, but CEO Tim Cook some some adjustments may occur.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 26, 2025

Apple to keep DEI efforts, though some adjustments possible

The proposal to abolish DEI efforts came after competitors like Meta and Google have started winding down such programs.
Maki Kanazawa (left) and Misaki Soejima repair a net in Owase, Mie Prefecture, on Jan. 27.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2025

Fisherwomen shining in male-dominant industry in Japan

In Owase, women had been banned from boarding fishing boats because a deity of ships was believed to be a jealous goddess.
Couche-Tard has made clear that it wants to learn from Seven & I Holdings to improve its North America operation, and has ruled out going hostile in takeover talks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025

Couche-Tard holds talks for sale of U.S. shops in Seven & I deal

The retailer last year proposed to purchase Seven & I Holdings for $18.19 per share, but so far hasn’t been able to enter negotiations with the firm.
Potential buyers for a package of 7-Eleven and other convenience stores have until the end of March to express their interest, Alimentation Couche-Tard Chief Financial Officer Filipe Da Silva said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 26, 2025

Couche-Tard sees strong interest in U.S. stores for Seven & I deal

The Canadian company has agreed with Seven & I to seek a buyer for overlapping retail outlets as a prerequisite for takeover talks to sidestep U.S. antitrust concerns.
Rengo President Tomoko Yoshino speaks at a Democratic Party for the People convention in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 11.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Apr 6, 2025

Breaking with tradition: From the shop floor to fighting for millions

Tomoko Yoshino has rubbed shoulders with political heavyweights and business leaders as the first female leader of Rengo.
How Fuji TV responds to the results of a third-party probe will be crucial to restoring public trust — and could determine whether sponsors, whose TV ads are the company's main source of revenue, choose to return.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2025

Fuji TV returns to spotlight as deadline for scandal probe looms

How Fuji TV responds to the report will be crucial to restoring public trust — and could determine whether sponsors choose to return.

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