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American autoworkers assemble Honda Accords at the Japanese company's Marysville Auto Plant in the state of Ohio in December 2017.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 1, 2025

Ford is as American as apple pie. Or is that Honda?

Trump's 25% auto tariffs will raise car prices, complicate manufacturing and prioritize outdated protectionism over industry trends like electrification and software.
Nintendo’s Switch 2 presentation amazed with unexpected game reveals, impressive hardware upgrades and a surprising price announcement, but its two-tier pricing strategy and higher cost left fans both excited and confused.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2025

Nintendo's Switch 2 reveal had a big surprise: The price

An hourlong presentation finally lifted the lid on the Switch 2, which will go on sale June 5 for $450 — though less if you speak Japanese.
Soybeans are harvested near Stuttgart, Arkansas in October 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 6, 2025

'Anxious' U.S. farmers see tariffs as threatening earnings

U.S. farmers hoping for a profit this year instead find themselves facing lower crop prices — and the prospect of ceding more ground in foreign markets.
To sustain growth, emerging and developing economies must boost productivity, increase labor-force participation (especially among women) and build stronger social support systems.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2025

Emerging economies must get rich before they get old

To sustain growth, emerging economies must boost productivity, increase labor-force participation — especially among women — and build stronger social support systems.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking plans to start structuring products such as asset-backed securities, hoping to capitalize on the growing market and strong prospects for infrastructure investments in Brazil.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2025

Japan’s SMBC to expand in Brazil’s local bond capital markets

The Japanese bank plans to start structuring products such as asset-backed securities, hoping to capitalize on the growing market for infrastructure investments in Brazil.
A chemical plant in Mie Prefecture. The number of business failures linked to soaring labor costs and labor shortages increased 1.6 times to 309, the highest since fiscal 2013.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2025

Japan bankruptcies in fiscal 2024 hit 11-year high

The result reflected a surge in the number of bankruptcies due to labor shortages, particularly among small and midsize companies, and rising prices.
Hedge funds are trying to hire more in Japan, as traders look to power markets in the country with more green energy and uncertainties surrounding nuclear plant restarts.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 9, 2025

Hedge funds eye volatile Asia power markets with new hires

They are pushing into the region with the aim of offsetting declining profits from mainstay commodities.
The U.S. Justice Department is disbanding its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, a memo has shown.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 9, 2025

U.S. Justice Department disbands crypto enforcement team

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. government has been reversing course on crypto.
The Kanagawa branch of the transportation company Maruhari in the city of Atsugi, Hokkaido in May 2024
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 9, 2025

Ex-company president referred to prosecutors over 2024 truck accident

The former president is suspected of forcing an ill driver to drive the truck involved in the accident on the Metropolitan Expressway's Ikebukuro Line.
A large statue of Osaka Expo mascot Myaku Myaku sits near the east entrance of the event's venue in Yumeshima island, Osaka, on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2025

After a tumultuous buildup, a first look at the Osaka Expo

Members of the media and other invited guests got a glimpse of the event's shiny pavilions spread over 155 hectares, and the signature Grand Ring overlooking them.
Guests play the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 console at an event in Paris on April 2.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 10, 2025

Nintendo gets breathing room on tariffs — just in time for Switch 2 launch

Nintendo dodges a 46% tariff on Vietnam-assembled consoles, buying time to flood the U.S. with Switch 2 units before the launch window closes.
Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Apr 11, 2025

Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.

On a man-made island in Osaka Bay, Japan stages a grand vision of the future — and a quiet test of relevance.
Berkshire Hathaway concluded a ¥90 billion ($628 million) bond deal on Friday, the smallest yen deal by investor Warren Buffett’s firm since it started tapping the Japanese market in 2019.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2025

Berkshire sells $628 million in yen bonds in smallest Japan deal

The move came despite sharp market volatility prompting several Japanese companies to cancel sales.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba gives instructions to Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa (third from left) and others at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 11, 2025

Japan braces for talks on yen and BOJ in trade negotiations with U.S.

Ryosei Akazawa, who is heading the task force, is reportedly set to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent next week.
A man recycles electronic waste from computer power supplies at a scrap yard in Ahmedabad, India
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2025

From Daikin to Samsung, companies fight Modi over e-waste policy

India wants to tackle its mounting e-waste problem. Global electronics companies say the cost is too high.
The flags of participating countries are displayed near the entrance during a media preview day for the 2025 Osaka Expo on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 11, 2025

Japan’s second city is hosting a $66 billion coming-out party

First held in London in 1851, world expos have been promoted as venues to bring nations together and foster global coordination.
A pedestrian walks past an electronic board showing the morning numbers on the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in the Japanese capital on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 13, 2025

Punch drunk traders across Asia ready for another week of drama

Even though investors were fearful of events last weekend, the reaction in markets was more extreme than many countenanced.
An actor portrays a "pocong," a ghost widely known in Indonesia, at a horror entertainment venue at a mall in Jakarta. The pocong is just one of the monsters that features in massively popular Indonesian horror movies.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 15, 2025

Indonesia's horror movie industry rises from the grave

Five of the top 10 films from 2024 were categorized as horror movies, a statistic that underscores just how popular the genre is.
Toyota and Lexus cars and sport utility vehicles unloaded from car carrier ships to the Toyota Logistics Services automotive processing terminal at the Port of Long Beach in Long Beach, California, on Thursday
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 15, 2025

Trump floats temporary reprieve for autos as parts tariffs loom

The president said he is exploring exemptions to his tariffs on imported vehicles and parts to give auto companies more time to set up manufacturing in the U.S.
The U.S. Commerce Department has begun investigating how semiconductors and pharmaceuticals impact national security.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 15, 2025

Trump initiates chips and drug probes, ahead of more tariffs

The moves, announced Monday in the Federal Register, are a precursor to imposing tariffs and threaten to broaden the president’s sweeping U.S. trade war.
Nomura Orient International Securities has trimmed staffing by about two-thirds in its China wealth business over the past two years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2025

Nomura scaling back China wealth unit, shifting focus to brokerage and assets

Japan's biggest brokerage is currently seeking a new CEO for the securities business on the mainland.
A Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) logo is displayed on a wall in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Tuesday. A recent rout saw TSMC’s forward price-to-earnings ratio hit a two-year low at one point.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 16, 2025

TSMC and ASML outlooks to reveal depth of tariff pain and AI angst

Both have borne the brunt of a broader market selloff, weighed down by both U.S. tariff threats and doubts over future AI demand.
The start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah on March 9 last year.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Apr 16, 2025

Team ownership could be next F1 step for Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia first hosted Formula One in 2021, while energy giant Aramco is a global partner of the sport and also the title sponsor of the Aston Martin team.
Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard speaks during a news conference in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, in December 2023.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2025

Renault chairman will leave Nissan’s board, sources say

The French company remains Nissan’s largest shareholder even as the carmakers gradually loosen their decades-long alliance.
Arata Hirano, owner of the restaurant Shokudou Arata, pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2025

More Japanese embracing foreign rice, even before it became a tariff topic

A change in mindset could allow Tokyo leeway to relax restrictions if rice becomes a thorny topic in tariff talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The crude oil tanker New Odyssey arrives at the port in Qingdao, in China's eastern Shandong province on April 15. The U.S. has issued new sanctions targeting Iran's oil exports, including against a China-based independent oil refinery.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2025

U.S. issues new sanctions targeting Chinese importers of Iranian oil

The move comes as Washington seeks to ramp up pressure on Iran as it reentered talks with Tehran over its nuclear program this month.
Shares of Eli Lilly & Co. surged on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday after early reports of its experimental weight-loss drug put in a par with market leader Ozempic. The stocks of the drug’s originator, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., also saw an uptick.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 18, 2025

Weight-loss pill orforglipron shines in study, boosting Lilly and Chugai

Eli Lilly’s orforglipron pill, licensed from Chugai Pharmaceutical, could reshape the booming weight-loss drug market, early data shows.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani speaks to reporters in Tokyo on April 11.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 18, 2025

Japan defense chief says 'no reason' to change current U.S. troop deal

Gen Nakatani said that spending “is appropriately shared between the Japanese and U.S. governments based on mutual agreement, with a set time frame.”
Japanese Ambassador to India Keiichi Ono (right) and others during the "Miss Sake India" event in New Delhi.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2025

'Miss Sake India' contest held in New Delhi to promote the Japanese drink

The winner, Aakansha, who works in the marketing industry, said she was very excited to be chosen for the one-year role of promoting sake.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top tariff negotiator with the U.S., speaks to reporters upon his arrival at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Friday, a day after talks in Washington.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 19, 2025

Japan tariff negotiator rules out quick U.S. deal despite push by Trump

Ryosei Akazawa said that while the U.S. president wants to speed up negotiations, any agreement would likely take some time.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb