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Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Jan 17, 2023

Airlines face hurdles to cashing in on China reopening

U.S. and European airlines will benefit from demand for travel to China, but route approvals, fresh COVID-19 testing rules and not enough large aircraft remain barriers to rising sales.
Several Europe-based carmakers have withdrawn or cut guidance in response to the trade war, including Jeep-owner Stellantis, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz Group.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 5, 2025

European firms fare better than expected through early trade pain

Companies on the MSCI Europe index are averaging earnings growth of 3.8% so far, outpacing preseason estimates of a 1.4% decline.
The Nike House of Innovation store on Fifth Avenue in New York. CEO Elliott Hill, who came out of retirement to take the top job in October, said that Nike is resetting its priorities.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 6, 2025

Nike president O’Neill out in latest shake-up under new CEO

CEO Elliott Hill said the sportswear company is resetting its priorities.
Data center servers and components containing the newest artificial intelligence chips from Nvidia are seen on display at the company's GTC software developer conference in San Jose, California, on March 19.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2025

U.S. lawmaker targets smuggling of Nvidia chips to China with new bill

Rep. Bill Foster said the technology to track chips after they are sold is readily available, with much of it already built into Nvidia's chips.
SMBC Nikko Securities hired former Nomura Holdings senior executive Susumu Usui as co-head of equity and ex-Citigroup’s Keita Matsumoto as head of financial markets.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 7, 2025

SMBC Nikko hires former Nomura and Citi top executives in rebuild

The firm is seeking to strengthen its business following the rigging scandal more than two years ago, which led to the loss of several equity executives.
A semiconductor wafer is magnified through the lens of a microscope in Seoul on April 30. A rule introduced by former U.S. President Joe Biden to restrict the export of sophisticated chips has been described as "unenforceable."
BUSINESS / Tech
May 8, 2025

Trump administration to rescind and replace Biden's AI chip export curbs

A spokeswoman for the Department of Commerce said the rule is "overly complex" and "unenforceable."
Deceptive contractors prey on elderly homeowners and pressure them into signing contracts by making claims such as, "If you leave it unchanged, your house will tilt."
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
May 8, 2025

Japan struggles to crack down on home renovation scams

A senior police official said the rise in fraudulent renovation work is largely due to a legal loophole over small-scale construction work.
Tokyo-based satellite maker Axelspace's initial public offering is expected to be approved by the Tokyo Stock Exchange later this month, people with knowledge of the matter said.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 8, 2025

Axelspace is latest Japan space startup to seek IPO, sources say

If successful, it would be the fifth such listing of a Japanese spacecraft venture over the last two years.
A supermarket in Chiba. Politicians in Japan might cut the consumption tax to help households and the economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 8, 2025

Economists debate consumption tax cut as Japanese politicians warm to idea

Japanese politicians are considering the possibility of lowering the consumption tax to stimulate the economy in the face of U.S. tariffs.
Two teenagers stand in front of a poster for "Jumbo" at a cinema in Bekasi, West Java.
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2025

'Jumbo': the animated Indonesian film smashing records

A hit at home, Indonesian cinema watchers are hoping the family-friendly movie will appeal to neighboring countries and markets farther abroad.
According to earnings reports released by Thursday, net profit is forecast to fall 47.7% to ¥250 billion at Nippon Yusen K.K., 60% to ¥170 billion at Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and 67.3% to ¥100 billion at Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2025

Three major Japan shipping firms expect sharp falls in profit

The companies are projecting a drop in the transport of autos and other goods due to U.S. tariff measures.
A Nissan plug-in hybrid truck at the Shanghai Auto Show last month. Nissan is looking to invest in its China operations and use the nation’s intensely competitive market to accelerate its development of electric vehicles.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 9, 2025

Nissan drops plan for Fukuoka battery plant to focus on recovery

The carmaker has abandoned plans to build a battery plant in Fukuoka Prefecture to focus on rescuing itself from a deepening financial crisis.
Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
May 9, 2025

China can play hardball at looming trade talks with U.S., analysts say

After weeks of tit-for-tat escalation that sent global markets into a tailspin, the two powers will meet this weekend for a chance to break the ice.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (second right) and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer (left) meet with Japan’s economic revitalization minister, Ryosei Akazawa, in Washington on May 1. In an attempt to ease trade tensions, Bessent and Greer will meet with a Chinese team in Switzerland from Saturday. 
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2025

A moment of hope for U.S-China trade frictions

The U.S. and China will meet in Switzerland to discuss trade tensions, but deep mistrust and structural issues are hurdles they will have to overcome to make progress.
U.S. President Donald Trump makes a trade announcement as U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick (second from left), U.S. Vice President JD Vance (third from left), British Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson (third from right),  U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer (second from right) and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins (right) look on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
May 10, 2025

Trump’s first trade pact offers faint glimpse of art of the deal

For global leaders puzzling over how to negotiate with Donald Trump, the U.S. president’s inaugural pact with the U.K. offers a few clues on how much ground he’s prepared to give.
A sign for battery manufacturer CATL is seen at the Auto China 2024 exhibition in Beijing on April 25, 2024.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 12, 2025

CATL starts taking investor orders for world’s biggest listing this year

The Chinese electric vehicle battery giant is seeking to raise as much as HK$41 billion ($5.3 billion).
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa in Tokyo as the company releases its results
BUSINESS / Companies
May 13, 2025

Nissan gets ‘wake-up call’ with $4.5 billion annual net loss

The company plans more than 10,000 job cuts globally in addition to the 9,000 cuts announced previously.
Solar Park Kasso ApS's e-methanol production plant, located on the outskirts of Aabenraa in Denmark, on Monday
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2025

Mitsui starts mass production of e-methanol with Danish firm

The amount of CO2 emitted from e-methanol production is up to 97% less than that from methanol produced using fossil fuels.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) watches as U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday.
WORLD
May 14, 2025

Trump meets Syrian president and urges him to establish ties with Israel

Trump urged Ahmad al-Sharaa to join the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020.
Calling themselves "Cheer Re-Man's" — a mash-up of "cheerleading" and "salaryman" — the group is made up of alumni from the elite Waseda University's male cheerleading squad.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025

Japanese 'salarymen' inspire with cheerleading acrobatics

The young men are all about spreading cheer through their eye-popping acrobatic performances, volunteering their weekends to entertain crowds.
Scott Callon, CEO of Japan Display Inc, will step down on June 1 to take responsibility for the company's poor performance.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2025

Japan Display to cut 1,500 jobs in Japan on consecutive years of losses

The struggling maker of small and midsize liquid crystal display panels reported a consolidated net loss of ¥78.2 billion ($538.7 million) for fiscal 2024.
In part due to low awareness that placing bets using overseas sports gambling sites is illegal, access to such platforms in Japan has surged in recent years.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 15, 2025

Illegal wagers on overseas sports betting sites top ¥6.4 trillion, study finds

The findings, reported by a sports organization, comes after two baseball players were sent to prosecutors earlier this month for allegedly placing bets from Japan.
Net income is likely to reach ¥2 trillion ($13.7 billion) for the 12 months ending March, up 7.5% from ¥1.86 trillion in the previous fiscal year, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group said on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 15, 2025

MUFG expects record profit and joins rivals in buying back shares

Net income is likely to reach ¥2 trillion for the 12 months ending March, up 7.5% from ¥1.86 trillion in the previous fiscal year.
Wholesalers added ¥7,593 on average to their selling prices for stockpiled rice, far more than the ¥2,206 to ¥4,689 added for the 2022 rice.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2025

Wholesalers may be behind elevated retail rice prices

Larger gaps between wholesalers' procurement and selling prices, which represent their costs and profits, may be a factor, a government survey has suggested.
Public opinion polls published over the weekend show that support for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet is weakening.
JAPAN / Politics
May 19, 2025

Ishiba’s support falls, but likely no ouster before July election

Polls published over the weekend showed support for Ishiba’s Cabinet ranging from 22% to 31%.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on March 13, and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 13.
WORLD / Politics
May 20, 2025

Trump hands Putin a win with retreat from Ukraine peace talks

After months of failing to move Putin closer to peace, Europe fears Trump is pulling the plug on his efforts to end the war, leaving Ukraine and its allies on their own.
For Nintendo, it’s been a challenge making sure it can produce enough Switch 2 gaming devices to meet demand.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 20, 2025

Nintendo turns to Samsung to make chips for Switch 2

The Kyoto-based company is pivoting to Samsung because the Nvidia-based chipset that the Switch 2 employs was optimized for the Korean company’s manufacturing systems.
The Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested Masaki Natori, 45, president of an auto accessory sales company in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward, on suspicion of violating the unfair competition prevention law.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 20, 2025

Kanagawa man arrested for selling mopeds as battery bicycles in Tokyo

The man is suspected of selling some 1,000 mopeds between March 2022 and May this year by falsely labeling them as battery-assisted bicycles.
China’s Made in China 2025 program set an ambitious agenda, and a decade later, initial assessments conclude it had mixed success but maintain its goals will shape Chinese policy for years to come.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2025

Ten years of Made in China 2025 sees mixed success

MIC2025 set an ambitious agenda, and a decade later, early reviews say it has had mixed success but maintain that its goals will shape Chinese policy for years to come.

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