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The government has been encouraging people to shift some of the roughly ¥1 quadrillion held in bank accounts to the stock market, but leading candidates to be the next prime minister have avoided investing in stocks.
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2024

LDP presidential candidates avoid investing in Japanese stocks

Two of the top candidates, Shinjiro Koizumi and Sanae Takaichi, report owning no shares.
An Indian national flag flies next to an immigration check post on the India-Myanmar border in Zokhawthar village in the Champhai district of India's northeastern state of Mizoram, in 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 24, 2024

India extends unprecedented invite to Myanmar's anti-junta forces, sources say

The civil war in Myanmar risks destabilizing India's border with the nation, and some of its key infrastructure projects there.
The rice harvest ramped up this month and will ease a supply squeeze, but farmers and Japan’s main grain distributor have agreed to higher contract prices.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2024

Rice inflation to persist despite harvest, as prices rise over 20% on year

Tokyo shoppers were paying 23% more than a year ago for 5 kilogram bags of rice last month, while wholesale prices have risen 28% — the biggest hike since 1975.
Volunteers distribute food bags to people  in Rishon LeZion in central Israel on Aug. 21.
WORLD
Sep 24, 2024

Israeli economy struggles under weight of Gaza war

Mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial judicial reforms had already weakened Israel's economy prior to the Hamas attack on October 7.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian President addresses the "Summit of the Future" in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2024

Iran president warns of 'irreversible' consequences of wider regional war

The European Union's foreign policy chief described the current situation in the Middle East as nearly a full-fledged war.
Bangladeshi army chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman gestures during an interview at his office in Dhaka on Monday. Zaman has outlined a pathway to rid the military of political influence.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 24, 2024

Bangladesh army chief vows support for interim government 'come what may'

Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman pledges to work toward the holding of elections within the next 18 months following the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Masahiko Uotani (third from left), head of Keidanren's diversity promotion committee, hands its proposal on a separate surname system for married couples to members of a lawmaker group focused on realizing such a system, in June.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 24, 2024

Japan's top business lobby group pushes for separate surnames option

In response to Keidanren's push, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party held internal discussions on the issue for the first time in about three years.
Subway operator Tokyo Metro said that its initial public offering was aiming to raise around ¥319.6 billion.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 24, 2024

Larger IPOs set to test dominance of smaller listings in Japan

New listings look to be gaining momentum as the Nikkei 225 Stock Average has rebounded more than 20% from this year’s intraday low on Aug. 5.
Satish Sethi
COMMUNITY / The Big Questions
Sep 24, 2024

Emirates works to fly better, cleaner and smarter

Born in New Delhi, he joined Emirates in 2001 where he developed an international career until becoming Emirates’ country manager for Japan in 2021
A climbing wall at a kindergarten in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture. The sport has been on the rise in Japan, mainly due to the popularity it gained from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping all over the place.
MORE SPORTS / Sport climbing
Sep 24, 2024

People of all ages and sizes scale new heights amid climbing boom in Japan

The sport gained a boost from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and new climbing walls are popping up all over the place.
Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori says the company remains committed to talks with the United Steelworkers (USW) labor union.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024

Nippon Steel's Mori asks USW leadership to 'come to the table'

The deal has faced opposition from high-profile Democrats and Republicans ahead of the U.S. November presidential elections.
Kioxia has scrapped its plan for an initial public offering in October, sources have said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024

Chipmaker Kioxia scraps IPO planned for October after market sell-off

Shares in peers Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology are currently around a third lower than recent highs.
Catherine O’Connell has achieved a number of notable firsts in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024

Pioneering foreign female attorney stresses pragmatism within Japan Inc.

Catherine O’Connell was the first foreign woman to establish a law practice in Tokyo and to sit on the audit and supervisory boards at Toyota Motor and Fujitsu.
Former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai (left) meets with with Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, in Beijing, on Aug. 28.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 24, 2024

Form over substance: The contradictions in Japan-China relations

How Japan and other countries in Beijing’s periphery navigate the many incongruities in bilateral relations offers lessons for the U.S. and other Western nations.
Toyota added ¥200 billion to a ¥1 trillion stock repurchase plan announced in May, according to an exchange filing Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024

Toyota raises buyback to ¥1.2 trillion, citing share levels

The carmaker’s operating profit for the three months ended June 30 was ¥1.31 trillion, 17% higher than a year earlier.
Debris and destruction at the site of an overnight Israeli strike on a neighborhood in the Lebanese city of Baalbeck in the Bekaa valley on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2024

Is all-out war inevitable? The view from Israel and Lebanon

Officials and analysts told reporters what the opposing sides hope to achieve by ramping up their attacks and whether there is any way out.
Brett Favre before a game between the Southern Miss Golden Eagles and the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2018.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Sep 25, 2024

Brett Favre reveals he has Parkinson’s disease

The revelation was a startling admission from a high-profile football player whose more than two-decade career included induction into the Hall of Fame.
A total of 509 patients in Japan had to give up on organ transplant operations last year because hospitals were unable to carry out such procedures, according to a health ministry survey.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 25, 2024

Hospital shortcomings forced 509 patients to abandon organ transplants

A lack of hospital staff and insufficient space in intensive care units needed for such operations were among the reasons.
A view of the RSS Invincible during a commissioning ceremony of the Republic of Singapore Navy’s first and second Invincible-class submarines Invincible and Impeccable, at the Changi Naval Base in Singapore on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 25, 2024

Singapore commissions new submarines as Asia's undersea rivalry grows

The new submarines represent a technological step forward for Singapore's fleet, allowing the nation to operate farther from shore.
Official Kinoko no Yama earphones by Meiji (right) next to a counterfeit product
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 25, 2024

Meiji blocks import of counterfeit Kinoko no Yama earphones

The original mushroom-shaped wireless earphones, a quirky iteration of the famous sweet treat, debuted in March on a limited run and quickly sold out.
A user receives ¥50,000 of their salary through the PayPay app.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2024

SoftBank makes first salary payments via its digital platform PayPay

Employees asking to receive part of their salaries via cashless payment services received the money through the PayPay platform, operated by a SoftBank Group affiliate.
Residential buildings in the Toyosu area in Tokyo, Japan, on Feb. 11, 2023. If rising rates on real estate investment loans are seen as a burden, people may become more cautious about acquiring properties for leasing, experts warn.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2024

Tokyo home prices are seen to largely withstand BOJ rate hikes

The days of making large profits from property in Tokyo may be over
Traders betting on further recovery in Japanese equities are looking to any steer from the Bank of Japan that may cap the yen’s gains and support exporters.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 25, 2024

Japan's corporate service inflation steady, BOJ focusing on Oct data

The BOJ is closely monitoring service-sector inflation to see if demand-driven price increases are broadening enough to warrant further interest rate hikes.
Prices for Umaibo sticks will be raised to ¥15 from current ¥12 starting October.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 25, 2024

Umaibo to puff up prices for the second time in two years

The company said rising costs for raw materials like corn and vegetable oil left it with no choice but to adjust the price.
The Three Mile Island plant made global headlines in 1979 with a partial meltdown at its Unit 2 reactor, the worst nuclear incident in U.S. history.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Sep 25, 2024

U.S. nuclear plants won't power up Big Tech's AI ambitions right away

Plans may be delayed by high regulatory hurdles, potential fuel supply obstacles, and sometimes stiff local and environmental opposition.
A river gauge shows a level of just under 6 meters of the rising Oder River at Ratzdorf, Germany, on Sept. 24.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 25, 2024

Climate change made Europe’s floods worse and more likely, study shows

Global warming is leading to more intense rainfall because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture than a cooler one.
Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a campaign meeting on Sept. 12 in Tokyo in the lead-up to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election scheduled for Friday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 24, 2024

Japan’s next leader will be different — and flawed

While nine LDP lawmakers are contesting the race to become the country’s next leader, the field has narrowed to just three.
Italian former prime minister and economist Mario Draghi (left) and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen take part in a joint news conference about the future of European competitiveness at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Sept. 9.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 25, 2024

Draghi warns Europe — and Japan — about the failure to innovate

The warning could not be clearer. Europe faces “an existential crisis.” “Over time, we will inexorably become less prosperous, less equal, less secure and, as a result, less free to choose our destiny.” Moreover, “without action, we will have to either compromise our welfare, our environment...
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Aug. 28. The visit was part of efforts aimed at resetting British relations with the European Union, especially on defense and trade.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2024

Yes, let’s reverse Brexit (a bit) for Gen Z

Youth mobility isn’t just for privileged graduates seeking experience, CV points or language skills; it can also help fill labor shortages in the U.K.
Naomi Osaka during her second-round match at the U.S. Open last month
TENNIS
Sep 25, 2024

Patrick Mouratoglou courtside as Osaka wins Beijing opener

Osaka said earlier this month she was splitting with coach Wim Fissette and there has been speculation she had hired Serena Williams' former coach.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight