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Former Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa says women should collaborate with one another more to boost growth and creativity.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2025

Osaka Expo to highlight women's empowerment

The Women's Pavilion, which French luxury brand Cartier and the Cabinet Office will operate, will showcase female social advancement in Japan.
Katsunori Tanaka, an ex-Goldman Sachs analyst who now heads hedge fund Ariake Capital, is betting big on Japan's smaller regional banks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2025

Ex-Goldman analyst’s hedge fund reaps 300% returns on small Japan banks

Katsunori Tanaka spent years at Goldman Sachs scrutinizing Japan’s biggest banks. Now at Ariake Capital, he obsesses over much smaller regional lenders.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, an adviser to Tomin First no Kai, will suffer if the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and Tomin First fail to maintain their combined majority in the Tokyo assembly election in June.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 25, 2025

LDP faces headwinds in Tokyo assembly election

Political funds scandals affecting the party at both the national level and in the assembly could cost it votes.
Masamichi Koike, head of global markets business at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, says the Bank of Japan is likely to increase the policy rate to 1% this year as long as the U.S. economy doesn’t falter.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2025

Sumitomo Mitsui markets head sees BOJ rate at 30-year high

The Bank of Japan is likely to increase the policy rate to 1% this year from the current 0.5% as long as the U.S. economy doesn’t falter, said Masamichi Koike.
Yields on Japan's 10-year government bonds have risen at a fast pace since the Bank of Japan ended its negative-rate policy last year and started to tighten.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 25, 2025

Japan bond rout signals era of ultralow rates might really be over  

For the first time in 16 years, yields on Japanese 10-year government bonds have jumped 50 basis points since November to above 1.5%.
Supporters of the impeached South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, protesting in Seoul on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2025

South Korea’s political drama is far from over

The potential for violence in the days ahead is still great. Still, that shouldn’t take away from the urgent and necessary reform of the political system.
The BYD logo is displayed at the Beijing Auto Show on April 25, 2024. The Chinese battery and carmaker saw a surge in revenue last year, a stock filing showed on Monday, surpassing the $100 billion mark and beating rival Tesla as the Shenzhen-based firm accelerates its overseas expansion.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 25, 2025

BYD sales top Tesla as tech focus wins over Chinese drivers

BYD has risen quickly to the top of China’s car market — the world’s biggest and most competitive for electric vehicles.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi during a news conference on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 25, 2025

Ishiba plans price measures through existing budgets

While no new spending appears to be planned, Ishiba’s comments on the price measures likely had the upcoming summer general election in mind.
Futures markets for computing power, driven by increasing demand from AI and other sectors, could help stabilize price volatility and create new investment opportunities, similar to how oil futures manage fluctuations in the energy market.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2025

Computing power is going the way of oil in markets

One of the purposes of futures markets is to draw financial investors into the production process of commodities.
The "Infinite Paradise" main lantern takes center stage at the 2025 Taiwan Lantern Festival, held in the city of Taoyuan between Feb. 12 and 23.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2025

Lantern festival lights up skies in Taiwan with Japanese flair

Japanese municipalities added sparkle to the celebration in Taoyuan, with decorations featuring local mascots and icons.
Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has uncovered a network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm that has been trying to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government workers.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 26, 2025

Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired federal workers in U.S.

Max Lesser, a researcher who uncovered the network, said the campaign follows "well-established" techniques used by previous Chinese intelligence operations.
Racing Bulls' Yuki Tsunoda in action during the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Mar 26, 2025

Red Bull set to swap Lawson for Tsunoda: reports

Lawson was promoted from Racing Bulls to replace Sergio Perez this season but has struggled in his first two race weekends.
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.
Ispace's Resilience lunar lander at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Tsukuba Space Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, in September
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 26, 2025

Japanese startups driving space development

Not only large companies but also emerging businesses are hurrying to conduct lunar exploration and commercialize transportation services using rockets.
While mobile games such as Pokemon Go are at the core of Scopely’s business, the company is developing or considering acquiring PC and console titles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 26, 2025

Behind the $3.5 billion Pokemon deal lies a consolidation strategy

While mobile games such as Pokemon Go are at the core of Scopely’s business, the company is looking into PC and console titles.
The Immigration Services Agency in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025

Imabari Shipbuilding loses technical intern certification

The firm will be unable to accept foreign trainees for the next five years.
An advertisement featuring Shohei Ohtani in Tokyo.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 26, 2025

Tokyo Series proves to be big business for MLB — and Japanese companies

The weeklong festival of all things baseball highlights how Shohei Ohtani has created myriad business opportunities on both sides of the Pacific.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (bottom center) and other Trump administration officials mishandled security by discussing a military strike on a commercially available messaging app, exposing vulnerabilities and raising questions about poor judgment.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2025

U.S. allies get a Signal chat’s worth of red flags

In the short term, that may have few real consequences. Although insulting, the administration’s assessment of Europe’s weak military capabilities is correct.
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 26, 2025

Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change

A study by European researchers has concluded that the role of human-driven climate change in contributing to the wildfires was undeniable.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are framed as a way to generate revenue and bring and return businesses to America. However, retaliation from trading partners will weaken any potential gains.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2025

Making sense of the tariff chaos

Many Americans probably find this rationale compelling. After all, what’s wrong with putting national interests first?
European Union nations and Japan fret about a world without the U.S. security umbrella. They could ease their fears by moving closer together.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2025

Japan-Europe: The security alliance the world needs now

Even before Trump’s return, Europe and Japan both rapidly needed to shift from their peacetime posture to one preparing for war.
The Gateway Park at Takanawa Gateway City on Tuesday
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2025

JR's 'futuristic' Takanawa Gateway complex set to open in Tokyo

Takanawa Gateway City is a long-planned redevelopment project from JR East that integrates residential, commercial and cultural facilities.
Students in South Korea sit the annual College Scholastic Ability Test. There is huge pressure on this exam, which determines young people's university choices and, in turn, their job and even marital prospects, leading to a heavy mental health burden.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2025

Entrance exam wars: A pressure cooker for South Korean youth

South Korea comes to a standstill on the day of the national university entrance exam. But so does students' possibility to determine their future paths beyond a mere test score.
Women and babies at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to al-Fashir in North Darfur, Sudan, in January 2024
WORLD / Society
Mar 26, 2025

Sudan's RSF squeezing relief supplies as famine spreads, aid workers say

The move puts hundreds of thousands of people in the western region of Darfur at greater risk of starvation.
At No. 4, three-Michelin-starred Sezanne took home the title of best restaurant in Japan in this year's Asia's 50 Best Restaurants rankings.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 26, 2025

11 in Japan win Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant honors, but Gaggan is tops

The modern French cuisine of Sezanne was good enough for best in Japan and No. 4 in all of Asia.
Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip protest against Hamas and call for an end to the war with Israel on Wednesday.
WORLD
Mar 27, 2025

Hundreds stage Gaza protest against Hamas after conflict resumes

"It was a spontaneous rally against the war because people are tired and they have no place to go," said one witness.
Iwao Hakamata, a wrongfully convicted death-row inmate who was acquitted last year through a retrial, and his sister Hideko after a news conference in Tokyo in November 2019. Hakamata won compensation from Japan this week.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Mar 27, 2025

Ex-judge fights Japan's 'unopenable door' retrial system

Hiroaki Murayama wants Japan's outdated retrial system to be fixed so that there will "be no more (Iwao) Hakamatas."
Sixteen-year-old Jun’s (Katsuya Kobayashi) life spirals downward after his refusal to stand and sing the national anthem is misconstrued as a political statement in “Boy.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 27, 2025

‘Boy’: An ambitious portrait of alienated youth

Director Yuji Dan brings a decades-old project to a close with his portrayal of a young man coming of age amid turmoil in the late 1990s.
Masuo Fukuda, head of Citigroup’s investment banking business in Tokyo, says the hiring in Tokyo started in December targeting various levels of bankers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2025

Citigroup hiring dealmakers in Japan with fee pool seen reviving

The Wall Street firm is expanding its investment banking team in Japan as it bets the country’s deal fee pool will finally rebound.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervises the test of suicide drones with artificial intelligence technology, according to local media, at an unknown location in this photo released on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 27, 2025

North Korea's Kim supervises test of AI suicide drones

Kim said unmanned control and AI capability must be the top priorities in modern arms development, state media reported.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years