Search - company

 
 
U.S. rugby player Ilona Maher poses for a portrait during the Team USA media summit ahead of the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, at an event in New York on April 15.
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2024

Athlete influencers compete for likes as well as medals in Paris

In years past, athletes might have needed a manager to negotiate deals with brands. Now, a company will reach out directly to strike a deal.
A nefarious fraudster (Etsushi Toyokawa, left) and his protege (Go Ayano) engineer a multibillion-yen property scam in Netflix’s “Tokyo Swindlers.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 25, 2024

Netflix’s ‘Tokyo Swindlers’ is this summer’s guiltiest pleasure

The flashy new series about real estate scammers is a ridiculous treat to watch.
Devices used in a scam center in Manila that has been shut down by police. Scam centers have mushroomed across Southeast Asia, with crime syndicates luring, kidnapping or coercing workers into predatory online activity and raking in billions of dollars.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 25, 2024

Raid on Philippine gambling hub unravels elaborate scheme implicating mayor

The scandal has fueled calls for a ban on the online gambling industry over its links to financial scams, kidnapping, prostitution, human trafficking, torture and murder.
Railway workers and French police officers inspect the scene of an attack on the country's high-speed railway network on Friday.
WORLD
Jul 28, 2024

More trains, but few answers, after railway sabotage in France

While rail workers are claiming success, a key question still remains: Who did this and why?
Even small and indirect sums from the Government Pension Investment Fund would help startups to get their businesses going.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 29, 2024

Japanese pension funds tiptoe into moonshot tech investments

More sources of funding would help the country’s on-again-off-again quest to monetize pioneering research.
Joining the revolution brought by the era-defining release of ChatGPT requires a supply of cash that only tech behemoths like Microsoft can provide.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 29, 2024

AI startups swap independence for Big Tech's deep pockets

In the past few months promising companies have seen founders and key executives quietly exit the stage to join the world's dominant tech companies.
Shareholder backing for Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda slid to 72% at the company's annual general meeting last month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 29, 2024

Toyota chairman warns he may lose board spot amid falling investor support

Akio Toyoda said he may not be reelected as a director if shareholder support for him continues to fall at the pace it did this year.
Aomori Gov. Soichiro Miyashita holds a news conference Monday over the prefecture's plan on a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2024

Safety deal to be signed for Aomori nuclear fuel storage

A safety agreement is necessary for a spent nuclear fuel interim storage facility to start operations.
The U.S. Capitol building stands past visitors taking photographs at the Washington Monument in Washington in 2017.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 30, 2024

Russia, Iran and China all seek to shape U.S. election, officials say

Some U.S. citizens have been knowingly helping foreign governments shape the election narrative while others have been tricked into helping.
Toyota's global sales declined 4.7% in the first half of this year compared to the same period the year before.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 30, 2024

Toyota first-half sales fell even as hybrids and EVs gained in U.S.

Toyota’s global output — including that of subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors — dropped 9.8% versus the first six months of 2023 to about 5 million units.
As of March 2023, there were 86 medicines that had been approved in Europe or the United States but remained unavailable in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 30, 2024

Japan unveils plan to improve access to foreign drugs

The road map to address what is known as "drug loss" envisions that development of in-demand medicines will start by April 2026.
The U.S. sushi market has grown to almost 1.6 times the size of the market in Japan, according to Sojitz.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2024

Japan's Sojitz buys U.S. sushi business in seafood expansion drive

Sojitz is aiming to boost annual net profit from seafood operations to ¥4 billion ($26 million) in the year to March 2027.
Members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority discusses regulatory screening of the Tsuruga nuclear power plant's No. 2 reactor, in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2024

Japanese nuclear regulators to hear from operator over reactor

The standards do not allow important nuclear facilities such as reactor buildings to be built on active faults.
Seven Eleven officials receives a Guinness World Records' certificate for its product as the most sold freshly made curry bread in volume in 2023 during a ceremony in Saitama Prefecture on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 1, 2024

7-Eleven's curry bread certified by Guinness World Records

The ¥160 bread, fried in store, logged 76,987,667 pieces sold.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida (left) and Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe shake hands prior to a joint news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 2, 2024

Honda-Nissan alliance completes Japan car industry consolidation

The carmakers' cozying up to one another follows Toyota acquiring stakes in Subaru, Suzuki and Mazda.
Kingdom Hearts-inspired action-adventure game Luminous Nights was one of many indie titles that had to fight for attention on an increasingly crowded show floor.
LIFE / Digital / ON: GAMES
Aug 3, 2024

Bigger than ever, BitSummit’s indie spirit wears thin

As the indie game show grows, the question looms as to whether its current trajectory continues to be true to its original spirit.
Taxis wait for fares outside the airport in Wuhan, China. Ride-hailing and taxi drivers are among the first workers globally to face the threat of job loss from artificial intelligence, experts say.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 9, 2024

China's drivers worry as robotaxis pick up pace — and passengers

Automating jobs could benefit China in the long run given a shrinking population, economists said.
Moved by an experience with a local hunter, Shota Sasaki has since focused on elevating the image of game meat in Japan.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Destination Restaurants
Aug 11, 2024

Elezo Esprit: A visceral celebration of Hokkaido’s wild game

Game meat specialist Elezo Esprit has hunters on staff who are directed to ensure the animals they supply arrive at the butchery within an hour of being killed.
Nomura Orient International Securities, Nomura Holdings' Shanghai-based joint venture brokerage, lost 184.5 million yuan ($26 million) in 2023, marking the fourth straight year of losses since its launch.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 9, 2024

Nomura’s former China business head leaves after years of losses

Sun Dongqing joined Shenzhen-based East Asia Qianhai Securities this month, according to registration records.
Protesters for and against affirmative action demonstrate on Capitol Hill in Washington. As the backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has intensified in the U.S., the number of so-called anti-DEI proposals have multiplied.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 12, 2024

For anti-DEI groups swarming annual meetings, even a loss is a win

This year, prominent conservative investors filed 42 anti-DEI proposals, up from just one in 2021.
Aeon has said that it will do its best to achieve the early release of a Japanese employee in Myanmar who was just given a one-year prison term.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 12, 2024

Japanese employee of Aeon given one-year prison term in Myanmar

Hiroshi Kasamatsu had been charged with violating a law on daily necessities and services by selling rice at prices higher than levels set by the military regime.
JPMorgan Asset Management (Japan) President Shoichi Okoshi speaks during an interview in Tokyo in July.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 14, 2024

JPMorgan wants a 30% female exec ratio in Japan

The Japanese affiliate of U.S. financial giant JPMorgan Chase plans to adopt the threshold within several years
Students at the University of British Columbia during the first week of classes in Vancouver, Canada
WORLD / Politics
Aug 14, 2024

Global immigration crackdown ensnares students studying abroad

Aggregate visa data for the first quarter of 2024 showed volumes to the U.K., Canada and Australia down between 20% and 30% from a year earlier.
A train in Nimi, Okayama Prefecture, on West Japan Railway's Geibi Line in September 2023. The line is among those that have seen rail tracks warped by this summer's extreme heat.
JAPAN / Boiling Point
Aug 15, 2024

Japan’s searing summer heat is warping railway tracks more often

West Japan Railway, Kyushu Railway and Shikoku Railway have all been affected.
Major Japanese restaurant chains posted solid earnings for the first half of the year or the quarter ended in June, as price increases boosted per-customer spending.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 15, 2024

Japanese restaurant chains post solid earnings

The chains successfully attracted customers after price increases by actively launching new menus and limited-time products.
Tourists at a water fountain at the Acropolis archaeological site during extreme hot weather conditions in Athens in July 2023.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2024

Extreme weather drives travelers to cooler destinations this summer

Cruise operators, hotel companies and airlines are adding trips and accommodations to meet rising demand for temperate destinations.
The Finance Ministry will apply foreign trade regulations to chipmaking equipment, requiring foreign investors to give prior notice when conducting direct investment in the sector.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2024

Japanese government tightens grip on chip supply-chain network

The move comes as Japan tries to revive its own capacity to produce semiconductors as a pillar of its economic security strategy.
Participants of Shomeikai’s Type B employment support workshop take part in a training session at a rental meeting room in the city of Fukuoka in May.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Aug 26, 2024

Welfare workshop helps people with disabilities become IT engineers

Shomeikai leverages on a cutting-edge software development methodology that lets users work in a team and support one another.
If there is one person who can tell you all about the building that used to be the Bank of Japan's Hiroshima branch, which survived the atomic bombing, it's Yasuhiro Nanba.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Aug 19, 2024

A building that survived the A-bomb, and the man who tells its story

A security guard's fascination with the Bank of Japan's Hiroshima branch led him to compile personal accounts of people who were there when the bomb was dropped.
It is estimated that the cleanup at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant will cost around ¥23 trillion ($157 billion).
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2024

Tepco to demonstrate removal of radioactive debris from Fukushima No. 1

About 880 metric tons of fuel debris remain in the three reactors that suffered a meltdown.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person