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The average fee to send $200 from Japan is the highest among G7 countries at 6.94%, according to World Bank data for the first quarter of 2024.
BUSINESS
Oct 17, 2024

Wise becomes first foreign firm to gain direct access to Japan's payment clearing network

The move could put pressure on banks including megabanks and smaller players in the competitive market for remittances.
At least 10 firms have temporarily suspended some business activities with Nomura because of its market manipulation scandal.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2024

Big clients halt trades with Nomura over market manipulation scandal

At least 10 firms have temporarily suspended some business activities with Japan's biggest brokerage because of the breach.
Prosecutors and child safety advocates say generative AI systems can allow offenders to morph and sexualize ordinary photos of children.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 20, 2024

U.S. prosecutors see rising threat of AI-generated child sex abuse imagery

Cases involving AI-generated sex abuse imagery are likely to tread new legal ground, particularly when an identifiable child is not depicted.
The ASML headquarters in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on Thursday. Semiconductor equipment makers such as ASML have unusually long-range views of how their customers are feeling, and at the moment, they’re flashing a caution signal for everything other than artificial intelligence.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 21, 2024

ASML shows chasm in chip land: AI winners versus everyone else

The semiconductor equipment makers’ results sparked worries about the health of the chip industry, which is being hurt by weakness in non-AI businesses.
Waight Keller, who designed Meghan Markle’s wedding dress, finds a different kind of luxury at a mass market brand.
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 22, 2024

A designer moves easily from royal gowns to Uniqlo

Clare Waight Keller, who designed Meghan Markle’s wedding dress, finds a different kind of luxury at a mass market brand.
Equinor's bid underscores the focus some wind players are putting on Japan even as they scale back elsewhere.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 22, 2024

Norway's Equinor tries again for a Japan offshore wind lease, sources say

A latecomer to offshore wind, Japan wants to build up to 45 gigawatts of capacity by 2040, which would make it a top-five offshore wind market.
JR Central is believed to have been involved in a bid-rigging case as a coordinator.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 22, 2024

JFTC inspects JR Central and others for suspected bid-rigging

They are suspected of conspiring to decide in advance which company would win contracts for land bridge inspection work on 10 of JR Central's lines.
Abercrombie & Fitch chairman and CEO Mike Jeffries addresses stockholders during the company's annual meeting at the company's headquarters in New Albany, Ohio, on May 22, 2003.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 23, 2024

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries charged with sex trafficking

If convicted, Jeffries faces a possible life sentence and mandatory minimum 15-year prison terms for the sex trafficking charges.
A monitor shows Tokyo Metro's opening price on Wednesday morning in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 23, 2024

Tokyo Metro shares surge in trading debut after strong IPO

Proceeds from the IPO will redeem reconstruction bonds issued after the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan that killed 18,000 people.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange. Rigaku Holdings' shares fell on debut, even after the results of its offering suggested that investors still have an appetite for big Japanese stock deals in a busy primary market.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 25, 2024

Rigaku shares fall 10% in market debut after IPO priced at the top

Rigaku shares closed at ¥1,130 after the initial public offering had been priced at the top end of a ¥1,230 to ¥1,260 indicative range.
Along with official videos from parties and candidates, individually produced videos are on the rise on YouTube and other platforms.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 25, 2024

Short social media videos gain traction in Japan's election campaign

Both official campaign and user-generated videos are on the rise, with experts warning that the latter may present misleading or out-of-context information.
Watami CEO Miki Watanabe (right) during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 25, 2024

Izakaya chain buys Subway Japan in challenge to McDonald’s

The Subway franchise has historically struggled to gain footing in the Japanese market, with just 178 locations compared to nearly 3,000 for McDonald’s.
Suspect Shiho Hosoya enters the Asakusa Police Station in Tokyo on Friday. The handcuffs and waist ties are blurred for privacy reasons.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 25, 2024

Tokyo police rearrest couple suspected of multiple murders of family members

Investigators are looking at inheritance as the primary motive behind the string of murders.
The Washington Post newspaper's headquarters is seen on K Street in Washington in May 2019.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 26, 2024

Washington Post to no longer endorse presidential candidates

The change is significant for the Post, which uncovered the Watergate scandal and has a long history of standing up to those in power.
Former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance talk at the 9/11 Memorial in New York on Sept. 11.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 26, 2024

Chinese hackers said to have targeted phones used by Trump and Vance

The targeting of the Republican presidential ticket’s phones is part of what appears to be an effort to gather information about American leaders.
Singapore's Marina Bay Sands at dusk on Sept. 17
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 28, 2024

AI boom and wild weather take spotlight in Southeast Asian earnings

Stronger currencies, driven in part by the Federal Reserve’s pivot to interest-rate cuts, also buoyed stocks.
A digital camera found near the tip of the Shiretoko Peninsula in August was identified as belonging to Yu Nudeshima, a passenger of the Kazu I tour boat that sank on April 23, 2022, with 26 people on board.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 28, 2024

Passenger's photos from Hokkaido boat accident retrieved 2½ years on

The images offer a glimpse of April 23, 2022 — the day the Kazu I tour boat sank off Hokkaido's Shiretoko Peninsula with 26 people on board.
The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra on stage during its launch in Beijing on Tuesday. The Chinese tech company made its foray into the EV industry earlier this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 30, 2024

Xiaomi launches faster version of flagship EV in a challenge to Tesla

Xiaomi entered China's crowded EV market in March with the launch of its hit SU7.
The number of female directors among firms in the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s prime market will need to more than double in the next six years to meet the government target of having women make up 30% of board members at major firms by 2030.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 31, 2024

Rush for female directors stumbles on weak pipeline in Japan

With almost no women rising to become internal directors, companies will have no choice but to recruit them from outside.
Appi Geothermal Energy's power plant in Hachimantai, Iwate Prefecture, began commercial operations in March.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Oct 31, 2024

Geothermal power slowly gains steam in Japan

Development of the energy source has long stalled, partly because they tend to lie beneath national parks, which are protected for wildlife conservation.
A local resident watches Ukrainian rescuers clear debris on the site of a Russian missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

U.S. sanctions entities in India, China and Turkey over Russia war supplies

The U.S. and its allies have piled thousands of sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, yet Russia’s GDP is projected to grow 3.5% to 4% in 2024.
A device (top right) for grasping debris inside the containment vessel of the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 plant on Wednesday
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2024

Nuclear fuel debris retrieved at Tepco Fukushima plant

If successful, it will be the first time for nuclear fuel debris to be removed from any of the three reactors at the power plant.
A woman mounts a flag to a stack of cinderblocks in the aftermath of flooding from Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Oct. 6.
WORLD / Society
Oct 31, 2024

Misinformation is turning American disasters into toxic battlegrounds

Deep political polarization, weakened trust in institutions and a lack of content moderation on social media allow false claims to flourish.
FamilyMart has introduced discount stickers with teary-eyed characters and the plea "Please help me" on near-expiration rice balls, sandwiches and bento boxes.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 31, 2024

FamilyMart trials sobbing discount stickers to help prevent food waste

The convenience store chain hopes the stickers will tug on customers’ heartstrings and encourage them to purchase items nearing their expiration dates.
Tsunehisa Katsumata was known for his quick decision-making, which earned him the nickname “Razor Katsumata.”
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2024

Former Tepco chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata dies at 84

Katsumata was the company's point man after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant went into meltdown in the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
The close for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Asia’s second-biggest equities market, will be moved back to 3:30 p.m. from Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 1, 2024

High-frequency traders get an extra 30 minutes for Japan stocks

The extra half-hour is raising concerns among market participants who fear the shift will give rise to machine-driven price moves.
In a June paper, six Chinese researchers from three institutions, including two under the People's Liberation Army's leading research body, the Academy of Military Science (AMS), detailed how they had used an early version of Meta's Llama as a base for what it calls "ChatBIT."
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 2, 2024

China researchers develop AI model for military use on back of Meta's Llama

The evidence was believed to be the first showing that Chinese military experts have been systematically trying to leverage the power of open-source LLMs.
Chinese solar panel manufacturer Trina Solar's facility in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam, on Aug. 30
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 4, 2024

Chinese solar firms, ever-nimble, go where U.S. tariffs don't reach

Chinese solar firms have repeatedly sidestepped tariffs to dominate the global markets despite U.S. efforts over more than a decade to rein them in.
Players gather for a baseball game at an unearthed and restored baseball field that had not seen a competition in 75 years, at the site of a Japanese internment camp in Manzanar, California, on Oct. 28.
JAPAN / History
Nov 4, 2024

In an internment camp, all they had was baseball. They’re back to play.

Before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, baseball was a source of connection between Japan and the United States.
Quincy Jones attends a reception in his honor at the Residence de France in Los Angeles on April 25, 2017.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 4, 2024

Quincy Jones, renaissance man of American music, dies at 91

Jones died at his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family, according to a statement from his publicist.

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