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Buildings in the business district in Singapore. The city state hosted regional headquarters for 4,200 multinational firms in 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 22, 2024

Even China’s giants are picking Singapore over Hong Kong

The city state hosted regional headquarters for 4,200 multinational firms in 2023.
French President Emmanuel Macron during an interview on the fringes of the Choose France summit in Versailles, France, on Monday
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2024

Macron puts French banks in play with plan to transform Europe

Macron has been trying to persuade his EU partners to embrace reforms that he says would turn the bloc into a more united and powerful economic force.
The Nomura Securities headquarters in Tokyo. Net income tripled from a year earlier to ¥68.9 billion ($446 million) in the three months ended June 30, the company said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 30, 2024

Nomura profit triples on jump in wealth management and trading

Net income tripled from a year earlier to ¥68.9 billion ($446 million) in the three months ended June 30, the company said.
Commuters take a subway home at Sungsu station in Seoul on July 15.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 6, 2024

Declaring ‘crisis,’ South Korean firms tell managers to work more

In South Korea, the five-day workweek is only a generation old, introduced by labor laws in 2004.
Japanese firms' capital expenditure rose 1.9% in the three months through June from the previous quarter.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2024

Japan’s firms lift outlays in sign of modest domestic demand

Capital expenditure on goods excluding software rose 1.9% in the three months through June from the previous quarter.
Flowers are laid in front of a Japanese school in Shenzhen last Friday. A Japanese boy who was on his way to the school was fatally stabbed last week.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 25, 2024

Expat safety seen as a must for Japanese firms to keep doing business in China

Business leaders have underlined the duty of a host country to foreign firms in the wake of a fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in Shenzhen.
Seven & I Holdings essentially unveiled a plan to split in two.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 11, 2024

Seven & I to split in two to fend off Couche-Tard takeover bid

The big question is if the move will be enough to win over any investors warming to Couche-Tard’s approach.
The success of Seven & I's major restructuring plan depends on the retailer's ability to roll out a new store format in Japan, and improve profit margins overseas, analysts say.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Oct 15, 2024

7-Eleven's turnaround plan requires heavy lifting to stop takeover bid

Much depends on the retailer's ability to roll out a new store format in Japan and improve profit margins overseas.
The headquarters of HSBC in the Canary Wharf financial district in London
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 23, 2024

HSBC revamp by new CEO Elhedery stumps staffers and investors alike

The firm's new CEO just unveiled the biggest overhaul of the company in at least a decade, but it was missing some key details for employees and investors.
Unattended picket signs are piled up outside a Boeing facility in Seattle on Monday, after unionized workers voted to end their strike.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 6, 2024

Boeing CEO in battle to mend rifts after bitter strike ends

The strike exposed divides that run right through the company.
Packages move along a conveyor belt at an Amazon warehouse
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2024

Japan investigating Amazon for allegedly bullying other businesses

Tactics allegedly employed by the retailer involve the squeezing of business partners in exchange for visibility.
The departure of Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger opens the possibility of fresh deal talks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2024

Intel’s CEO departure opens door to new deal discussions

The CEO's departure is also an opportunity for suitors to take another look at acquiring some or all of Intel.
Small businesses in Ino, a town in Kochi Prefecture known for its paper industry, show how a labor shortage is a growing threat to smaller companies that provide seven out of every 10 jobs in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 24, 2024

Small businesses with low wages struggle to tackle labor shortages

A worker shortage is threatening firms that are otherwise robust, including those that have invested in automation and creative hiring.
SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao speaks during a news conference on Thursday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 17, 2025

SBI Holdings CEO to 'fight to the end' if Fuji Media resists leadership rethink

Yoshitaka Kitao said he will increase SBI Holdings’ stake in Fuji Media Holdings depending on how the TV network responds.
Chef and restaurant owner Rikuo Morimoto, who runs the restaurant Andante in Tokyo, on May 1. A 2019 government report estimated that about 1.27 million small business owners would be 70 or older by 2025 and have no successors.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 6, 2023

'Era of mass closures': The Japanese firms with no successors

A 2019 government report estimated that about 1.27 million small business owners would be 70 or older by 2025 and have no successors.
Hiroshi Mikitani, co-chief executive officer of Rakuten Medical, speaks at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's meeting in Yokohama on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2023

Rakuten’s Mikitani spends a fifth of his time on biotech startup

Rakuten Medical, based in San Diego, employs about 200 people and specializes in a therapy that uses light and immunotherapy drugs to fight cancer.
Russian businessman and co-founder of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman (left) attends a conference in Moscow in September 2019.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2023

Sympathy for the oligarch

As private actors sought to navigate the collapse of the Soviet economy, they ended up shaping it into something far more functional and prosperous.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 28, 2023

Sogo & Seibu labor union plans strike over possible sale

If the strike goes ahead on Thursday, it would be the first in Japan’s department store industry in about 60 years.
Load and haul operations at Thungela's thermal coal mining operation, Isibonelo Colliery (formerly Anglo American), in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, in March 2019
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 1, 2023

Coal miners forced to insure themselves amid climate concerns

Dozens of insurers have announced restrictions on their cover for the coal industry, particularly for new projects
A woman walks past surveillance cameras in Shanghai. China’s Ministry of State Security has called for a "whole of society mobilization,” urging the public to watch for what it considers foreign-backed subversion.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2023

Burner laptops and smaller profits: Firms face China challenges

Beijing has doubled down on policies emphasizing security and self-reliance that make it harder to do business.
Disney said its parks, experiences and products segment has expanded at a combined annual growth rate of 6% since fiscal 2017, and generated $32.3 billion in operating income over the last 12 months.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 21, 2023

Disney to nearly double parks spending to $60 billion

Disney CEO Bob Iger and Josh D'Amaro, the company's parks chief, announced the accelerated pace of investment at a gathering of Wall Street analysts.
Shell CEO Wael Sawan attends the China Development Forum 2023 in Beijing on March 25. At an investor day in June, Sawan outlined plans to slow investment in renewables and low-carbon business as part of a strategy to boost returns.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 28, 2023

Shell CEO faces pressure from within over renewables commitment

Employees have issued a rare open letter to Wael Sawan after he outlined plans to slow investment in renewables in a strategy to boost returns.
The Singapore skyline
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 6, 2023

The rich are flocking to Singapore as bankers stick with Hong Kong

From Singapore’s earliest years as an independent state, it has aimed to be one of the key locales through which the world’s money flows.
When COVID-19 first emerged, companies across the health care industry raced to reconfigure themselves. That transformation is now unraveling.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2023

Life after COVID turns rocky for reshaped health care businesses

When the coronavirus first emerged, companies across the health care industry raced to reconfigure themselves. That transformation is now unraveling.
People use smartphones on the street in Tokyo in January 2019.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Nov 20, 2023

The NTT Law — a guard against monopoly, or barrier to innovation?

Some say the law regulating the telecom giant stops it from competing against the likes of Google, but others say it contains vital market protections.
A man walks through the Central Business District on a rainy day, in Beijing.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 28, 2023

West's de-risking starts to bite China's prospects

China is outwardly confident about growth despite a global economic slowdown
Disney CEO Bob Iger
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2023

Disney CEO Bob Iger says company is ready to start building

CEO Bob Iger said the company is poised to begin building its business again, after a year of restructuring.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group CEO Hironori Kamezawa
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 22, 2023

Japan banks scramble to beef up asset management businesses

Asset management has emerged as an area of focus for the banks this year amid signs decades of deflation is ending.
Data center development is time-consuming and complex — requiring a mix of expertise around real estate, technology, local regulations and environmental requirements. Asia’s highly fragmented market makes navigating these factors even more onerous.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 15, 2024

Global investors plow into Asia data centers on AI boom

Asia is becoming the latest hunting ground for investors in data centers, as companies bet on the region’s growing computing and data storage needs.
Nomura Holdings plans a buyback of up to ¥100 billion.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Nomura’s trading overhaul advances as CEO plans buyback

Nomura Holdings plans a buyback of up to ¥100 billion.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami