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Prolonged factory deflation is threatening the survival of smaller Chinese exporters, who are locked in relentless price wars for shrinking business as higher interest rates abroad and rising trade protectionism squeeze demand.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Feb 5, 2024

China's small exporters threatened amid price wars and low demand

Producer prices have been falling for 15 straight months, crushing profit margins to the point where industrial output and jobs are now at risk.
Donald Trump, who made a fortune in construction over the years, has assets he can sell to pay the $355 million financial penalty recently imposed on him in civil fraud case filed in New York, but it will strain his available cash reserves.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2024

Trump loved New York. Now it's giving him the boot.

The place that made Trump who he is has turned on him. The former president is being fined millions and banned from doing business in New York.
Phytochemical Products CEO Makiko Kato (second from right) and Chief Technology Officer and professor Naomi Kitakawa (right) at the startup's laboratory in Sendai
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Mar 18, 2024

Tohoku University startup opens path to waste oil recycling

Its proprietary technology allows it to extract useful compounds from waste oil to produce biofuel and other products.
Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder & CEO of Inflection AI, at the Greylock Partners office in Menlo Park, California in May 2023. Suleyman, a co-founder of Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab, is leaving the startup he was running to lead Microsoft’s consumer AI business, in another sign of Microsoft’s aggressive plans for the technology.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2024

Microsoft deepens AI focus, hiring DeepMind co-founder for consumer tools

Over a year after unveiling an AI-enhanced Bing search, the company has made few gains in the search market, still dominated by Google.
Kelly Zong Fuli
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 28, 2024

China's ‘Princess of Wahaha’ to lead beverage empire fighting for relevance

Sales at Hangzhou Wahaha Group have fallen in an increasingly competitive market as the firm has proven slow to adapt to consumers’ changing tastes.
Startup Genome officials speak to representatives from startups that will participate in the Global Hypergrowth Tokyo program during its kickoff event last week in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 3, 2024

New mentoring program aims to help later-stage Japan startups go overseas

While many acceleration programs target young startups, the new initiative focuses on later-stage firms that already have a certain degree of experience.
An evening launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit as seen from Encinitas, California, on April 1.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 12, 2024

Musk's undisclosed Starlink costs undercut profitability claims

Despite Elon Musk's claims of profitability, Starlink is spending more than it earns, those familiar with the company's finances say.
An Amazon Web Services (AWS) logo is pictured during a trade fair in Hanover, Germany, on April 22.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 1, 2024

Amazon triples quarterly profit as cloud surges

The Seattle-based company reported $10.4 billion in profit on revenue of $143.3 billion
Wecars President and CEO Shinjiro Tanaka (center) at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Companies
May 1, 2024

New firm formed to take over Bigmotor's operations

Wecars took over around 250 outlets and some 4,200 employees from Bigmotor, and its board of directors does not include former members of Bigmotor's board.
An electric screen displaying the Nikkei share average and yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar outside a brokerage in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
May 1, 2024

For Japan Inc., the weak yen may be too much of a good thing

The currency's weakness has pushed up costs of raw materials, food and fuel.
Nomura Holdings aims to almost its double pretax profit by the end of the decade.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 14, 2024

Nomura seeks to double profit by 2030 in latest growth plan

Japan’s biggest brokerage plans to generate pretax income of more than ¥500 billion ($3.2 billion) with a focus on its key wholesale division.
Mainland Chinese tourists on a converted car ferry in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor on April 19, 2023.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
May 29, 2024

Business-first Hong Kong now comes with a catch: Beijing politics

The former British colony is hewing closer to mainland China, blurring distinctions that once cemented the city’s status as mostly free from Chinese politics.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group CEO Hironori Kamezawa (center) and other executives bow during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 19, 2024

MUFG heads to take pay cut after information firewall breach

21 MUFG officials, including some retired executives, will give up part of their pay after the bank was penalized for the unauthorized sharing of client information.
Entrepreneurs who participated in the Beyond Japan Zero to X program last year share their experiences in the United States during a meeting in May in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 23, 2024

Japanese startups advised to internationalize to get some global mojo

Occupying the No. 1 spot in the Japanese market affords many comforts, but global dominance is unlikely to be one of them.
Go Sugiyama, head of wealth management at Nomura Holdings
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 28, 2024

Nomura is hiring wealth managers after years of staff overhaul

Nomura’s wealth management segment that serves domestic clients has been a consistent performer over the years.
Pedestrians cross an intersection in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Japan has experienced a postpandemic travel boom, with tourists pouring back in after restrictions closed the country’s borders to travelers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 12, 2024

Japan jumps to No. 2, from sixth place, in Best Countries index

It jumped from 6th place on the 2023 list as a post-COVID boom and reforms helped bump it up on the subindexes used to calculate the overall score.
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.
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.
Preparations ahead of the Bloomberg New Economy event at the B20 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Wednesday
WORLD / Politics
Oct 24, 2024

Brazil's business leaders reluctant to pick between U.S. and China ties

Brazil’s agriculture minister has called for the country to join China’s Belt and Road, the superpower’s flagship global trade and infrastructure program.
For Seven Bank, greater independence from its parent Seven & I Holdings could lead to new growth opportunities.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2024

Seven Bank seeks to expand cash-machine network beyond 7-Elevens

Deconsolidation from Seven & I resulting from a reduction of its stake in Seven Bank would make such a scenario more possible.
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 21, 2024

Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal

The award of a contract to operate London’s Elizabeth Line to a consortium that includes the firm could help address concerns about its domestic growth potential.
A push by U.S. antitrust regulators to force the sale of the Google Chrome browser to limit Alphabet's search dominance is likely to run into legal hurdles.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Nov 22, 2024

Legal hurdles ahead for Google's forced sale of Chrome

The proposed remedies have been described as extreme, while a forced sale would not address several issues raised in the DOJ lawsuit, critics say.
Osamu Suzuki, a former president of Suzuki Motor, in October 2016
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 27, 2024

Osamu Suzuki, who ran Suzuki Motor for five decades, dies at 94

Suzuki is known for spearheading the carmaker’s entrance in the Indian market, starting manufacturing there in 1983.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange will soon require some companies to publish their financials in English in addition to Japanese.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 13, 2025

Japanese companies rush to up English-language disclosures in 2025

The Tokyo Stock Exchange requires Prime market companies to release financial statements and other key information simultaneously in English and Japanese from April.
Trading company Mitsui
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2025

Japan's Mitsui could study Alaska LNG project, but no decision yet

Japan is considering offering support for a $44-billion gas pipeline in Alaska as it seeks to court U.S. President Donald Trump and forestall potential trade friction.
Minor Hotels and Royal Holdings executives explain their joint venture at a news conference last week in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 17, 2025

Thailand's Minor Hotels entering Japanese market with Royal Holdings JV

The 50-50 joint venture aims to have 21 hotels in Japan by 2035.
Goods are transported through a business district in Dongguan, in China’s southern Guangdong province.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Feb 24, 2025

Trump tariffs shake up China's factory heartland

The U.S. president has targeted friend and foe alike since taking office a month ago, notably slapping additional 10% duties on products imported from China.
In all, global investors plowed around $315 million into eFishery’s preferred shares over five funding rounds.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 24, 2025

SoftBank among eFishery investors facing near wipeout

Investors in the startup, which deploys feeders to fish and shrimp farmers in Indonesia, are likely to get back less than 10 cents for every dollar they invested.
The logo of Deepseek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association on Feb. 21. A simple handshake between President Xi Jinping and once-shunned entrepreneur Jack Ma sent Chinese tech stocks booming in recent weeks as it was interpreted as the latest sign the sector is being brought in from the cold — though experts advise caution.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 2, 2025

China signals renewed tech sector support, but concerns linger

Analysts increasingly see signs that Beijing is warming to its tech sector again, as domestic economic woes and a trade war with the U.S. loom larger.
Signage at a Tesla store in Colma, California, on Monday. Tesla shares plunged to their worst day in more than four years, extending a slide in 2025 amid growing concerns on Wall Street about demand for the company's electric cars.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 11, 2025

Tesla’s stock defied gravity for years. Is Elon Musk’s EV party over?

The bulk of Tesla's worth rests on hopes for autonomous vehicles it hasn't yet delivered, despite Musk's continued promises.

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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