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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, on March 18.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 29, 2025

Nvidia eases concerns about China with upbeat sales forecast

"Every nation now sees AI as core to the next industrial revolution,” CEO Jensen Huang said on a conference call with analysts.
Nippon Yusen, Japan's biggest shipper, believes there will probably not be another decline in bookings impacted by U.S. tariffs this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 30, 2025

Top Japan shipper sees orders recovering as trade tensions ease

Nippon Yusen saw a robust recovery in container shipping orders following an easing in tensions between the United States and some of its trading partners this month.
Daiwa Securities CEO Akihiko Ogino says mergers and acquisition deals are harder to come by this year due to uncertainties over U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policy.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 3, 2025

Daiwa pauses M&A hiring as tariff uncertainty chokes deal pipeline

The assessment from Japan’s second-largest brokerage indicates how changes in global trade policy are rippling through spending activity.
Laleli's informal shipping scene, once a bustling hub of cross-continental trade, is now facing growing pressure from rising costs and tougher residency rules imposed by Turkish authorities.
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2025

Tough residency rules and Chinese competition squeeze Istanbul's 'suitcase trade'

Shipments have dropped, even as Turkish exports to Africa have generally soared — from $11.5 billion in 2017 to $19.4 billion last year.
A farmer cuts down cocoa pods from a tree on his farm in Azaguie, Cote d'Ivoire.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 17, 2025

High cocoa prices drive smuggling surge, alarming traders

Cote d'Ivoire is the world's largest cocoa producer, but much higher prices in neighboring countries create an arbitrage that some can't resist exploiting.
Toyota has filed a lawsuit in a South African court over 2022 flood damages that shuttered its plant near Durban.
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2025

Toyota insurer files $361 million South Africa flood damage lawsuit

The claim alleges that by failing to maintain waterways and drainage systems that carried the floodwater, the defendants shared responsibility for the damage.
Bentos are popular with a wide range of people in Japan for convenience and price.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 24, 2025

Bento shop bankruptcies could hit a record in 2025

Inflation, weak economic growth and work-at-home arrangements are leading to a decline in sales, lower profits and losses.
Fuji Media Holdings President Osamu Kanemitsu (center) and Kenji Shimizu (right), the president of Fuji TV, who serves on the board of Fuji TV's parent, at the annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 25, 2025

Fuji TV parent secures approval for new board members at shareholders meeting

The focus was on how much support there was for the proposal of activist Dalton Investments, which reportedly holds 7.5% of shares in the company.
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority spent years setting up a regime to intervene in the operations of tech giants such as Google, only for the Labour government to say its need to grow the economy meant tough regulation was now out.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 26, 2025

U.K. politics blunts antitrust action against Google

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority spent years setting up a regime to intervene in tech giants' operations, only for the Labour government to say tough regulation was out.
Racks of servers being tested at the new Amazon Web Services facility in New Carlisle, Indiana, on June 3
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 30, 2025

AI data-center boom could destroy Big Tech's net-zero plans

The tech sector faces a "climate strategy crisis" as its data centers demand ever more electricity and water to power growing fields, such as artificial intelligence.
Natixis has hired Makoto Kawamura, formerly head of JPMorgan Chase Bank’s Japan treasury and chief investment office in Tokyo, and Hideaki Sugahara, who was a director at Societe Generale, for its new banking business in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 1, 2025

Seeing growth potential, Natixis plans to double banking staff in Japan

The move comes as Paris-based Natixis starts a new banking branch in Tokyo, in the latest sign of a global financial firm vying for business opportunities in Japan.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently announced a hard deadline of June 30 for cryptocurrency firms incorporated in Singapore and offering services offshore to cease activities.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 2, 2025

Binance to keep hundreds of staff in Singapore despite crypto crackdown

More than 400 Binance workers label themselves as based in Singapore on LinkedIn.
A container ship is anchored at the Tan Vu port in Hai Phong, Vietnam. Much of Vietnam's exports to the U.S. are made up of items such as AirPods, phones or other products assembled with Chinese components and then shipped on.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 4, 2025

U.S. trade deal leaves Vietnam with questions and one big challenge

Companies operating in the Southeast Asian hub are on notice to move up the value chain.
Lei Jun introduces the Xiaomi YU7 sport utility vehicle during a launch event in Beijing on June 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 7, 2025

Xiaomi founder’s bold EV bet is paying off where Apple’s failed

The tech firm's success in the EV space has burnished founder Lei Jun’s reputation, making it one of the most valuable companies in China.
Takeshi Niinami, Suntory Holdings CEO and chairperson of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 10, 2025

Japan's united front on tariffs begins to crack as doubts raised

A senior business leader has questioned the effectiveness of the government in negotiating with the U.S.
Businesses who cater to fandoms gathered at Tokyo Lifestyle Week for the second annual Oshikatsu — Merch Collection Expo, a trade show devoted to fandom goods.
CULTURE / Music / Sound Off
Jul 12, 2025

Music idol and anime fandom merch is big business

Over 100 booths showed off the latest in acrylic stands, binoculars and cheering items such as glow sticks and flags at the second Oshikatsu — Merch Expo.
A worker places blank guitar picks into a tray at D'Addario's production facility in Farmingdale, New York, on July 10.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 23, 2025

Inside a U.S. guitar string-maker's strategy to navigate the trade war

While the company makes nearly all its music accessories in the U.S., its supply chain and distribution are global, with its biggest foreign market being Japan.
Personal Information Protection Commission Chairman Satoru Tezuka in Tokyo on July 15
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 26, 2025

Privacy safeguards needed to help fuel AI growth in Japan, panel chair says

A law revision was postponed during this year's ordinary parliamentary session amid strong opposition from business circles toward a system involving fines.
Workers stitch shirts at a textile factory in Noida, India, on Thursday. The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner, with the two-way trade between them at an estimated $129.2 billion in 2024.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2025

India aghast at Donald Trump’s ‘dead' economy dig and 25% tariffs

While Indian government officials weighed a response and business groups tallied the cost of the trade barrier, social media flared up with users protesting Trump.
Hironori Kamezawa, chief executive officer of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, speaks during an interview at the company's headquarters in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 5, 2025

BOJ rate hike in September or October is 'desirable,' MUFG chief says

Such a hike is ideal in the face of strong inflation in the country.
Seven & I Holdings says it will open 1,300 new international stores and add 1,000 net new outlets in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 6, 2025

Seven & I sets expansion targets to win back investor confidence

Stephen Dacus, who took over as chief executive officer earlier this year, is under pressure to deliver on a plan to streamline Seven & I around convenience stores.
A person holds a Binance cryptocurrencies QR code at a store in La Paz, Bolivia. Binance is favored in the country for its low fees and educational resources for new users.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 8, 2025

In land of 25% inflation, crypto is starting to replace money in Bolivia

From small coffee shops to large corporations, signs of cryptocurrencies being rapidly adoption are everywhere in the landlocked nation of 11 million in South America.
The Financial Services Agency Commissioner Yutaka Ito is interviewed in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 10, 2025

FSA eager to back regional bank realignment

Ito, who took office in July, stressed that cooperation with nonfinancial businesses is also crucial for the management of regional lenders.
Employees work at the apparel manufacturing unit at Bhiwandi in the Thane district of India's Maharashtra state on July 30.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 14, 2025

Trump’s 50% tariff threatens India’s manufacturing ambitions

The U.S. is now India’s biggest export market and one of its top sources of foreign investment.
Hiroyuki Adachi, managing director of Shelter, a wooden architecture construction firm in Yamagata, speaks during a seminar in Sendai in July.
BUSINESS / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Sep 1, 2025

Wooden high-rise buildings increasing in Tohoku amid decarbonization trend

Major real estate developers and construction companies are focusing on wood, pushed by legislation and systems encouraging the use of domestically produced lumber.
The factory of Asahi Tekko, which produces parts for Toyota vehicles, in Hekinan, Japan, on Aug. 18
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 28, 2025

The backbone of the global auto supply chain is at risk from Trump’s tariffs

Industry experts expect a devastating effect on the dense networks of auto parts suppliers that make everything from pistons to wiring.
A sleepy Tokyo-listed operator of nail salons is aiming to reinvent itself as one of the world’s largest corporate holders of Bitcoin.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 30, 2025

Japanese nails salon attempts reinvention as major bitcoin holder

The shift is the latest in a wave of radical financial reinventions pulling the likes of biotech firms and regional banks into crypto’s orbit.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange requires companies exiting the market through management buyouts or acquisitions by controlling shareholders to provide explanations regarding procedures and price fairness.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 1, 2025

Tokyo Stock Exchange pressed for more disclosure on management buyouts

The book value of companies has been one area of focus for investors amid the TSE’s yearslong campaign to unlock higher returns to shareholders.
A Tesla robotaxi drives on a street along South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, on June 22. CEO Elon Musk has set an ambitious timeline of having "millions of Teslas operating autonomously” by the second half of next year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 1, 2025

How Tesla and Waymo's radically different robotaxi approaches will shape the industry

The differing strategies have far-reaching implications for the early pecking order in the nascent autonomous-driving space.
Laurent Freixe attends Nestle's general shareholders meeting in Ecublens, near Lausanne, on April 16. Nestle has dismissed Freixe due to an undisclosed workplace affair.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 2, 2025

Nestle ousts CEO over office affair and taps Nespresso boss

The ousted chief executive is the latest of several consumer and retail company bosses to lose their jobs over workplace relationships in recent years.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes