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Asian banks are shifting focus from trade financing to wealth management and capital markets to offset potential losses from U.S. tariffs and capitalize on growing regional and global wealth.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 13, 2024

The wealthy will shield Asian banks from Trump tariffs

Asian banks are shifting focus from trade financing to wealth management and capital markets to offset potential losses from U.S. tariff.
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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2024

Putin, ascendant in Ukraine, eyes contours of a Trump peace deal

The Russian president could broadly agree to freeze the conflict along the front lines, five current and former Russian officials say.
Scott Bessent speaks at a campaign event for Donald Trump in Asheville in North Carolina in August.
WORLD
Nov 23, 2024

Trump taps Scott Bessent for U.S. Treasury

Bessent has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production.
A waterway along a portion of the Mekong River where a groundbreaking ceremony took place to begin construction on the Funan Techo Canal, in Prek Takeo, Cambodia, in October.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 23, 2024

Cambodia's flagship canal in hot water as China funding dries up

Months after a groundbreaking ceremony for a major canal project in Cambodia, touted investments from China are in doubt.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump approaches to embrace Donald Trump Jr. at his campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 25, 2024

Trump's son helping him pick most controversial Cabinet of modern times

Donald Trump Jr. is helping contenders sink or rise to the fore, according to a half dozen sources with knowledge of his role.
A farmer cleans solar panels in a field in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 25, 2024

Surprise solar boom in Pakistan helps millions, but harms grid

The rise of solar in Pakistan has many benefits, but a rapid and unregulated boom also threatens to weaken the country’s utilities and destabilize the fragile economy.
Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan looks on at a court in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 4.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 27, 2024

Vietnam mogul told to refund missing billions to overturn death sentence

Truong My Lan, 68, is appealing her death sentence after being convicted in April of embezzling $12.3 billion from Saigon Commercial Bank.
A business district in Tokyo in 2020
BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2024

Share of female presidents at Japanese firms hits record 8.4%

The proportion of female presidents has been rising slowly but steadily since it stood at 4.5% in 1990, the oldest data available.
Should Trump-o-phobes emulate Ellen DeGeneres, the comedian and ex-talk show host, who has apparently bolted for Britain to avoid the incoming administration?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2024

Do you dislike Trump so much you’d quit the U.S. like Ellen?

DeGeneres’s escape from Trump may look like a political statement, but she’s not really a desperate pilgrim in reverse, risking all for new beginnings.
Wealthy people in Japan failed to declare a total of ¥65.5 billion in taxable income in the year through June, down 33.2% from the year before, a National Tax Agency report showed Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2024

Japan's wealthy fail to declare ¥65.5 billion in income

The tax agency attributed the rise partly to the full-fledged use of artificial intelligence to make investigations more efficient.
Charles Kushner attends the funeral for Ivana Trump, socialite and first wife of former U.S. President Donald Trump, at St. Vincent Ferrer Church in New York in July 2022.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 1, 2024

Trump taps Charles Kushner, father of his son-in-law, as envoy to France

The choice is in keeping with Trump's pattern, so far, of selecting people, often wealthy, who are close to his family or of proven loyalty.
Female company presidents are mostly found at small businesses in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 2, 2024

8.4% of Japanese companies led by women in 2024

Female presidents tend to be found at smaller companies, with 11.9% of companies with less than ¥50 million in annual sales having a female boss.
Sadao Abe, who played the role of a time-traveling Showa Era teacher transported to present day in a popular TV drama, receives the 2024 buzzword of the year award for the word "futehodo," the nickname of the series.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 2, 2024

Japan’s 2024 buzzword of the year urges a reevaluation of past norms

“Futehodo” — a nickname for a TV drama that depicts the generational gap between the Showa and Reiwa eras — has been crowned the most trending word of 2024.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has, in rapid-fire fashion, named a spate of ideological warriors, conspiracy theorists and now even family members to senior government positions.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 3, 2024

Trump doubles down on defiance after collapse of Matt Gaetz selection

Trump, in rapid-fire fashion, has kept naming more ideological warriors, conspiracy theorists and now even family members to senior government positions.
People watch South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law and the following announcement that he will lift the martial law, after parliamentary vote, at a railway station in Seoul on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 4, 2024

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol, embattled conservative

The novice politician took office with some of the lowest approval ratings of any democratically elected South Korean president.
Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan (right) looks on at a court in Ho Chi Minh city on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 4, 2024

Vietnam tycoon loses death penalty appeal over fraud scandal

Under Vietnamese law, Truong My Lan can have her death sentence commuted to life in prison if she returns an estimated $11 billion.
Netflix's subscribers in Japan topped 10 million in the first half of this year, with Japanese content being its third-most-viewed non-English content, after those in Korean and Spanish.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2024

Netflix Japan subscribers top 10 million

The streaming firm's Japanese-language programming is grabbing attention in the growing market.
Displaced Palestinians arrive in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 5, 2024

Trump's Mideast envoy in push to reach Gaza ceasefire before inauguration

Steve Witkoff met the prime ministers of Israel and Qatar separately in late November.
“Shogun,” created by American channel FX and made by a joint American-Japanese team, utilized the strengths of both Japan and Hollywood to create a bona fide smash that critics adored. 
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / 2024 in Review
Dec 7, 2024

2024 was the year Japanese TV found its prestige

The triumph of “Shogun” at the Emmys served as an exclamation point for an industry taking big swings and opening up to trans-Pacific partnerships.
Japan's economy expanded in the July-September period at a faster pace than initially estimated, with consumer spending relatively solid for a second straight quarter, in a sign that underlying strength may be returning to the economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 9, 2024

Japan’s economy shows more resilience as BOJ considers hike timing

GDP grew at an annualized pace of 1.2% in the three months through September from the previous quarter.
A defaced mural of Sheikh Hasina, the ousted prime minister of Bangladesh, in Dhaka on Nov. 5. The new governor of Bangladesh’s central bank, Ahsan Mansur, calculates that about $17 billion was siphoned from the country’s financial system in the 15 years before Hasina's government collapsed in August.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Dec 9, 2024

How the Bangladesh economy was siphoned dry

Some economists guess that the true value looted during Sheikh Hasina’s rule before she fled the country could exceed $30 billion, but no one can say for sure.
The $8.2 billion deal is the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese insurer to date and the second major transaction announced by Nippon Life this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2024

Nippon Life to buy Resolution in $8.2 billion deal as it pursues U.S. growth

The deal is the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese insurer to date and the second major transaction announced by Nippon Life this year.
People watch a TV screen, broadcasting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivering an address to the nation, at a railway station in Seoul, on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 14, 2024

Yoon Suk Yeol: from rising star to impeachment

He rose from public prosecutor to South Korea's highest office in just a few years, but as president, Yoon staggered from scandal to scandal.
Gold samples confiscated by Federal Police in Amazonas state, Brazil, on June 19
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 16, 2024

New technology aids Brazil's crackdown on illicit Amazon gold trade

A police program is creating a database of samples from across Brazil that are examined to determine the unique composition of elements.
Businessman George Glass has been selected by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to be the next ambassador to Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 17, 2024

Trump picks businessman George Glass as Japan ambassador

Glass, who served as ambassador to Portugal during Trump's first administration, is known as one of the biggest fundraisers for his reelection bid.
One problem with assessments of China’s economic health is that they tend to treat China like a “normal” modern economy, and assume that policy tools familiar to Western economies are similarly useful.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2024

China’s economy has not peaked

What happens to the world economy and global geopolitics in 2025 will depend significantly on China. But prevailing assessments of its economic health are deeply flawed.
Current Sapporo Holdings President Masaki Oga (left) and the next President Hiroshi Tokimatsu, currently executive group managing officer, shake hands on Wednesday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2024

Hiroshi Tokimatsu named next president of Sapporo Holdings

Tokimatsu, 62, will also become president of Sapporo Breweries.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry drives past the Mavericks' Maxence Prosper during a game in San Francisco on Dec. 15.
BASKETBALL / NBA
Dec 19, 2024

Warriors lead way as average value of NBA team reaches $4.6 billion

Golden State is considered the second most valuable franchise in U.S. sports, trailing only the Dallas Cowboys.
A pedestrian crossing in Tokyo's Ginza district. In an economic report released Friday, the government cut its assessment on corporate profits for the first time since March 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 20, 2024

Japan says overall economy recovering, but cuts view on corporate profits

Among key economic areas, the government cut its assessment on corporate profits for the first time since March 2023 as the pace of its recovery was moderating.

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Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell