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Advertisements on Threads will come from a "handful of brands” and appear only in the U.S. and Japan to start, according to a post Friday from Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who called the move a "test.”
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 25, 2025

Meta’s Threads to show ads for the first time in U.S. and Japan

It’s not clear what the revenue potential for Threads will be long term, but the service will benefit from Meta’s existing pool of advertisers.
Yoichi Takemura will oversee yen rates and foreign exchange trading for Barclays in Tokyo, bringing nearly two decades of experience in those operations.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2025

Barclays hires ex-Garda manager Yoichi Takemura as Japan bond market revives

The bank's Japanese investment banking arm posted a record ¥16.5 billion in net profit in 2023, driven by increased client orders to trade yen rate products.
Google's logo is seen outside the Google Bay View facility in Mountain View, California, on Aug. 13.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 27, 2025

Google pushes global agenda to educate workers and lawmakers about AI

A key priority, one executive said, comes in building out educational programs to train the workforce on AI.
Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence arrives before the inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2025

Trump should uphold TikTok ban and allow Nippon Steel deal, Pence says

Both positions are more in line with traditional Republican orthodoxy.
Most of Nomura's recent personnel cuts were in London, according to a person familiar with the matter, who added that three worked in rates and another three in the digital office.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Nomura cuts about 10 global markets staff to reduce costs

A year ago, Japan’s biggest brokerage planned to cut about 60 staffers as the firm sought ways to pare expenses across its investment bank.
The Tiffany & Co. store on Fifth Avenue in New York in 2023
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Tiffany workers mock forced 'joy' that exacerbated staff exits

When Tiffany & Co. executives were looking for ways to boost staff morale, they rolled out an internal social app called "Tiffany Joy.” It didn’t take long to turn into a chore.
Honda's electric two-wheeler concept models are on display at it's headquarters in Tokyo. Honda aims to capture half of the world’s motorbike market.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 28, 2025

Honda sets its sights on 50% share of world’s motorcycle market

The company's global motorcycle sales are forecast to reach 20.2 million for the fiscal year ending this March, which would give it a share of about 40%.
An ocean vista at a resort in Thailand on Dec. 26
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2025

'The White Lotus' is already driving a travel boom in Thailand

Ahead of the HBO show’s third season premiere, Thai tourism authorities, hoteliers and travel agents are readying for a surge in visitors.
Workers construct an array of solar panels for a floating photovoltaic solar energy farm near Cottbus, Germany, in August 2024.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 30, 2025

Red tape and rare earths: EU 'compass' charts economic future

The publication of the "competitiveness compass" aims to mark a change of tack toward a more business-friendly Brussels.
Nissan President Makoto Uchida (left), Honda President Toshihiro Mibe and Mitsubishi Motors President Takao Kato at a news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 23.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2025

Honda and Nissan to unveil integration outline in mid-February

Mitsubishi Motors will postpone making a final decision on whether to join the integration.
Spring negotiations in 2024 resulted in salaries rising by over 5% on a whole, but hikes at small and midsized companies, which account for some 70% of Japan's employment, were far lower than the average.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2025

Japan's spring wage talks begin with labor-management forum

Rengo, the umbrella organization for labor unions, is seeking an overall wage hike of at least 5%.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on during a press conference while responding to U.S. President Donald Trump's orders to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian imports, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 3, 2025

Trump’s ‘tariff thrashing’ spurs crisis response from Canada

The U.S. tariffs are expected to create job losses in Canada and may even cause it to tip into a recession if they last for a number of months.
Russian demand for Japanese grand pianos is always very high, a dealer has said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2025

Smuggled grand pianos show Trump’s challenge in pressuring Putin

High-end Japanese pianos still make their way to Russia despite export ban, highlighting Tokyo's struggle to enforce sanctions.
Talks between Nissan and Honda have been complicated by growing differences, sources have said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2025

Nissan looking for new partner as Honda deal looks set to collapse

The two carmakers plan to issue a formal announcement on the fate of their business integration talks in mid-February.
The stock of Nomura Holdings climbed as much as 7.7% to ¥1,077 in Tokyo on Thursday morning, the highest level since October 2008.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2025

Nomura soars to 16-year high as profit jump cements recovery

The stock climbed as much as 7.7% to ¥1,077 in Tokyo on Thursday morning, the highest level since October 2008.
Domino's Pizza will close 172 unprofitable outlets out of about 1,000 stores in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2025

Domino's pizza to close 172 outlets in Japan

The global delivery pizza chain will prioritize investments in areas that will help it improve earnings.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and U.S. President Donald Trump. Microsoft and Nvidia are quietly engaging with the Trump administration on policies affecting AI, chip exports and data centers
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2025

Tech giants Microsoft and Nvidia taking a quieter approach to Trump

Under Biden, the United States curbed the sale of Nvidia chips to China and capped the sales of its AI chips to more than 100 other countries
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President and CEO Satoshi Yamane apologizes for the company's health hazard scandal involving its supplement products during a news conference in Osaka on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 11, 2025

Kobayashi Pharma logs first net profit drop since 1999 listing

The company's net profit plunged 50.5% in the aftermath of a health scandal involving its supplements, which emerged last year.
Sam Altman (left) and Elon Musk were among the 11-person team that founded OpenAI in 2015.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 12, 2025

AI feud: How Musk and Altman's partnership turned toxic

Facing a barrage of hostility, Altman has increasingly suggested that Musk's actions stem from regret over leaving OpenAI in 2018.
Following weeks of talks after Nissan Motor President Makoto Uchida and Honda President and CEO Toshihiro Mibe's December announcement of a possible merger, the two automakers confirmed on Thursday that the deal is officially off.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 13, 2025

Honda and Nissan cancel megamerger after weeks of negotiations

The automakers failed to find the common ground needed to reach an agreement, though they still intend to work together in other areas.
Showa Kogyo employee Yuki Maeda (right) holds fish-gathering plates she developed, alongside company president Akinori Kazeoka.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional voices: Chubu
Feb 24, 2025

Fish-gathering plate proves a big hit with anglers

The plate, which reflects light under the sea to attract filefish, was developed by a Showa Kogyo employee who loves fishing.
Talks on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. taking a controlling stake in Intel's factories at the request of Trump administration officials are in very early stages, and the exact structure of a potential partnership hasn’t been established. But the intended result would have the world’s largest made-to-order chipmaker fully operating Intel’s U.S. semiconductor factories.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 15, 2025

TSMC considers running Intel’s U.S. factories after Trump team request

Trump officials raised the idea of a deal between the two companies in recent meetings with the Taiwanese chipmaker, and TSMC was receptive.
A statue of of a bull in Pudong's Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2025

Xi's new corporate champions showcase his priorities and control

The tech champions present at a meeting with the Chinese president suggest that he is rallying troops from the business sector to fight a geopolitical battle.
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington. Companies have told the U.S. central bank they generally expect to raise prices to pass along the cost of import tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 20, 2025

Federal Reserve noted Trump policies could stir inflation, minutes show

Companies have told the U.S. central bank they generally expect to raise prices to pass along the cost of import tariffs.
Japan Post Holdings plans to sell a stake in Japan Post Bank that could raise ¥630 billion ($4.2 billion).
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2025

Japan Post plans sale of $4.2 billion stake in banking unit

The company will sell as many as 416.1 million shares at a discount of 2% to 4% of the stock’s market price.
The rapid collapse of the plan to take Seven & I private reflects how personal egos and domestic competitiveness ultimately outweighed the nationalistic desire to fend off Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard, whose pursuit of the Japanese retailer emerged last August.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2025

Seven & I and Nissan deal fallout leaves Japan companies vulnerable

The collapse of the deals means the companies are potentially even more vulnerable to foreign takeovers.
Blackstone said it agreed to purchase 60% of Tokyo-based CMIC, a contract research organization, in a deal that values the company in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 3, 2025

Blackstone buys Japan drug trial firm, adding to private equity health deals

Blackstone has been increasingly active in Japan’s life science sector amid a wider buyout boom in the country.
Trucks wait in line to cross into the United States near the border customs control at the World Trade Bridge, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, last November.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 4, 2025

Trade wars intensify as U.S. tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China take force

Beijing condemned the move and swiftly retaliated, saying it would impose 10% and 15% levies on a range of agricultural imports from the United States.
Multibillionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk speaks via video link to an election campaign rally for the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Halle, Germany, on Jan. 26.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 5, 2025

Musk rallies the far right in Europe. Tesla is paying the price.

The multibillionaire's support for right-wing political parties could help boost his empire by cutting back regulations he thinks impede tech innovations.
Couche-Tard has made clear that it wants to learn from Seven & I Holdings to improve its North America operation, and has ruled out going hostile in takeover talks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025

Couche-Tard holds talks for sale of U.S. shops in Seven & I deal

The retailer last year proposed to purchase Seven & I Holdings for $18.19 per share, but so far hasn’t been able to enter negotiations with the firm.

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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