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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.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday. Trump said tariffs could be imposed on Canadian dairy and lumber products within days, in a growing trade war with the United States' northern neighbor.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Mar 8, 2025

Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff strategy sows confusion

Hasty announcements have injected chaos into the economy and financial markets, casting doubts about the White House’s trade strategy.
Seven & I Holdings says it has agreed to jointly explore store sell-offs with Alimentation Couche-Tard to address antitrust concerns ahead of a potential merger.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 10, 2025

Shareholder pushes Seven & I to engage with Couche-Tard

The operator of 7-Eleven stores says that it is doing so, and has rebuffed Artisan Partners Asset Management’s assertions of conflicts of interest within the board.
Much of Nissan’s woes can be pinned on an aging lineup of outdated cars.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 11, 2025

Nissan focused on product development as it hunts for partner

Nissan wants to be directly involved in the development and rollout of new products, in a potential tie-up with a new business partner.
Coils of rolled steel sit in an industrial yard in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 12, 2025

U.S.-Canada trade war heats up as Trump doubles metals tariffs, then backs off

The switch came after a Canadian official also backed off his own plans for a 25% surcharge on electricity.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday
BUSINESS
Mar 12, 2025

Lack of exemption from U.S. steel tariffs 'regrettable,' says Japan

Top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said the two nations would continue to discuss details of the duties, which came into force at midnight U.S. time.
An electronic dictionary section at a mass retailer in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in 2005
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 13, 2025

Electronic dictionary market shrinking in Japan

Sales of electric dictionaries are falling in Japan amid declining birthrates and widespread use of smartphone apps.
Toyota vehicles are loaded onto a ship at the Port of Nagoya in June last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 13, 2025

Concerns grow over possible U.S. tariffs on Japan's auto sector

U.S. President Donald Trump has pointed out that the U.S. is importing a "very big" amount of Japanese cars while other countries are not really buying American cars.
An early pioneer of artificial intelligence is interested in teaching AI models how to efficiently forget.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 15, 2025

AI pioneer wants Europe to forge its own nimbler way forward

Sepp Hochreiter, an early pioneer of the technology, is interested in teaching AI models how to efficiently forget.
Port City Brewing Company founder and President Bill Butcher adds bottle caps, which he imports from Mexico, into the bottle machine at his brewery in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Mar 16, 2025

'Impossible': U.S. breweries buffeted by Trump tariffs

From Canadian malted barley to aluminum beer cans, Trump's tariffs have hit multiple products that American craft breweries need.
One year on from the Bank of Japan's historic rate hike, the biggest winners are the banks.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 17, 2025

Banks boom and shoppers scrimp a year after Japan’s rate pivot

Higher borrowing costs are also fueling a political battle over how the government can rein in its outlays.
The Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2025

Intel's new CEO plots overhaul of manufacturing and AI operations

Intel reported an annual loss of $19 billion in 2024, its first since 1986.
Shipping containers at a port in Long Beach, California. Higher tariffs will raise the cost of doing business in the U.S., raising the bar for Japanese companies to invest in America.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2025

Trump tariffs to raise bar to invest in the U.S., JETRO says

Higher tariffs will raise the cost of doing business in the U.S. with more expensive materials and products, said JETRO’s chair, Norihiko Ishiguro.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent walks to a television interview outside the White House in Washington on Friday. Bessent had indicated a possible delay in the activation of new reciprocal tariff rates on the United States' trading partners.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 19, 2025

Trump still intends for reciprocal tariffs to kick in on April 2

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had indicated a possible delay but the White House says trading partners would need to negotiate deals in advance to avoid new tariffs.
A 7-Eleven convenience store, operated by Seven & I Holdings, at the company's headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 19, 2025

Seven & I signs confidentiality pact with Canada’s Couche-Tard

The nondisclosure agreement (NDA) will pave the way for discussions around antitrust issues in the United States, Seven & I said.
SoftBank Group has agreed to acquire semiconductor designer Ampere Computing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2025

SoftBank seals $6.5 billion deal for chip designer Ampere

The move further broadens the Japanese investment firm’s push into artificial intelligence infrastructure.

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Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
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