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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.
Alex Miller, CEO of Alimentation Couche-Tard, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2025

Couche-Tard seeks to reassure investors on Seven & I approach

The parent company of the Circle K chain has been pursuing Seven & I for months, bidding almost $50 billion for it, but has been rebuffed.
The ignition button of a Hon Hai Precision Industry Foxtron Model N electric vehicle
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2025

Hon Hai gets first major EV-making client in Mitsubishi Motors

It is unclear when production will actually start, but the first cars to roll off the assembly line would target Australia and New Zealand.
An economic dialogue between Japan and China will take place in Tokyo on Saturday, the same day as a meeting among top diplomats of the two countries plus South Korea.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2025

Japan and China set for economic talks as U.S. tariff pressure rises

The scale and proximity of the Chinese market means it is in Japan’s interest to maintain stable relations despite ongoing tensions.
An employee works at a production line of 155 mm artillery shells at the plant of German company Rheinmetall, which produces weapons and ammunition for tanks and artillery.
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2025

Europe is short of gunpowder and TNT when it needs them most

European governments dug into their munitions stockpiles to arm Ukraine, exposing how shallow their reserves were.
A kitchenware recycling team collects equipment at a closed hotpot restaurant in Beijing last month.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 22, 2025

China's restaurants race to the bottom in deflation-hit economy

A restaurant in China has an average lifespan of just about 500 days, analysts say, falling to as low as a year in Beijing.
Han Jong-hee, co-chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics, in Suwon, South Korea, on March 19
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2025

Samsung Electronics co-CEO Han Jong-hee dies of cardiac arrest

Han, who joined Samsung Electronics nearly 40 years ago, built his career in the TV business. He became vice chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics in 2022.
Katsunori Tanaka, an ex-Goldman Sachs analyst who now heads hedge fund Ariake Capital, is betting big on Japan's smaller regional banks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2025

Ex-Goldman analyst’s hedge fund reaps 300% returns on small Japan banks

Katsunori Tanaka spent years at Goldman Sachs scrutinizing Japan’s biggest banks. Now at Ariake Capital, he obsesses over much smaller regional lenders.
Potential buyers for a package of 7-Eleven and other convenience stores have until the end of March to express their interest, Alimentation Couche-Tard Chief Financial Officer Filipe Da Silva said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 26, 2025

Couche-Tard sees strong interest in U.S. stores for Seven & I deal

The Canadian company has agreed with Seven & I to seek a buyer for overlapping retail outlets as a prerequisite for takeover talks to sidestep U.S. antitrust concerns.
While mobile games such as Pokemon Go are at the core of Scopely’s business, the company is developing or considering acquiring PC and console titles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 26, 2025

Behind the $3.5 billion Pokemon deal lies a consolidation strategy

While mobile games such as Pokemon Go are at the core of Scopely’s business, the company is looking into PC and console titles.
Stocks slid Wednesday following an initial report that Trump planned to make an auto tariff announcement.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 27, 2025

Trump says he’ll hit auto imports with 25% tariff in trade fight

The move comes ahead of an even broader announcement of so-called reciprocal tariffs expected April 2.
Masuo Fukuda, head of Citigroup’s investment banking business in Tokyo, says the hiring in Tokyo started in December targeting various levels of bankers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2025

Citigroup hiring dealmakers in Japan with fee pool seen reviving

The Wall Street firm is expanding its investment banking team in Japan as it bets the country’s deal fee pool will finally rebound.
A survey of 12,817 companies by Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute found that only 51% committed to base wage hikes, the think tank announced on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2025

Japan’s wage growth isn’t as rosy as Rengo’s data indicate

The broader picture for pay trends may not be as rosy as the union group expects, according to one think tank.
Travelers wait to check in at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Mar 28, 2025

Economic turbulence shakes U.S. airlines as travel demand falters

With demand slowing, airlines have started culling flights to avoid lowering fares and to protect margins.
"The most desirable decision is for companies' securities reports to be accessible to the public at least three weeks before the general meetings," financial services minister Katsunobu Kato said on Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2025

Japan seeking securities disclosures before shareholders' meetings

The government will make the request in response to criticism from overseas investors that they do not have enough access to information ahead of the meetings.
Renault and Nissan will be able to reduce their cross-ownership to no less than 10%, from 15% previously, Renault said Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2025

Renault and Nissan back more share sales in alliance loosening

The firms will be able to reduce their cross-ownership to no less than 10%, from 15% previously, Renault said.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda told parliament on Wednesday that new U.S. tariffs could have a large impact on trade activities among nations, depending on their size and the area they cover.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 2, 2025

U.S. tariffs could have big impact on global trade, BOJ chief says

Gov. Kazuo Ueda also underlined the potential of such tariffs affecting households and business sentiment, which would go on to influence overall spending.
Containers are loaded onto a ship at the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on Wednesday ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of new tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 3, 2025

Trump tariffs pile stress on ailing world economy

They will sap yet more vigor from a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge.
Seiji Adachi, a former member of the Bank of Japan's Policy Board, says there is a chance of a May rate hike.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 3, 2025

Ex-board member who just left BOJ sees chance of May rate hike

Seiji Adachi, whose five-year term ended last week, said he would probably vote for a rate hike in the central bank's May meeting if one was proposed.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on April 1. He has said that Japan is facing a "national crisis" following the introduction of new tariffs by the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 4, 2025

Japan digs deep to address 'national crisis' caused by Trump tariffs

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vows to "unite the entire country" in response to the crisis.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday extended by 75 days a deadline for ByteDance to sell U.S. assets of the popular TikTok short video app to a non-Chinese buyer, or face a ban that was supposed to have taken effect in January under a 2024 law.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 5, 2025

TikTok deal put on hold after China indicated it would reject it over tariffs

Trump extended by 75 days a deadline for ByteDance to sell U.S. assets of the popular short video app to a non-Chinese buyer.
Mounting screws and a small plaque bearing the name of U.S. President Donald Trump are all that remain on a wall in the Presidential Portrait Gallery, where a portrait of Trump once hung, at the Colorado Capitol in Denver on March 25.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 6, 2025

Artist of 'distorted' portrait says Trump complaint harming business

Colorado removed the official portrait of Trump from display in the state's capitol building last month after the president complained that it was deliberately unflattering.
Hedge funds are trying to hire more in Japan, as traders look to power markets in the country with more green energy and uncertainties surrounding nuclear plant restarts.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 9, 2025

Hedge funds eye volatile Asia power markets with new hires

They are pushing into the region with the aim of offsetting declining profits from mainstay commodities.
Hon Hai Precision Industry's chief strategy officer for electric vehicles, Jun Seki, speaks during an interview.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 9, 2025

Hon Hai makes case to build EVs for Japan’s automobile industry

Electrified cars and buses made by Foxconn, as the Taiwanese company is known, will appear on roads in Japan over the next few years, its EV strategy chief says.
A man recycles electronic waste from computer power supplies at a scrap yard in Ahmedabad, India
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2025

From Daikin to Samsung, companies fight Modi over e-waste policy

India wants to tackle its mounting e-waste problem. Global electronics companies say the cost is too high.
A sign outside the headquarters of JP Morgan Chase & Co in New York in 2013
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 14, 2025

JPMorgan analyst says he now tempers public comments on U.S. tariffs

Michael Cembalest, chair of market and investment strategy and a Wall Street veteran, said he had not been able to fully express his views.
Workers iron items of clothing at a Thai Son S.P. Co. garment factory in Binh Thuan province, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on April 10.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 17, 2025

Vietnam’s factory-based growth model at risk in global trade war

For factory owners, what happens beyond a 90-day pause in tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump is a big question mark.
The 7-Eleven convenience store operator plans to add five new directors to the board, four of whom will be from outside the company.
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2025

Seven & I proposes five new directors as part of board revamp

The 7-Eleven convenience store operator plans to add five new directors to the board, four of whom will be from outside the company.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks as he receives U.S. Vice President JD Vance, his wife, Usha Vance, along with their children, before Vance and Modi's meeting in New Delhi on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Apr 22, 2025

As U.S. VP visits India, all eyes on New Delhi’s tariff strategy

Experts warn that India’s response — even if successful — might not offer a blueprint for others since each has a unique relationship with the U.S.
Apple responded fiercely to the European Union penalty, accusing the bloc’s regulators of discriminating against the company and forcing it to give away its technology for free.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2025

Apple and Meta hit by $798 million in EU tech fines after Trump threats

The punishments are far lower than previous ones under traditional EU competition law, and are likely to be seen as an attempt to avoid provoking Trump.

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A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped