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The buzz surrounding MediaTek casts a spotlight on growing competition between semiconductor firms that are exploiting the use of AI to grab a larger share of the smartphone business.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 28, 2023

AI chip boom fuels Taiwan firm’s 40% rally, beating Qualcomm

A five-month rally in MediaTek looks set to extend as booming demand for smartphones and a promising new AI chip brighten the company’s outlook.
Strong shipments of cars, especially to the U.S., helped push up Japan’s industrial production more than expected in October.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 30, 2023

Japan's factory output beat expectations in October

Improvement in supply chains bolstered automakers while inventory adjustments underpinned the electronics parts industry.
Shein, a Chinese-founded online fast fashion platform, has filed to go public in the U.S. in what could be one of the world’s biggest IPOs.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2023

Chinese are making a killing everywhere but in China

China's companies are racing to reap the benefits of entering the U.S., while also running away from a crowded and competitive local market.
There is a sense of caution in the credit market that the Bank of Japan will finally tighten its ultraeasy policy.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 4, 2023

Turmoil from BOJ policy bets shakes up Japan credit market

Companies rush to raise money to take advantage of low rates while they still can but investor demand for corporate bonds is weakening.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno attend a Cabinet meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 8, 2023

Kishida walks tightrope after new funds allegations against Matsuno

The top government spokesperson is believed to have received kickbacks from his faction totaling more than ¥10 million over the last five years.
A Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric vehicle charges at Chaevi Stay Charging Station in Seoul on Oct. 18
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2023

South Korean auto-battery firms cautious on challenging China rivals

Feeding their worries is slowing growth in electric vehicle sales, price competition and the potential for changes in United States subsidies.
Today in Russia, a robust consumer world carries on, helping Russian President Vladimir Putin maintain a sense of normalcy despite a war that has proved longer, deadlier and costlier than he predicted.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2023

How Putin turned a Western boycott into a bonanza

If companies want to leave Russia, the president is setting the terms — in ways that benefit his government, his elites and his war.
Daihatsu said Wednesday that it will suspend shipments of all vehicle models made in Japan and abroad due to an unfolding scandal over misconduct in its crash tests.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 20, 2023

Toyota's Daihatsu to halt shipments as safety scandal widens

The results of an investigation suggest the scope of safety concerns, first disclosed in April, is now far greater than previously thought.
Subsidies in China turned the country into an electric vehicle giant but produced weed-infested graveyards of abandoned EVs.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 25, 2023

No one wants used EVs, making new ones a tougher sell too

In the $1.2 trillion secondhand market, prices for battery-powered cars are falling faster than for their combustion-engine cousins.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 26, 2023

Prosecutors question former LDP policy chief over funds scandal

Koichi Hagiuda has become the latest veteran lawmaker to be questioned on a voluntary basis over the political funds scandal.
BYD exhibits its cars ahead of the Munich Motor Show in September.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 27, 2023

China's BYD set to overtake Tesla as world’s most popular EV maker

Its ascent will be both a symbolic turning point for the market and further confirmation of the growing Chinese clout in the global automotive sector.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 27, 2023

Prosecutors raid LDP lawmaker's home and offices over unreported funds

Prosecutors entered Yoshitaka Ikeda's Tokyo and Nagoya offices on suspicion that he violated the Political Funds Control Law.
Masimo's headquarters in Irvine, California. The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled earlier this year that the Apple Watch violates two Masimo patents related to blood-oxygen sensing and imposed an import ban on the Ultra 2 and Series 9 models.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 28, 2023

The email to Tim Cook that set the Apple watch saga in motion

Masimo, based in Irvine, California, is the rare company to wound Apple in a patent dispute.
Salesforce headquarters in San Francisco.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 29, 2023

Software companies finally had to care about profit in 2023

The pressure was acute for money-losing companies.
The Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai. China’s manufactured goods surplus relative to global gross domestic product is now around 2%, and an estimated 45% of China’s manufacturing output is being exported as the nation’s 1.4 billion people can’t buy enough goods such as electric vehicles, ships and household appliances to meet the increased supply.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 8, 2024

Xi Jinping’s solution for China’s economy risks triggering new trade war

Manufacturing focus sets up Beijing for renewed tensions with both developed countries and emerging economies pushing to reach the lower rungs of the industrialization.
Shinji Aoyama, Honda's chief director of North America, unveils its electric vehicle concept Space-Hub during the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 10, 2024

Honda to launch new electric vehicle series as it plays catch-up

The automaker aims to roll out the first models of its new Honda 0 Series by 2026, with the series to be launched globally, starting with the North American market.
As Kura has grown, so has the hype, with diners sometimes enduring seven-hour waits to try its automated sushi-serving machines and dishes under plastic domes brought to the table on a revolving belt.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 13, 2024

Kura Sushi must live up to high hopes after wowing Wall Street

Kura shares have surged more than sixfold since their 2019 debut, climbing from an initial public offering price of $14 to $88.55.
Shipping containers at a port in Lianyungang, eastern China's Jiangsu province, on Friday
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2024

Most Japanese firms don’t see China’s economy improving in 2024

More than 400 companies said they cut investment in China last year, according to a survey of 1,713 firms by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China.
While Apple has dominated the holiday quarter in recent years, its surge ahead of Samsung over a full year is unprecedented and suggests Apple is weathering an industrywide slump better than its rivals.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 17, 2024

Apple passed Samsung as world’s top phone-maker in 2023

Apple's surge ahead of Samsung over a full year is unprecedented and suggests Apple is weathering an industrywide slump better than its rivals.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Italy-Africa summit in Rome on Monday
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2024

Overwhelmed by debt, Italy sells stake in Post Office 'crown jewel'

The government has a long way to go to reduce its debt, which currently amounts to 140.2% of GDP.
The thick, supposedly lucky sushi rolls of Setsubun are full of it.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 31, 2024

How a trendy sushi roll usurped the traditions of Setsubun

The lore around “ehōmaki” sounds just whacky enough to make it an old custom, but it turns out to be a fairly recent phenomenon.
The rural economy has been hurt by a drop in the output of some key crops, such as wheat, in the past three years due to a rise in temperatures, patchy monsoon rains and falling reservoir levels.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 1, 2024

World-beating growth? Not for India's rural majority

For many in rural India, which is home to 60% of its 1.4 billion people, the country's so-called spectacular economic growth is nowhere in sight.
Workers on a production line manufacturing false eyelashes at a workshop of Monsheery in Pingdu, China, in November
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 4, 2024

How North Korean eyelashes arrive in the West as 'made in China'

North Korea exported 1,680 tons of false eyelashes, beards and wigs to China in 2023, worth around $167 million.
Taylor Swift (right) cheers on her boyfriend Travis Kelce's team, the Kansas City Chiefs, in the AFC divisional round playoff game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York, on Jan. 21. The Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 6, 2024

Taylor Swift rocks the world and drives the far right crazy

The “Swift effect” has become a force in both U.S. domestic politics and international relations.
Singer Taylor Swift performs at her concert in Tokyo on Wednesday. With her winning her fourth Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards on Monday, sales of her merchandise will likely increase even as fans feel more compelled to purchase them for their premium value.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 8, 2024

'Swiftonomics' to yield ¥34.1 billion economic boost for Japan

The economic ripple effect of an average attendee of Taylor Swift's concerts in Tokyo is estimated at ¥155,090.
A Uniqlo store in Shanghai, China. The clothing chain's operator Fast Retailing announced last year that it expected to open 80 stores in China and roughly 60 new stores each year in Southeast Asia, India and the Australian region.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2024

Fast Retailing’s peer-beating 48% jump may extend on global push

Uniqlo owner has become one of the top performers among 10 other clothing companies worldwide that have a market value exceeding $10 billion.
Travelers at Shanghai Hongqiao railway station on Feb. 6. For the Feb. 10-17 period, there were 99.5 million rail trips made in China, a figure 36% higher than the comparable period in 2019.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 19, 2024

China’s new year travel and spending top pre-COVID levels

Some 474 million tourist trips were made around the country during the festival, which began Feb. 10 and concluded Saturday.
An earthquake measuring up to shindo 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale that hit southern Chiba Prefecture was among several that have shaken the area in recent days.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 5, 2024

Emergency goods sell out as quakes worry Chiba residents

Bottled water and portable toilets are among items that ran out of stock at some stores over the weekend.
A worker at Nakamatsu Meat speaks to an Alexa-powered device at its factory in Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture, in November. At the factory, workers give production updates to Alexa, which then converts this into data that is compiled in the company's computer.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Mar 11, 2024

Okinawa meat shop uses tech to improve efficiency and raise wages

Nakamatsu Meat's digitalization enabled it to cut its factory operating time and optimize raw material purchases.
Two of the country’s four major makers of alcoholic beverages are reportedly going to stop releasing new products with alcohol content of 8% or more, citing health concerns.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 10, 2024

Japan asks when a stiff drink is a bit too stiff

Two of the country’s four major makers have taken the unusual step of retreating from a lucrative and growing market: strong premixed drinks.

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Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji