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May 17, 2025
 

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ECONOMY

DeepSeek's impressive AI breakthroughs have sparked global attention but face mounting U.S. scrutiny, with potential bans unlikely to stop its open-source technology from spreading worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025
DeepSeek’s breakthroughs are too big for the U.S. to ban
The national security concerns behind the U.S. push to ban TikTok are even more pronounced when it comes to generative AI.
Based on his own assessment, Hideo Hayakawa, a former Bank of Japan executive director, says he sees the BOJ’s terminal rate in this cycle somewhere around 1.5%.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
BOJ’s rate likely to go higher than consensus, ex-official says
"My base view is that there is a lot more coming,” the former director said. "There is little logical reason to believe that rate hikes will stop early.”
China said on Tuesday it would impose tariffs on imports of U.S. energy, vehicles and equipment, firing a return salvo in an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
BUSINESS / Economy / EXPLAINER
Feb 4, 2025
Where things stand in China-U.S. trade tensions
China has made good on its threats to retaliate in the escalating trade war with the United States, imposing tariffs on American imports of energy, cars and machinery parts.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2025
Trump's tariff reversal shows how he's wielding bombast on trade
The U.S. leader has pledged to remake the global economy with tariffs. So far, it’s been more Art of the Deal than a revolution.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters Tuesday about the idea of revising the companies law to fully allow businesses to hold online-only shareholders' meetings.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2025
Japan to allow firms to hold online-only shareholder meetings
Online-only shareholders' meetings are currently permitted only in exceptional cases under the industrial competitiveness enhancement law.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a committee meeting in parliament on Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2025
Ishiba seeks quick action in bid to fight inflation
The prime minister's plan comes as households face soaring rice and vegetable prices.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 3, 2025
BOJ discussed worries about price upward deviation in January
One member referred to "a growing possibility that underlying CPI (consumer price index) inflation will rise steadily toward achieving the price stability target of 2%."
The 225-issue Nikkei stock average loses more than 1,000 points Monday ahead of steep U.S. tariffs taking effect on imports from Mexico and Canada.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 3, 2025
Nikkei sheds over 1,000 points as markets react to Trump's tariffs
The trend among investors in Tokyo is to lower risks by reducing their holdings and selling futures for now, a Japanese brokerage house official said.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato holds a virtual meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025
Japan to closely monitor impact on yen of Trump tariffs, Kato says
Kato spoke as the world braces for first salvo in Trump's tariff war, with general levies of 25% on Canada and Mexico and 10% on China.
Communist Party supporters take part in a rally next to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in July 2022. Economic reforms pushed by the U.S. in 1990s on Russia caused hardship and extremism, fueling Vladimir Putin's rise.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025
A secret cable and a clue to where America-Russia relations went wrong
Putin is the main culprit for Russia’s return to authoritarianism, aggression and hostility to the West. But American arrogance and presumptions cannot be dismissed.
Tourists at a viewpoint near the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 1, 2025
Here’s the few foreign markets set to win on Trump’s return
As some countries are rattled by tariff fears, assets of nations seen as benefiting from close ties with the U.S. leader are getting an extra lift
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Jan. 24.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2025
BOJ's Ueda voices confidence conveying rate hike message to market
Ueda said the BOJ’s policy settings are still accommodative after recent rate hikes and that would remain the case as the central bank continues to support the inflation trend.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2025
Japan wary of taking another hit if Trump slaps tariffs on China
Policymakers, investors and economists are watching Trump’s trade policy amid fears that his threatened use of tariffs could batter global commerce.
Prices of some 1,600 food items, including Ezaki Glico's chocolate snack Pocky, will be raised in February.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2025
Prices of 1,656 food items to increase in Japan in February
There are notable price hikes for chocolate confectioneries, flour products and frozen food using rice.
YouTuber Kazuki Nakata looks at his indoor farm at his home in Kawasaki on Monday. The 37-year-old now has nearly 90,000 subscribers eager to learn how to stretch out store-bought vegetables and grow new ones amid soaring produce prices.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2025
Japanese look for creative ways to fight soaring food prices
As the price of agricultural products has risen, Japanese have also been eating less of them.
Donald Trump’s rapid use of tariffs, disregard for conventional diplomacy and fixation on strength risk undermining the global economic order, isolating the U.S. and triggering widespread economic harm.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2025
The Trump test begins: Tariffs, power plays and economic risk
The speed with which the U.S. president reached for this tariff tool — against an ally no less — is proof that his threats are not empty words.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in Tokyo climbed 2.5% in January from a year earlier, the fastest pace since last February.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2025
Tokyo inflation hits fastest pace in a year, supporting BOJ view
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in the capital climbed 2.5% in January from a year earlier.
Even before U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office this month, uncertainty motivated businesses to rush shipments.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Jan 31, 2025
Companies race to ship goods to the U.S. ahead of potential tariffs
Even before Trump returned to office, uncertainty motivated many businesses to rush shipments to the U.S.
A Japanese class at a job placement company in Hanoi in 2022. The number of foreign workers in Japan hit a record high in 2024.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2025
Japan’s foreign workforce hits fresh record as labor crisis deepens
Japan had a record 2.3 million foreign workers as of October 2024, marking a 12.4% increase from the previous year.
Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino speaks during an interview in June 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 30, 2025
BOJ deputy signals more room to hike given negative real rates
The deputy governor cemented the BOJ’s message that the central bank is looking to hike rates further in the future.
Success of Chinese-made fighter jets against India raises alarm in Asia
Chinese J-10 fighter jets from the People's Liberation Army Air Force August 1st Aerobatics Team perform during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, in November 2015.
Rich Japanese still fear yen crash, wealth manager says
The yen slumped more than 2% on Monday alone, nearing ¥150 to the dollar, after the U.S. and China temporarily lowered tariffs, triggering a reversal of bearish dollar bets.
Japan to recognize Taiwan as place of origin in family registration system
Masataka Yuhara, secretary-general of the Friends of Lee Teng Hui Association in Japan, which has been calling for "Taiwan" to be permitted as a place of origin in family registers.
Irresponsible climbing prompts debate over who should pay for Mount Fuji rescues
Mount Fuji fills the skyline above a bridge connecting stores at a popular outlet shopping center in the city of Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, in November 2024.
Akazawa's dilemma: no tariff deal or a half-baked deal
Chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa and his delegation in the Oval Office of the White House in April. Since then, Japan's trade negotiations with the U.S. have produced no tangible results.
Akazawa's dilemma: no tariff deal or a half-baked deal
Chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa and his delegation in the Oval Office of the White House in April. Since then, Japan's trade negotiations with the U.S. have produced no tangible results.
Nissan hoping to electrify home crowd as Formula E returns to Tokyo
Nissan's Oliver Rowland drives during qualifying for Miami E-Prix at Homestead Motor Speedway in Homestead, Florida, on April 12.
For his first feature film, director Ryuya Suzuki created a masterpiece
"Jinsei," which follows its protagonist over a century, probes themes of identity and societal issues with a dark comic touch. The director, however, says he created the story without knowing where it would lead.
Historian Rob Fitts discovers earliest ever reference to baseball in Japan
Japan's Shohei Ohtani carries the Japanese flag onto the field before the start of the World Baseball Classic final against the United States in Miami on March 21, 2023.
Japanese retailers turn to California rice for cheaper alternative
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass eats California rice at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday along with Mitsuko Tsuchiya, vice president of retailer Aeon.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?
By Tomoko Otake

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