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November 21, 2025
 

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INVESTMENTS

An employee counts Turkish lira banknotes at a currency exchange bureau in Istanbul. The lira has for years been one of the world’s most volatile currencies, but offers carry traders interest rates that are hard to beat.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 20, 2025
Japan traders' fondness for Turkish lira prompts fears of intervention losses
The lira is one of the world’s most volatile currencies and Tokyo is increasingly uneasy with the weakness of the yen, leaving day traders exposed on all sides.
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 19, 2025
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
They are being told to take action now or risk missing out on big opportunities.
A Toyota manufacturing plant in Kentucky, U.S.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 19, 2025
Toyota lays out $912 million plan to boost U.S. hybrid production
The plan forms part of a broader $10 billion commitment in the United States over the next five years.
U.S. private equity firm General Atlantic has taken a minority stake in Japan's human resources software platform SmartHR.
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2025
General Atlantic enters Japan with investment in unicorn SmartHR
The New York-based private equity firm said it purchased a $96 million minority stake in human resources software platform SmartHR.
Auction house Christie's in New York. DIC is selling some of its holdings of valuable artworks at the auction house.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 18, 2025
Japanese ink maker sells off Monet and Renoir paintings as activists circle
Oasis Management, DIC’s second-largest shareholder, has called on the company to sell off its holdings, saying that paintings aren’t part of the firm’s core business.
Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management, a unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, aims to launch a new fund in January with a size of several billion yen.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 13, 2025
MUFG’s asset manager targets Japan buyers for its first CLO fund
The securities, which are bundled leveraged debt, will mainly hold dollar-denominated floating-rate loans made to U.S. companies.
Toyota’s new battery manufacturing plant in Liberty, North Carolina, officially opened on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 13, 2025
Toyota pledges up to $10 billion in U.S. operations investment
The announcement comes less than a month after U.S. President Donald Trump flagged that the Japanese carmaker planned such an investment.
SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son is aggressively seeking to capitalize on booming investment in AI and chips, even as he scales back other investments.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 12, 2025
SoftBank sells Nvidia stake for $5.8 billion to fund AI bets
The Tokyo-based company now boasts a portfolio that includes some of the world’s most sought-after names in artificial intelligence: OpenAI and Oracle.
Seven Bank is in talks to invest in a FamilyMart-affiliated credit card company, according to the Japanese lender’s president.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 12, 2025
Japan’s Seven Bank mulls investing in FamilyMart card affiliate
The Tokyo-based bank is looking for areas beyond its main business of operating automated teller machines in convenience stores for its tie-up with FamilyMart.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index has climbed about 30% in dollar terms this year, far outpacing the S&P 500 index’s 14% gain.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 10, 2025
Goldman sees U.S. investors flocking to Japan as Nikkei surges
The inflow of U.S. funds reflects the strong performance of Japanese equities in dollar terms this year.
A group of 1,191 people across Japan has filed a petition seeking the return of about ¥11.4 billion from an Osaka-based real estate investment firm.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2025
More than 1,100 people sue Osaka firm over real estate investment
Some who terminated their investment contracts with Toshi-Souken Invest have not been refunded, according to the group of petitioners.
Global firms are racing to carve out space in Japan’s lending market, betting that demand for private credit will surge, albeit slowly.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 5, 2025
Private credit dealmakers face years of heavy lifting in Japan
Building deal flow will require time — and education — as Japanese borrowers grow familiar with how private debt works and what it can offer.
The United States Steel Edgar Thomson Works steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 5, 2025
U.S. Steel says Japanese ownership to unlock $3 billion in value
Nippon Steel had acquired U.S. Steel for $14.1 billion in June, and agreed to invest $11 billion in the Pittsburgh-based company by 2028.
Japanese companies have raised $132 billion in foreign-currency bond and loan deals arranged by banks so far in 2025, up 56% from a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 4, 2025
Japan’s $132 billion borrowing binge reshapes global credit
Underscoring the unprecedented shift onto the global stage, annual overseas note issuance is on course to exceed debt sales in yen for the first time ever.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announces a zero-carbon city called “The Line” to be built at NEOM, a futuristic city in the desert by the Red Sea, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, in 2021.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 30, 2025
Saudi Arabia plans to refocus $925B fund after gigaproject delays, source says
Analysts have said many of the gigaprojects have not yet yielded sufficient returns to justify their lofty price tags, as several remain far from completion.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi raises her fist as U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech in front of U.S. Navy personnel on board the U.S. Navy's USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the American naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2025
At first summit with Trump, Takaichi pledges 'new golden age' for alliance
The meeting was a crucial test of Takaichi’s diplomatic chops as she seeks to elevate the Japan-U.S. alliance while staving off pressure from the U.S. on defense spending.
Katsuhiko Ushikubo, chief investment officer of Norinchukin Bank, ahead of an interview at the Bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 28, 2025
Norinchukin still ready to invest in credit despite losses
Chief Investment Officer Katsuhiko Ushikubo is in charge of the bank’s efforts to repair its ¥40.7 trillion portfolio after losses on foreign bonds last fiscal year.
U.S. President Donald Trump is welcomed by Emperor Naruhito upon his arrival at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Monday evening.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2025
Trump arrives in Japan for security and trade talks in test for Takaichi
The prime minister will be seeking to build a solid relationship with the U.S. president as she looks to navigate increasing pressure on trade and defense issues.
Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank is turning to expensive hybrid bonds and other financing methods to fund its $30 billion investment in OpenAI, as it faces growing pressure from high debt, low cash flow and competition from AI giants like Nvidia.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 26, 2025
SoftBank’s OpenAI ambition is far too grand for banks
On a stand-alone basis, as of the end of June, the company held more than twice as many bonds as bank loans.
Nomura Holdings CEO Kentaro Okuda
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 23, 2025
Nomura CEO seeks to tap Japan investors’ private market bets
Kentaro Okuda is looking to Japanese investors who are seeking private markets as a way to diversify their assets.
Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Beware of China’s strategic distortion of reality
China holds a military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, in Beijing on Sept. 3. 
Yen rout brings talk of ¥160 to the dollar and possible intervention
The yen has been weak against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks, with some analysts expecting the retreat to continue.
China to reimpose ban on Japanese seafood imports amid row over Taiwan, reports say
A sign reading, "Suspend the sales of all fish products imported from Japan" is displayed in an area home to Japanese restaurants in Beijing in August 2023. China will reimpose a ban on imports of Japanese seafood, media reports in Tokyo said Wednesday, as a diplomatic spat between the two countries deepens.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
Munetaka Murakami headlines quartet looking to move to MLB via posting system
The Swallows' Munetaka Murakami has 246 career home runs in eight NPB seasons.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.

Podcast

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

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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