Business Feb 27, 2021
U.S. signals it will implement tough rule curbing China tech threats
The Trump-era rule would give the Commerce Department broad authority to prohibit transactions involving "foreign adversaries.”
Commentary / Japan Oct 16, 2020
A digital agency would crown Japan's IT strategy
by Waichi Sekiguchi
Prime Minister Suga aims to put his own stamp on policy by erasing the government’s lag in digitization.
Business Sep 22, 2019
Global tax authorities discuss targeting multinationals with profit margins above 10%
Under their new rules, global taxation authorities have been discussing a proposal of targeting digital giants and other multinationals whose profit margins top 10 percent, Japanese government sources said Saturday. The debate on creating global tax rules based more on where firms make their sales ...
Business Aug 8, 2019
British Airways said its flights were returning to normal after passengers had to endure cancellations, delays and long lines at London airports as the airline suffered its third major computer failure in a little more than two years. Wednesday's woes are the latest in a ...
Business / Corporate Mar 20, 2019
Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani has a new goal for his 17,000 workers: Learn to code
by Emily Chang
Less than a decade after stunning workers at his tech giant with an edict to learn English, billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani wants to do the same with computer programming. Rakuten Inc. may soon expect its more than 17,000 employees to know how a computer compiles a ...
How-tos Jan 30, 2019
Demand for non-Japanese engineers is growing, but know what you're in for before you apply
by Rochelle Kopp
IT engineering is a field in which there are a lot of opportunities for non-Japanese who possess sufficient skills to work in Japan. There are 28,000 non-Japanese IT engineers working in Japan currently, comprising about 3 percent of all IT engineers in Japan, according ...
Business Jan 16, 2019
No social skills required: Autistic staff help global IT consultancy thrive
From a British call center to an Alaskan satellite facility, Lars Backstrom has had a lot of jobs, but says he always felt like a hexagonal peg in a square hole — he just didn't fit in. That changed last year when the 55-year-old Swede ...
Business | INSIDER REPORT Dec 3, 2018
Adapting to new industries, bolstering world's infrastructure
by Patrick Ryan
The ability of the sōgō shōsha to survive through all the changes and transformations that have taken place over the years can, in many ways, be attributed to their adeptness in recognizing the rise of new industries early on and creating new businesses in ...
Voices | FOREIGN AGENDA Aug 19, 2018
Japanese and Israelis could make a killer yin-and-yang combo
by Glenn Newman
Israel and Japan are the yin and yang of countries. And yet, despite — or maybe because of — their differences, they have much to offer each other.
Business / Economy Apr 27, 2018
by Shusuke Murai
As a resource-poor nation, Japan's prosperity relies on free trade. Under worldwide protectionism, it can't survive. That's the message Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko wants to send as the emergence of protectionism across the globe becomes a worsening headache for export-reliant Japan. "If free ...
National Aug 11, 2017
Japan's young farmers pin hopes on technology to revitalize agricultural industry
by Kaori Kaneko
A new breed of younger, business- and tech-savvy farmers is transforming Japan's shrinking agriculture sector with cutting-edge techniques and marketing strategies, giving new hope to an industry in slow decline. Hiroki Iwasa, a 40-year-old IT entrepreneur with an MBA, grows strawberries in seven high-tech greenhouses ...