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April 25, 2025
 

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JAPAN

The yen strengthened dramatically this month — hitting ¥139.9 to the dollar on Tuesday — and could become a topic of conversation in trade talks between the United States and Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 22, 2025
Yen on the march as Plaza Accord 2.0 debate grows
The U.S. has claimed that Japan's currency is undervalued, with some in the administration of President Donald Trump calling for a Plaza Accord 2.0.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (right) meets with new U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 22, 2025
Ishiba meets with new U.S. envoy to Japan
The new U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass arrived in Tokyo last week.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping. A high-level Japanese delegation will deliver a letter from Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to Xi this week.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 22, 2025
Ishiba pens letter to Xi as Japan aims to avoid trade crossfire
The gesture highlights Japan’s desire to balance managing its relationships with China, its largest trading partner, and with the U.S., its sole formal security ally.
Sumitomo and SBI Holdings will invest in FPT Smart Cloud Japan, which oversees FPT’s Japan AI data center.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2025
Sumitomo and SBI Holdings to take stakes in Vietnam’s FPT AI unit
FPT is setting up a Japan AI data center, with an initial investment of $200 million.
Executives from U.K. self-driving startup Wayve and SoftBank attend an event in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2025
U.K. AI startup Wayve makes Japan debut after Nissan partnership
Earlier this month, Wayve said it was joining forces with Nissan Motor to help build the next generation of its ProPilot driver-assist system.
Takeshi Niinami, chairman and CEO of Suntory, says U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are "really killing the appetite from the world” for investment in the U.S.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2025
Trump tariffs are killing investment appetite, Suntory CEO says
President Trump’s efforts to reshape international trade have led to wild swings in global markets and raised concerns the U.S. economy could enter a recession.
A sidewalk where a Japanese schoolboy was stabbed in Shenzhen, southern China, in September last year. China has executed a man, Zhong Changchun, over the fatal stabbing, it was learned Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 22, 2025
China executes man over fatal 2024 stabbing of Japanese boy in Shenzhen
The 10-year-old boy was stabbed as he was walking to a local Japanese school in September.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (right) and his Dutch counterpart, Dick Schoof, shake hands after a joint news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 22, 2025
Japanese and Dutch leaders agree to strengthen cooperation
The two leaders announced an action plan calling for cooperation in a wide range of fields, including diplomacy, security, economy and culture.
MS&AD forecasts that net profit for its North American operations will reach ¥166 billion in the fiscal year ended in March, a 3.5fold increase from the previous fiscal year.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2025
Insurer MS&AD plans to invest $5 billion to double U.S. profits
The Tokyo-based casualty insurer has the highest market share in Asia among global firms, but it’s No. 3 among Japanese peers in North America.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks at a parliamentary committee session in Tokyo on Monday, during which U.S. tariffs were discussed.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 21, 2025
Tokyo insists defense issues and tariff talks must remain separate
Mixing the two risks distorting the essence of each issue, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says.
Demand for Japanese debt has risen since March as the Trump administration’s higher tariffs sparked a surge in market volatility.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2025
Japan’s superlong bonds draw record foreign inflow on haven bid
Global funds bought a net ¥2.18 trillion of the nation’s debt with original maturities of more than 10 years.
Bags of rice at a warehouse in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Japan imported South Korean rice for the first time since 1999 this month amid soaring domestic prices for the staple grain.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 21, 2025
Japan buys first South Korean rice in over two decades as prices surge
The Japan office of South Korea’s National Agricultural Cooperative Federation said it brought in and sold 2 tons of Korean rice this month.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami frigate is docked at the MSDF's base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, earlier this month.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 21, 2025
Japan and Indonesia continue frigate talks looking to boost defense-industrial ties
Ambassador Heri Akhmadi said Jakarta’s growing ties with Tokyo reflect its nonalignment policy, as it looks to avoid taking sides between China and the United States.
The yen climbed to its strongest level since September against the dollar on Monday, briefly trading in the range of ¥140.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2025
Speculative traders boost bullish yen bets to a record on tariffs
The yen climbed to its strongest level since September against the dollar on Monday, briefly trading in the range of ¥140.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters at his official residence in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 20, 2025
No concessions over food safety in Japan-U.S. talks, Ishiba says
The prime minister also said that expanding LNG imports could be used as a bargaining chip.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's Economic Revitalization Minister and top tariff negotiator with the U.S., speaks to the press upon his arrival at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 20, 2025
Japan mulls reviewing car safety rules to strike deal with Trump
The report comes after Japan’s chief negotiator Ryosei Akazawa kicked off tariff discussions with U.S. counterparts in Washington last week.
A doughnut shop originating in Fukuoka Prefecture will open in New York on Tuesday, featuring its signature soft and moist doughnuts.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2025
Fukuoka doughnut shop set for debut in New York
The shop, I'm donut, will sell doughnuts with a teriyaki chicken filling and cream fillings using green tea powder.
Maritime Self-Defense Force sailors stand in formation after two Japanese vessels docked at the Ream naval base in Cambodia on Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2025
MSDF ships make port call at China-linked Cambodian base
The Cambodian government is believed to have been eyeing diplomatic balance by accepting vessels from Japan, a U.S. ally.
Japanese products imported to the U.S. had been hit with 24% levies, although these rates, like most of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, have been paused for 90 days.
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2025
Japan considering soybean and rice concessions in U.S. tariff talks: report
In their first round of bilateral talks, U.S. negotiators brought up automobiles and rice as areas where they said Tokyo puts up market barriers.
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's top tariff negotiator with the U.S., speaks to reporters upon his arrival at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Friday, a day after talks in Washington.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 19, 2025
Japan tariff negotiator rules out quick U.S. deal despite push by Trump
Ryosei Akazawa said that while the U.S. president wants to speed up negotiations, any agreement would likely take some time.
Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Japan set to fine cyclists on the spot for rule violations from 2026
Under new rules, those who use smartphones while riding a bicycle would be subject to the maximum fine of ¥12,000.
Naked man’s rampage in Saitama linked to one fatality and 10 injured
Police believe Daisuke Nishimura may have been involved in roughly 20 incidents in the 90 minutes leading up to his arrest, including a fatal hit-and-run and multiple assaults.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.
Cases of epidural use in labor rise in Japan alongside concerns
Of the 721,000 childbirths reported in 2024 in Japan, 13.8% involved the use of an epidural, according to the Japan Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Nothing sells like Shohei Ohtani, MLB’s marketing megastar
People walk past an advertisement featuring Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani outside Tokyo Dome on March 18.

Podcast

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

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

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