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September 07, 2025
 

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SOFTBANK

SoftBank Group will make a tender offer allowing OpenAI employees to cash in shares if they choose.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024
SoftBank seeks to buy $1.5 billion OpenAI shares from employees
SoftBank will make a tender offer for the stock, allowing OpenAI employees to cash in shares if they choose.
SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son (right) and Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia, take part in a fireside chat at the Nvidia AI Summit Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2024
Masayoshi Son is trying to make up for past mistakes
SoftBank, once Nvidia’s top shareholder, dumped its stake — oops! — before the chipmaker became one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Masayoshi Son (front, center) poses with the members of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks after the team won the Pacific League championship at Kyocera Dome Osaka on Sept. 23.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Nov 18, 2024
Masayoshi Son’s aim for SoftBank Hawks remains, 20 years after buyout
This year, the team became Pacific League champions for the first time in four years. But its owner has loftier goals.
Jensen Huang (left), co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, and Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, during a fireside chat at the Nvidia AI Summit Japan on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 13, 2024
SoftBank plans first supercomputer with Nvidia Blackwell chips
Nvidia’s chips have become a prized commodity for the world’s biggest tech companies, which use the components to develop and run AI models.
SoftBank returned to the black in the three months to September, as it benefited from higher share prices of listed companies in its Vision Fund investment vehicles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 12, 2024
SoftBank back to quarterly profit with ¥1.18 trillion gain
The tech giant benefited from higher share prices of listed companies in its Vision Fund investment vehicles.
Tech entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Masayoshi Son made his fortune by becoming a bridge between California's technology culture and Japan.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2024
Masayoshi Son may be the oddest of the oddball billionaires
Masayoshi Son made his fortune by becoming a bridge between Californian tech culture and Japan.
Masayoshi Son last month invested $500 million in OpenAI through his Vision Fund, having missed out on the AI company’s previous funding rounds.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2024
Masayoshi Son inflates the AI bubble even more
Masayoshi Son last month invested $500 million in OpenAI through his Vision Fund, having missed out on the AI company’s previous funding rounds.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during the SoftBank World event in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 3, 2024
SoftBank’s Son envisions AI running households in the next few years
Masayoshi Son's rosy view of AI's potential often comes with a warning to skeptics that they may be left behind if they do not embrace the technology.
Intel, once the world’s largest chipmaker, has become the target of takeover speculation since a rapid deterioration of its business this year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 28, 2024
Arm is rebuffed by Intel after inquiring about buying product unit
Intel, once the world’s largest chipmaker, has become the target of takeover speculation since a rapid deterioration of its business this year.
A user receives ¥50,000 of their salary through the PayPay app.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2024
SoftBank makes first salary payments via its digital platform PayPay
Employees asking to receive part of their salaries via cashless payment services received the money through the PayPay platform, operated by a SoftBank Group affiliate.
By using an app, call center workers can practice calming down angry callers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 3, 2024
Japanese companies develop AI tools against 'customer harassment'
Japanese companies are developing artificial intelligence tools to protect call center workers from "customer harassment."
The listing ceremony of Ola Electric Mobility at the National Stock Exchange in Mumbai, India, on Aug. 9
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 19, 2024
Mumbai debuts deliver for SoftBank after market retreat from AI trims gains
Three firms backed by SoftBank have made solid debuts in the past week, in a positive sign after the Vision Fund fell to a loss of ¥204.3 billion in the June quarter.
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is preparing a big artificial intelligence bet.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 6, 2024
SoftBank to log slim profit ahead of Masayoshi Son’s next AI bet
Emerging from a month of sharp selloffs, the investment firm is expected to report a net income of ¥1 billion for the June quarter.
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has said the 50-50 control of LY, the operator of the Line app, by SoftBank and Naver leaves the messaging app vulnerable to cyberattacks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 4, 2024
SoftBank and Naver to sell down stake in Japan’s Line app
The tender comes as the capital structure of the operator of Japan’s biggest messaging app Line threatens to become a diplomatic flash point with South Korea.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo in June.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 12, 2024
SoftBank buys struggling U.K. chip startup Graphcore in AI race
The deal marks Softbank's second acquisition of a U.K. semiconductor firm, following its 2016 purchase of Cambridge-based Arm Holdings.
The PayPay app had about 60 million registered users as of October.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 8, 2024
SoftBank group firm PayPay Securities aims to double accounts
The company has been in the red since February 2021, with a net loss of ¥4.6 billion ($29 million) for the 2023 fiscal year.
Elliott Investment Management's sizable stake in Sumitomo reflects a growing shareholder activism in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 2, 2024
Activist investor campaigns hit record high, driven by Japan
The number of new activists campaigns totaled 147, up 7% from 138 in the same period in 2023 and 29% above the five-year average.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during the company's annual general meeting in Tokyo last Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2024
SoftBank to back AI startup Perplexity at $3 billion valuation
SoftBank will invest between $10 million and $20 million in the firm, which aims to use AI to compete with Alphabet’s Google search.
LINE, the app at the center of a tug-of-war for control. Line was introduced in Japan in 2011 by Naver, the operator of South Korea’s leading search engine.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 24, 2024
Japan and South Korea are fighting over an app at a tense time
Leaders on both the Japanese and South Korean sides appear determined to prevent the quarrel over Line from escalating.
Softbank Group CEO Masayoshi Son speaks during the annual general shareholders' meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 21, 2024
SoftBank’s Son aims to create ‘super’ AI in new investment drive
He envisions a future when Arm Holdings chips support an ecosystem of technology that can collectively cure cancer, clean houses and play with children.
‘Confugenics’ and East Asia's demographic crisis
East Asia’s fertility plunge is driven not just by financial costs but by perfectionist cultural expectations that burden parents with intense educational and social demands.
Japan prince comes of age as succession crisis looms
Prince Hisahito concludes his his elaborate "kakan no gi" coming-of-age ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday.
Bangladesh is a South Asian time bomb
Many Bangladeshis hoped that the overthrow of long-time leader Sheikh Hasina last year would revitalize the country’s democracy after an authoritarian lurch under the “iron lady.” Instead it has led to proliferating human-rights abuses, intensifying repression and widespread Islamist violence.
Japan to experience blood moon lunar eclipse on Monday
A blood moon is seen during a partial eclipse in the sky over Lake George near Canberra on March 14.
Japan's $550 billion investment pledge outlined in MOU
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, sign trade agreements on Thursday in Washington.
In rural Hokkaido, the stops and starts of tourism revival on full display
Redevelopment plans for Kawayu Onsen have hit some snags — an example of how bringing tourists back to declining rural communities is far from easy work.
London’s calling and sumo’s top division — along with Hello Kitty — are ready to answer
Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Hello Kitty, an ambassador for sumo's upcoming tour to London, at Tokyo's Kokugikan on Tuesday
Resonac creates 27-member consortium to pursue advanced chip developments
Representatives from member companies of JOINT3, a consortium working together on semiconductor-related developments announced by Resonac, pose for a photo in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Haru Nemuri’s radical new album refuses easy listening
Musician Haruna Kimishima, better known as Haru Nemuri, confronts Japan’s politics, nationalism and censorship on her recent output.
Overseas sluggers step up to bat in small-town Hokkaido
The Betsukai Pilot Spirits welcomed new players (left to right) Yuta Yamanaka, Roman Guthrie, Scott Bellina and Leo Jiminian this year, pictured here with Yassir Lachkar of the Ishikari Red Phoenix.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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