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Toyota Motor’s sales rose 8% from a year earlier to 231,336 units, while Honda Motor recorded a 13% jump, according to data released Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2025
Japanese carmakers’ U.S. sales surge ahead of Trump tariffs
Toyota Motor’s sales rose 8% from a year earlier to 231,336 units, while Honda Motor recorded a 13% jump, according to data released Thursday.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato is is expected to meet with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 24, 2025
U.S. indicates no hard target for yen ahead of key trade talks
The United States has argued that the yen is too weak, making its value against the dollar a top agenda item in trade discussions.
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2025
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
The tariffs add another layer of uncertainty for consumers already hesitating due to the yen's weakness and inflation.
New vehicles for sale at a Toyota dealership in El Centro, California. Toyota is planning to spend $88 million at an engine factory in West Virginia to widen its manufacturing footprint in the United States.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2025
Toyota to invest ¥12.5 billion in West Virginia plant amid Trump tariff push
The spending will secure the continued employment of some 2,000 workers at the factory, but a spokesman said it won’t result in any new jobs.
A Nucor steel factory in Blytheville, Arkansas. Foreign competition isn't the biggest challenge for steel companies — it's finding workers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2025
Steelmakers already short-staffed as Trump pushes for U.S. factory revival
The U.S. stopped training factory workers decades ago, and retirements and immigration crackdowns are draining the pool of labor available.
"The main message we have on monetary policy is that in times of heightened uncertainty, flexibility and data dependence become paramount,” said Nada Choueiri, the International Monetary Fund’s Japan mission chief, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 24, 2025
IMF urges BOJ flexibility on rates as tariffs dent outlook
Along with downgraded global growth projections, the IMF's forecast for Japan’s expansion in 2025 was trimmed by 0.5 percentage points to 0.6%.
Elon Musk confirmed plans on Tuesday to reduce his government time commitment to one or two days a week to focus on his battered car company Tesla.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 24, 2025
Trump's Cabinet ready to take back power with Musk stepping back, sources say
Elon Musk plans to reduce his government time commitment to one or two days a week to focus on his battered car company, Tesla.
Okinawa Prefectural Police Headquarters in the city of Naha. Police have sent prosecutors papers on two U.S. Marines suspected of sexually assaulting women in the prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 24, 2025
U.S. Marines suspected of sexually assaulting women in Okinawa
One of the two is suspected of sexually assaulting an acquaintance in January, and the other of sexually assaulting a woman and injuring another at a military base in March.
A worker labors on a spinning machine at a factory in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia in September 2019. For Indonesia, China’s trade power means lost jobs and hard choices.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2025
Asia would welcome trade deals that exclude China
The real cost to developing countries of China’s trade practices runs deeper: lost jobs can be counted, but missed opportunities can’t.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is seeking a "fair deal with China."
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 24, 2025
Trump seeks 'fair deal' with China but pathway unclear
Trump told reporters his country would have a "fair deal with China," adding that "everything's active" when asked if Washington was talking to Beijing.
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 23, 2025
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
The government hopes an import quota will give them more cards to play in tariff negotiations with the U.S.
Economic Revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa last week at Haneda Airport. The chief tariff negotiator believes the gap between the United States and Japan on trade issues remains wide.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 23, 2025
Mood shifts to measured optimism in U.S.-Japan trade dispute
Japan has so far engaged in a charm offensive aimed at staying onside while politely poking holes in the president's arguments and expectations.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Apr 23, 2025
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Disentangling the two will prove a challenge as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to voice long-held complaints about the alliance’s fairness.
Nomura Holdings is seeking to build scale in the U.S. asset management market despite recent volatility caused by escalating trade tensions.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 23, 2025
Nomura bets big on U.S. market rebound with $1.8 billion deal
Nomura's executive officer said the latest disruptions don’t change the fact the U.S. remains the largest asset management market in the world.
Japan has walked a delicate path — taking steps to hedge its dependence on China while distancing itself from the politics of Washington.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 23, 2025
Trump’s trade war with China puts Japan in a tight spot
Japan had long maintained deep economic ties with both China and the United States. Recent trade tensions may challenge that approach.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, in June 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 23, 2025
IAEA chief calls for presidential-level reengagement with North Korea
Pyongyang’s atomic program has grown “exponentially” since 2009, warns Rafael Grossi, head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.
Japan has started discussing specific measures to expand liquefied natural gas imports from the United States to reduce its trade surplus, as demanded by Washington.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2025
Japan mulls expanding imports of LNG from the U.S. for tariff negotiations
In 2024, Japan imported ¥542.6 billion of LNG from the U.S.
The U.S., U.K. and Europe are aligning with China and Russia in their efforts to undermine the encryption tools that millions of internet users depend on.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2025
Don't let governments break encryption
To convince the public that breaking encryption is necessary, governments often rely on technical jargon and emotionally charged anecdotes.
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2025
Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Kono said matters related to regional security shouldn’t be discussed as part of the trade talks, nor should the question of how best to manage relationships with China.
Canada’s April 28 election presents a stark choice between globalist technocrat Mark Carney (right) and populist veteran Pierre Poilievre, with the outcome likely to shape not only domestic renewal but the country’s relevance in the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2025
Will Canada find its path again after the election?
This election has effectively become a binary choice between Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre and the unelected Prime Minister Mark Carney of the Liberal Party.

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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.