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April 25, 2025
 

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Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025
No discussion of yen target, Kato says after Bessent meeting
The two countries possibly committing to a specific number in terms of the yen-dollar exchange rate has helped drive up the value of the Japanese currency.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in Tokyo gained 3.4% in April from a year earlier, as a mixture of impacts from last year’s school fee cuts and higher food and energy costs accelerated inflation, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025
Tokyo prices rise most in two years, backing central bank's hike path
Consumer prices excluding fresh food gained 3.4% in April from a year earlier. Tokyo's figures are a leading indicator for national price gains.
Emergency workers search for victims under the rubble of an apartment building that was destroyed by a Russian missile strike early Thursday in Kyiv. The attack, which killed at least 12 people, was the deadliest on Ukraine’s capital in nearly a year.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 25, 2025
Trump tells Putin to 'STOP' after Russian attack kills 12 in Kyiv
The rare rebuke from the U.S. president came after Moscow launched its biggest attack this year on the Ukrainian capital.
Shipping containers at a port in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on April 15
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 25, 2025
South Korea and U.S. aim for package of deals before tariff pause ends in July
The U.S. and South Korea had a "very successful" meeting on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said afterwards.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025
Trump’s trade whiplash sinks world into dreaded ‘uncertainty’
"The worry I hear more often is actually not even tariffs, it is uncertainty,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters Thursday. "Let’s have clarity.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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