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December 21, 2024
 

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Sam Nussey
Netflix's subscribers in Japan topped 10 million in the first half of this year, with Japanese content being its third-most-viewed non-English content, after those in Korean and Spanish.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2024
Netflix Japan subscribers top 10 million
The streaming firm's Japanese-language programming is grabbing attention in the growing market.
Chipmaker Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory, is reportedly targeting a December IPO.
BUSINESS / Markets
Nov 21, 2024
Chipmaker Kioxia to receive market listing approval, sources say
Bain-backed Kioxia will have a market value of about ¥750 billion ($4.84 billion) based on the indicative price for its initial public offering.
Sony already has a 2% stake in Kadokawa and a stake in Kadokawa subsidiary FromSoftware, the developer of Elden Ring.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 19, 2024
Sony in talks to buy media powerhouse behind Elden Ring, sources say
The talks between the two sides are ongoing and, if successful, a deal could be signed in the coming weeks.
Kioxia, formerly Toshiba Memory, had planned to begin production at the fab last year but has delayed that to autumn 2025.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 5, 2024
Kioxia sees flash memory demand almost tripling by 2028
The chipmaker, which was hammered by a downturn in the market for memory chips, is readying a major capacity expansion at its new fab.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange. Rigaku Holdings' shares fell on debut, even after the results of its offering suggested that investors still have an appetite for big Japanese stock deals in a busy primary market.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 25, 2024
Rigaku shares fall 10% in market debut after IPO priced at the top
Rigaku shares closed at ¥1,130 after the initial public offering had been priced at the top end of a ¥1,230 to ¥1,260 indicative range.
Tokyo Metro priced its shares at ¥1,200 apiece. It is expected to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 23.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 15, 2024
Tokyo Metro raises $2.3 bln in Japan's biggest IPO in 6 years
The subway operator priced its shares at the top of its provisional range of ¥1,100 to ¥1,200, a regulatory filing from the company showed on Tuesday.
Kioxia has undergone years of upheaval and the attempt to list the company is closely watched as a test case for buyout firms in Japan where more companies are selling non-core assets or going private.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 14, 2024
Bain sought $10 billion valuation for Japan's Kioxia, but investors only wanted to pay half
The valuation gap complicates the buyout firm's effort to exit its six-year-old investment in Kioxia.
Infcurion offers technology powering a range of payments services such as digital wallets and credit cards.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 11, 2024
Japanese payments company Infcurion says planning IPO in 2025
Infcurion, founded in 2006, offers technology powering a range of payments services such as digital wallets and credit cards.
Kioxia has scrapped its plan for an initial public offering in October, sources have said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2024
Chipmaker Kioxia scraps IPO planned for October after market sell-off
Shares in peers Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology are currently around a third lower than recent highs.
Tokyo Metro will aim to raise $2.25 billion — making it the largest IPO in Japan for six years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2024
Tokyo Metro and Rigaku set stage for $3 billion Japan IPOs as listings gather pace
Tokyo Metro's indicative price of ¥1,100 per share would raise ¥319.55 billion ($2.25 billion), giving the company a market value of ¥639.1 billion.
Employees of a seafood restaurant work in their kitchen space at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. Side gigs are becoming increasingly common in Japan as companies look for flexible sources of labor while workers look to top up income in their spare time.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2024
Japan spot work startup Timee targets July listing, sources say
The startup, founded in 2017, is aiming for a valuation of roughly $1 billion and the joint global coordinators are Daiwa Securities and Morgan Stanley, the people said.
Toshiba is cutting up to 4,000 jobs and relocating its head office from Tokyo to Kawasaki as part of its restructuring efforts.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 16, 2024
Toshiba to cut 4,000 jobs in restructuring effort under new ownership
Toshiba delisted in December due to a ¥2 trillion takeover by a consortium led by a private equity firm, capping a decade of scandal and upheaval.
A prototype of the Astroscale Holdings ELSA-d in-orbit debris capture and removal craft is displayed at the company's office in Tokyo in December 2018.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 5, 2024
Japan space startup Astroscale aims for June listing, sources say
The 11-year-old company spoke to overseas institutional investors in March to gather feedback before making a decision on a listing.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s (TSMC) new plant in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 18, 2024
TSMC eyes advanced chip packaging capacity in Japan, sources say
Bringing its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate packaging technology — currently all in Taiwan — to Japan is one of the options the chipmaker is considering.
The government will extend subsidies worth as much as ¥242.9 billion for Kioxia and Western Digital to expand memory chip production in Mie and Iwate prefectures.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 6, 2024
Japan extends subsidies to downturn-hit Kioxia and Western Digital
The funding provides underpinning for the two companies, which have been hammered by a slump in the market for NAND flash chips.
Japan's industry ministry said it would provide Samsung subsidies worth up to ¥20 billion as it looks to support the revitalization of domestic chip manufacturing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 21, 2023
Samsung to set up chip packaging research facility in Japan
Samsung's investment comes at a time of easing tensions between South Korea and Japan.
Attendees play the Fate/Samurai Remnant video game on PlayStation 5 video game consoles at the Tokyo Game Show in September.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 21, 2023
Sony highlights PS5 momentum as hardware sales top 50 million
Sony is seeing strong momentum for its PlayStation 5 console, a senior games executive has said, with lifetime sales exceeding 50 million units and the company recording its best-ever Black Friday period sales for the device.
Daikin plans to start introducing the custom chips in high-end air conditioners from 2025 and is looking at using them in about a fifth of units by the end of the decade.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 1, 2023
Japan air conditioner king Daikin eyes custom chips for energy savings
Bespoke silicon costs more than off-the-shelf alternatives but offer better efficiency and allow a reduction in the use of other components.
Kokusai Electric's technology and manufacturing center in the city of Toyama
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 25, 2023
Kokusai Electric shares jump 28% in Tokyo debut
The stock closed at ¥2,350, valuing the company at ¥541.5 billion as investors grabbed shares following the IPO.
Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.'s Japanese office in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 17, 2023
Taiwan's Powerchip considering five sites in Japan for factory
Powerchip announced in July that it was setting up a joint venture with financial firm SBI Holdings with the aim of securing government subsidies.
Mother hopes for reunion with daughter ensnared by Tokyo host clubs
The Kabukicho district in Tokyo, where the daughter of a woman in her 60s fell deeply into the host club culture.
A year after going private, structural reforms bearing fruit for Toshiba
Toshiba's Corporate Senior Executive Vice President Koji Ikeya speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Monday.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.
With rare Asia carrier deployment, France seeks greater interoperability
The flight deck of the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier during a stop at Changi Naval Base in Singapore in May 2019

Podcast

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

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

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