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December 22, 2024
 

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Kevin Buckland
A monitor in Tokyo shows the Nikkei stock average tumbling on Monday morning.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 9, 2024
Tech leads Nikkei decline but yen's retreat caps losses
The drop follows a sell-off in U.S. equities on Friday, after monthly U.S. payroll figures confirmed that the jobs market was losing momentum.
The yen traded in the 143 range against the dollar on Monday, a three-week high.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 26, 2024
Dollar sinks against the yen, hovers near 2½-year low to sterling
The U.S. dollar also hovered near its lowest in 13 months against the euro.
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 3, 2024
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
The yen was at around ¥157.55 per dollar when it suddenly spiked, strengthening as far as ¥153 over the next half hour.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 21, 2024
Nikkei scales record high; yen rebounds as Fed out-doves BOJ
The Nikkei marked a record closing high of 40,815.66, up more than 2% on the day, after also setting a fresh all-time intraday peak of 40,823.32.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 22, 2024
Japan's Nikkei scales 34-year peak on Wall Street record
The S&P 500 posted its first record-high close in two years, as AI fever drove big gains for chip shares and other heavyweight tech stocks.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 15, 2024
Nikkei hits 34-year peak above 36,000 as shippers rally
The index finished the day nearly 1% higher at 35,901.73, after touching the highest since February 1990 at 36,008.23.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 12, 2024
Nikkei posts 34-year high, best week in 22 months
The rise was driven both by receding bets on an early exit from the Bank of Japan's stimulus and sheer momentum as foreign investors returned.
Japanese stock markets have already rallied to around their highest since 1990, with consumer and financial stocks outperforming domestic indexes.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Nov 21, 2023
Japan's inflation comeback prompts investors to tear up playbooks
Investors are tearing up their playbooks to focus on expected higher interest rates, more generous dividends and a revival in consumer spending.
Nippon Life Insurance will focus purchases on 30-year JGBs, with the current yield of above 1.8% "good in terms of absolute level," a representative for the insurer said at a recent briefing.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 27, 2023
Japan's life insurers to boost JGB buying but wary of policy shift
Nippon Life, Dai-Ichi Life and Meiji Yasuda Life were among those who said they aimed to buy the longest-dated JGBs amid the highest yields in a decade.
The Bank of Japan intervened in the Japanese government bond (JGB) market on Friday for the fifth time this month after the 10-year yield rose to a fresh decade high.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 20, 2023
Bank of Japan intervenes as 10-year JGB yield hits fresh decade peak
The benchmark JGB yield climbed to 0.845% right at the start of the trading day, its highest since July 2013, after revisiting peaks the previous day.
The yen's slide to the cusp of ¥150 per dollar has put investors on high alert for the risk of intervention.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 29, 2023
Yen intervention a hard sell even as 'red line' beckons
To make even a ripple in the $5 trillion currency market, the BOJ would need to draw down massive amounts of dollar reserves.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda
BUSINESS / Markets / ANALYSIS
Aug 16, 2023
As yen enters intervention range, Japan's policymakers hold fire
With Japan now reaping some benefits from a weaker currency, intervention may not come as quickly as it did last year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 4, 2022
Japan's five-year bond yield scales zero on tighter policy expectation
Stubbornly hot inflation and more hawkishness from other major central banks has spurred bets that the Bank of Japan will need to tighten policy soon.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2019
Toyota banking on Olympic halo to keep hydrogen dream alive
Buses may not be the most glamorous mode of transport, but at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games they will represent Toyota Motor Corp.'s best bet for wider acceptance of hydrogen power — technology so far eclipsed by electric vehicles.
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2019
Why Asia's biggest economies are backing hydrogen fuel cell cars
Japan, China and South Korea have set ambitious targets to put millions of hydrogen-powered vehicles on their roads by the end of the next decade at a cost of billions of dollars.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2019
SoftBank's giant debt burden looks worse than it actually is, analysts say
As SoftBank Group Corp. continues its transformation into a giant investment fund, some analysts are increasingly watching a metric more familiar to lenders as they judge its creditworthiness. And by that gauge, they say, its massive debt pile looks manageable.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 8, 2019
In Japan, China and U.S., scientists work feverishly for a breakthrough on powerful batteries for EVs
To deliver an electric vehicle that's cheaper, safer and capable of traveling over 800 km on a single charge, the auto industry needs a breakthrough in battery technology.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 27, 2018
Does Toyota dream of robotic housekeepers?
Toyota Motor Corp. has sold enough cars to put one outside every Japanese home. Now it wants to put robots inside those homes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 6, 2018
Takeda downgrade looms after shareholders approve Shire deal
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. shareholders' approval of the $62 billion (about ¥7 trillion) acquisition of Shire PLC is good news for its bosses' ambitions to build a global drug giant — but bad news for its credit ratings.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 27, 2018
Plowing millions into Uber, Toyota prepares for a future with fewer privately owned cars
Toyota Motor Corp., Asia's biggest carmaker, is preparing for a potential future where people don't buy cars.
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.
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.
Ride-hailing restrictions to be eased during 2025 Osaka Expo
A venue for the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka
Foxconn's interest in Nissan said to be on hold amid Honda merger talks
Foxconn’s pause in its pursuit of Nissan is the latest development in the unexpected emergence of two suitors for the ailing Japanese carmaker.
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

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