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Momoka Yokoyama
Most market players expect shareholder activism to be as frenetic, if not more, next year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 17, 2024
Activist investors set record with $6.6 billion spree in Japan
Activists have taken stakes in at least 146 companies, successfully demanding disposal of real estate, changes in strategy and stock buybacks.
While unlikely to revisit the record hit in July, the 225-issue Nikkei average may finish this year up 1.3% from its current level, according to a forecast by analysts.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 8, 2024
Solid earnings will spur hope Japan stocks hold onto 2024 gains
While unlikely to revisit the record hit in July, the 225-issue Nikkei average may finish this year up 1.3% from its current level, according to a forecast by analysts.
Analysts say Warren Buffett may be looking to buy Japanese financial firms and shipping companies.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 3, 2024
Buffett may target Japan banks or insurers for next purchase, analysts say
The billionaire’s company this week mandated banks to manage a yen bond sale in the global market, in a sign he may increase holdings in Japan.
An electric stock board displays the rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in early August.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 31, 2024
Yen’s rapid advance pressures earnings once thought easy to beat
With stronger signals coming from the Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve, the yen has gained 3.5% against the dollar since the end of July.
A monitor in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward displays a news headline reporting the Nikkei stock average plunging on Aug. 5.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 16, 2024
Foreign investors buying Japanese stocks after recent slump, Goldman says
The investment bank's chief Japan equity strategist notes that interest levels from certain segments of the foreign investor community have grown noticeably higher.
The rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar is displayed in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2024
Foreign funds sell Japan’s stocks, longest run in 15 months
Foreign investors sold net ¥21.4 billion ($133 million) of cash equities in the week that ended June 21.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 10, 2024
Japan’s jammed AGM season limits shareholder engagement, investors say
Almost 60% of companies will hold meetings this month, with 30% hosting on June 27.
As companies lose once-stable investors through the unwinding of cross-shareholdings, they are now hoping that rewarding long-term individual shareholders will help make them more resilient in possible proxy battles.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 24, 2024
Japanese firms woo individuals as cross-shareholdings shrink
In a bid to protect themselves from activist investors, firms are trying to build loyalty with long-term individual shareholders by doling out gifts.
Sony’s shares have dropped more than 5% this year, compared with a 16% gain in the Topix index, amid a global electronics slump.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 7, 2024
Sony shares fall as offer for Paramount spurs financing concerns
Investors are worried because the $26 billion proposal is larger than the Japanese electronics company's cash holdings.
The departure hall at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Now with inflation at its strongest in decades, Japanese are starting to realize that years of static wages leave many of them budgeting each month before their next pay check.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Apr 13, 2024
Japan’s young workers head abroad as huge wage gap persists
The outflow is also a sign that many Japanese aren’t buying into the nation’s economic optimism as it exits from decades of deflation.
Overflowing trash next to a vending machine in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, which is popular with tourists, in March
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 18, 2023
Trash cans make techie comeback in Japan as tourists flood cities
This week, the tourist-heavy Dotonbori district in Osaka installed around 20 new technologically enabled garbage cans called SmaGO.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 11, 2023
Japanese companies drive stock split boom, outperforming the market
More than 80 firms have announced stock splits so far in 2023 — almost double the pace of a year earlier and the most for the period in five years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2023
Japan workers are shifting from lifetime employment, LinkedIn's country head says
Firms also need to adapt to changing attitudes among workers who value family life and flexibility more than they did in the past, the company's first female country chief has said.

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