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October 05, 2025
 

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Employees select sheets of Green Virginia tobacco leaves for processing at a Japan Tobacco cigarette plant in Senta, Serbia. While rivals have set ambitious targets for "smoke-free” products, Japan Tobacco has focused more on conventional combustible tobacco products.
BUSINESS / Companies
Japan Tobacco is doubling down on cheap cigarettes
While rivals have set ambitious targets for "smoke-free” products, Japan Tobacco has focused more on conventional combustible tobacco products.
BUSINESS / Companies
Japan Fair Trade Commission to warn JR Central and others over bid-rigging
The move, relating to overpass inspection work, comes after the JFTC conducted on-site inspections of JR Central and others in October last year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sumitomo Life takes unusual step to avoid marking JGB losses
The Osaka-based firm, one of Japan’s top-four life insurers, is taking advantage of guidelines for bond investors when prices move sharply.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is strengthening its focus on business catering to the rich, as a bullish Japanese stock market and recovering real estate prices have pushed up the number of such clients in recent years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 3, 2025
MUFG is hiring more bankers in Japan wealth management push
By Taiga Uranaka and Hideki Suzuki
MUFG is targeting clients with at least ¥300 million in total assets. The bank estimates that about 300,000 of its account holders fit that description.
Asahi's troubles carry outsized weight given Super Dry’s dominant market share and the cutthroat competition among Japan’s major brewers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 3, 2025
Asahi blames ransomware for crippling Japanese beer plants
By Koh Yoshida
The maker of Japan’s most popular beer warned that the perpetrators may have made off with data, though it’s investigating the extent of the infiltration.
Isuzu Chairman Masanori Katayama (third from left) and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (center) attend a groundbreaking ceremony for the firm's vehicle plant in South Carolina on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 2, 2025
Isuzu to build first independent U.S. plant
The Japanese commercial vehicle maker aims to ease the impact of high U.S. tariffs by expanding local production.
Mitsubishi Electric's new semiconductor plant in Kikuchi, Kumamoto Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 2, 2025
Mitsubishi Electric completes semiconductor facility in Kumamoto Prefecture
The new facility in Kikuchi, Kumamoto Prefecture, will start operations in November, with mass production targeted for 2027.
Japan Post's mini cargo vehicles parked at a post office in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 1, 2025
Japan Post served notice suspending mini cargo vehicle use
The transport ministry suspended 111 post offices from using such vehicles over their failure to properly conduct roll calls for drivers.
A new Nissan Rogue compact SUV at a dealership in Richmond, California, in September. Nissan is readying a plug-in hybrid option for its best-selling Rogue model for launch in early 2026 in the U.S. market and reviving its Xterra SUV as a hybrid model.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 1, 2025
Nissan to reboot Xterra SUV as a hybrid, freezes plans for U.S. EV
By Chester Dawson
The Japanese carmaker is planning to boost gas-powered vehicle output in the U.S. in response to President Donald Trump’s trade and environmental policies.
Marubeni Ennex tanks in Chiba Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 1, 2025
Marubeni to lift Japan power business with new trading firm
By Shoko Oda and Koh Yoshida
The company’s power retail arm and its U.K.-based energy trading unit SmartestEnergy will each hold a 50% stake in the newly-formed venture.

Takaichi poised to become Japan's first female PM after winning LDP poll
Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, holds a news conference after the LDP presidential election in Tokyo on Saturday.
A Japanese ski resort town is roiled by a debate over immigration
A Swedish snowboard instructor works at the Niseko ski resort area on Hokkaido, in Kutchan, in December 2022
Tokyo's newest stationery store sells 'a slower, more human rhythm'
Plotter's signature customizable leather binder is just one of many products contributing to the ongoing boom in the popularity of Japanese stationery.
One dead, one missing in Japan after bear attack
A bear warning sign. More and more wild bears have been spotted in Japan in recent years, even in residential areas, due to factors including a declining human population and climate change.
Japan’s jobless rate edges up to highest in over a year
August’s unemployment figures showed a slight tempering of Japan's job market, but the data still points to overall firmness amid an ongoing labor shortage.
The summer kabuki came roaring back
Kabuki has been trying for years to attract a new generation of fans. One way to do this has been to adapt manga and anime franchises, such as “Naruto,” for the stage. 
Tea ceremony experts see matcha boom as a big opportunity
Atsuko Mori, founder and director of Kyoto-based tea salon Camellia Tea Ceremony, prepares matcha during a tea ceremony in Kyoto.
Japan's far-right party courts Trump allies and vows not to get 'wacky'
Sanseito party leader Sohei Kamiya speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Sept. 25.
How Ohtani has boosted Japan's soft power and made LA even more baseball-obsessed
Fans at Dodger Stadium pose in front of a mural highlighting the Dodgers' Japanese stars from past and present during a game earlier this year.
Japan faces fresh energy challenge as it seeks to expand power-hungry data centers
Data storage tapes at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center facility in Berkeley, California. Data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water, and that will only rise as generative artificial intelligence takes off in earnest.

Podcast

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

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons
Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

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