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Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Apr 28, 2024

When will Japan intervene to support the yen?

The yen hit a 34-year low past ¥158.40 per dollar in U.S. trading on Friday, after the BOJ announced a decision to keep its monetary policy unchanged.
Palestinian children stand amid the debris of a house destroyed by overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Some U.S. officials say Israel may be violating international law in Gaza

A joint submission from four U.S. bureaus raised "serious concern over non-compliance" with international humanitarian law.
A man, identified as Keith Siegel, 64, speaks in a video released Saturday by Hamas that appeared to show two Israeli hostages who have been held in the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in this screenshot.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Hamas releases video of two hostages as it weighs cease-fire

The Palestinian militant group’s military wing posted a video showing American Israeli citizen Keith Siegel, 64, and Israeli Omri Miran, 47.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton, in Washington, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 28, 2024

Biden jabs Trump in election-year roast at correspondents' dinner

The U.S. president used the annual black-tie event to chide his Republican rival Donald Trump for immaturity and poke fun at his own advanced age.
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 29, 2024

Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990

Japan's top currency official declined to comment on Monday, when asked if authorities in Tokyo had intervened in the currency market to prop up the yen.
Palestinian children stand in a camp for displaced people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip by the border with Egypt on Sunday.
WORLD
Apr 29, 2024

U.S. pushes for Gaza truce and hostage release as Blinken visits

The White House said that Israel has agreed to hear out its concerns.
Chika Kon asks a question at a mock assembly session organized by the town assembly of Zao, Miyagi Prefecture, in July. Kon is now a member of the assembly.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 29, 2024

Local councils in Japan take measures to counter candidate shortfall

Efforts are being made to encourage participation to avoid undermining essential functions such as administrative oversight.
Japan's vice minister of finance for international affairs, Masato Kanda, poses for a photograph during an interview at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo in January 2022.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024

Japan forex authorities ready '24 hours,' top currency diplomat Kanda says

Masato Kanda again declined to comment on whether the Finance Ministry had intervened to prop up the yen a day earlier.
Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Perez speaks during a news conference in Shanghai on April 21.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Apr 30, 2024

Red Bull should stick with Perez, says Szafnauer

Perez's contract runs out at the end of the season, and the 34-year-old faces an uncertain future.
Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip in March
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

U.S. implicates five Israeli units in rights violations before Gaza war

The incidents in question took place in October outside of Gaza before conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a joint ministerial meeting of the GCC-U.S. Strategic Partnership in Riyadh to discuss the humanitarian crises in the Gaza, on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 30, 2024

U.S. warns ICC action on Israel would hurt cease-fire chances

The U.S. and its allies are concerned that the International Criminal Court may issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials just as the country is getting closer to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, potentially jeopardizing a deal, people familiar with the matter said.
Staff from ANA group pose during a Tokyo event in February to commemorate the launch of a comic featuring women in airport ground handling roles.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2024

Japan steps up drive to secure airport ground handling workers

The initiative seeks to ramp up interest in the workforce responsible for ensuring on-time airplane departures behind the scenes.
A staff member works at the animation studio Shake Hands in Kyoto on Jan. 24. The studio aims to provide job training and confidence to people with autism.
JAPAN / Society
May 5, 2024

Anime studio draws on talent of autistic artists

The groundbreaking initiative aims to provide job training and confidence to people with autism.
Japan's government debt has grown to the equivalent of more than 250% of the nation’s economy, more than any of its peers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2024

Japan’s debt dilemma may doom any FX intervention, Brooks says

The consequences have been a sharply weaker yen, which has lost more than a quarter of its value against the U.S. dollar since March 2022.
Japan's industrial production rose 3.8% in March from February, as demand picked up after two straight months of declines.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2024

Japan’s factory output records weakest quarter since pandemic

The yen’s plunge to a fresh 34-year low versus the dollar could spur a resurgence of cost-push inflation via higher costs for imports of food and energy.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024

Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.

The size and timing of the swing indicates that the government stepped in after the currency fell significantly.
Australia PM Anthony Albanese. Albanese on Wednesday announced new legislation to ban deepfake pornography and additional funding for the country's online watchdog.
WORLD / Society
May 1, 2024

Australian PM says violence against women a 'national crisis'

28 women have been killed in Australia so far this year — an average of one death every four days.
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 1, 2024

Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan

Spending per head soared 52% over the first three months compared with 2019.
The root cause of yen weakness lies in the U.S., not Japan, with the currency falling to its weakest since around 1990.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 1, 2024

Japan should leave its currency bazooka at home

The root cause of yen weakness lies in the U.S., not Japan. That makes the latter's options very limited.
An electric screen displaying the Nikkei share average and yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar outside a brokerage in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
May 1, 2024

For Japan Inc., the weak yen may be too much of a good thing

The currency's weakness has pushed up costs of raw materials, food and fuel.
Smokestacks at an Israel Electric Corp power station are seen from the Mediterranean, about 10 kilometers from the coastal Israeli city of Hadera, in 2014.
WORLD
May 2, 2024

Could Israel keep the lights on and water running during regional war?

Israel's energy minister says blackouts and disruptions are unlikely in the country in the case of a multifront war.
A wounded Palestinian man and his injured son in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Wednesday
WORLD
May 2, 2024

U.S. surgeon in Gaza: Nothing prepared me for scale of injuries

Shariq Sayeed said that the vast majority of cases he dealt with involved amputation.
The arrests for Gaza-related posts indicate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s regime will take a hard line against citizens not toeing the line when it comes to normalizing ties with Israel.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

Saudi Arabia steps up Gaza-related arrests as Israel ties edge closer

The arrests are said to reflect a desire by authorities to deter the making of online statements about the war in Gaza that might impact national security.
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.
Police walk past people operating bulldozers to remove the remnants of a protest encampment in support of Palestinians that police broke down the previous night on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles on Thursday.
WORLD / Politics
May 3, 2024

Fresh chaos and arrests as police flatten camp at UCLA

In the pre-dawn hours, helmeted police swarmed a tent city set up at the University of California in Los Angeles, using flash bangs and riot gear.
Mike Tyson (left) and Buster Douglas fight during the seventh round of their world heavyweight title fight at Tokyo Dome on Feb. 11, 1990.
MORE SPORTS / Boxing
May 3, 2024

Tokyo Dome to host boxing for first time since Buster Douglas upset Mike Tyson

Super-bantamweight world champion Naoya "Monster" Inoue will put his belts on the line against Mexican Luis Nery at the Big Egg.
Palestinian group Hamas' top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, speaks during a news conference in Tehran on March 26.
WORLD / Politics
May 4, 2024

Hamas says delegation heading to Cairo for truce talks

Mediators have been waiting for a Hamas response to a proposal to halt the fighting for 40 days and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Shunichi Suzuki, Japan's finance minister
BUSINESS / Markets
May 4, 2024

Japan’s finance minister keeps traders guessing on yen intervention

The comments came days after Japanese authorities apparently entered the market to support the yen on two occasions this week.
Traders edged back from record bets on yen weakness this past week, in a period that included a likely bout of intervention by Japan to prop up the currency.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 4, 2024

Traders spooked by intervention risk trim record yen shorts

Traders edged back from record bets on yen weakness this past week, in a period that included a likely bout of intervention by Japan.
A Palestinian girl holding a child is silhouetted against the lights of an oncoming car in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
WORLD / Politics
May 5, 2024

Hamas official says group will not accept truce that does not end Gaza war

Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. mediators met a Hamas delegation in Cairo on Saturday in the latest bid to halt the fighting.

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it