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Workers assemble vehicles at Toyota's Tsutsumi plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024

Toyota union eyes extra month's bonus in annual negotiations

Wage increases by Toyota and other carmakers will be seen as a bellwether for the rest of Japan's manufacturing sector and economy.
Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft under construction in Renton, Washington, in 2017
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024

Boeing under a microscope for safety issues as it reports results

Boeing shares have fallen 21% this month, putting them on track for their worst January since at least 2017.
Noboru Ito (left) uses well water for a makeshift shower at his Real Hair Cutting You beauty salon in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 24.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 30, 2024

Businesses in quake-hit Japanese city tap well water to reopen

Their return to operations helps restore a sense of normalcy among residents.
Shigeru Ishiba, a heavyweight in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, says the Bank of Japan should immediately end its negative interest rate policy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 30, 2024

Dark-horse prime minister candidate calls for ending BOJ's negative rate policy

An outspoken Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, Shigeru Ishiba consistently ranks among favorites to become the next prime minister in opinion polls.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerbeg. In October, more than 30 states sued Meta, alleging its social media apps were feeding harmful content to youth.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 31, 2024

Social media CEOs brace for child safety scrutiny: Here's what to expect

Evidence suggests that excessive use of social media and harmful content may damage mental health.
Industrial output in December rose a seasonally-adjusted 1.8% from the previous month, following a 0.9% decline in November, with the industry ministry maintaining its basic assessment that it is fluctuating indecisively.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2024

Japan’s factory output gains to support economy’s patchy rebound

The rebound may potentially remove a hurdle for the Bank of Japan as it mulls the timing of a likely interest rate hike.
China's rural banking system plays a crucial role in lending to underdeveloped areas, but many had long struggled with weak profits, soured assets and lax governance.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2024

China merges hundreds of rural banks as financial risks mount

But legacy issues — if unresolved — could still cripple the operations of the newly formed institutions and cause bigger problems.
Elon Musk
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Musk’s $55 billion Tesla pay package struck down, threatening status

Worth some $51.1 billion, Musk's Tesla options were one of his most valuable assets. Without them his net worth would drop to $154.3 billion.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda (center) attends a monetary policy meeting at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Jan. 23.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2024

'Golden opportunity': BOJ signals rate hike ahead with ramped-up exit talk

Central bank board members indicate that conditions allowing the termination of its negative rate policy are increasing.
A Japan Post delivery truck. Certain parcels will take longer to arrive under changes set to begin in April.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Japan Post announces delayed timeframes for express deliveries

The changes come as part of an effort to cope with stricter regulations on truck drivers’ working hours.
Garments at a Shein Group pop-up store inside a Forever-21 store in the Times Square neighborhood of New York on Nov. 10, 2023
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Cars and online retailers outperform as China exports disappoint

The sectors represented the fastest expansion among China's economy, with an export value of at least $10 billion.
A statue of Mario on display inside a Takashiyama department store in Kyoto in November. Nintendo's shares have soared 47% in the past year, outpacing gains in console rivals Microsoft and Sony Group over the past couple of months.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Nintendo’s record gain tested in wait for 'Switch 2’

Nintendo's shares have soared 47% in the past year, recently outpacing gains in console rivals Microsoft and Sony Group.
A bottle of Bayer AG Roundup brand weedkiller concentrate
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Bayer faces billions in Roundup claims as legal strategy falls short

In the firm's biggest courtroom loss so far, a jury awarded $2.25 billion to a former user who blamed his cancer diagnosis on exposure to the herbicide.
Cars ready to be loaded onto a ship for export at the port in Yantai, in China's eastern Shandong province, on Jan. 2
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 31, 2024

China seized Japan's crown for vehicle exports in 2023, data shows

The Chinese auto sector has boomed in recent years largely because of massive investments in electric cars, while Japanese firms have been more cautious.
The thick, supposedly lucky sushi rolls of Setsubun are full of it.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 31, 2024

How a trendy sushi roll usurped the traditions of Setsubun

The lore around “ehōmaki” sounds just whacky enough to make it an old custom, but it turns out to be a fairly recent phenomenon.
Shoko Kawata stumps in the city of Yawata, Kyoto Prefecture, last year.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 6, 2024

Japan's youngest female city mayor is focused on women's empowerment

The election of Shoko Kawata, 33, was unexpected — but was a welcome change for some.
Mitsuko Tottori (right), incoming president of Japan Airlines, and Yuji Akasaka, outgoing president, during a news conference in Tokyo on Jan. 17
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024

Japan opens door to more women directors, but managers still rare

Women account for only 13.4% of directors and executive officers at the 1,836 firms listed on the TSE's Prime market, and of these 13% are internal hires.
Harboring feelings for her one-time film director, a woman (Adela Sou, left) sets out to find him after he mysteriously disappears in “Everything, Everywhere.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2024

‘Everything, Everywhere’: Contemplative drama speaks to lonely drifters

Kah Wai Lim captures the beauty of the Balkans in his film about an adrift filmmaker and his muse who searches for him.
Jason Citron, Evan Spiegel, Shou Zi Chew, Linda Yaccarino and Mark Zuckerberg are sworn in as they testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 1, 2024

Senators slam social media CEOs on child online safety

"These companies must be reined in, or the worst is yet to come”
Fujitsu apologized for its role in the wrongful conviction of more than 900 subpostmasters in the U.K. who used its accounting software.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Fujitsu promises better quality control after U.K. scandal

The Tokyo-based technology company is the subject of an inquiry into a glitch in its Horizon accounting software used by the U.K. Post Office.
U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington on Wednesday. Powell signaled that an interest rate cut as soon as in March is unlikely, as the central bank remains data-dependent when mulling its next steps.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 1, 2024

Fed cements pivot but pushes back on timing of cuts

Chair Jerome Powell said officials would move patiently and doused speculation that rate cuts would start at the next meeting.
Activists hold placards during a rally ahead of environment day in Jakarta on June 4, 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 1, 2024

Green pledges lack ambition, say Indonesian youth ahead of vote

While candidates have spoken during campaigns about the urgent risks posed by climate change, in a new development, detail is missing from policies.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally ahead of the Republican caucus in Las Vegas on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Trump says he'd block Nippon-U.S. Steel deal, dubbing it 'terrible'

The former U.S. president aims to win over blue-collar union voters who could play a key role in states like Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is based.
Honda's four-seater CiKoMa EV can travel at speeds of up to 20 kph.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024

Honda to test automated EV and logistic robot in Ibaraki Prefecture

The four-seater EV, named CiKoMa, can travel at speeds of up to 20 kph.
Curbs on Boeing production in the wake of a mid-air blowout is adding to pressures forcing airlines to fly older planes for longer.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Feb 2, 2024

Boeing 737 Max crisis adds to high demand for older planes

Curbs on Boeing production in the wake of a mid-air blowout are adding to pressures forcing firms to fly older planes for longer.
Changes from the World Bank are part of broader reform efforts to expand the development lender's mission to tackle climate change and other global crises, and vastly enlarging its lending capacity.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2024

World Bank to offer access to emergency funds from existing loans

The move will offer nations hit by a hurricane, earthquake or pandemic a liquidity burst that could reduce hardship.
'Menchi katsu' are actually made with as much chopped vegetables as ground meat, so it’s a sneaky way to get some veggies into your childrens' diets.
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Feb 4, 2024

Recipe: Deep-fried minced meat cutlets

These days, 'menchi katsu' have been become popular as a "B-class gourmet" item — something that is inexpensive but tasty.
Toyota plans to shorten plant operating hours and review its product development plans, with tight schedules being partly blamed for the scandals involving group companies Daihatsu and Toyota Industries.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 2, 2024

Toyota to shorten plants' maximum operating hours

The 30-minute reduction is aimed at giving workers a more flexible schedule following a series of certification irregularities at its group companies.
The National Stock Exchange of India building in Mumbai, India. Japanese investors are increasingly shifting their focus to the Indian stock market on bets that the South Asian nation will be the next China.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 2, 2024

Japanese retail investors pile billions into Indian equities

In contrast, flows into Chinese shares have dropped the most among 14 emerging markets covered by Japan’s data on international investment positions.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was quick to play down the tensions, saying that the coalition was still intact.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Feb 2, 2024

'Open warfare': Philippines' Marcos-Duterte alliance crumbles

The alliance between the two was always expected to collapse, but analysts are surprised by how soon the gloves have come off.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?