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Seven-Eleven Japan holds a demonstration of delivering freshly baked pizza in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 5, 2024

Japan convenience stores boosting quick delivery services

Over 3,000 products such as drinks, snacks and daily goods are currently available for delivery from 7-Eleven.
Commercial food trucks are seen near a checkpoint near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on May 28.
WORLD
Jul 5, 2024

Feeding Gaza: Traders run gauntlet of bullets, bombs and bribes

Getting food to the Gaza Strip's mostly displaced population of 2.3 million has been beset by bureaucracy and violence since Oct. 7.
Power lines in the Yanqing district of Beijing in 2021
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 5, 2024

China, struggling to exploit an energy storage boom, calls for more

The drive boosts home-grown battery giants but some experts say more must be done to address low utilization and losses for operators.
A monitor displaying the Topix share average, 225-issue Nikkei average and the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar, outside a brokerage in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 5, 2024

Japan’s stock records lack punch of yen’s fall

When the yen collapsed to a 38-year low just days before the stock-index record was achieved, the event was seen as significant and greatly concerning.
Starting from September, foreign employees on a work visa must abide by a new points-based system to keep working in Singapore.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2024

Singapore is making life tougher for global talent

The city-state could lose its position as a global business hub if it keeps tightening the rules for overseas employees in a political bid to appease local residents.
Toyota Customizing & Development, a Toyota subsidiary, broke the subcontract payment law, the Fair Trade Commission said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 5, 2024

Toyota unit violated subcontractor protection law: regulator

Yokohama-based Toyota Customizing & Development broke the law by having dozens of suppliers store metal die casts and other items without paying any storage fees.
A man walks out of the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai in February 2020.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 6, 2024

Chinese and Indian stocks favored over Japan in Asia’s second half

Several strategists and fund managers picked either China or India as their top bet in an informal survey while Japan was a distant third.
Visitors walk past an Amazon exhibition booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 6, 2024

Is AI a major drain on the world's energy supply?

The spread of data centers across the globe is throwing a spotlight on the amount of energy the technology uses as well as its impact on the environment.
Ryo Sakai, the chief of staff of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, is expected to quit his post following reports that several MSDF vessels allowed unvetted personnel to handle top secret information related to national security.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2024

MSDF chief may quit over widespread mishandling of secret info

The latest revelation comes just months after the ministry punished five SDF members over leaks of secret information to unvetted personnel.
A voter picks up ballot papers at a polling station in Noumea in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 7, 2024

Far right bids for power as France holds parliamentary election

Marine Le Pen's RN scored historic gains to win last Sunday's first-round vote, raising the specter of France's first far-right government since World War II.
Yoshihiro Uchida inside the San Jose State University building that was renamed after him in 1997, in San Jose, California, in 2012.
MORE SPORTS / Judo
Jul 7, 2024

Yoshihiro Uchida, peerless American judo coach, dies at 104

The son of Japanese immigrants, Uchida began coaching judo at San Jose State in the 1940s, while he was still a student there.
One analyst argues that the billions of dollars flowing from Japan to the likes of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft might be more a positive than a negative in that more companies and individuals are using digital services.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 7, 2024

Japan’s digital deficit might be a good thing

The digital deficit indicates that digitalization has accelerated in the country, says Mitsubishi Research Institute researcher Kengo Wataya.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen talks to journalists after partial results in the second round of the early French parliamentary elections, at the French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party venue in Paris on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 8, 2024

Bubble bursts for France's far-right as voters bar it from power

Marine Le Pen's National Rally was on course to come in third, behind a left-wing alliance and President Emmanuel Macron's centrist bloc.
Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture. The mayor of Himeji has suggested that foreign tourists pay four times more to enter the castle than the current ¥1,000 entrance fee.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 8, 2024

Japan really should charge tourists four times more

The suggestion by a Kansai mayor that foreign visitors pay more for tourist attractions doesn't go far enough. The government should establish a nationwide policy.
Japanese workers' base pay increased 2.5% in May from a year ago, the fastest growth since 1993.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 8, 2024

Japan base pay jumps most since 1993 in positive signal for BOJ

Base pay increased 2.5% in May from a year ago, the fastest growth since 1993.
The Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee typically meets seven times in its five-year tenure, with the third of these plenums being particularly important as it represents the first chance for the new leadership to properly introduce its broad thinking on economic and political issues.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 8, 2024

Why China’s third plenum matters for global investors

The typically once-in-five-years conclave of top officials usually deals with major economic and political policy changes.
A working group led by the Japan Securities Dealers Association finished a series of monthly meetings in June that discussed details of applying covenants to local corporate notes with lower ratings.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 8, 2024

Japan pushes for greater use of protections on corporate bonds

A Japan Securities Dealers Association working group finished meetings in June on adding covenants to lower-rated corporate notes.
A sprawling, secretive influence operation is attempting to vilify Qatar, the Gulf state mediating between Israel and Hamas.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 8, 2024

Shadow campaign: Global influence op targets Qatar in wartime

The campaign against Qatar shows the ease with which a person or an entire country can be tarnished in the age of disinformation while masking the ultimate perpetrators.
Hiroshi Matano, executive vice president of the World Bank Group's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, during an interview in Washington on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 8, 2024

World Bank official backs Japan to show regional climate leadership

There is significant room for emissions reductions in the Asia-Pacific region.
Samsung workers chant slogans during a walkout outside the company’s semiconductor plant in Hwaseong, South Korea, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 8, 2024

Samsung union steps up pressure over pay with three-day strike

The union has spent weeks preparing for the walkout, after negotiations over pay and vacation time collapsed last month.
Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are assembled at the company’s plant in Renton, Washington, on June 25.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 8, 2024

Boeing to plead guilty to fraud in U.S. probe of fatal 737 MAX crashes

Boeing will plead guilty to lying to the FAA about a software feature on the MAX, which saved money by reducing pilot training requirements.
Japan logged a current account surplus for the 16th straight month in May.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 8, 2024

Japan logs largest May current account surplus

The country logged a current account surplus for the 16th straight month.
Hisashi Takazawa, the fifth-generation owner of Takazawa Candle, has put up messages of support from crowdfunding backers on the window of the temporary shop for his business in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture. The Noto Peninsula earthquake caused the roof of its original storefront to collapse.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 8, 2024

Crowdfunding boosts post-quake rebuilding efforts in Noto

Some 330 projects related to the Noto Peninsula earthquake had been launched on three platforms by the end of May, raising a total of around ¥1.39 billion ($8.7 million).
Some regional smaller firms have decided to prioritize raising pay to retain or hire workers, even if they have not been earning sufficient profits, the Bank of Japan has said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 8, 2024

Bank of Japan sees wage hikes spreading across economy

The optimistic assessment may heighten the case for the central bank to raise interest rates as soon as its next meeting on July 30 and 31.
French President Emmanuel Macron and French First Lady Brigitte Macron leave after voting in the second round of French parliamentary elections at a polling station in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, France, on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 9, 2024

France in limbo after Macron gamble deepens political deadlock

No political party wields an outright majority after the French election, and no obvious candidate for prime minister has emerged.
Rescuers work at Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital, which was hit by Russian missile strikes in Kyiv on Monday.
WORLD
Jul 9, 2024

Russian missiles kill 36 and hit a children's hospital, Ukraine says

The Ukrainian government proclaimed a day of mourning after one of the worst air attacks of the war.
A man watches a large screen showing news coverage of Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Beijing on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 9, 2024

Orban’s shuttle diplomacy angers EU and whiplashes allies

The Hungarian prime minister made trips to Moscow and Beijing after his country took over the EU's rotating presidency on July 1.
The Consumer Affairs Agency is advising people to ignore unfamiliar payment requests over the phone, even if a major company is named.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 9, 2024

Beware of overseas number phone scams, Japan’s consumer watchdog warns

Scammers claiming to be telecommunications company NTT demanding “unpaid fees” have duped victims into making substantial payments amounting to millions of yen.
Protesters hold a giant French flag on the statue of Marianne as people gather at the Place de la Republique, after partial results in the second round of the early French parliamentary elections, in Paris on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 9, 2024

Debt and political deadlock keep investors nervous after French election

At the center of the euro project and the bloc's second biggest economy, France, still faces a hung parliament and taxing negotiations to form a government.
A bull statue stands outside the Shenzhen Stock Exchange building in Shenzhen in September 2019.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 9, 2024

China’s plenum promises cues for commodity bulls and bears

China is the world’s biggest importer of commodities and its dominant supplier of clean energy, so decisions taken in Beijing ripple across the world.

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