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Flames leap out of an oven where rare-earth-based chemicals are roasted for more than 20 hours, in Changshu, China.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 27, 2024

China tightens its hold on minerals needed to make computer chips

The country already produces nearly all the world’s supply of these materials. The new restrictions solidify that market dominance.
Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces, is greeted by an honor guard upon arriving at Juba International Airport in South Sudan on  Sept. 16.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2024

The dark reality of global capitalism and perpetual war

In countries like Sudan and the DRC, however, we have something closer to the feudalism of medieval times.
Former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2024

Michelle Obama makes a searing appeal to men: ‘Take our lives seriously’

Michelle Obama told her audience that Trump would further damage women’s health care, while Harris has vowed to enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law.
Olympus CEO Stefan Kaufmann has resigned over an allegation he bought illegal drugs, the company announced Monday.
BUSINESS
Oct 28, 2024

Olympus CEO exits after probe into drug-buying allegation

Stefan Kaufmann has resigned all positions effective immediately, the company said in a statement.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba poses for a photo with other members of the Liberal Democratic Party at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Sunday night after polls closed in the 2024 general election.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024

Success and scandals: the Liberal Democratic Party

The LDP remains associated with the postwar economic miracle, said Tomoaki Iwai of Nihon University.
A public screen displays financial figures in Shanghai on Sept. 12.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 28, 2024

Stimulus matters more than U.S. election for Chinese stocks

Whether it be Donald Trump or Kamala Harris as the new U.S. leader, global money managers expect escalated hostility toward China.
Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 28, 2024

Wall Street and tech royalty fly to Saudi event amid Mideast war

International executives attending will have to contend with a region rocked by geopolitical tensions.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda responds to questions during a governors talk on Japanese inflation and monetary policy at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group meeting in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Oct 28, 2024

BOJ on quest for better communication as more rate hikes loom

Communicating in a unified voice could prove challenging if each policymaker interprets data differently.
Yoshihiko Noda, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, walks past a monitor displaying Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of the Liberal Democratic Party. Neither party gained a majority in Sunday's general election.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2024

A general-election postmortem

The LDP is left to pick up the pieces of Ishiba's disastrous decision to call a snap election, putting him at risk of becoming Japan's shortest-lived prime minister.
Singapore's Marina Bay Sands at dusk on Sept. 17
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 28, 2024

AI boom and wild weather take spotlight in Southeast Asian earnings

Stronger currencies, driven in part by the Federal Reserve’s pivot to interest-rate cuts, also buoyed stocks.
Electronic monitors show stock prices rising in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 28, 2024

Yen takes a hit and Tokyo stocks jump as dovish opposition gains seats

Analysts said that the pace of interest rate increases could be slowed if opposition parties get more say in policymaking.
In the run-up to the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, the yen is again the top performer during periods of extreme market stress, analysts say.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 29, 2024

Embattled yen still popular haven amid U.S. election uncertainty

Japan’s record ¥3.02 trillion current-account surplus, deep yen liquidity and relatively low inflation help make the yen attractive as a store of value.
The Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant's No. 2 reactor was set to restart Tuesday after more than 13 years of suspension.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2024

Japan restarts nuclear power plant closest to 2011 earthquake

Nuclear power used to account for around a quarter of Japan’s electricity mix prior to the disaster, but it was at just 6% as of March 2023.
Toyota Motor and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone will spend ¥500 billion together on a project to develop the traffic accident prevention technology, and aim to commercialize it in 2028.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 29, 2024

Toyota and NTT to jointly develop driver assistance technology that uses AI

The ¥500 billion project will use artificial inteligence and optical communication infrastructure, aiming to commercialize by 2028.
Japan's jobless rate decreased to 2.4% in September, falling to its lowest level since January.
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2024

Job market tightened in September, supporting wage gains and BOJ policy goals

Higher demand for workers is expected to pressure companies to raise salaries to retain them, potentially feeding into a virtuous cycle between prices and wages.
Parents walk their children to school in Guanghzou, China, on Sept. 4, 2019
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2024

China's private tutoring firms emerge from the shadows after crackdown

There is now tacit consent from policymakers in China to allow the tutoring industry to grow.
Akira Amari, a former economy minister, championed funneling large sums of public money into building up the country’s semiconductor capacity.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 29, 2024

Japan’s chip push loses key advocate after election defeat

Akira Amari had championed funneling large sums of public money into building up the country’s semiconductor capacity.
New cars, among them new China-built electric vehicles of the company BYD, are seen parked in the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 30, 2024

EU slaps tariffs on Chinese EVs, risking Beijing backlash

The European Union has decided to increase tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles to as much as 45.3%.
Ringhals nuclear power plant near Varberg, Sweden
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2024

Sweden’s nuclear revival in question as green hangover spreads

A policy U-turn that would entail a massive build-out of reactors, the first to come online in more than 40 years, now appears more unlikely.
Toyota's worldwide production fell for an eighth straight month in September, as both sales and output declined in its two biggest markets, the United States and China.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 30, 2024

Toyota sales fall in Japan and China, as hybrid demand grows in U.S.

Toyota’s sales in Japan shrank nearly 17% this year between January and September.
The price of gold offered by Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo rose ¥173 from Tuesday to ¥15,104 per gram, including tax.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 30, 2024

Gold prices in Japan top ¥15,000 per gram for the first time

Concerns about political uncertainty following next week's U.S. presidential election is another reason for people to buy gold.
After a two-day meeting of the Bank of Japan policy board ends on Thursday, Gov. Kazuo Ueda is likely to stick to the script and repeat almost verbatim his previous remarks.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 30, 2024

Bank of Japan set to stay course with Ueda seen sticking to script

Deviations from expectations in the statement could have an impact on markets, analysts say.
Maruti Suzuki, which is majority-owned by Suzuki Motor, will begin production of a new EV from spring 2025 at its plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 30, 2024

Toyota to get Suzuki's first-ever EV as partnership expands

Maruti Suzuki, which is majority-owned by Suzuki, will begin production of the EV from spring 2025 in Gujarat, India.
Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada won the outstanding lead actress and actor awards in a drama series, respectively, for "Shogun" at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 15.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2024

'Peak Japan' is now, so seize the moment, Japan

Japan has never been hotter! Japan is the number one country in the world right now, as voted on by everyone else except for the Japanese.
Kunihiro Tanaka, CEO of Sakura Internet, says the firm's data center under construction in Hokkaido will likely be fully booked by the time it comes online in three years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 31, 2024

Sakura Internet loads up on Nvidia gear for data center project

Sakura’s current capacity is now fully booked, with a waiting list that extends for years.
New cars parked at Yantai port, in eastern China's Shandong province, on Oct. 21
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 31, 2024

China tells carmakers to halt investment in some EU states, sources say

New EU tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles have prompted retaliation from Beijing.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with South Korea's Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun during the U.S.-ROK Security Consultative Meeting at the Pentagon in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

North Korea troops could lengthen and broaden Ukraine war, U.S. warns

The move looks increasingly like a deployment to support Russia's combat operations in the Kursk region, the U.S. defense secretary said.
A local resident watches Ukrainian rescuers clear debris on the site of a Russian missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 31, 2024

U.S. sanctions entities in India, China and Turkey over Russia war supplies

The U.S. and its allies have piled thousands of sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, yet Russia’s GDP is projected to grow 3.5% to 4% in 2024.
Gov. Kazuo Ueda has made it clear over the past few months that any monetary policy moves are dependent on inflation and growth data being aligned with forecasts.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 31, 2024

Bank of Japan keeps policy rate steady at 0.25%, as expected

The central bank held its ground this week even as it faced considerable political and economic pressure and significant uncertainty on the horizon.
Japan's industrial production gained 1.4% from August, led by cars and chemical product manufacturers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 31, 2024

Japan's September factory output beat estimates but was down year on year

While the figures were stronger than forecast, production was weak, and uncertainty over domestic and overseas demand clouds the outlook.

Longform

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