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Minutes from the Bank of Japan's October policy meeting highlight how overseas economic risks, particularly those surrounding the new U.S. administration's policies, will be key to how soon the BOJ will hike rates.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 24, 2024

BOJ debated need for caution in raising rates, meeting minutes show

Contrary to its concern over external risks, the BOJ board was mostly optimistic on domestic economic conditions.
"In order to secure quality talent, we have to raise wages above inflation," Daiwa Securities CEO Akihiko Ogino has said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Daiwa aims to raise wages at least 5% next year amid competition for talent

Daiwa is discussing a pay raise of at least 5% for the financial year beginning in April 2025, after hikes of 5%, 4% and 7% in the three years prior.
Nippon Steel's $15 billion bid for U.S. Steel has been referred to U.S. President Joe Biden after a U.S. panel on foreign investments was unable to reach a consensus.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Nippon Steel's bid for U.S. Steel referred to Biden for final decision

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States referred the bid to the U.S. president after failing to reach a consensus.
U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in October 2017. Canada, like other nations in the president-elect's crosshairs, is scrambling to blunt the impact of his threat to implement steep tariffs once he re-takes office.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2024

The creep of national security threatens the WTO

In Trump's mind, tariffs are the cure-all for virtually everything that ails the United States.
Toyota is negotiating with local authorities and other parties involved to set up a wholly owned production plant in Shanghai in the wake of the Chinese government's foreign investment deregulation.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Toyota eyes solo Lexus EV plant in Shanghai

The automaker, which currently ships Lexus models from Japan to China, intends to put the plant into production as early as around 2027.
Internally displaced Syrians from eastern Ghouta queue for food in a Damascus countryside in April 2018.
WORLD / Society
Dec 24, 2024

Global hunger crisis deepens as major nations skimp on aid

The United Nations says that, at best, it will be able to raise enough money to help about 60% of the 307 million people it predicts will need humanitarian aid next year.
Japan aims to accelerate offshore wind development as part of its decarbonization strategy.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024

Japan selects two groups for third offshore wind power round

The country aims to accelerate offshore wind development as part of its decarbonization strategy.
Christians attend a Christmas mass at the Lady of Damascus church, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024

Syrian Christians attend Christmas mass for first time since Assad's fall

De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told Christians and other groups that they will be safe in a Syria run by his group.
Palestinians gather at a charity kitchen in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Dec. 4.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024

Looting cripples Gaza food supply despite Israeli pledge to tackle gangs

Israel has failed to crack down on armed gangs attacking food convoys in Gaza, despite a pledge to do so in mid-October to help ward off famine in the Palestinian enclave, according to three U.N. and U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The commitment, made behind closed doors, seemed like a breakthrough...
Christians take selfies after a Christmas Eve Mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, on Tuesday, ahead of the 20th anniversary of a magnitude 9.1 earthquake that struck the coast of Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004, triggering a huge tsunami across the Indian Ocean.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 25, 2024

Blogs to Bluesky: Social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami

In two decades, the online social media landscape has experienced a vast change, allowing information — as well as rumor and misinformation — to flow in real time.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 25, 2024

Ishiba aims for agreement on corporate political donations by March

While opposition parties are pushing for a ban on such donations, Ishiba has reiterated his opposition to such a move.
The United States Steel's Clairton Coke Works facility in Clairton, Pennsylvania. In a letter, a group that includes mayors in Pennsylvania and Indiana denounced the head of the United Steelworkers union over his refusal to negotiate in good faith with Nippon Steel its plan to acquire U.S. Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 25, 2024

Mayors urge Biden to approve Nippon Steel acquisition of U.S. Steel

A total of 20 people, including the heads of administrative districts where U.S. Steel facilities are located, underlined the importance of the deal to the local communities.
Africa’s growing resource nationalism is prompting governments to renegotiate mining deals, aiming for a larger share of profits from mineral resources and reducing the revenues for multinational companies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2024

Africans demand a bigger share of their natural resources wealth

Multinational companies should hurry to find sustainable ways in which they can share risk and revenue with governments, as they do elsewhere.
This is set to be the first time Toyota will donate to a U.S. inauguration ceremony.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 25, 2024

Toyota to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration ceremony

President-elect Trump says he plans to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico, triggering concerns from automakers that rely on Mexican production for the U.S. market.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?