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U.S. Steel workers rally outside the company's headquarters in Pittsburgh in support of the takeover by Japan's Nippon Steel back in September.
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2025

The Nippon Steel deal’s lessons for the world

Former U.S. President Joe Biden’s stiff opposition to the deal may have created space, if not impetus, for President Donald Trump to resurrect the acquisition.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 15, 2025

Trump says new tariffs on autos coming around April 2

The auto threat offers to put some of the biggest brands in Japan, Germany and South Korea in Trump’s crosshairs.
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House in Washington on Feb. 7.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 15, 2025

U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel were blindsided by Trump investment talk

The proposed investment following Donald Trump's meeting with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba wasn’t communicated to either of the steelmakers beforehand.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during family photo session with other leaders and attendees at the Group of 20 summit in the city of Osaka in June 2019.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 15, 2025

Saudis spearhead Arab scramble for alternative to Trump's Gaza plan

Draft ideas will be discussed at a meeting in Riyadh this month of countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Hedge funds have been piling into Chinese equities at the fastest pace in months as bullishness on the DeepSeek-driven technology rally adds to hopes for more economic stimulus.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 16, 2025

DeepSeek drives $1.3 trillion China stock rally as funds pile in

DeepSeek’s breakthrough in artificial intelligence is helping drive a rotation of stock funds back into China from India.
Group of Seven top diplomats, including Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (second from left) and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right), meet on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in the German city on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 16, 2025

Japanese FM asks U.S. counterpart to exempt Tokyo from Trump tariffs

The foreign minister also said that he had broached the issue of Trump’s planned tariffs on automobiles imported to the U.S.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacts during the Munich Security Conference in the German city on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 16, 2025

Zelenskyy says draft U.S. minerals deal 'does not protect' Ukraine

The negotiations illustrate the pitfalls Zelenskyy faces as he seeks to win Donald Trump's backing and secure post-war security guarantees.
All Nippon Airways aircraft at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in August 2024. ANA has staked a lot on greener kinds of jet fuel, with 70% of the emissions reductions under its net-zero emissions plan coming from them.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability / OUR PLANET
Feb 16, 2025

Sky not the only limit for JAL and ANA’s climate goals

The airlines' similar but different carbon neutrality plans highlight the difficulty of decarbonization, especially as the sector is now growing again.
Steelworks of South Korea's largest steelmaker POSCO are seen over a residential area in Pohang on Feb. 13. Smoke billows from chimneys as factories churn in South Korea's steelmaking heartland, now under threat from Washington's new tariffs on the port city's largest export.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Feb 16, 2025

Trump tariffs loom large in South Korea's 'steel city'

South Korea was the fourth largest exporter of the metal to the United States last year, accounting for 13% of its total steel imports.
U.S. President Donald Trump listens alongside Elon Musk as he explains the administration's cost-cutting efforts in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 16, 2025

Fired U.S. nuclear bomb specialists recalled by Energy Department

The employees, responsible for designing and maintaining U.S. nuclear weapons, were part of a larger wave of mass dismissals, drawing alarm from national security experts.
Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Feb 17, 2025

The race to save 20th-century history

Analog recordings are at risk of disappearing as old tech breaks down and spare parts run out.
Japan's gross domestic product grew by an annualized rate of 2.8% in the October-December period, far more than the 1% forecast.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 17, 2025

Japan’s economic boomlet continues with strong fourth-quarter growth

Gross domestic product grew 2.8% in the three months to December, compared with a median market estimate of a 1% gain.
The Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda last month reiterated his long-held position that he needs more time to mull the fate of the ETFs because it’s a complicated issue.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 17, 2025

BOJ shifts focus to ETF assets as end of bank stock sales nears

The ETF holdings are the last major piece of Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s policy puzzle.
As an alternative way of wagering on yen strength, some firms are using strategies involving European currencies, rather than the U.S. dollar, to profit from a widening rate differential with Japan.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 17, 2025

Dollar swings drive creative yen bulls to European-currency trades

Some firms are using strategies involving European currencies, rather than the dollar, to profit from a widening rate differential with Japan.
Tokio Marine Holdings and other large non-life insurers are facing pressure to sell cross-held shares to improve their governance.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 17, 2025

Japan insurers sell $11 billion cross-held shares ahead of plans

The insurers are facing pressure to improve their governance after regulators fined them for coordinating adjustments in insurance fees in advance for companies.
Ravens kicker Justin Tucker has been accused of sexual misconduct by multiple massage therapists in Baltimore.
MORE SPORTS / Football
Feb 17, 2025

Seven more women accuse Ravens kicker Justin Tucker of sexual misconduct

Tucker has strongly denied wrongdoing both in a post on X and in a formal statement via his attorneys.
A worker rides a tractor while spraying organic pesticide on crops at a farm in Hudson, New York, in 2020.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2025

EU plans stricter food import restrictions over pesticide use

EU farmers have been protesting across Europe over the past year about the increasing burdens of the bloc’s climate and environmental rules.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov (center left), German Head of the Federal Chancellery and Minister for Special Tasks Wolfgang Schmidt and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend the Munich Security Conference in Munich on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 18, 2025

Security demands cast new shadow on Europe's finances

Some fear a political backlash if governments simply slash social spending to buy more soldiers and guns.
Sony Group looks set to become the latest flagship name to tap Japan's corporate bond market.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 18, 2025

Japan’s historic rate shift is turbo-charging the credit market

Japanese companies have sold ¥14.7 trillion ($96.8 billion) of local-currency bonds in the current fiscal year, a record for the period.
A giant screen shows news footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng during a symposium on private enterprises, at a shopping complex in Beijing on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 18, 2025

China's tech rally rests on 'hot money'

Hong Kong tech shares have surged 31% since the middle of January to hit three-year highs on Monday while President Xi Jinping sat down with top tech leaders in Beijing.
Members of Taiwan's armed forces, riding on a M60A3 tank, participate in a drill as part of a demonstration for the media to show combat readiness, at a military base in Taitung, Taiwan, on Jan. 31, 2024.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Taiwan considering multibillion dollar arms purchase from U.S., sources say

Taipei is hoping to win support from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump as China continues to apply military pressure on the island.
Discussion that took place at the the reconstruction and future creation conference
ESG CONSORTIUM
Feb 18, 2025

NRI helps Noto town of Anamizu grow back better following quake

The major earthquake that jolted Ishikawa Prefecture’s Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1, 2024, drew attention to the area’s severe issue of an aging and shrinking population, but efforts to revive the Anamizu Town, which is in the center of the Noto Peninsula, will aid the overall recovery, according to...
Britain is the second country after the United States to launch a "two-plus-two" economic dialogue with Japan.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Japan and Britain to hold economic talks on March 7

Britain will be the second country after the United States to hold a "two-plus-two" dialogue with Japan.
A Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train featuring the Tokyo DisneySea amusement park Fantasy Springs theme is unveiled in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 18, 2025

JR Central unveils Disney-themed shinkansen train in Tokaido line first

The train's livery in inspired by the theme of Fantasy Springs, a new area of the Tokyo DisneySea amusement park
Kodai Furutani, the assistant chief priest at Ryugasan Unmon Temple in Annaka, Gunma Prefecture, is working to become an interfaith chaplain.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2025

Monk in chaplain training urges people to face death and live life

There is a deep-seated idea in Japan that a monk being seen at a hospital is a bad omen, as their presence reminds patients and medical staff of death.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance delivers a blunt speech before the 61st Munich Security Conference on Friday, sending shockwaves through Europe's halls of government.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2025

The patterns and philosophy underpinning Trump’s dizzying diplomacy

With the start of his second term, Trump's actions appear to be chaotic, both to friend and foe alike. But is this chaos intentional?
U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza proposal is a reckless plan that would forcibly displace Palestinians, destabilize neighboring countries, empower Iran and and hinder any long-term peace efforts.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2025

Trump’s Gaza plan is a crazy answer to a valid question

It is a propsal that will love Israel to death, revive Iran to life and destabilize every American friend.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off carrying 53 Starlink internet satellites, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 18, 2022.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 18, 2025

Vietnam paves way for Musk's Starlink amid U.S. tariff threats

A regulatory change can be seen as "an olive branch" to SpaceX amid nervousness in Vietnam about tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The government has made a shift toward nuclear amid predictions of higher electricity demand stemming from semiconductor production and data centers for AI in the decades to come.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025

Japan backs nuclear power in climate plan criticized as insufficient

The government is targeting emissions cuts of 60% by fiscal 2035, but environmental groups and businesses have called for more ambition.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida holds a news conference last week, rejecting Honda's proposal to make the company a subsidiary.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 18, 2025

Nissan shares rally on report talks with Honda could be reopened

The Japanese auto giants said last week they had scrapped plans to join forces.

Longform

Tokyo Koon stands at the forefront of tackling the so-called 2025 issue, also known as the “Magnetic Tape Alert.”
The race to save 20th-century history