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Baltimore workers and relatives attend a news conference to honor families and victims of last week's collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by the container ship Dali, in Baltimore, Maryland, on Friday. The death of six Latino workers who were fixing potholes when a Baltimore bridge collapsed highlights the crucial role immigrants play in keeping America running, say advocates.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Mar 31, 2024

Baltimore bridge highlights role of migrants in U.S. workforce

The tragedy comes as many Latinos feel under assault as the U.S. prepares for a bitter presidential election in November.
Department store operator Takashimaya is among the big firms planning to increase hires in spring 2025, a survey shows.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 31, 2024

Over 30% of big firms to hire more new grads in '25, survey finds

In addition to new graduate hires, some companies are looking to hire midcareer workers to secure talent amid fierce competition.
The Bank of Japan's tankan survey showed that large nonmanufacturers saw improvement in their sentiment with the index reaching the highest level since 1991, helped by a surge in inbound tourists.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 1, 2024

Japan service firms’ optimism tempered by softer factory sector

The deterioration in manufacturing sentiment partly reflects the impact from scandals among some vehicle producers.
The Alphabet unit allegedly surreptitiously collected user browsing data when they were in "incognito" mode.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2024

Google agrees to delete web browsing data as it settles ‘incognito’ lawsuit

The case, filed in 2020, alleged that Google surreptitiously collected user's browsing history when they were in "incognito" mode.
The European Commission has been investigating Microsoft's tying of Office and Teams since 2020.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2024

Microsoft to separate Teams and Office globally amid antitrust scrutiny

The company started selling the two products separately in the EU and Switzerland on Oct. 1 last year.
A customer walks past a display for Nintendo's Super Mario at an electronics store in Tokyo on Jan. 12. Last year, Nintendo increased salaries, in part to be competitive with other studios.
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2024

Japan’s game industry weathers the storm amid layoffs worldwide

The country's studios are actually scrambling to attract and retain talent — a state of affairs that is symptomatic of the nation’s demographic challenges.
Ride-sharing apps on a smartphone. Since Monday, users have technically been able to hail private vehicles through such apps, but only in specific areas and at certain times.
BUSINESS / EXPLAINER
Apr 2, 2024

Japan has started private ride-hailing services. Here’s how they work.

Private drivers can only be called during times of high demand and in certain areas.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, on June 5, 2023
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 4, 2024

Apple shifts focus from EV to home robotics as ‘next big thing’

Apple’s pursuit of the "next big thing” has been an obsession since the Steve Jobs era, but it’s hard to envision a product that could match the iPhone.
Assembly engineers work on a lithography system at ASML in Veldhoven, Netherlands in June.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 5, 2024

Targeting Chinese chips, U.S. to push Dutch on ASML service contracts

The U.S.' export policy chief is set to meet in the Netherlands next Monday with officials from the Dutch government and ASML.
A Wheeling-Nippon Steel facility in in Follansbee, West Virginia. Four senior Japanese officials speaking on condition of anonymity said it is still premature to declare the deal dead.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Apr 5, 2024

Why Japan is not giving up on fraught U.S. Steel deal

Four senior Japanese officials speaking on condition of anonymity said it is still premature to declare the deal dead.
Mercuria Energy Group is gearing up to engage in physical power trading in Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 5, 2024

Mercuria joins trader push into Japan’s spot electricity market

That follows moves by other European energy companies, including BP and Engie, to expand in one of the biggest power-consuming nations.
A Tesla Model 3 vehicle drives using FSD (Full Self-Driving) in Encinitas, California, in October.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Apr 6, 2024

Tesla's bet on robotaxis is a long way from paying off

A greater emphasis on robotaxis comes with more risk for Tesla due to the complexity of the technology involved, analysts said.
Artificial intelligence is peering into restaurant garbage pails and crunching grocery-store data to try to figure out how to send less uneaten food into dumpsters.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 6, 2024

AI is spying on the food we throw away

The tech is being used to try to reduce the amount of uneaten food that ends up in dumpsters.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his visit to TSMC's new plant in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Saturday
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 7, 2024

TSMC’s first Japan plant to hit 60% local procurement by 2030

Japanese officials are hoping TSMC’s arrival will help boost local suppliers’ technology and business.
The V.Stella generative AI assistant at the Integrit booth on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) at the Fira de Barcelona venue in Barcelona on Feb. 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 8, 2024

Wall street hunts AI winners beyond Nvidia in emerging markets

Analysts see a 61% increase in earnings for emerging-market technology companies as a whole
James Manyika, who heads Google’s technology and society team, delivers the keynote address at Google I/O in Mountain View, California, in 2023. OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 8, 2024

How tech giants cut corners to harvest data for AI

The companies’ actions illustrate how online information has increasingly become the lifeblood of the booming AI industry.
A street in Ota Ward, Tokyo, on March 15. In the year through March, bankruptcies mainly rose among small and midsize companies.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 8, 2024

Japan's business failures top 9,000 for first time in nine years

In the year through March, bankruptcies mainly rose among small and midsize companies as they struggled to raise prices to reflect higher costs.
The assembly line at the Volkswagen factory in Zwickau, Germany, on March 14. The factory stopped producing gasoline-powered Golfs and switched to electric vehicles, illuminating the risks and opportunities for factory towns and cities.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 11, 2024

What happened when a German car factory went all electric?

The city of Zwickau, where more than 10,000 people work for Volkswagen and tens of thousands more for suppliers, seems to have avoided dire consequences.
A brine pool at an SQM lithium mine on the Atacama salt flat in the Atacama Desert, Chile. The industry that deals with one of the world’s most important commodities is asking whether it's doomed to repeat a boom and bust cycle again and again.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 12, 2024

Lithium industry braces for long-term oversupply after price instability

Those involved with the commodity are asking whether they're doomed to repeat a boom and bust cycle again and again.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tours a new Toyota battery factory in Liberty, North Carolina, with state Gov. Roy Cooper (second from right) on Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 13, 2024

Kishida touts Japan’s investments in U.S. with visit to swing-state Toyota plant

The prime minister visited the North Carolina plant where Toyota last year injected an additional $8 billion to make batteries for electric vehicles.
Masayoshi Matsumoto
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2024

Osaka Expo legacy could bolster Kansai's economy

Kansai accounts for about 5% of Japan’s GDP, but by utilizing the new technologies to be showcased at the expo, it could possibly increase the size to 20%.
Signage for MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking in Tokyo. A coalition of climate groups filed shareholder proposals with the three banks calling for stricter board oversight of climate-related risks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024

Climate investors target board oversight of top Japan banks: sources

The proposal marks the first time climate groups have targeted bank boards as a way to pressure the lenders on climate change.
Yukio Kani, chairman and global CEO of Jera
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2024

Japan’s top power producer Jera considers IPO to fund green push

The Tokyo-based company plans to develop 20 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity by fiscal 2035.
Max Lange, 19, a plant mechatronics engineering trainee from Oederan, stands next to a solar panel rolling off the assembly line as part of the last production of solar modules at the Meyer Burger Technology AG plant, due to an announced closure of the plant, in Freiberg, Germany, on March 12.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 16, 2024

Lacking support in battle with China, European solar firms head to U.S.

This week the European Commission has launched a voluntary charter for governments and companies to sign in support of solar manufacturing plants.
Japan's Fair Trade Commission may take administrative action against Google over its digital advertising business.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2024

Japan FTC may take administrative action against Google

The FTC suspects that Google is unfairly restricting transactions on Yahoo Japan and messaging app Line, in violation of Japan's antimonopoly law.
Junji Ito
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 17, 2024

Ex-Kanebo chief and JAL Chairman Junji Ito dies at 99

Ito, who served as president of Kanebo, currently Kracie, and chairman of Japan Airlines, died in December 2021.
Bank of Japan board member Asahi Noguchi says the pace of future rate hikes will likely be much slower that of the central bank's global peers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 18, 2024

BOJ rate hikes likely to be slower than those of peers, says board member

Asahi Noguchi, known for his dovish policy views, said the impact of rising domestic wages had yet be fully passed on into prices.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda hinted at a chance of a rate hike in the second half of this year by highlighting the likelihood of improvement in the price trend.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 18, 2024

More economists see BOJ rate hike in October, flag July risk

All 54 economists except for one predict no policy change at the central bank’s two-day meeting ending on April 26.
Japan's core inflation slowed in March and an index gauging broader price trends fell below 3% for the first time in over a year, as analysts try to gauge when the Bank of Japan will move again.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 19, 2024

Japan’s inflation cools ahead of BOJ policy board meeting

Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.6% in March from a year ago, cooling from February’s 2.8% gain.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as he announces a preliminary agreement with Intel for a major CHIPS and Science Act award, during a visit to the Intel Ocotillo Campus in Chandler, Arizona, on March 20.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Apr 19, 2024

Latest Biden chip deal highlights U.S. semiconductor successes

Samsung is the latest beneficiary of Washington’s efforts to shore up precarious supply chains and protect its national security interests.

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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?