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A gallery of cars at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama. The carmaker revised downward its profit and sales forecasts for the fiscal year that ended in March.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 19, 2024

Nissan cuts sales and profit forecasts

The firm said the revision was made because of lower sales volumes and higher costs paid to suppliers, among other factors.
Delfin Lorenzana
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2024

Philippines wants U.S. and Japan to take over rail deal eyed by China

The $868 million Subic-Clark railway will link former U.S. military bases turned commercial hubs and form part of the planned Luzon Economic Corridor.
Many U.S. lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties and the Biden administration say TikTok poses national security risks because China could compel the company to share the data of its 170 million U.S. users.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 22, 2024

TikTok braces for U.S. divest-or-ban law — and a fresh legal fight

The legislation has been fast-tracked and tied to a crucial aid package for Ukraine and Israel, which the Senate is set to vote on in the coming days.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk gets in a Tesla car as he leaves a hotel in Beijing in May last year.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Apr 22, 2024

Elon Musk’s robotaxi dreams plunge Tesla into chaos

The idea of creating an autonomous taxi service has been kicking around Tesla for at least eight years.
Home electric vehicle chargers during the Montreal Electric Vehicle Show in Quebec, Canada, on Friday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is offering more tax breaks to automotive firms to put their electric vehicle factories in Canada.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2024

Honda nears deal with Canada to boost electric vehicle capacity

The auto sector is particularly important to Ontario, Canada’s largest province by population and home to assembly plants.
A dealer works in the trading room at a foreign exchange brokerage in Tokyo on March 28. An overwhelming majority of respondents who currently work remotely in some capacity say they wish to continue to do so.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2024

Hybrid work takes root in Japan, survey finds

While remote working has declined with the end of the pandemic, many of those who adopted a hybrid work model are sticking to it.
Daihatsu President Masahiro Inoue
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 24, 2024

Daihatsu’s new president sees potential in Africa and South America

Masahiro Inoue pointed at strong demand for compact cars in those markets due to a prevalence of narrow roads.
Japan's stock market attention is shifting to whether domestic market-oriented firms can bring some bullishness back to the market.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 25, 2024

Revival in Japanese stock market hinges on domestic demand taking hold

Attention has shifted to whether domestic market-oriented laggards may be able to bring some bullishness back to the market.
While some publicly traded bitcoin mining companies release details of their energy use, there is no reliable data on exactly how much electricity the industry as a whole consumes.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Apr 25, 2024

Bitcoin miner environmental battles heat up in U.S.

As cryptocurrency groups work to shield mines from local regulations, U.S. President Joe Biden proposed an excise tax on bitcoin energy use.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (left), Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe (center) and Ontario Premier Doug Ford walk in the company's automotive assembly plant in Alliston, Ontario, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2024

Honda to spend $11 billion on electric vehicle strategy in Canada

The move is meant to tap long-term demand in North America and pushes the automaker toward having electrified cars account for 100% of sales by 2040.
More investors are calling on Japanese firms to abolish cross-shareholdings, a practice that has been criticized as undermining discipline in corporate governance and leading to anti-competitive behavior.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2024

Investor group calls for zero cross-shareholdings at Japanese firms

"Strategic shareholdings," where companies hold stocks in businesses they have ties with, have decreased slightly, but progress is slow.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Apr 28, 2024

When will Japan intervene to support the yen?

The yen hit a 34-year low past ¥158.40 per dollar in U.S. trading on Friday, after the BOJ announced a decision to keep its monetary policy unchanged.
The combined market capitalization of shares listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Prime section stood at roughly ¥970 trillion at the end of last month.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2024

TSE Prime's market cap nears ¥1 quadrillion two years after shake-up

The total market capitalization of the new top tier has grown some 40% while the number of companies fell 10%.
The Exchange Square complex, which houses the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in Hong Kong on March 14. Dealmakers say a lot more than words is needed to revive Hong Kong’s weakest IPO market since the global financial crisis.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 29, 2024

China’s new plan to boost Hong Kong IPOs faces major hurdles

Pipeline of IPOs expected to remain feeble while valuations are low, China’s economic outlook is poor, and foreign investors remain distrustful of Beijing.
Activist investor campaigns are becoming more commonplace in Japan as the government and the Tokyo Stock Exchange encourage companies to boost shareholder returns.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 30, 2024

Elliott Management's Sumitomo stake reflects growing activism in Japan

Elliott has built a large holding in Sumitomo after investing several tens of billions of yen in the trading house backed by Warren Buffett.
A vacant lot on the site of the former Tsukiji fish market where a group of companies plans to develop a commercial and residential complex in the coming years
BUSINESS
May 1, 2024

Developer hopes to tap Tsukiji's 'rich history' to create a new Tokyo hot spot

Mitsui Fudosan, tasked with renovating the former site of the famous Tsukiji fish market, hopes to build the vacant lot into a new trendy hub.
Tatsufumi Shibata, deputy director-general at the Financial Services Agency, is pushing for greater disclosure by companies of their cross-shareholding practices.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2024

Japan suspects firms are evading disclosure of cross-shareholdings

Some companies are thought to be masking cross-shareholdings as being owned for purely trading purposes.
The weak yen impacts the airline industry multiple ways, as it boosts foreign currency revenue from international flights but negatively affects travelers from Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 2, 2024

Japan firms reach pain threshold as yen keeps testing lows against the dollar

The currency's sustained decline makes planning difficult for all firms and can add costs across the whole supply chain.
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 3, 2024

Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests

The yen was at around ¥157.55 per dollar when it suddenly spiked, strengthening as far as ¥153 over the next half hour.
Sumitomo headquarters in Tokyo on Tuesday
BUSINESS
May 2, 2024

Sumitomo to bolster shareholder returns in new midterm plan

Sumitomo will allocate ¥700 billion ($4.5 billion) of returns over the next three years, with a goal of total shareholder return ratio of 40%.
Nomura Holdings and Mizuho Bank are hit by more than $100 million of potential losses related to All Blue Capital, raising questions about their monitoring of high-risk investment funds.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 3, 2024

Nomura and Mizuho face losses after fund’s failed trades

The size of the potential losses raises questions about the risk-management practices at two of Japan’s largest banks.
Claudio de Sanctis, head of private bank at Deutsche Bank AG, during an interview in Singapore, on April 18
BUSINESS / Companies
May 3, 2024

Deutsche Bank unveils wealth targets after hiring push in Asia

Private banks are turning to the Middle East and Southeast Asia amid China's property crisis and a downturn in capital-market activity in Hong Kong.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the United Steelworkers Union headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 17. Biden made clear that he does not want the proposed takeover of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel to happen.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 4, 2024

Political furor over Nippon Steel's U.S. Steel bid puts investment panel in spotlight

Backlash over the deal has echoes of the 1980s when Nippon Steel tried and failed to buy another American metal company.
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks through a helicopter window during his flight to the Novatek-Murmansk's Offshore Superfacility Construction Center in the village of Belokamenka, in Russia's Murmansk region, last July.
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
May 5, 2024

How Western sanctions are strangling Putin’s Arctic gas ambitions

The Novatek PJSC-led Arctic LNG 2 facility is a key part of Moscow’s plans to boost exports and replenish coffers. But it has remained virtually idled.
Automobiles charge at public electric vehicle charging stations in Paris on Feb. 14.
BUSINESS / Tech
May 6, 2024

France ramps up electric vehicle ambition as Xi arrives in Paris

The contract between the government, French business groups and unions aims for a fourfold increase in the sale of 100% EVs to 800,000 a year in 2027.
A Lamborghini Diablo SL automobile displayed at the company's event to mark the automaker’s 60th anniversary in Seoul in September 2023. While the boost in wealth among crypto investors was mostly poured into discretionary spending, a significant portion spilled into local housing markets, the researchers found.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 6, 2024

Lamborghini bros no more: Crypto is creating a new wealth effect

Study suggests that household spending out of crypto gains is more like the patterns from traditional equity investments, such as on home purchases.
Major banks as well as regional banks have raised their ordinary deposit rates to 0.02% per annum from 0.001%.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 6, 2024

Many banks in Japan raise deposit rates after BOJ action

Banks have also refrained from raising their lending rates, which would affect households and other corporate activities.
Over 300 companies went out of business in fiscal 2023 due to labor shortages, according to Teikoku Databank.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 6, 2024

Japan's labor crunch persists despite slight improvement

Companies involved in IT engineering fared the worst, with more than 7 in 10 saying they didn't have enough workers and had to resort to forgoing projects.
A group of fishing boats sit next to the Mekong river in Phnom Penh in 2021.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2024

Cambodia to cut shipping through Vietnam with China-funded canal

Cambodia's deputy prime minister downplayed environmental concerns about the new canal and dismissed speculation Chinese warships could use it.
Real wages fell 2.5% from a year earlier in March, marking the 24th straight month of declines, exacerbated by a 9.4% drop in bonuses.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 9, 2024

Real wages fell for 24th month in March, dented by 9.4% decline in bonuses

Data for full-time workers that avoid sampling problems and exclude bonuses and overtime pay grew by 2.3%, above 2% for the seventh month.

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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?