Tag - investments

 
 

INVESTMENTS

Environmental, social and governance funds are increasingly looking to Japan, as efforts to boost diversity are coming amid a regulatory and government push for better corporate governance.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 11, 2025
Trump’s DEI rollback gives Japan a chance to draw ESG inflows
Japanese firms have long lagged behind their Western peers on gender equality, but the U.S. crackdown on diversity may give them a chance to shine.
The U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works facility in Pennsylvania
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 9, 2025
U.S. Steel says activist investor now in favor of Nippon Steel deal
Ancora Holdings owns less than a 1% stake in the company.
Hedge funds are trying to hire more in Japan, as traders look to power markets in the country with more green energy and uncertainties surrounding nuclear plant restarts.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 9, 2025
Hedge funds eye volatile Asia power markets with new hires
They are pushing into the region with the aim of offsetting declining profits from mainstay commodities.
Wall Street banks, under political pressure and tempted by short-term gains, are abandoning climate commitments and pouring billions into fossil fuels, risking both environmental catastrophe and massive future economic losses.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2025
Wall Street will regret helping the world burn
For an industry in the business of money, it sure has a funny way of ensuring its destruction. 
Hong Kong's real estate sector is slumping, putting the government's development plans at risk and signaling a wider economic malaise that may become a spanner in the works of Beijing's plans to transform the territory's economy.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 7, 2025
Will China succeed in remaking Hong Kong in its own image?
Beijing can control Hong Kong politically, but to impose its economic vision on the territory it needs businesses to get on board as these face an economic and real estate plunge.
A man places a sign outside a Tesla dealership during a protest against its CEO Elon Musk, in Los Angeles, California, last month.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Apr 4, 2025
Tesla investors brace for further sales decline as Musk backlash grows
Protests in many countries against Musk's involvement in the Trump administration and far-right politics in Europe have tarnished the image of the once-leading EV brand.
Takashi Murata, head of Japan at Warburg Pincus in Tokyo, says the private-equity firm is confident about market growth in Tokyo despite the overall depopulation of Japan.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2025
Warburg purchases Tokyo rental houses and plans Japan office
The New York-based private equity firm said it acquired a portfolio of 1,195 shared rental houses in the greater Tokyo area.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2025
OpenAI says new funding from SoftBank boosts valuation to $300 billion
SoftBank said in a release that it is on a mission to realize artificial superintelligence that surpasses human intelligence.
Renault and Nissan will be able to reduce their cross-ownership to no less than 10%, from 15% previously, Renault said Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 1, 2025
Renault and Nissan back more share sales in alliance loosening
The firms will be able to reduce their cross-ownership to no less than 10%, from 15% previously, Renault said.
Chip startup Rapidus is set to receive as much as ¥802.5 billion in additional subsidies from the government.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 31, 2025
Japan earmarks another ¥802.5 billion for chip startup Rapidus
Rapidus is on track to get a pilot line online in April, executives said last week.
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 30, 2025
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
At a Tokyo Fail Club gathering, speakers share candid talks about ventures gone wrong, bankruptcy and depression, touting a message of persistence in the face of adversity.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pose for photos before their joint news conference at the Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 27, 2025
Brazilian leader's Tokyo visit lifts ties to new heights
The two leaders have adopted a five-year action plan and a flurry of agreements as the countries mark their 130th anniversary year of diplomatic relations.
OpenAI is close to finalizing a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank Group, sources say.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2025
OpenAI close to finalizing $40 billion SoftBank-led funding
The artificial intelligence developer’s funding round would be the largest of all time, according to data compiled by research firm PitchBook.
Masuo Fukuda, head of Citigroup’s investment banking business in Tokyo, says the hiring in Tokyo started in December targeting various levels of bankers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2025
Citigroup hiring dealmakers in Japan with fee pool seen reviving
The Wall Street firm is expanding its investment banking team in Japan as it bets the country’s deal fee pool will finally rebound.
The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday found a former judge guilty of insider trading.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 26, 2025
Court convicts former judge over insider trading
Soichiro Sato was given two years in prison, suspended for four years, fined ¥1 million and ordered to pay an additional ¥10.2 million penalty.
Ispace's Resilience lunar lander at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Tsukuba Space Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, in September
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 26, 2025
Japanese startups driving space development
Not only large companies but also emerging businesses are hurrying to conduct lunar exploration and commercialize transportation services using rockets.
Katsunori Tanaka, an ex-Goldman Sachs analyst who now heads hedge fund Ariake Capital, is betting big on Japan's smaller regional banks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2025
Ex-Goldman analyst’s hedge fund reaps 300% returns on small Japan banks
Katsunori Tanaka spent years at Goldman Sachs scrutinizing Japan’s biggest banks. Now at Ariake Capital, he obsesses over much smaller regional lenders.
Japan has become one of the biggest markets for activist investors, with the government and institutions such as the Tokyo Stock Exchange pushing companies to pay more attention to stock prices and shareholder returns.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 24, 2025
Elliott said to have built up significant stake in Sumitomo Realty
The size of the stake in isn’t known but the activist investor has engaged with the Tokyo-based real estate developer on measures to improve shareholder value, sources say.
At the inauguration of a factory owned by Japanese power electronics manufacturer TMEIC in Tumakuru, India, in 2017. Although Japanese companies have become a significant presence in India, the flow of fresh investment has slowed down.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 23, 2025
Japan-India business ties can go the extra mile
After remarkable growth, Japan-India business ties are plateauing. Companies on both sides need help from their governments to promote more understanding and, hence, opportunities.
Citizens’ holdings of cash in the three months ended in December was down 3.4% from a year earlier in the biggest drop in the data going back to 1998.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 21, 2025
Japan’s households slash cash at record pace as inflation bites
The decline mostly likely reflects the wider adoption of cashless consumption as well as a rise in nominal consumer spending due to inflation.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.