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January 22, 2025
 

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LUXURY GOODS

Scheduled to welcome its first guests in early 2025, the Waldorf Astoria Osaka is just one of many luxury hotel openings Japan has seen in recent months.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 4, 2025
Japan’s ‘quiet revolution’ of luxury travel nears fruition
“The Japanese luxury travel scene has undergone quite the metamorphosis over the past decade,” says one industry insider.
A Dior store front in Rome. Despite passing audits, Dior's contractors in Italy have been accused of labor abuses.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 2, 2025
Inside luxury goods' broken audit system
Revelations of worker exploitation in Dior's Italian production chain have exposed flaws in supply chain audits and triggered judicial action.
People walk past a Dior shop in Rome on Dec. 18.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2024
Luxury labels bulk up on lower-priced goods to broaden appeal
After more than two years of sharp price hikes, luxury labels are finding themselves at risk of alienating the middle class.
A customer leaves a luxury eyewear shop in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 19, 2024
As bitcoin soars, luxury brands consider accepting crypto payments
Luxury labels have long sought to cater to affluent shoppers from the tech industry.
Gucci’s newest boutique bar is moody, chic and delightfully louche.
LIFE / Food & Drink / Kanpai Culture
Dec 15, 2024
From Florence to Osaka, Gucci’s newest concept bar oozes style
Gucci Giardino Osaka carves out its own identity through a fusion of Italian and Japanese influences set against the backdrop of the city’s fast-paced, urban landscape.
Gifting secondhand used to have a bad rap, but it doesn’t carry the taboo it once did.
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2024
How to buy a secondhand gift someone might actually want
Gifting secondhand used to have a bad rap, but thanks to more environmentally conscious consumers, it doesn’t carry the taboo it once did.
A pure gold tea bowl that was stolen in April during a department store exhibition and later found at an antique shop in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 15, 2024
Man found guilty of stealing ¥10.4 million tea bowl from Tokyo exhibition
Masaru Horie was handed a prison sentence of two and a half years, suspended for four years.
Rare bottles of Suntory’s Hibiki 100th anniversary whisky can only be purchased duty-free in-flight on ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines are highly sought-after items among whiskey aficionados.
BUSINESS
Oct 26, 2024
Rare whisky on sale duty free for first-class fliers in Japan
The rare bottles are highly sought-after items among whiskey aficionados and often sell for a lot more in liquor shops and online stores.
Stays at Aman Kyoto start at around $2,500 (about ¥375,000) and increasing to $4,000 (about ¥600,000) per night, but for the right traveler, it's not money entirely wasted.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 19, 2024
Kyoto’s most expensive hotel offers inner peace — for a price
Aman Kyoto is one of the most luxurious options for stays in Japan’s ancient capital — but is it worth the hefty price tag?
A Louis Vuitton store under construction in the Sanlitun area of Beijing on Oct. 12
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 17, 2024
LVMH sales drop as Chinese demand for costly handbags cools
Organic revenue at its key fashion and leather goods unit fell 5% in the third quarter, its worst performance since the second quarter of 2020.
Migrant workers and union members hold a demonstration in favor of fair working conditions in the Made in Italy supply chain, in Geneva on Sept. 11.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2024
How migrant workers suffer to craft the 'Made in Italy' luxury label
Brands rely on a chain of contractors and subcontractors, with checks on conditions and the treatment of workers virtually nonexistent.
A Ferrari seized by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau which will be put up for auction
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2024
Tokyo’s tax agency will auction off $390,000 Ferrari it seized
Other high-end items up for auction include luxury real estate and a rare bottle of Suntory Holdings' cult-favorite whisky Hibiki 30.
Shoppers outside a Sephora store in Vancouver on Aug. 15
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 22, 2024
LVMH’s Sephora cuts around 10% of staff in China as its woes deepen
While Sephora has expanded to some 300 stores since entering China in 2005, the country is increasingly difficult for higher-end retailers to navigate.
Customers stand in line outside a Louis Vuitton store in Tokyo's Ginza district on July 19.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 2, 2024
Luxury brands count cost as shoppers from overseas enjoy weak yen discount
Goods sold in Japan by global luxury brands, ranging from designer sneakers to whisky, now tend to be cheaper in dollar terms than elsewhere.
The Porsche booth at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing on April 25
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 24, 2024
China’s slowdown is taking a rising toll on European profits
From luxury brands to carmakers, more trouble is coming for European businesses heavily reliant on demand in the Asian economic giant.
A man walks past a store of luxury brand Burberry at a shopping mall in Beijing in 2021.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 17, 2024
Luxury brands feel the sting as Chinese growth slows
China accounted for 16% of $393.8 billion of global luxury spending last year, but the economy grew slower than expected in the last quarter.
An employee checks on items at a Komehyo store in Nagoya.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 16, 2024
Thrift store operator Komehyo pushing to expand business overseas
The company hopes to become the world's top retailer of secondhand luxury brand items by tripling its overseas sales in four years.
Several examples of rare and expensive fruits at Melissa’s Produce in Los Angeles on May 22.
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2024
The world of luxury fruit: Does a $156 melon taste sweeter?
The United States is developing an appetite for luxury fruits long known in countries like Japan and South Korea.
To be the best of the best, according to the exclusive Relais & Chateaux group, Japan's 'ryokan' inns need to leave guests with "a transcendental feeling."
LIFE / Travel
Jun 29, 2024
To Relais & Chateaux, not all ‘ryokan’ inns are created equal
In Japan, this exclusive association has partnered with just 13 hotels and traditional 'ryokan' inns and seven stand-alone restaurants spread across the country.
The Dior investigation focused on four suppliers employing 32 staff who worked in the surroundings of Milan, two of whom were immigrants in the country illegally while another seven worked without the required documentation.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2024
LVMH's unit put under court administration in Italy over labor exploitation
A probe alleged that the Italian subsidiary, which makes Dior-branded handbags, had subcontracted work to Chinese-owned firms that mistreated workers.
Trump pledges to save U.S. from 'decline,' vowing new 'golden age'
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
Cedar pollen is already in the air in Tokyo
Climate change and urbanization are believed to have contributed to the earliest ever observation of cedar pollen in Tokyo, on Jan. 8, an expert says.
What went wrong at Fuji TV's news conference on allegations against Nakai?
Fuji TV President Koichi Minato speaks at a news conference on Friday in Tokyo.
BOJ likely to raise rates this week in absence of immediate Trump tariffs
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda is still signaling caution ahead of the central bank's January meeting.
Survey finds 80% of people want to take leftover restaurant food home
52.0% of people questioned in a survey said they want to use containers to take leftovers home if they are provided free of charge, and 28.8% showed willingness to use takeout containers whether they are free or not.
'America first' returns as Trump ditches focus on allies and rules-based order
U.S. President Donald Trump reviews troops during his inauguration ceremony at the Capitol in Washington on Monday.
Japan looks to learn from the past with bid to build Australian warships
The Maritime Self-Defense Force's Mogami frigate, of the class of the same name, is anchored at the MSDF's naval base in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in September 2022.
Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
From Tokyo to Manhattan, Takuma Watanabe stirs up a stiff drink
It's taken Takuma Watanabe little time to establish himself as one of New York's hottest bartenders.
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.14 : Unicharm Corp.Unicharm recycles diapers back into diapers
mission sustainability vol.14 : Unicharm Corp.Unicharm recycles diapers back into diapers

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