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July 03, 2026
 

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MANUFACTURING

Hon Hai Precision Industry, which does business as Foxconn, wants to make electric vehicles for Japanese carmakers.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Apr 10, 2025
It makes iPhones. Now Hon Hai wants to make cars for Japanese automakers.
The Taiwanese company’s seemingly unlikely proposition — given the structure and history of Japan’s auto industry — just might work.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bag as he visits the Louis Vuitton Rochambeau Ranch leather workshop in Keene, Texas, in 2019.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 10, 2025
LVMH finds making Louis Vuitton bags messy in Texas
Former staff say Louis Vuitton’s Texas plant wastes up to 40% of leather and encouraged defect coverups to hit targets.
U.S. Steel shares tumbled as much as 16% Wednesday after President Donald Trump made a fresh remark signaling his opposition to a buyout by Nippon Steel.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 10, 2025
Trump says he does not want to see U.S. Steel go to Japan
Trump told White House reporters that U.S. Steel is a special company, throwing cold water on expectations that Nippon Steel’s buyout efforts might start to make progress.
Hon Hai Precision Industry's chief strategy officer for electric vehicles, Jun Seki, speaks during an interview.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 9, 2025
Hon Hai makes case to build EVs for Japan’s automobile industry
Electrified cars and buses made by Foxconn, as the Taiwanese company is known, will appear on roads in Japan over the next few years, its EV strategy chief says.
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.
With Trump's tariffs, countries with lower labor costs like China will continue to outcompete the United States and gain stronger footholds in global markets.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2025
Trump’s tariffs will accelerate America’s economic decline
Trump’s critics rightly point out that the tariff will raise U.S. car prices, but that is just one of its many drawbacks.
Toyota is considering transferring some production in the key Tokai region, which is expected to be hit hard in a Nankai Trough earthquake, to the Tohoku and Kyushu regions.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Apr 8, 2025
Japanese makers rush to mitigate possible Nankai Trough earthquake damage
The government is calling on manufacturers to diversify their production bases and suppliers to mitigate the risks.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order during a tariff announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. Trump's tariff policies are the centerpiece of his effort to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and reshape a world trade system he has long decried as unfair.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 6, 2025
Trump promised a manufacturing boom. Industries are not so sure.
Some question the tariffs’ underlying logic, saying that supply chain issues, high costs and other obstacles stand may in the way.
A Nissan manufacturing complex in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Nissan says it will not take new orders from the United States for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs following new auto tariffs levied by the U.S.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 4, 2025
Nissan says it will not take new U.S. orders for Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs
It says it will maintain two shifts of production of its Rogue SUV at its Smyrna, Tennessee, plant following the announcement of new U.S. tariffs on automobiles.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s JASM plant in Kumamoto Prefecture. Ensuring stability in the semiconductor supply chain is a matter of national security and must be based on cooperation between the government and private sector.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 4, 2025
Identifying choke points in the semiconductor supply chain
Addressing bottlenecks in chipmaking is essential for Japan’s economic security and requires public-private collaboration, including aimed at information sharing.
Rapidus is gearing up to mass produce semiconductors using 2-nanometer processes in 2027, which on paper would match Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 2, 2025
Rapidus begins pilot production of 2-nanometer chips in Hokkaido
The 2-year-old company aims to mass produce the next-generation semiconductors — vital for technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving — in 2027.
U.S tariffs on Vietnam would force Nike, one of several sportswear brands heavily reliant on the Southeast Asian nation as a production site, to absorb higher costs or hike its prices at a time when it is already discounting some items to clear inventory.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 2, 2025
U.S. tariffs on Vietnam would be a blow to Nike and other sportswear brands
Vietnam is a hub for high-tech running shoes, sportswear and outdoor apparel, with brands seeking to reduce exposure to China.
The Bank of Japan's tankan survey indicates that large business are still positive on their prospects.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 1, 2025
Japanese businesses maintain optimism ahead of looming tariff storm
In the BOJ’s latest tankan survey, the headline index for big manufacturers was 12, which indicates confidence in the business outlook.
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.
Factory output in February marked the fastest gain since March last year thanks to strong demand before the U.S. implements new tariffs on autos and auto parts.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 31, 2025
Japan production rises most in 11 months ahead of new U.S. tariffs
Factory output increased in February by 2.5% from January, the first advance in four months and marking the fastest gain since March last year.
The launch of the test line will be an important milestone in Rapidus' aim of beginning mass production at the factory in 2027.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 29, 2025
Rapidus to launch pilot line for advanced chips on Tuesday
The launch of the test line will be an important milestone in Rapidus’ aim of beginning mass production at the factory in 2027.
While car production helped transform Germany, Italy and France after World War II, its influence in East Asia has been even more profound.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Mar 28, 2025
U.S. auto tariffs take aim at pillar of East Asian economies
Automakers form the nucleus of vast networks of group companies that impact almost every facet of working life in Japan and South Korea.
An employee works at a steel works in Mandi Gobindgarh, in the northern state of Punjab, India, on Oct. 19, 2024.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 24, 2025
India set to ditch $23 billion plan to rival China factories after it disappoints
Many participating firms failed to kick-start production, while others that met manufacturing targets found India slow to pay out subsidies.
An employee works at a production line of 155 mm artillery shells at the plant of German company Rheinmetall, which produces weapons and ammunition for tanks and artillery.
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2025
Europe is short of gunpowder and TNT when it needs them most
European governments dug into their munitions stockpiles to arm Ukraine, exposing how shallow their reserves were.
The ignition button of a Hon Hai Precision Industry Foxtron Model N electric vehicle
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2025
Hon Hai gets first major EV-making client in Mitsubishi Motors
It is unclear when production will actually start, but the first cars to roll off the assembly line would target Australia and New Zealand.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Why is the yen so weak and what can Japan do about it?
Japan spent ¥11.7 trillion ($73 billion) between late April and late May to prop up the weak yen.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

Podcast

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

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

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