Nissan, in the midst of its Re:Nissan recovery plan, will cut about 900 European jobs (10% of the regional workforce) and consolidate two production lines into one at its UK Sunderland plant. With utilization at roughly 50%, China's Chery is in talks to take over the freed-up line. We unpack what this means alongside Volkswagen and Stellantis restructuring, against the backdrop of Chinese EV pressure squeezing Europe's auto industry.
Saab Technologies Japan has named Satoshi Uji as its first-ever Japanese president. The Swedish defense giant is positioning its GlobalEye AEW&C aircraft as the successor to Japan's aging E-767 fleet, with industry sources targeting a 2035 replacement. After Japan's April 21 abolition of the 'Five Categories' export rule, can a non-US contender finally crack Japan's airborne early warning market?
Seventeen years after Starbucks rolled out matcha latte globally, Japanese tea prices have tripled in a year and China now produces 5,000 tons of matcha—matching Japan. Inside the supply structure that pushed 38 major Japanese tea firms to issue an emergency statement.
With matcha in short supply and prices soaring, an unassuming Japanese herb called yomogi (mugwort) is being talked up as the 'next matcha.' One Osaka supplier shipped a record 754 tons in 2025 and expanded cultivation 1.5x. Mugwort-steam salons jumped 1.8x in three years. A trading-company veteran turned mugwort farmer is now branding the weed.
Sanrio, the global owner of Hello Kitty and Kuromi, is investigating whether a managing director who also led its U.S. subsidiary received hundreds of millions of yen in undisclosed compensation over multiple years. A special probe has been launched and the full-year earnings announcement postponed. The case exposes a structural gap in Japan's corporate governance: the parent's compensation committee never had jurisdiction over subsidiary CEO pay.
On May 1, METI summoned executives from 24 critical infrastructure operators—covering power, gas, oil, chemicals and credit cards—and ordered emergency cybersecurity audits within one month. The trigger: Anthropic's Claude Mythos, an AI announced April 7 that found a 27-year-old flaw in OpenBSD. We compare Japan's response with the US CISA OT principles and the EU's NIS2 Directive.
GPU-to-GPU optical interconnects were forecast to arrive around 2033. NVIDIA just pulled them in by five years, announcing they will ship in the 2028 Feynman GPU generation. As Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) hits mass production, Furukawa Electric is investing 38 billion yen to quintuple its DFB laser output, while Sumitomo Electric supplies critical components for NVIDIA's Quantum-X Photonics switches. We unpack the high-stakes race between NVIDIA, Broadcom, Intel, and NTT's IOWN — and where Japan's optical suppliers stand in it.
SBI Holdings reported record fiscal-year crypto-segment revenue of 89.6 billion yen ($570M). With its yen-pegged stablecoin JPYSC, USDC lending, a Visa crypto-rewards card, and a bid for rival exchange bitbank, Japan is racing to define on-chain finance. We compare its approach with the US GENIUS Act, EU's MiCA, and Hong Kong's bank-led model.
Tsubame Industries' Archax — a 4.5-meter, 3.5-ton piloted transforming robot — has released new transformation footage. We break down the $2.5M price tag, the Gundam-inspired engineering team behind it, and where Japan-bound travelers can actually see one.
Haruhiko Kuroda, the former BOJ governor who launched Japan's massive monetary easing in 2013, says the current weak yen has 'gone too far' and 130 per dollar would be appropriate. The Japanese public's reaction: 'Look who's talking.' We unpack the irony, the rate-gap mechanics, and the global market implications.
Chinese optical fiber prices have surged 6.5x in a year. Visible demand: AI data centers. Hidden demand: disposable drones consuming millions of km of fiber on the Ukraine battlefield. China holds 60% of preforms, Japan leads in ultra-multi-core 13,824-fiber cables, and the US dominates hyperscaler contracts. A three-way battle reshaping AI infrastructure.
