On April 30, Japan intervened to buy yen for the first time in 21 months. Hours after Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama warned of 'decisive action' and Vice Minister Atsushi Mimura issued a 'final evacuation warning,' the dollar fell about 5 yen from the high 160s to 155.50, its steepest one-day drop since December 2022. The campaign continued through Golden Week and totalled a record 11.73 trillion yen. The yen kept falling anyway.
One day after the Bank of Japan held rates on April 28, the yen hit a 21-month low of 160.67 and 10-year JGB yields reached 2.535 percent, the highest since 1999. A falling currency and rising yields are not supposed to move together. We unpack what that combination says about being behind the curve, the intervention question, the carry trade, and a hawkish Fed, then follow the story through the June hike to 1.0 percent and a yen that kept sliding anyway.
TOPPAN, a 120-year-old Japanese printing company, is applying the thin-film layering know-how it built in semiconductors to 3D-printed cultured meat, targeting revenue from 2031. The plan: a countertop 'Meat Maker' that prints marbled wagyu from data and a recipe. We cover the NEDO consortium with Shimadzu and Itoham Yonekyu, Integriculture's rival cellular agriculture platform, where cultivated meat is legal today, and the cost wall still in the way.
In March 2026 Sony signed binding agreements to move its TV business into BRAVIA Inc., a joint venture with China's TCL holding 51% and Sony 49%, starting operations in April 2027. Why Sony is letting go of its Trinitron-era icon, how Hawk-Eye and sports entertainment became the new home for its electronics ambitions, and what global investors should watch.
SoftBank Group plans to spin off and list 'Roze,' an AI and robotics company, on US markets at a target valuation of $100 billion. We unpack Masayoshi Son's strategy in the context of Stargate, his OpenAI commitments, how Japanese tech compares to US and Chinese giants, and the Middle East risk hanging over the timing.
Kao, famous for Biore and Attack, has brought its first overseas semiconductor cleaning center online in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Ajinomoto, the MSG maker, is putting over 25 billion yen into ABF insulation films that hold nearly 100% global share, and has bought land in Gifu for a third plant. How Japanese consumer goods companies, alongside Shin-Etsu, SUMCO, JSR and TOK, became indispensable to the AI chip supply chain, and how they compete with US, European, Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese rivals.
Global matcha production has roughly doubled in just five years. Japan can no longer meet world demand alone, and Chinese matcha is rapidly filling the gap. Should matcha be defended as Japanese cultural heritage, or embraced as a global beverage? We explore the strategic crossroads facing Japan's matcha industry.
On April 23, PM Sanae Takaichi met five foodtech CEOs at the PM's Office: Oishii Farm, PlantX, FRD Japan, Regional Fish, and Toko Tekko. Why these five? This article decodes how each company's technology answers one of the world's four shared food crises, climate-driven farmland collapse, ocean depletion, population growth, and shrinking farmer populations, and the strategic logic behind Japan choosing to win in specific categories rather than competing across the board.
Once dismissed overseas as resembling 'black paper,' nori is now riding the global onigiri boom into kitchens worldwide. A 3-Michelin-star Italian chef uses nori pesto on cuttlefish, and the global market is projected to grow from $3.8B in 2025 to $6.4B by 2034. From the famous 2010 Nature paper behind the 'only the Japanese can digest nori' claim, to Japan being overtaken by Korea in production volume, here's how Japanese seaweed conquered the world.
An in-depth look at Japan's Hydrogen Arterial Plan (Suiso Daidomyaku Koso), unveiled by METI in April 2026. Six priority regions connected by arterial highways will receive concentrated investment of 15 trillion yen by 2040, with Toyota and Chiyoda starting mass production of electrolyzers in 2029. How Japan's strategy compares with the US IRA and the EU Hydrogen Bank.
Osaka Ohsho, the 56-year-old Japanese gyoza chain, opens its first North American flagship in Sawtelle (Little Osaka), Los Angeles, on May 8, 2026. We unpack the Mitsubishi Shokuhin joint venture, the SNS-driven distribution strategy, the tableside cooking spectacle, and how the brand plans to flip gyoza from a ramen side dish into a main attraction.
