Subaru cut its FY2026 operating profit forecast by 900 billion yen to just 40 billion yen, a 90% year-on-year plunge announced May 11. Beyond US tariffs, a North American cold wave, Middle East shipping disruptions, and EV asset impairment from Trump's environmental rollback all hit at once. Why does Subaru—with 80% North America sales reliance—suffer most among Japanese automakers?
Japanese telecom giant NTT runs a land-based shrimp farm in Iwata, producing 180 tons/year and capturing the largest domestic share. A deep dive into the 10-year plan to free Japan from its 90% shrimp import dependence, plus how it stacks up against Norway and Singapore.
Honda's Zero EV brand launches its first model—the 0 Alpha compact SUV—in India by early 2027, exporting back to Japan. After cancelling three North American EVs and posting record losses, Japan's #2 automaker is betting on Rajasthan over Ohio. We unpack the gamble, the rivals waiting in India, and why this could rewrite Japanese EV strategy.
Koei Tecmo Holdings reports record-breaking FY2026 results with revenue of ¥88.3B and ordinary profit of ¥57.0B. Of that, roughly ¥16.4 billion ($105M) came from financial market operations—an investment income stream that rivals many companies' core business profits. Nioh 3 (now at 10M cumulative series sales), Pokémon's hidden hit Pokopia, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment drove the gaming side. Yet the company forecasts a 27.6% net income decline next year due to expanded human capital investment.
A 21-year-old shares yogurt ice cream with a 'mother' she just met. In Japan, you can rent almost anyone — a mum, a middle-aged uncle, a boyfriend, or even a guy who literally does nothing. Inside Japan's quietly booming and surprisingly tender human-rental economy, from a 400-person agency to the Brendan Fraser film inspired by it.
Terra Drone has unveiled flight footage of its fixed-wing interceptor drone Terra A2 — 75km range, 312km/h top speed, 40-minute endurance. CEO Toru Tokushige outlined the layered air defense vision in a United24 Media interview. Inside the modern methods of stopping Shahed-type kamikaze drones and the new air defense economics being shaped by a Japanese startup.
In 2012, the Sankei Shimbun reported a biofuel revolution centered on Enomoto algae, a hyper-growth Botryococcus bred by Kobe University spin-off G> under Professor Taira Enomoto. Heavy-industry giant IHI joined biotech venture Neo-Morgan Laboratory to commercialize it, with then-CEO Tomohiro Fujita declaring he wanted to cut the price to one-tenth within ten years. Fourteen years later, the joint venture has dissolved, but the algae fueled the world's first flight on SAF meeting ASTM D7566 Annex 7, and a Japanese-led 5-hectare facility in Malaysia is now the largest of its kind on Earth. Did the promise come true, or is the dream over?
Konami Group reports record-breaking FY2026 results—revenue ¥493.6B, net income ¥100B, third consecutive year of record highs—and unveils a stacked 2026 lineup: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Silent Hill Townfall, Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 2, Suikoden revival, and aggressive Switch 2 deployment.
Nikon posted a record net loss of 86 billion yen (about $548 million) for the year ended March 2026, dragged down by a 90.6 billion yen writedown on its German SLM Solutions metal 3D printer acquisition. As Canon attacks the lithography market and TSMC Kumamoto ramps up 3nm production, Japan's optics giant is missing its own country's semiconductor boom. We unpack the ASML technology gap, the diversification bets that went wrong, the EssilorLuxottica stake, and the new mid-term plan built around "near-leading-edge" ArF immersion tools.
Nintendo sold 19.86 million Switch 2 units in about ten months, the fastest start of any hardware it has made. On the same day, it announced a 10,000 yen price hike for Japan effective May 25, plus $50 increases in the US and Canada from September 1. Japan's 20% jump beats the 11% in the US and lands nearly four months sooner. Why Japan went first and hardest: AI-driven memory prices, a weak yen, and an arbitrage gap that made the domestic model a reseller target.
At a Fireblocks event in Tokyo, SMBC Group CDIO Kazuho Isowa and Mitsui & Co.'s Shinsuke Waka outlined Japan's on-chain finance strategy. January 2028 will bring simultaneous tax and financial-law reforms. ZipangCoin is going cross-border on public chains. And 95% of JPYC trades are now executed by AI. We compare Japan's cooperative model with JPMorgan's $5 billion-a-day Kinexys.
