Mazda will end domestic production of its signature compact car Mazda2 (formerly Demio) at the end of August 2026. We explore the 30-year legacy of the car that saved Mazda from bankruptcy in the 1990s, and what this means for Japan's shrinking compact car market.
Toshiba Energy Systems, Airbus, and Toyota are racing to commercialize superconducting motors that promise 10x the power density of conventional motors. Dubbed the 'ultimate motor,' the technology enables hydrogen aircraft and hydrogen-engine cars while leveraging Japan's decades of niche superconductor expertise. As eVTOL startups falter, why is Japan's aviation motor technology suddenly central to the global decarbonization race?
On April 25, 2026, Denso announced plans to withdraw its $8.2 billion acquisition proposal for Rohm. Rohm chose the three-way alliance with Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric, while Denso pivots to actively explore partnerships with third parties. We analyze the conclusion of Japan's 50-day power semiconductor reshuffle and what's next for Toyota Group's chip in-house strategy.
Takemitsu Takizaki, the 80-year-old founder of Keyence, will retire from the board after the June 2026 AGM. Why is the founder of Japan's most profitable company stepping aside now? A look at Keyence's astonishing 52% operating margin, the contrast with Nidec's recent governance crisis, and the model of a quiet, successful succession at one of Japan's most enigmatic corporate giants.
Resonac, the world's top supplier of back-end semiconductor materials, has fully launched US-JOINT, a 12-company Japan-US consortium R&D center in Union City, California. The goal: cut proof-of-concept cycles from six months to one, and plug directly into the custom AI chip development of GAFAM-class hyperscalers.
NEC has begun a strategic partnership with Anthropic, becoming the first Japanese company named as a global partner. The deal embeds Claude Opus 4.7 and Claude Cowork into NEC's BluStellar DX platform for banks, manufacturers, and local governments, and deploys Claude across roughly 30,000 employees. We break down NEC's three-layered AI strategy spanning its own cotomi LLM, the national Physical AI initiative, and now Anthropic, and examine why Tokyo's IT giants are hedging toward Claude over ChatGPT.
Honda will end four-wheeler sales in South Korea by the end of 2026, closing a 23-year chapter with cumulative sales of just 108,600 cars. The retreat coincides with China factory shutdowns from June 2026, the cancellation of the Sony-Honda AFEELA EV, and scrapped North American EV plans, part of a sweeping strategy to concentrate resources on the US, Japan, India, and ASEAN. A deep dive for global readers.
On March 25, 2026, five partners, NYK Line, NTT Facilities, Eurus Energy, MUFG Bank, and the City of Yokohama, launched a world-first floating data center powered entirely by solar panels and batteries at Yokohama Port. How does this off-grid demonstration differ from the MOL-Hitachi used-ship concept, and what does it say about Japan's answer to the AI power crisis?
On April 23, 2026, the Nikkei 225 crossed 60,000 intraday for the first time in history. We compare this milestone with the 1989 bubble peak at 38,915 yen, examining USD-based performance, the foreign ownership shift from 5% to 32.4%, the PER drop from 60x to 16x, and the heavy concentration in just a handful of AI and semiconductor stocks like SoftBank Group, which surged 9.6%.
On April 14, 2026, the headline from Nissan's long-term vision wasn't rare earths or robotaxis, it was the return of the Skyline, the continuation of the GT-R, the revival of the Xterra, and the debut of the all-new X-Trail/Rogue e-POWER and Juke EV. Here's Espinosa's 56-to-45 model cull, the new 'Heartbeat' classification, and how Japan, the US, and China each get distinct lineups as Nissan walks a standalone path after the Honda merger collapse.
Japan's government blocked Korean PE firm MBK Partners' $1.7 billion takeover of Makino Milling Machine, the first-ever stop order under the revised FEFTA since 2017. Why did a non-classified machine tool maker trigger national security alarms? We break down both sides of the overreach-versus-reasonable debate.