Takeuchi invented the mini excavator, earns 99% of sales abroad, and ranks 2nd in Europe and 5th in North America. The story of a Nagano firm that built a market from nothing, and the US-dependence risk it now carries.
Nintendo published its 86th shareholder meeting Q&A. Beyond the stock-price headlines: Miyamoto says IP runs at nearly 100% profit versus 30% console margins, the DS/3DS backward-compatibility dodge, game-preservation friction, My Number ID checks for Pokemon cards, and the India and China playbooks.
At Nissan's annual meeting, at least one investor called to bring back Carlos Ghosn. The fugitive ex-chairman told Reuters that only he can save the company, but he fled Japan inside a box and cannot legally return. What the absurd pitch actually signals.
Nintendo's stock has fallen more than 50% since its August 2025 peak, even after a record fiscal year. We unpack why—the Switch 2 price hike, a softer FY27 outlook, and how Nintendo stacks up against US gaming names like Roblox, Take-Two, and EA—for an overseas investor audience.
Nissan shareholders voted down the reappointment of outside director Motoo Nagai. A Mizuho-linked board insider, an abstaining Renault, and executive pay in a loss-making year explain how a rare rejection happened.
The Bank of Japan began selling its ETFs, yet its holdings ballooned past 110 trillion yen, over 8% of the Tokyo market. Why the Fed and ECB never bought stocks, how Switzerland differs, and whether central banks should own equities at all.
China overtook Japan in net external assets at the end of 2025, dropping it to third place — yet Japan's holdings hit a record high. Here is what the numbers really mean for the yen.
PM Takaichi met BOJ Governor Ueda on May 22 and asked the central bank to carry out 'appropriate policy.' We explain Japan's central bank independence next to the US Fed and the ECB, and how a weak yen near 159 and the carry trade tie this to global markets.
Top shareholder Oasis Management is pushing to remove KADOKAWA CEO Takeshi Natsuno, triggering a full proxy fight ahead of the June 24 shareholder meeting. We break down the arguments over an 89% EPS drop, the 'isekai over-reliance' critique, and FromSoftware's monetization, and check how our earlier predictions held up.
Mazda has launched the third-generation CX-5 in Japan today, May 21, 2026, starting at 3.3 million yen (around $20,800). With 5 million sold globally, this redesigned SUV is Mazda's bet on hybrids and combustion as the EV boom cools — and how it stacks up against Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Tesla, and BYD.
Japanese toy, video and game distributor Happinet reported its FY26 results, with video game segment profit surging 772% year-over-year to 2.2 billion yen (about $14 million). Behind the spike: Nintendo Switch 2 and its software lineup, plus the ripple effect of a console generation transition through Japan's entire game distribution ecosystem. Here's what was happening behind Nintendo's 19.86 million unit sell-through.
Japan's three megabanks—MUFG, SMFG, and Mizuho—posted a combined net profit of 5.26 trillion yen ($33B) for the fiscal year ended March 2026, breaking the 5-trillion-yen barrier for the first time. We unpack how BOJ rate hikes drove the surge, how the numbers compare to JPMorgan and HSBC, and what Japan's monetary normalization means for global markets.
Rohm posted a record 158.4 billion yen ($1 billion) net loss for fiscal 2026 after writing down 193.6 billion yen ($1.23B) on SiC power semiconductor assets. CEO Katsumi Azuma called it 'clearing out the pus'—a stark admission that Japan's biggest SiC bet was mistimed. With Wolfspeed in Chapter 11 and Chinese rivals slashing wafer prices to a third, the global silicon carbide gold rush has hit its reset moment.
Honda reported a ¥423.9 billion ($2.7B) net loss for FY2026 — its first since listing in 1957 — alongside ¥1.58 trillion ($10B) in EV-related write-offs. The carmaker unveiled a turnaround plan the same day: 15 new hybrids by 2029, ¥1.4 trillion ($8.9B) operating profit target by FY2029, and a sharp comparison emerges with Toyota's multi-pathway bet, Tesla's pure-EV scale, BYD's slowdown, and Hyundai's quiet rise.
On the afternoon of May 14, Japan's 10-year government bond yield hit 2.625%, the highest since 1997. OIS markets now price a 74% probability of a rate hike at the June 16-17 BOJ meeting. BOJ board member Kazuyuki Masu, previously considered cautious, said in a Kagoshima speech that 'early rate hikes are desirable.' With US PPI surprise, USD/JPY near 158, and 'long rates at 3% in sight,' we map where Japan's FX, bond, and rate-hike expectations stand right now.
Capcom announced FY2026 results with record net sales of 195.3 billion yen and operating profit of 75.3 billion yen, marking nine consecutive years of record profits across all earnings categories and eleven straight years of 10%-plus operating profit growth. Resident Evil Requiem sold 6.91 million units at series-fastest pace, while total annual game sales hit a record 59.07 million units. The dual-engine strategy of new releases plus catalog repeat sales is working remarkably well.
SoftBank Group has posted a record 5 trillion yen ($32 billion) net profit for the fiscal year ended March 2026, becoming the first Japanese company to ever cross the 5 trillion yen line. We unpack the 6.7 trillion yen OpenAI windfall, the Vision Fund comeback, the role of Arm as collateral, and how the figure stacks up against US Big Tech.
SEGA Sammy officially confirmed the cancellation of its 'Super Game' initiative in its FY2026 earnings, ending a 5-year plan to build a live-service mega-title aimed at 100 billion yen in lifetime sales. We break down why Sonic Rumble Party underperformed, why Rovio took another impairment hit, how 100+ developers were shifted to mainstay IP full games like Like a Dragon and Sonic, and how this fits the broader collapse of the GaaS gold rush following Concord, Suicide Squad, and Sony's own cancellations.
SEGA Sammy Holdings reported its FY2026 results: record revenue of 487.5 billion yen ($3.1B, +13.7％ YoY) was wiped out by 58.8 billion yen in special losses tied to Rovio Entertainment (Angry Birds) and Stakelogic, producing the company's first net loss in 11 years. We unpack the impairment, the international community's skepticism about the 776 million-dollar Rovio acquisition, the deprioritization of F2P, the redeployment of 100＋ developers onto full-game projects, and SEGA's bet on four new mainstay-IP titles ahead of Sonic's 35th anniversary.
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?