At the APEC trade ministers meeting in Suzhou, China, Japan's industry minister demanded that exporting countries rectify arbitrary rare earth curbs. A look at the slow squeeze on Japan, its roots in a Taiwan remark, and Tokyo's exit strategy.
Taiwanese buyers now account for 62% of all foreign home purchases in Tokyo's 23 wards, according to data released by Japan's government for the first time. Behind this surge: a historic yen, a Taipei property bubble exceeding Tokyo, TSMC's Kumamoto pipeline, geopolitical hedging, and Taiwan's AI boom—all converging at once.