Leo Lewis Journalist Profile

Articles

Global soccer boot makers bow to pressure and dump kangaroo leather

3 weeks ago | afr.com | Leo Lewis |Nic Fildes

Jun 3, 2025 – 11.45am or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Tokyo/Sydney | Asics and Mizuno will stop using kangaroo leather in their soccer boots as the sports equipment industry’s last major holdouts abandon a material beloved of elite stars such as Pelé, Diego Maradona and David Beckham.
Tokyo frets about durability of American alliance ahead of Pete Hegseth visit

Mar 26, 2025 | afr.com | Lap Phan |Demetri Sevastopulo |Leo Lewis

Demetri Sevastopulo and Leo LewisMar 26, 2025 – 5.38pm or Subscribe to save articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Tokyo | Concerns over the durability of the US-Japan alliance and the threat of tariffs will loom large in Tokyo this week as Donald Trump’s defence secretary visits for high-level talks.
Couche-Tard's takeover bid for 7-Eleven could reshape Japan

Sep 4, 2024 | financialpost.com | Leo Lewis |David Keohane

The takeover offer has the potential to kick-start a wave of M&A activity in a country that has tended to avoid itAuthor of the article:Financial TimesLeo Lewis and David Keohane in TokyoPublished Sep 04, 2024 • 10 minute read You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account. The Seven & i Holdings Co. logo is displayed outside a 7-Eleven convenience store in Tokyo. Convenience stores —or konbiniare — are the pinnacle of what Japan does best.
Global stock markets fall sharply as worries grow over US recession

Aug 5, 2024 | irishtimes.com | Leo Lewis

Global stock markets tumbled on Monday, with the Japanese index suffering its worst day in 37 years, as investors fretted about a possible US recession and dumped risky assets. Tokyo’s Topix fell 12.2 per cent, the sharpest sell-off since “Black Monday” in October 1987 and more than erasing its gains for the year. US stocks followed suit in early trading, before recovering some of their losses only to slump again before the close.
Global shares tumble as US recession fears rattle markets

Aug 5, 2024 | irishtimes.com | Leo Lewis

Global stocks tumbled on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei index plummeting 13 per cent, as markets were rattled by the prospect of a US recession. In a rout that produced declines in other Asian markets, Japan’s broad Topix closed down 12.2 per cent, wiping out gains for the year. The Nikkei 225 suffered its biggest one-day points fall, plunging more than 4,450 points and passing the 3,836 lost on “Black Monday” in October 1987.
Commentary: Businesses are counting the likely cost of 'heatflation'

Jul 25, 2024 | channelnewsasia.com | Leo Lewis

TOKYO: When the doors opened on Wednesday morning (Jul 24) at Tokyo’s 10th annual Heat Solution expo, the temperature outside was nudging 35 degrees Celsius and heatstroke warnings were in place for much of Japan. Weather apps, compounding the sense of nature in extremis, cautioned that a tornado would shortly hit the capital. The deadliness of disarray is everywhere, and so, the expo powerfully suggests, is the threat of ever greater economic division around the cost of keeping cool.
Oodles of noodles: how a global favourite has become an economic red flag

Mar 15, 2024 | financialpost.com | Leo Lewis

Cheap and calorie-filled, the rapid foodstuff tells us about the state of the worldAuthor of the article:Published Mar 15, 2024 • 4 minute read Instant noodles is a global market that analysts estimate to be worth north of US$54 billion. Photo by Getty ImagesArticle contentIf the entire (cooked) length of instant noodles sold around the world in a single year were laid out in a line, the resulting 6.2 billion kilometre giga-noodle would stretch well beyond Pluto and into the depths of space.
Commentary: Instant noodles have become an economic red flag

Mar 14, 2024 | channelnewsasia.com | Leo Lewis

TOKYO: If the entire (cooked) length of instant noodles sold around the world in a single year were laid out in a line, the resulting 6.2 billion km giga-noodle would stretch well beyond Pluto and into the depths of space. It is a fact as miserable as it is marvellous.
What a potential post-Xbox future could mean for Sony and Nintendo

Mar 5, 2024 | arstechnica.com | Leo Lewis |David Keohane

Microsoft’s decision to ease off its 23-year competition with Sony and Nintendo over supremacy in games hardware has opened a path for Japan’s return as the world’s undisputed home of the console. The prospect of a new, less internationalized era of console wars has raised hopes of happier times for the Japanese survivors, but has also caused analysts and investors to revisit the question of how much longer the whole genre of dedicated games machines will continue to exist.
Commentary: Hong Kong’s Messi backlash says more about digital fandom than football

Feb 8, 2024 | channelnewsasia.com | Leo Lewis

TOKYO: Of the many short videos that have spooled across social media since the debacle in Hong Kong on Sunday (Feb 4), the finest captures an enraged spectator kicking Lionel Messi’s head clean off his neck. The savagery - unleashed after an injured Messi failed to play in a showcase match on the island - was inflicted on a life-sized cut-out of the eight-time Ballon d’Or-winning superstar, which stood outside the Hong Kong Stadium.