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6 days ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
KYOTO, Japan -- Jintaro Yamamoto grows and sells green tea much in the same way his elders did before him since the family business began in the mid-19th century. For one, the family's store in Uji, just southeast of the city of Kyoto, still sells tencha, the dried tea leaves that are ground up to make matcha, rather than just the more-profitable powdered final product.
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1 week ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO -- Nintendo expects net sales to rise by 63.1% to 1.9 trillion yen ($13 billion) in the financial year ending March 2026, on the back of strong demand for its new Nintendo Switch 2 console. The Japanese gaming giant also announced on Thursday that it aims to sell 15 million units of the Switch 2, set to launch on June 5, in this financial year.
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1 week ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO -- Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings reported record revenue for fiscal 2024, boosted by steady demand from inbound tourists. "Demand from inbound passengers, especially among those from North America, was strong," JAL President Mitsuko Tottori told reporters on Friday.
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2 weeks ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO -- Asian students are weighing an uncertain future in the U.S., in the wake of visa cancellations and disruption to the federal funding of international exchange and study-abroad schemes, including the flagship Fulbright program. A Japanese Fulbright scholar currently enrolled in a six-year PhD program at a U.S. university told Nikkei Asia that international scholars felt "caught up in the whirlwind of political change".
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3 weeks ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO -- Japanese motor maker Nidec on Thursday projected a 19% increase in net profit for the fiscal year through next March, aiming to ride out disruptions caused by U.S. President Donald Trump with cost-cutting and other measures. For fiscal 2025, the Kyoto-based company predicts a net profit of 200 billion yen ($1.4 billion) versus 167 billion yen for the year ended last month. Sales, however, are projected to stay flat at 2.6 trillion yen.
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1 month ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO -- Japanese retailers are experimenting with robotic clerks and human avatars as they try to maintain their renowned service standards, even with workers harder to come by. At Expo 2025 Osaka, which kicks off next week, Avatarin, a spinoff from airline operator ANA Holdings, will demonstrate remote customer service at two 7-Eleven convenience stores.
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1 month ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO/SEOUL -- The governments of Japan, South Korea, Thailand and other Asian targets of Trump's latest tariff salvo on Thursday said that they would take measures to mitigate the impact of levies more powerful than were expected -- but only China declared it would take countermeasures. Early in the morning, U.S. President Donald Trump hit countries around the world with 'reciprocal tariffs' of up to 49%.
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1 month ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO -- Japan's Rapidus says it is set to start test production of its cutting-edge 2-nanometer chips this month and deliver prototypes to customers by late July. "All preparations for operating the pilot line have been completed as of today. We will be able to start producing [wafer] lots by the end of April," President Atsuyoshi Koike told reporters on Tuesday. He said all the equipment has been delivered and that the company is in the process of adjusting each piece of machinery.
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1 month ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO -- The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) will require companies listed on its top-tier Prime section of the market to disclose key financial information both in Japanese and English, starting Tuesday, in a move aimed at creating a level playing-field between domestic and overseas investors. Some 1,600 or so Prime-listed companies are now required to disclose financial results in both Japanese and English at the same time.
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1 month ago | 
asia.nikkei.com | Tamayo Muto
TOKYO -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched a defense of free trade and multilateralism in Tokyo on Thursday, while threatening to hit back at U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. "Multilateralism is significant," Lula told reporters a day after he met Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. "The country that once advocated free trade is now advocating protectionism," he said, referring to the U.S.
