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March 08, 2025
 

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Taiga Uranaka
"It is an expanding field. We need more people,” said Kaoru Onishi, head of the global product division at Nissay Asset Management.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2025
Nissay Asset ramps up hiring as alternative investment booms
Japanese asset managers are trying to boost returns at a time when policymakers are encouraging households to shift their savings to investments.
Toshinori Yashiki, director-general of the Financial Services Agency’s strategy development and management bureau, speaks during an interview on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 28, 2025
Japan to crack down on booming market for JGB-backed loans
The Financial Services Agency will scrutinize banks that have increased purchases of Japanese government bonds that are repackaged into loans over the past year.
There’s keen interest in the market on whether Japan’s regional banks will pour back into benchmark 10-year notes, whose yields jumped to the highest levels since 2009 in Tokyo trading on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 25, 2025
One of Japan's top regional banks holds JGB buying on bet rates to climb
There’s keen interest in the market on whether Japan’s regional banks will pour back into benchmark 10-year notes.
Norinchukin Bank Chief Executive Officer Kazuto Oku
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 19, 2025
Norinchukin CEO plans to resign after massive bond losses
Norinchukin reported wider losses this month as it boosted investments in riskier leveraged loans and sought additional capital.
MUFG virtually reached its full-year profit goal with a quarter to spare, earning a record ¥1.749 trillion in the first nine months.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2025
MUFG profit soars in bumper earnings season for Japan banks
Japanese banks are benefiting from rising interest rates following more than a decade of ultra-easy monetary policy.
Japanese banks are enjoying bumper earnings as they begin to benefit from rising interest rates following more than a decade of ultraeasy monetary policy.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2025
Sumitomo Mitsui profit beats estimates as rate hikes bolster earnings
Net income at Japan’s second-largest bank rose 54% from a year earlier to ¥410.8 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, calculations show.
A government panel said Norinchukin Bank's huge losses stemmed from excessive investments in foreign bonds.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2025
Norinchukin urged to tap outside expertise and diversify portfolio after losses
A government panel has advised the bank to increase members of its board with experience in financial markets, including from outside the organization.
Nippon Life Insurance will establish a new headquarters division in late March to manage its foreign businesses, and its overseas insurance and asset management departments will be absorbed into that organization, people familiar with the matter have said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2025
Nippon Life to revamp overseas business operations after acquisitions
Japan’s biggest life insurer will establish a new headquarters division in late March to manage its foreign businesses, and absorb related departments into that organization.
Mizuho's CEO Masahiro Kihara said on Wednesday that domestic corporate banking, asset and wealth management, as well as global and corporate and investment banking, would all contribute to growth.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2025
Mizuho head sees profit reaching ¥1 trillion in three to four years
Mizuho previously projected record annual net income of ¥820 billion for the current fiscal year, meaning the increase would require an uplift of more than 20%.
Masahiro Kihara, the CEO of Mizuho, Japan’s third-largest lender, is expecting U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to make regulations more business friendly.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 24, 2024
Mizuho CEO sees global boom in M&A after Trump takes office
Masahiro Kihara, the CEO of Mizuho, Japan’s third-largest lender, is expecting U.S. President-elect Trump to make regulations more business friendly.
Hiroshi Shimizu (left), president of Nippon Life Insurance, and Satoshi Asahi, vice president and future president, shake hands after a news conference Wednesday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 23, 2024
Nippon Life’s $12 billion acquisition spree is just beginning
Having committed to pouring billions into a pair of global insurers, the firm is now turning to asset managers, as it seeks to diversify business at home and abroad.
Nippon Life Insurance, Japan’s largest insurer by assets, will buy $250 million worth of convertible notes and $300 million of preferred securities issued by TCW Group.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2024
Nippon Life ramps up global push with $550 million TCW deal
The announcement comes just a day after Nippon Life agreed to buy Bermuda-based Resolution Life Group Holdings for about $8.2 billion.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui are enjoying record earnings and they are determined to fund overseas expansion.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 10, 2024
Japan's megabanks are flush with cash and hunting overseas deals
The primary focus is on the U.S. and India, respectively the world’s largest economy and the fastest-growing.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group took a 15% stake in WealthNavi earlier this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024
MUFG considering bid for Japanese robo-adviser WealthNavi
MUFG took a 15% stake in WealthNavi earlier this year
Kazuto Oku in Tokyo on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 19, 2024
Norinchukin loss to exceed $9.7 billion as bank dumps foreign bonds
Traders and investors are closely watching how Norinchukin plans to reallocate its $304 billion investment portfolio.
Mizuho Financial CEO Masahiro Kihara during a news conference in Tokyo on Nov. 14
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 14, 2024
Japan’s biggest banks raise profit goals, unveil buybacks
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group now project a combined ¥3.7 trillion ($24 billion) in profit this fiscal year.
Rakuten's sale of 15% stake in its credit card arm to Mizuho Financial Group would give the e-commerce pioneer a one-time gain of ¥159.4 billion in the current quarter.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 14, 2024
Rakuten sells Mizuho 15% of credit card arm for ¥165 billion
The sale would give the e-commerce pioneer a one-time gain of ¥159.4 billion in the current quarter, Rakuten said in a statement Wednesday.
Yasushi Itagaki, head of MUFG’s global commercial banking business, says the banking group aims to push up its buyouts and investment in India, and increase annual returns from them to 20% in 10 years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2024
MUFG seeks acquisitions in India to drive growth, targeting 20% returns
Japan's largest lender is competing with a slew of global peers to expand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
Tomoki Arai, head of markets at Bank of Yokohama
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 8, 2024
Bank of Yokohama weighs Japan bond comeback with more rate hikes to come
More financial institutions are weighing a return to local debt after years of investing abroad.
Toshinori Yashiki, a senior official at the Financial Services Agency, says the regulator will examine Japanese megabanks’ lending to private equity and other funds in the U.S. for risk management.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 15, 2024
Japan regulator to scrutinize megabanks’ lending to U.S. funds
The nation's largest banks are increasing what is known as subscription finance and lending to funds that provide equity or credit to private companies.
Cherry blossom season set to kick off on March 21 in Tokyo
A Weathernews forecast shows the cherry blossom season will begin on March 21 in Tokyo.
Tokyo responds to Trump remarks on 'interesting' Japan-U.S. security pact
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (left) and U.S. President Donald Trump arrive for a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Feb. 7.
Nagoya High Court rules not recognizing same-sex marriage unconstitutional
Following the Nagoya High Court ruling on the same-sex marriage lawsuit, lawyers and others raise banners and boards that read "unconstitutional" and similar statements on Friday in Naka Ward, Nagoya.
Foreign single mothers struggle with language barriers and visas
Forbidden from seeing friends and forced to devote herself to housework, Reina (whose name has been changed), a 37-year-old Filipino national living in the city of Nagoya, became socially isolated.
At 102, world's oldest pharmacist celebrates her calling
Kesa Hatamoto, a 102-year-old Japanese woman who is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest pharmacist, speaks during an interview on Jan. 28 in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.
Cherry blossom season set to kick off on March 21 in Tokyo
A Weathernews forecast shows the cherry blossom season will begin on March 21 in Tokyo.
‘Granny hobbies’ are the new self-care
Yarn shortages are a sign that hobbies like knitting and crochet are gaining in popularity.
Can Shiori Ito’s documentary open Japan’s black box?
Shiori Ito is the first Japanese director to have been nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature film. "Black Box Diaries," which tells the story of her quest for justice following her rape in 2015, hasn't been released in Japan.
Japanese stocks stalled at 1989 levels as investors weigh tariffs and rates
An electronic sign displays the benchmark Nikkei stock average on a street in Tokyo. The stock average has been range-bound between about 38,000 and 40,000 since hitting a new all-time high in July last year.
Redevelopment and resistance in historic Nishiogikubo
Tsuyoshi Mizukoshi, owner of a pub in Nishiogi’s commercial area, is a community organizer who is rallying local residents against the road development plan.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly
By Tomoko Otake

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