Latest Japan Headlines

All the headlines from our Japan Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Historic Rainfall, Floods in Japan Kill More Than 100; Some Factories Halt Operations

Jul 9 2018 // The death toll from the historic rainfall in western Japan reached 110 on Monday as rescuers stepped up efforts to clear areas hit by flooding and landslides. Some plants halted by the floods started to resume operations...

SoftBank Overhauls Top Management Team

Jun 20 2018 // Masayoshi Son elevated two SoftBank Group Corp. executives and one outsider to his inner circle, appointments that become official on Wednesday.The board approved the nominations of Marcelo Claure, Rajeev Misra and...

Earthquake Hits Japan’s Industrial Heartland, Causing 3 Deaths; Trains, Factories Halted

Jun 18 2018 // Three people were confirmed dead and almost 100 injured after a strong earthquake hit Osaka on Monday morning, rattling one of Japan’s industrial heartlands and halting trains and factories across the region.The...

Sexual Harassment Policy Changes Not High on Japan’s Corporate Agenda

May 25 2018 // Three-quarters of Japanese companies have made no changes to sexual harassment policies over the last year and don’t plan to do so, a Reuters poll found, though awareness of harassment is on the rise.The survey...

Sompo Int’l to Form Retail Insurance Platform to Integrate International Businesses

Apr 10 2018 // Sompo International Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based specialty provider of property and casualty re/insurance, announced it will establish a retail platform designed to integrate all the operations of Sompo Holdings Inc....

Swiss Re Continues Talks with SoftBank Which Seeks Stake of Up to 10%

Apr 4 2018 // Billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group Corp. is likely to take a stake of 10 percent or less in Swiss Re AG as it seeks to gain a foothold in the cash-rich reinsurance industry. The Swiss company’s shares...

Kobe Steel CEO to Resign Over Data Fraud Scandal as Report Finds More Cases

Mar 6 2018 // Kobe Steel Ltd said on Tuesday its CEO will step down to take responsibility for a widespread data fraud scandal, although doubts remain over a corporate culture mired in malfeasance and the possibility of future...

Nippon Life Agrees to Buy 85% Stake in MassMutual’s Japan Unit for $980M

Mar 2 2018 // Nippon Life Insurance Co said on Friday it had agreed to buy an 85 percent stake in the domestic unit of U.S.-based MassMutual Financial Group for about 104.2 billion yen ($980 million) as it aims to boost its...

Japan’s SoftBank in Talks to Buy Stake in Swiss Re

Feb 7 2018 // Swiss Re said it is in preliminary talks to sell a minority stake to SoftBank Group – a deal that reportedly could be worth $10 billion or more, in what would be the Japanese firm’s biggest financial services...

Japan’s Peer-to-Peer Vouch Insurtech Raises Seed Funding

Feb 5 2018 // Taiwan venture capital firm Nogle Capital Management, Singapore venture capital firm GREE Ventures and several angel investors have participated in the seed funding round of SGD$1 million for Singapore startup Vouch...

Japan’s SoftBank Eyes Taking Stake in India Insurance Startup: Sources

Jan 25 2018 // SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to back leading online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar at a valuation of at least $800 million, according to people familiar with the matter.The two sides are examining how the Japanese...

Update: Sunken Iranian Oil Tanker Causes Large Oil Slick in East China Sea

Jan 15 2018 // A stricken Iranian tanker that sank in the East China Sea on Sunday in the worst oil ship disaster in decades has produced a large oil slick, Chinese media and Japanese authorities said on Monday, as worries grew over...

Explosions Continue on Iranian Oil Tanker, Hampering Rescue Efforts

Jan 12 2018 // A stricken Iranian oil tanker continued exploding on Friday, hampering rescue efforts, Chinese state media reported, as Japan’s Coast Guard said the ship drifted away from the Chinese coast and into Japan’s...

Green Bonds Booming Despite Washington’s Animus, Report Shows

Jan 11 2018 // In spite of the U.S. withdrawal from the global climate change accord hammered out in Paris a year earlier, green bond issuance around the world reached $155.5 billion in 2017, a new report shows.That figure surpassed the...

Allianz’ Property Unit Plans to Double Asian Investments in Next 3 Years

Jan 4 2018 // Allianz SE’s property unit plans to double investments in Asia over three years as the German firm is drawing in more money from its insurance operations in the region.Property investments may swell to 3.75 billion...

Japan Data-Tampering Scandals Show Dangers of ‘Sacrificing Quality’ to Save Costs

Dec 28 2017 // A string of data-tampering scandals at Japanese manufacturers has not tarnished Japan’s image, though it has been a powerful reminder to avoid sacrificing quality when under cost or delivery pressure, a senior...

Kobe Steel Admits 3 Senior Executives Knew About Data Falsification

Dec 28 2017 // Kobe Steel Ltd, at the center of a data-falsification scandal that has shaken Japan’s manufacturing industry, admitted for the first time that executives were aware of the cheating, and reassigned three senior...

Factbox: Growing List of Insurers Make Brexit Plans for EU Subsidiaries

Dec 20 2017 // Below are insurers’ plans for EU subsidiaries (in alphabetical order) in case Britain does not have access to the single market after Brexit:ADMIRAL. British motor insurer Admiral Group said last year that it could...

Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials Reveals More Products with Falsified Specifications

Dec 19 2017 // Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials Corp. said it has found more cases of products shipped with possible falsified specifications as it investigates a widening data-fabrication scandal that has affected more than 300 of its...

Factbox: More Insurers Make Decisions About Post-Brexit Headquarters

Dec 13 2017 // Liberty Specialty Markets said it planned to redomicile its UK insurance company to Luxembourg, as a result of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.Below are insurers’ plans for EU subsidiaries (in...