Tag - trade

 
Menu
Search
 
July 11, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

TRADE

China indicated that its recent dual-use export ban would not affect civilian enterprises in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 8, 2026
China ups the ante on trade front and then offers a glimmer of hope
Beijing said that Japanese civilian companies don’t have to worry about the dual-use export ban announced Tuesday.
China has banned the export of dual-use products to Japan following remarks about Taiwan by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 7, 2026
China’s dual-use export ban on Japan a decisive escalation
Established trade flows are at risk if the restrictions are fully implemented.
An aerosol drone in Beijing. China’s catalogue of dual-use goods includes drones, nuclear materials and facilities, aerospace engine components and specialist alloys.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 6, 2026
China slaps export controls on Japan military for Taiwan remarks
All dual-use items are banned from being exported to Japan for military use effective immediately, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.
Rusting anti-invasion barricades on Taiwan’s Lieyu Island, Kinmen County, sit across from the city of Xiamen on China’s southeastern coast, one of the closest points between the two sides, in September 2015.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2026
Trump’s Venezuela coup, Taiwan and lessons for China
Even if unification is successful, “China would have gained Taiwan but sacrificed its larger ambition of becoming a global superpower.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says the United Kingdom is better placed to gain more market access than form a customs union with the European Union.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 5, 2026
Starmer sets up fight with Farage on EU single-market access
The move follows a growing debate in the final weeks of 2025 about forming a customs union with the EU in a bid to revive the British economy.
U.S. President Donald Trump celebrates with other officials at the White House in July after signing the Genius Act, which will develop a regulatory framework for stablecoin cryptocurrencies and expand oversight of the industry.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2026
Will stablecoins preserve dollar dominance?
Some governments may hesitate, fearing that currency substitution would undermine the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy.
China entered 2025 widely written off amid trade pressure, capital flight and deep structural worries, but ended the year reasserting its economic and technological strength.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2026
Repeat after me: Never, ever underestimate China.
Some 47% of the world’s top 20th percentile AI researchers finished their undergraduate studies in China, well above the 18% share from the U.S.
Fireworks explode in the sky to bring in the New Year around the London Eye and the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known by the name of the clock's bell "Big Ben," at the Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament, in central London at midnight on Thursday.
WORLD / FOCUS
Jan 1, 2026
World welcomes 2026 with fireworks after year of Trump and turmoil
Revelers around the world toasted the start of 2026, bidding farewell on Wednesday to a volatile year.
People walk past closed shops following protests over a plunge in the currency's value, in the Tehran Grand Bazaar in the Iranian capital on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 31, 2025
Students join Iran demonstrations after shopkeepers protest
The student action came after Monday’s protests in Tehran by shop-owners as the Iranian rial has dropped against the dollar and other world currencies, forcing up import prices.
Filipino and Australian soldiers during the opening ceremony marking the start of a multinational military exercise, at a military base in Palawan, Philippines, on Aug. 15. Formal mutual defense treaties with Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and South Korea are still in force, but relations between the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and the governments of Asia’s democracies are a far cry from what one typically finds between long-standing allies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2025
Asia adrift, Asia alone
Relations between the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and the governments of Asia’s democracies are a far cry from that typically found between long-standing allies.
U.S. President Donald Trump with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, on Oct. 30. Beneath a series of diplomatic victories this year, Xi still has plenty of worries at home — from structural economic vulnerabilities to a personnel purge that’s reached deep into the military and party elite.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 29, 2025
Xi’s triumphant year staring down Trump belies troubles in China
China was peerless in confronting Donald Trump’s renewed trade war, but beneath such victories, he has plenty of worries at home, such as structural economic vulnerabilities.
A sample of gallium. China is still restricting the rare earth elements that the U.S. needs to produce its own permanent magnets and other products, market participants say.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2025
U.S. rare earth buyers still see China curbs despite Trump deal
The reduced trade highlights continuing tensions in the U.S.-China relationship in the months since Trump and Xi hammered out a truce.
An employee inspects integrated circuit boards at a factory in Suzhou, China. The U.S. has declined to impose additional tariffs on chip imports despite accusing China of engaging in unfair trade practices in the semiconductor sector.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 24, 2025
U.S. holds off on new Chinese chip tariffs amid Trump-Xi truce
The U.S. government has floated the possibility of future ones.
Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at Sensoji Temple, Tokyo, in October
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 24, 2025
Japan and U.S. hold second consultation meeting on $550 billion pledge
Akazawa and Lutnick attended the two-hour online discussion.
Masakazu Tokura, the current chairman of Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation, addresses a news conference in May 2021. The organization and others have underscored that economic security requires sustained public-private collaboration to align profit-driven business decisions with national security priorities.  
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 24, 2025
A new era requires new public-private partnerships
Governments need an accurate understanding of the realities of business operations,
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington in April.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 24, 2025
Trump shook up global trade this year. Here’s what to look out for in 2026
Whether many of the U.S. president’s tariffs are allowed to stand remains a big unknown going into the new year.
A container ship departs the Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai. U.S. President Donald Trump's trade wars only serve to drive up global emissions.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2025
Trade wars destroy the planet
If trade tensions reshape industrial structures in China and the U.S., the shift toward more energy-intensive activities will raise the weighted-average carbon intensity.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 23, 2025
Indonesia looks to sign U.S. tariff deal in January, with all issues settled
Indonesia’s senior economic minister said the United States wanted access to Indonesia’s critical ‍minerals and had agreed to give tariff exemptions for palm oil, tea and coffee.
Soil containing rare earth minerals is prepared for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China, in October.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Dec 23, 2025
China, rare earths and ‘weaponized interdependence’
China has long understood the strategic value of its dominance in rare earth production.
A worker installs battery packs into an electric vehicle chassis at the vehicle assembly lines of Geely Automobile's Zeekr Factory in Ningbo, China, in March. Chinese firms are on track for a 75% jump this year in global shipments of lithium-ion battery cells for energy storage, according to one estimate.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Dec 22, 2025
China’s power reforms and global data center buildout usher in battery boom
Chinese firms have exported more than $65 billion worth of storage and electric-vehicle batteries this year, cementing their dominance in the sector.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Japan’s southwestern islands on high alert as Typhoon Bavi approaches
A woman walks out of a shop with duct-taped windows to prevent damage from Typhoon Bavi as it approaches, in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, on Thursday.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

Podcast

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

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Sompo looks beyond insurance to focus on well-being
Sompo looks beyond insurance to focus on well-being

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER