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It was another banner year for theatrical Japanese animation. Of the year’s 10 top-grossing films, half were anime features, according to box-office site PickScene. That includes the year’s top film, “Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram,” the 27th entry in the long-running “Detective Conan” franchise. “Pentagram” has earned over ¥15.7 billion (nearly $104 million), a new record for the series, and marks the second year in a row “Conan” has vaulted over the high ¥10 billion mark. The only other film to pass ¥10 billion this year was “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,” a theatrical sequel to a long-running manga and anime series about high school volleyball players. The anime industry in general — including film, television, streaming, merchandise and events — is on a roll. In October, the number crunchers at the Association of Japanese Animations revealed that in 2023, industry revenues reached ¥3.3 trillion (nearly $22 billion), a new record. Over half of that ¥3.3 trillion came from outside Japan, demonstrating how popular anime has become overseas. Source link

Akie Abe, the widow of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, plans to travel to the United States this weekend in the hopes of arranging a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, according to a media report. Shinzo Abe met Trump in 2016 before he was sworn in and maintained a good relationship with the U.S. leader throughout his first term as president. Akie Abe and her team are working to hold the meeting in Florida, home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, broadcaster FNN reported Wednesday. On Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi declined to comment on the media report, saying Akie Abe is not a government official. Source link

The rise of artificial intelligence will drive a surge in electricity demand that’ll initially be met by fossil fuels, before nuclear replaces that source, the head of a body advising Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said. As data centers are built in countries like the United States and Japan, more natural gas will be needed in the short term as power demand is “rising so fast that we will not have time to build nuclear plants initially,” Dale Klein, chairperson of the nuclear reform monitoring committee for Tepco said. Klein is also a former chairperson of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The rapid global adoption of AI has triggered a boom in demand for the energy-hungry data centers on which the technology depends, putting power grids to the test. While companies including Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google have invested in nuclear power to secure clean electricity for their facilities, that solution can’t be applied universally or immediately. Source link

Turin, Italy – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola remained upbeat after watching his team lose 2-0 at Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday to continue its alarming slump. Guardiola’s side is 22nd in the Champions League table, only three places out of automatic elimination from the competition with two games remaining. The Premier League champion has recorded just one victory in its last 10 games across all competitions. “We played good, really really good,” Guardiola told reporters. “So we missed the last pass, the last action, of course, some transitions happen, but I’m so proud of these players, they give everything and they tried, and now we live in this period, and hopefully we can change and get results. “I know it’s difficult, it’s difficult in Champions League in Europe, but we play really good.” City’s last two matches in the group phase are against Paris St. Germain and Club Brugge. The competition’s new format sees the top eight teams after eight rounds of the league phase advance into the round of 16 and avoid a playoff, which is now almost out of reach for Guardiola’s team. “We have two games,” he said. “We need one point maybe, one victory, the last one is at home, and the situation is because the game against Feyenoord (when City gave up a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3) and especially Inter Milan (a 0-0 draw). “But our three games away were really, really, really tough and you have to accept it. And when we turn around, we don’t forget that period, we appreciate more what we have done in the past, what they are going to in the future.” Source link

New condominiums are costing more than 10 times the average annual salary in Japan, according to data released by Tokyo Kantei, a real estate market research firm. Wages are not keeping up with rising costs and developers are, as a result, focusing on the higher end of the market. Foreign buyers are also a factor. The weak yen makes property in Japan relatively cheap for some overseas buyers, and their rush into the market pushes up prices. Source link

A ¥13.9 trillion ($91 billion) supplementary budget that includes an economic stimulus package cleared the Lower House on Thursday, following a last-minute deal between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition and opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP) on raising the tax-free annual income threshold and abolishing a portion of the gasoline tax. Wednesday’s tripartisan agreement is seen as a political victory for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s minority government to work with the DPP in a “partial coalition.” But it also demonstrates how the LDP-Komeito bloc, lacking a majority in the Lower House, is forced to negotiate with the opposition over all legislative proposals, including the budget. Source link

Public support for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet dipped 1.9 percentage points from the previous month to 26.8%, a Jiji Press opinion poll for December showed Thursday. The Cabinet’s approval rate has remained under 30% for months, including under Ishiba’s predecessor, Fumio Kishida. A reading below the threshold suggests that the administration is in the “danger zone.” Ishiba became prime minister in early October. In the December poll, the disapproval rate for the Ishiba Cabinet rose 3 points to 41.3%. Source link

Nippon Life Insurance said it will invest an additional $550 million in U.S. asset management firm TCW Group, as it embarks on a buying spree to accelerate global expansion. Japan’s largest insurer by assets, which already owns about 27% of TCW, will buy $250 million worth of convertible notes and $300 million of preferred securities issued by the money manager, the Osaka-based company said in a statement Thursday. The convertible notes will give Nippon Life as much as 10% of an additional stake after three years, according to a company spokeswoman. Nippon Life will also commit up to $3.25 billion to TCW’s private credit strategies, the statement said. TCW is trying to expand into private credit and the Japanese insurer’s funding commitment is designed to help that effort as an anchor investor, the spokeswoman added. Source link

A new risk for the yen is emerging, with currency strategists in Tokyo warning that there’s a chance the Bank of Japan may stand pat on interest rates until March or later. A small taste of the dangers ahead came Wednesday, when the yen slumped to its weakest in level in more than two weeks as traders reacted to a Bloomberg report that BOJ officials saw little cost to waiting before raising rates. That jolt only took the currency to ¥152.82 versus the dollar, and came against the backdrop of debate over whether the central bank would make its move on Dec. 19 or at the following meeting about a month later. A subsequent report by Reuters on Thursday, indicating that policy makers aren’t inclined to rush, saw the yen erase its small intraday gain. Source link

The governing Liberal Democratic Party and opposition parties were far from reaching a consensus Thursday over whether to ban donations from companies and organizations to political parties, a key issue toward another revision of the political funds control law. The Lower House’s Political Reform Special Committee started substantial deliberations on a total of nine bills to revise the law that have been submitted by parties. At this point, there is no prospect of any bill securing a majority and the focus is on whether parties can compromise with each other and reach an agreement. Source link