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The Japan Fair Trade Commission plans to advise electronics retailer Bic Camera to prevent a recurrence of unreasonable reductions in payments to subcontractors that manufacture its private-brand products, informed sources said Tuesday. The commission found that Bic Camera unreasonably cut the payments by a total of about ¥500 million in violation of the subcontract law. After being investigated by the FTC, Bic Camera paid all of the reduced amount to the subcontractors, according to the sources. Over a period of about a year from the summer of 2023 at the latest, Bic Camera reduced payments to about 50 subcontractors for the manufacturing of its private-brand products under the guise of “sales incentives,” the sources said. In a statement released on Tuesday, Bic Camera admitted that the company is under investigation by the FTC, adding that it has no matters to disclose at the moment. Source link

New York – Former Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki has shown concern that China may expand its influence over developing countries if U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign aid cuts leads to a decrease in Washington’s assistance to the Global South. In such a situation, “Japan and European countries will face the need to respond either by encouraging the United States to restart its aid or by shouldering the burden of assistance to some extent,” Fujisaki said in a recent interview. After taking office in January, Trump signed an executive order stipulating that the United States would not spend on foreign assistance programs that are not consistent with the president’s diplomatic policy. The U.S. State Department announced a temporary suspension of foreign aid through the department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The United States is the world’s leading provider of foreign aid, contributing huge funds to developing countries to help them implement measures against global warming and other issues. “It can be problematic if the support that has been made to prevent the gap between developed and developing countries from expanding stagnates,” Fujisaki said. Although China is facing an economic slowdown and is seen as having little capacity for foreign support, Fujisaki expressed concern about future developments as China has strengthened its international influence through loans and investments in the Global South. In the interview, Fujisaki also discussed Trump’s diplomatic style of advocating for tariff hikes and pressuring other countries to make concessions. “Overturning a system that took 80 years to build since the end of the war should not happen,” he said, noting the history of the World Trade Organization and others promoting free trade, which has also been beneficial for Japan. Source link

ANA’s parent company will buy at least 77 aircraft from Boeing, Airbus and Embraer in a rare simultaneous deal with the world’s top three commercial plane-makers, according to people familiar with the matter. Japan’s largest airline won approval from its board of directors to buy at least 18 widebody 787-9 Dreamliners and 12 737-8 Max single-aisle jets from Boeing, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. It will also add 27 Airbus A321neo airliners, including three of the XLR longest-range single-aisle planes, and 20 E190-E2 regional jets from Brazil’s Embraer, the people said. Source link

Nippon Steel reiterated its objective for the $14.1 billion takeover of United States Steel after U.S. President Donald Trump said the Japanese company was considering an investment instead. The comments from Nippon Steel President Tadashi Imai on Tuesday are the first from an executive of the company since Trump said the steelmaker was considering an investment rather than an outright purchase. He made the remarks this month at a news conference with Japan’s prime minister. “The starting point for our discussions with the U.S. government will be this merger agreement,” Imai said in Tokyo. “From there, we will discuss with the U.S. administration on how we can get President Trump to approve of the deal.” Nippon Steel spent much of 2024 trying to gain approval for its planned takeover of U.S. Steel, facing regulatory and political hurdles. Former President Joe Biden blocked the deal in January before leaving office, citing national security issues, while Trump has also been against an outright purchase. Japanese Trade Minister Yoji Muto is expected to visit the U.S. in March, and may possibly discuss the U.S. Steel deal with American officials, according to a report from newspaper Asahi. Source link

Suzuki Motor’s India unit started production at its first new plant in eight years, boosting output in a market set to reach the 6 million passenger vehicles milestone by 2030. The opening of Maruti Suzuki India’s new factory in Kharkhoda in the northern Indian state of Haryana on Tuesday marked the first phase of what will become one of Asia’s largest passenger vehicle manufacturing facilities by 2028. India’s largest carmaker by sales had last opened a new factory in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in 2017. Its latest facility will eventually house four production units, each with a capacity of 250,000 vehicles per year, scaling up in phases through 2028. The first model to roll off the new production line will be its compact sports utility model Brezza, according to a company filing. The model is currently produced at the company’s Manesar plant. Source link

BEIJING/HONG KONG/SINGAPORE – DeepSeek is looking to press home its advantage. The Chinese startup triggered a $1 trillion-plus sell-off in global equities markets last month with a cut-price AI reasoning model that outperformed many Western competitors. Now, the Hangzhou-based firm is accelerating the launch of the successor to January’s R1 model, according to three people familiar with the company. Deepseek had planned to release R2 in early May but now wants it out as early as possible, two of them said, without providing specifics. The company says it hopes the new model will produce better coding and be able to reason in languages beyond English. Details of the accelerated timeline for R2’s release have not been previously reported. Source link

Donald Trump’s administration is sketching out tougher versions of U.S. semiconductor curbs and pressuring key allies to escalate their restrictions on China’s chip industry, an early indication the new U.S. president plans to expand efforts that began under Joe Biden to limit Beijing’s technological prowess. Trump officials recently met with their Japanese and Dutch counterparts about restricting Tokyo Electron and ASML engineers from maintaining semiconductor gear in China, according to people familiar with the matter. The aim, which was also a priority for Biden, is to see key allies match China curbs the U.S. has placed on American chip-gear companies, including Lam Research, KLA, and Applied Materials. The meetings come in addition to early discussions in Washington about sanctions on specific Chinese companies, other people said. Some Trump officials also aim to further restrict the type of Nvidia chips that can be exported to China without a license, Bloomberg News has previously reported. They’re also having early conversations about tightening existing curbs on the quantity of AI chips that can be exported globally without a license, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Source link

SEOUL – South Korea’s business leaders are taking action to offset the threat posed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies, hiring his former aides and lobbying Republican states out of frustration with delays by their own government which is mired in a political crisis. Trump’s sweeping and sometimes indiscriminate trade measures have sparked existential debate in many international capitals over how much they can depend on the U.S. from trade to politics. While it remains to be seen how the upheaval may affect the long-standing alliance and close economic relationship between Washington and Seoul, the stakes are higher for South Korea than other countries, as it grapples with the worst political crisis in decades after impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly imposed martial law on Dec. 3. Source link

After weeks of negotiations, the ruling coalition has clinched a deal with opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai on education reform and social insurance in exchange for its support for the minority government’s fiscal 2025 budget –– effectively ensuring its approval in the Lower House. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who heads the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito and Nippon Ishin chief Hirofumi Yoshimura will announce the three parties’ agreement in parliament on Tuesday evening. The deal is expected to lead to an increase in government spending on public and private education from April, slash its annual health insurance costs by ¥4 trillion ($26.8 billion) a year and result in savings of ¥60,000 for each working adult every year from fiscal 2026 — two longstanding policies championed by Nippon Ishin. Source link

Japan’s rugby union said Tuesday it was seeking answers after its chairman Kensuke Iwabuchi was suspended from his position with Asia Rugby pending an investigation into a potential code of conduct breach. Asia Rugby said Monday that Iwabuchi, who was elected as one of the organization’s three vice presidents in November, was suspended from “any duties and responsibilities until the pending investigation is concluded.” It said he had been suspended “in line with Asia Rugby principles of equality, transparency and accountability,” without giving further details. Asia Rugby is the regional association of World Rugby, the global governing body. Iwabuchi has served as chairman of the Japan Rugby Football Union since 2019 and was instrumental in bringing Eddie Jones back for a second stint as head coach last year. The JRFU said in a statement that it was seeking clarification from Asia Rugby. “The JRFU is trying to confirm the circumstances and reasons why our chairman Kensuke Iwabuchi has been temporarily suspended from his position as Asia Rugby vice president, which was announced on February 24,” the statement said. “We have confirmed that he has not committed any act that goes against Asia Rugby’s principles of equality, transparency and accountability, and that he is responding in accordance with the code of conduct. “We will continue to do our best to develop Asian rugby.” Japan is set to play home games against Wales and Australia this year before taking on Ireland, Wales and Georgia in a November tour of Europe. Source link