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July 02, 2026
 

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SUPPLY CHAINS

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 11, 2025
Trump ratchets up U.S.-China trade war with new levies and export controls
The actions signaled the biggest rupture in relations in four months between Beijing and Washington — the world’s biggest factory and its biggest consumer.
A mine for heavy rare earth metals outside of Longnan in south-central China's Jiangxi province
BUSINESS
Oct 10, 2025
China expands rare earths restrictions, targeting defense and chips users
The new curbs come ahead of a scheduled face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea at the end of October.
Magnetic slices made from rare earth metals at a factory run by the Canadian company Neo Performance Materials in Narva, Estonia, on Sept. 17. China is exerting its power over rare earth magnets as leverage in international trade.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 9, 2025
China tightens rare earth export controls, targeting defense and chips
China produces over 90% of the world’s processed rare earths and rare earth magnets.
The U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington in 2022
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2025
U.S. expands export blacklist in crackdown on Chinese subsidiaries
The action greatly increases the number of companies that require licenses to receive American goods and services.
Industry minister Yoji Muto takes part in a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 25, 2025
Japan and ASEAN nations to cooperate on bolstering supply chains
Japan and ASEAN are slated to set up a task force to select areas in which they will cooperate.
Japan has many positive qualities for German companies, but the market does face some challenges, such as talent acquisition and retention, particularly as demand for skilled workers grows, a survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan showed.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 22, 2025
German companies choosing Japan as Asia manufacturing hub: survey
The country is valued for its stability, affordability and proximity to other major markets, according to the survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan.
The factory of Asahi Tekko, which produces parts for Toyota vehicles, in Hekinan, Japan, on Aug. 18
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 28, 2025
The backbone of the global auto supply chain is at risk from Trump’s tariffs
Industry experts expect a devastating effect on the dense networks of auto parts suppliers that make everything from pistons to wiring.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba holds a news conference in Tokyo last month.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 16, 2025
Japan to accelerate development of logistics network in Africa
The planned corridor, which will link the inland African country of Zambia and a port in Mozambique, is aimed at enhancing supply chains for mineral resources.
Heavy mining machinery extracts minerals in an open pit mine. The Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security aims to diversify sources of gallium to reduce the country's reliance on imports from China.Getty Images
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2025
Japan’s energy security agency to join gallium production study in Australia
The Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security aims to diversify sources of gallium to reduce the country’s reliance on imports from China.
China is not merely moving more goods; it is exporting a new, ruthlessly efficient production model powered by automation, AI and state-guided industrial optimization.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2025
China’s unbeatable new production model export
The more pressing concern, however, is not what China exports, but how. Global cost structures are indeed being reshaped.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Jul 26, 2025
Trump tariffs leave costly China supply question unanswered
The U.S. president has threatened to rocket rates up to 40% for products deemed to be transshipped, or re-routed, through Southeast Asia.
Rare earth magnets in Baotou, China. India is planning to spur local production of rare-earth magnets to cut its reliance on China.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2025
India plans to kickstart rare-earth magnet output to cut China reliance
China’s tightening of export controls on rare earths amid a trade war with the U.S. has disrupted supply chains for global carmakers, including those operating in India.
A sample of gallium (Ga)
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2025
How U.S. buyers of critical minerals bypass China’s export ban
Trade data illustrate a re-routing of U.S. shipments via third countries — an issue Chinese officials have acknowledged.
A worker installs part of a business-class aircraft seat at the factory of Safran Seats GB in Cwmbran, South Wales, Britain, on Feb. 20.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jul 3, 2025
Airline seat industry crisis delaying jet deliveries
Certification bottlenecks and growing demand for bespoke features make it hard for the fragmented sector to achieve economies of scale after the pandemic.
Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (left), Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong (second from left), Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (second from right) and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stand together at the start of a meeting of "the Quad" at the U.S. State Department in Washington on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 2, 2025
‘Quad’ nations announce critical minerals initiative amid China concerns
A joint statement was carefully crafted not to directly mention China, but the four Indo-Pacific countries made clear a goal of reducing dependence on Beijing.
An electric motor, jointly developed by Honda and Daido Steel, for hybrid cars that uses no heavy rare earth metals is displayed at an unveiling in Tokyo in July 2016.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2025
Honda supplier rethinks China relationship as trade war bites
For Daido Steel, the trade war has meant renewing a push to build rare earth supply routes outside of China.
A Mercedes-Benz production line in Rastatt, Germany, earlier this month. European auto suppliers alone have filed hundreds of requests to China for rare earths since early April, with only about a quarter granted.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 6, 2025
The world’s auto supply chain is in the hands of a few Chinese bureaucrats
China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets — a crucial component in EV motors — and it added them to an export control list in April.
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China in 2010.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 4, 2025
Global alarms rise as China’s critical mineral export curbs take hold
China has a stranglehold on minerals crucial for sectors ranging from aerospace to semiconductors.
The Bayan Obo mine containing rare earth minerals, in Inner Mongolia, China.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 31, 2025
Carmakers warn China’s rare-earth curbs could halt production
Auto executives are sounding the alarm on an impending shortage of rare-earth magnets from China that could force the closure of factories within weeks.
Apple's Fifth Avenue store in New York on May 23
BUSINESS / Tech
May 28, 2025
Apple reels from share selloff as Trump’s 25% tariff threat drives uncertainty
Some are skeptical the tariffs will come to pass, but any such measures would require Apple to absorb costs or raise prices, eroding demand.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
India’s gig workers pay the price for exposure to New Delhi’s hazardous air
Rohit Kushwaha waits for a customer as he delivers his last parcel of the day, in New Delhi in January. His work as a delivery driver has helped pay the family’s bills, but has had a significant impact on his health.
Reform panel calls for easing data center building standards
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi emphasized that the government will promote reforms of regulations and systems that fit the artificial intelligence era.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
A French ship with close ties to Japan combines arts and sciences on the high seas
Romain Troublé, the executive director of Tara Ocean Foundation, speaks to visitors aboard the Tara during a rare port call in Tokyo in April.
In Kyushu’s far south, Senti.U sparks a culinary destination
Chef Yasuhiko Uchida was born in Saga Prefecture but has made his home in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, since 2012.

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

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