TAIPEI -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's biggest contract chipmaker, on Thursday announced it will build its first-ever chip plant in Japan, answering Tokyo's call to strengthen the local semiconductor supply chain to cope with an unprecedented global crunch in key components.

TSMC CEO C.C. Wei told investors that the company has received support from both its customers and the Japanese government to proceed with the investment, which is subject to its board of directors' approval. Wei said the plant will

TOKYO -- Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing expects its earnings to rise by 3% to hit another record high of 175 billion yen ($1.54 billion) in the year ending next August, the company said Thursday.

The group also expects revenue to rise by a similar magnitude to 2.2 trillion yen over the same period. Fast Retailing executives were speaking after announcing a jump of 88% in net profit to a peak of 169 billion yen in the fiscal year that ended this

SYDNEY -- Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto is developing a new technology to replace coking coal with farm waste in steelmaking, as part of a growing push within the sector to reduce carbon emissions.

Depending on the results of current and future tests, the company sees a potential to make the technology available on a commercial scale in as early as 10 years.

Steelmaking accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Rio Tinto. The challenge of cutting this output has brought mining companies together with steelmakers.

GUANGZHOU -- China "can strengthen cooperation in trade through free trade agreements with high standards," Premier Li Keqiang said Thursday in a keynote speech for one of the country's largest trade fair, amid questions about China's application to join the CPTPP.

"We will actively participate in and promote" deals like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Li said at the opening ceremony for the China Import and Export Fair. Also known as the Canton Fair, the event is attended by overseas

TOKYO -- Japanese property developer Mitsubishi Estate has won negotiating rights to buy land from the British Embassy in Tokyo, potentially as part of plans to build luxury condominiums.

The two sides have entered negotiations after a round of bidding that started with about five major real estate companies. At stake is a portion of roughly 28,000 sq. meters held by the embassy in central Tokyo's Chiyoda ward , a stone's throw from the Imperial Palace.

The proceeds of the sale will go toward making

WASHINGTON -- The International Monetary Fund recently trimmed this year's global economic forecast as supply chain disruptions and inflation weigh down the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

But conditions are "nowhere close" to the 1970s-style stagflation, when stubbornly slow economic growth combines with high inflation, Gita Gopinath, the IMF's chief economist, told Nikkei. Although the global economy faces downside risks, inflation rates are expected to return to normal in the near term.

Gopinath also reiterated the IMF's

NEW YORK -- A bipartisan group of U.S. senators will introduce a bill meant to prevent Big Tech from pressing an advantage over smaller competitors, providing a major test of antitrust legislation aimed at technology companies under President Joe Biden's administration.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top-ranking Republican on the committee, said they will introduce the American Innovation and Choice Online Act to Congress early next week.

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TOKYO -- Aeon, the Japanese retailer best known for the giant hypermarkets that bear its name, looks to acquire 100-yen chain Can Do to gain expertise in a segment of the market where it has struggled.

Can Do, with about 1,140 outlets nationwide, is Japan's third-largest discount chain selling goods ranging from kitchen and office supplies to toiletries and food, generally at a flat price of 100 yen each. Many of the shops are near major train stations

PALO ALTO, U.S. -- LinkedIn will close down its professional networking site in China this year, the company announced Thursday, citing a "significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China."

The Microsoft-owned company said it plans to offer a standalone app called InJob for China that will focus solely on job seeking and not include social networking features such as original posts, comments and sharing.

LinkedIn launched in China in 2014 and has 54 million users in the country