TOKYO -- SoftBank Group's telecommunications unit will launch one of Japan's biggest startup incubation centers to nurture more unicorns -- startups valued at $1 billion or more -- in the country, the company announced Tuesday.

SoftBank Corp. won a 14.4 billion yen ($131 million) contract from the Aichi prefectural government to design and build the facility, Station Ai, in Nagoya. The facility is scheduled to be completed in 2024 and will span 23,

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor will invest 1.5 trillion yen ($13.6 billion) in batteries used for electric and hybrid vehicles by 2030, the company said on Tuesday, without disclosing any plans or locations for new factories.

Investments, however, are likely to be made in the automaker's major markets, including China and the U.S. In Japan, the company is planning to expand production through a joint venture with Panasonic.

The announcement comes with Toyota expanding its focus

NEW YORK -- The United States is days away from marking the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which brought down the World Trade Center towers in New York City and collapsed part of the Pentagon, outside Washington. Nikkei interviewed Thomas Friedman, The New York Times' foreign affairs columnist, and asked him to look back on how the attacks affected the world in terms of history and thought. The following are edited excerpts from the interview.

On Sept.

TOKYO -- Filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf was once a guerrilla in his native Iran before trading his gun for a camera. He later defected from the country, where film and other artistic expression are subject to strict censorship by the Islamic theocracy. Since then the director has been a fervent antiwar supporter with unshakable faith in democracy.

Nikkei interviewed Makhmalbaf about his thoughts regarding changes in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the U.S. The following is an edited version of the interview in

MUMBAI -- When Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the $46 billion in revenue Aditya Birla Group, walked into Indian government offices in New Delhi last week with Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read in tow, they had only one mission: to salvage their joint venture Vodafone Idea from imminent financial collapse.

The meeting was called because Vodafone Idea, the mobile telecom company owned 27.6% by the Birla group and 44.3% by U.K.-listed Vodafone, will require a bailout package

BANGKOK -- The ceremony commemorating Malaysian independence from Britain on Aug. 31 fully revealed the Southeast Asian nation's political turmoil.

King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah called for an end to political bickering to shield the country from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who took office only 10 days earlier, said this year's ceremony should be Malaysia's last pandemic-stricken National Day in a televised speech on Aug. 30. But he was forced to attend the

NEW YORK -- The United States is days away from marking the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which brought down the World Trade Center towers in New York City and collapsed part of the Pentagon, outside Washington. Nikkei interviewed Thomas Friedman, The New York Times' foreign affairs columnist, and asked him to look back on how the attacks affected the world in terms of history and thought. The following are edited excerpts from the interview.

On Sept.

TOKYO -- Filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf was once a guerrilla in his native Iran before trading his gun for a camera. He later defected from the country, where film and other artistic expression are subject to strict censorship by the Islamic theocracy. Since then the director has been a fervent antiwar supporter with unshakable faith in democracy.

Nikkei interviewed Makhmalbaf about his thoughts regarding changes in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the U.S. The following is an edited version of the interview in

BEIJING (Reuters) -- China's exports unexpectedly grew at a faster pace in August thanks to solid global demand, helping take some of the pressure off the world's second-biggest economy as it navigates its way through headwinds on several fronts.

China staged an impressive recovery from a coronavirus-battered slump, but economic momentum has weakened recently due to the Delta variant-driven COVID-19 outbreaks, high raw material prices, slowing exports, tighter measures to tame hot property prices and a campaign to