TOKYO -- The International Labor Organization warned on Wednesday that jobs lost in the heat of the COVID-19 crisis will not be recovered until 2023, at the earliest.

The pandemic, which caused a shortfall of 144 million available jobs in 2020, will have aftershocks in the global labor market.

In a new report released on Wednesday, the ILO estimated that the jobs gap will fall to 75 million this year, and 23 million in 2022.

YOKOHAMA, Japan -- Nissan Motor is rethinking the forecasts that underpin its "just-in-time" supply chain after being blindsided by a global chip shortage that has hobbled output at a string of global carmakers.

Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta said in an interview that the Japanese carmaker saw no need to stockpile more chips -- putting it at odds with its domestic rival Toyota and some other manufacturers.

But Nissan needed to take into account a wider range of factors in making its long-range estimates of chip demand

TAIPEI -- Huawei Technologies on Wednesday said it will extend its own operating system to smartphones in an attempt to keep its consumer business alive amid a U.S. crackdown on the Chinese company.

Huawei aims to have 200 million existing handsets switch from Google's Android operating system to its own HarmonyOS by the end of the year. The operating system will also be made available to a further 100 million smart devices such as displays and tablets.

The operating system will first be available for some of

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor has asked its main auto parts suppliers to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 3% in 2021 versus last year, Nikkei learned Wednesday.

The Japanese automaker plans to accelerate its decarbonization efforts by setting numerical targets. Toyota's drive to decarbonize its supply chain could spur other industries to set more detailed goals and speed up their own programs to tackle climate change. Honda Motor told its main suppliers Wednesday that an emissions reduction target will be issued by the fall.

Toyota executives recently held

ISTANBUL -- Remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urging the central bank chief to lower interest rates battered the lira down to fresh lows against the dollar early Wednesday morning here, rattling the currency market with his unconventional monetary views.

"I spoke to the central bank governor today. It is imperative that we lower interest rates," Erdogan told state-run broadcaster TRT on Tuesday night. "Interest rates should start falling around July or August."

The lira softened nearly 4% to 8.8 against the dollar

BANGKOK -- Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor will open a factory in Thailand next week after turning a plant acquired last year from General Motors into a regional base with production lines powered by artificial intelligence.

The facility will mark the company's first smart plant in Southeast Asia and strengthens its presence in the region, Great Wall said Tuesday.

The automaker has not disclosed the upgrade costs, but it has announced plans to invest 22.6 billion baht ($726 million) in Thailand, a market long

TOKYO -- Japan will pull out every policy stop to court overseas semiconductor companies, including offering generous financial incentives, under a draft growth strategy released Wednesday, joining the global race to secure supplies of the crucial component.

"Japan will swiftly match efforts by other countries to attract cutting-edge chipmaking facilities so it can build a secure supply chain at home," said the document presented to a Cabinet Office strategy meeting. The Cabinet is slated to approve the document by the end of the month.

Japan imports more than

TOKYO/BEIJING/LONDON -- Wednesday's decision to begin talks on having the U.K. join the Trans-Pacific Partnership has refocused attention on the 11-member trade agreement's expansion plans, as China puts out unofficial feelers about getting on board.

The group's top decision-making body agreed in a virtual meeting to set up a working group to review whether London meets the necessary standards in areas such as tariffs and investment rules, which could take nearly a year. Unanimous agreement

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."

As China invests massively in its 2025 economy, the U.S. is still trying to sort out 1995.

That was the year Washington rolled out its strong dollar policy. It emerged two years after President Bill Clinton's first treasury secretary, Lloyd Bentsen, shook global markets by saying, "I would like to see a