Uniqlo says 'no direct deal' with entity in China's Xinjiang area
TOKYO -- Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo said on Tuesday it has "no direct deal" with a company in China's Xinjiang region suspected of using forced labor, after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently banned the import of cotton shirts from the Japanese brand.
"We confirm that certain cotton shirt products, which were manufactured in China using raw cotton from outside China, were blocked from being imported into the United States," said Uniqlo in a statement, referring to products the U.S.
Sale of AMC cinemas closes curtain on Dalian Wanda's global dream
HONG KONG -- Dalian Wanda Group's $2.6 billion acquisition of U.S.-based AMC Entertainment Holdings in 2012 was historic not only for the Chinese buyer, but also for corporate China overall.
The purchase of the second-largest cinema operator globally drew parallels with Sony's takeover of Columbia Pictures in 1989, when Japanese money was gobbling up landmark assets in the U.S. and worldwide.
But while Columbia Pictures remains a core part of Sony'
AI failings spark doubt over new tech era
TOKYO -- Swagatam Sen starts off his day in a way that most people might find strange.
"The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is intentionally go to a website I have zero interest in," said the 39-year-old, who works at a financial institution in the U.K.
Around the clock, whether at work or during his personal time, Sen switches back and forth between websites he likes and those he does not, all to trick the artificial intelligence
US warns against travel to Japan; Tokyo says no impact on Olympics
TOKYO -- The U.S. on Monday warned against all travel to Japan, noting "a very high level of COVID-19 in the country" less than two months before the long-delayed Summer Olympics are to open here.
The State Department raised its advisory from Level 3, or "reconsider travel," to Level 4, or "do not travel" -- its highest for overseas trips. Sri Lanka's advisory was also raised to Level 4.
"Because of the current situation
Taiwan hit by triple blow of drought, blackouts and COVID surge
TAINAN, NEW TAIPEI/Taiwan -- The calm of a sunny May afternoon in Taiwan was broken by a crescendo of smartphones buzzing due to a national emergency alert.
Electricity blackouts were coming due to a malfunction at a power plant in the south of the island. People had no time to prepare. There were more than 30 reports of people being trapped in elevators half an hour after the warning in the capital city.
"I was talking to my clients... but our building suddenly blacked out. The
Japan eyes COVID emergency extension as Olympic countdown begins
TOKYO -- Japan will decide as early as this weekend whether to extend the state of emergency in Tokyo and other prefectures beyond the current end date of May 31 and into next month as the July 23 start of the Summer Olympics approaches.
On whether the games can be held during a pandemic state of emergency, a vice president of the International Olympic Committee is emphatic that they can be.
"The answer is absolutely yes," John Coates said at a remote press conference Friday, saying the World Health Organization
Almost 40% of Nikkei 225 companies pledge net-zero emissions
TOKYO -- Nearly 40% of the 225 companies in Japan's Nikkei Stock Average have set goals to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within the next few decades, amid growing pressure from investors and Tokyo.
The tally roughly doubled from the end of 2020 to 85 at the end of April, suggesting that the government's target of net-zero emissions by 2050, announced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in October, has spurred leading businesses to set new
Why it is time to re-think our assumptions about inflation
Masaaki Shirakawa is a former governor of the Bank of Japan.
Assessments of inflation risk have now taken center stage in global financial markets after the surprise jump last week in the U.S. annual consumer price inflation rate for April to 4.2%. What is at issue is whether the rise in inflation is transitory.
As long as we take a traditional approach toward looking at the output gap, which is presumed to affect inflation, the official view of the U.S. Federal Reserve is understandable, because
Toyota's 'hydrogen engine' car roars through 24-hour enduro
NAGOYA, Japan -- A sports car developed by Toyota Motor flew across the finish line to become the first vehicle running on a hydrogen engine, and not merely fuel cells, to complete a 24-hour endurance test.
Toyota entered the Corolla Sport into this year's Super Taikyu Series held Saturday and Sunday in Japan's Shizuoka Prefecture, between Tokyo and Nagoya. Unlike most hydrogen-powered vehicles, which employ fuel cells that use hydrogen to generate electricity for motors, this auto ran on a repurposed gasoline
US says Vietnam tires are subsidized by undervalued currency
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Commerce Department said on Monday that car and light truck tires from Vietnam are being unfairly subsidized due to a currency undervaluation, the first finding of its kind by the agency.
Tires from Vietnam are being subsidized at a rate ranging from 6.23% to 7.89% through the conversion of U.S. dollars into Vietnamese dong at an undervalued exchange rate, the department said in its final determination in the trade case.
It also found in