Latest Japan Headlines
All the headlines from our Japan Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Kobe Steel Scandal Hits Global Supply Chains as Financial, Legal Fallout Grows
Oct 16 2017 // Just over a week out from revelations of a cheating scandal that plunged Kobe Steel Ltd. in crisis and ensnared hundreds of firms, the embattled steelmaker’s shares skidded to five-year lows on Monday as investors...
Kobe Steel Supply Chain Scandal Spreads; 500 Customers Used Affected Products
Oct 13 2017 // The cheating crisis engulfing Kobe Steel Ltd just got bigger. Chief Executive Hiroya Kawasaki on Friday revealed that about 500 companies had received its falsely certified products, more than double its earlier count,...
Gov’t, TEPCO Held Accountable by Japan Court for Fukushima Nuclear Accident
Oct 12 2017 // A Japanese court on Tuesday [Oct. 10] ordered the government and the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant to pay 500 million yen ($4.5 million) to thousands of area residents and evacuees who were demanding compensation...
Kobe Steel Can Expect Spate of Lawsuits for Its 10 Years of False Data
Oct 12 2017 // Kobe Steel Ltd.’s legal problems are just beginning in wake of the company’s disclosure that it falsified data for years about the durability of aluminum and copper used in airplanes, trains and vehicles. The...
Kobe Steel’s Data Fabrication Scandal Grows; Customers Eye Safety Impact
Oct 11 2017 // The scandal engulfing Kobe Steel Ltd. deepened on Wednesday as the Japanese steelmaker said it may have falsified data about another of its products, which is typically used in automobile parts including brakes and...
Kobe Steel Admits Falsifying Data on Components Used by 200 Firms
Oct 10 2017 // Japan’s government sought on Tuesday to contain the fallout from the disclosure by the nation’s third-biggest steel maker, Kobe Steel Ltd, that it had fabricated data on components used in cars, aircraft and...
Japan’s MS&AD to Invest $1B in Swiss Re’s UK Unit, ReAssure Jersey One
Oct 6 2017 // Japan’s MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings Inc said on Friday it had agreed with Swiss Re AG to invest 800 million pounds ($1.05 billion) to take a stake of up to 15 percent in UK-based ReAssure Jersey One...
Nippon Life Eyes Buying MassMutual Japan Unit for Bancassurance Sales: Sources
Oct 5 2017 // Japan’s biggest private-sector life insurer, Nippon Life Insurance Co., is in talks to buy a majority stake in the domestic unit of U.S.-based MassMutual Financial Group in an attempt to boost its bancassurance...
Japan Court Rules Tepco, not Government, Must Pay $3.4M to Ex-Fukushima Residents
Sep 27 2017 // A Japanese court ruled Friday [Sept. 22] that a utility, not the government, should pay compensation to dozens of former residents of Fukushima for losses to their livelihood caused by reactor meltdowns at a nuclear plant...
Japan Post’s Stock Sale Raises $11B, but Demand Is Subdued
Sep 25 2017 // A government sale of Japan Post Holdings Co. stock raised $11 billion in the world’s second-biggest share sale this year, with the postal and financial giant’s attractive dividend yield helping drum up...
Japan Post Plans $9.1B-$12.8B Share Sale as Early as Sept. 11
Sep 5 2017 // Japan Post Holdings Co. will announce plans for a share sale by the government as early as Sept. 11, almost two years after the postal and financial-services giant was listed, people with knowledge of the matter said. The...
Japan’s Sompo Holdings to Sell Sompo Canopius for $952M to Centerbridge
Sep 1 2017 // Japan’s Sompo Holdings Inc. announced it has agreed to sell Lloyd’s re/insurer Sompo Canopius AG to a private equity consortium led by Centerbridge Partners for $952 million. On completion of the purchase,...
Japan Government Plans to Sell Shares in Bancassurer Japan Post
Sep 1 2017 // Japan’s government plans to sell shares in Japan Post Holdings Co. as soon as this month, the first sale since the company’s massive 2015 listing, a government source familiar with the deal said on Friday. The...
Mitsui Sumitomo Buys Singapore’s First Capital Insurance from Fairfax for $1.6B
Aug 24 2017 // Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company (MSI) is acquiring Singapore’s First Capital Insurance for $1.6 billion from Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings, in the biggest takeover by a Japanese insurer in populous...
China’s Move to Curb Overseas Deals Designed to Avoid Japan-Style Bust
Aug 3 2017 // President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser commissioned a study earlier this year to see how China could avoid the fate of Japan’s epic bust in the 1990s and decades of stagnation that followed. The report...
Weakening Typhoon Noru Could Hit Japan This Weekend
Aug 2 2017 // A typhoon that briefly strengthened into the Northern Hemisphere’s strongest storm of the year has lost much of its punch but could still hit Japan by this weekend. Typhoon Noru was packing maximum sustained winds of...
RMS Launches New Models for Tropical Cyclone & Earthquake in Asia Pacific
Jul 12 2017 // RMS, the Newark, Calif.-based risk modeling and analytics firm, has introduced typhoon models for wind and flood for South Korea and Taiwan, plus four new earthquake models for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and...
Takata Bankruptcy Filing Could Happen Next Week in Japan
Jun 16 2017 // Takata Corp. plans to file for bankruptcy as soon as next week, paving the way for a sale of the 84-year-old Japanese air-bag maker behind the biggest safety recall in automotive history. The supplier is expected to seek...
Japan Readies Strategy for Drones, Autonomous Vehicles
May 30 2017 // Japan aims to finalize on June 9 plans to allow package delivery by drone sometime from 2020 and the commercialization of self-driving trucks by 2022, as it scrambles to breathe new life into its corporate sector, sources...
A.M. Best Places Ratings of Sompo Japan Canopius Re Under Review
May 23 2017 // A.M. Best has placed under review with developing implications the financial strength rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a+” of Zurich-based Sompo Japan Canopius Reinsurance...
