Latest Japan Headlines

All the headlines from our Japan Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Toyota to Recall 2.77 Million Vehicles for Steering, Water Pump Problems

Nov 14 2012 // Toyota Motor Corp said it will recall 2.77 million vehicles worldwide, including some of its popular Prius hybrid cars, for steering and water pump problems in the carmaker’s second multimillion-vehicle recall in a...

U.S. ‘Fiscal Cliff,’ Europe’s Debt Woes Worry G20

Nov 5 2012 // Leading world economies pressed the United States on Sunday to act decisively to avert a rush of spending cuts and tax hikes, warning that the so-called fiscal cliff is the biggest short-term threat to global...

‘Big One’ Looms in Minds of Experts Before California ShakeOut

Nov 5 2012 // A day before more than 9 million people in California took part in a massive nationwide earthquake drill in mid-October, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones stood in a room full of risk professionals in the San...

Alaska Setting for Japanese Documentary on Tsunami

Nov 5 2012 // A Japanese broadcasting group has been filming a documentary about tsunami debris in Kodiak, Alaska. NHK, Japan’s national public broadcasting station, is filming a documentary about tsunami debris in Alaska to raise...

Alaska Setting For Japanese Documentary On Tsunami

Oct 22 2012 // A Japanese broadcasting group is filming a documentary about tsunami debris in Kodiak, Alaska this week. NHK, Japan’s national public broadcasting station, is filming a documentary about tsunami debris in Alaska to...

Hong Kong’s Li Returns to Insurance with $2.1 Billion ING Deal

Oct 19 2012 // Hong Kong businessman Richard Li, the younger son of Asia’s richest man, is buying ING’s Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand insurance units for $2.14 billion in cash, bringing the Dutch financial services company a...

‘Big One’ Looms in Minds of Experts Before California ShakeOut

Oct 18 2012 // A day before more than 9 million people in California took part in a massive nationwide earthquake drill on Thursday, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones stood in a room full of risk professionals in the San...

India’s Battered Insurers May Need More than Foreign Investment

Oct 10 2012 // India’s proposal to allow more foreign investment in its $41 billion insurance business provides a lifeline for an industry starved of capital and squeezed by regulation – but it may not pass parliament and it...

Lloyd’s Analyzes Repercussions of Thai Flood Losses a Year Later

Oct 3 2012 // Lloyd’s has published an analysis of the floods that hit Thailand in October 2011, which notes that “after weeks of slowly spreading their way through many of Thailand’s provinces, flood waters eventually...

Typhoon Jelawat Hits Okinawa; Moves on Tokyo: AIR Analysis

Oct 1 2012 // Typhoon Jelawat remains a powerful storm, even if its wind speed has decreased from around from 155 mph, 250km/h, it passed over Okinawa on Saturday with wind speeds over 90 mph, 144 km/h, causing extensive damage, and...

Typhoon Sanba Makes Landfall in South Korea: AIR Analysis

Sep 18 2012 // According to catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, Typhoon Sanba made landfall on September 17 just before noon local time (3:00 UTC) in South Gyeongsang Province on the southern coast of South Korea. Maximum sustained...

US Renews Waivers of Iran Sanctions for Japan, EU Nations

Sep 17 2012 // The United States has renewed waivers on Iran sanctions for Japan and 10 European countries because they cut their purchases of the OPEC nation’s crude oil, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. The...

Myanmar to Open Insurance Sector to Foreigners in 2015

Sep 14 2012 // Myanmar will allow foreign investors into its insurance sector by around 2015 once local private insurers have had time to establish themselves, a senior government official told Reuters. “We need to give these local...

Commentary by Gordon Brown:* Europe Risks Going the Way of Japan

Sep 14 2012 // The good news is that Europe is no longer going the way of Greece. The sad news is that it is threatening to go the way of Japan. After years of hesitation punctuated by panic, Europe has finally accepted the compelling...

Commentary: Iran Confident It Is Winning Sanctions War

Sep 4 2012 // Despite ludicrous claims to the contrary, Western sanctions have hurt Iran’s crude oil exports, but it’s also not all gloom and doom. In unsurprising, but obviously factually incorrect, remarks, the director of...

Powerful Typhoon Bolaven Nears Japan’s Okinawa Island

Aug 27 2012 // The strongest typhoon to approach Okinawa in several years was bearing down on the southern Japanese island on Sunday as residents were told to stay indoors and warned its strong gusts could overturn cars and cause waves...

Fitch Notes Reinsurers More Risk-Focused For More Asian Catastrophes

Aug 23 2012 // Fitch Ratings has issued a statement which points out that the “spate of Asia-Pacific catastrophes in the past two years have prompted reinsurers to take stock of their existing portfolio and re-evaluate their...

Asia’s Iran Crude Oil Imports to Regain Levels Prior to EU Insurance Ban

Aug 22 2012 // Asia’s crude imports from Iran are set to recover in September to levels reached before a July 1 insurance ban by the European Union plunged trade with the Islamic Republic into uncertainty not seen in decades. Top...

Best Upgrades NIPPONKOA’s Ratings to ‘A+’; Affirms Subs

Aug 22 2012 // A.M. Best Co. has upgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) to ‘A+’ (Superior) from ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) to “aa-” from “a+” of Japan’s...

Best Affirms Sompo Japan’s ‘A+’ Ratings; Subs Ratings

Aug 22 2012 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A+’ (Superior) and issuer credit rating (ICR) of “aa-” of Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. as well as the FSR of ‘A...