Tag: Asia Pacific

Japan Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 55 With Search On for Those Still Trapped
World

Japan Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 55 With Search On for Those Still Trapped

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 11:42 am ETThe smoking ruins of what was a popular market for tourists and a seven-story building lying on its side testified to the destruction left by a New Year’s Day earthquake in Japan that killed at least 55 people.The city of Wajima in Ishikawa prefecture on the Japan Sea coast suffered some of the worst damage from the magnitude 7.6 quake. Japan’s military was mobilized along with police and fire units to deliver relief supplies and try to rescue those buried under homes and buildings.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Xi Jinping Says Happy New Year
Business

Xi Jinping Says Happy New Year

China’s Supreme Leader Xi Jinping offered his traditional New Year’s greeting Monday with a warning. “The reunification of the motherland is a historical inevitability,” Mr. Xi said, according to the Chinese-language version documented by various news sources.“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he added. The official English translation wrote “all Chinese” rather than “compatriots,” according to a Reuters dispatch.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
China’s EV Champion BYD Will Take on the World in 2024
Money

China’s EV Champion BYD Will Take on the World in 2024

China’s electric-vehicle maker BYD will be on top of the world this year, with overseas markets its main battleground.At home, it already surpassed Volkswagen as the most popular car brand in China last year. Globally, it will likely overtake Tesla as the bestselling pure EV maker in 2024.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
All Passengers on Japan Airlines Jet Evacuated After Plane Collision
World

All Passengers on Japan Airlines Jet Evacuated After Plane Collision

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 7:04 am ETTOKYO—A Japan Coast Guard plane and a Japan Airlines passenger jet collided at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport but all 379 people on board the passenger jet were able to escape, Japan Airlines said.Five of the six people aboard the Coast Guard plane died in the crash, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said. He said they were planning to deliver relief supplies to people affected by an earthquake on the Japan Sea coast on New Year’s Day.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Lee Jae-myung, Head of South Korean Opposition Party, Is Stabbed
World

Lee Jae-myung, Head of South Korean Opposition Party, Is Stabbed

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 2:17 am ETSEOUL—The head of South Korea’s opposition party was stabbed in the neck during a Tuesday visit to the port city of Busan.Lee Jae-myung, the 59-year-old leader of South Korea’s Democratic Party, remained conscious after being attacked by a male assailant, who was arrested at the scene, according to South Korea’s semiofficial Yonhap News Agency. Blood could be seen on his shirt collar. Lee was transported to a hospital in Busan within 20 minutes of the attack, Yonhap reported.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Baidu Terminates $3.6B Deal to Buy JOYY’s China Live-Streaming Business
Technology

Baidu Terminates $3.6B Deal to Buy JOYY’s China Live-Streaming Business

Baidu has called off a $3.6 billion deal to buy JOYY’s video-based entertainment live-streaming business in China.As of the end of December, the closing conditions for the share purchase agreement had yet to be fully satisfied, Baidu said in a filing late Monday.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Chinese State-Owned Firms Establish $1.4 Billion Fund
World

Chinese State-Owned Firms Establish $1.4 Billion Fund

Two Chinese state-owned companies will establish a 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion) fund to invest in companies with real estate project assets.Under the agreement, New China Life Insurance will be the limited partner providing CNY9.9 billion in capital and China International Capital Corp.will act as general partner that will manage the fund, New China Life said late Monday.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Australia’s Manufacturing Sector Likely on Track for a Soft Landing, PMI Data Shows
World

Australia’s Manufacturing Sector Likely on Track for a Soft Landing, PMI Data Shows

SYDNEY—A slowdown in Australia’s manufacturing sector continued through December, with activity contracting over the month as the broader economy lost momentum due to the impact of higher interest rates.Still, the rate of slowdown is consistent with a soft landing for manufacturers in 2024, according to Judo Bank.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Xenophobia Drives Foes of Nippon Steel’s Deal
Health

Xenophobia Drives Foes of Nippon Steel’s Deal

Election-year jitters have the Biden administration and a few swing-state members of Congress from both parties parroting union concerns about Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel. The United Steelworkers union favored Cleveland-Cliffs’s offer, which was almost 50% lower than Nippon’s $14.1 billion bid. There is no real cause for concern other than xenophobia and the damage it could do to Cleveland-Cliffs’s position as the sole U.S. producer of electrical steel for transformers and electric vehicles. The rest is imported.Nippon’s steelmaking is at least as advanced as U.S. Steel’s, so technology export control isn’t an issue. National security could be a concern if American mills were shutting down due to unfairly subsidized Japanese exports to the U.S. But Nippon never used gimmicks to ...
Japanese Investors Return to Overseas Real Estate With Lessons Learned From the 1990s
World

Japanese Investors Return to Overseas Real Estate With Lessons Learned From the 1990s

TOKYO—Big Japanese investors stumbled disastrously into the U.S. commercial real-estate market in the late 1980s, when they bought high-profile properties like New York’s Rockefeller Center not long before the market fell hard.Now some Japanese institutional investors and real-estate companies are back—but this time it isn’t about flaunting trophy purchases. It is about diversifying portfolios for the long term and getting good bargains while the market is slumping.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8