Top Japan life insurers on guard for rising ultralong yields
TOKYO -- Dai-ichi Life Insurance and Nippon Life Insurance, two of Japan's biggest institutional investors, are navigating choppy waters churned up by the Trump administration's fast-changing tariff policy and a jump in Japanese bond yields at the ultralong-term end.
Kazuyuki Shigemoto, managing executive officer at Dai-ichi Life, said the company was ready for the market turmoil that followed Trump's "Liberation Day" in April.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
41 minutes ago
- Japan Times
Automakers sound alarm as China's critical mineral export ban takes hold
Alarm over China's stranglehold on critical minerals grew on Tuesday as global automakers joined their U.S. counterparts to complain that restrictions by China on exports of rare earth alloys, mixtures and magnets could cause production delays and outages without a quick solution. German automakers became the latest to warn that China's export restrictions threaten to shut down production and rattle their local economies, following a similar complaint from an Indian electric vehicle maker last week. China's decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world. The move underscores China's dominance of the critical mineral industry and is seen as leverage by China in its ongoing trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump has sought to redefine the trading relationship with the United States' top economic rival China by imposing steep tariffs on billions of dollars of imported goods in hopes of narrowing a wide trade deficit and bringing back lost manufacturing. Trump imposed tariffs as high as 145% against China only to scale them back after stock, bond and currency markets revolted over the sweeping nature of the levies. China has responded with its own tariffs and is leveraging its dominance in key supply chains to persuade Trump to back down. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk this week, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday, and the export ban is expected to be high on the agenda. "I can assure you that the administration is actively monitoring China's compliance with the Geneva trade agreement," she said. "Our administration officials continue to be engaged in correspondence with their Chinese counterparts." Trump has previously signaled that China's slow pace of easing the critical mineral export ban represents a violation of the Geneva agreement. Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors. The suspension has triggered anxiety in corporate boardrooms and nations' capitals — from Tokyo to Washington — as officials scrambled to identify limited alternative options amid fears that production of new automobiles and other items could grind to a halt by summer's end. "If the situation is not changed quickly, production delays and even production outages can no longer be ruled out," Hildegard Mueller, head of Germany's auto lobby, said on Tuesday. Frank Fannon, a minerals industry consultant and former U.S. assistant secretary of state for energy resources during Trump's first term, said the global disruptions are not shocking to those paying attention. "I don't think anyone should be surprised how this is playing out. We have a production challenge (in the U.S.) and we need to leverage our whole of government approach to secure resources and ramp up domestic capability as soon as possible. The time horizon to do this was yesterday,' Fannon. Diplomats, automakers and other executives from India, Japan and Europe were urgently seeking meetings with Beijing officials to push for faster approval of rare earth magnet exports, sources said, as shortages threatened to halt global supply chains. A business delegation from Japan will visit Beijing in early June to meet the Ministry of Commerce over the curbs and European diplomats from countries with big auto industries have also sought "emergency" meetings with Chinese officials in recent weeks. India, where Bajaj Auto warned that any further delays in securing the supply of rare earth magnets from China could "seriously impact" electric vehicle production, is organizing a trip for auto executives in the next two to three weeks. In May, the head of the trade group representing General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and other major automakers raised similar concerns in a letter to the Trump administration. "Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components, including automatic transmissions, throttle bodies, alternators, various motors, sensors, seat belts, speakers, lights, motors, power steering, and cameras," the Alliance for Automotive Innovation wrote in the letter.
an hour ago
MBK Partners to Launch Tender Offer for Makino Milling Machine
News from Japan Jun 4, 2025 10:03 (JST) Tokyo, June 4 (Jiji Press)--MBK Partners, an Asian investment fund, said Tuesday that it will launch a tender offer for Makino Milling Machine Co. at 11,751 yen per share by early December to take full control of the Japanese machine tool maker. Makino agreed with the bid from MBK Partners and recommended that all shareholders tender their shares in the offer. In December 2024, Japanese motor manufacturer Nidec Corp. made an unsolicited bid for Makino at 11,000 yen per share. Nidec withdrew its tender offer in early May after Makino announced a takeover defense measure. MBK Partners late last month made a binding takeover proposal to Makino, which had been looking for a white knight suitor. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
SoraNews24
an hour ago
- SoraNews24
KFC Japan cooking up new yuzu Japanese citrus katsu sandwiches for summer
Yuzu and shichimi add distinctive delicious Japanese flavors to the fried chicken house from Kentucky. Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan isn't shy about leaning just as heavily into the second geographic part of its name as it does the first. So while sure, they're happy to hook you up with a bucket of the Colonel's original-recipe fried chicken, they also regularly offer items that feature Japanese culinary creativity, and that's what's on the way with a new sandwich that's joining the KFC Japan menu: the Yuzu Shichimi Wafu Chicken Katsu Burger. We've got a lot to chew on linguistically there, so let's start at the beginning. Yuzu (pictured above) is a kind of Japanese citrus fruit that's somewhere between a lemon and a lime, but with a sharper finish to its flavor profile that better balances its sweet and tart notes. Shichimi (seen below) is a mixed chili pepper seasoning which often contains powdered orange peel, giving it a flavorful spiciness with a faintly citrusy impression. Meanwhile, wafu is a classical way of saying 'Japanese-style,' alluding to the teriyaki sauce that spread all across the chicken cutlet ('katsu'). That cutlet gets placed between whole-wheat buns, topped with shredded cabbage (the customary accompaniment for cutlets in Japan), and finished with a generous dollop of yuzu-juice and shichimi-infused mayonnaise sauce. The Yuzu Shichimi Wafu Chicken Katsu Burger can be had by itself for 490 yen (US$3.40), as part of a set with a medium drink and small order of fries for 900 yen, or, if you can't imagine going into KFC and not getting some straight-up fried chicken, as a combo with the drink, fries, and a piece of Original Recipe for 1,200 yen (both of the combos can be had for 160 yen less as lunch sets, offered between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.). Appearing alongside the Yuzu Shichimi Wafu Chicken Katsu Burger on the menu is a regular Wafu Chicken Katsu Burger with conventional mayonnaise, for which a la carte and combo prices are all 50 yen less. Both sandwiches are on sale as of June 4 at KFC branches across Japan and will be available for a limited time. Source: KFC Japan via Entabe Top image: KFC Japan Insert images: Wikipedia/Dallae, Wikipedia/E136, KFC Japan ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
