Latest news with #Japanese-backed
Mint
6 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Canada Talks Up Pension Funds' Financial Muscle as Lever in US Trade Talks
Canada's major pension funds could boost their investments in the US, a top Canadian cabinet minister said, as the country looks to negotiate a trade agreement with the Trump administration. Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for US trade, is in Washington for talks with US lawmakers. He brought up Canada's pension funds when asked if President Donald Trump will seek a specific pledge for more investment into the US. 'If they're looking for countries that invest massively in the United States, that's great news for Canada,' LeBlanc said in Washington after the meetings. 'Our pension funds alone have over $1 trillion of investment in the United States. That can potentially grow by $100 billion or more a year, and that's just the big nine Canadian pension funds.' The US has offered the idea of increased foreign investments as one option for some partners in exchange for more favorable trade treatment. Trump said this week that the US has reached a trade deal with Japan that includes a promise of a $550 billion Japanese-backed fund for investing in the US, though terms remain unclear. The US and South Korea have also discussed creating an investment vehicle for US projects, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. LeBlanc stopped short of saying the government would force pension funds to increase their US assets or invest in specific American projects as a quid pro quo for lower tariffs from Trump. Canada's public pension managers are significant investors in US infrastructure and other assets. The largest, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, had 47% of its capital allocated to the US as of the end of March. Its recent US deals included a joint venture with Equinix Inc. to raise $15 billion to build new data centers, including in the US. But traditionally those pension funds are shielded from political interference in their investment decisions. CPPIB had C$714 billion under management as of March 31. Michel Leduc, a spokesperson for CPPIB, said in an interview that the fund is 'not part of any negotiations' and 'not being asked to invest more in the US,' though 'there's been some outreach from the Canadian government to understand the facts.' CPPIB is expected to grow to C$1 trillion by the early 2030s and 'obviously you will see the dollars being more significant in the US' with that growth, Leduc said. LeBlanc said he met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Wednesday night and they had a 'productive, cordial discussion.' On Thursday he met with Republican senators including Tim Scott of South Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Roger Marshall of Kansas. But the minister was vague on the question of whether Canada can reach a trade deal with the US by Aug 1. Trump has threatened to hike US tariffs on Canadian imports to 35% on that day, up from 25% — though White House officials have suggested they'll continue exempting goods covered by the North American free trade pact known as USMCA. 'Canadians expect us to take the time necessary to get the best deal we can in the interest of Canadian workers,' LeBlanc said. He said Canada will only sign an agreement once Prime Minister Mark Carney 'decides that it's the best deal we can get.' Earlier this week, Carney himself lowered expectations for an agreement in the short term. He told reporters that Canada's aim 'is not to reach a deal whatever it costs,' but would instead use all the time it needs to reach the best outcome. Carney described the negotiations as complex, in part because the Trump administration has a number of objectives 'that change from time to time.' For now, the Canadian economy has some breathing room because many products, including Canada's vast exports of crude oil, fuel and fertilizer, are exempt from tariffs when they're shipped under the rules of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Yet Canada still faces US tariffs and duties on a few key sectors: autos, steel, aluminum and lumber. Carney's team has been looking for a path forward on eliminating or at least reducing those tariffs. Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the US, told reporters that American officials have taken note of Canada's recent actions to limit foreign steel imports — particularly from China. 'There is a time when the deal is the right deal, and it's important for us to be in a position to continue negotiating til we get to that point,' she said. 'Some of the measures that we're taking, including in steel last week, are designed to help us have the route that we need to get where we need to go.' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
CNBC
24-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Estonia's tech elite are getting behind a European challenger to Robinhood
Some of the biggest names of Estonia's tech scene are backing Lightyear, a startup looking to become Europe's answer to commission-free trading pioneer Robinhood. Based in London, Lightyear develops an app that lets users invest in a range of over 5,000 stocks, exchange-traded funds and money market funds. It was founded by two former Wise employees, Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer, in 2021. The company is set to announce later on Thursday that it has raised $23 million in a new round of funding led by NordicNinja, a Japanese-backed venture capital fund based in Europe. Estonian tech entrepreneur Markus Villig, who co-founded ride-hailing unicorn Bolt has also invested. Lightyear CEO Sokk told CNBC that the firm didn't necessarily need to raise more cash for the business but chose to do so because of the caliber of investors involved. "People like Markus have been building massive companies in many, many markets, and this is something that's really exciting for us because it's so hard to go into all the markets and understand their local dynamics and what people need," he said. Lightyear currently operates in 25 countries. However, with help from angel investors like Bolt's Villig, the firm will be able to launch in another five markets "pretty quickly," Sokk said. Villig told CNBC that it can be "challenging to scale a business across multiple countries in a heavily regulated sector," adding that Europe's less developed retail investing market provides ample opportunities for disruption. Other Estonian angel investors who have previously backed Lightyear also participated in the funding round, including Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, former Chief Technology Officer Ott Kaukver and Skype founding engineer Jaan Tallinn. Estonia is widely considered a prominent tech hub in Europe. The country is home to the highest number of unicorns per capita in Europe, according to the Estonian Investment Agency. Meanwhile, Estonia's e-residency scheme has also enabled foreigners to become digital residents and launch their companies in the country. The new round values five-year-old Lightyear at between $200 million and $300 million, significantly higher than its valuation in 2022 when it raised $25 million, according to two people familiar with the matter who preferred to remain anonymous as the information has not been made public. Alongside the additional funding, Lightyear is also launching new artificial intelligence features. AI has been a hot area of investment for startups following the explosive popularity of generative AI services like OpenAI's ChatGPT. One of the features, called "Why Did It Move," allows users to select a point in time on a stock chart and see what happened that day to cause a jump or fall in a company's share price. The firm is also using AI to provide "bull" and "bear" theses on stocks as well as short updates on assets in their own portfolios. "In the end, you're going to have two models" when it comes to investing, according to Sokk: "Self-driving money," where you ask an AI to achieve certain investment goals, and a "manual gearbox" approach of figuring out different strategies and approaches on your own. Still, the market for online investment products is heavily competitive. Lightyear faces some hefty competition from both incumbent brokerage services as well as more modern tech players such as Robinhood, Revolut and Trade Republic. However, Sokk insists Lightyear is building a differentiated enough product to stand out from the crowd. While competitors like Robinhood profit from offering risky products like crypto and margin trading, Lightyear is focused on serving long-term investors, he told CNBC. To that end, Sokk said Lightyear is planning on rolling out a crypto product of its own in two months' time — one that's "more focused on a long-term view."
Time of India
03-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
UK delivery startup Hived raises $42 million to expand network
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Popular in TechMore ≫ UK parcel delivery startup Hived , which uses AI to help manage its network, said on Thursday that it has raised $42 million in funding from investors to expand its operations across most of Britain over the next two Series B round of funding was led by Japanese-backed venture capital firm NordicNinja and included investments from Wex Venture Capital , Marunouchi Innovation Partners and Elemental which uses an entirely-electric fleet of delivery vans and heavy goods vehicles, has signed up retailers including John Lewis, Uniqlo, Zara, and Nespresso for e-commerce company is one of a number of startups that are using electric vehicles to meet demand for low emission new funding will be used to expand Hived's delivery network outside London, CEO Murvah Iqbal said that starting later this year, Hived will serve southern UK cities, before expanding rapidly to the rest of the country."We aim to cover 80% of the UK within the next two years," she said. "That's what we're on track for."The company will also consider whether to expand physically into other markets or instead licence out its technology, she has used AI to develop its own postcode system based on customer volume and demand. The same system also collects data on deliveries that is used to mentor drivers, Iqbal said."Every day, a driver will receive some feedback to help them perform better," she said.
Hindustan Times
03-06-2025
- Automotive
- Hindustan Times
Bullet train project: Key milestones achieved at Gujarat's Vapi station
The structural works at the key Vapi station in Gujarat along the 508-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor, popularly known as the bullet train project, have achieved key milestones, with the completion of rail platform level slab casting and structural steel installation, the implementing agency said. The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), which is implementing the project using Japanese Shinkansen technology, said roof sheeting and electrical installations were in progress. In a statement, it added that the station's approach viaduct toward Ahmedabad is ready, and work on that towards Mumbai was going on. The NHSRCL said the Vapi station in Dungra village will have a 28,917 square metres built-up area, rise to around 22 metres, and have amenities such as a business class lounge. The station is about seven km from the Vapi railway junction, 7.5 km from the bus station, and five km from an industrial area. It will be one of 12 stations—Mumbai (Bandra Kurla Complex), Thane, Virar, Boisar, Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand/Nadiad, Ahmedabad, and Sabarmati— along the bullet train corridor. The project's first phase, covering the 348-km Gujarat stretch, is expected to be operational by 2027. A trial run on a 50-km section between Surat and Bilimora, with the arrival of Shinkansen E3 and E5 series train sets from Japan, designed to run up to 320 km per hour, is expected in early 2026. The full corridor is expected to be completed by 2028 and reduce travel time between Mumbai and Ahmedabad by almost half to under three hours. One train service will halt at all stations (two hours 58 minutes), and another will have limited stops (about two hours seven minutes). In its latest update, the NHSRCL said 304 km of viaduct and 388 km of pier work have been completed across the project. Fourteen river bridges, seven steel bridges, and five pre-stressed concrete bridges were ready. Around 163 km of track bed construction has also been finished. The ambitious Japanese-backed project has faced escalating costs, and a major part of the spending has been on infrastructure building. The Japan International Cooperation Agency is funding the construction of the high-speed rail line. In September 2024, HT reported that the first Shinkansen E5 bullet train meant to ply at speeds up to 320 km per hour will take at least two years to arrive from Japan, as the Indian railways were in talks with its Japanese counterparts to finalise a schedule for supplying the trains. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the project three years before the work began in 2020. The project, spanning Maharashtra (155.76 km), Gujarat (384.04 km), and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (4.3 km), was scheduled to be completed by 2023. Protests against land acquisition delayed the project. In March 2024, the NHSRCL said all civil contracts have been awarded in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The laying of the first reinforced concrete track bed for the MAHSR corridor track system, as used in Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains, started in Surat and Anand. This was the first time the J-slab ballastless track system was used in India. The NHSRCL said it achieved a remarkable milestone with the completion of the first 350-metre-long and 12.6-meter-wide mountain tunnel in Gujarat's Valsad district in just 10 months. The first steel bridge spanning 70 metres and weighing 673 MT has been built across National Highway 53 in Gujarat's Surat. In March 2024, the NHSRCL announced the commencement of the work for India's first seven-kilometre undersea rail tunnel as part of a 21-km-long tunnel between BKC and Shilphata in Maharashtra. Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who visited Japan last year to sort out issues delaying the project, in February 2024 announced that a 50km stretch between Surat to Bilimoria is expected to open in August 2026.
Japan Forward
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Forward
Nomonhan: The 1939 Defeat That Foreshadowed Japan's Military Tragedies
このページを 日本語 で読む In 1939, roughly 2,000 kilometers from Japan, a border clash between Japanese-backed Manchukuo and Soviet-supported Outer Mongolia escalated into the Nomonhan Incident. Spanning four months, the conflict became the Japanese military's first true confrontation with modern, large-scale warfare since the Sino-Japanese War. It also laid bare deep flaws within the Imperial Japanese Army. Among them were poor communication, ambiguous chains of command, and a breakdown in operational control. These cemented Nomonhan as a textbook example of strategic and institutional failure. But the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 upended the long-accepted narrative. Newly declassified documents revealed several critical facts that challenged everything previously believed about the battle. The conflict erupted on May 11, 1939, along the Khalkhin Gol. A river demarcating the disputed border between northeastern China and eastern Mongolia, it marked the heart of the territorial dispute. What began as a minor border skirmish soon escalated into a full-scale military confrontation between Japan and the Soviet Union. Each side mobilized the equivalent of at least two divisions. An estimated 90,000 troops clashed in what later came to be known as a war without a declaration. Border tensions between Manchukuo and Soviet-backed Mongolia were not unusual. However, Japan was already embroiled in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and Army Headquarters in Tokyo had officially adopted a non-expansion policy. Yet the Kwantung Army, stationed in Manchukuo, defied that stance. Citing its own "Border Defense Guide" issued on April 25, 1939, it unilaterally escalated the fighting in areas with vague territorial boundaries. For decades, the Nomonhan Incident was remembered as a crushing Japanese defeat, with an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 casualties. "Strategically, the Soviets emerged victorious," says Tomoyuki Hanada, senior research fellow at Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies. "But the ferocity of the fighting was undeniable. Technically, it was a localized conflict in the Far East. However, the scale of casualties must have left a deep impression on both sides." Another postwar revelation was the disconnect between the Soviet General Staff and frontline commanders, who initially differed on strategic direction. Over time, Moscow enforced top-down control. By August 1939, as the Red Army prepared its decisive offensive, it had already transformed Mongolia into a de facto satellite state and stockpiled overwhelming reserves of manpower and logistics. Soviet commander Georgy Zhukov famously assessed his adversaries: "The soldiers were brave, but the senior officers were incompetent." Japanese soldiers battling the Soviet Army in the Nomonhan Incident, 1939 (Wikimedia Commons) Since their victory in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War, Japan had chronically underestimated the evolving strength of Russian and later Soviet forces. A central figure behind the Nomonhan escalation was Masanobu Tsuji, an operations staff officer in the Kwantung Army. Though only a major, Tsuji was seen as the de facto commander, known for his aggressive, uncompromising stance. He authored the "Border Defense Guide" and played a key role in pushing forward the army's unilateral military actions. Meanwhile, senior officers at Army Headquarters in Tokyo lacked real combat experience and had little understanding of conditions on the ground. Hanada observes, "In reality, the Kwantung Army's leadership approved Tsuji's proposals. Although the central command had adopted a non-expansion policy, it effectively turned a blind eye to the Kwantung Army's unilateral actions." In November 1939, just two months after the ceasefire, Army Headquarters formed a study committee to investigate the failures at Nomonhan. By January 1940, the committee submitted a report emphasizing the critical importance of firepower and logistics, but its recommendations were largely disregarded. Confronted with Soviet tanks and heavy artillery, Japan's under-equipped forces resorted to close-quarters infantry assaults. Soldiers were even reported to have attacked tanks at point-blank range with gasoline-filled cider bottles, crude improvised Molotov cocktails. "Even when we made point-blank attacks with cider bottles, they were ineffective, and our troops were left in despair," wrote Lieutenant General Michitaro Komatsubara, commander of the 23rd Division, in his diary dated August 22, 1939. Komatsubara's division suffered catastrophic losses, with a casualty rate of 70 to 80 percent. Despite this, operations officer Masanobu Tsuji persisted in preparing for a now-fantastical "September offensive." A formal post-incident report once again stressed the urgent need to expand Japan's artillery capabilities and logistics infrastructure. (National Institute for Defense Studies) Tsuji and several senior officers were eventually removed from their posts. However, it was the frontline commanders, some of whom had run out of ammunition and food and were forced to retreat or surrender, who bore the harshest consequences. Many were pressured by superiors to commit suicide in the wake of the defeat. "This illustrates just how coercive the military culture had become," Hanada explains. "It laid the groundwork for the extreme spirit-first ideology that would later consume the Japanese Army." Despite having partial intelligence on the Soviet Union's August offensive, Japan took no concrete steps to prepare. The findings of the Army's own study committee were ignored, and the country continued its march toward war with the United States and other Allied powers. In July 1941, Tsuji was reinstated and transferred to Army Headquarters, where he once again promoted aggressive operations, including the disastrous Guadalcanal campaign. Ironically, Lt Col Haruo Onuma, who had helped compile the Nomonhan study report, was sent to Guadalcanal as a senior staff officer that September. There, he was forced to wage a brutal campaign without the very firepower and logistics he had identified as essential. "I saw everyone get crushed by tanks like rice crackers — it was hell." That's what this writer's great-uncle, a Nomonhan veteran, tearfully recalled to me when I was a child. He told me they couldn't even raise their heads from the trenches under the weight of the Soviet assault. Japan's military doctrine at the time placed unwavering faith in offensive operations and hand-to-hand combat, while severely neglecting the importance of intelligence, logistics, and realism. The glorification of willpower over strategy, and the tragic waste of life that followed, would go on to define many of Japan's later campaigns in the Pacific, echoing Nomonhan with chilling familiarity. Yet even the Soviet Union failed to immediately apply the hard-won lessons of Nomonhan. During the Winter War with Finland (November 1939-March 1940), the Red Army, despite its overwhelming numerical and material superiority, struggled against Finnish resistance. While Finland lost 10% of its territory, it continues to frame the conflict as a successful defense of the remaining 90% — a point of national pride to this day. In the aftermath, however, the Soviet Union began a comprehensive modernization of its military. Hanada concludes: "The Nomonhan Incident and the Winter War were turning points for the Soviet military. They came to understand that defeating Japan in 1945 would require robust operations and logistics." For Japan, too, Nomonhan marked a strategic turning point. In its wake, Tokyo signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact and shifted its focus southward. Yet Japan failed to recognize that the Soviet Union was already positioning itself for a future war with Nazi Germany — a critical oversight that would shape the fate of the region in the years to come. Author: Shoko Ikeda, The Sankei Shimbun このページを 日本語 で読む
