Latest news with #Nippon-U.S.
Kyodo News
4 days ago
- Business
- Kyodo News
Kyodo News Digest: June 6, 2025
KYODO NEWS - 2 hours ago - 20:25 | All, Japan, World The following is the latest list of selected news summaries by Kyodo News. ---------- Court rejects Fukushima crisis damages order against ex-TEPCO execs TOKYO - A Japanese high court on Friday overturned a ruling ordering former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. to pay the utility damages for failing to prevent the 2011 crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The Tokyo High Court determined it was difficult for TEPCO's management at the time to foresee the massive tsunami that caused the disaster, overturning the 2022 court decision ordering the former executives to pay around 13 trillion yen ($90 billion) in compensation. ---------- Japan OKs 20 tril. yen plan for disaster resilient infrastructure TOKYO - The Japanese government on Friday approved a plan to enhance the disaster resilience of the country's infrastructure over the next five years, with the project expected to cost more than 20 trillion yen ($139 billion). Focusing on measures to address aging infrastructure, the plan specifies 326 measures to be taken by government bodies from fiscal 2026 through 2030, while regional authorities bear part of the costs. ---------- Japan Diet OKs defense cooperation pact with Philippines TOKYO - Japan's parliament on Friday approved legislation for a defense cooperation agreement with the Philippines, as the two countries step up security ties with an eye on China's maritime assertiveness in nearby waters. The reciprocal access agreement eases restrictions on the movement of personnel between the two forces to facilitate joint drills and disaster relief operations, making the Philippines Japan's third RAA partner after Australia and Britain. ---------- Trump administration still reviewing Nippon-U.S. Steel deal WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday continued to review Nippon Steel Corp.'s proposals to acquire United States Steel Corp., taking the decision past the expected deadline. It was earlier thought that Trump had until Thursday to decide whether to formally approve Nippon Steel's buyout plan. But Trump could now make a final decision by June 18, given that U.S. authorities in January extended to that date a deadline for the Japanese and U.S. steelmakers to abandon the plan. ---------- Japan ispace fails in bid for 1st Moon landing by Asian private firm TOKYO - Japanese startup ispace Inc. failed in its attempt to become the first private firm in Asia to touch down on the Moon when its lunar lander apparently crashed on Friday, dealing a blow as it seeks to catch up with U.S. rivals following an unsuccessful inaugural mission in 2023. With touchdown planned for 4:17 a.m. on Friday, Japan time, the lander, Resilience, began descending from an altitude of around 100 kilometers but was unable to decelerate to the required speed, ispace said. ---------- Japan vows to achieve wage-driven growth in draft policy blueprint TOKYO - The Japanese government has pledged to pursue economic growth driven by sustainable wage hikes, aiming to nearly double gross domestic product by around 2040, according to a draft policy blueprint unveiled Friday. Facing uncertainty from higher U.S. tariffs and prolonged inflation weighing on household spending, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's government vowed in its draft economic and fiscal policy plan to achieve wage increases that outpace rising prices. ---------- Japan extends life of nuclear reactors beyond 60 years TOKYO - A law enabling nuclear reactors in Japan to operate beyond 60 years took effect Friday, scrapping a limit imposed after the Fukushima crisis, with the government viewing the power source as vital to the country's energy mix. Under the new system, the life of a reactor will, in principle, be extended beyond 60 years by no longer including offline periods for safety reviews or suspensions ordered by courts that are not due to the inappropriate actions of an operator. ---------- H.K. activist Wong faces new charge of colluding with foreign forces HONG KONG - Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, who has been jailed over a subversion case, was newly charged Friday with "conspiring to collude with foreign forces" under the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020. The 28-year-old, who was sentenced in November to four years and eight months in prison over an unofficial primary election, allegedly conspired with fellow activist Nathan Law to urge foreign countries to impose sanctions or take other hostile actions against Hong Kong and China between July 1 and Nov. 23, 2020. Video: Awards ceremony for world's best baker at Osaka Expo
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Building trades hold out hope for data center tax breaks in Minnesota budget — and other labor news
Construction continues on the sprawling Rosemount Data Center on land bought by Meta near Dakota County Technical College, shown Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Building trades push for data center tax incentives; head of violence intervention nonprofit charged with felony wage theft; Trump flips on Nippon-U.S. Steel deal; Planned Parenthood lays off 66 workers; judge dismisses lawsuit challenging holiday pay for nursing home workers; and trade war hurts global jobs outlook. With Democrats and Republicans at an impasse over an infrastructure spending package for the third year in a row, building trade unions are banking on lawmakers extending tax breaks for data centers to spur investment in high-paying construction jobs. The push comes as President Trump's federal funding cuts and ongoing trade war, compounded by high interest rates, have soured the economic outlook for construction jobs. 'There's not a surplus of work right now,' said Richard Kolodziejski, government affairs director for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters. Building one large data center can cost upwards of $1 billion, dwarfing the roughly $700 million bonding bill Minnesota lawmakers could authorize this year to pay for water treatment plants, roads and other infrastructure. The building trades unions warn that Minnesota will lose jobs to neighboring states if it doesn't compete on tax breaks to entice tech giants like Amazon and Meta to build data centers. The tax incentives also help justify prevailing wage requirements, which ensures much of the construction will be done by union workers. But some progressive lawmakers chafe at the idea of giving tax breaks to some of the richest companies in the world while the state stares down a looming budget deficit. They aren't convinced these projects wouldn't be built anyways given the state's cold climate and strong economy. 'I understand not wanting to give tax breaks to the wealthy, but those are the folks creating the jobs,' said Tom Dicklich, executive director of the Minnesota State Building & Construction Trades Council. One hyperscale data center costing $750 million creates upwards of 1,800 construction jobs and 300 ongoing operational jobs, according to a 2022 report on Wisconsin by Mangum Economics, which has produced similar reports sponsored by tech and energy companies for Virginia and Illinois. A coalition of building trades unions, energy companies and other businesses cited that report in a letter to lawmakers urging them to extend the sales tax exemption on software, servers and other equipment used to power the data centers. The growing cost of tax breaks for data centers has vexed public sector unions, who see the lost revenue cutting into funding for the schools, nursing homes and state agencies where their members work. The public sector unions — SEIU, Education Minnesota, AFSCME, MAPE and Inter Faculty Organization — signed onto a letter opposing an early version of the bill (HF1277) backed by the building trade unions, pointing out that the cost of the sales tax exemption has increased by more than 20-fold since 2018. That cost is expected to continue to rise, reaching $219 million in forgone sales tax revenue on servers, software and other equipment in fiscal year 2029. It was a rare instance of discord among unions who are typically disciplined about being unified in public, despite their many differences across industries. Member unions of the Minnesota AFL-CIO had signed onto a resolution in support of sales tax exemptions for constructing data centers, but the bill that was introduced in February went further. It extended sales tax exemptions on electricity and allowed data centers to claim the sales tax exemption up front rather than through a rebate, which creates a public record of how much sales tax was lost. 'It would be one thing, if the unions were upfront, that this bill is good for their members … Unfortunately, they want the rest of the Labor Movement to support their lobbying efforts and to call tax cuts for billionaires a 'pro-labor' bill. This we cannot do,' SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa President Jamie Gulley wrote in a post to his members in April, explaining his opposition. The debate was so contentious, Gulley wrote that one unnamed trade union to threaten to leave the AFL-CIO. The building trades counter that data centers add to state coffers through other taxes, including income taxes paid by their members. 'We don't have line items in the state budget that goes directly to the building trades,' Dicklich said. 'Where we can get work, we have to go after that.' Amazon announced amid the ongoing negotiations at the Legislature that the company is suspending plans for a big data center in Becker, the Star Tribune reported. Bishop Harding Smith, the head of the violence intervention nonprofit Minnesota Acts Now, was charged with felony wage theft and theft by swindle in Hennepin County on Thursday for allegedly pocketing $150,000 from a county contract intended to go to workers' wages. While wage theft is common, charges are still relatively rare even since Minnesota made it a felony in 2019. The first felony wage theft conviction was handed down just last month to a painting contractor for stealing more than $35,000 in wages from workers on an affordable housing project in Minneapolis. 'Bishop Harding Smith failed to pay his employees what he agreed to as part of the contract with Hennepin County and then lied about it when seeking payroll expense reimbursements,' Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement announcing the charges. 'As I said when our office secured the state's first wage theft conviction, this behavior will not be tolerated.' According to the charging document, Harding signed a contract with Hennepin County in 2021 in which he would be an unpaid volunteer and would pay all other workers $35 an hour. The contract was later updated to increase the contract amount to more than $550,000 and provide Harding with a $35 an hour wage. Investigators found most employees were paid $20 an hour even though he billed the county as if they were paid $35 an hour. Harding admitted to investigators that he did not pay workers what they were entitled to but denied fraudulent intent, according to the complaint. In a rare instance of unanimity on the campaign trail last year, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump opposed Japanese-owned Nippon's $14.1 billion bid to purchase U.S. Steel. The politics were simple: The United Steelworkers, representing tens of thousands of workers in purple states like Pennsylvania, fiercely opposed the deal. And in a campaign fought over blue collar workers, supporting a foreign company taking over an icon of American industry would have been unthinkable. Now back in the Oval Office, President Trump has seemingly flipped on his opposition to the deal, writing on his social media platform last Friday that there will be a 'planned partnership' between the two steel giants Trump said U.S. Steel would remain in America with its headquarters in Pittsburgh, and the deal would create 70,000 jobs. It's unclear how a 'planned partnership' would be different than a buyout, and as The American Prospect noted, the U.S. Steel website describes the deal as a merger. United Steelworkers President Dave McCall sent a letter to members, which include 3,500 workers in Minnesota, reiterating his concerns. 'Throughout recent months, as the public conversation has turned to Nippon 'investing' in U.S. Steel or 'partnering with' U.S. Steel, Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel's facilities if it owned the company outright. We've seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position,' he wrote. Federal funding cuts are forcing Planned Parenthood North Central States to close eight clinics across Minnesota and Iowa this summer, laying off 66 workers and reassigning three dozen more. The health system, which is the main abortion provider in Minnesota, announced the closures on Friday afternoon, blaming a $2.8 million freeze in Title X funding in Minnesota that supports sexual and reproductive health. The organization also cited the near total abortion ban in Iowa following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade and House Republicans' 'big beautiful bill,' which defunds Planned Parenthood and makes cuts to Medicaid, which subsidizes care for more than 30% of its patients. More than 400 workers at the Planned Parenthood affiliate, which covers Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas, unionized with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa in 2022 and ratified their first labor contract last year. Megan Amato, a longtime licensed practical nurse in Iowa and Nebraska, said she was devastated by the news in a statement shared by the union. 'When I started 18 years ago, we had 17 clinics in Iowa. After these closures we will be down to two,' Amato said. 'I am the only person who does my job in the whole state and I worry about what that means for the future of abortion care in Iowa.' None of the clinics slated to close in Minnesota provide abortion care, but do provide birth control, education and other health care services. PPNCS said it will continue investing in telemedicine to serve patients, which includes medication abortion for patients with a Minnesota address. In a victory for Minnesota's new Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by two industry groups challenging the board's authority to mandate that nursing homes pay workers time-and-a-half on 11 holidays. The lawsuit was the first legal challenge to the board since the Legislature created it in 2023 to set minimum pay and working standards for nursing home workers across the state. The International Labour Organization cut its global employment forecast by 7 million jobs as President Trump's trade war roils the world economy. The United Nations agency previously projected the world would add 60 million jobs in 2025, revising it down to 53 million jobs this week. According to the report, nearly 84 million jobs across 71 countries are directly or indirectly tied to consumer demand in the United States, which is being throttled by uncertainty and higher prices from Trump's tariffs. A federal appeals court on Thursday reinstated Trump's 'reciprocal' tariffs after the U.S. Court of International Trade paused them on Wednesday. The International Labour Organization also reported that the share of the world's gross domestic product going to workers globally ticked down over the past decade from 53% to 52.4%. In other words, less of the world's income is going to the workers generating that income by creating goods and providing services. While the decline is slight, the International Labour Organization estimates it works out to about $290 less per worker in 2024 purchasing power.
Forbes
09-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Steel Mergers, Tariffs, and U.S. Competitiveness
TOKYO, JAPAN - JANUARY 7 : View of the Nippon Steel logo displayed at the entrance of the ... More headquarter building of the Nippon Steel corporation in Tokyo, Japan on January 7, 2025, where Chairman and CEO Eiji Hashimoto held a press conference to explain the lawsuit seeking to invalidate the US Biden presidential order prohibiting the acquisition of US Steel. Nippon Steel corporation accused US President Joe Biden of illegally blocking his proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel for political purposes. (Photo by David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty Images) The Trump Administration is reported to be taking a second look at the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan's largest steelmaker, Nippon Steel. Approval of this merger, which had been blocked in January by the Biden Administration, could help enhance the efficiency and competitive vitality of a major player in the strategically important American steel industry. Appropriate efficiency-focused mergers and joint ventures, during a period of high protective U.S. tariffs, could raise the competitiveness of the American steel sector as a whole, without harming competition. Merger Background In April 2024, U.S. Steel shareholders formally approved Nippon Steel's bid to acquire it for $14.9 billion. As a January 2024 Atlantic Council analysis explained, this deal provided benefits to the merging parties and to the U.S. economy: Furthermore, the merger would not pose significant antitrust problems: Biden Administration Blocks The Nippon-U.S. Steel Merger The Biden Administration blocked Nippon Steel's acquisition in January 2025, notwithstanding its apparent benefits, after an evaluation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. This decision appears to have been inconsistent with longstanding CFIUS practice, which focused on addressing serious national security problems. As the U.S. Treasury Department explains, CFIUS 'is an interagency committee authorized to review certain transactions involving foreign investment in the United States . . . in order to determine the effect of such transactions on the national security of the United States.' Congress also empowered the President to terminate acquisitions by foreign entities given 'credible evidence' of a national-security threat, based on a CFIUS evaluation. Congress also specified that this power to terminate 'is not subject to judicial review.' A 2022 Biden Executive Order expanded the factors for CFIUS consideration to include supply-chain resiliency, U.S. technological leadership, cybersecurity, data security, and industry investment trends. The expanded factors do not appear readily applicable to Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition. Few transactions have been prohibited following a CFIUS evaluation. Various acquisitions have been authorized, subject to measures to mitigate national-security concerns through behavioral remedies or targeted divestitures (analogous to antitrust merger remedies). The six closed transactions that were blocked in the 2017-2022 period (in the aerospace, medical, and software sectors) involved Chinese acquirers. Reversing the Biden Prohibition Makes Good Policy Sense The revived Trump CFIUS review reportedly will be conducted de novo, with no weight given to the Biden prohibition. This would enable the Trump Administration to develop a new tailored agreement authorizing the transaction. The original prohibition was highly problematic, as I previously argued: 'It is very hard to credibly argue that a Japanese owner of a US business would suddenly stop selling steel to US buyers, particularly since the business rationale for the acquisition is so that Nippon Steel can more competitively serve the North American market. Washington blocking such a sale to a close Group of Seven (G7) partner would indicate that CFIUS has veered from narrow national security concerns to the business of broader economic protection. This would invite retaliation against US companies abroad and undermine US messages about the importance of an open, market-oriented, and rules-based economic system.' Nothing in this analysis has changed. Indeed, high U.S. tariffs assessed against China would appear to place a premium on raising the efficiency and innovativeness of American steel production – a goal at odds with a CFIUS prohibition of the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel link-up. In sum, if allowed, the Nippon Steel-U.S. steel merger should be a major net positive for the American economy, and for American steel industry competitiveness.
