Day: November 20, 2025

Takaichi unveils $135bn stimulus to spur Japan growth

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has unveiled a massive ¥21.3tn ($135.4bn) stimulus package designed to spur economic growth and shield households from the rising cost of living. The package, which has been in the works since Takaichi became prime minister seven weeks ago and marks her first major policy initiative, is Japan’s largest since the Covid pandemic. It involves gas and electricity subsidies, cash handouts for parents and rice coupons…

Japan’s export of lethal weapons to US ‘extremely dangerous’: Chinese analysts

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Japan’s export of lethal weapons sent an “extremely dangerous signal” indicating expanded military capabilities, Chinese observers and media said on Thursday as relations between the two countries continued to nosedive. Advertisement The assessment followed Japanese media reports on Wednesday that Japan had exported domestically produced Patriot surface-to-air missile interceptors to the United States. The US would use the missiles to replenish its own stockpile as it provided military support to Ukraine in the war against Russia, Kyodo News reported. Japan’s export of lethal weapons has been heavily constrained by its…

Taiwan minister says US will not put ‘punishing’ tariffs on chip sector

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The US will not “punish” Taiwan’s world-leading semiconductor sector with high tariffs, a minister has said, adding that Taipei would help the US learn from the industrial model that turned it into a chipmaking powerhouse. “They understand that punishing Taiwan is not in their interests,” Wu Cheng-wen, who oversees Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council told the Financial Times, adding that Taipei and Washington had reached a “consensus” that Taiwan…

China’s EV parts could be in Tesla’s crosshairs – is a total ‘de-risk’ feasible?

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Tesla’s reported plan to stop using Chinese-made components in US-built cars aligns with a “significant strategy” in national industrial policy, with some American giants seeking to “completely de-risk” supply chains amid an increasingly tense geopolitical climate, an automotive executive said. Advertisement Curt Hopkins, CEO of automotive investment platform MCQ Markets in Miami, said Tesla appeared to be “developing a completely dual strategy, where in the US they’re going to de-China, diversify and make sure they continue to have access to government incentives”. “And then in China, it [Tesla] is just…

Could China’s economic arsenal against Japan backfire?

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Advertisement China last week warned its citizens to avoid travel to Japan, with major Chinese airlines offering full refunds for flights there. On Wednesday, Beijing said it would suspend Japanese seafood imports. It is not the first time China has wielded its trade and tourism clout as a retaliatory tool to counter security risks, sovereignty threats or to pressure other countries. But observers have cautioned that the risky tactics could provoke international backlash. The Chinese strategy could affect how regional countries view Beijing, potentially undermining its efforts to position itself…

India-US trade deal feels like Waiting for Godot

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This article is an on-site version of the India Business Briefing newsletter. To receive it in your inbox regularly, sign up if you’re a premium subscriber, or upgrade your subscription here. Good morning everyone from a smoggy Delhi. Today, I have taken the India Business Briefing baton from Veena after having spent some time in the coal mines — literally. (Stay tuned, more on that coming to you soon.) Normal IBB service will resume next Tuesday when our ever-prescient newsletter editor will be back from the Arabian sands to the choking…

Starmer expected to approve China’s ‘mega’ embassy in London

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to approve China’s contentious “mega” embassy close to the Tower of London, despite mounting strains in relations between the two countries. While no final decision has been taken, Starmer is likely to approve the embassy, according to one government insider. His government has been keen to nurture trade between the UK and China, but relations have increasingly soured over concerns about Beijing’s…

Beijing launches historic preservation campaign to cement South China Sea claims

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China has launched a campaign to preserve historical sites on the disputed Woody Island, or Yongxing Island in Chinese, as Beijing looks to cement its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Advertisement A team of conservation scientists and technicians from the Hainan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology spent six days reinforcing a monument that marked China’s takeover of the Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands in China, after World War II, according to the government of the city of Sansha. The monument was erected in 1946…

US must speed up arms deliveries to Taiwan, create stockpile, Senate hears

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Washington needs to accelerate arms sales to Taiwan and help establish a regional contingency stockpile for its defence, the US Senate heard on Thursday. Advertisement Such steps would help implement provisions in a landmark 2022 law – the Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act (TERA) – that have not yet been fully realised, as well as boost morale on the self-governed island, witnesses said at a hearing hosted by the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Years-long delays and unimplemented authorities have fuelled concerns in Taiwan and elsewhere that US support is softening…

When Chinese tourists reroute, so do Japan’s investors

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The once familiar sight of Chinese tour groups in Tokyo’s shopping districts risks becoming a thing of the past. That shift — the result of renewed geopolitical tensions — will send ripples through Japan’s economy, with consequences for industries dependent on their degree of exposure to Chinese consumers. Few sectors are more exposed than beauty. The sell-off in Japanese consumer stocks began last week after Beijing issued a travel advisory…