McDonald’s restaurants in multiple countries including the UK and Australia have been hit by a “technology outage”, as the fast food chain denied it had been hit by a cybersecurity attack. Services in Australia, the UK, Japan and China have been affected, with unconfirmed reports of problems elsewhere, with restaurant, drive-through and online orders affected. A global spokesperson for McDonald’s said the company was working to resolve the unspecified problem. “We are aware of a technology outage, which impacted our restaurants; the issue is now being resolved. We thank customers…
Tag: Japan
Émigrés Are Creating an Alternative China, One Bookstore at a Time
On a rainy Saturday afternoon in central Tokyo, 50 or so Chinese people packed into a gray, nondescript office that doubles as a bookstore. They came for a seminar about Qiu Jin, a Chinese feminist poet and revolutionary who was beheaded more than a century ago for conspiring to overthrow the Qing dynasty. Like them, Ms. Qiu had lived as an immigrant in Japan. The lecture’s title, “Rebuilding China in Tokyo,” said as much about the aspirations of the people in the room as it did about Ms. Qiu’s life.…
Lionel Messi: outcry in China and Hong Kong after star returns from injury in time for Japan match
Chinese state media, Hong Kong politicians and fans have cried foul after Lionel Messi played in a match in Japan, just days after he stayed on the bench for a highly-anticipated match in Hong Kong. Many in Hong Kong were dismayed on Sunday when the 36-year-old Argentinian player did not come on to the field during a much-hyped Inter Miami fixture to a sell-out crowd with fans demanding answers and a refund. Miami’s head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said Messi was deemed unfit to play in Sunday’s match in the…
As China’s Markets Stumble, Japan Rises Toward Record
There’s a shift underway in Asia that’s reverberating through global financial markets. Japan’s stock market, overlooked by investors for decades, is making a furious comeback. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index is edging closer to the record it set on Dec. 29, 1989, which effectively marked the peak of Japan’s economic ascendancy before a collapse that led to decades of low growth. China, long an impossible-to-ignore market, has been spiraling downward. Stocks in China recently touched lows not seen since a rout in 2015, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was…
Uniqlo sues Shein over ‘imitation’ banana-shaped ‘it’ bag
Uniqlo is suing the Chinese online retailer Shein over the sale of items it claims copy its popular banana-shaped it-bag, the “round mini”. The petition demands Shein immediately stop the sale of “the imitation products” and compensation for damages incurred as a result of their sale. It was filed last month in the Tokyo district court against the fast-growing business’s parent groups Roadget and Fashion Choice, as well as Shein Japan. Uniqlo said it had filed the complaint “because it has determined that the form of the imitation products sold…
Taiwan election: global leaders draw Beijing’s ire for congratulating new president
Global leaders have congratulated Lai Ching-te for winning Taiwan’s presidential election, praising the high turnout and democratic process – drawing ire from Beijing, which had hoped to see Taiwan’s ruling party ousted. Lai won an unprecedented third term in power for the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive party (DPP) in Saturday’s election, with more than 40% of the vote. Lai is taking over from the DPP’s Tsai Ing-wen, who has been president since 2016, promising to continue her foreign policy efforts in resisting China’s plans to annex Taiwan. The US, the UK,…
The global economy is poised for another tumultuous year in 2024 | Kenneth Rogoff
The global economy was full of surprises in 2023. Despite the sharp rise in interest rates, the US successfully avoided a recession, and major emerging markets did not spiral into a debt crisis. Even Japan’s geriatric economy exhibited stunning vitality. By contrast, the EU fell behind, as its German growth engine sputtered after China’s four-decade era of hypergrowth abruptly ended. Looking ahead to 2024, several questions loom large. What will happen to long-term inflation-adjusted interest rates? Can China avoid a more dramatic slowdown, given the turmoil in its real estate…
China, Japan and South Korea, amid regional rivalries, line up leaders’ summit
The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea will meet, possibly next year, in the latest attempt to ease regional tensions heightened by North Korea’s weapons programme and a more visible US military presence. During a meeting in the South Korean port city of Busan on Sunday, the three Asian countries’ foreign ministers agreed to step up cooperation in key areas, including security, and to lay the groundwork for what would be the first leaders’ summit in four years. The weekend’s trilateral meeting – the first between the neighbours’ foreign…
Can the U.S. Handle China While Supporting Israel and Ukraine Wars?
For some countries, the rekindled conflict over the Palestinian issue has also inflamed old beliefs that the United States is anti-Muslim, or at least too biased toward Israel. After years of watching Washington avoid confronting the often harsh mistreatment of Palestinians by both the Israeli government and extremist Israeli settlers, some no longer trust the United States to be a fair broker. When Mr. Austin, the defense secretary, gets to Indonesia, he is likely to face an angry public, if not anti-U.S. protests, despite his efforts to advise Israel’s military…
Power up: will Chinese financing be the saviour of the Japanese video game industry?
In September, a quarter of a million people journeyed through Japan’s punishing late-summer heat to the cavernous expanse of the Makuhari Messe convention centre in the industrial hinterlands west of Tokyo. They came for the 27th Tokyo Game Show, which was back in full ostentatious form this year after a pandemic hiatus and a timorous return in 2022. Most came hoping for the chance to play one of the hundreds of as-yet-unreleased video games on display within the show’s 11 hangars. Others hoped to broker deals to have their video…