Economy

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Japanese chip companies are tapping billions of dollars and collaborating with foreign firms as part of new government policies that look outward.China’s envy-inducing success in using industrial policy to expand its economy and finance green manufacturing has helped kick off a fevered scrimmage among nations to develop and protect their own hometown businesses.It has been 40 years since such competitive anxieties about a rising Asian power prompted this kind of embrace of government intervention among the biggest free-market economies.Only then it was Japan, not China, that was the source of unease.Michael Crichton’s 1992 thriller, “Rising Sun,” with its dark depiction of Japan’s ruthless economic warriors, ruled the best-seller lists, alongside nonfiction titles that warned of the financial and technology juggernaut created by Japan’s powerful government trade ministry.In a 1990 survey, nearly two-thirds of Americans said Japanese investment in the United States posed a threat to American economic independence.It turned out that the anxiety about Japan Inc. peaked just as the country began a long economic slide after the collapse of real estate and stock market bubbles.Now, after a period of stagnation that Japan’s economy ministry refers to as “the lost three decades,” Tokyo is engaged in a multibillion-dollar industrial policy to jump-start the lackluster economy and recapture its position as a tech innovator.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

$75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition More

$75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition More

The Japanese retail giant said it was open to “sincerely consider” any proposals. But it would “resist any proposal that deprives our shareholder of the company’s intrinsic value that fails to specifically address very real regulatory concerns,” the company said in a letter addressed to Couche-Tard.Seven & I Holdings had a market capitalisation of about $39 billion based on its closing price on Thursday and its shares were up about 0.5% in morning trade on Friday.News of Couche-Tard’s approach for the global operator of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, which would be the largest foreign takeover of a Japanese company, pushed Seven & I shares up almost 23% on Aug. 19. Couche-Tard, which operates Circle-K convenience stores, is valued at about $52 billion. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar sagged near a one-week low versus major peers on Friday with job market indicators sending mixed signals ahead of crucial monthly payrolls data later in the day that is almost certain to set the pace for Federal Reserve policy easing.The dollar index, which gauges the currency against a basket of six key counterparts, was steady at 101.03 as of 0015 GMT, after slipping about 0.2% overnight and touching 100.96 for the first time since Aug. 29. For the week, it has dropped close to 0.7%.A report on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits declined last week as layoffs remained low. That helped allay fears that the labor market was deteriorating rapidly, after figures released the previous day showed private jobs growth slumped to a 3-1/2-year low in August.The mixed data leaves traders guessing before Friday’s payrolls print, with economists surveyed by Reuters predicting an increase of 165,000 jobs in August, up from a 114,000 rise in July.What the Fed makes of the numbers will be almost immediately obvious, with both Governor Christopher Waller and New York Fed President John Williams separately taking to the podium in the final Fedspeak before the blackout period begins ahead of this month’s policy gathering.Traders currently see 40% odds for a super-sized 50-basis point (bp) Fed interest rate cut on Sept. 18, versus 60% probability of a quarter-point reduction, according to the CME Group’s (NASDAQ:CME) FedWatch Tool. A day earlier, wagers on the larger cut stood at 44%, but a week ago it was 34%.Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank’s focus was shifting from fighting inflation to preventing deterioration in the jobs market when he strongly endorsed an imminent start to the monetary easing cycle at the annual economic conference in Jackson Hole last month.”Recent labor data has fanned fears of labor market softening (and) the August payroll report could be a ‘make or break’ moment,” TD Securities analysts including head of global strategy Rich Kelly wrote in a report.However, TD expects 205,000 jobs were added in August, setting up a quarter point cut this month, and triggering a dollar rebound.”There is simply lots of bad news priced into the USD, increasing the risks that a string of good news will kick-start a sizeable correction.”The dollar was steady at 143.25 yen, after dipping to 142.855 overnight for the first time since Aug. 5, pressured by a slide in U.S. Treasury yields, with that on the 10-year note dipping to a one-month trough of 3.721%.The euro held its ground at $1.1112, just below Thursday’s one-week high of $1.11195.Sterling was little changed at $1.31755, sticking close to the overnight top at $1.31855, the strongest level since Aug. 30.The risk-sensitive Australian dollar edged down slightly to $0.6739.Leading cryptocurrency bitcoin rose 0.2% to $56,167, attempting to recover from its slump to a nearly one-month low of $55,575.78 this week. More

Former President Donald J. Trump called for the creation of a government efficiency commission in an economic speech in New York on Thursday, adopting a policy idea that was pitched to him by the billionaire businessman Elon Musk.Mr. Trump said that Mr. Musk would also lead the commission, which would conduct a sweeping audit of the federal government and recommend “drastic reforms” for cutting waste. He said the commission would save “trillions of dollars.”In a wide-ranging and sometimes meandering speech that lasted more than an hour, Mr. Trump recast his first-term record as an economic miracle and renewed his pitch for lowering taxes and raising tariffs on imports, often disregarding some of the potential implications of his new proposals.The trade wars that Mr. Trump started had painful consequences for American farmers, and the new tariffs that he called for would also likely trigger backlash and retaliation from other countries. Mr. Trump claimed that his new tax cuts would be paid for by spurring economic growth, but the 2017 tax cuts he enacted increased the national debt and his growth projections never panned out.Mr. Trump’s embrace of the concept of a government efficiency commission — a favorite Washington solution for delaying dealing with hard problems — comes as he is trying to define how his stewardship of the economy would differ from that of his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. He has assailed her economic vision as one that would saddle the economy with wasteful spending and burdensome regulations.During his speech, Mr. Trump also vowed to eliminate 10 existing government regulations for every new regulation added under his potential new administration. Mr. Trump — who during his presidency issued an executive order vowing a similar two-for-one rule — argued that the cost of regulations was being passed onto consumers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wanted the economy to achieve annual growth of 2.5% when campaigning in the run-up to July 4’s election – a rate that Britain has not regularly reached since before the 2008 financial crisis.An annual growth rate of 3% would require extra investment of 100 billion pounds a year in the next 10 years, particularly in energy, housing and venture capital, according to the report from UK financial services lobby group Capital Markets Industry Taskforce.The investment could come out of the six trillion pounds in long-term capital in Britain’s pensions and insurance sector, the report’s lead author Nigel Wilson, former boss of Legal & General, told Reuters.”We’ve underinvested in the UK for such a long time, there’s a massive gap between the other G7 countries and ourselves,” he said.”We have the long-term capital in the UK, it needs to be reallocated.”The British economy needs an extra 50 billion pounds annually in energy investment, as it seeks to meet net zero targets, 30 billion pounds in housing and 20-30 billion in venture capital, the report said. The government should look at incentives to investment, such as reductions in taxes on shares for retail investors, the report added. UK pensions have a “significantly lower” allocation to domestic and unlisted equities than most developed market pension systems globally, according to a separate report published on Friday by think tank New Financial.UK pensions could as much as double their allocations and still be in line with the pensions industry in other advanced markets, the report said.The UK government has called for a review of Britain’s pension system, as it seeks to increase UK pensions investment in domestic startups.($1 = 0.7594 pounds) More