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Good piece by ⁦Karin Kaneko⁩ on what’s happening in Kabukicho japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/0…

It has water, cheap power and proximity to Singapore - and that's good enough to generate an AI boom in this former tech backwater. Could be No. 2 to Northern Virginia someday. wsj.com/tech/ai/one-of…

China's CMOC has gained control of more than a third of the world’s cobalt supply—and the U.S. is worried about getting cut off. Rhiannon Hoyle and Yang Jie tell how it started in molybdenum and now has spawned a top-200 billionaire wsj.com/business/this-…

If, like me, you’ve been following ⁦Michael Pettis⁩’s writings on China and wondered who the man behind the work is, read this piece by ⁦⁦Jason Douglas⁩ and ⁦Greg Ip⁩ wsj.com/economy/trade/…

She was working at a nursery school in the early 1960s and wrote a children’s book called “Guri and Gura” with her sister. More than 5 million copies later (including one in our home), it’s fair to say Rieko Nakagawa made her mark. RIP. asahi.com/articles/ASSBK…

Asahi survey says LDP 200 seats, Komeito 25. Total of 225 (middle outcome) falls short of majority. Wide uncertainty band so still could get to 233, plus some independents could rejoin LDP, and it could add a coalition partner. Tense race. asahi.com/articles/ASSBN…

Good point on alienation. Other parties are peeling away LDP support at both edges—the fledgling Conservative Party of Japan on one side and Dem. Party for the People among centrists. Not huge percentages but LDP needs every vote it can get.

Whither the onigiri? That question is stressing out folks in Japan as the prospect of Canadians running 7-Eleven looms. wsj.com/business/7-ele… via [email protected] and Megumi Fujikawa

AstraZeneca Probe in China Adds to Concerns for Foreign Businesses—Investigation involving drugmaker’s country chief is latest industry crackdown to trigger uncertainty Yoko Kubota wsj.com/world/china/as… wsj.com/world/china/as…

U.S. Drugmakers Are Breaking Up With Their Chinese Supply-Chain Partners—Switch-overs in manufacturing, raw materials could mean higher drug prices and slower rollouts Jared S. Hopkins Clarence Leong wsj.com/health/pharma/… wsj.com/health/pharma/…

選挙の日　私も大事な一票を投じました #ElectionDay

規制緩和 was also a major feature of Japanese economic reform plans in the early to mid-1990s. One problem is that it is more of a supply-side change than demand side.

Tsuneo Watanabe has died at 98. Yomiuri says a few days before his death, he reviewed an editorial and made edits—a newspaperman to the last. yomiuri.co.jp/national/20241…

Welcome to 2025! For the new quarter-century, I am moving my social media activity mainly to the blue site, where my handle is peterjlanders. I have a post there on my recent job switch The Wall Street Journal. I’m also on LinkedIn. Stay in touch and happy New Year!