町田徹のふかぼり!(2025.01.10放送分)

·26 min·2 clips

Uniqlo raises new graduate starting salaries by ¥30,000 to ¥330,000, while Chinese hacker group MirrorFace is linked to 210 cyberattacks over five years.

The episode opens with a rapid-fire countdown of top news stories, including Uniqlo raising new graduate salaries to ¥330,000 and Chinese hacker group MirrorFace being linked to 210 cyberattacks over five years. It reports that BYD surpassed Toyota in EV sales in Japan and influenza cases hit a record high since 1999. Meta announces it will abolish external fact-checking and adopt a community notes system similar to Elon Musk's X, with Zuckerberg admitting past operational errors. Trump escalates his rhetoric, suggesting he might use military force to acquire Greenland, which draws swift rejections from Denmark, Germany, France, and U.S. Secretary of State Blinken. A new accounting standard could boost Japan's nominal GDP by 1-2% by reclassifying data costs as capital investment. Nippon Steel's CEO criticizes Biden's order blocking its $14.1 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, vowing legal action. Trump extends his Ukraine ceasefire timeline to six months and pushes NATO defense spending to 5% of GDP. The deep-dive section focuses on why Biden issued the acquisition ban. Machida reviews the deal's history: U.S. Steel rejected a $7 billion offer from Cleveland-Cliffs in 2023, then Nippon Steel proposed $14.1 billion, which shareholders approved. Biden blocked it, citing national security and supply chain risks. Machida argues this is a political move to secure support from the United Steelworkers union ahead of elections. He critiques Nippon Steel for poor timing, noting it could have acted earlier or pursued gradual investment. The analysis suggests Nippon Steel was desperate due to Japan's shrinking steel market and slow climate transition, while U.S. Steel offered lower-carbon electric furnace technology. Legal challenges are deemed unlikely to succeed given judicial deference to presidential actions. Machida recommends Nippon Steel build its own plants in southern U.S. states instead. The episode concludes with reflections on the need for broader strategic planning.

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