蘑菇AV

Meanwhile, 7-Eleven is giving its US food selection a Japanese-style spin to differentiate its offering and entice consumers. Our take: Couche-Tard has long relied on acquisitions to grow, but Seven & i may be the one that gets away.

Prices could surge even further as countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea band together to respond to US tariffs. Our take: The Trump administration鈥檚 tariff policies are fueling economic disruption and a sharp shift in sentiment.

The premium segment is driving the market in Japan. The birth rate in Japan has been in decline since its peak in 1967. In 2023, the fertility rate dipped to 1.20, the lowest since the government began keeping records in 1947. Pet ownership is projected to reach 55.6 million in 2024鈥攊ncluding 8.6 million cats and 6.2 million dogs鈥攁nd remain steady in the coming years.

The rates will be significantly higher for countries the Trump administration considers to be 鈥渂ad actors鈥� on trade鈥攚hich include some of the US鈥� biggest trading partners, including China, the European Union, Japan, and Vietnam. Those rates will go into effect on April 9.

Toyota halted all Japan factory operations due to a computer glitch, disrupting a third of its global output. The issue isn't cyber-related but follows past tech troubles such as data leaks and cyberattacks.

In 2024, 蘑菇AV data partner GWI started offering data on respondents ages 65 and older in seven markets: the US, the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel, and Japan. For ease of comparison, our report features data for respondents ages 16 to 64 in all countries. But we have included the data for respondents 65 and older for those seven countries here as a supplement.

Google is also expanding AI Overviews to cover thousands more health topics, and in more countries and languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. Why it matters: Search (82%) is the top digital channel for medical information queries, according to 蘑菇AV鈥檚 December 2024 US Digital Health Survey.

Some of X鈥檚 content and community policies have also been inconsistently implemented: X has positioned itself as a 鈥渇ree speech鈥� platform and accused its former Twitter leadership of censorship, but it has also removed accounts or content at the request of governments like Turkey, South Korea, and Japan, per its transparency reports. Consumers are beginning to adapt to the shifts.

The news: Circle K owner Alimentation Couche-Tard has dropped its bid to buy Japan鈥檚 Seven & i Holdings, casting doubt on whether the 7-Eleven operator鈥檚 planned US IPO will proceed, Bloomberg reported. Our take: As 7-Eleven continues efforts to strengthen its core business, the failed takeover bid offers lessons for retailers and brands. Decisions involving globally recognized brands should be strategic, not reactive. Retailers must maintain flexibility to revisit IPO or spin-off plans as business circumstances change.

Social network user growth will be slow on a worldwide level, but 2025鈥檚 meager 2.9% increase will still equate to more than 115 million new users. Facebook remains in the lead in most countries and regions, even though its share of internet users is declining.

Asia-Pacific has the largest retail and ecommerce sales in the world. While China continues to dominate global ecommerce share, India and Southeast Asia are increasingly driving growth. As consumer sentiment improves in China, the retail sales gap with the first-place US will narrow in the coming years.