A plan to cull the smallest listings on the Tokyo Stock Exchange is spurring a record number of buyouts of young companies in Japan, reflecting Tokyo’s push to create more billion-dollar startups to better match the country’s global standing in scientific research, the Japan Times reported. Regulators are ratcheting up pressure on startups to gain more scale before debuting on the stock market, warning that the TSE will seek to delist companies that fail to reach a market value of at least ¥10 billion ($66 million) within five years of going public, starting 2030.

Canada offered tariff relief on some steel and aluminum products imported from the U.S. and China, a government document showed, in efforts to help domestic businesses battered by a trade war on two fronts, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Mark Carney is negotiating with U.S. President Donald Trump, who imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. His team also met with Chinese counterparts last week in an effort to secure relief on Chinese tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods. Canada's economy has come under strain as the impact of tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S.

Chinese doctor Lisa Zhu took full advantage of consumer goods subsidies this year, buying three air conditioners and a washing machine - the big-ticket spending policymakers want to see from households as they target roughly 5% economic growth. But there is a catch. China's 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) subsidies, equivalent to about 0.2% of gross domestic product, are punching above their weight this year, with analysts saying the spending they incentivised had a greater impact on growth than their size.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted an insolvency case against Blu-Smart Mobility Tech, the debt-ridden company which was providing all-electric ride-hailing services and building a network of EV charging infrastructure in India, the Economic Times of India reported. The Ahmedabad bench of NCLT has admitted the insolvency plea filed by Lepton Software Export and Research against Blu-Smart Mobility over an unpaid amount of Rs 5.84 crore, and appointed Pawan Kumar Goyal as the interim resolution professional, suspending the board of the company.

Strong exports and continued investment in new factories offset faltering retail sales and a further erosion of China’s housing market as growth in the Chinese economy held steady over the summer, the New York Times reported. During the third quarter of the year, from July through September, China’s economy expanded 1.1 percent over the previous quarter, maintaining roughly the same pace as during the spring, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Monday. If that pace continues, the economy will expand about 4.1 percent over the next 12 months.

China's new home prices fell at the fastest pace in 11 months in September, worsening the property sector's drag on broader economic growth as policymakers struggle to revive the flailing market, Reuters reported. Persistent property market weakness is weighing on consumer confidence and sapping household spending, building the case for policymakers to step up support to shore up growth amid global trade threats. New home prices fell 0.4% month-on-month, following a 0.3% fall in August, according to calculations by Reuters based on National Bureau of Statistics data released on Monday.

Bank of Japan board member Hajime Takata said the time is ripe for raising the bank’s policy interest rate, looking past political instability to reiterate his conviction after he dissented from a decision to hold policy steady last month, the Japan Times reported. "I believe that now is a prime opportunity to raise the policy interest rate,” Takata said Monday in a speech to local business leaders in Hiroshima.

Japan is poised to rewrite the rules of crypto oversight, moving to curb crypto insider trading as part of a broader push to bring digital markets into its orbit, Decrypt.com reported. The country's Financial Services Agency plans to empower its market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, to police illicit crypto trades, in a shift that could reshape global standards for market integrity. The framework is slated to be finalized this year and submitted to parliament by 2026.

Japan's three largest banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group will jointly issue "stablecoins", digital currencies pegged to the value of real-world currencies, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised up Asia's economic growth forecast on Thursday, but warned that renewed escalation in U.S.-China tensions could deal a heavy blow to a region heavily integrated in global supply chains, Reuters reported. Economic activity in the Asia-Pacific was holding up better than expected in April, despite the region bearing the brunt of U.S. tariffs, said Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department.