Event: Japan

India’s major airlines warned of a potential suspension in services unless the government lowered jet fuel prices.“The airline industry in India is under extreme stress and on the verge of closing down or of stopping its operations,” the Federation of Indian Airlines, representing carriers including IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet, said in a letter to India’s Civil Aviation Ministry, seen by Bloomberg.They sought a return to pandemic-era cost caps on aviation turbine fuel and a reduction or deferment in taxes. The federation and the ministry did not immediately respond to queries sent after usual business hours.Speculation is mounting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration will raise fuel prices once voting in state elections ends on Wednesday. While the government at a briefing on Tuesday denied any plan to raise petrol prices, it declined to answer a similar question on aviation turbine fuel.India in early April had rolled back a steep increase in jet fuel prices for local flights within hours of pushing them to a record. Even so, carriers pay substantially more for fuel in the country than in Thailand, Dubai, Malaysia or Singapore because of high local taxes.Although Indian refiners produce more jet fuel than the country consumes, prices are still set on import-parity basis – as if fuel had been shipped in from the Persian Gulf, complete with notional freight charges, insurance and customs levies.

Residential buildings in New Delhi. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is seeking to deepen its presence in India’s real estate market, which has attracted global investors. | BLOOMBERG Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group will start lending to real estate firms in India and expand its foreign exchange derivatives business in the country’s low-tax hub, as it seeks to deepen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.Japan’s biggest bank is setting up a team that will start operations this financial year, Shashank Joshi, MUFG India’s deputy chief executive officer, said in an interview. The push comes as it broadens its India franchise after completing a $4.4 billion stake purchase in Shriram Finance this month, taking its total investment in the country to about $7 billion.Property financing in India marks MUFG’s strategic expansion into an industry where developers such as Lodha Developers and Adani Group are benefiting from urbanization. Demand for office space has climbed to record levels as companies including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Nvidia and Amazon step up operations in India. Luxury housing is also booming while home sales remain muted. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW

A gasoline tanker truck at an Idemitsu Kosan gas station in Tokyo. The supertanker is listed as being operated by the tanker arm of the Japanese energy conglomerate. | BLOOMBERG A laden supertanker linked to Japan appears to have completed a transit through the Strait of Hormuz, in what may be the first successful attempt by an oil carrier from the country to leave the Persian Gulf since the Iran war began.The Idemitsu Maru began sailing late Monday toward the strait from northwest of Abu Dhabi, where it had been sitting idle for more than a week, according to compiled tanker-tracking data. The tanker followed a Tehran-approved northern route near the islands of Qeshm and Larak and successfully cleared the strait on Tuesday, the data show.The vessel is carrying 2 million barrels of crude, which was loaded from Saudi Arabia’s Juaymah terminal in early March. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the story right. SUBSCRIBE NOW

Police in Japan have taken action against 99 people age 14 to 72 years in the country as part of an international crackdown on online child sexual abuse material, the National Police Agency said Monday.The 99 people included 25 junior high school and high school students in cases including sharing explicit images of classmates with friends.A total of 445 people were arrested or investigated in March and April in the international initiative that involved Japan, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Brunei and Malaysia. Japan joined the cooperative framework called Operation Cyber Guardian last year.In Japan, police who were acting on intelligence from Singapore took action against a man suspected of making child sexual abuse material accessible online. Japanese police provided intelligence obtained through cyber patrol activities to overseas counterparts.