Wes Streeting has been made Defence Secretary. In his released correspondence with Peter Mandelson, he said: “Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes.” Journalists should ask him: 1) Does he stand by that? 2) What legal obligations does the UK therefore have?

Fuji Electric (TSE: 6504) A company can raise guidance and mean very little by it. What it cannot soften is when it has scheduled the money to go out. Fuji Electric (TSE: 6504) reported the June quarter with its data center power line down 3 percent in revenue. Same day, in the supplementary data file, that line is planned up 25 percent for the half and up 23 for the year. The capex schedule in the same file says how. Segment capital spending, June quarter actual and first half plan: Energy: 1.7bn yen actual, 10.5bn planned for the half Semiconductors: 2.8bn actual, 7.3bn planned Subtract the quarter from the half and you have the plan for the September quarter. Energy 8.8bn against 1.4bn a year ago, six times. Semiconductors 4.5bn against 13.7bn, one third. Company total 19.1bn against 18.2bn. The quarter as a whole barely moves. What is inside it moves six times one way and down two thirds the other. Context that cuts against the excitement. Company capex peaked at 85.2bn yen in the year to March 2025, came in at 56.7bn last year, and is planned at 56.0bn this year. This is not a spending cycle. It is a reallocation inside a shrinking one, and that is a different thing to own. Energy money buys new buildings at three sites, Malaysia, Kobe and Tsukuba, and moves switchgear production from Chiba to Kawasaki. The stated reason is demand for substation equipment, and the order book names data centers and overseas semiconductor plants among its drivers. One number for scale on the other side. Semiconductor depreciation and lease cost was 8.9bn in the quarter against 2.8bn of new spending. That segment is still paying for the last cycle while this one gets funded. The US and Korean names in this layer are well covered. Eaton ($ETN), GE Vernova ($GEV), HD Hyundai Electric (KRX: 267260), Hyosung Heavy Industries (KRX: 298040). This is the Japanese one I had never written about until today. What would change my read: the September quarter closes in six weeks. If energy capex lands near 1.4bn again instead of 8.8bn, the reallocation was a schedule and not a decision. Guidance is what a company says. A capex schedule is when it has to write the cheque. Sources, in order: Fuji Electric, Q1 FY2026 supplementary data file, pages P1, P3 and P9. Fuji Electric, Q1 results presentation, 30 July 2026. Fuji Electric, FY2026 management plan, 28 April 2026. My read, not advice. The September quarter figures are the half year plan minus the reported quarter.

Japan's long-term rate touched 2.930 percent yesterday. That is the highest since September 1996. Today Tokyo gave back five sessions of gains in one. The Nikkei closed at 67,460.73, down 1,759.52 or 2.54 percent, the first fall in six sessions. Nikkei's own headline names the reason: Middle East concerns and rising rates. Two names did roughly half of it. Advantest and Tokyo Electron together accounted for about 836 of those 1,759 points, per Zaikei's contribution ranking. What was repriced is the multiple. What was not repriced is the commitment. JX Advanced Metals (TSE: 5016) decided in June to spend up to 120.0 billion yen through fiscal 2030 on InP capacity. Fuji Electric (TSE: 6504) is not raising group capex at all, it is reallocating inside a smaller number, from 85.2 billion two years ago to 56.0 billion this year. Both decisions were designed when the ten year cost of money in Japan started with a zero. This is the part the tape does not price in a single session. A multiple can move 2.54 percent in a day. A wafer line and a switchgear plant transfer are three to five year schedules with a signature already on them. So the question I am holding is narrow. Not whether Japanese suppliers are cheap after a down day. Whether any of them revises a multi-year capex plan because the discount rate moved, and which line it shows up in first. I do not think it shows up in guidance. Guidance is annual. It shows up in the capex schedule, and that is disclosed once a quarter. The September quarter closes in six weeks. Korea sits on the other side of this. SK hynix (KRX: 000660) breaks ground in Indiana on 27 August. Samsung Electronics (KRX: 005930) is expanding Pyeongtaek. Those are dollar financed. The Japanese layer under them is yen financed, and the yen curve just moved thirty years. Every capex schedule is somebody's bet that money stays cheap. That is a different risk from the one the tape traded today. I could be wrong in an obvious way: rates have been rising in Japan all year and none of these plans have changed yet. If the September filings show the same capex lines, this is noise and I will say so. Sources, in order: Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 17 August 2026, long term rate at thirty year high. Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 18 August 2026, Tokyo close. Zaikei Shimbun, 18 August 2026, Nikkei contribution ranking. Second hand. JX Advanced Metals company release, 16 June 2026. Fuji Electric FY2027 Q1 appendix. The 836 of 1,759 share is my arithmetic. My read, not advice.