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BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 11, 2024

Nikkei breaches 35,000 for the first time in 34 years

Wall Street's tech-driven gains and a weakening of the yen give Japanese stocks a boost for third day in a row.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 15, 2024

Nikkei hits 34-year peak above 36,000 as shippers rally

The index finished the day nearly 1% higher at 35,901.73, after touching the highest since February 1990 at 36,008.23.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 17, 2024

Nikkei retraces after setting new 34-year high above 36,200

A weaker yen buoyed the outlook for corporate profits, overshadowing the impact from overnight Wall Street declines and disappointing Chinese economic data.
Singer Taylor Swift performs at her concert in Tokyo on Wednesday. With her winning her fourth Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards on Monday, sales of her merchandise will likely increase even as fans feel more compelled to purchase them for their premium value.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 8, 2024

'Swiftonomics' to yield ¥34.1 billion economic boost for Japan

The economic ripple effect of an average attendee of Taylor Swift's concerts in Tokyo is estimated at ¥155,090.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 12, 2024

Nikkei posts 34-year high, best week in 22 months

The rise was driven both by receding bets on an early exit from the Bank of Japan's stimulus and sheer momentum as foreign investors returned.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 22, 2024

Japan's Nikkei scales 34-year peak on Wall Street record

The S&P 500 posted its first record-high close in two years, as AI fever drove big gains for chip shares and other heavyweight tech stocks.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 8, 2024

Japan’s Valentine’s Day chocolate budget sees 34% rise

About 22% of survey participants said they would purchase chocolates for themselves — 3.4 times more than those buying for a romantic partner.
The Nikkei 225 on Thursday broke through a record high set just before the country's asset bubble catastrophically burst in the early 1990s.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 23, 2024

Congratulations Nikkei, now don’t screw it up

Those skeptical of the current boom argue that this is nothing more than a another instance of a once-in-a-decade cycle.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 27, 2024

Yen slides to 34-year low, heightening talk of intervention

Although the Bank of Japan hiked rates for the first time in 17 years last week, the yen’s weakness has persisted.
The health ministry will seek a record general-account budget of ¥34.3 trillion for fiscal 2025 amid increasing social security costs.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2024

Health ministry seeks record ¥34 trillion budget for fiscal 2025

The amount was pushed up by increasing social security costs that reflect the country's aging population.
A crowd of tourists at Nishiki Market in the city of Kyoto. Gains in land prices have been helped by a surge in inbound tourism, which has boosted demand for hotels and shops.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2025

Japan's land prices rise at strongest pace in 34 years, government survey shows

Data shows recovery spreading to regional areas, thanks to sustained economic growth, in the latest sign of a pickup in the property market.
Cars drive past a damaged road, in the aftermath of an earthquake, in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jan 18, 2024

Japan rings in 2024 with an unwelcome disaster

Join us for the first episode of 2024 as we recap the massive New Year’s Day earthquake and its impact on the people of Ishikawa Prefecture.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 3, 2025

Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%

The higher "reciprocal” rates are based on a government tally of levies and nontariff barriers that countries impose on U.S. goods.
Japan’s stocks plunged after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped the nation with a 24% levy as part of tariffs on trading partners worldwide.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 3, 2025

Japan’s stocks slump on Trump’s 24% tariffs and stronger yen

The Topix Index fell 4% to 2,544.41 as of 9:12 a.m. Tokyo time, while the blue-chip Nikkei declined 4.1% to 34,281.76.
Containers are loaded onto a ship at the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on Wednesday ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of new tariffs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 3, 2025

Trump tariffs pile stress on ailing world economy

They will sap yet more vigor from a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge.
A still from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
PODCAST / deep dive
Dec 14, 2023

Big in Japan 2023: Anime, Murakami and The Legend of Zelda

Our guests tell us why anime dominated in 2023, which books stood out among a lackluster crowd and why the Zelda franchise is experiencing a renaissance.
Competitors play "Warships" at Squid Game: The Trials, Netflixユs new attraction in Los Angeles on Nov. 28, 2023. For $30, fans can compete in some 70 minutes of play, with moral twists and six group activities, including nonlethal versions of the showユs challenges.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 13, 2023

Netflix builds a ‘Squid Game’ universe as it awaits a second season

A reality show and a live experience are two ways of keeping the dystopian series in the public eye. Is the original’s bleak message being diluted?
Naoko Motooka began hunting 10 years ago. Her hobby is one way Hokkaido hopes to curb a current boom in the deer population.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 15, 2024

Hunting in Hokkaido; Taylor Swift comes to Tokyo

You probably don’t think of guns when you think of Japan, but Hokkaido’s hunters do.
The incoming and outgoing presidents of Johnny & Associates, Noriyuki Higashiyama and Julie Keiko Fujishima, bow at a press conference on Sept. 7.
PODCAST / deep dive
Sep 14, 2023

Johnny’s talent agency has admitted to a past of abuse. What next?

Karin Kaneko joins the show to update us on how the story is unfolding.
"The Ones Left Behind" documents the successes and struggles of single mothers in Japan.
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 2, 2023

Why single mothers in Japan have been left behind

Filmmaker Rionne McAvoy joins us to discuss the hidden poverty present in one of the world’s richest nations.
A man stands atop a float holding a portable shrine at this year’s Sanja Festival in Tokyo.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jul 20, 2023

Why 2023 will be a deciding year for Japan’s iconic summer festivals

As the population gets older do we risk losing the summer festivals that make Japan unique?
Pages from a new Otaku Dictionary catalog the lexicons of Japan’s various subcultures.
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 30, 2023

A problematic otaku dictionary and the Japanese approach to sitting

An “Otaku Dictionary” has Japan’s subcultures upset at an attempt to define them.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 20, 2023

Transport ministry moves to punish Bigmotor outlets over fraud

Violations by the used car chain have included overcharging customers for inspection and maintenance fees.
An iceberg in the Weddell Sea, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Researchers say they have detected buried under the continent's ice sheet a vast ancient landscape.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 26, 2023

Ancient landscape formed by rivers seen deep under Antarctic ice

Researchers say they have detected buried under the continent's ice sheet a vast ancient landscape, replete with valleys and ridges.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is seen on the surface of the moon in an image released Jan. 25.
PODCAST / deep dive
Feb 2, 2024

Japan’s historic moon landing was right on target

Japan made history last month when it became the fifth nation to soft land on the moon.
Motoki Taniguchi (left) and one of his clients, Maurice Shelton, hope their lawsuit can change alleged police practices involving stop-and-search.
PODCAST / deep dive
Mar 8, 2024

A lawsuit puts alleged racial profiling by police on trial in Japan

Three residents with foreign roots have filed a lawsuit claiming Japanese police target visible minorities. We discuss what they hope to achieve.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday during the Reddit initial public offering.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 22, 2024

Reddit’s debut jump delivers for new and old shareholders alike

The platform’s most loyal users were able to buy 8% of the shares at the IPO price, and saw a total return in the aggregate of about $29 million.
A person walks among the giant columns supporting the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel in Saitama Prefecture.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jun 20, 2024

Tokyo underground: The city beneath our feet

Join us this week on Deep Dive as we discuss with Alex K.T. Martin the expansive subterranean world of Tokyo’s ever-changing underground.
One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jul 22, 2024

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Homeless influencers, fantasy boyfriends and bubble-era bars — Kabukicho seems to have it all.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he addresses the Fraternal Order of Police at their meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 7, 2024

Trump hush money sentencing delayed until after election

Trump will be sentenced Nov. 26 instead of Sept. 18 as originally planned, with the judge conceding that going forward could have had an impact on the election.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan