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November 22, 2024
 

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Noriko Hama
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 22, 2014
Return of shunto is hollow triumph for unions
Shunto is in full swing. Or so it should be. Or so they say. Shunto is the Japanese word for the annual spring round of wage negotiations conducted between big business and trade unions. This "spring offensive" used to feature large in the annual economic calendar. As the deflationary 1990s and beyond...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jan 25, 2014
In Davos, gripping kabuki with little substance
Afriend asks via email: "Did you see the video of Abe in Davos?"
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 21, 2013
It's business as usual 'back in the USSR'
Paul McCartney was in Japan some weeks ago. Having spent a totally Beatlemaniac four years of my pre-teen existence in the U.K., it was nice to see the erstwhile Beatle in such good form.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 30, 2013
The secret of keeping official secrets secret
"He that would keep a secret must keep it secret that he hath a secret to keep," says Sir Humphrey Appleby, permanent secretary to the Department of Administrative Affairs, a fictitious branch of the British government. He is one of the main characters in the highly acclaimed 1980s BBC television series...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 6, 2013
Abe should consult father of economics for sage advice on sales tax
Three guesses on who said the following.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 1, 2013
Pax No Man's Land needs more than Fed's tapering to smooth things over
U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke hints at policy change. He is looking for an exit from quantitative easing whereby he has been buying financial assets to the order of $85 billion per month since the end of last year. He has emphasized the exit shall be a "tapering" procedure — no abrupt...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 21, 2013
Beware your heroes and heed the lesson of stargazer Galileo Galilei
A scene from "The Life of Galilei" seems to encapsulate the dilemma Japan faces as it gropes for new leadership.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 24, 2013
Abe's rhetoric reveals a growth strategy aimed at global conquest
The greatly hyped "third arrow" of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic plans has fallen spectacularly by the wayside. The stock prices on which Abe & Co. had staked their all began falling even as he was explaining his economic strategy in a speech.
BUSINESS / Economy / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 20, 2013
Utility, ubiquity playing key roles in corrupting policymakers' thinking
Two mind-sets seem to be catching on in Japan these days. They worry me. One is the notion that something has to be useful to be of value. The other is that anything is justifiable on the grounds that everybody else is doing it.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 8, 2013
Team Abe's grand plan leaves ghosts in charge of a haunted house
As I observe Team Abe in action at the helm of the Bank of Japan and elsewhere, a rather terrifying passage from a poem by William Hughes Mearns comes to mind:
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 18, 2013
Sir Norman's hat and the baldfaced policies of the Bank of Japan
A new executive team is about to take office at the Bank of Japan, but at least two of the incoming members will be wearing hats somewhat different than those doffed by employees of the central bank: The initials on their head gear will spell ABE instead of BOJ.
COMMENTARY / Japan / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 4, 2013
Abe's 15-month reversal budget fudges cost of swapping people and butter for concrete and guns
The government of Shinzo Abe has just unveiled its budget for fiscal 2013 starting in April. Abe's stated intention was to “radically reset” spending priorities.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 24, 2012
Rip van Winkle returns to government with trade war on his mind
Japan is about to get a new government and it's just like old times. Liberal Democratic Party leader Shinzo Abe, who is set to become prime minister, again sounds as if he has been spending his time out of office back in the 1960s.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 22, 2012
No nation can afford to act like an island in Asia's globalized age
Japan is having trouble keeping up a cordial relationship with its next door neighbors. Long dormant territorial disputes have suddenly come to the fore. Who owns what from when and why? Who can claim legal ownership? Who is in actual control? Arcane issues have suddenly become hot topics of the moment...
Japan Times
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012
A pair in dire need of a reality check
Japan is hosting an annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for the first time since 1964. A lot has happened in the intervening very nearly half a century — to both Japan and the IMF. Yet both Japan and the IMF do not quite seem to realize just how much has happened to...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 14, 2012
Atomic exit deserves warm welcome in land of nuclear apprentices
As of May 6, Japan became a nuclear power-free zone. All of the nuclear plants throughout the country are offline, either as a result of last year's Fukushima disaster or routine maintenance. The government and electric power companies are hoping to see them back in action soon, but public sentiment...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 23, 2012
Consumption tax fiasco magnified by absence of financial fundamentals
To paraphrase Winston Churchill's all too famous words at the time of the Battle of Britain: "Never in the field of economic policy has so little been achieved by so many hours wasted by so many lawmakers." The outcome of the debate over Japan's consumption tax would surely extract a quote to surpass...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 26, 2012
Diversity, inclusiveness should be the key words for Japan after March 11
March will forever be a month to remember in Japan. Already a year has gone by since that awful 11th of March when the world erupted in all sorts of ways around us. Given all the terrible things that happened then and continue to haunt us now, what are the values that we need to hold most dear? What...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 27, 2012
Fiscally hobbled Japan nears multiple-currency era: Is yen's demise nigh?
For a single-currency area to be sustainable, one of two conditions needs to be met. One, sufficient economic convergence throughout the area in question. Two, a transfer mechanism to offset whatever economic divergences exist in the area. The eurozone currently meets neither of these conditions. Thus...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 26, 2011
Brace for the year of the dragon, when all shall be revealed
In the Sino-Japanese cycle of annual zodiac signs, the year 2012 will be the year of the dragon. 2011 was the year of the hare. How quickly it is jumping away.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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