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December 22, 2024
 

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Junko Fujita
A backdrop of a broadly soaring stock market and signs of long-awaited wage and price growth is drawing bets that the BOJ might back away from its ultraeasy policy settings as soon as its next meeting in a week's time.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 11, 2024
Bank of Japan skips ETF buying, stoking policy speculation
It was not clear why it did not buy the listed funds even as the Topix index slid 2% — a mark that generally draws a response.
The bond sale is part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's plan to sell ¥20 trillion of bonds to help finance projects such as developing low-cost wind power generators and airplanes that use alternative fuels.
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2024
Japan's first sovereign green bonds expected to attract healthy demand
The financing is meant to help the nation cut greenhouse gases to zero by 2050 and become a carbon-neutral society.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 1, 2022
Japan's property market lures private equity with solid yields
Property investors worldwide are flush with cash and emboldened by stabilizing vacancy rates and rents after disruption by the pandemic, and some are setting their sights on Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 4, 2022
Japan's five-year bond yield scales zero on tighter policy expectation
Stubbornly hot inflation and more hawkishness from other major central banks has spurred bets that the Bank of Japan will need to tighten policy soon.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2021
Suga regrets having to take the flak for hosting Olympics during pandemic
The prime minister was responding to comments from an opposition lawmaker, who said Suga had been coming under attack when the host city's governor, Yuriko Koike, should be weighing in.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 23, 2020
Japan's SBI, eyeing shake-up of regional banks, may get a Suga boost
Suga has pledged to strengthen local economies and encourage regional banks to consolidate, a shake-up that many say is long overdue.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 15, 2020
Children's puppet shows help bunraku master endure coronavirus shutdown
Kanjuro Kiritake says the pandemic has left him worrying for the future of his art form.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2018
In Japan, new rules may leave short-term lodging industry out in the cold
Japan's new law on short-term lodging services was meant to ease a shortage of hotel rooms, bring order to an unregulated market, and offer more options for foreign visitors ahead of next year's Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 6, 2017
Japan's regional banks, facing demographic challenges, turn to deal-making for revenue
The grim outlook for smaller regional banks, who are suffering as the rural population shrinks rapidly, is prompting some to dive into a new, potentially lucrative line of business that until now was largely taboo: mergers and acquisitions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2017
Abe's infrastructure reforms hit roadblock as cities balk at effort to mend Japan's aging sewer systems
Hidden beneath its streets, Japan's aging sewer pipes spotlight a challenge that has held back reforms Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing to revitalize the world's third-biggest economy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 13, 2017
Micro M&A advisers riding population trends to success
Boutique advisers specializing in micro mergers and acquisitions for mostly family-run firms are enjoying a boom as the aging, shrinking population puts the squeeze on Japan's small business landscape.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2017
Tokyo office boom fades with more space, fewer workers
Commercial property prices in Tokyo, a bellwether for the market, look to have peaked as the capital faces a glut of new offices even as the number of workers is set to decline.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2016
Japan's rural temples see the light in luxury tourism
Deep in a forest in Fukui Prefecture, a 13th century Buddhist temple where Steve Jobs once dreamed of becoming a Zen monk has teamed up with a Tokyo skyscraper builder to seek the commercial enlightenment of foreign tourist dollars.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2015
Japan's tourism boom drives real-estate developers to convert offices into hotels
The surge in tourists visiting Japan is stretching the ability of hotels to accommodate them in a sector constrained by high costs, forcing developers to think out of the box for means to quickly increase lodging options without breaking the bank.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2015
Budget hotels thinking outside the capsule
With Japan's tourist numbers and hotel prices on the rise thanks to a weaker yen, developers are getting creative with a new niche line of stylish but cheap accommodations in bunks, cabins and pods of all shapes and sizes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 5, 2015
'Abenomics' property boost shrinks back to Tokyo
An economic rebound and loose money policy under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe briefly halted a long slide in Japan's commercial property market, but the benefits of "Abenomics" appear increasingly limited to Tokyo, leaving a moribund hinterland.
BUSINESS
Nov 7, 2014
Japan banker hopes for small-town encore with 'curtain call' loans
While rival banks sit on their deposits, frustrating the government efforts to reflate a stagnant economy, regional banker Takashi Tsuchiya will write you a loan to close your business or end your marriage.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 15, 2014
Michelin-starred chef fears loss of tradition
At his three-star Michelin restaurant in Tokyo, Yoshihiro Murata serves elaborate 12-course meals of delicate Japanese food. But his real passion is to make sure simple, traditional food is passed on to the next generation.
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2007
Lone Star's acquisitions of golf courses suffering in economic recovery
The economy is so healthy it's bad for business, according to Mitsuo Hirose, who heads golf operations in Japan for John Grayken's Lone Star Funds.
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

Podcast

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

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
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