author

 
 

Meta

Yoshiaki Nohara
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 7, 2020
Japan's ultralow official jobless rate ignores 4 million on leave
Factor in those on partially paid leave and the 2.6 percent rate hits 11.5 percent. Then there's the 940,000 who left the labor force in April but weren't counted.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 21, 2020
Paperwork-heavy Japan trailing tech-savvy South Korea on cash handouts
Lee Jong-chul, a 57-year-old truck driver who lives just south of Seoul, says it took little more than a minute to access his 400,000 won ($330) cash handout from the South Korean government earlier this month.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 28, 2020
Budget in hand, Abe shifts focus to pandemic response as economy reels
Prime Minister Abe's team is working on steps to save jobs and spark a v-shaped recovery, but is money all it takes?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 21, 2020
Japan could face year-long slump if 'cursed' Olympics canceled
A canceled or postponed Olympics would likely result in Japan's economy shrinking for the longest stretch since the global financial crisis, according to some economists.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 17, 2019
Japan's looming sales tax hike prompts less rush demand so far, suggesting painful economic impact can be avoided
The nation's economy is less likely to suffer a painful whiplash from a sales tax increase scheduled for October, early sales figures for autos and apartments suggest.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 26, 2018
Children of poor, jobless single moms have become an underclass in Japan
The beating of a 4-year-old boy last Christmas Eve went on through the night. Covered with bruises and having suffered catastrophic internal bleeding, he was pronounced dead at an Osaka hospital. Soon after, his mother and her two boyfriends were arrested.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2018
Why isn't Toyota boosting Japan's inflation? A crisis nearly seven decades ago may be the key
At a New Year's party, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a plea to business leaders: Raise wages by 3 percent to support Japan's economy. The request was met with a polite silence. "Let me take that as no objection," the prime minister said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2017
In Japan, wages stubbornly refuse to rise despite tight labor market and steady economic growth
Japan is discovering that even the tightest labor market in a generation is no quick spur for higher wages.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 19, 2017
Voters in Abe's heartland fear future sales tax hike as they struggle with stagnant wages
Chiyoko Yamamoto works in one of the best regions in Japan — a place with one of the lowest rates of unemployment, a growing economy, and the highest level of female employment in the country.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2017
For Japan's economy, now is the time to raise sales tax, tackle debt, says business lobby
Japan's current run of economic growth provides a now-or-never opportunity to tackle the nation's debt and forge ahead with plans to increase the sales tax, said Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2017
Takatoshi Ito, who sold Kuroda on inflation targets, now contender for top job
During countless shared lunches and impromptu meetings, Takatoshi Ito made a detailed and persuasive case that sold Haruhiko Kuroda on the inflation targeting regime he's pursued relentlessly as governor of the central bank. That was back in 1999, when Kuroda ran Japan's currency policy at the Finance...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2017
Japan using education to add influence, tap into booming Southeast Asia markets
In a battle with China for influence and opportunity in Southeast Asia, Japan is making inroads on a new front: education.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 1, 2017
Labor shortage prompts grudging turn to permanent jobs
The tightest labor market in decades is showing signs of reversing a long shift toward the hiring of temporary workers.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 7, 2017
Drawing on Seattle startup revolution, Fukuoka angling to be entrepreneur hub
From the fifth-floor office of his internet startup, Kazz Watabe can see the sea bass jump in the bay as he works on his fishing website to the sound of jazz and the waves washing on the beach below.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2017
Old age, depopulation decimating A-bomb-spared Kitakyushu
Few places evoke the rise and fall of Japan's industrial might than the head office of the Imperial Steel Works in Kitakyushu. The red brick Meiji Era building was the heart of the nation's first big steelworks. Now it's a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Mar 2, 2017
Firms tap state subsidies to start day care facilities to woo working moms
Faced with a shortage of workers, Japanese companies are taking matters into their own hands, helping the government fix a chronic lack of day care facilities that is blunting efforts to get more women into the workforce.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2017
Redefining Japan's 'seniors' to older age may free up still agile workforce
When do you become a senior citizen?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 26, 2017
Stingy pay raises pull the handbrake on Japan's inflation drive
As the world puts the worst of the disinflationary threat behind it, tepid wage growth is shaping up as a key restraint to a genuine reflationary era taking hold in some economies. Nowhere is this more so than Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2017
Rural 'furusato nozei' beer, beef thank-yous costing urban Japan much-needed revenues
Want a free case of craft beer? If you send ¥30,000 or more of your taxes to the town of Yamanouchi in Nagano Prefecture, they'll send you 24 bottles of a locally brewed beer to say thanks.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Dec 29, 2016
Japan's students face uncertain future under cloud of debt
Kengo Kyogoku borrows about ¥122,000 ($1,035) per month in addition to a scholarship and a part-time job, because his mother can't afford to pay his college fees at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat