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Yoshiaki Nohara
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 / 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.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Dec 21, 2016
Kuroda breathes easier, at least for now, as stars align for Bank of Japan
After a long year, the Bank of Japan unexpectedly finds itself in a sweet spot.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 19, 2016
Depopulating rust belt counts on 'robonomics' to run assembly lines
A withering factory town in the rust belt is looking for revival through a dose of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "robot revolution."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2016
Amamiya, aka 'Mr. BOJ,' shapes central bank policy behind the scenes
Masayoshi Amamiya is viewed as so essential to operations at the Bank of Japan that he's known inside the central bank as "Mr. BOJ."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2016
More adults kept from leaving parents' nests in Asia by harsh economic realities
In some of Asia's biggest economies, young adults are living longer with their parents as they struggle to strike out on their own.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2016
IMF sees Japanese talent locked in low-paying jobs
The rich and powerful versus the weak and underpaid.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Aug 16, 2016
Low pay haunts Tokyo's nurseries despite massive demand for places
After 6½ years as a nursery school teacher in Tokyo, Saki Sasamoto had had enough.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 13, 2016
Top Abe adviser urges coordinated stimulus while playing down 'helicopter money'
Japan needs to keep various policy options open, including coordinated action by the government and central bank, key economic adviser Koichi Hamada says.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 8, 2016
Abenomics losing support with economists and voters alike
Abenomics has not had much impact reviving the fits-and-starts Japanese economy. That is the verdict of nearly two dozen economists canvassed in a new Bloomberg News survey.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 23, 2016
Forced labor allegations and abuses continue to dog Japan's foreign trainee program
Tang Xili came to Japan in 2013, hoping to earn enough in three years to build a new home for her daughter. Instead, she ended up in a labor union shelter after leaving an employer she says owes her about ¥3.5 million in unpaid wages.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Dec 16, 2015
As jobs-for-life fade, mobility key as workers face a survival reality check
Shuhei Takebe graduated from a prestigious university in Japan. It qualified him to become a day laborer.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 15, 2015
In Japan, the rise of the machines solves a labor problem
The rise of the machines in the workplace has U.S. and European experts predicting massive unemployment and tumbling wages.

Longform

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