author

 
 

Meta

Daniel Moss
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2022
Java without java? The crisis brewing in coffee
The Indonesian island is a byword for caffeine. The woes piling up for the coffee industry are on full display.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 21, 2022
Master of surprise Kuroda does it one more time
An unexpected BOJ policy tweak stunned markets. Expect central banking's biggest outlier to keep confounding investors.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 16, 2022
Markets’ magical thinking on China has extended to the BOJ
After tying themselves in knots over Xi Jinping's 'COVID zero' policy, it looks like investors are doing the same with Japan's central bank.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 23, 2022
Japan’s intervention underlines its interest rate isolation
The yen is paying the price for the Bank of Japan's ultraeasy monetary stance. Until the bank shifts, a sustained rally is very difficult.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 10, 2022
Abe’s greatest economic policy legacy is looking careworn
The former premier knew what he wanted from monetary stimulus and the person to get him there: BOJ Gov. Kuroda. But does Japan still support those policies?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2022
Jerome Powell took Ben Bernanke's advice a bit too far
The former Fed chief Bernanke had a famous recipe for setting monetary policy that relied heavily on communication. Officials today would do well to scale it back.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 15, 2022
The yen won’t be moved by ‘90s nostalgia
The currency hit its weakest level since 1998, prompting speculation Japan might intervene again. But the world is a very different place today.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2022
Marcos Jr.’s rise is grounds for outrage — but hold the shock
It's troubling enough that a Marcos will again lead the Philippines. Bongbong will need deftness in a world as complicated as any his father faced.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2022
Singapore and Malaysia reunite, if only for cake
People can finally move freely across the Singapore-Malaysia border. Rather than a big surge in spending, they're enjoying the small stuff with their families.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2022
China's got problems, but inflation ain't one
China looks determined to quash — rather than live with — COVID-19. An overly muscular economic response, too, may do as much harm as good.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2021
Japan’s new leader is prisoner of the policies he inherited
Prime Minister Suga will lift emergency pandemic restrictions that have hampered the country's economy, but it will get progressively harder for the new leader from there.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2021
China's slowdown is just as important as the U.S. jobs shocker
China's V-shaped recovery is showing less vigor. Authorities have gone from worrying about too strong a resurgence to scrambling to put a floor under a new slowdown.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2021
Singapore's social divisions aren't so clear cut
COVID-19 didn't create the city's economic and social anxieties, but it brought them to the surface.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2021
China is the first crack in the COVID-19 recovery
The shift by China's central bank is jarring because the nation spent months conveying the idea that it was comfortable trimming — not adding — support for the economy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2021
Putin's right. There is no escaping the dollar.
China's campaign to internationalize the yuan, which received backing from the International Monetary Fund in 2016, is going nowhere fast.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2021
China may be the answer to Janet Yellen's 'mystery'
China is no longer easily caricatured as a place with a limitless supply of cheap labor churning out bargain-basement stuff for consumers and businesses around the world.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2021
Who’s afraid of the big bad economic boom?
The revival is likely to be very impressive. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund raised its forecast for the world expansion to 6%.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2021
Policy credibility is hard to earn and easy to lose
The key distinctions all come down to trust. In countries that have earned it, officials statements are taken seriously, policies are believable and political systems relatively stable.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2021
How the big COVID-19 rebound keeps getting delayed, a bit
The next couple of months are going to be tough. The rosy prognosis for things to really get better has been shunted to the middle of the year.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 12, 2021
The Olympics can no longer be run from smoke-filled rooms
The cozy world of male-dominated politics that gave rise to Yoshiro Mori is no match for 21st century corporate sponsorship and athletic diplomacy.

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