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December 22, 2024
 

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Shuli Ren
Amid a slowing economy, Beijing has avoided large-scale fiscal stimulus to prevent further debt buildup, focusing instead on modest measures to alleviate regional financial stress without adding new borrowing.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 21, 2024
No, China doesn’t really have a debt crisis
Beijing is gun-shy about fiscal stimulus due to concerns more debt will build up. This thinking is muddled.
Hong Kong’s property tycoons are eagerly awaiting interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve due to their struggles with slow home sales, vacant office buildings and tenants pushing for lease renegotiations.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2024
The Fed is making Hong Kong's billionaire landlords anxious
Many Hong Kong property companies have significant amounts of debt at floating interest rates tied to Hibor, which tracks the Fed's rate changes.
Wealthy Chinese shoppers are buying luxury goods in Japan to take advantage of favorable exchange rates, which is hurting European luxury brands' profitability.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 8, 2024
Big Luxury frets that China is turning Japanese
Wealthy Chinese shoppers are buying luxury goods in Japan to take advantage of favorable exchange rates, which is hurting European luxury brands' profitability.
The ability of Xi Jinping's government to control China's industrial overcapacity crisis is limited, and stimulating domestic demand is difficult amid geopolitical tensions.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2024
Xi’s supply-side panacea has lost its magic
China’s excess capacity problem will have to fester until even its industry leaders call it quits. That may be some years away.
The size of the carry trade strategy is hard to determine because currency transactions, unlike stock trades, aren't tracked on exchanges. We only have estimates.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 14, 2024
How big is the yen carry trade, really?
There is now worry that the unwinding of yen-funded carry trades would wreck investors’ frothy exposures to U.S. technology and AI-related companies.
Staff lower the Chinese national flag in the Central Financial District in Hong Kong in March. Hong Kong is an established trading hub for raising capital while Singapore excels in private wealth management.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2024
Stop comparing Hong Kong to Singapore
Think of it this way: Hong Kong is where the Chinese can grow their wealth while Singapore is where they can preserve it.
China’s real estate sector has fundamentally changed in that existing home sales will become the norm, as is the case with developed countries.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2024
China’s housing mess finally comes for Xi’s own
China’s real estate sector has fundamentally changed, in that existing home sales will be the norm, as is the case with developed countries.
The Hong Kong market's recent rally has been fueled by a reassessment of investment strategies, with previously favored markets such as Japan and Taiwan losing appeal. Bloomberg
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2024
What is behind the Hong Kong market’s fast and mysterious rally?
The reallocating of investments toward Chinese assets is likely to continue, despite the historical volatility associated with the Chinese market.
As a small open economy, Hong Kong is vulnerable to financial contagion and capital flights to and from China.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2024
Hong Kong is facing a repeat of 1998 Asia financial crisis
As the Hang Seng Index selloff deepens, bankers and traders are preparing for the worst.
Shein, a Chinese-founded online fast fashion platform, has filed to go public in the U.S. in what could be one of the world’s biggest IPOs.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2023
Chinese are making a killing everywhere but in China
China's companies are racing to reap the benefits of entering the U.S., while also running away from a crowded and competitive local market.
Then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang takes the oath after he was re-elected for a second term during the sixth-plenary session of the National People's Congress in Beijing in March 2018.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2023
Remembering Li Keqiang, who retired with a broken heart
He is best known outside of China for the Li Keqiang Index, created by The Economist to measure the nation’s economic growth.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2023
No, South Korea is not ready for MSCI’s elite club
Seoul has not always been market-friendly. And it certainly has not been kind to activist hedge funds, an important channel to improve market efficiency.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 22, 2022
Can Xi’s China correct course on COVID-19 — like Vietnam?
Vietnam's economy has come back to life, while the threat of persistent COVID-19 lockdowns continue to still stalk its northern neighbor.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2022
How to withstand China’s property meltdown
Some of China's richest people were forced by the government to part with prized assets, and they were lucky they did.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2021
China’s very distressed developers are also very clever
Developers, attuned to Beijing's fast and furious credit cycles, are once again coming up with naughty if twisty ways to borrow and survive this harsh winter.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2021
When will China flinch and stop the Evergrande meltdown?
If China is at all serious about cutting down its debt, it will have to relent and do something dramatic. Maybe even bail out Evergrande.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2021
China breaks the global model of venture capital investing
Now, China's crackdown on its ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc. raises an uncomfortable question for the venture capital funds: Does their globe-trotting model work?
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2021
Trust me, you don’t want to be China's biggest billionaire
Conspicuous wealth attracts unwanted scrutiny. Beijing is wary of rich developers because they often load up on debt, thereby putting corporate China's financial health at risk.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2021
Why the Chinese love big food even more than big tech
Every time there's a price spike in pork or vegetables or fruit or Moutai somewhere in the country, China's investors rush to buy their Big Food stocks.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2021
Forget GameStop and scrutinize Chinese listed companies
The U.S. Congress has passed a bill that could ultimately lead to kicking Chinese companies off American exchanges, but it has a generous phase-in period. That may be too long.
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.
Mother hopes for reunion with daughter ensnared by Tokyo host clubs
The Kabukicho district in Tokyo, where the daughter of a woman in her 60s fell deeply into the host club culture.
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
By Alex K.T. Martin

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