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Tetsushi Kajimoto
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2019
Are a small Japanese firm's China-linked woes a harbinger of things to come?
In snow country along the northwest coast of Honshu, a small manufacturer of precision molds is feeling the pain of China's economic slowdown.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2019
Japanese firms circumventing traditional hiring timetable to find quality recruits
It's a rite of spring: Major corporations hire fresh university graduates en masse every April, starting them all at the same salary with assurances of rising pay and lifetime employment.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2019
Amid a challenging financial landscape, Japan's young female investors seek diverse portfolios
For years, retail currency investors were known as "Mrs. Watanabes," a reference to the metaphorical housewife who invests family savings mostly in foreign exchange. Now, a younger generation of women is looking at a wider asset range in which to park investments.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2018
Japan firms welcome skilled foreign workers; majority open to more open immigration system: poll
Most companies support loosening the country's immigration system to cope with labor shortages, but they favor skilled workers, not an influx of unskilled laborers, a poll shows.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2018
Second jobs, once rare in Japan, are reshaping attitudes about work
Kazuhiro Hasegawa has been driving a taxi in Tokyo for three years. It's a job he enjoys, despite 18-hour shifts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 25, 2018
Japan Inc. happy with publicly unpopular Abe despite cronyism scandals
The public approval ratings of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may have plunged to record lows amid scandals over suspected cronyism, but a Reuters poll shows the Japanese business community has a much more positive view of him.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2017
Tight market and new labor law improving job security for Japan's army of contract workers
Japan's labor market is getting so tight that companies are starting to convert contract and part-time workers into full-time, regular employees to prevent them from leaving — a move that could lift wages and spending but squeeze profits.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 24, 2017
Japan manufacturers' mood slips despite economic recovery, survey finds
Confidence among Japanese manufacturers receded in May for the first time in nine months after hitting a decade-high level April, a Reuters survey has found, showing guarded optimism in a nascent export-led economic recovery.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2017
U.S. may find tough negotiator in fiery minister Aso
In his presidential campaign last year, U.S. President Donald Trump promised to scrap trade deals that gave unfair advantages to other nations and replace them with new ones that would revitalize the U.S. economy and bring jobs back home.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 21, 2016
Japan experiencing budding startup wave as fundraising environment improves
A wave of startups is emerging in famously risk-averse Japan as cash-rich corporations increasingly delegate the task of keeping pace with technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics to smaller, nimbler businesses.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 8, 2016
Japan Inc. warns of global trade contraction under Trump presidency: poll
Corporate Japan is bracing for a rocky ride under incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, a Reuters poll showed, with well over a third of firms seeing a contraction in global trade as concerns about a rise in U.S. protectionism threaten to shatter a fragile economic recovery.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 18, 2016
Japan Inc. unimpressed with BOJ's latest attempt to spur growth, poll shows
Japan Inc. has little faith in the central bank's latest shift in monetary policy, with companies saying it will not generate long-desired inflation, spur further business investment or have an impact on the economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jun 6, 2016
As his stimulus efforts struggle, Abe pushes 'equal pay' to lift Japan's economy
When Fumiko Kasai returned to work a decade ago she found the job market was very different to the one she had left in the 1980s to raise her four children.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 19, 2016
Sucked into deflation again, Japan's $2 cup noodle binge is sign of the times
Japanese consumers cannot get enough of cup ramen, with spending on them surging by more than a quarter over the past year. That sounds like good news, but for a country still struggling to escape deflation it is a worrying signal.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2016
Japan Inc. believes Trump presidency would hurt ties, tarnish U.S. as investment target: poll
Most Japanese firms think a Donald Trump presidency would harm the Japan-U.S. security alliance and make the United States a less attractive place to invest, a Reuters poll showed, in a further sign of international angst about his candidacy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 17, 2015
Putting politics over economics, Abe may stall sales tax hike, call for double Diet poll next summer
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may put off a sales tax rise and call a snap Lower House election next summer, in tandem with a poll for the upper chamber, imitating a winning strategy he used a year ago, some advisers and political sources say.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 22, 2015
Abe-Kuroda 'honeymoon' risks being soured by fiscal friction
The rift between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his hand-picked central banker is becoming hard to conceal, leaving “Abenomics” and its money-printing program under a dark cloud.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2014
Dec 11, 2014
Welfare cuts? Abe won't say it
Hiroko Shinohara frets about one issue Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has noticeably avoided on the campaign trail ahead of Sunday's election: the need to cut the nation's generous social welfare program that supports millions of people.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 3, 2014
Wounded Abe grapples with tax jinx after BOJ easing move
Back in April when Shinzo Abe raised the consumption tax, he was betting he could break a jinx that has doomed prime ministers to losing their jobs.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 3, 2014
'Abenomics' appears headed for trouble as challenges build
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan for the economy to generate self-sustained growth on the back of his three policy "arrows" of massive monetary easing, spending and reform appears to be faltering — but no magic solution is in sight.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals