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The BOJ’s monetary easing has kept the benchmark yield on 10-year JGBs below 1% for over a decade, and most traders have never experienced a major surge in rates that would put them at risk of large writedowns.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2023

Traders who survived the 1980s become must-have hires in Japan

With the benchmark yield on 10-year JGBs below 1% for over a decade, most traders have never experienced a surge in rates that would put them at risk.
A playful photo of Japanese female politicians on a work trip to Paris drew much criticism back home. The backlash may be one of the reasons women choose to avoid public service.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2023

Japan has a misery-loves-company problem

The backlash to government officials' lighthearted moment is a prime example of how to undermine workers.
Japanese companies are increasingly introducing performance-linked stock compensation for their CEOs, boosting what’s been the lowest level of top executive pay among major advanced economies.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 17, 2023

More Japan firms link CEO remuneration to long-term performance

Japanese firms have historically relied more on fixed remuneration not linked to business performance.
Containers in a shipping terminal at the Honmoku pier in Yokohama in June
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 17, 2023

Japan logs first export decline in over two years

The value of exports fell in July from a year earlier, retreating for the first time since February 2021.
Shin-Osaka Station is crowded with travelers as services resume on Thursday morning.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 17, 2023

Shinkansen lines resume, but travelers may still face long delays

Central Japan Railway is urging people to refrain from using the train service until stations become less crowded.
AI apps on a smartphone screen. In a joint statement, Japanese organizations said that current generative AI creates content based on the analysis of large amounts of data collected from the internet without the consent of and payments to copyright holders.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 17, 2023

Japanese publishers voice copyright concerns over generative AI

The statement said that Japan's copyright law is more favorable to AI learning than those of other countries.
Kurara Okuno first encountered mermaiding in 2020, not long before she jumped into the deep end of the aquatic subculture.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 19, 2023

Move over Ariel: Meet Japan’s professional merpeople

While mermaiding is still a niche activity in Japan, it is possible to slip on a tail and dive in.
If you've come to the realization that divorce is the only way forward, there are a host of details about the Japanese marriage system to confirm before you're finally ready to cut ties.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Aug 21, 2023

Navigating the notorious gauntlet of divorce in Japan

Everyone wishes for “happily ever after” no matter where you’re from, but Japan recorded 1,671 bicultural divorces in 2021.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2023

Elon Musk arrives in Japan for first visit in nine years

The purpose of his trip is not yet clear, but the space-loving billionaire has posted video clips of the teamLab Planets art installation in Tokyo.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi announces support measures to increase the number of female lawmakers at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Aug. 1.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 18, 2023

Japanese political parties boosting support for female candidates

The parties hope to win the support of independent voters by demonstrating their commitment to increasing the number of female lawmakers.
Japan's core consumer inflation slowed in July but remained above the Bank of Japan's price target for the 16th straight month.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2023

Japan’s 'sticky' inflation trend may keep BOJ on edge over prices

Prices excluding energy and fresh food increased 4.3% from the previous year, matching the record set in May, which was the fastest since 1981.
Welcia Holdings, Japan’s largest drugstore chain, is one of the first Japanese companies to respond to China easing its ban on group tours to a raft of countries last week.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2023

Japan drugstore chain boosts duty-free counters on China bets

The company plans to offer duty-free services at 1,000 stores, up from about 260 currently, and it expects tourists to travel beyond Japan’s major cities.
More investors in the Tokyo stock market are beginning to see higher pay as a useful barometer of a company’s strength.
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 18, 2023

Stock pickers cheer for wage hikes in post-deflationary Japan

A group of companies that raised wages higher than many of their peers has outperformed the Topix index by 5 percentage points so far this quarter.
Nippon Life Insurance headquarters in Osaka. Japanese insurers are seeking more investments in private credit, attracted to their floating interest rates as global borrowing costs jump.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 18, 2023

Private credit boom attracts Japan insurers with $2.6 trillion

Dai-ichi Life Insurance and Nippon Life Insurance are among companies that are seeking more investments in private credit.
The wedded rocks of Meoto Iwa in Mie Prefecture.
JAPAN / History
Aug 20, 2023

Good and evil defined by God … or gods

Much of our understanding of good and evil can be traced to definitions created by religion. Which religion (and definition) depends on where you live.
Residents clean up debris in the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis in Date, Fukushima Prefecture, in October 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Aug 20, 2023

A Japan research team dares to ask: Can typhoons be controlled?

Researchers in Yokohama are probing whether tropical cyclones can be weakened or diverted, with energy they produce also tapped to generate power.
Staff from the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium release a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle with a transmitter attached in the central North Pacific Ocean in July.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 20, 2023

Japanese aquarium begins study on sea turtle migration

Little is known about the exact route and mechanism of the loggerhead's migration from the coast of Japan to the west coast of North America.
Rakuyo Otsuki (center), CEO of event firm TryHard Japan, during a news conference in Osaka on Monday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 21, 2023

Festival organizer files criminal complaint over DJ Soda groping

TryHard Japan filed the report to the police against two men and a woman over their alleged groping of the DJ’s breast and hugging of her without consent.
Packages of lecanemab, marketed as Leqembi, for the U.S. market
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 21, 2023

Japanese ministry panel gives OK to Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab

The panel’s endorsement will be followed by official approval by the health minister in coming days.
North Korea's new Chollima-1 rocket is launched in Cholsan County, North Korea, on May 31 in this image taken from video.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2023

North Korea to launch satellite between Thursday and Aug. 31

Japan has indefinitely extended an order issued to destroy any North Korean ballistic missile, rocket or debris that threatens the country's territory.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk-yeol attend a news conference during a trilateral summit at Camp David, Maryland, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 22, 2023

U.S. pushes back against Chinese trilateral summit criticism

China said it had protested the summit to the three countries, claiming they had “smeared and attacked" China on Taiwan and maritime issues.
Robust demand from visitors for lodgings and rising prices in Japan create an ideal scenario to fuel a boom for investment in hotels.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2023

Goldman, KKR and Blackstone join investor rush for Japan hotels

Compared with before the pandemic, visitors to Japan are spending more, with most of that money going on lodgings and hospitality.
Nihon University's American football team restarts training on Aug. 11 in Tokyo after it was suspended.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 23, 2023

Nihon University scandal puts focus on 'collective responsibility'

Critics of the approach of punishing an entire team for wrongdoing by some say it can unfairly affect athletes that weren't involved.
Members of the Self-Defence Forces during a ceremony in Tokyo in 2017
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2023

Government advocates allowing export of some lethal weapons

The ruling coalition will discuss how to revise the guidelines for the country's three principles on defense equipment transfers.
A man walks past a TV broadcasting a report about North Korea's failed rocket launch, at the main railway station in Seoul on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 24, 2023

North Korea fails in latest attempt to put spy satellite into orbit

Pyongyang said it would try again in October, after the failed launch prompted Japan to issue an emergency warning for Okinawan residents to take shelter.
Hiromi Yamaji, chief executive officer of Japan Exchange Group, says the yen is too weak and its benefits for Japanese stocks are diminishing.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 24, 2023

Yen’s too weak and benefits are waning, Japan bourse chief says

The yen has slipped below the levels where Japanese officials intervened last September to rein in the weakness in the currency.
Foreign visitors in Kyoto. Local governments are rushing to use big data on spending by foreign visitors to analyze trends.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2023

Local governments tap big data on spending by foreign visitors

Such data allows authorities to analyze consumption trends in detail, "visualize" markets and place targeted advertisements.
The release of treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the sea in the town of Okuma, in Fukushima prefecture, began Thursday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Aug 24, 2023

A closer look at the Fukushima water discharge plan

The IAEA, the Japanese government and many nuclear experts say this process is safe and consistent with what other countries are doing.
Locals protest the release of tritium-laced water from the Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant on Thursday in the town of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 24, 2023

Fukushima locals worry about the 'what ifs' from water release

Towns and villages around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant were buzzing with the “what ifs” from the plant’s tritium-laced water release on Thursday.
A woman stands on one side of the wall texting in front of a nightclub while, on the other side of the wall, a man works in an izakaya.
PODCAST / deep dive
Aug 24, 2023

One night out in Tokyo

As the last trains leave the central hubs of Shinjuku and Shibuya for the suburbs, much of the city heads home. However, Tokyo never sleeps.

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