Search - japan

 
 
There are no villains in Saikaku's stories … just people caught more or less helplessly in life's vortex.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Dec 17, 2023

Tales of a Closed Country: Part 3

There are no truly evil villains in Ihara Saikaku's stories, just people caught helplessly in life's vortex.
Shiv Kumar (left) and Nirmal Singh say they are learning a lot about living and thriving in Japan while taking part in the Technical Intern Trainee Program. Their case, however, seems to be an exception to the norm.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Dec 18, 2023

Beating the odds on Japan's controversial foreign trainee program

Nirmal Singh and Shiv Kumar beat the odds on the Technical Intern Training Program, but luck shouldn't play such a key role in a government initiative.
A Tomahawk cruise missile is launched from a U.S. Navy ship. Japan agreed with the United States to buy U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles one year earlier than previously planned.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2023

Japanese government delaying debate over key defense issues

A widening political scandal is affecting the Kishida administration's ability to move forward on important security discussions.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda, who took office in April, has been considered a skeptic of negative interest rates.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 17, 2023

One small step for BOJ. One giant leap for the yen.

Japan can hold off on undoing negative interest rates
A pair of wolves carved from wood exhibited at Mitsumine Shrine’s museum in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Longform
Dec 15, 2023

In praise of wolves

Premodern Japan's reverence of wolves mirrors its close bond with nature, a state eventually disrupted by the ecological impact of industrialization.
Japan’s passport gives visa-free entry to 192 global destinations, according to the latest Henley Passport Index. The country lost the top spot to Singapore earlier this year, after leading the list for five straight years.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2023

Japan’s travel industry urges people to get their mighty passports

Japan’s passport gives visa-free entry to 192 global destinations, according to the latest Henley Passport Index.
Customers browse through items sold as part of the Uniqlo Pre-owned Clothes Project at the brand's Harajuku store in Tokyo in October.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2023

Japan revisits used garments as inflation adds to fashion appeal

Awareness of the sector's huge environmental impact has yet to spark much interest in secondhand options in the world third-biggest clothes market.
In Toshiba, JIP takes on a sprawling company far bigger and more complex than any it acquired before.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Dec 19, 2023

In buying Toshiba, JIP takes on corporate Japan's toughest job

While the fund has quietly built up a track record by carving out businesses from big manufacturers, Toshiba is more complex than any it acquired before.
The government reiterated that the recovery in capital investment appeared to have stalled, while industrial production showed signs of picking up.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 19, 2023

Japan ups assessment of business mood and sticks to view on economy

In a report, the Cabinet Office said the economy was "recovering moderately although some areas stalled recently."
Foreign tourists take pictures in Tokyo's Asakusa district in November.
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2023

Japan’s post-pandemic tourists shift spending to crafts and jewelry

Average spending on traditional handicrafts per visitor was ¥13,338 ($92) in the July-September quarter, up 80% from the same period in 2019.
Japan's exports in November fell for the first time in three months, dragged down by China-bound chip shipments, underscoring worries that slowing overseas economies will complicate policymakers' efforts to wind back on stimulus.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 20, 2023

Japan’s exports dip as global slowdown puts pressure on recovery

Exports fell 0.2% from a year earlier despite weakness in the yen, dashing economists' hopes for a 1.4% increase and support from overseas demand.
Muscat International Airport in Oman was ranked No. 1 in AirHelp’s just-released annual global airport scores.
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2023

Japan scores highly in ranking of 2023’s best and worst airports

More than 4,000 airports worldwide were assessed for on-time performance, airport navigation, food and shopping options.
Ukrainian refugees who were flown to Japan by the Foreign Ministry arrive at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in April 2022. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 20, 2023

Moving beyond ‘checkbook diplomacy’: Japan’s changing refugee policy

Japan's stance on admitting refugees appears to be changing amid greater global engagement by Tokyo.
Fishermen land scallops at Nemuro Port in Nemuro, Hokkaido, in April 2022.
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2023

Japan to test scallop processing in Mexico

Under the plan scallops will be processed in Ensenada in the Mexican state of Baja California, about 100 kilometers from the border with the U.S.
Young Japanese eels successfully hatched from the full-cycle breeding process
BUSINESS
Jan 2, 2024

Full-cycle onshore aquaculture in the spotlight in Japan

The farming method is being developed at a time when factors including overfishing are leading to falls in stocks.
Police officers stand guard outside the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on Dec. 14. The ruling party is currently trying to contain a funding scandal that threatens the future of the Kishida administration. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 20, 2023

'Strategic Communication' is a missing link in Japan's crisis management

From gaffes to governance, lessons in "strategic communications" for Japanese politicians.
A Mainichi poll this week gave Fumio Kishida's Cabinet a nearly 80% disapproval rate, the worst result since the newspaper began surveying in 1947.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 21, 2023

No, seriously, this is one Japan scandal that’s important

With no clear rival, and potential challengers likely reluctant to take their shot with support so low, Kishida may yet hang on in the near term.
The U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, Pennsylvania. U.S. President Joe Biden's top economic advisor said the purchase of the firm by Nippon Steel deserves serious scrutiny, in the latest sign of political pressure over the deal.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 22, 2023

Nippon-U.S. Steel deal deserves 'serious scrutiny,' White House says

The White House said it views a strong domestic steel industry as vital to the U.S. economy and national security.
Japan's core consumer prices rose 2.5% in November from a year earlier, marking the slowest pace of increase in over a year in a sign of easing cost-push pressures in the world's third-largest economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 22, 2023

Japan’s cooling inflation also offers encouraging signs for BOJ

Consumer prices excluding fresh food items rose 2.5% from a year earlier as falls in energy costs deepened and gains in processed food prices eased.
A Brazilian of Japanese descent teaches Japanese to foreign nationals in July 2020 at the Homi housing complex in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, which is home to many foreign nationals, mainly of Brazilian heritage.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2023

Some foreign fourth generation descendants of Japanese to be given long-term residency

The Immigration Services Agency will revise the residency status system to allow such people to effectively stay in Japan indefinitely.
JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft is expected to land on the lunar surface in early 2024.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 21, 2023

One small step for a JAXA spacecraft, one giant leap for exploration

In 2024, we can look forward to the arrival on the moon of JAXA's SLIM spacecraft. Its groundbreaking accuracy could further propel space exploration.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group CEO Hironori Kamezawa
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 22, 2023

Japan banks scramble to beef up asset management businesses

Asset management has emerged as an area of focus for the banks this year amid signs decades of deflation is ending.
A drugstore in Tokyo in October
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2023

Fund that got in before Buffett now likes Japan drugstores

A top fund manager says there’s opportunity to profit from consolidation in the sector.
Unlike his immediate predecessor, new Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi has chosen to speak in words of his own for some matters.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2023

Hayashi maneuvers through his new Cabinet position carefully

Hayashi has served in many Cabinet posts in the past, including defense minister, agriculture minister and education minister.
Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities hopes to record its highest-ever income from Japan in the current fiscal year, and work together with Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities to overtake Nomura Holdings as the top broker in the country.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 25, 2023

Morgan Stanley expects record Japan revenue as BOJ fuels trading

Shift in the nation's monetary policy could spur more client activity, says the CEO of Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities.
A woman holding an umbrella walks near a fluttering Taiwanese flag outside the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei in November.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Dec 25, 2023

What’s at stake in Taiwan’s January presidential election?

Depending on the outcome, the closely watched vote could have markedly different security and economic implications for the entire region.
While harsh comments from older generations can sometimes be seen as rude, consider instead that they’re often trying to teach us something they hold on to.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 26, 2023

A survival guide for your first Japanese-style at-home New Year’s

Meeting your partner’s Japanese family for the New Year’s holidays? Here are some do’s and don’ts for an ‘oshōgatsu’ success story.
An electronic board displays various companies' share prices at a business district in Tokyo in October.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2023

Japan’s labor demand holds steady in positive sign for wages

The job-to-applicants ratio eased a tad to 1.28, meaning there were 128 jobs offered for every 100 applicants, the labor ministry reported.
Business service prices for hotels rose 51.8% in November compared with the previous year, on the back of a surge in inbound tourism following the lifting of pandemic controls and domestic demand for travel.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2023

Japan's service price growth holds steady, maintaining 30-year high

Prices for services rising at the fastest pace since April 1992 will likely fuel speculation that the Bank of Japan may normalize policy in coming months.
The Tokio Marine & Nichido Building in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 26, 2023

Japan penalizes biggest property insurers for price fixing

The Financial Services Agency has issued business improvement orders on the core units of Tokio Marine, MS&AD Insurance and Sompo.

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