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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2020

Micro but mighty: Semiconductors remain the key to technology leadership

The U.S. needs a more expansive strategy to maintain its lead in this field, and that means working closely with its allies, especially Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 10, 2018

Australian competition watchdog calls for a new regulatory body to tackle dominance of Google and Facebook

Australia's competition watchdog Monday recommended tougher scrutiny and a new regulatory body to check the dominance of tech giants Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google in the country's online advertising and news markets.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Jul 19, 2018

Google shrugs off EU fine; damage to hinge on rivals' next moves

The European Union's record $5 billion fine against Google, levied Wednesday morning, marks the biggest regulatory attack yet on technology giants. But investors and analysts largely shrugged off the ruling's potential to immediately dent Google's business.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 27, 2018

Minpaku law could leave tourists to Japan without beds

Onerous licensing process for private lodging won't stop bad operators, but it will put off honest would-be entrepreneurs.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 26, 2018

Time for the BOJ to reconsider the 2 percent inflation target

The Bank of Japan's ambitious inflation target increasingly appears unachievable.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Food Sustainability in Japan
May 26, 2018

Calling on chefs to lead the charge against overfishing

Chefs for the Blue and its partners, NGO Sailors for the Sea Japan and consulting firm Seafood Legacy, are part of a small but growing movement to promote sustainable seafood in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 26, 2018

After Facebook lobbying failed, Google takes aim at U.S. law banning use of biometric data without consent

Alphabet Inc. is pushing efforts to roll back the most comprehensive biometric privacy law in the U.S., even as the company and its peers face heightened scrutiny after the unauthorized sharing of data at Facebook Inc.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2018

Cryptocurrency advertising goes big in Japan, but the pushback has begun

If a massive billboard by Shibuya crossing is a barometer of trends in Japan, then the latest ad for the cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin, featuring a Japanese celebrity coated in gold, may be a sign of how cryptocurrencies have taken center stage in both the advertising media and the broader national...
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2017

Quotas for Pacific bluefin tuna

Japanese consumers, fishermen and the government must make greater efforts to rebuild the dwindling stock of Pacific bluefin tuna.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 6, 2017

Experts say key criteria aligning in Japan's long battle to escape deflation

Japan's economy is running the hottest relative to capacity since the global financial crisis. More than four years after the Bank of Japan launched its radical monetary easing, key conditions are aligning in its long battle to truly escape from deflation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 10, 2017

Remote control: Companies blur lines over who owns devices

When Samsung Electronics remotely disabled the last of its flawed Galaxy Note 7 smartphones last month, it further blurred the lines between who ultimately controls your phone, computer, car or appliance — you, or the companies that make it work?
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 28, 2016

CPI logs seventh consecutive drop in September as weak spending clouds BOJ inflation outlook

Core consumer prices fell for the seventh month straight and household spending slumped in September, endorsing the Bank of Japan's view it will take more time for inflation to accelerate to its 2 percent target as the economy stagnates.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 3, 2016

Central banks' failed policies

Instead of being our saviors, central bankers have destroyed wealth, created instability and set conditions for the next big economic crisis.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2016

Will Kuroda's gamble work?

The latest BOJ step appears to point to the limits of what the central bank alone can do to achieve its goal of ending deflation.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 21, 2014

Any publicity is good news for beer firms

At a Tokyo news conference on June 4, Sapporo Beer President Masaki Oga announced his company would halt sales of its Goku Zero alcoholic beverage after current inventory was shipped. The parent company, Sapporo Holdings, had been contacted by the National Tax Agency in January regarding the manufacturing...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2014

How Americans learned to love deleveraging

Now that the ugly process of America's deleveraging seems mostly done, more money can flow into old-fashioned consumer and business spending. The bad news is that this improvement is not assured.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 17, 2013

Japanese might just miss deflation when it's gone

As BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda tries to spur Japan's inflation rate, he faces a graying public that has learned not only to live with deflation but also to enjoy it.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2011

20-year slump spawns anticonsumption generation

Buying a car is idiotic. It's better instead to have ¥10 million in the bank.
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2009

No letup on stimulus policies

The Group of 20 leaders from developed and emerging economies held their third summit in Pittsburgh, Pa., last week, about a year since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. set off the current worldwide financial crisis. While there are signs of economic recovery, the leaders agreed to maintain...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 12, 2008

Coach builds brand of affordable luxury goods

Twenty years ago, at the height of the bubble economy, Coach Inc. started out small in Japan, selling its products at the Mitsukoshi department store in Yokohama.
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 2007

The Fed wastes no time

Financial markets rejoiced this week after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a half percentage point to calm market turbulence and boost a shaky U.S. economy. The move is the first real test of new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who took over from Mr. Alan Greenspan in February 2006.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 2005

The reign of Vivienne

From being prosecuted under Britain's obscenity laws for her risque punk fashions to twirling pantyless after receiving an honor from the Queen whose image she once defaced with safety pins, Vivienne Westwood has always had a habit of causing controversy.
JAPAN
May 26, 2004

Cosmo Oil tried to punish whistle-blower

Cosmo Oil Co. tried to punish an employee who in late April blew the whistle in connection with a leak of personal customer data, sources said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 12, 2003

Slash taxes and spending, not interest rates

UBUD, Indonesia -- Alan Greenspan denounced the recent round of tax-cut proposals by the Bush administration. As governor of the world's most important central bank, his words carry a considerable amount of gravitas.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Nicos failed to sever 'sokaiya' ties

Nippon Shinpan Co., mired in allegations that its executives paid off a racketeer to expedite proceedings at the firm's general shareholders' meetings, had failed to sever ties with a number of racketeers in the late 1980s, a former company executive said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2002

Building corporate integrity

A spate of corporate scandals have rocked Japan this year. Snow Brand Foods Co. and Nippon Ham Co. mislabeled beef, abusing the government's buyback program that was set up to bail out the beef industry following the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan. Trading giant Mitsui & Co. was implicated in a...
EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2002

The shrinking U.S. dollar

The U.S. dollar continues to slide on international currency markets. Actually, slide is too polite a word: "Nosedive" seems like a more apt description of the greenback's behavior in recent weeks. Some economists now worry that a "hard landing" -- a crash in the dollar's value -- is the chief threat...
Japan Times
JAPAN / LAST CALL FOR SAKE
Dec 12, 2001

Sake purists are feeling the pinch as recession reins in the big spenders

NIIGATA -- Motoaki Isono, the 73-year-old owner of a tavern called Suzuden in Tokyo's Minato Ward, said the name Niigata no longer works magic in alluring serious sake drinkers.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2001

The Bank of Japan's new policy is sound

On March 19, the Bank of Japan decided that it would focus more on money supply than on interest rates and that the new policy would be continued until it was confident that the consumer price index, which has been declining continuously for over two years, was rising.

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition