Tag - economy

 
Menu
Search
 
April 05, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

ECONOMY

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba greets voters in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, on Tuesday, as campaigning for the Oct. 27 Lower House election kicked off.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 17, 2024
Parties pledge household support without debates on funding
Almost all the parties made pledges to raise the minimum wage.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 16, 2024
Bank of Japan policymaker calls for 'very moderate' pace of rate hikes
There are doubts about whether Japanese firms will keep sufficiently raising wages next year due to lingering global risks.
Tokyo Metro priced its shares at ¥1,200 apiece. It is expected to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 23.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 15, 2024
Tokyo Metro raises $2.3 bln in Japan's biggest IPO in 6 years
The subway operator priced its shares at the top of its provisional range of ¥1,100 to ¥1,200, a regulatory filing from the company showed on Tuesday.
The prospect of the yen's further depreciation is prompting strategists to warn of increased intervention risk near the ¥150 level, or the 200-day moving average of ¥151.25.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 15, 2024
Intervention back on investors’ radars as yen weakens against dollar
The yen had its worst loss against the dollar since 2009 in the five days through Oct. 4.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during a debate session with other political party leaders at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Saturday
BUSINESS
Oct 15, 2024
Japan’s sales tax likely to remain 10% as big parties avoid third rail
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba aims to fund social security programs without changing the current tax rate of 10%.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange's push to get companies to outline capital allocation plans has spurred investors to question management teams seen falling short, said Georgeson CEO Cas Sydorowitz.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 15, 2024
Japanese company shareholders increasingly challenge management
Shareholder resistance is now routinely a feature of Japan's annual general meeting season.
With projections indicating a population drop in Japan from around 125 million to 63 million by 2100, traditional solutions like immigration and labor reforms are unlikely to be effective in time.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 15, 2024
Japan should master, not resist, its demographic destiny
Japan needs a strategic reorientation toward accepting and mastering its demographic changes rather than resisting them.
Starting on Nov. 5, the Tokyo Stock Exchange will extend its stock trading hours by 30 minutes to 3:30 p.m.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 13, 2024
200 listed firms in Japan to postpone earnings disclosure
The delay in disclosure signals that companies make light of investors and increases the risk of insider trading, critics said.
Chinese Finance Minister Lan Foan. For investors who were hoping to hear authorities spell out exactly how much the government will spend to revive the ailing economy, Saturday's news conference was disappointing.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Oct 12, 2024
China's stimulus message leaves investors wanting though hanging onto hope
Saturday's news conference reiterated Beijing's broad plans to revive the ailing economy, leaving investors disappointed at the lack of detail.
Yoshihiko Noda, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, speaks during a party leaders' debate at the Upper House of parliament in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 11, 2024
Opposition party shakes up Japan’s rate debate with new inflation target
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan calls for redefining the Bank of Japan’s inflation target to “above 0%” from the current 2%.
The Bank of Japan's surprise rate increase on July 31 led to Japanese stocks plummeting into bear-market territory, with the benchmark 225-issue Nikkei average falling 12.4% on Aug. 5 alone.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 11, 2024
Bank of Japan vows better messaging to avoid more market turmoil
There is "strong will" within the central bank to learn from what had happened during its last rate increase, BOJ Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is the largest foreign issuer of yen bonds this year, raising a record ¥545.1 billion.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 10, 2024
Berkshire issues bonds worth ¥282 billion, sparking Japan investment hopes
The seven-part bond deal is Berkshire’s biggest yen-denominated deal since 2019, and makes it the largest foreign issuer of yen bonds this year.
The U.S. Federal Reserve's cutting of the federal funds rate from 5.3% to a range of 4.75-5%, its first monetary-easing cycle in over four years, has provided China with greater flexibility to stimulate its struggling economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2024
What U.S. interest-rate cuts mean for China
The Fed's easing cycle means lower debt burdens and higher liquidity, allowing countries to cut rates without fearing excessive capital outflows.
The corporate goods price index (CGPI), which measures the price companies charge each other for their goods and services, rose 2.8% in September from a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 10, 2024
Japan's wholesale inflation perks up, while yen rise eases cost pressure
The decline in import costs will likely shift the BOJ's attention to whether a more demand-driven rise in inflation takes hold in the country.
New economic revitalization Minister Ryosei Akazawa speaks during an interview on Tuesday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 10, 2024
Japan is aiming for a growth-oriented economy, new minister says
The new minister also underlined his resolve to attain the government's target of raising the weighted average of minimum wages in the 2020s.
Eiji Maeda, former executive of the Bank of Japan
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 9, 2024
BOJ’s next hike likely to come in January, former official says
The central bank will be watching the U.S. presidential election, the trend in service prices this autumn and momentum ahead of next year’s annual wage talks.
Japan's real wages fell in August year-on-year after turning positive for the previous two months for the first time in more than two years.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 8, 2024
Real wages in Japan drop in August after two months of gains
Analysts say that real-wage growth could turn positive again in September, in part due to the reintroduction of electricity bill subsidies.
Japan saw the highest number of bankruptcies since 2013 in the six months through September.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 8, 2024
Japan records highest number of bankruptcies in a decade as costs rise
The bankruptcies partly reflect the impact of higher prices, while a record 163 firms cited labor shortages as a reason for their struggles.
The Bank of Japan raised it economic assessments for the Hokuriku and Tokai regions in its quarterly regional report Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 8, 2024
BOJ signals it remains on rate hike path with regional report
The Bank of Japan indicated it remains on track to consider more interest rate hikes by upgrading its assessments for two regional economies.
Japan's has experienced a significant decline in global economic power, with its share of global gross domestic product dropping from 18% in the 1980s to an anticipated 3% by 2050.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 8, 2024
Japan needs more than mere economic strength
Japan, a country that has long relied on its economic prowess for international stature and standing, must change its perspective.
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
3D printer used to construct train station building in Japan
A train station building (front) is assembled from parts printed using 3D printer technology, in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture, on Wednesday.
Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
Japan promises 'bold and speedy' response to Trump’s surprise 24% tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump unveils new U.S. tariffs at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
Tokyo’s KK Line to close for decadelong overhaul as public greenway
People enjoy running and yoga on Tokyo Expressway’s KK Line, a 2-kilometer elevated expressway cutting through the capital’s commercial Ginza district, when it was opened as a pedestrian space in May last year.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)
BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER