Tag - economy

 
 

ECONOMY

Japan's industrial production rose 3.8% in March from February, as demand picked up after two straight months of declines.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2024
Japan’s factory output records weakest quarter since pandemic
The yen’s plunge to a fresh 34-year low versus the dollar could spur a resurgence of cost-push inflation via higher costs for imports of food and energy.
Krishna Srinivasan, director of Asia and Pacific at the International Monetary Fund, wrote in a blog post that global disinflation and the prospect of lower central bank interest rates had made a soft landing more likely.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2024
IMF boosts Asia growth forecast this year on China and India prospects
It expects Asia to grow 4.5% from the prior year — 0.3 percentage points higher than its previous forecast but still slower than last year’s 5% pace.
Japan's government debt has grown to the equivalent of more than 250% of the nation’s economy, more than any of its peers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 30, 2024
Japan’s debt dilemma may doom any FX intervention, Brooks says
The consequences have been a sharply weaker yen, which has lost more than a quarter of its value against the U.S. dollar since March 2022.
TikTok raised eyebrows last month when it mobilized users to petition against a potential ban, demonstrating its influence on Americans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 30, 2024
TikTok and Tesla just the start of U.S.-China clash over Big Data
Data security is again taking center stage in the intensifying rivalry between the U.S. and China.
Customers look at chocolate bars at Cacao Store, a specialist chocolate store, in Tokyo. Japan is a large market for high-value confectionery and it sources about 75% of its cocoa imports from Ghana.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024
Chocoholics in Japan set for sticker shock after cocoa price surge
Crop declines in top suppliers Ivory Coast and Ghana leave buyers struggling for beans and prices more than doubling since the start of the year.
Japan's vice minister of finance for international affairs, Masato Kanda, poses for a photograph during an interview at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo in January 2022.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024
Japan forex authorities ready '24 hours,' top currency diplomat Kanda says
Masato Kanda again declined to comment on whether the Finance Ministry had intervened to prop up the yen a day earlier.
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 29, 2024
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
Japan's top currency official declined to comment on Monday, when asked if authorities in Tokyo had intervened in the currency market to prop up the yen.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump announces Jerome Powell as his nominee to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington in November 2017.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 29, 2024
Trump’s economic confidants battle for sway on taxes and Fed policy
For months, the Trump campaign has been trying to rein in proposals from various factions with limited success.
The skyline of central Mumbai's financial district
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2024
India seen overtaking Japan in nominal GDP in 2025
Japan's economy is expected to fall to the fifth largest in the world. In February, GDP data showed that Japan was overtaken by Germany in 2023.
The combined market capitalization of shares listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Prime section stood at roughly ¥970 trillion at the end of last month.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2024
TSE Prime's market cap nears ¥1 quadrillion two years after shake-up
The total market capitalization of the new top tier has grown some 40% while the number of companies fell 10%.
Sakiyama elementary school in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, in March .Over the past decade, the government has directed efforts toward policies designed to give young people incentives to base themselves in rural areas.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Apr 27, 2024
In Japan, regional revitalization fails to halt population decline
Efforts to revitalize rural areas through various incentives has yielded limited results as people continue to gravitate toward urban centers.
A monitor shows the yen's sharp decline to  ¥158 to the dollar on Saturday morning in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 27, 2024
Yen drops beyond ¥157 per dollar as BOJ keeps key rate unchanged
Japan’s currency weakened as much as 1.4% on the day and touched a session low of ¥157.79 per dollar in afternoon trading in New York.
The Anegasaki gas-fired power station in Chiba Prefecture
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2024
Rapidly weakening yen threatens higher power bills
Pricier power illustrates the far-reaching impact of the yen’s decline.
A woman walks past the Bank of Japan headquarters in central Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2024
BOJ leaves policy unchanged despite yen’s continued weakness
Investors and market observers had been watching for whether the bank would send more hawkish signals to prop up the Japanese currency.
Core inflation in Japan's capital slowed much more than expected in April, falling below the central bank's 2% target.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 26, 2024
Tokyo inflation slows sharply as education subsidy cuts outlays
A plunge in costs for public and private high schools shaved around half a percentage point from the overall figure, the internal affairs ministry said.
More investors are calling on Japanese firms to abolish cross-shareholdings, a practice that has been criticized as undermining discipline in corporate governance and leading to anti-competitive behavior.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2024
Investor group calls for zero cross-shareholdings at Japanese firms
"Strategic shareholdings," where companies hold stocks in businesses they have ties with, have decreased slightly, but progress is slow.
Japan's stock market attention is shifting to whether domestic market-oriented firms can bring some bullishness back to the market.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 25, 2024
Revival in Japanese stock market hinges on domestic demand taking hold
Attention has shifted to whether domestic market-oriented laggards may be able to bring some bullishness back to the market.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2024
South Korea’s economic growth beats forecast as exports rise
South Korea's gross domestic product advanced 1.3% in the three months through March, easily outpacing economists’ consensus for a 0.6% expansion.
The rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar is displayed in the trading room at foreign exchange brokerage Gaitame.com in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 25, 2024
Yen inches closer to intervention point as BOJ meeting starts
For the first time in over 30 years, the yen weakened beyond ¥155 per dollar, sending traders on the alert for possible intervention.
The yen’s slide has pushed up import bills in Japan, keeping domestic consumer spending tepid, with analysts saying any gains in real wages may evaporate if the yen depreciates further.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 24, 2024
Investors loved weak yen boosting shares until it went too far
Concern is growing that the currency is becoming a liability for Japan’s economy and stocks.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?