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April 02, 2025
 

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ECONOMY

A monitor in Tokyo shows the yen at the ¥155 level against the dollar on Monday, when it began rallying after a sharp decline in the previous week.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 7, 2025
Yen’s weekly surge underscores growing case for a hawkish BOJ
The Japanese currency has rallied more than 2% this week, heading for the biggest gain since late November.
While the ruling minority government’s weakened position has emboldened opposition parties to push for more spending across multiple policy fronts, the International Monetary Fund has warned there is limited space today in Japan to address the risks of natural disasters and mounting social security costs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 7, 2025
Japan needs immediate deficit cut to fix fiscal path, IMF warns
The government needs to prepare now to avoid negative surprises four or five years down the road, the IMF’s Japan mission chief says.
Japanese household consumption in December grew at the fastest pace since August 2022, but it is uncertain whether the gains are sustainable, given wage growth in the month was largely supported by the temporary effect of bonuses.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 7, 2025
Japan’s household spending jumps the most since 2022 as wages rise
Outlays adjusted for inflation gained 2.7% in December from a year earlier, according to internal affairs ministry data.
"The short-term interest rate should be at the 1% level by the second half of fiscal 2025,” up from the current 0.5%, the Bank of Japan’s most hawkish board member Naoki Tamura said Thursday in a speech to local business leaders in Nagano Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 6, 2025
BOJ’s Tamura says interest rate needs to rise to at least 1%
A speech by the board member is likely to further fuel market speculation that more rate hikes are in the pipeline.
A cargo ship full of shipping containers at the port of Oakland in Oakland, California, as trade tensions escalate over U.S. tariffs on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 6, 2025
Economists brace for Trump's new trade war to rekindle inflation worldwide
Stubborn growth in consumer prices was bothering much of the world even before U.S. President Donald Trump entered the White House.
Ditching the U.S.' normal trade relations designation for China could lead to an automatic jump in levies, at rates that could far exceed what Trump has so far slapped on China.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Feb 6, 2025
Trump's China focus increases odds of end to special trading status
The Permanent Normal Trade Relations designation was was extended to China in 2000.
Households continue to be squeezed as inflation outpaces pay increases.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
Real wages in Japan rise in December, but fall for third straight year
Inflation continued to outpace pay increases, which have been generous on a nominal basis in recent years.
U.S. President Donald Trump's imposed and since paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico, coupled with his broad levies on China — and possibly others soon — pose risks of economic retaliation, supply chain disruptions and long-term damage to U.S. influence.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025
The tariff man is making a risky bet
The optimal tariff argument ignores the substantial risks that Trump is taking. A generalized trade war will make everyone worse off.
China, under President Xi Jinping, is resisting Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, but may need to respond with major fiscal stimulus, currency devaluation or allowing TikTok’s sale to navigate economic challenges.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025
China’s Mr. Big Won’t Cave in to Trump for Nothing
Does Xi Jinping have a trade war game plan? He’ll need to make hard choices.
DeepSeek's impressive AI breakthroughs have sparked global attention but face mounting U.S. scrutiny, with potential bans unlikely to stop its open-source technology from spreading worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025
DeepSeek’s breakthroughs are too big for the U.S. to ban
The national security concerns behind the U.S. push to ban TikTok are even more pronounced when it comes to generative AI.
Based on his own assessment, Hideo Hayakawa, a former Bank of Japan executive director, says he sees the BOJ’s terminal rate in this cycle somewhere around 1.5%.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
BOJ’s rate likely to go higher than consensus, ex-official says
"My base view is that there is a lot more coming,” the former director said. "There is little logical reason to believe that rate hikes will stop early.”
China said on Tuesday it would impose tariffs on imports of U.S. energy, vehicles and equipment, firing a return salvo in an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
BUSINESS / Economy / EXPLAINER
Feb 4, 2025
Where things stand in China-U.S. trade tensions
China has made good on its threats to retaliate in the escalating trade war with the United States, imposing tariffs on American imports of energy, cars and machinery parts.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 4, 2025
Trump's tariff reversal shows how he's wielding bombast on trade
The U.S. leader has pledged to remake the global economy with tariffs. So far, it’s been more Art of the Deal than a revolution.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters Tuesday about the idea of revising the companies law to fully allow businesses to hold online-only shareholders' meetings.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2025
Japan to allow firms to hold online-only shareholder meetings
Online-only shareholders' meetings are currently permitted only in exceptional cases under the industrial competitiveness enhancement law.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a committee meeting in parliament on Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2025
Ishiba seeks quick action in bid to fight inflation
The prime minister's plan comes as households face soaring rice and vegetable prices.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 3, 2025
BOJ discussed worries about price upward deviation in January
One member referred to "a growing possibility that underlying CPI (consumer price index) inflation will rise steadily toward achieving the price stability target of 2%."
The 225-issue Nikkei stock average loses more than 1,000 points Monday ahead of steep U.S. tariffs taking effect on imports from Mexico and Canada.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 3, 2025
Nikkei sheds over 1,000 points as markets react to Trump's tariffs
The trend among investors in Tokyo is to lower risks by reducing their holdings and selling futures for now, a Japanese brokerage house official said.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato holds a virtual meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025
Japan to closely monitor impact on yen of Trump tariffs, Kato says
Kato spoke as the world braces for first salvo in Trump's tariff war, with general levies of 25% on Canada and Mexico and 10% on China.
Communist Party supporters take part in a rally next to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in July 2022. Economic reforms pushed by the U.S. in 1990s on Russia caused hardship and extremism, fueling Vladimir Putin's rise.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025
A secret cable and a clue to where America-Russia relations went wrong
Putin is the main culprit for Russia’s return to authoritarianism, aggression and hostility to the West. But American arrogance and presumptions cannot be dismissed.
Tourists at a viewpoint near the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 1, 2025
Here’s the few foreign markets set to win on Trump’s return
As some countries are rattled by tariff fears, assets of nations seen as benefiting from close ties with the U.S. leader are getting an extra lift
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
Japan, South Korea and China vow to strengthen trade ties amid looming U.S. tariffs
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto (left), South Korean Trade Industry and Energy Minister Ahn Duk-geun (center) and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao during a trilateral meeting in Seoul on Sunday
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.
Nankai Trough earthquake could kill 298,000 people, government says
Residents participate in an evacuation drill held with West Japan Railway in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, in January 2024 to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake and a possible tsunami following the quake.
Osaka Expo's Japan Pavilion completed
A ceremony is held to mark the completion of the Japan Pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka on Saturday.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.
No longer a 'bridesmaid': Yuki Tsunoda prepares for the Red Bull pressure cooker
All eyes will be on Yuki Tsunoda as he makes his Red Bull debut at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.
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.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
Who among the opposition would join the ruling coalition?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Friday.

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

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