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August 15, 2024
 

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ECONOMY

Joe Biden’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and other imports are more than symbolic — they are a signal that the U.S. won’t accept a surge of imports that could undermine crucial parts of his administration’s agenda.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2024
The U.S. is preparing for a second 'China shock'
The immediate impact of these tariffs will be small, because the United States currently imports very few of the affected goods from China.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says his administration is committed to capital market reforms to attract more foreign investments.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 23, 2024
Kishida makes public push on capital market reforms
Kishida's appearance at a conference held by Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley was another example of Japan's effort to shed the image of being unwelcoming to foreign investors.
Service prices, a key component of Japan’s inflation data, may be sturdier than in the past.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 23, 2024
Steady and widening service price rises may spur BOJ’s next move
Service prices, a key component of Japan’s inflation data, may be sturdier than in the past.
Some strategists have predicted that Japan’s 10-year sovereign yield will rise to 2% by the end of 2026.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 22, 2024
Japan yields have room to rise after 1% reached on BOJ bets
The focus turns now to how quickly the supereasy monetary policy will be dialed back and how much further yields may rise.
Japan swung to a trade deficit of ¥462.5 billion in April due to higher crude oil prices and a weak yen.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 22, 2024
Japan trade deficit shows weak yen is weighing on economy
The trade balance in April registered a ¥462.5 billion deficit, flipping from a ¥387 billion surplus.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki (left) receives a draft proposal produced by the Fiscal System Council from Keidanren Chairman Masakazu Tokura in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2024
Japanese advisory panel calls for strengthening fiscal resilience
The Fiscal System Council warned that the country's finances will deteriorate further if debt servicing costs swell.
Nippon Steel's Kashima plant in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture. The average wage hike in the steel industry stood at 12.04% this year, far exceeding last year's 2.77%.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 21, 2024
Major Japanese companies agree to raise pay by 5.58%
The result far exceeded last year's rise of 3.91%, or ¥13,110, and topped 4% for the first time since 1992.
A Bank of Japan survey on firms nationwide showed that many of them do not expect to be able to hire enough workers if they keep wage growth low, and see an economy where wages and inflation rise in tandem as more favorable.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 20, 2024
Japan's manufacturers want BOJ to keep yen stable, survey shows
The survey on roughly 2,500 firms underscores the importance they place on yen moves in assessing the impact of monetary policy.
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda has talked about the potential need for a monetary policy response given foreign exchange rates’ impact on the economy. Last month, the yen touched its weakest level in 34 years, ¥160 per dollar, before rebounding.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 20, 2024
BOJ Gov. Ueda finally toughens message on the weak yen
Though most of the factors behind the flailing currency lie outside of Japan, the central bank and Finance Ministry have some agency in determining events. They should use it.
At the factory of 4R Energy Corp. in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, a lithium-ion electric vehicle battery is disassembled to be reused. Batteries and EVs are among the strategic industries governments around the world aim to support through their industrial policies.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
May 20, 2024
Grasping industrial policy in the age of economic security
A new era of industrial policies is structured around three P's: promoting strategic industries, protecting emerging technologies and partnering with like-minded countries.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Markets
May 20, 2024
Japan’s 10-year bond yield hits decade high amid BOJ policy bets
The yield on 10-year government debt rose to a level last seen when the then newly appointed Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda was starting his radical monetary easing.
Japan's digital trade deficit in 2023 was up about 2.6 times over nine years since 2014, as smartphones have become ubiquitous tools and the digital services sector is dominated by U.S. information technology giants.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 20, 2024
Japan's digital trade deficit continues to expand
The deficit in Japan's balance of payments in digital services continues to expand steadily.
A couple looks out onto the Fukuoka nightscape. Due to its distance from Tokyo and its close proximity to South Korea and China, professor Tomoya Mori believes that Fukuoka is one of the few metropolitan regions of Japan that will see some form of growth in the decades to come.
JAPAN / Society / Perspectives
May 20, 2024
Why half of Japan's cities are at risk of disappearing in 100 years
Professor Tomoya Mori believes depopulation will alter the urban landscape of Japan in an unexpected way.
Electronic boards display the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar and the closing numbers of Tokyo Stock Exchange share price in Tokyo on May 1.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
May 19, 2024
From Tokyo to New York, stock markets are on a record-hitting spree around the world
Of the world’s 20 largest stock markets, 14 have hit all-time highs recently.
U.S. President Joe Biden signs orders that increase tariffs on China during an event at the White House on Tuesday. The escalating trade tensions risk slowing the transition to green technologies by boosting production costs.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2024
Looming U.S.-China 'trade war' bodes ill for green tech
China has denounced the new U.S. tariffs as bullying and warned of potential retaliation, arguing that they could harm global green economic transition efforts.
The rate of the U.S. dollar against the yen is displayed on an electronic stock board outside a securities firm in Tokyo earlier this month.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 17, 2024
Majority of Japanese firms say weak yen hurts profits: survey
About half of surveyed companies said a yen trading around ¥110 to ¥120 to the dollar would be appropriate.
Toyota President Koji Sato announces the company's earnings results in Tokyo on May 8.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 17, 2024
Japan firms brace for earnings slumps after marking record profits
Companies are concerned over the weak yen, global conflict and inflation hitting personal spending.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
May 17, 2024
BOJ could raise rates as soon as June, ex-chief economist says
An increasing number of analysts have flagged the risk of a summer hike as the sinking yen raises the risks of the price trend moving higher.
Japan's gross domestic product shrank at an annualized pace of 2% in the three months through March.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 16, 2024
Japan’s economy contracts as consumers and firms cut spending
Gross domestic product contracted at an annualized pace of 2% in the three months through March.
The Japanese view of China is deteriorating, characterized by a fear of arbitrary detention and the belief the country, economically, is past its peak. The Chinese see Japan as declining and too reliant on the United States. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 15, 2024
Can Japan and China bridge their ever-widening ‘perception gap’?
Despite the fear, many of the worries Japanese have about visiting China are unfounded. Bridging the gap requires both nations to resume exchanges.
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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