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April 05, 2025
 

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ECONOMY

The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 11, 2024
BOJ signals before meeting leave traders guessing
The confusion has caused sharp swings in market bets on rate hikes, with overnight indexed swaps pricing in a 22% chance of a December rate increase.
The Bank of Japan's tankan quarterly survey for December is expected to show slightly weaker business sentiment among both major manufacturers and nonmanufacturers.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 11, 2024
BOJ quarterly survey likely to show weaker business sentiment in Japan
A slowdown in foreign economies, especially those of China and Europe, and the growing trend to spend less amid inflation, are seen weighing on sentiment.
Red flags fly at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on July 10.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2024
China begins annual economic meeting to hash out stimulus plan
The meeting will give investors their next glimpse into how China's policymakers plan to approach the coming year.
Inflation in Japan’s corporate goods prices accelerated to the fastest pace in 16 months, an outcome that points to growing inflationary pressure in the economy and supports the central bank’s further normalization of policy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 11, 2024
Japan's wholesale inflation accelerates, keeping BOJ rate-hike plan in focus
Agricultural and fishery goods prices spiked 31% in November from year-before levels, after a 28.1% gain in October, due largely to the soaring price of rice.
Keidanren chief Masakazu Tokura speaks to reporters in the city of Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture on Nov. 20.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 10, 2024
Keidanren urges tax hike for rich with eye on ¥1 quadrillion GDP
Such a move will help the nation achieve a “virtuous cycle of growth and distribution,” Keidanren chief Masakazu Tokura says.
Optiver starts providing liquidity on options of 12 Japanese companies and exchange-traded funds in September.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 10, 2024
Options giant Optiver bets Japan’s market is about to boom
The firm is betting that a push by the Tokyo bourse for better corporate governance will lead to more stocks trading and increased usage of derivatives.
Ryozo Himino, deputy governor of the Bank of Japan, is scheduled to give a speech on Jan. 14, a rare step for the bank before its policy meeting later in the same month.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 10, 2024
BOJ plans a rare January speech that may lift rate hike views
By scheduling the speech before the January meeting, the BOJ will have a solid opportunity to telegraph its thinking on monetary policy.
Japan's current account surplus declined 13% in October from a year earlier to ¥2.46 trillion.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 9, 2024
Japan's current account surplus declined 13% in October
The country's trade deficit decreased to ¥155.7 billion from the year-before level of ¥487.4 billion.
The number of bankruptcies in Japan is likely to exceed 10,000 for the first time since 2013.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 9, 2024
Japan's bankruptcies set to hit 11-year high in 2024, data shows
841 Japanese companies went bankrupt in November, bringing the January-November tally to 9,164, already exceeding last year's total.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers his policy speech at the Lower House on Nov. 29.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 9, 2024
Japan's government submits ¥13.9 trillion extra budget for fiscal 2024
The budget will finance a comprehensive economic package that includes measures to tackle inflation and aid for areas affected by natural disasters in the Noto Peninsula.
Japan's economy expanded in the July-September period at a faster pace than initially estimated, with consumer spending relatively solid for a second straight quarter, in a sign that underlying strength may be returning to the economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 9, 2024
Japan’s economy shows more resilience as BOJ considers hike timing
GDP grew at an annualized pace of 1.2% in the three months through September from the previous quarter.
Filipino housekeepers undergo training to work for a Japanese staffing company. By applying the same criteria when hiring overseas and local workers, Japanese firms tend to underutilize the unique skills that foreign nationals can bring.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 8, 2024
Firms should quit turning foreign workers into Japanese ones
Many foreign nationals struggle with the idiosyncrasies of Japan's employment system. Firms tend to assimilate overseas personnel rather than utilize their unique skills.
Yoshihiko Noda, the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2024
CDP leader calls for gradual BOJ rate hikes
Yoshihiko Noda urged the central bank to keep a close eye on economic and overseas developments when raising rates.
Masato Kanda, former vice finance minister for international affairs, will start his role as Asian Development Bank's president in February.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2024
Incoming ADB chief Kanda keeping eye on U.S. policy as Trump return looms
Any changes in tariffs, taxes and immigration restrictions in the U.S. could have a major impact on Japan and other Asian economies, he notes.
The Topix and the yen have been largely moving independently over the past two months, shifting away from Japanese stocks’ past tendency to rise on a weaker yen.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 6, 2024
Cheap yen boost for Japan’s stocks shrinks to nil on hawkish BOJ
The Topix and the yen have been largely moving independently over the past two months.
Consumer spending dropped 1.3% in October from a year earlier, data from the internal affairs ministry showed on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2024
Japan's soft consumer spending unlikely to deter BOJ from raising rates again
Economists attributed the underlying softness in consumption to rising prices and warm weather, which held consumers back from purchasing seasonal apparel.
Japan's base salaries grew at a 32-year-high pace in October, offering statistical support for the prospects of a central bank rate hike this month.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2024
Record base pay gains keep door open for BOJ hike
Base pay for full-time workers increased by 2.8% in October from a year ago, the biggest gain for comparable data back to 1994.
The headquarters of the Bank of Japan in Tokyo
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2024
BOJ rate hike bets retreat as traders count down to key meeting
The predictions hardly budged even after one of the policy board’s most dovish members said he isn’t opposed to higher rates.
Bank of Japan board member Toyoaki Nakamura's cautious stance on raising interest rates indicates that the idea of a December hike may not have unanimous support.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 5, 2024
BOJ’s leading dove calls for careful approach to tweaking easing
The board member's remarks indicate that the idea of hiking interest rates this month may not have unanimous support.
The United Nations once projected the world’s population would peak at 10.3 billion in the 2080s, but now expects 700 million fewer inhabitants by 2100.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2024
Why falling fertility is not a crisis
The current population decline mirrors past transitions like the industrial revolution, where smaller families fueled economic growth and innovation.
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.
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.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
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.
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.
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

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