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April 04, 2025
 

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ECONOMY

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.
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.
Speculative investors flipped to a net long position on the yen just before Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said the nation wasn’t ready for further interest rate hikes, data shows.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 8, 2024
Hedge funds warming to yen caught out by biggest drop in 15 years
Many bought the yen just before cautious comments by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on rate hikes and strong U.S. nonfarm payrolls data.
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.
While unlikely to revisit the record hit in July, the 225-issue Nikkei average may finish this year up 1.3% from its current level, according to a forecast by analysts.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 8, 2024
Solid earnings will spur hope Japan stocks hold onto 2024 gains
While unlikely to revisit the record hit in July, the 225-issue Nikkei average may finish this year up 1.3% from its current level, according to a forecast by analysts.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato attends an interview with media outlets at the Finance Ministry on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 7, 2024
Japan's new finance minister vows to finish the job as deflation czar
Katsunobu Kato's message indicates that financial conditions might remain accommodative for some time.
In recent years, less than 1% of overall U.S. job growth came from manufacturing. Meanwhile, 9 out of 10 new jobs came from the service sector — nearly half of them in education and health services.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2024
A lot of ‘unskilled’ workers actually aren’t
Often people have incredible skills; they just aren’t skills currently in high demand.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes his visiting French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in Washington in April 2018. European leaders, such as Macron, recognize the need to adapt to a new reality where globalization may no longer drive growth, especially if Trump wins the U.S. election.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2024
Trump-proofing Europe looks impossible
Global supply chain strengths turn into weaknesses in a fragmented world, with unreliable access to cheap energy, Chinese consumers and U.S. security.
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 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.
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).
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.
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.

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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