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January 21, 2025
 

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JAPANESE ECONOMY

Economists, legal experts and business leaders concur that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to implement fresh tariffs — whether directly aimed at Japan or not — could hurt the country's export-reliant machinery and automobiles industries while shattering the global economy.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Jan 20, 2025
Japanese firms weigh fallout from Trump tariff pledges
Additional tariffs — whether directly aimed at Japan or not — could hurt its export-reliant machinery and automobiles industries while shattering the global economy.
Core machinery orders, excluding orders for ships and power equipment, totaled ¥899.6 billion ($5.77 billion) in November, the Cabinet Office said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 20, 2025
Japan's core machinery orders up 3.4% in November
Orders totaled ¥899.6 billion ($5.77 billion), the Cabinet Office said, marking a second consecutive month of growth.
World Bank Deputy Chief Economist Ayhan Kose says there is room for the Bank of Japan to raise interest rates.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 19, 2025
Japan likely to see 'healthy growth' through 2026: World Bank exec
In its economic forecast released Thursday, the World Bank predicted Japan's gross domestic product will grow a real 1.2% in 2025 and 0.9% in 2026.
Customers carry shopping bags outside a supermarket in Tokyo. A new survey has found that more people are feeling the pinch from higher prices compared with a year ago.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 18, 2025
Over 95% in Japan feel impact of higher prices: BOJ survey
The survey also showed that 85.7% of respondents think prices will rise over the next year, up from 85.6%.
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas (left), chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, speaks with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell prior to the start of the International Monetary and Financial Committee plenary session at the IMF and World Bank's 2024 annual spring meetings in Washington last April.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 18, 2025
IMF keeps Japan's 2025 growth outlook intact
The IMF left its outlook for Japan for 2025 and 2026 unchanged from its previous October projection at 1.1% and 0.8%, respectively.
The average figure of winter bonuses agreed on by labor unions and employers stood 4.93% higher than a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 17, 2025
Major Japanese firms pay record winter bonuses
The average went up year on year in 18 of 21 industry sectors.
Japan’s primary balance is once again set to miss its long-standing target of achieving a balanced budget by the year ending March 2026.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2025
Japan now expects to miss its 2025 primary balance goal
The primary balance, which excludes interest payments on public debt, is projected to remain in the red with a deficit of around ¥4.5 trillion.
Many of the economists noted the interest rate hike is likely unless Donald Trump jolts global financial markets, after he returns to the White House four days before the Bank of Japan’s policy decision.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 17, 2025
More than 70% of BOJ watchers expect a rate hike next week
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda reinforced his deputy’s message this week that his board will consider a rate hike at the meeting, boosting the yen and expectations for action.
The producer price index in 2024 rose 2.3% from the previous year to 122.6, against 100 for the base year of 2020, a Bank of Japan report showed Thursday. The index was up for the fourth year in a row.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 16, 2025
Japan's producer price index hit record high in 2024
The producer price index, which measures the costs of goods traded between companies, rose 2.3% from the previous year to 122.6.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 15, 2025
BOJ’s Ueda joins deputy chief in flagging chance of January hike
Following Ueda’s remarks, the yen strengthened as much as 0.4% to ¥157.34 against the dollar.
Tourists take photos at Sensoji temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2025
Japan saw a record 37 million visitors from abroad in 2024
The full-year number in 2024 represents a 47.1% year-to-year increase and was up 15.6% compared with 2019.
The number of corporate bankruptcies with liabilities of ¥10 million or more in Japan last year marked the third consecutive year of increases as rising prices due to the yen's weakening and labor shortages caused business failures in a wide range of industries.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 14, 2025
Japan business failures top 10,000 in 2024, worst in 11 years
The annual figure marked the third consecutive year of increases as rising prices due to the yen's weakening and labor shortages caused business failures.
Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino has said that the central bank will raise rates if its outlook continues to be realized.
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2025
BOJ deputy chief signals chance of rate hike next week
Most BOJ watchers see an interest rate hike coming in either January or March.
The 40-year JGB yield rose as much as 3 basis points to 2.755%, the highest since 2007 when the bonds were sold for the first time.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 14, 2025
Japan’s 40-year yield rises to highest since debut in 2007
Japan’s 20-year yield also rose to its highest since May 2011 this morning after the nation’s markets reopened following a public holiday on Monday.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump meets with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Osaka in June 2019. Though Trump's first term in office was not as earth-shattering for Japanese companies as many feared, it would be a mistake to assume his second will be the same.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 13, 2025
Trump 2.0 presents new challenges for Japanese companies
Another challenge for Japanese firms will be that Trump, his Cabinet by and large and many key advisers are China hawks.
The record high reflected strong corporate demand for working capital amid rising raw materials prices and the yen's weakening, as well as brisk capital investment mainly by large companies.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 11, 2025
Japan bank lending hits record high at end of 2024
Outstanding bank lending in Japan stood at a record high of ¥605.8 trillion at the end of 2024, up 4.4% from a year before, according to industry data.
Consumer spending in Japan has been on a downtrend for months.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 10, 2025
Japan’s household spending falls, weighing on BOJ rate hike path
Outlays adjusted for inflation fell 0.4% in November from a year earlier, led by household durable goods and clothing.
A visitor holds a ¥1,000 banknote to offer a prayer on the first business day of the year at the Kanda Myojin shrine in Tokyo on Monday. The yen has declined against the dollar for four straight years amid a wide gap between interest rates in Japan and the United States.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 10, 2025
Yen intervention risk creeps higher as U.S. jobs report approaches
The yen is within reach of ¥160 per dollar, a breach of which would increase concern about the weak currency’s impact on business and consumers.
Prices continue to outpace wage increases in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 9, 2025
Real wages fall for a fourth month, squeezing Japanese households further
Inflation-adjusted real wages dropped 0.3% from a year earlier in November as some food prices and utility rates increased.
Firms in Japan are becoming more proactive to fend off global rivals and activist investors showing renewed interest in the country after decades of stagnant growth.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 9, 2025
Japan’s ¥36.4 trillion M&A boom expected to grow as activist investors circle
Firms are becoming more proactive to fend off global rivals and activist investors showing renewed interest in the country after decades of stagnant growth.
Chinese buyer of Okinawa island to make visit in summer
Yanaha Island in Okinawa Prefecture as seen from a ferry.
More bird flu cases found in Japan; 1.44 million birds to be culled
Officials with the agriculture ministry hold a news conference in Nagoya on Friday following an outbreak of avian influenza in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, earlier this month.
Fuji TV loses more advertisers amid inquiry into host’s behavior
Fuji TV is losing more advertisers following allegations about inappropriate behavior by a celebrity host and questions about its handling of the case.
As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
Top sumo pros to enter the ring in Paris in June 2026
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (right) alongside David Rothschild, the promoter of an upcoming tournament in Paris, on Sunday in Tokyo
As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
From Tokyo to Manhattan, Takuma Watanabe stirs up a stiff drink
It's taken Takuma Watanabe little time to establish himself as one of New York's hottest bartenders.
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.

Podcast

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

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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