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April 09, 2025
 

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JAPANESE ECONOMY

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.
Former Bank of Japan board member Makoto Sakurai sees the likelihood of a hike in March as high as 70%, as the central bank may be better off waiting out at least the first couple of months of the new administration of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 9, 2025
Former BOJ board member sees rising chance of March rate hike
Makoto Sakurai says the central bank may wait out at least the first couple of months of the new administration of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.
Economy minister Yoji Muto during a meeting on Wednesday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 8, 2025
Economy minister calls for continued wage increases
"Now is the time to step on the accelerator on wages and investment in order to transition to a growth-oriented economy," said Yoji Muto.
Dai-ichi Life Insurance sold about ¥500 billion of Japanese government notes, mainly 20- to 40-year bonds, in the fiscal first half that ended in September.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 6, 2025
Dai-ichi Life takes ¥140 billion loss selling off long bonds
The insurer sold about ¥500 billion of Japanese government notes, mainly 20- to 40-year bonds, in the fiscal first half ended September.
Analysts believe the strength of the Japanese economy will help to push up domestic stocks, despite pressure from likely interest rate hikes from the Bank of Japan and uncertainty caused by Donald Trump’s presidency in the U.S.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 6, 2025
Japan stocks look set for new highs in 2025 on earnings and reforms
Analysts see better corporate earnings as the country transitions to a growth economy from a deflationary one.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Japan and U.S. appoint tariff negotiators after Ishiba-Trump phone call
Economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa enters the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Yamaguchi-gumi pledges end to yakuza war
Yamaguchi-gumi executives (center and right) leave the Hyogo Prefectural Police headquarters in Kobe after submitting a pledge to end turf battles on Monday.
Japan responds to Trump's tariffs with a polite phone call and request
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Feb. 7.
Japan to avoid direct confrontation with the U.S. over Trump tariffs
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Japan does not intend to seek direct confrontation with the U.S. over the newly levied tariffs, during a parliamentary committee session in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan gets a new U.S. ambassador — and he has his work cut out for him
George Glass, U.S. President Donald Trump's pick to be ambassador to Japan, attends a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing in Washington on March 13.
Online art scene eager to go offline, at least for the moment
Digital artist Polygon1993 revels in the physicality of nostalgic technology, making art out of materials such as miniature CDs, holographic prints layered with plexiglass shards and a giant custom-made floppy disk.
Tottori takes a bold leap forward in the arts
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture celebrated the opening of its public art museum with festivities such as a parade that drew 1,000 revelers.
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
By Alex K.T. Martin

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