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December 23, 2024
 

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JAPANESE ECONOMY

Seiji Adachi, member of the policy board at the Bank of Japan
BUSINESS / Economy
May 29, 2024
BOJ policymaker hints of rate hike if yen fall has big impact on inflation
While short-term currency moves alone would not trigger a policy shift, the central bank could raise interest rates if excessive yen falls persist.
Foreign private credit funds are focusing on Japanese investors as they move more money into higher-paying assets.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 29, 2024
Private credit chases Japan’s trillions as inflation spurs shift
Private credit funds are betting that inflation will prompt investors to channel more money into riskier overseas investments.
With the recent focus on the yen and individual investing, the phrase "Mrs. Watanabe" — one of the most common pieces of jargon in Japanese financial circles — has seen a resurgence.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 29, 2024
My search for the original 'Mrs. Watanabe'
Yen retail traders are back in the spotlight. But where did the phrase for the archetypal Japanese housewife investor come from?
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks at the central bank's annual international conference in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2024
BOJ to 'proceed cautiously' with inflation-targeting frameworks
Gov. Kazuo Ueda said Japan has "made progress in moving away from zero and lifting inflation expectations."
Japan's top currency diplomat, Masato Kanda, poses for a photograph during an interview at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo in January 2022.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 25, 2024
Japan issues fresh warning on yen drops and signals readiness to intervene
The finance minister also said he was in frequent contact with overseas counterparts, particularly in the U.S., on issues including financial markets.
Japan's core inflation slowed for a second straight month in April due to milder food inflation.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 24, 2024
Japan’s inflation cools as BOJ waits for wage gains to kick in
Consumer prices excluding those for fresh food rose 2.2% year on year in April, matching analysts’ estimates and marking a 25th month of staying above the BOJ's 2% target.
As companies lose once-stable investors through the unwinding of cross-shareholdings, they are now hoping that rewarding long-term individual shareholders will help make them more resilient in possible proxy battles.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 24, 2024
Japanese firms woo individuals as cross-shareholdings shrink
In a bid to protect themselves from activist investors, firms are trying to build loyalty with long-term individual shareholders by doling out gifts.
Japan's real wages in fiscal 2023 were down for the second straight year, as steady wage growth failed to keep pace with inflation.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 23, 2024
Japan's fiscal 2023 real wages show sharpest drop in nine years
Real wages were down for the second straight year, as steady wage growth failed to keep pace with inflation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bankruptcies and suicides rise as Japanese struggle with mounting debt
Lawyers estimate that personal bankruptcies in Japan are on track to reach the highest since 2012 this year.
Honda and Nissan consider mutual production of vehicles, report says
Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe at the Japan Mobility Show 2023 at Tokyo Big Sight in October 2023.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
The mighty Mekong River's growing plastic problem
A group of elephant keepers in Chiang Saen, Thailand, remove plastic waste from the Ruak River, a tributary of the Mekong River, as a pair of Asian elephants bathe behind them.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.

Podcast

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

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

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