Tag - japanese-economy

 
Menu
Search
 
December 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

JAPANESE ECONOMY

Core consumer prices in Japan's capital rose 1.8% in October from a year earlier, slipping below the central bank's 2% target for the first time in five months.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 25, 2024
Tokyo inflation slows below 2% ahead of election and BOJ meet
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 1.8% in the capital in October.
Leaders of the three major business groups — Keidanren, Keizai Doyukai and the Japan Chamber of Commerce — meet Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Oct. 4 in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 24, 2024
¥1,500 minimum wage or bust, Japanese companies told
Managers unable to keep up with the minimum-wage increase schedule “are unfit for their positions,” Keizai Doyukai Chair Takeshi Niinami has said.
Ramen shop Menya Taisei's owner Taisei Hikage cooks ramen at his shop in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 24, 2024
Japan's rising ramen prices give election voters food for thought
The problems facing ramen shop owners reflect a cost-of-living crunch that has become a top issue for voters in the general election on Sunday.
Most economists expect the Bank of Japan to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged during their policy meeting next week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 24, 2024
BOJ watchers believe rate hike unlikely now as half brace for year-end shift
Analysts will be closely watching for policy hints from a two-day meeting that ends on Oct. 31, a few days after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s first general election.
Japan's factory activity contracted in October on subdued demand and weak orders.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 24, 2024
Factory activity down for fourth straight month, private-sector survey shows
In the service sector, firms said economic weakness in Japan and overseas had prompted clients to hold back on new orders, the survey showed.
Senior IMF official Vitor Gaspar speaks during an interview in Washington last Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 24, 2024
IMF official warns Japan of debt deterioration in event of future shock
The IMF predicts that Japan's debt will exceed 250% of its gross domestic product this year before gradually decreasing.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 24, 2024
Ueda says right-sizing BOJ normalization ‘keeps me awake 24/7’
Ueda and his fellow board members are widely expected to keep their benchmark rate unchanged at the next policy meeting, ending Oct. 31.
High construction costs due to rising material and labor costs continue to push up sales prices of new condominiums.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 22, 2024
Tokyo-area condo price hits new high in first half of fiscal 2024
The average price in the area, which includes Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba, rose 1.5% from ¥78.36 million a year earlier.
Debt-laden companies in Japan are rapidly growing in number, in some measures even faster than in 1992 after the collapse of its asset price bubble.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 22, 2024
Zombie companies may finally succumb to bankruptcy on BOJ hikes
Bankruptcies topped 5,000 cases for the first time in a decade between April and September, a report by Tokyo Shoko Research showed earlier this month.
Japan's core inflation slowed in September due to the rollout of energy subsidies.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 18, 2024
Japan’s inflation slows for first time since April
The slowdown in price gains largely hangs on government subsidies.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda can point to Washington all he wants, but his inability to settle on a consistent message is part of what ails his nation's currency.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 18, 2024
The yen pays the price for a timid Bank of Japan
Ueda can point to Washington all he wants, but his inability to settle on a consistent message is part of what ails his nation's currency.
The Bank of Japan’s historic shift this year from radical monetary easing to two interest-rate hikes has sparked volatility in the nation’s securities market as investors speculate on the BOJ’s next move.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 17, 2024
Japan Post Insurance markets chief sees Nikkei setting new records after votes
The Nikkei's all-time high, set in July, will probably be "just a passing point,” said Kenichi Kuga, head of global equity and fixed income investment.
Rengo President Tomoko Yoshino
BUSINESS
Oct 17, 2024
Big wage increase sought by Japan’s largest union slightly underwhelms
For the 2025 spring wage negotiations, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation is aiming for a wage hike of "over 5%," the same goal as this year.
Exports declined 1.7% from a year ago, led by cars, mineral fuels and construction machinery and slipping to negative growth for the first time since November last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 17, 2024
Japan’s exports fall most since 2021 amid global slowdown
Exports declined 1.7% from a year ago, led by cars, mineral fuels and construction machinery.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba greets voters in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, on Tuesday, as campaigning for the Oct. 27 Lower House election kicked off.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 17, 2024
Parties pledge household support without debates on funding
Almost all the parties made pledges to raise the minimum wage.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 16, 2024
Bank of Japan policymaker calls for 'very moderate' pace of rate hikes
There are doubts about whether Japanese firms will keep sufficiently raising wages next year due to lingering global risks.
Tokyo Metro priced its shares at ¥1,200 apiece. It is expected to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Oct. 23.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 15, 2024
Tokyo Metro raises $2.3 bln in Japan's biggest IPO in 6 years
The subway operator priced its shares at the top of its provisional range of ¥1,100 to ¥1,200, a regulatory filing from the company showed on Tuesday.
The prospect of the yen's further depreciation is prompting strategists to warn of increased intervention risk near the ¥150 level, or the 200-day moving average of ¥151.25.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 15, 2024
Intervention back on investors’ radars as yen weakens against dollar
The yen had its worst loss against the dollar since 2009 in the five days through Oct. 4.
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%.
With projections indicating a population drop in Japan from around 125 million to 63 million by 2100, traditional solutions like immigration and labor reforms are unlikely to be effective in time.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 15, 2024
Japan should master, not resist, its demographic destiny
Japan needs a strategic reorientation toward accepting and mastering its demographic changes rather than resisting them.
Freed anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson arrives in France
U.S.-Canadian anti-whaling environmental activist Paul Watson, who was released from prison in Greenland's capital Nuuk after five months in detention, arrives with Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy-en-France, near Paris, on Friday.
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.
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.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER