Tag - japanese

 
 

JAPANESE

The Bank of Japan, which owns more than half of the nation’s sovereign notes, is moving forward with its plan to trim its balance sheet and scale back bond purchases.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 27, 2025
Bank of Japan’s operations signal market is eager to sell bonds
Investor selloff of government bonds comes as the BOJ moves forward with its plan to trim its balance sheet and scale back bond purchases.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that an agreement between the U.S. and Japan will be made public soon.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2025
Agreement on Japan’s $550 billion investment pledge to be released this week
The U.S. commerce secretary continues to insist that the U.S. president will control the funds.
The Finance Ministry in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. The ministry plans to seek a record 32.4 trillion yen in debt-servicing costs in its budget request for fiscal 2026.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2025
Finance Ministry seeks record budget for debt financing
The ministry’s request would be the highest amount ever budgeted for debt-servicing costs, which already account for about a quarter of Japan’s national budget.
Nikkei and the Asahi Shimbun have sued Perplexity AI over alleged copyright infringement.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 26, 2025
Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun sue Perplexity AI over alleged copyright violations
The newspapers are seeking an injunction and ¥2.2 billion each in damages from Perplexity, they said in a joint statement. The suit was filed at the Tokyo District Court.
Senior police and prosecutor officials bow Monday in Yokohama before the grave of Shizuo Aishima, a former adviser to Ohkawara Kakohki, who died in detention while being wrongfully indicted.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 26, 2025
Authorities apologize to family of former Ohkawara Kakohki adviser
Shizuo Aishima was found to have stomach cancer during his detention and later died while being wrongfully indicted in a case involving the machinery-maker.
The Metropolitan Police Department has launched an investigation into the fatal shooting of two Japanese tourists in Manila this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 26, 2025
Tokyo police launch probe into murder of two Japanese tourists in Manila
Hideaki Satori and Akinobu Nakayama were shot shortly after getting out of a taxi near their hotel on Aug. 15.
A former MUFG Bank employee said in a court hearing that she committed thefts to make up for losses she had suffered from foreign exchange margin trading and horse-race betting.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 26, 2025
Ex-MUFG Bank employee reveals ¥1.7 billion safe-deposit thefts
A former MUFG Bank employee said during a court hearing on Monday that she stole items worth ¥1.7 billion to ¥1.8 billion, including cash and gold, from around 100 people, in a high-profile safe-deposit theft case.
An employee at a wholesaler puts a price tag on a package of sea urchins from Hokkaido at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 26, 2025
Warming seas add to food inflation woes as urchin rice bowls hit ¥18,000
Policymakers have mostly blamed rising food prices on the weak yen's upward pressure on import costs, but the effects of global warming now also loom as a risk.
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 25, 2025
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
Many prefectures are choosing increases higher than the 6% suggested by the ministry.
Summers in Japan have grown hotter and hotter, and people have had to spend more money as a result.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 25, 2025
Tokyo household budgets further squeezed by heat wave
On average, monthly expenses are up more than $23 a month as a result of high temperatures.
A London-based design pair has turned handhold straps on the Den-en-toshi Line into stylish table lamps.
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 25, 2025
Retired Tokyo trains live on as upcycled table lamps
Former railcars on the Den-en-toshi Line have been refashioned into table lamps available for purchase from Aug. 25.
Masashi Tanimoto arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of a woman in Kobe, is sent to prosecutors on Sunday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 24, 2025
Man arrested in Kobe stabbing had been staying at hotel near victim’s home
The suspect, a resident of Tokyo, is believed to have followed the woman home from a nearby train station.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda (second from left) walks with Fed Chair Jerome Powell (left), European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde (second from right) and Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey outside the Fed’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium on Friday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 24, 2025
BOJ's Ueda expects tight labor market to keep upward pressure on wages
The remarks are likely to support growing speculation of another interest rate hike this year, although the BOJ governor didn’t directly discuss monetary policy in a presentation.
Shinji Mizutani opened Tanikoretani in August 2024, after converting a dilapidated shophouse in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa into a retro-look "izakaya" tavern.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 24, 2025
Behind Tanikoretani’s quiet facade, a lively world of sake-fueled food
A chance encounter with a two-story rental space led Shinji Mizutani to set up a vibrant tavern in Tokyo’s Kiyosumi-Shirakawa neighborhood.
Masashi Tanimoto, 35, the suspect in the deadly stabbing a 24-year-old woman, is taken into custody in Kobe on Friday night.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 23, 2025
Man arrested over deadly stabbing of woman in Kobe
The victim was found bleeding from multiple stab wounds on the sixth-floor landing of an apartment building Wednesday.
Ann Burroughs, head of the Japanese American National Museum, called it "inconceivable" for the United States to be "building concentration camps, denying the lessons learned 80 years ago."
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2025
Japanese American museum blasts Trump's use of internment camp to detain people
The Trump administration set up an immigration detention center within the grounds of an army base that was used during World War II as an internment camp for Japanese Americans.
The Finance Ministry plans to set the provisional interest rate on government bonds at 2.6% for the next fiscal year, the highest level in 17 years, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 22, 2025
Japan eyes 2.6% provisional rate for government bonds in FY2026, Yomiuri says
The rate for interest payments on such bonds will be the highest in 17 years.
Police have issued a warning over the existence of online message boards promoting extreme sexual role play that are, in reality, serving as hubs for actual crimes involving sexual violence.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 22, 2025
Police warn of internet forums soliciting sexual violence
A woman was attacked in her apartment in Tokyo after an acquaintance of hers found a man via an internet board willing to commit sexual assault.
Consumer prices in Japan rose 3.1% from a year earlier in July, slowing from a 3.3% gain in the previous month but still suggesting that inflation remains relatively sticky.
BUSINESS / Economy
Aug 22, 2025
Japan’s inflation hovers well above BOJ’s goal even as it slows
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 3.1% from a year earlier in July, slowing from a 3.3% gain a month earlier.
A middle school student (Chiyuri Nishiguchi) tries to keep her family afloat following the sudden death of her mother in Yoshihiko Taniguchi’s “Happy Life.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2025
‘Happy Life’ brings dignity to family’s struggle with grief and poverty
Yoshihiko Taniguchi’s film balances realism and compassion in its depiction of a family adrift after a sudden death.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’