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A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will. The action at the bureau in Minato Ward is being organized by the Asian People’s Friendship Society, ...
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Takashi Miike's blood-soaked vengeance tale, one of two Japanese films being shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, draws the biggest boos so far, with critics savaging it as overacted and cliched.
Have you ever given your best effort while striving to achieve something but felt like what you were doing was futile? That’s the feeling I’m getting about Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics. With just over three months to go until the IOC ...
For Mayumi Otsuma's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Taro Aso, son of a cement magnate and a champion of pork-barrel spending when prime minister, is Japan’s sixth finance chief in three years, auguring expanded fiscal stimulus in the world’s third-largest economy. Aso, 72, will also serve as deputy prime minister and financial ...
The Bank of Japan has failed to end more than a decade of deflation by being too cautious, according to Takatoshi Ito, a former Finance Ministry official who is a contender to become the central bank’s next governor. The BOJ Policy Board under Gov. ...
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s decision to call an election in December may inhibit the government’s ability to stimulate the economy even as it slides toward its third recession in four years. Compiling an extra budget soon will be “difficult” as lawmakers can’t debate spending ...
With his nation’s economy contracting under disaster damage of as much as ¥25 trillion ($310 billion), Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa is signaling that his biggest worry is inflation. At stake for the student of Milton Friedman is protecting the bank’s independence from ...
An escalation in Japan’s nuclear crisis has failed to dissuade analysts from forecasting an economic rebound starting next quarter, an outlook that hinges on a recovery in business and household confidence. Gross domestic product may shrink 3 percent in April-to-June, the most since the ...
The Bank of Japan may want to consider buying foreign currency assets to help ease the yen’s appreciation, economic and fiscal policy minister Banri Kaieda said. “Such purchases can be an option for the central bank over the medium to long term,” Kaieda said ...
Evidence in the Bank of Japan’s “tankan” survey that companies are growing more pessimistic may prompt the central bank to expand support as soon as next week for businesses grappling with the yen’s advance. The BOJ is likely to increase its ¥30 trillion credit ...
The Bank of Japan may seek next week to counter a contraction of its balance sheet caused by the monthend expiration of an emergency-credit program and persistent deflation. The BOJ’s options include expanding a ¥10 trillion fund providing loans to banks, according to two ...
Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa escalated pressure on Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to contain the world’s largest debt with a warning that investor “trust” won’t be assured in the aftermath of Greece’s budget woes. “It’s important to gain the trust of financial markets ...
The Bank of Japan will probably forecast that declines in consumer prices will extend into 2011 even as the economy recovers, sources said. The estimate would be included in policymakers’ first economic projections for the financial year ending in March 2012, scheduled for release ...
The Bank of Japan may need to expand its purchases of corporate debt to prevent a credit shortage from worsening the recession, BOJ Deputy Gov. Hirohide Yamaguchi said. “We can’t deny corporate financing will become even more difficult” toward the fiscal yearend on March ...
Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa may be forced to adopt more aggressive measures to ease the credit shortage bedeviling companies, economists say. The BOJ may have to augment last week’s decision to accept lower-grade corporate debt as collateral for loans to commercial banks ...