The economy grew an annualized 4.8 percent in the July-September period, marking the second straight quarter of growth amid stronger consumption and exports, the government said Monday. It was the best performance since 5.7 percent growth was logged in January-March 2007. Private consumption rose ...

Shifting away from the long-held practice of bureaucrats examining budget requests, the Government Revitalization Unit led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday took over the task and began looking for ways to pare ministries’ funding demands for fiscal 2010. Amid a sharp fall ...

The Bank of Japan said Friday it will terminate some of the emergency financing measures it initiated after a global credit crunch took hold in late 2008 because the environment for corporate funding has since improved. The central bank said it will halt outright ...

The banking industry breathed a sigh of relief Friday as the Cabinet sent the Diet a bill that merely “encourages” lenders to freeze debt repayments for small businesses and home owners until March 2011. Financial institutions should make every effort to modify their lending ...

The Government Revitalization Unit, a policy body aimed at slashing wasteful spending, kicked off Thursday tasked with scrutinizing — in open public view — budgetary requests from ministries for fiscal 2010. Amid a sharp fall in tax revenues and the possible expansion of the ...

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday kept its key interest rate at 0.1 percent as expected but refrained from ending corporate support measures because of the high downside risks to the economy. But the BOJ also upgraded its assessment of the economy, noting that ...

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government launched a new tax reform panel Thursday that it said will increase transparency in granting tax breaks to various companies. The panel, headed by Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii and consisting solely of ruling bloc lawmakers, will serve as ...