Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
William Pesek
For William Pesek's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Business Sep 29, 2013
Abe's overture to Wall Street lost in translation
Something was definitely lost in translation when Shinzo Abe spoke in New York on Thursday. First, Japan’s self-described reformist prime minister raised the specter of Gordon Gekko, the greed-is-good villain of Oliver Stone’s 1987 film “Wall Street.” Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange ...
Global-related Sep 27, 2013
New Zealand may have the fix for asset bubbles
As the world's biggest economies search for ways to let the air out of giant asset bubbles, they might find a fix that discourages leverage in tiny New Zealand.
Japan-related Sep 17, 2013
Japanese might just miss deflation when it's gone
As BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda tries to spur Japan's inflation rate, he faces a graying public that has learned not only to live with deflation but also to enjoy it.
Global-related Sep 15, 2013
China's Net crackdown shows fear trumps reform
China's new government is threatening jail terms for Web comments deemed defamatory. But by Beijing's definition, "defamation" could mean anything that any politically connected person doesn't want to see made public.
Global-related Sep 3, 2013
Sexism, Jagger, Seinfeld color Oz election farce
Australia's current election campaign is proof that former Prime Minister Julia Gillard wasn't dispatched for her performance.
Global-related Aug 28, 2013
Asia's real problem is boosterism, not Fed policy
Asia has come a long way since 1997. But rapid growth and its unquestioned success in surviving the global meltdown has revived a hubris that policymakers need to own and analyze.
Business Aug 18, 2013
Japan's ¥1,000,000,000,000,000 debt no problem for BOJ chief Kuroda
Haruhiko Kuroda doesn’t wear a wizard’s hat when he arrives at Bank of Japan headquarters each morning. Once inside, I do wonder if he dons a cloak, waves a magic wand and concocts mysterious potions. Kuroda has done something truly supernatural in his five ...
Japan-related Aug 14, 2013
Fukushima replaces economy as Abe's legacy issue
orget the economy and attempts to rewrite the Constitution. History will judge Shinzo Abe on what he did, or didn't do, to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Japan-related Jul 28, 2013
Cheer over Reagan's arrival won't trickle down to most Japanese
The Ronald Reagan moment Japan investors have long fantasized about has finally arrived. Shinzo Abe’s plan to restore Japan’s economic might draws heavily upon principles long associated with the former U.S. president: welfare-spending cuts, debt-swelling tax reductions for the wealthy and corporations, deregulation, a ...
Global-related Jul 24, 2013
Too early to talk about 'Likonomics' in China
Premier Li Keqiang's plans to overhaul the Chinese economy have hardly earned such a grand moniker as "Likonomics" yet. Cutthroat politics lie ahead.
Japan-related Jul 17, 2013
Japan's voters set themselves up for a disappointing result
Japanese voters seem ready to hand Prime Minister Shinzo Abe one of the bigger blank checks in memory on Sunday, but what's most noticeable is their silence.
Global-related Jul 10, 2013
Koreans find breaking up with chaebol hard to do
Park Geun-hye has one five-year term to undo her father's legacy in South Korea. Thus far her efforts to build a more creative economy lack teeth as well as creativity.