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May 29, 2025
 

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Yoshiaki Nohara
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda
BUSINESS / Economy
May 28, 2025
Ueda to monitor risk of high long-term bond yields affecting shorter-term rates
The comments come at a time of heightened concern about volatility at the long end of the bond market.
Japan may offer cooperation on shipbuilding expertise and an Alaska natural gas project as part of trade talks with the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 26, 2025
Japan touts ships expertise and LNG investment, with tariff talks key
There is rising momentum in the negotiations as the U.S. tariffs threaten to drag Japan’s economy into a technical recession ahead of the Upper House election.
Bank of Japan policy board member Asahi Noguchi says there’s no need to make major changes to the bank’s Japanese government bond purchase plan.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 22, 2025
BOJ dove Noguchi sees no need to change JGB tapering plan
The BOJ is currently trimming its purchases by ¥400 billion ($2.8 billion) a quarter and is on course to reach monthly buying of around ¥2.9 trillion by the spring of 2026.
Japan’s trade balance swung into a deficit in April after two months in the black as growth in its exports slowed.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 21, 2025
Japan’s exports slow as U.S. tariffs bite, risking a recession
Exports measured by value gained 2% in April from a year earlier, slowing from March’s 4% as cars and steel dragged on shipments.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba
JAPAN / Politics
May 19, 2025
Ishiba rebuffs tax cut demands with Greek debt comparison
The premier said he disagrees with the idea of funding tax cuts with Japanese government bonds, signaling caution over additional government spending.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer travels to the resort island of Jeju, South Korea, to join his counterparts at the meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation members on Thursday and Friday.
WORLD / Politics
May 15, 2025
Trade chiefs jostle for time with Greer at APEC meeting in South Korea
Many will seek talks with the U.S. trade representative to try to blunt the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s barrage of tariffs.
Trade Minister Yoji Muto will skip the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, a decision that will likely lower Tokyo’s chances of securing an opportunity for bilateral talks with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 14, 2025
Japan’s key officials to skip APEC meet attended by U.S. trade representative
This won’t be the first time Japan’s trade minister will miss the APEC gathering in recent years, but sending a lower-ranking official may make it harder to hold one-on-one talks.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato (right) speaks during a news conference in Milan on Sunday.
BUSINESS
May 5, 2025
Finance chief Kato walks back idea of U.S. Treasury sales as trade chip
Japan held roughly $1.13 trillion in Treasury Securities at the end of February — making it the biggest overseas holder of U.S. debt.
"It does exist as a card,” said Kato, speaking on a TV Tokyo program Friday, when asked if Japan’s stance of not selling U.S. Treasury holdings could be a negotiation tool.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 2, 2025
Japan’s Kato says U.S. Treasury holdings could be negotiation card
The comments come amid negotiations between Japan and the U.S. after President Donald Trump ramped up his global tariff campaign.
Both the March jobless rate and the February job-to-applicant ratio rose in Japan, keeping upward pressure on wages as companies try to boost pay to hire and retain workers.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 2, 2025
Japan’s job market stays tight, supporting wage momentum
The jobless rate ticked up to 2.5% in March from 2.4% in the previous month, the internal affairs ministry reported.
As Japan gears up for the trade talks, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is also seeking to cushion the blow that the U.S. tariffs may have on the domestic economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 26, 2025
Japan to resist Trump efforts to form trade bloc against China
Any demands from Washington on Tokyo to downgrade its economic relationship with China would potentially deal Japan a major economic blow.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food in Tokyo gained 3.4% in April from a year earlier, as a mixture of impacts from last year’s school fee cuts and higher food and energy costs accelerated inflation, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 25, 2025
Tokyo prices rise most in two years, backing central bank's hike path
Consumer prices excluding fresh food gained 3.4% in April from a year earlier. Tokyo's figures are a leading indicator for national price gains.
Household outlays declined 0.5% in February from a year earlier, led by falling outlays on clothes and footwear, housing and food.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 4, 2025
Japan’s household spending drops for first time in three months
The drop, ahead of sweeping tariffs announced by the U.S., was led by falling outlays on clothes and footwear, housing and food.
Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Itsunori Onodera said on Tuesday that tariffs announced by the U.S. could result in a big economic crisis for Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 1, 2025
Trump tariffs may spell economic crisis for Japan, Onodera says
Auto tariffs in particular would have a huge impact given the breadth of the sector's supply chain in the country, the Liberal Democratic Party's policy chief says.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba emphasizes the need to consider measures to help Japanese companies with financing while the government tries to grasp the entire scope of the impact on the nation’s key industry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 28, 2025
Ishiba pledges measures to protect jobs from Trump’s car tariffs
Ishiba emphasized the need to consider measures to help Japanese companies with financing while the government tries to grasp the entire scope of the tariffs' impact.
According to the internal affairs ministry on Friday, consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.4% in March from a year earlier as inflation in processed food accelerated.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 28, 2025
Tokyo inflation exceeds forecasts, keeping BOJ on rate hike path
The leading indicator for nationwide inflation is likely to keep BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda mulling over the right timing for further rate hikes.
U.S. President Donald Trump
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2025
China, Japan and South Korea to meet as Trump tariffs take shape
South Korea’s Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun will host the meeting with Japan’s Yoji Muto and China’s Wang Wentao.
An economic dialogue between Japan and China will take place in Tokyo on Saturday, the same day as a meeting among top diplomats of the two countries plus South Korea.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2025
Japan and China set for economic talks as U.S. tariff pressure rises
The scale and proximity of the Chinese market means it is in Japan’s interest to maintain stable relations despite ongoing tensions.
Japan's shipments abroad have advanced in the first two months of this year, as Japanese companies brace for the rollout of higher tariffs in the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 19, 2025
Japan’s exports rose more quickly in February ahead of Trump tariffs
Global trade flows face potential major disruptions as the U.S. continues to escalate its tariff campaign, targeting nations where Japanese carmakers have manufacturing bases.
Shipping containers at a port in Long Beach, California. Higher tariffs will raise the cost of doing business in the U.S., raising the bar for Japanese companies to invest in America.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2025
Trump tariffs to raise bar to invest in the U.S., JETRO says
Higher tariffs will raise the cost of doing business in the U.S. with more expensive materials and products, said JETRO’s chair, Norihiko Ishiguro.
Lessons from India-Pakistan war: Were China's arms overrated?
A Chinese J-10B fighter jet is put on display at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, China, in October 2016. The short May conflict between India and Pakistan became a live trial for Chinese arms, exposing vulnerabilities in its fighter aircraft and air defense systems.
Luxury Tokyo penthouse sold for over $65 million in new record
Sales of luxury properties in Tokyo, like Azabudai Hills’ Aman Residences, have pushed up average real estate prices in the capital.
Golden share fix proposed for knotty Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel deal
Nippon Steel headquarters in Tokyo. The U.S. government is poised to receive a so-called golden share in U.S. Steel as a condition for approving Nippon Steel's proposed acquisition of the American company.
Japan loses top creditor status for first time in 34 years
Japan lost its position as the world’s largest creditor nation for the first time in 34 years despite posting a record amount of overseas assets, with Germany overtaking the country.
Onosato locks in promotion to yokozuna
Onosato speaks to reporters after receiving a report from the Yokozuna Deliberation Council, on Monday in Ami, Ibaraki Prefecture.
As ASEAN touts unity, Philippines seeks consensus on South China Sea
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (center), locks hands with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (left) and Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah during a group photo at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
Eagle nest discovery sparks opposition to megasolar project
The white-tailed eagle's wintering grounds include Hokkaido, northern Honshu, the Russian coast, the southern Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands.
Fighters already showing last season's playoff run was no fluke
Fighters starter Hiromi Ito pitches against the Hawks in Fukuoka on April 29.
A moving meditation: Finding serenity in tea ceremony across space and time
Drawn to tea ceremony while volunteering at a Japanese garden in Phoenix, Arizona, Michele Laudig (right) came to learn a “common language of movement and ritual” that brought her into new communities in New York City and Tokyo.
Are microplastics hurting our fertility?
A worker sorts plastic waste for recycling at Minato Resource Recycle Center in Tokyo in 2019. Japan has been criticized by environmental groups for its strategy on plastics, which is heavily reliant on recycling instead of reduction.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?
By Eric Margolis

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