May 18, 2012

Bracing up for power savings

The government has announced a power-saving plan for the coming summer. But the announcement came too late. As all of Japan’s nuclear power plants are offline, the government has been obsessed with the idea of restarting the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at Kansai ...

Apr 7, 2012

Cautious economic outlook

The Bank of Japan’s tankan survey of business sentiment in March, whose results were released Monday, shows that major manufacturers are cautious about their business prospects. Their diffusion index (DI) for March — the percentage of firms optimistic about their business outlook minus the ...

Jan 4, 2012

Ties that continue in 2012

Choosing the word of the year for 2011 must not have been easy, but kizuna, meaning bonds or ties, was an excellent choice that will be important in this coming year as well. The Japan Kanji Association announced its choice at Kiyomizu Temple in ...