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.
Asia Pacific Sep 23, 2013
Typhoon kills 25 in China; Hong Kong flights in chaos
Typhoon Usagi killed at least 25 people after crashing ashore in southern China, throwing the region’s transport systems into chaos and leaving tens of thousands of airline passengers stranded in Hong Kong on Monday. Schools and businesses were shut as activity in the normally ...
Asia Pacific Sep 22, 2013
Hong Kong braces for Typhoon Usagi
After killing two people in the Philippines and unleashing landslides in Taiwan, Typhoon Usagi barreled toward Hong Kong on Sunday, shutting down one of the world’s busiest seaports and throwing flight schedules into disarray. On Saturday Usagi — which means rabbit in Japanese — ...
Editorial Jun 5, 2011
Japanese life index
Last month the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cataloged Japanese dissatisfaction in a survey of Japan and the 33 other members of the OECD. The compiled results in OECD’s “Your Better Life Index” show that despite the relatively good aspects of life in ...
Editorial Jun 3, 2011
Back to basics with Russia
Prime Minister Naoto Kan met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on May 27 in the French seaside resort of Deauville shortly after a two-day Group of Eight summit held there. No substantive development came out of the meeting concerning a long-standing bilateral territorial dispute, ...
Editorial Apr 26, 2011
25 years after Chernobyl
The world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, marked its 25th anniversary Tuesday amid Japanese anxiety and wavering self-confidence over the March 11 earthquake-tsunami and the resultant nuclear crisis. Power industry people, government leaders, nuclear regulators and nuclear power academics should ...
Editorial Apr 16, 2011
North Korea's 'chronic crisis'
North Korea is facing food shortages. International aid agencies report that the situation is dire, with millions facing the prospect of starvation in coming months without help. Even if those estimates are exaggerated, there is no escaping the fact that North korea cannot feed ...