author

 
Menu
Search
 
December 10, 2023
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Kevin Buckland
For Kevin Buckland's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japanese stock markets have already rallied to around their highest since 1990, with consumer and financial stocks outperforming domestic indexes.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Nov 21, 2023
Japan's inflation comeback prompts investors to tear up playbooks
Investors are tearing up their playbooks to focus on expected higher interest rates, more generous dividends and a revival in consumer spending.
Nippon Life Insurance will focus purchases on 30-year JGBs, with the current yield of above 1.8% "good in terms of absolute level," a representative for the insurer said at a recent briefing.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 27, 2023
Japan's life insurers to boost JGB buying but wary of policy shift
Nippon Life, Dai-Ichi Life and Meiji Yasuda Life were among those who said they aimed to buy the longest-dated JGBs amid the highest yields in a decade.
The Bank of Japan intervened in the Japanese government bond (JGB) market on Friday for the fifth time this month after the 10-year yield rose to a fresh decade high.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 20, 2023
Bank of Japan intervenes as 10-year JGB yield hits fresh decade peak
The benchmark JGB yield climbed to 0.845% right at the start of the trading day, its highest since July 2013, after revisiting peaks the previous day.
The yen's slide to the cusp of ¥150 per dollar has put investors on high alert for the risk of intervention.
BUSINESS / Markets
Sep 29, 2023
Yen intervention a hard sell even as 'red line' beckons
To make even a ripple in the $5 trillion currency market, the BOJ would need to draw down massive amounts of dollar reserves.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda
BUSINESS / Markets / ANALYSIS
Aug 16, 2023
As yen enters intervention range, Japan's policymakers hold fire
With Japan now reaping some benefits from a weaker currency, intervention may not come as quickly as it did last year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 4, 2022
Japan's five-year bond yield scales zero on tighter policy expectation
Stubbornly hot inflation and more hawkishness from other major central banks has spurred bets that the Bank of Japan will need to tighten policy soon.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 24, 2019
Toyota banking on Olympic halo to keep hydrogen dream alive
Buses may not be the most glamorous mode of transport, but at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games they will represent Toyota Motor Corp.'s best bet for wider acceptance of hydrogen power — technology so far eclipsed by electric vehicles.
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2019
Why Asia's biggest economies are backing hydrogen fuel cell cars
Japan, China and South Korea have set ambitious targets to put millions of hydrogen-powered vehicles on their roads by the end of the next decade at a cost of billions of dollars.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 4, 2019
SoftBank's giant debt burden looks worse than it actually is, analysts say
As SoftBank Group Corp. continues its transformation into a giant investment fund, some analysts are increasingly watching a metric more familiar to lenders as they judge its creditworthiness. And by that gauge, they say, its massive debt pile looks manageable.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 8, 2019
In Japan, China and U.S., scientists work feverishly for a breakthrough on powerful batteries for EVs
To deliver an electric vehicle that's cheaper, safer and capable of traveling over 800 km on a single charge, the auto industry needs a breakthrough in battery technology.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 27, 2018
Does Toyota dream of robotic housekeepers?
Toyota Motor Corp. has sold enough cars to put one outside every Japanese home. Now it wants to put robots inside those homes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Dec 6, 2018
Takeda downgrade looms after shareholders approve Shire deal
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. shareholders' approval of the $62 billion (about ¥7 trillion) acquisition of Shire PLC is good news for its bosses' ambitions to build a global drug giant — but bad news for its credit ratings.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 27, 2018
Plowing millions into Uber, Toyota prepares for a future with fewer privately owned cars
Toyota Motor Corp., Asia's biggest carmaker, is preparing for a potential future where people don't buy cars.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 16, 2018
Toyota's only female executive says her mission has always been to 'speak her mind'
Chika Kako is a rarity in Toyota Motor Corp.'s upper echelons.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2018
Custom cars dazzle at Tokyo's ride-pimping extravaganza
It's Japan's biggest custom-car show. The Tokyo Auto Salon has hundreds of exhibitors — from automotive titans like Toyota and Mercedes to tire makers, tool makers and toy makers — who all want to show you how to tune up, dress up, or otherwise pimp your ride.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 21, 2017
Toyota to U.S. workers: Made-in-Japan Camrys are more profitable
Toyota Motor Corp. issued an unsettling warning to Kentucky workers building its top-selling Camry sedan: Cut costs now or face an uncertain future.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Oct 13, 2017
Kobe Steel cheating scandal driven by competition to improve metals, especially for automakers
Behind the scandal engulfing Kobe Steel Ltd. over the falsification of data for some of the materials it supplied is a harsh reality for Japanese steel companies: the need to provide higher and higher quality metals to compete.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Oct 11, 2017
Scandals seen shredding Japan Inc.'s once revered image for quality
Kobe Steel Ltd. raises fresh concern about the integrity of Japanese manufacturers after disclosing it falsified data on aluminum used in products ranging from cars to bullet trains.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 26, 2017
Toyota invests in Japanese startups to catch up in autonomous car race
When it comes to cracking the code for self-driving cars, startups have an edge on big businesses, says computer scientist Katsuya Uenoyama.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 5, 2017
As electric vehicles gain momentum worldwide, Horiba CEO maintains emissions-reliant business is sound
What is the market leader in equipment for measuring automobile emissions to do if the vehicles of the future don't spew exhaust? Horiba Ltd., whose tech was central in exposing Volkswagen AG's diesel-cheating scandal, believes that day will never come.
Actors say sexual abuse is a structural problem in Japan’s film industry
Actress Midori Suiren (center), filmmaker Kenzo Kaga (right) and cinematographer Shin Hayasaka attend a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
Japan-born U.S. national Yuri Kondo continues dual citizenship fight
The day after the Fukuoka District Court dismissed her lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of Japan's dual nationality law, Yuri Kondo, 76, was in high spirits as she drove to see family and friends.
Japan’s deepest economic contraction since pandemic clouds path for BOJ
Japan’s economic recovery from the pandemic is losing momentum as overseas economies slow and sticky inflation weighs on domestic consumption.
Tokyo Disneyland apologizes for Minnie Mouse skirt-lifting incident
The operator of Tokyo Disneyland on Friday apologized after clips of Minnie Mouse having her skirt lifted by another character during a recent Christmas parade went viral on social media.
Kishida walks tightrope after new funds allegations against Matsuno
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno attend a Cabinet meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
Japan-born U.S. national Yuri Kondo continues dual citizenship fight
The day after the Fukuoka District Court dismissed her lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of Japan's dual nationality law, Yuri Kondo, 76, was in high spirits as she drove to see family and friends.
Kishida walks tightrope after new funds allegations against Matsuno
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno attend a Cabinet meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
Actors say sexual abuse is a structural problem in Japan’s film industry
Actress Midori Suiren (center), filmmaker Kenzo Kaga (right) and cinematographer Shin Hayasaka attend a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
'Oppenheimer' to screen in Japan next year after nuclear controversy
A sign for "Oppenheimer" at a movie theater in Los Angeles. The film will open in Japan next year.
Tokyo aims to make high school tuition free of charge for all
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike speaks during a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly meeting on Monday.

Podcast

The Climate Action Network holds an event at the venue of the U.N. climate change conferences in Dubai on Sunday to give its 'fossil' award to countries including Japan.
Feeling anxious? Wastewater, heat and Japan’s year in climate

Longform

Tokyo Healthcare University professor Takayuki Mifune explains how he is trying to re-create bonito broth from 1,300 years ago.
The quest to re-create what the Japanese ate 1,300 years ago
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Ajinomoto helps people, planet with amino acids
Ajinomoto helps people, planet with amino acids

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER