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May 23, 2025
 

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Kentaro Sugiyama
Nobuhiro Ito, who runs casting-maker Ito Tekko, which employs about 100 people, in front of his company's factory in the city of Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 13, 2024
BOJ's rate hike plans clouded by small firms' wage woes
Next year's wage prospects are crucial for sustaining a consumption-led recovery — a prerequisite for further rate hikes by the Bank of Japan.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda, seen on June 14, said on Wednesday that he told new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba that the central bank was "supporting the economy with loose monetary conditions."
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2024
Ishiba says Japan not ready for rate hike after meeting BOJ's Ueda
"I told the prime minister that we are supporting the economy with loose monetary conditions," Ueda said.
At stake in this year's spring negotiations between trade unions and large Japanese firms, analysts say, is whether wages will rise far enough to ignite the sustainable inflation that policymakers consider a prerequisite for ending negative interest rates.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2024
Japan's top business lobby calls for worker pay raises above inflation
The call sets the tone for annual wage talks that may pave the way for the Bank of Japan to exit its ultraeasy monetary policy.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Nov 20, 2023
Japan's back-to-back wage bonanza would open door for BOJ exit
The news comes as the government pushes companies to hike pay to help offset rising living costs.
Tomoko Yoshino, president of Rengo, attends a meeting in 2022.
BUSINESS
Nov 17, 2023
Japan's largest labor union to seek worker pay hikes beyond 2024
Rengo said last month it will demand wage hikes totaling 5% or more next year.
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2023
Japan needs to prepare for 'life with interest rates': lobby head
Takeshi Niinami, chairman of business lobby Keizai Doyukai, said the Bank of Japan "must normalize" monetary policy to help weed out incompetent firms.
While the U.S. referenced China 20 times in its October announcement of semiconductor export controls targeting Chinese companies, Japan has chosen broad equipment controls not specifically aimed at its bigger neighbor.
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2023
As Japan aligns with U.S. chip curbs on China, some in Tokyo feel uneasy
Tokyo remains worried that targeting China will provoke damaging retaliation, such as a ban on Japanese electric cars.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2023
Japan's top economic officials debate whether sustained exit from deflation is near
With inflation accelerating globally and wage growth picking up in Japan, discussions also touched on the desirable timing to end the Bank of Japan's ultraloose monetary policy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
May 1, 2023
Inflation and labor crunch prodding Japan's smaller firms to raise pay
Wages have barely risen in Japan since the asset bubble burst in the 1990s but have crept up recently, as companies face pressure to compensate employees for the rising cost of living.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 2, 2022
Hope fizzles out for Japan's 'revenge spending' splurge as inflation looms
Facing the prospect of struggling with rising prices, Japan's famously thrifty consumers are tightening their belts even as they sit on the remains of an estimated u00a550 trillion in savings.
Trump’s wake-up call for India’s foreign policy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 13. Trump’s coercive use of trade threats against India during the Pakistan military crisis has undermined trust in the U.S.-India partnership and exposed Washington as an unreliable security ally.
Toyota considers making tiny trucks for U.S. market as demand booms
Toyota executives say the automaker is listening to U.S. dealer requests for a truck smaller than the brand’s best-selling Tacoma midsize and Tundra full-size pickups.
Onosato’s march to yokozuna could usher in golden age for sumo
Onosato (left) battles Gonoyama on Day 6 of the Summer Basho. With Onosato on the cusp of promotion to yokozuna, there could soon be two titans at the top of the sport fighting for titles.
Shinjiro Koizumi takes farm ministry reins after predecessor's rice gaffe
Agriculture minister Taku Eto (left), who resigned on Wednesday, and former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi
Railguns, missiles and lasers: Japan uses massive defense event to highlight shift
A mock-up of Japan's state-of-the-art railgun, which is currently undergoing testing, is displayed at the three-day DSEI Japan defense exhibition in the city of Chiba on Wednesday.
Nippon Ishin grapples with poor governance ahead of Upper House election
Nippon Ishin no Kai co-leader Seiji Maehara speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday.
Beware of dubious websites offering cheap rice, consumer watchdog warns
Questionable websites appear to be taking advantage of consumers looking for cheaper rice online amid the high prices of the staple grain in the nation.
Onosato’s march to yokozuna could usher in golden age for sumo
Onosato (left) battles Gonoyama on Day 6 of the Summer Basho. With Onosato on the cusp of promotion to yokozuna, there could soon be two titans at the top of the sport fighting for titles.
A window into the mind of Esperantist and political activist Teru Hasegawa
Teru Hasegawa, Esperanto name Verda Majo, wrote leftist political essays during WWII.
Nissan’s troubles might go all the way back to Ghosn 
A lot at a Nissan plant in Mexico. The company may have overextended itself during the Ghosn era.

Podcast

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

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb
By Alex K.T. Martin

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