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August 27, 2025
 

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Yoshiaki Nohara
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 28, 2020
Budget in hand, Abe shifts focus to pandemic response as economy reels
Prime Minister Abe's team is working on steps to save jobs and spark a v-shaped recovery, but is money all it takes?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 21, 2020
Japan could face year-long slump if 'cursed' Olympics canceled
A canceled or postponed Olympics would likely result in Japan's economy shrinking for the longest stretch since the global financial crisis, according to some economists.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 17, 2019
Japan's looming sales tax hike prompts less rush demand so far, suggesting painful economic impact can be avoided
The nation's economy is less likely to suffer a painful whiplash from a sales tax increase scheduled for October, early sales figures for autos and apartments suggest.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Jun 26, 2018
Children of poor, jobless single moms have become an underclass in Japan
The beating of a 4-year-old boy last Christmas Eve went on through the night. Covered with bruises and having suffered catastrophic internal bleeding, he was pronounced dead at an Osaka hospital. Soon after, his mother and her two boyfriends were arrested.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2018
Why isn't Toyota boosting Japan's inflation? A crisis nearly seven decades ago may be the key
At a New Year's party, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a plea to business leaders: Raise wages by 3 percent to support Japan's economy. The request was met with a polite silence. "Let me take that as no objection," the prime minister said.
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2017
In Japan, wages stubbornly refuse to rise despite tight labor market and steady economic growth
Japan is discovering that even the tightest labor market in a generation is no quick spur for higher wages.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 19, 2017
Voters in Abe's heartland fear future sales tax hike as they struggle with stagnant wages
Chiyoko Yamamoto works in one of the best regions in Japan — a place with one of the lowest rates of unemployment, a growing economy, and the highest level of female employment in the country.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2017
For Japan's economy, now is the time to raise sales tax, tackle debt, says business lobby
Japan's current run of economic growth provides a now-or-never opportunity to tackle the nation's debt and forge ahead with plans to increase the sales tax, said Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2017
Takatoshi Ito, who sold Kuroda on inflation targets, now contender for top job
During countless shared lunches and impromptu meetings, Takatoshi Ito made a detailed and persuasive case that sold Haruhiko Kuroda on the inflation targeting regime he's pursued relentlessly as governor of the central bank. That was back in 1999, when Kuroda ran Japan's currency policy at the Finance...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2017
Japan using education to add influence, tap into booming Southeast Asia markets
In a battle with China for influence and opportunity in Southeast Asia, Japan is making inroads on a new front: education.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 1, 2017
Labor shortage prompts grudging turn to permanent jobs
The tightest labor market in decades is showing signs of reversing a long shift toward the hiring of temporary workers.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 7, 2017
Drawing on Seattle startup revolution, Fukuoka angling to be entrepreneur hub
From the fifth-floor office of his internet startup, Kazz Watabe can see the sea bass jump in the bay as he works on his fishing website to the sound of jazz and the waves washing on the beach below.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2017
Old age, depopulation decimating A-bomb-spared Kitakyushu
Few places evoke the rise and fall of Japan's industrial might than the head office of the Imperial Steel Works in Kitakyushu. The red brick Meiji Era building was the heart of the nation's first big steelworks. Now it's a UNESCO World Heritage site.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 2, 2017
Firms tap state subsidies to start day care facilities to woo working moms
Faced with a shortage of workers, Japanese companies are taking matters into their own hands, helping the government fix a chronic lack of day care facilities that is blunting efforts to get more women into the workforce.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2017
Redefining Japan's 'seniors' to older age may free up still agile workforce
When do you become a senior citizen?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 26, 2017
Stingy pay raises pull the handbrake on Japan's inflation drive
As the world puts the worst of the disinflationary threat behind it, tepid wage growth is shaping up as a key restraint to a genuine reflationary era taking hold in some economies. Nowhere is this more so than Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2017
Rural 'furusato nozei' beer, beef thank-yous costing urban Japan much-needed revenues
Want a free case of craft beer? If you send ¥30,000 or more of your taxes to the town of Yamanouchi in Nagano Prefecture, they'll send you 24 bottles of a locally brewed beer to say thanks.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Dec 29, 2016
Japan's students face uncertain future under cloud of debt
Kengo Kyogoku borrows about ¥122,000 ($1,035) per month in addition to a scholarship and a part-time job, because his mother can't afford to pay his college fees at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Dec 21, 2016
Kuroda breathes easier, at least for now, as stars align for Bank of Japan
After a long year, the Bank of Japan unexpectedly finds itself in a sweet spot.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 19, 2016
Depopulating rust belt counts on 'robonomics' to run assembly lines
A withering factory town in the rust belt is looking for revival through a dose of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "robot revolution."
Tokyo releases AI-generated video of Mount Fuji erupting
A screenshot from an AI-generated video showing what could happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted
Japan aims to tighten rules for business manager visas from October
The number of foreign residents with business management residency status had reached a record 41,615 as of the end of 2024.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Japan ranked one of the most peaceful places in Asia as global tensions rise
Visitors look at paper cranes hung at Peace Park in Nagasaki on Aug. 8, a day ahead of the 80th anniversary of the World War II atomic bombing of the city.
JICA to designate four Japanese cities as 'hometowns' for African nations
The Japanese flag (left) with the flag of the African Union
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.
Germany's first sakemaker offers a bold brew of ideas
Reigen, Germany's first sake brewery, makes a diverse, nontraditional range of sake that includes fruit-flavored sips and wine barrel-aged renditions.
Alicia Keys closed Summer Sonic, but J-pop owned it
Summer Sonic’s 2025 lineup demonstrated its strength, showcasing the latest in J-pop, including “new kawaii” act Fruits Zipper.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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