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Emi Urabe
For Emi Urabe's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 9, 2020
Hong Kong’s woes may help Japan woo financiers, top official says
The vice finance minister said tax cuts and other tweaks to regulations ultimately matter less than whether Japan can bring back business opportunities for firms.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2020
Aging administrative pipeline holds back Japan's ¥230 trillion virus-response aid
Slow response due to small government and lack of digitalization has seen some companies go out of business.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 7, 2020
Japan's ultralow official jobless rate ignores 4 million on leave
Factor in those on partially paid leave and the 2.6 percent rate hits 11.5 percent. Then there's the 940,000 who left the labor force in April but weren't counted.
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
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2020
Wipe out: Japan's ski slopes suffering worst winter in decades
Japan's ski resorts are suffering through one of the worst snow seasons on record, disappointing locals and foreign tourists, and jeopardizing the country's budding reputation as an international ski destination.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2019
Massive fiscal stimulus in works as Japan's politicians shrug off concerns about national debt
Japan looks set to re-embrace the power of public spending with one of its biggest ever stimulus packages.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 27, 2019
Warning that tax hike would doom Abenomics, former aide vows to convince PM to delay yet again
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should postpone the consumption tax increase scheduled for October or face the failure of Abenomics, his six-year economic revival program, according to one of the architects of that program.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2019
Forget consumption tax hike and give structural reform another try, ex-economy chief Heizo Takenaka says
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should again abandon his oft-delayed plan to hike the consumption tax this year because it risks pushing Japan's economy into recession and hampering efforts to generate stable inflation, according to former economy minister Heizo Takenaka.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2018
Japan may be in hot pursuit of robotics, but on the farm it's still all about human hands
The country that brought robots to car factories looks set to stay resolutely old-school in agriculture as it seeks to attract more foreign workers to replenish an aging workforce.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2018
It pays to listen to the the real needs of women consumers in Japan
The country's male-dominated businesses are starting to ditch long-held views about what kinds of products women want as female consumers flex their growing spending muscle.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2018
Japan snubs homegrown weaponry to buy from the U.S., putting domestic industry under threat
While there's little prospect that Japanese consumers will ever buy enough American cars to please U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe government's record spending on defense is shaping up as a bright spot in bilateral trade for the U.S. president.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 6, 2017
82-year-old glassmaker Ohara eyes future in next-generation battery market
Ohara Inc. sees batteries playing a bigger role in its future.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 2, 2017
Shima Seiki, the Wakayama firm that built a knitting empire, sets its sights on car-parts manufacturing
Building a machine to construct high-end Prada sweaters was just the start.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 30, 2017
Elon Musk's battery demand boom lifts Japan's Tanaka Chemical
As Elon Musk pushes out from his California base to make electric vehicles ubiquitous, a Japanese firm deep in the depths of the battery supply chain is riding his wake.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 10, 2017
Next-generation battery seen powering space projects, cars
Researchers at an Osaka-based firm are closing in on a safer generation of batteries that could weather extreme temperatures in outer space.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2017
Koike's plan for Tepco to remove utility poles in Tokyo an Olympian task
Making one of the world's biggest cities beautiful is a task beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. is unlikely to relish.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2017
Fukushima fuel-removal quest leaves trail of dead robots
The latest robot attempting to find the 600 tons of nuclear fuel and debris that melted down six years ago in the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant met its end in less than a day.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2017
J-Power aims to burn more natural gas and wood as Abe fights climate change
Japan's biggest electricity wholesaler knows it will take more than cutting-edge coal technology to save the environment.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2017
Niigata governor Ryuichi Yoneyama stands firm against restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant
The man blocking the world's largest nuclear plant says he grew opposed to atomic energy the same way some people fall in love.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2016
Tepco keeps thousands on the clock at idled Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, hoping for restart
More than 6,000 workers cycle through the world's biggest nuclear plant every day to operate and maintain a facility that hasn't sold a kilowatt of electricity in more than four years.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces