For Masahiro Hidaka's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Miyako Suda, who opposed the Bank of Japan's ultraloose monetary policy as a member of its Policy Board, has a warning for the nation's life insurers as bond yields sink ever lower. This prolonged period of ultralow rates will pressure profits as sovereign debt matures ...
Going against a central bank is an investment strategy fraught with peril, but some bond market analysts think the Bank of Japan will fail to steepen the yield curve.
The yen is likely to reach its strongest level against the dollar in more than six years if Japan enters a recession, which could come as early as the fall of this year, a former central bank official has said. "I don't think it will ...
It's been the most radical cash injection in history — nearly ¥400 trillion pumped into Japan's economy over more than five years to slay deflation and kick growth into higher gear. That's still not enough to save Tomoaki Nagai's metal parts factory near Osaka, and ...
The Bank of Japan should drop its 2 percent inflation target and should not further expand its program of massive monetary easing, Internal Affairs Minister Seiko Noda, a long-shot to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said in an interview. The "desperate" introduction of all sorts ...
Economists who follow the Bank of Japan aren't buying the idea that the central bank is nearing the point where it will begin to normalize its ultraloose monetary policy. Slightly more than half of those surveyed said they saw no chance of any change to ...
In an area of Japan still decimated by nuclear disaster, sake is offering cause for hope. For the past five years the sake brewers of Fukushima — on a two-decade quest to develop premium products — have captured the most gold medals in a key ...
Osaka is famed for it's cheap prices, with ¥1 supermarket sales, ¥10 drinks and discount train tickets sold right next to the station. That attracts thrifty consumers and tourists, but may be undercutting the central bank's efforts to generate sustained price rises. "If it's not ...
Amid the gloom and struggle that Osaka has gone through in recent years, a tourism boom has been an unexpected boon for Japan's gritty second city. The commercial roots and boisterous and friendly people of Osaka and the surrounding Kansai region provide a contrast to ...
If Shinzo Abe wins Sunday's Lower House election, it will boost the chances that Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda will serve a second term, according to a former economy minister. "Kuroda has done an excellent job. He should continue," Heizo Takenaka said in an ...
