For Toru Fujioka's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
A longtime thorn for businesses and productivity in Japan and South Korea is set to prove a bulwark for those economies as the coronavirus threatens millions of jobs around the world. Mass layoffs are frowned upon and labor laws make it hard for employers to ...
The data show that the economy was already in a highly fragile state when the virus started to slam exports, supply chains, tourists and shoppers.
Economists estimate the economy shrank at an annualized rate of 3.8 percent in the third quarter and that the virus will likely push Japan into recession.
Japan looks set to re-embrace the power of public spending with one of its biggest ever stimulus packages. Slowing global growth, a higher sales tax and a string of natural disasters are giving policymakers in Tokyo plenty of reasons to lead a worldwide shift toward ...
Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda's role as the prime focus for efforts to revive the world's third-largest economy is coming to an end. An unprecedented level of concern about damaging side effects of Japan's multidecade experiment with ultralow interest rates has gripped policymakers, regulators ...
Global financial turmoil is turning up the heat on the Bank of Japan, raising the question of how much pain it can take before it is forced to act. The BOJ faces two market-driven problems as the U.S.-China trade war escalates — a strengthening yen ...
A majority of economists now see the Bank of Japan expanding its stimulus as its next move, with a strengthening of the yen from Federal Reserve rate cuts seen as a key factor for triggering action, according to a Bloomberg survey. While all 50 polled ...
The hottest economic doctrine around says governments should stop worrying and learn to love their public debt. Japan has been more relaxed than most — but a looming tax hike suggests it may be about to blink. Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT, posits that countries ...
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. "Abenomics will fail for real if the tax is raised now," Etsuro ...
In the land that gave us Hello Kitty, it's no surprise the government employs an endearing mascot to sell its bonds. His name is Kokusai-sensei. A pint-size rendition of him welcomes visitors to the investor relations office at the Finance Ministry. Pudgy and professorial, ...
