The 21st Century Public Policy Institute (21PPI) is a think tank established by Keidanren in 1997. As it enters its 10th year this month, a revamp is in progress to beef up its activities. Over the past decade, the institute has worked on a wide ...

As robust economic expansion continues worldwide, emerging economic powers like the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other Asian countries are riding a wave of globalization to achieve rapid growth. At the same time, advanced nations such as the United States have introduced bold ...

Forty days have passed since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office Sept. 26, and the administration, judging by the actions of the first new prime minister in 5 1/2 years, appears to be off to a very good start. In his first policy speech to ...

Newly-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the nation's first leader born after World War II, has launched his Cabinet with veteran lawmakers capable of taking the lead -- rather than relying on the bureaucracy -- in the implementation of fresh policy initiatives. Keidanren fully supports ...

The government's 2006 basic policy on economic and fiscal management and structural reforms, approved by the Cabinet on July 7, established two national pillars of economic policy for the coming decade -- the pursuit of growth in a shrinking population, and the rebuilding of ...

On May 24 the Keidanren started anew under the leadership of Canon Inc. Chairman Fujio Mitarai, who has declared his goals to be the "innovation of Japan" and the continuation of the organization's drive for structural reforms under his predecessor Hiroshi Okuda. Years of structural ...

An intense debate is raging among three of the nation's top fiscal panels on how to reform state revenues and expenditures in an integrated manner. The bodies are the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, the Liberal Democratic Party's fiscal reform panel, and the ...

Window-dressing and other fraudulent acts aimed at boosting share prices have led many Japanese to doubt whether it is really all that important to "maximize corporate value." Needless to say, it is the foremost mission of a company to maximize its own value through persistent ...

Japan's overall economic conditions are steadily improving, but the large gap between urban and rural areas is often cited as a serious problem. While business is brisk in Tokyo and other big cities, rural parts of Japan still lack the vigor. Of the major areas ...

In fiscal 2006, the government will issue under 30 trillion yen in bonds for the first time in eight years, leaving the nation 11.2 trillion yen short of achieving a primary balance -- the condition where expenditures, excluding interest payments and debt redemptions, are ...