More Japanese companies are shifting to merit-based pay as competition for workers heats up, but the change risks holding back the sort of blanket wage hikes the prime minister says are needed to inflate the economy. Ahead of annual labor talks set for March 11, ...

As Japan's construction firms are squeezed by the tightest labor market since the 1970s and a rapidly aging population, they are pouring investment into technology — and providing unexpected support to an economy reeling from the bitter U.S.-China trade war. The industry sees artificial intelligence ...

Cash is king in Japan, and more so for the country's fast-aging population who are still deeply reluctant to give it up. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to make more Japanese — the world's most dedicated cash-hoarders — switch to using cashless payments is producing ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cherished goal of revising Japan's pacifist Constitution has become more difficult to achieve after a plunge in his popularity and the erosion of public trust, a ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday. Support for Abe has plummeted to its lowest since ...

Few doubt Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to invest public funds in a $90 billion high-tech maglev railway makes political sense. Whether it makes equally good economic sense is less clear. Proponents say lending government money to Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) to speed ...