Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

BUSINESS

Economy

OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann delivers a speech at OECD headquarters in Paris on Tuesday.

BUSINESS / Economy

Jun 3, 2025

Trade war cuts global economic growth outlook: OECD

By Ali BEKHTAOUI

After 3.3% growth last year, the world economy is now expected to expand by a "modest" 2.9% in 2025 and 2026, the OECD said.

The number of "zombie companies" in Japan, which do not make enough to cover their interest payments, was estimated to have grown some 228,000 in fiscal 2023, one of the highest in a decade.

BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS

Jun 3, 2025

'Zombie company' apocalypse might be the point of Japan's minimum wage push

By Kazuaki Nagata

Government efforts to accelerate the pace of pay increases could lead to poorly performing companies going out of business.

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a chart listing tariffs described as reciprocal during an event in the Rose Garden entitled "Make America Wealthy Again" at the White House in Washington on April 2.

BUSINESS / Economy

Jun 3, 2025

For volatile Trump, trade pacts with China and Europe prove elusive

By Catherine Lucey

So far, there has been few signs of a breakthrough with either of America's two biggest trading partners.

Japanese firms' capital expenditure gained 1.8% in the three months through March from the previous quarter, while inflation is keeping a lid on household spending and U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign clouds the trade outlook.

BUSINESS / Economy

Jun 2, 2025

Japan’s firms raised capital spending ahead of U.S. tariffs

By Yoshiaki Nohara

Business spending holds the key to the country’s economic growth as inflation keeps a lid on household spending.

U.S. President Donald Trump smiles before speaking in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday.

BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS

Jun 1, 2025

Trump tariffs face threat at top court — over rulings that blocked Biden

By Greg Stohr

The court’s conservative majority ruled that federal agencies can’t decide sweeping political and economic matters without clear congressional authorization.

Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's economic revitalization minster, speaks to members of the media at the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Friday.

BUSINESS / Economy

May 31, 2025

Japan says progress made in U.S. tariff talks, but details are scarce

By Francis Tang

The two sides are eyeing the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in June as a possible setting to announce a trade deal.

Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, is in Washington again for a fourth round of high-level negotiations with the United States.

BUSINESS / Economy

May 30, 2025

Tariff talks with U.S. a mix of slow progress, ever-present uncertainty

By Francis Tang

Japan's chief negotiator is back in Washington for another round of high-level negotiations.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.

How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports