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October 15, 2025
 

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BOJ

According to a tally released on Thursday, some 1,416 labor unions under the umbrella of the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Union requested a monthly base salary gain of ¥14,149 ($94.84) on average in talks expected to culminate with a deal next month.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 27, 2025
Japan's metalworker unions demand record pay hike
The demand by Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Union is an early sign of continued momentum for pay growth in the country.
Japanese nominal wages rose at the fastest pace in nearly three decades according to data out this month, and GDP figures showed Japan’s economy outperformed forecasts.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 27, 2025
Yen traders raise focus on Japanese data as economy shifts gears
The news marks a mindset change since the Bank of Japan ended its negative-rates policy last March.
There’s keen interest in the market on whether Japan’s regional banks will pour back into benchmark 10-year notes, whose yields jumped to the highest levels since 2009 in Tokyo trading on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 25, 2025
One of Japan's top regional banks holds JGB buying on bet rates to climb
There’s keen interest in the market on whether Japan’s regional banks will pour back into benchmark 10-year notes.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks to reporters on Thursday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 21, 2025
Japan yields fall as Ueda warns BOJ can step in to smooth market
Bond yields fell and the yen weakened following Ueda’s comments.
A customer visits a store along the Togoshi Ginza shopping street in Tokyo on Jan. 23. Rising fresh food prices contributed to the acceleration in overall inflation in January, as vegetable prices, including cabbage, soared.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 21, 2025
Japan’s inflation speeds up, keeping BOJ on rate hike path
Overall inflation accelerated to 4% from 3.6%, according to the internal affairs ministry, hitting that mark for the first time in two years.
Some 61.9% of over 11,000 surveyed companies intend to pledge pay increases as part of annual wage negotiations culminating in March, according to a survey by Teikoku Databank.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 20, 2025
Record percentage of Japanese firms plan wage hikes, survey shows
Some 61.9% of over 11,000 surveyed companies intend to pledge pay increases as part of annual wage negotiations culminating in March.
The Japanese currency climbed as much as 1% to ¥149.95 against the dollar on Thursday, a level it hasn’t touched since Dec. 9.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 20, 2025
Yen advances past ¥150 per dollar as BOJ rate-hike bets ramp up
Japan’s currency climbed as much as 1% to ¥149.95 against the dollar, a level it hasn’t touched since Dec. 9.
Cabbage prices have risen to 2.6 times their five-year average in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 20, 2025
Japan’s food inflation is becoming harder for BOJ to overlook
The level of fresh food prices has risen 71.9% since 2010, about five times more than that of inflation excluding it.
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan wants to use the Bank of Japan’s exchange-traded funds to help cover the cost of making high school education free.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2025
CDP eyes BOJ’s exchange-traded funds to pay for free schooling
The Bank of Japan's exchange-traded funds have remained untouched even as Gov. Kazuo Ueda oversaw further rate hikes.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 18, 2025
Ex-BOJ deputy Nakaso sees BOJ hiking to 1% and perhaps beyond
His remarks come as market participants debate the likely terminal rate of the central bank’s current tightening cycle.
Sony Group looks set to become the latest flagship name to tap Japan's corporate bond market.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 18, 2025
Japan’s historic rate shift is turbo-charging the credit market
Japanese companies have sold ¥14.7 trillion ($96.8 billion) of local-currency bonds in the current fiscal year, a record for the period.
The Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda last month reiterated his long-held position that he needs more time to mull the fate of the ETFs because it’s a complicated issue.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 17, 2025
BOJ shifts focus to ETF assets as end of bank stock sales nears
The ETF holdings are the last major piece of Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s policy puzzle.
With the ruling coalition parties holding a majority in the upper house — where a vote will be held on Monday — Friday’s approval makes it all but certain Junko Koeda will join the nine-member board, becoming the second female in the group.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2025
Female BOJ board member’s nomination approved by Lower House
Friday’s approval makes it all but certain Junko Koeda will join the nine-member board, becoming the second female in the group.
The measure of input prices for Japanese firms rose 4.2% in January from a year earlier, the Bank of Japan reported Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 13, 2025
Corporate goods prices rise 4.2% from year earlier, backing case for rate hikes
The gain, led by agricultural products such as rice, was bigger than the consensus estimate of 4% and compared with a revised 3.9% advance a month earlier.
Japan has effectively exited deflation, but Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s reluctance to acknowledge it reflects outdated economic fears rather than current reality.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 13, 2025
It’s time for Japan to admit victory over deflation
The last time prices declined was in July 2021, the same month the Tokyo Olympic Games took place.
Shoppers walk past a display of cabbages for sale at a supermarket in Tokyo last month. The 2024 record summer heat and heavy rain ruined crops, driving up the cost of the usually inexpensive leafy green in what Japanese media has dubbed a "cabbage shock."
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 7, 2025
Inflation becoming a concern in Japan after being a goal for decades
Rising consumer prices are putting real wage growth at risk and possibly becoming a drag on much-needed household consumption.
A monitor in Tokyo shows the yen at the ¥155 level against the dollar on Monday, when it began rallying after a sharp decline in the previous week.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 7, 2025
Yen’s weekly surge underscores growing case for a hawkish BOJ
The Japanese currency has rallied more than 2% this week, heading for the biggest gain since late November.
While the ruling minority government’s weakened position has emboldened opposition parties to push for more spending across multiple policy fronts, the International Monetary Fund has warned there is limited space today in Japan to address the risks of natural disasters and mounting social security costs.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 7, 2025
Japan needs immediate deficit cut to fix fiscal path, IMF warns
The government needs to prepare now to avoid negative surprises four or five years down the road, the IMF’s Japan mission chief says.
"The short-term interest rate should be at the 1% level by the second half of fiscal 2025,” up from the current 0.5%, the Bank of Japan’s most hawkish board member Naoki Tamura said Thursday in a speech to local business leaders in Nagano Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 6, 2025
BOJ’s Tamura says interest rate needs to rise to at least 1%
A speech by the board member is likely to further fuel market speculation that more rate hikes are in the pipeline.
Based on his own assessment, Hideo Hayakawa, a former Bank of Japan executive director, says he sees the BOJ’s terminal rate in this cycle somewhere around 1.5%.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 5, 2025
BOJ’s rate likely to go higher than consensus, ex-official says
"My base view is that there is a lot more coming,” the former director said. "There is little logical reason to believe that rate hikes will stop early.”
Hypothermia in the land of the rising Sanae
Amid the election of Sanae Takaichi as Liberal Democratic Party president, and possibly the next prime minister, Japan's economy shows signs of recovery, but weak wages, a conservative corporate culture and currency issues raise doubts about a true economic thaw.
Number of scenarios now on the table for who might be Japan’s next prime minister
Newly-elected leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party Sanae Takaichi (right) celebrates with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after winning the LDP leadership election in Tokyo on October 4.
After plenty of ups and downs, Osaka Expo concludes with message of unity
The sun sets on the Grand Ring on the final day of the Osaka Expo on Monday.
A frenetic diplomatic schedule looms for Japan’s next leader — whomever that may be
As horse-trading and speculation surge over who will be elected the next prime minister in parliament — the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Sanae Takaichi or a possible candidate put forward by a unified opposition — Japan’s next leader will be confronted with a quick succession of key diplomatic events.
Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.
Pace eyes great strides for Japan’s art market
Pace Japan Vice President Kyoko Hattori, the de facto head of the nation’s business, believes a larger, more lucrative art market will allow Japan to be more attractive for collectors.
A frenetic diplomatic schedule looms for Japan’s next leader — whomever that may be
As horse-trading and speculation surge over who will be elected the next prime minister in parliament — the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's Sanae Takaichi or a possible candidate put forward by a unified opposition — Japan’s next leader will be confronted with a quick succession of key diplomatic events.
Ghost of Yotei’s bloodstained fun sidesteps Ainu identity
Ghost of Yotei, the follow-up to 2020's smash hit Ghost of Tsushima, is a violent, vengeful and engaging romp through 17th-century Hokkaido that fails to stick the landing on its most sensitive cultural material.
At Osaka Expo, gas giants promote a greener future. But is it a lot of hot air?
The Gas Pavilion had welcomed around 500,000 visitors by the end of August, making it one of the most popular exhibits at the Osaka Expo.
‘Takaichi trade’ starts unwinding as political calculus upended by Komeito exit
Less than a week ago, Sanae Takaichi seemed set to become Japan's first female prime minister.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building
By Patrick St. Michel

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