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August 28, 2025
 

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BOJ

The Bank of Japan kept the overnight call rate at 0.5% at the end of a two-day policy meeting in a unanimous vote, according to a statement Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 31, 2025
BOJ keeps rates unchanged and lifts price view after U.S. trade deal
While the changes in the outlook suggested Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s board is closer to its next rate hike, the central bank also avoided dropping any clear hints as to the exact timing.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, speaks to reporters at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday. The party’s loss in the July 20 Upper House election has become the defining factor for the yen.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 30, 2025
Yen option traders brace for more weakness ahead of BOJ decision
Analysts warn that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba may resort to populist spending to shore up support for his weakened coalition.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda. The central bank is expected to remain cautious until the fall.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 29, 2025
Bank of Japan likely to hold key rate at 0.5% as tariff breakthrough evaluated
Political uncertainty may also weigh on the policy board's decision this week.
An electronic board shows the broad Topix index hitting a record high on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 27, 2025
Japan investors brace for BOJ and earnings results after Trump-fueled rally
As the dust settles following the U.S.-Japan trade deal that sent markets on a wild ride, investors are questioning whether the rally was a sign of things to come.
Bank of Japan officials view the trade deal with the U.S. as reducing a key source of uncertainty for Japan’s economy and businesses, allowing the central bank to focus on monitoring the tariffs’ actual impact in incoming economic data, according to people familiar with the matter.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 25, 2025
BOJ is said to see potential rate hike environment this year
Assuming there’s no change to the U.S. tariff deal, the central bank will likely have enough data by the end of the year to be able to consider whether a rate hike is appropriate.
The diffusion index on living conditions in Japan is at its lowest level in nearly 16 years.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 24, 2025
Japan might be in a technical recession already
GDP appears to have declined for a second consecutive quarter, while wages remain stagnant and consumer sentiment weak.
As U.S. tariffs caused global uncertainty, Japanese carmakers in particular have been losing momentum as the industry faced pressure from levies.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 24, 2025
Firms in Japan likely to log lower profits amid tariff and political uncertainty
While tariffs caused global uncertainty, Japanese carmakers in particular have been losing momentum as the industry faced pressure from the levies.
Car dealerships in Tokyo. Some of Japan's automakers are raising loan rates amid higher costs for servicing loans.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 23, 2025
Japan carmakers put squeeze on households with higher loan rates
More than a year after the Bank of Japan’s first interest rate increase in 17 years, the volatile march higher in superlong bonds is raising the cost of servicing loans.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 3.3% from a year earlier in June, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 18, 2025
Inflation stays elevated after easing from two-year high
Japan’s key price measure cooled a tad more than expected while remaining well above the Bank of Japan’s target.
The share of respondents to a Bank of Japan quarterly survey in June who said they have become worse off came to 61.0%, up 5.1 percentage points from the previous survey.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 16, 2025
Living conditions index hits lowest level in 15 years in Japan
The percentage of respondents who said their living conditions improved from a year before minus those who said the opposite was the worst since the September 2009 survey.
In a report Friday, Goldman Sachs economists noted that it’s reasonable to expect the Bank of Japan to start gradually selling ETFs in fiscal 2026 to minimize its loss and the impact on the stock market.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2025
BOJ finishes offloading bank stocks, bringing attention to ETFs
The BOJ’s holdings of the shares purchased from banks hit zero as of July 10, falling from ¥2.5 billion ($17.4 million) 10 days ago, according to its balance sheet report.
The central bank will probably weigh increasing its key price forecast from 2.2% for this fiscal year after food inflation proved stronger than expected.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 14, 2025
BOJ may raise price outlook as food inflation beats expectations, sources say
The yen briefly strengthened against the dollar following the report, while Japan’s bond futures dipped.
The Bank of Japan may face pressure to avoid rate hikes if opposition parties gain traction in the upcoming Upper House election.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Jul 14, 2025
Upper House election could further hamper BOJ's drive to raise rates
Surveys suggest Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's coalition may lose its majority, and empowered opposition parties could pressure the central bank to avoid rate hikes.
In June, the export price index for vehicles shipped to North America plunged 19.4% from a year earlier on a contract currency basis.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 10, 2025
Japanese carmakers slash export prices to U.S. to offset tariff hit
The move raises concerns over companies’ profitability and whether they can continue to keep raising wages at home.
Junko Koeda, one of the latest members of the Bank of Japan's policy board, speaks during an interview at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 9, 2025
New board member hints at possible raising of BOJ's price outlook
Junko Koeda, a former Waseda University economics professor, on Monday gave her first media interview since joining the board in March.
Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance's headquarters in Tokyo. Japanese life insurance companies are holding off on buying superlong-term Japanese government bonds as further interest rate hikes loom.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 8, 2025
Meiji Yasuda Life to shun superlong Japanese debt for year or more
The insurer is expecting the Bank of Japan to continue to raise rates.
Inflation is surprisingly strong, increasing the possibility that the Bank of Japan will raise its interest rate by the end of the year, according to Tsutomu Watanabe, an emeritus economics professor at the University of Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 4, 2025
Japan's inflation is outpacing BOJ's view, expert says
The remarks of Tsutomu Watanabe, a former central bank official, are likely to feed market expectations for another interest rate hike this year.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange wants more exchange-traded funds and a wider variety of such offerings.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 4, 2025
Forming an ETF just got easier in Japan with new white-label service
Japan Asset Management Platform handles many of the formalities and much of the necessary operations for fund managers.
Outlays by households in Japan, adjusted for inflation, gained 4.7% from a year ago in May, according to the internal affairs ministry.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 4, 2025
Japan’s households boost spending by most since summer of 2022
Consumption makes up more than half of Japan’s economic output and could determine whether the economy will enter or avoid a technical recession.
Bank of Japan policy board member Hajime Takata says the central bank is continuing to look for further opportunities to raise rates.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 3, 2025
BOJ rate hikes to resume after temporary pause, policy board member says
Hajime Takata said authorities "may need to nimbly shift back to the rate hike cycle in response to policy changes” in the U.S.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan Post to stop accepting some parcels for shipment to the U.S.
Japan Post's UGX will still be available for many rejected packages.
Japan aims to tighten rules for business manager visas from October
The number of foreign residents with business management residency status had reached a record 41,615 as of the end of 2024.
Tokyo releases AI-generated video of Mount Fuji erupting
A screenshot from an AI-generated video showing what could happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.

Podcast

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

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Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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