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May 19, 2025
 

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ECONOMY

BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 1, 2024
Japan may have lowest per capita GDP among major economies in 2060
The government estimate is likely to materialize if the country's productivity growth remains low as in recent years and the population continues to fall.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda speaks during a news conference in Sao Paulo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 1, 2024
BOJ governor says price target not already in sight
Kazuo Ueda played down the significance of Japan’s slide back into a technical recession.
Japan's unemployment rate fell to 2.4% in January from 2.5% in the previous month, with economists suggesting that the current recession is making firms hesitant to increase job postings.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 1, 2024
Japan’s tight labor market to keep upward pressure on wages
The unemployment rate fell to 2.4% from a revised 2.5% a month earlier, the internal affairs ministry reported Friday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the public on the outskirts of Varanasi, India, on Feb. 23.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 1, 2024
India posts surprise 8.4% surge in growth ahead of elections
The government predicts growth will reach 7.6% in the fiscal year through March, higher than an earlier projection of 7.3%.
Japan's factory output in January fell at the fastest pace since May 2020 due to a drop in automobile-related production.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 29, 2024
Japan factory output falls at the fastest pace in nearly four years
A production downturn in motor vehicles is also adding to concerns about the fragility of an economy that slipped into recession late last year.
What is the BOJ hoping to achieve through tighter policy? The bank's governor, Kazuo Ueda, dissented in 2000, arguing then a hike was premature — and he was right. Why the change now.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 29, 2024
Selling a rate hike during recession is tough. Good luck, Ueda.
What sounded like a statement of the obvious by Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda last week — that a country where prices are rising by 2% is, in fact, experiencing inflation — has more to it than meets the eye.
A firefighter walks on mud and rocks from a mudslide during a storm in Los Angeles on Feb. 5.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Feb 29, 2024
U.S. and Philippines pay highest economic price for climate-fueled weather
The U.S. currently experiences the worst losses in absolute terms: about $97 billion annually.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the international community is currently experiencing "gridlock" and suffering "colossal global dysfunction.”
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2024
No one wins in a lose-lose world
Fragmentation of the world economy could derail growth, especially in low-income countries, turning zero-sum thinking into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Bank of Japan is facing hardly any signs of opposition to scrapping its negative interest rate as the strongest price growth in decades weighs on households and businesses.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 28, 2024
BOJ should make straightforward policy shift, top finance professor says
Exiting policy should be like business as usual, said Hiroshi Yoshikawa, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo and a friend of BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda.
Nissan is planning an autonomous vehicle ride-share service for Japan with a 2027 launch date to address a lack of taxi drivers due to the nation’s aging population.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 28, 2024
Nissan plans 2027 driverless ride-share service for aging Japan
Nissan will trial the service in Yokohama's Minato Mirai area, with 20 vehicles equipped with a safety monitor in each driver’s seat.
There is a global trend toward economic bifurcation with the U.S. and China leading the charge — and multinational solutions are needed to address the new challenges.
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2024
The inexorable movement toward a divided global economy
Efforts to protect national economies from threats require multinational solutions. Chains are only as strong as their weakest link.
In early February, the Finance Ministry announced that government debt at the end of last year had reached a record high of ¥1.2 quadrillion.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 27, 2024
With downfall of Abe faction, some see a shift in Japan’s debt debate
The faction has long promoted fiscal stimulus, but its demise combined with wider economic conditions could open up space for a different approach.
Japan's consumer price index for January rose 2% from a year ago, topping estimates to support the Bank of Japan's move to end its negative interest rate policy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 27, 2024
January inflation topped forecasts, data shows, supporting BOJ policy shift
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2% from a year ago, while prices of processed food gained 5.9% and prices for lodging increased by 27%.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei index is on a roll, having broken its bubble-era record last week.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 27, 2024
What explains the recent surge in Japanese stock prices?
Japan needs for increase domestic capital investment, technological innovation and sound risk-taking to improve long-term competitiveness.
A screen in Tokyo shows the level of the 225-issue Nikkei stock average after it posted an all-time closing high on Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 26, 2024
Japan’s Nikkei index sets record high for second consecutive day
The Topix was also up 0.49%, closing at 2,673.62.
Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala addresses the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 26, 2024
WTO seeks modest outcome in UAE at 'critical juncture' for global trade
The stated goals is to set new global commerce rules, but even its ambitious chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala sought to curb expectations.
U.S. President Joe Biden announces new provisions in March 2022 requiring the government to buy more made-in-America goods.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2024
Biden doesn’t get why we need the WTO
What do Biden and Trump have in common? Protectionism. As a result, the 13th WTO ministerial conference underway in Abu Dhabi is doomed to fail.
Pedestrians look at an electronic board displaying the Nikkei index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on a street in the Japanese capital on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 24, 2024
Record-high Nikkei’s rise just getting started on foreign demand
Investors and strategists are also watching for a broadening of equities gains that may take the wider Topix index to an all-time high this year.
A recent surge in Tokyo share prices has been driven by foreign investors' enthusiasm for rising corporate profits, with Japanese investors still wary after more than three decades of market malaise.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2024
Japanese investors raise a glass to Nikkei record at Stock Pickers bar
Excitement among regulars at the intimate bar in Tokyo's Ginza district had been brewing since last week as the Nikkei approached its all-time high.
The Nikkei 225 on Thursday broke through a record high set just before the country's asset bubble catastrophically burst in the early 1990s.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 23, 2024
Congratulations Nikkei, now don’t screw it up
Those skeptical of the current boom argue that this is nothing more than a another instance of a once-in-a-decade cycle.
Nissan to solicit early retirements while eyeing plant closures in Japan
Nissan's Oppama plant in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, may be closed as part of the struggling carmaker's streamlining efforts.
Australian firm produces heavy rare earth, in first outside China
The Lynas Rare Earths processing plant in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Police arrest Chinese man in Saitama hit-and-run case
Police questioned a man who turned himself in as he closely resembled the driver recorded on the dashcam of another vehicle that happened to pass by the scene of a hit-and-run incident in Saitama Prefecture.
Wholesalers may be behind elevated retail rice prices
Wholesalers added ¥7,593 on average to their selling prices for stockpiled rice, far more than the ¥2,206 to ¥4,689 added for the 2022 rice.
Success of Chinese-made fighter jets against India raises alarm in Asia
Chinese J-10 fighter jets from the People's Liberation Army Air Force August 1st Aerobatics Team perform during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, in November 2015.
In Nintendo’s backyard, foreign indie game devs are thriving
Kyoto's gaming landscape is dominated by Nintendo's headquarters, but a contingent of foreign-born indie developers is also working in the gaming giant's shadow.
Akazawa's dilemma: no tariff deal or a half-baked deal
Chief tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa and his delegation in the Oval Office of the White House in April. Since then, Japan's trade negotiations with the U.S. have produced no tangible results.
Nissan hoping to electrify home crowd as Formula E returns to Tokyo
Nissan's Oliver Rowland drives during qualifying for Miami E-Prix at Homestead Motor Speedway in Homestead, Florida, on April 12.
For his first feature film, director Ryuya Suzuki created a masterpiece
"Jinsei," which follows its protagonist over a century, probes themes of identity and societal issues with a dark comic touch. The director, however, says he created the story without knowing where it would lead.
Historian Rob Fitts discovers earliest ever reference to baseball in Japan
Japan's Shohei Ohtani carries the Japanese flag onto the field before the start of the World Baseball Classic final against the United States in Miami on March 21, 2023.

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That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb
By Alex K.T. Martin

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