Tag - fiscal-spending

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

FISCAL SPENDING

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and minister in charge of growth strategy Minoru Kiuchi (center right) attend a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 4, 2025
Takaichi eyes economic growth plan by next summer
A newly established government panel has been tasked with mapping out a growth plan for 17 key sectors, including AI, chips and defense.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers her first policy speech in parliament, on Oct. 24, 2025.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 31, 2025
Takaichi might be more of a supply-sider than a Keynesian
It's not all about Abenomics, one economist argues.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers her first policy speech in the Lower House in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 24, 2025
Takaichi focuses on economic and security concerns in first policy speech
Over half of the new prime minister's speech was dedicated to economic policies, and she described the fight against inflation as the top priority for her administration.
Debt servicing costs are estimated to increase, reflecting the Bank of Japan's interest rate hikes.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2025
Japan's government debt climbs to record ¥1.32 quadrillion
The combined balance of Japanese government bonds, borrowings and financing bills swelled by ¥7.2 trillion from the end of September 2024.
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.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato holds a news conference at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo in October last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 24, 2025
Finance chief vows to balance economic revival and fiscal consolidation
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato highlighted the need to improve Japan's fiscal health, which is the worst among major countries.
The streets of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, in October show that the city is still struggling from the aftermath of the Jan. 1 earthquake and heavy rain in September.
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Nov 15, 2024
Japan faces urgent need to boost state finances for emergencies
If a major earthquake were to strike directly beneath Tokyo, the projected damage would total around ¥107.5 trillion.
Krishna Srinivasan, director of Asia and Pacific at the International Monetary Fund
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 2, 2024
IMF Asia-Pacific chief urges Japan to start debt cuts
The leading IMF official called for Japan to "have a well fleshed-out, credible medium-term fiscal framework."
Krishna Srinivasan, director of the International Monetary Fund's Asia Pacific Department
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 1, 2024
Japan must avoid issuing debt to fund fresh spending, IMF says
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to compile another large-scale spending package to cushion the blow to households from the rising cost of living.
Japan's new prime minister may want to consider setting a budget surplus-to-gross domestic product target to ensure that the nation stays in the black, government adviser Takero Doi has said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 3, 2024
Japan’s new prime minister must set fresh fiscal target, adviser says
Setting such a target would help bring down Japan’s public debt-to-GDP ratio, government adviser Takero Doi has said in an interview.
Fuel prices are displayed on a board at a gas station in Tokyo in September 2023. Fighting high prices is among the priority policy measures encompassed by a special spending quota for the fiscal year from April 2025.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2024
Japan to create priority policy spending quota in fiscal 2025
Priority measures include strengthening the country's defense capabilities, raising its birthrate and expanding investments in carbon reduction.
The Bank of Japan building in Tokyo on March 18. With the BOJ’s policy tightening, the difficulty of managing the country’s debt payments is expected to become worse.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2024
Japan expects to hit primary balance goal in fiscal 2025
The government initially aimed to achieve the goal in fiscal year 2011 but kept pushing it back for over a decade.
Members of the Ground Self-Defense Force disembark from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during a live fire exercise in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, in May 2022.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 23, 2023
Kishida's proposed tax cuts put higher defense spending on hold
The plan to raise defense spending partly through tax hikes has been put on ice. In fact, it was never likely to deliver fast results.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2022
Japan tweaks budget goal wording to gain more fiscal flexibility
Japan's target of balancing its budget excluding debt payments by 2025 had long seemed unlikely, even by the government's own growth projections.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
May 30, 2022
Japan drops time frame for budget balancing target in draft economic roadmap
The absence of the target in the midyear policy roadmap could raise questions about Japan's resolve to fix its tattered public finances.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 8, 2021
New Japanese finance chief faces dilemma: Spend more or repair fiscal health
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki will be forced to balance Kishida's spending plans with the nation's poor fiscal health.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2021
COVID-19 trauma has changed economics — maybe forever
The 2008 crash triggered a rethink, but the framework in place since the 1980s emerged relatively intact. The pandemic then cast those conventions aside around the world.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2021
G7 to back minimum global corporate tax and support economies
A draft statement said the G7 supported efforts to set a global minimum corporate tax level that would ensure large multinationals paid their fair share.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 10, 2020
Japan’s latest stimulus boost may fall short of official forecast
Many economists expect the dollar-for-dollar impacts of stimulus measures to typically decrease as time passes from a crisis or recession.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 20, 2020
More Australian QE threatens a source of yield for Japan investors
Options for Japanese investors, among the biggest buyers of global debt, have shrunk this year as central banks slashed rates.
Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million over manga piracy
Cloudflare has been ordered to pay ¥500 million after four major publishing firms accused the firm of copyright infringement for its role in hosting sites that distribute pirated copies of manga titles.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Japan plans higher visa fees for foreign residents
Along with planned higher fees for foreign residents to stay, Japan is looking to raise the ¥3,000 single-entry visa fee for inbound tourists to Western standards in the next fiscal year.
¥21.3 trillion stimulus package approved by Cabinet
The Cabinet is expected to submit an extra budget bill to finance the package to parliament, which is in session until Dec. 17.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
First foreign president of Hosei University looks abroad for change
Hosei University President Diana Khor, who herself was an international student, aims to encourage students to look outward and cultivate a global mindset.
Japanese companies advised to change mindset about investment in Africa
Bernard Laurendeau, chief of Enkopa Lab Japan, in Tokyo last month
Munetaka Murakami headlines quartet looking to move to MLB via posting system
The Swallows' Munetaka Murakami has 246 career home runs in eight NPB seasons.
The reality of human trafficking in Japan
A view of Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward at night. Last year in Japan, 66 people were put in protective custody as victims of human trafficking. Among them, 58 — including all 41 minors — were Japanese nationals. International pressure to act on human trafficking led Japan to make efforts to crack down on the crime, such as a tightening of conditions in 2005 for entertainer visas.
Why we can’t get enough of the sham of the rental family
“Rental Family,” directed and co-written by the single-named Hikari, follows out-of-work actor Phillip (Brendan Fraser), who is hired as the “token white guy” at a Tokyo agency called Rental Family.

Podcast

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

Longform

Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40
By Weiwen Lin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality
Tokyo Gas lights the way to carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER