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August 31, 2025
 

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INFLATION

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.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping attends a meeting during the the Shanghai Cooperation Organization forum in Beijing on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 16, 2025
China’s growth momentum offers Xi rare window to fight deflation
Gross domestic product beat expectations to grow 5.2% between April and June, bringing the official 5% expansion goal for the year within reach.
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.
A survey by Tokyo-based nonprofit Good Neighbors Japan showed that the number of respondents saying that their children eat two meals or fewer a day during holidays was about 2.5 times higher than during the school term, at 32.2%.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2025
More kids going hungry during school holidays as food costs soar, survey finds
Rising food and utility prices are placing additional pressures on families already struggling to make ends meet.
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.
Currently, the country's average minimum hourly wage is ¥1,055, following a record increase of ¥51, or 2.1%, in fiscal 2024.
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2025
Japan starts fiscal 2025 minimum wage talks
Currently, the country's average minimum hourly wage is ¥1,055, following a record increase of ¥51 in fiscal 2024.
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.
Japanese households are struggling to keep up with price increases as salary growth lags.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 7, 2025
Real wages fall for fifth straight month in May
The 2.9% decline was the biggest fall in inflation-adjusted pay in Japan in almost two years.
Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2025
Government to release stockpiled rice for processed foods from August
The government will release its stockpiled rice for use in processed foods and beverages such as miso, rice crackers, sake and shōchū distilled spirits.
Farmers spray herbicide at Kazuhachi Hosaka's rice farm in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, on June 19.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2025
In reversal, Japan now wants rice farmers to produce more. Will it work?
The new direction has taken on an unexpected urgency as Japan grapples with a shortage of the all-important staple.
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.
Yumiko Watanabe (left), head of nonprofit group Kidsdoor, announces in Tokyo last month the results of a survey conducted on struggling families.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 4, 2025
80% of lower-income families in Japan say financial situation getting worse
Many respondents cited the price of rice as a key factor, with some saying they are struggling to put enough food on the table.
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.
Workers at 5,162 companies affiliated with Rengo secured an average wage increase of 5.25% in this year’s negotiations, according to the final update of pay deals announced Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 4, 2025
Japan’s 2025 wage talks conclude with highest gain in 34 years
Workers at 5,162 companies affiliated with Rengo secured an average wage increase of 5.25% in this year’s negotiations.
Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the Democratic Party for the People, speaks during an interview on Tuesday at the parliament building.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 2, 2025
DPP pledges to increase take-home pay ahead of Upper House election
The opposition party is looking to raise its seat count in the chamber to 21, which would enable it to independently submit bills needing budgetary measures.
The Bank of Japan's latest <i>tankan</i> survey beat consensus forecasts as the economy held up better than expected.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 1, 2025
Large Japanese companies surprisingly optimistic as U.S. tariffs bite 
In the tankan survey, automakers and smaller companies were relatively pessimistic.
Food price hikes in July are especially being set for confectionery items such as potato chips and chocolate.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 30, 2025
Japan to see markups for 2,105 food items in July
Higher raw material, energy and labor costs are primary factors behind the expected price hikes in July.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Monday. Inflation in Tokyo slowed in June for the first time in four months as a result of government steps to reduce utility and gasoline prices.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 29, 2025
Measures to ease inflation must be speedy, says Prime Minister Ishiba
Ishiba has opposed lowering the sales tax ahead of an Upper House election where voters will vote on the performance of his minority government.
Government-stockpiled rice aiming at resolving persisting price rises displayed at a supermarket in Tokyo on May 31
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2025
Japan private-sector rice imports soar in May
Restaurants and consumers are increasingly turning to U.S. brands in search of cheaper prices.
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 to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
Most Japanese teens struggling with school find end of summer ‘painful’
Some 93.1% of Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life said they felt like they “wanted to disappear from the world" at the end of summer vacation ahead of the start of a new term, according to a recent survey released by Yokohama-based nonprofit Daisan Kazoku.
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, U.S. appeals court rules
Workers hang a large poster of U.S. President Donald Trump on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington on Wednesday.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.

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