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May 09, 2024
 

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INFLATION

A line of travelers on a shinkansen platform at JR Tokyo Station on Friday
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 31, 2023
Inflation and weak yen hit Japan's appetite for holiday spending
More than half of the respondents to a survey said they would cut seasonal spending.
Tokyo's Ameyoko shopping district is crowded with shoppers on Saturday.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2023
Japan saw price hikes on over 30,000 food items in 2023
The figure marks a 25.7% rise from 2022, when prices went up for 25,768 food items.
Hideki Kuriyama, who guided Samurai Japan to the World Baseball Classic title in March, rings a bell during a ceremony marking the end of trading in 2023 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 29, 2023
Japanese stocks post best yearly gain since Abenomics jolt
The benchmark Topix posted an annual return of 25%, and the 225-issue Nikkei average rallied 28%. That’s the best performance for both gauges since 2013.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda addresses a council meeting at business lobby Keidanren in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 27, 2023
BOJ summary suggests Ueda can wait for wage results before hike
Bank of Japan board members discussed the potential timing of ending the negative rate policy during their meeting last week.
Business service prices for hotels rose 51.8% in November compared with the previous year, on the back of a surge in inbound tourism following the lifting of pandemic controls and domestic demand for travel.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2023
Japan's service price growth holds steady, maintaining 30-year high
Prices for services rising at the fastest pace since April 1992 will likely fuel speculation that the Bank of Japan may normalize policy in coming months.
Japan's core consumer prices rose 2.5% in November from a year earlier, marking the slowest pace of increase in over a year in a sign of easing cost-push pressures in the world's third-largest economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 22, 2023
Japan’s cooling inflation also offers encouraging signs for BOJ
Consumer prices excluding fresh food items rose 2.5% from a year earlier as falls in energy costs deepened and gains in processed food prices eased.
The planned increases for Japan's postal fees will be the first in 30 years, apart from revisions made in relation to consumption tax hikes.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 18, 2023
Japan plans stamp price hike for letters to ¥110 from ¥84
Japan Post's standard postcards will also have their price increased from ¥63 to ¥85 under government's proposed plan in response to losses.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda told lawmakers in parliament that his job was about to get even more "challenging” from the end of the year, adding to speculation of looming action by the central bank.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2023
BOJ set to stay outlier as 2024 hike seen in contrast to Fed
The Bank of Japan has become used to being a policy outlier over its decades-long quest to vanquish deflation. It’s likely to be no different in 2024.
Yoichi Miyazawa, head of the Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel, speaks at its meeting at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 14, 2023
Japan's ruling coalition OKs tax reforms amid public skepticism
The schedule for planned tax hikes to boost defense spending was once again not made clear.
Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for a third meeting and gave its clearest signal yet that its aggressive hiking campaign is finished, forecasting a series of cuts next year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 14, 2023
Fed prepares to shift to rate cuts in 2024 as inflation eases
Updated quarterly forecasts showed Fed officials expect to lower rates by 75 basis points next year, a sharper pace of cuts than indicated in September.
Japan’s producer price index rose 0.3% in November from a year earlier.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 12, 2023
Japan’s input inflation eases further to slowest pace since 2021
The persistent slowdown in the index this year is in line with the BOJ’s view that price pressures are cooling.
The Bank of Japan is likely to keep its monetary stimulus settings unchanged at a two-day policy meeting ending Dec. 19, despite recent market speculation that the negative rate may be scrapped as soon as the December meeting.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 11, 2023
BOJ sees little need to end negative rate in December: sources
Bank officials are yet to see enough evidence of wage growth that would support sustainable inflation.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. Half of the 52 economists surveyed by Bloomberg said the central bank will scrap its negative rate in April, up from 29% in the October survey.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2023
Most BOJ watchers predict end of negative rate regime by April
"The most beautiful scenario is the end of the negative rate in April”
A monitor at a foreign exchange transaction firm in Tokyo shows the yen strengthening to ¥141 to the dollar early Friday. Comments from BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda on Thursday, along with remarks from one of his deputies on Wednesday, jolted financial markets in Tokyo and globally.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 8, 2023
Yen extends rally to second day as traders bet on early BOJ hike
The rally in the yen spilled over into a second day as traders wagered that the Bank of Japan will scrap the world’s last negative interest-rate regime much sooner than previously thought.
Japan’s economic recovery from the pandemic is losing momentum as overseas economies slow and sticky inflation weighs on domestic consumption.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 8, 2023
Japan’s deepest economic contraction since pandemic clouds path for BOJ
Gross domestic product contracted at an annualized 2.9% in the three months through September from the previous quarter as households reined in spending.
Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino's comments are the clearest sign so far from the BOJ’s leadership that authorities are considering what the impact would be if they ended negative rates.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 6, 2023
BOJ’s deputy chief hints that end of negative rate may be closer
Ryozo Himino has set out a hypothesis for what might happen if rates do indeed go positive.
The average price of whole Christmas cakes in Japan is up 7.8% from a year earlier, reflecting steep rises in prices of ingredients.
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2023
Christmas cake prices jump 7.8% in Japan
According to a survey by Teikoku Databank, prices of Christmas cakes measuring 15 centimeters in diameter average ¥4,468.
Big Japanese banks are now training a generation of professional front-line staff who have little experience with rising interest rates.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2023
Staff at Japan's banks scramble to adjust to rising interest rates
Many younger employees have no expertise in dealing with the vagaries of a traditional inflationary environment.
Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 2.3% in November from the prior year in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 5, 2023
Tokyo inflation cools to slowest pace in over a year
The development supports the Bank of Japan’s view that it should continue to be cautious about a tightening of policy.
Japan's inflation marked a four-decade high this year, caused by surging fuel and raw material costs amid Russia's war against Ukraine. Japanese firms chose the kanji character for 'change' to describe such turbulence.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 3, 2023
Firms in Japan pick kanji for 'change' to describe turbulent 2023
From extreme weather to global conflicts, many companies in Japan say they spent the year adapting to new market forces.
Tokuryū, a new crime menace in Japan, emerges from the shadows
The National Police Agency coined the term "tokuryū" to classify individuals involved in dark part time jobs and quasi-gangsters, using the words "tokumei" (anonymous) and "ryūdo" (fluid) to reflect their characteristics.
Thanks, tourists. Views of Mount Fuji are now blocked.
Tourists pose in front of a convenience store with Mount Fuji on Friday in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture. Local residents are upset over littering, overcrowding and the inconvenience caused by the visitors.
Is Modi’s party heading for a stunning election loss?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign tactics have escalated, including anti-Muslim rhetoric and fearmongering, reflecting his ruling party's desperation.
Two more arrested over brutal murder of couple in Tochigi
A vehicle carrying Seiha Sekine, the 32-year-old common-law husband of the deceased Tokyo couple's first daughter, leaves a police station in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on Tuesday.
After blockbuster boxing victory, what next for ‘Monster’ Inoue?
Naoya Inoue celebrates his victory over Luis Nery in their IBF-WBA-WBC-WBO super bantamweight title boxing match at Tokyo Dome on Monday.
Stormy seas ahead as Beijing and Manila trade barbs over secret deal
Philippine Marines wave to Philippine Navy personnel and the media during a resupply mission at their military outpost, the BRP Sierra Madre, a warship run aground in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in 1999, in the South China Sea, in March 2014.
Unlike 10 years ago, Japan's new security bill sparks little debate
The Lower House starts discussing a security clearance bill on April 19 in Tokyo.
After blockbuster boxing victory, what next for ‘Monster’ Inoue?
Naoya Inoue celebrates his victory over Luis Nery in their IBF-WBA-WBC-WBO super bantamweight title boxing match at Tokyo Dome on Monday.
Xi bristles as Macron and von der Leyen urge China to do more on Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen walk after their meeting in Paris on Monday.
How a Japanese scientist is turning the climate crisis into music
A screencap of a performance of Hiroto Nagai's “String Quartet No. 1 ‘Polar Energy Budget’” by the PRT Quartet

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